New Delhi, Aug. 30 -- Eric Jorgenson's The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success is not really a book in any conventional sense. It is an organised scrap-heap of things Elon Musk has said, written, or tweeted over the years, given a thin veneer of coherence by leading questions that defy any obvious chronology. In his opening note, the author admits to spending thousands of hours "collecting, curating, and editing" Musk's most useful ideas. With that out of the way, let us get to the man whom the book labours to eulogise.

Musk is a peculiarly difficult figure to assess because he evokes two entirely contradictory sets of emotions. The first is the familiar loathing reserved for billionaires who have accumulated obscene fortunes wh...