The book is about the experiences and inside story of the author, who worked at Facebook as a multinational navigator for the company. It includes her personal experiences with Mark Zuckerberg, and tons of information about the people, policies, and politics that shaped the company that shaped the world.
I could not put it down. It starts out deeply fascinating right away, but the longer it goes on the more harrowing, and horrifying, it gets. And the nightmarish details Just. Keep. Coming.
Funny one: Zuckerberg plays Catan and Ticket to Ride with his staff, and everyone lets him win, but he has no idea.
Some things that surprised me. This book is globally focused, and LOTS of the content revolves around Facebooks attempts to go global. You may only know FB as the fun, somewhat zany and old fashioned social media sight for pictures of people's babies and racist rants. But for a very long time, FB was unavailable in countries all over the world. The author worked with Mark to bring FB to Brazil, China, Myanmar, India, and more.
"Silicon Valley is awash in wooden Montessori toys and total screen bans. Parents talk about how they don't allow their teens to have mobile phones."
Mark asks Xi Jinping to name his child, in an attempt to curry favor with China.
Mark comes across as very awkward and uncomfortable, and almost incompetent, riding a company built by high powered people under him. His team is constantly trying to rein him in and steer him from PR nightmares etc.
The COO who is a billionaire get super pissed off when she finds out her children were allowed to eat McDonald's while in paris. She also writes a book called Lean In all about how to be a successful career woman and mother without ever revealing she has a team of like five nannies. She also sexually grooms several employees including the author.
There is a ton of sexism, grooming, and sexual harassment at FB.
That's just some details. Everyone should read this book. It's a shocking and fascinating expose of the lives of the 1% tech billionaires who are shaping the world, from a woman who jetted around the globe with them. In many ways this book feels like one of the most important books I've read in years, and may even be one of the most important books written this decade.
by InvisibleAstronomer
2 Comments
I’m with you. I thought I knew but man that book blew my eyes open.
I listened to this book and finished early January. I ended up completely overwhelmed and shut-down. It was eye-opening. Highly reccomend. I didn’t know it would hit me so hard.