Someone is lying: The new Elon Musk biography and the supposed 22-year-old virgin actress

Wealth doesn't ensure good seduction arts

The Elon Musk biography is totally worth reading, and one excerpt is published publicly. You should only read it to understand and maybe emulate Elon Musk's business ideas, scientific principles, and insane work ethic (though not necessarily in the same domains: if guys emulated Musk's work ethic but devoted their time to game, they'd be getting laid like Hugh Hefner). Musk's is the ultimate purpose-driven life.

So far so good. You should not, however, emulate Musk's approach to women. One part of the book consists of lies: Lies a hot actress told to Musk or Ashlee Vance, or lies Musk told to Vance, or lies that Vance picked up from somewhere else, and they show that Vance or Musk or both are naive about women.

Talulah Riley, who Musk married, divorced, and re-married, is described in the book as "a twenty-two-year-old up-and-coming actress," and she was at a London club called "Whiskey Mist" when she met Musk. Vance says, "Musk and Riley sat at a table with their friends but immediately zeroed in on each other." "The older Musk, meanwhile, took on the role of the soft-spoken, sweet engineer." Being a "soft-spoken, sweet engineer" is not good from a seduction perspective, although if you're a millionaire many times over and decently good looking you might be able to get away with it. Even then, Musk already had some fame, and fame might be even better than seduction arts when it comes to chicks.

That night, apparently according to Riley's description, she "allowed Musk to place his hand on her knee." She'd allegedly "been living at home with parents" until the week before she met Musk.

Do you buy it?

I don't.

If you buy it, you should think about how credulous you are.

After their second or third date, the two went to Musk's hotel room, and "Musk told Riley, a virgin, that he wanted to show her his rockets." I might also have told girls that I want to show them my rocket, but mine doesn’t fly to space. Until she became engaged to Musk, Vance writes that "Riley had been a model daughter up to that point, never giving her parents much of anything to worry about."

I don't believe it. Women who aren't highly sexual don't become actresses. One interesting thing, however… Vance says Riley is "a lifelong teetotaler." It may be that Riley is one of those "oral and anal don't count" women who do exist and sometimes exist for a weirdly long time. It's rarely a good idea to understate a woman's ability to lie to herself; the easiest way to lie to others is to believe the lie. But I'm skeptical even of that. I think someone is just sucker, although I'm not sure who.

Someone is lying and we just don't know who or how. Riley being a virgin is ridiculous. Riley pitching herself as such to someone like Musk makes total sense.

The book describes how Musk and Riley married and divorced, and Riley gives this reason for their first divorce: "I just wasn't happy. I thought maybe I had made the wrong decision for my life." She says she returned to Musk because of the "lack of viable alternatives. I looked around, and there was no one else nice to be with. Number two is that Elon doesn't have to listen to anyone in life. No one. He doesn't have to listen to anything that doesn't fit into his worldview." The idea that there is no one else "nice" for a gorgeous 20-something is ridiculous and yet Vance seems to believe it or believe it enough to repeat it. There may be no one else "rich" and "famous" who is willing or foolish enough to wife her up.

More likely: most rich, famous guys figure out what's going on with women and aren't dumb enough to fall for the shit Musk, despite his epic business and technical achievements, falls for. Musk is a genius in some domains and a kindergartener in dating. Players with a negative net worth know more about women than Musk.

One other thing, what have you accomplished lately? Vance writes: "Musk has decided that man's survival depends on setting up another colony on another planet and that he should dedicate his life to making this happen."

Sometimes I think I've accomplished a lot. Then I read about guys like Elon Musk and get serious perspective. Sure, I know more about women than him. But in most other domains he's impossibly far beyond me.

Between the time I first wrote this and now, Musk has supposedly started dating psycho domestic violence accuser Amber Heard. Stupid, stupid, stupid. This guy knows everything about technology and nothing about women… or he is drawn to self-destruction. Some guys are. So are some chicks.

(Between the time I first wrote this and 2023, Heard married Johnny Depp and… accused him of hitting her. I’m less passionate than Mr. Depp but there are certain important things I know.)