„The reasonable man adapts himself to the world,” wrote George Bernard Shaw. „The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” They don’t come much more unreasonable than Elon Musk. The tycoon’s long-term goals (Humans on Mars! Brain implants! Humanoid robots!) are famously and wildly ambitious. Aggressive targets are also part of the day-to-day operating culture at his firms. „The Algorithm”, a new book by Jon McNeill, who was president of Tesla from 2015 to 2018, provides a window into what this looks like in practice. When Mr Musk appears in the narrative, as the carmaker grapples with an array of manufacturing and distribution problems, it’s usually to set a difficult target. He tells the team to increase e-commerce sales 20-fold. Buying a Tesla online took a tedious 64 clicks; he specifies a goal of ten.…