Until 2022, Twitter was in a state of semi-neglect under leaders seemingly unsure how to steer the idiosyncratic platform. Smaller than Facebook and Instagram, and plagued by harassment and hate speech, Twitter still managed to host active communities like “#NOLATwitter” and many other special interest groups, as well as critical breaking news and disaster discussions. Then, Elon Musk bought it and turned it into X, as his own posts shifted from Tesla marketing and dad jokes to a firehose of Trumpist ideology. Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, tech reporters at The New York Times, chronicle the buyout and Musk’s leadership, including endless strange moves and missteps that have seen the business plunge in value and U.S. engagement. Even close followers of tech news will learn something new about incidents like when usage was capped so tightly it was difficult to read any tweets, and the chaotic staff purge by Musk and his sycophantic lieutenants. A welcome antidote to Tulane toff Walter Isaacson‘s Musk bio, it resembles recent chronicles of management debacles at Theranos, WeWork, and Uber, with the exception that Musk still controls X, even as many users jump ship—and once-vibrant communities splinter, failing to migrate elsewhere en masse.

A concise book on Elon Musk, "Character Limit" by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac offers an inside look of Musk's notorious reign at Twitter, now X. It is an absolutely fascinating read that really makes the reader wonder- how can someone so intelligent be so unlikeable, and find so much success despite his poor work abilities?

Elon Musk is, unfortunately for all of us, a consequential person in the world, just not in the way he envisions himself.

Despite having more money than God and the means to retire comfortably to a tropical island for the rest of his days, Musk is painfully, embarrassingly, fixated on people's opinion of him, making any quiet enjoyment of his stupendous resources an utter impossibility. Musk and the world are worse for it.

That's largely what this book is about. One man's myopic pursuit of owning Twitter. This book tells that story, twisty and unbelievable as it is, masterfully. Step by step the authors take you through the billionaires early interest, his initial efforts, and his disastrous acquisition of the platform. Despite being reccent history most of us lived through (and we're made all too familiar with) a thorough, fact based accounting beneficial.