As a feature writer for Bloomberg Businessweek, Ashlee Vance covers the technology industry, including corporate computing, robotics, artificial intelligence and much more. Prior to joining Bloomberg in 2011, he covered the technology industry for The New York Times. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and The Quest for a Fantastic Future.”
Our team recently sat down with Ashlee to discuss his career path, the launch of “Hello World” and the explosion of tech innovation around the globe.
You write feature stories on technology for Bloomberg Businessweek. What topics are of particular interest to you?
I tend to gravitate toward strange tech subcultures and hard engineering projects that take many years to bring to fruition. Consumer technology has never really done it for me, and the Hollywoodification of the tech industry tends to depress me. So, I prefer to write about people that work very hard to architect interesting lives and objects.
What trends do you see emerging from the tech industry in the next few years?
The most exciting trend to me is what’s happening in aerospace. For the first time in decades, we have new planes, new spaceships, new satellites and new creations like flying cars. There’s tremendous innovation taking place, and, with a bit of luck, the cost on some of these things will come down to a point that will make new types of exploration and travel possible.
You are the host of the new Bloomberg digital and television series “Hello World.” What about the travel-tech show makes it the first of its kind?
There’s never been a technology show that has dug this deeply into the tech scene of so many different places. Each episode tells a rich, funny story about why a particular country puts the spin on innovation that it does. It’s been an incredible experience to get to see what the world is building.
Can you characterize the target audience of “Hello World”?
We try to make the show smart enough that even technies will learn things and accessible and entertaining enough that people who are not that into tech will be drawn into watching. It really is part travel and part technology, so anyone who is interested in seeing a new place and learning about the characters that live there will enjoy it . . . I think.
You authored The New York Times bestseller “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and The Quest for a Fantastic Future.” What inspired you to write the biography of one of the most captivating entrepreneurs in the U.S.?
Elon Musk struck me as the prime mover of the tech industry in this moment. He’s the real deal when it comes to inventing and really changing industries but he comes with all the perplexing trappings of Silicon Valley – hype, massive promises, money-burning businesses. He’s the closest thing the tech industry has to a true rock star with all the good and bad that follows.
What was the greatest challenge you faced in telling Musk’s story?
Well, first off, Elon did not want to cooperate with the book, so it took me about 18 months to convince him to do interviews. It was also a massive challenge to tell the histories of PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity because they’re all so different. In the end, I had to interview about 300 people and stitch everything together as a fun-to-read story.
