`Burn Book'
Just finished Kara Swisher's “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.” Swisher has been the writer of all things Silicon Valley since the '80s. She holds no punches and comes out swinging at the megalomaniac, toxic, entitled, billionaire CEOs. She understands that many of the products and services that Silicon Valley offers have good intentions, however whenever the choice comes between doing the right thing or making your next $100 million (or billion), the right thing is swept under the rug.
Post-college, Swisher started off with the Washington City Paper, before being hired by the Washington Post. From there she went to the Wall Street Journal, where she started the column Boom Town about the people, corporations and cultures of Silicon Valley and was then moved to the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Together with her tech colleague and mentor, Walt Mossberg, they started All Things Digital tech blog and did conferences and live interviews with the best and brightest from technology and politics. She then went on to be a New York Times opinion writer.
Their red chair live interviews were legendary. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg may be one of the brightest minds in our country, however, he doesn't have many social skills. During his first interview with Swisher and Mossberg, Zuckerberg was sweating so profusely onstage (streams of sweat pouring down his face) that he had to take off his trademark hoodie. Swisher was BFF with Elon Musk until he got weird. Swisher and Mossberg interviewed a who's who of technology and politics including President Obama, Steve Jobs (Apple), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Bob Iger (Disney), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Peter Thiel (PayPal), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google), and Travis Kalanick (Uber). Ya get the drift — billionaires and disrupters.
Think about the enormous influence that FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) has over the globe and how these companies have disrupted business models. Even more frightening is how much influence these technology firms have with their lawyers and lobbyists. Technology hates any form of regulation. Most of us have Apple or Android phones. Stop yapping about your “privacy” as these corproations read all your texts and emails and know every website you go to. It's all about gathering your personal information to sell to marketers. If you don't turn off your cell phone locator, your cell phone knows everywhere you travel. Divorce attorneys are subpoenaing cell phone records to find out where a husband actually was versus what they told their wife (or visa-versa).
Swisher goes hard after Mark Zuckerberg for destroying democracy by allowing bad actors (Russia and Steve Bannon) to influence the 2016 election. Facebook started off as a cool app to connect with other people and let the world know what you are doing. It turned into a data mining machine to sell you with ads that the algorithm tweaks from your search and “Like” history.
Facebook and Twitter (not calling it “X”) have gone from social media to anti-social media, spreading hate speech and disinformation to the world (see Alex Jones). Google knows your every search and scans all your Gmail for keywords to sell you more crap. Apple does the same and changed the way we purchase music. Amazon disrupted the retail industry as malls are becoming dinosaurs and retail brick and mortar find it hard to compete with a few clicks. Netflix disrupted the entertainment industry. How many of you go to the video store anymore? Probably zero as we stream our entertainment on our desktops, laptops, tablets or cell phones. Many of these tech firms have disrupted the labor market with “gig” workers or independent contractors (all the drivers with Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc.) with no payroll taxes or benefits. These companies have saved billions by not having to classify their workers as employees.
Unfortunately, Silicon Valley is a bad boy industry. The vast majority of start-ups and Venture Capital firms CEOs and CSuite executives are men (96%). Combine testosterone, stupid money with brainiac geeks who were laughed at in high school, who are now worth billions and it can be a volatile combination. Uber was managed like a drunken frat house where everyone had excessive cash, drugs and no adult supervision. Google “Susan Fowler blog.”
While tech can be a great thing, how many of your teenagers are glued to their cell phones from early morning till late evening?