End of the Beginning 339
Fisker, has left Fisker Automotive and the company strug-
gles for its survival. 75 percent of the workforce had to
leave the company in April 2013, and they continue to ne-
gotiate with prospective investors. “Fisker thinks the most
important thing in the world is design, so he outsourced the
engineering and manufacturing,” Elon said. “But the fact
is that’s the crux of the problem. And he’s outsourcing to
people who don’t know how to solve the problem. So he
came up with a product – it’s a mediocre product at a high
price.”^190
Elon’s second ex-wife, Talulah Riley, has moved back
to his house. She promised Elon to retire with him on
Mars – but only if Elon has colonized the planet. After
she came back, Elon designed an engagement ring. It has
a diamond in the middle that symbolizes Elon and Riley,
and the sapphires around it are the ten children, out of
which five are not yet born.^129 You can apparently save the
world in more ways than with technology. “People have to
make sure they have at least as many babies as people who
die,” Elon said. “The death rate has to equal the birth rate.
Otherwise you get a population inversion, which is what
happened in Japan and is happening in Europe, where there
are birth rates of 1.2, 1.3 children per woman. You need 2.2
to retain parity.”^301
Riley explained that her current job is to prevent Elon
from going king-crazy. This is a British expression and it
means that a person becomes the king, which Elon has