The Algorithm

Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2024 Artificial intelligence is being used, on a massive scale, to decide who gets hired, fired and promoted. Through whistleblower exclusives, leaked internal documents and astonishing real-world practices, journalist Hilke Schellmann reveals the secret rise of AI in the world of work. Testing them herself, she discovers that many algorithms making these high-stakes calculations do more harm than good, and traces their origins to troubling pseudoscientific ideas about people’s ‘true’ essence. Interviewing experts, developers and ordinary workers, The Algorithm offers fascinating and alarming truths. From software analysing interviewees’ facial expressions and tone of voice, to video games assessing their performance, to ‘personality profiles’ built from candidates’ social media, almost all major employers use AI in recruitment. Programmes track their staff’s activity, group dynamics and physical health, identifying who is productive, a bully, worth long-term investment, or likely to quit. But can we trust them? In a world of severe job insecurity, workplace algorithms are on the brink of dominating or even threatening us—if we don’t fight back.

Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2024 Artificial intelligence is being used, on a massive scale, to decide who gets hired, fired and promoted. Through whistleblower exclusives, leaked internal documents and astonishing real-world practices, journalist Hilke Schellmann reveals the secret rise of AI in the world of work. Testing them herself, she discovers that many algorithms making these high-stakes calculations do more harm than good, and traces their origins to troubling pseudoscientific ideas about people’s ‘true’ essence. Interviewing experts, developers and ordinary workers, The Algorithm offers fascinating and alarming truths. From software analysing interviewees’ facial expressions and tone of voice, to video games assessing their performance, to ‘personality profiles’ built from candidates’ social media, almost all major employers use AI in recruitment. Programmes track their staff’s activity, group dynamics and physical health, identifying who is productive, a bully, worth long-term investment, or likely to quit. But can we trust them? In a world of severe job insecurity, workplace algorithms are on the brink of dominating or even threatening us—if we don’t fight back.

From a former President of Tesla comes The Algorithm—the first book written by any of Elon Musk’s direct reports—a transformative guide for leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want to emulate the paradigm-shattering approach Musk used to launch Tesla and SpaceX to meteoric success. Jonathan McNeill had already founded and sold six startups when Sheryl Sandberg introduced him to Elon Musk, who was looking for help at Tesla. McNeill was steeped in the lean principles that had made Toyota a global powerhouse—principles focused on achieving efficiency and optimization by incrementally improving existing systems and processes. What he learned from Elon at Tesla was its antithesis, an approach that required radical rethinking to explode the status quo, attack complexity, and set seemingly unrealistic goals. Elon called this five-step framework “The Algorithm.” 1. Question every requirement. 2. Delete every possible step in the process. 3. Simplify and optimize. 4. Accelerate cycle time. 5. Automate. In this book, McNeill details this tremendously powerful set of tools, which brought Tesla from a production crisis that threatened to derail it to a period of hypergrowth. During his tenure, revenue boomed from $2B to $20B in just 30 months. Since his departure from Tesla, McNeill has used The Algorithm in every enterprise he has worked with to supercharge speed, efficiency, innovation, and growth. Featuring case studies from Tesla and SpaceX, as well as from Lululemon, GM, and companies of various sizes across industries, he reveals how any business can do the same and achieve the unimaginable.

From a former President of Tesla comes The Algorithm—the first book written by any of Elon Musk’s direct reports—a transformative guide for leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want to emulate the paradigm-shattering approach Musk used to launch Tesla and SpaceX to meteoric success. Jonathan McNeill had already founded and sold six startups when Sheryl Sandberg introduced him to Elon Musk, who was looking for help at Tesla. McNeill was steeped in the lean principles that had made Toyota a global powerhouse—principles focused on achieving efficiency and optimization by incrementally improving existing systems and processes. What he learned from Elon at Tesla was its antithesis, an approach that required radical rethinking to explode the status quo, attack complexity, and set seemingly unrealistic goals. Elon called this five-step framework “The Algorithm.” 1. Question every requirement. 2. Delete every possible step in the process. 3. Simplify and optimize. 4. Accelerate cycle time. 5. Automate. In this book, McNeill details this tremendously powerful set of tools, which brought Tesla from a production crisis that threatened to derail it to a period of hypergrowth. During his tenure, revenue boomed from $2B to $20B in just 30 months. Since his departure from Tesla, McNeill has used The Algorithm in every enterprise he has worked with to supercharge speed, efficiency, innovation, and growth. Featuring case studies from Tesla and SpaceX, as well as from Lululemon, GM, and companies of various sizes across industries, he reveals how any business can do the same and achieve the unimaginable.

From a former President of Tesla comes The Algorithm --the first book written by any of Elon Musk's direct reports--a transformative guide for leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want to emulate the paradigm-shattering approach Musk used to launch Tesla and SpaceX to meteoric success. Jon McNeill had already founded and sold six startups when Sheryl Sandberg introduced him to Elon Musk, who was looking for help at Tesla. McNeill was steeped in the lean principles that had made Toyota a global powerhouse--principles focused on achieving efficiency and optimization by incrementally improving existing systems and processes. What he learned from Elon at Tesla was its antithesis, an approach that required radical rethinking to explode the status quo, attack complexity, and set seemingly unrealistic goals. Elon called this five-step framework "The Algorithm." Question every requirement. Delete every possible step in the process. Simplify and optimize. Accelerate cycle time. Automate. In this book, McNeill details this tremendously powerful set of tools, which brought Tesla from a production crisis that threatened to derail it to a period of hypergrowth. During his tenure, revenue boomed from $2B to $20B in just 30 months. Since his departure from Tesla, McNeill has used The Algorithm in every enterprise he has worked with to supercharge speed, efficiency, innovation, and growth. Featuring case studies from Tesla and SpaceX, as well as from Lululemon, GM, and companies of various sizes across industries, he reveals how any business can do the same and achieve the unimaginable.

From a former President of Tesla comes The Algorithm --the first book written by any of Elon Musk's direct reports--a transformative guide for leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want to emulate the paradigm-shattering approach Musk used to launch Tesla and SpaceX to meteoric success. Jon McNeill had already founded and sold six startups when Sheryl Sandberg introduced him to Elon Musk, who was looking for help at Tesla. McNeill was steeped in the lean principles that had made Toyota a global powerhouse--principles focused on achieving efficiency and optimization by incrementally improving existing systems and processes. What he learned from Elon at Tesla was its antithesis, an approach that required radical rethinking to explode the status quo, attack complexity, and set seemingly unrealistic goals. Elon called this five-step framework "The Algorithm." Question every requirement. Delete every possible step in the process. Simplify and optimize. Accelerate cycle time. Automate. In this book, McNeill details this tremendously powerful set of tools, which brought Tesla from a production crisis that threatened to derail it to a period of hypergrowth. During his tenure, revenue boomed from $2B to $20B in just 30 months. Since his departure from Tesla, McNeill has used The Algorithm in every enterprise he has worked with to supercharge speed, efficiency, innovation, and growth. Featuring case studies from Tesla and SpaceX, as well as from Lululemon, GM, and companies of various sizes across industries, he reveals how any business can do the same and achieve the unimaginable.