Extremely Hardcore

"Zoe Schiffer has written the definitive book on perhaps the weirdest business story of our time. A fast-paced and riveting account of a hilarious and tragic mess."- Matt Levine, Bloomberg Opinion "Money Stuff" columnist"the bird is freed"- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022"Schiffer offers a detailed look under the smoke-filled hood... deploying a crisp, matter-of-fact style to excellent effect." - The New York Times"A sharp and deeply sourced fly-on-the-wall account... packed with original reporting." - Financial TimesBefore he conceived of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk flexed his control and influence during his unprecedented, $44 billion buyout of Twitter. This is the stunning true story of how Musk managed to upend the world's largest free speech platform through sheer, unilateral force-and what that means for the protection of power in the modern age.When Elon wrested the app formerly known as Twitter out of the hands of its investors in 2023, his goals for what was previously known as the world's digital town square were rooted in his fervent belief in the necessity of making Twitter friendlier to free speech. "I didn't do it to make more money," Musk insisted. "I did it to try and help humanity, whom I love."Extremely Hardcore is the true story of how Musk reshaped the world's online public square into his own personal megaphone in an unprecedented, unsolicited, and unilateral buyout. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with more than sixty employees and thousands of pages of internal documents and Slack messages, WIRED journalist Zoe Schiffer delivers the singularly gripping, blow-by-blow saga of the infighting, mass layoffs, and culture wars that followed.More than just a corporate saga, Extremely Hardcore is a high-stakes story of power, obsession, and ego-an unfiltered look at what happens when the world's richest man buys one of its most influential platforms and bends it to his will.

"Schiffer offers a detailed look under the smoke-filled hood... deploying a crisp, matter-of-fact style to excellent effect."
— The New York Times

“Schiffer … has become one of the most indispensable chroniclers of the chaos inside [Twitter].”
— The Washington Post

"Extremely Hardcore by Zoë Schiffer, is a sharp and deeply sourced fly-on-the-wall account...It’s also packed with original reporting; Schiffer single-handedly broke a great deal of news on Twitter’s inner workings herself."
— Financial Times

"Zoë Schiffer has the wonderfully gossipy and perfectly timed story on what's happening in the company formerly known as Twitter. As much as this book is of the moment, it's also a story of the ages, one of hubris, hero worship, and ultimately, the destruction of a company that should have been a public good."
— Bethany McLean, coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room, All the Devils are Here, and The Big Fail

“It used to be said that Twitter was like a clown car that drove into a goldmine and fell in. Zoë Schiffer’s incredibly written and astonishingly reported book about the Musk era of the world’s craziest company tells the story of a man who took the clown car, strapped a rocket to the back of it, and then slammed it into a wall at 100,000 miles an hour. You simply won’t be able to put this book down.”
— Nick Bilton, author of American Kingpin and Hatching Twitter

“Twitter was an extraordinary idea that, thanks to incompetent management, never lived up to its promise. Then Elon Musk bought it. Zoë Schiffer’s brilliant book exposes...the malicious idiocy of Musk and his sycophants."
— Roger McNamee, tech investor and author of the NYT bestseller Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe

Zoe Schiffer is the managing editor ofPlatformer, where she covers Twitter, X Corp., and Elon Musk. Previously, she was a senior reporter at The Verge, where she reported on the labor movement in Silicon Valley. Her work has been featured in New York, San Francisco Chronicle, and Vox. She's appeared on CNN, NBC, CNBC, and the BBC.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.