Joining the Mafia 111
that. I’m pro-human. I’m also an investor in Peter’s hedge
fund.”259,260 Levchin agreed that he and Elon were not
always aligned. “Elon is obviously really freaking smart,”
Levchin said. “He’s one of those guys who can be larger
than the room.” Levchin added that larger than the room
can be a negative trait.^71
The bookThe PayPal Warswas released in 2004. “The
only negativity in recent years was due to a book called
The PayPal Wars, written by a sycophantic jackass called
Eric Jackson,” Elon said. “Eric couldn’t find a real publisher,
so Peter funded Eric to self-publish the book. Since Eric
worships Peter, the outcome was obvious – Peter sounds
like Mel Gibson in Braveheart and my role is somewhere
between negligible and a bad seed. However, to his credit,
Peter didn’t realize the book would be as bad as it was and
apologized to me personally at a Room 9 board meeting at
David Sacks’s home in LA.”^259
Elon, Thiel, and Levchin invested in the company
Room 9, which was founded by Sacks, who had earlier
worked at PayPal. Room 9 released the movieThank You
for Smoking– a satirical comedy on the tobacco indus-
try. The story is as follows: “Satirical comedy follows
the machinations of Big Tobacco’s chief spokesman, Nick
Naylor, who spins on behalf of cigarettes while trying to
remain a role model for his twelve-year-old son.” Elon was
the executive producer of the movie, and he had a small
role in the movie as a pilot of a private jet.
After this rough ride, Elon realized he had inherited the
flying genes from his grandfather and father. He thought