A Not-so-techie Grandma Reads Kara Swisher
I’m old enough to have taken a typing class in high school. Old enough that our first computer was an Apple knockoff when we lived in Manila. An Orange? Or did they call it a Banana? We played tetris on it. That was in the late ‘80s.
Like many other grandmas and grandpas, I get by, but much about tech does not come naturally. So why, you may wonder, did I buy a book by the queen of tech journalism? I must have read a good review.
I’m halfway through, and luckily, Kara Swisher’s Burn Book: A Tech Love Story is turning out to be fun and basically understandable. It’s mostly about the tech business and the people, not about the technology. Whew!
And it’s about Kara herself. She admits to being brash, but she’s also brave, and she’s been in love with the tech story since its very early days.
The book begins with a meaningful quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby:
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
Whoa! Who’s she talking about? One person and his boys come immediately to mind. But as I read on, I find there are others, many others.
Swisher knows and has interviewed most of the important tech titans over the past thirty-plus years. She’s attracted by their brilliance and confidence. But that’s only one side of the story. She also writes that, “an increasing number of these once fresh-faced wunderkinds I had mostly rooted for now made me feel like a parent whose progeny had turned into, well, assholes.”
Move Fast and Break Things
Too many of them were good at moving fast and cared too little about breaking things. “Move fast and break things” was the motto of Facebook for a number of years. It was also the philosophy of Silicon Valley in general. It encouraged fearless innovation, especially for start-ups. Facebook finally dropped the move-fast-and break-things motto in 2014. It was no longer a small startup and hadn’t been for some time.
Personal comment: It seems obvious to me that that attitude is absolutely out of place in something as large and well established as the federal government.
There’s so much more to share about this book: Kara Swisher’s many clever turns of phrase, the fast-moving sweep of technology in the world and in our lives, the funny and appalling antics of the leading characters. But this post is too long already. I guess you’ll just have to read the book.
She also writes that, “an increasing number of these once fresh-faced wunderkinds I had mostly rooted for now made me feel like a parent whose progeny had turned into, well, assholes.” ~>~>~> YUP.
That’s exactly how I feel about Musk. He’s just an ass.
His delusions of grandeur and the power that Trump and his own money have given him make Elon Musk a very dangerous person.
A fascinating review
I hesitate to think of it as a review, Derrick, as my post didn’t give much of a summary or touch on most of the issues. But it is a very readable book and a fascinating subject.
I’d not heard the “move fast and break things” motto on FB, but then I was a (very) late adopter. As you say, when you apply it to governance, it is deeply worrying to see it being adopted.
Thank you for the book recommendation – it sound really interesting, especially as she sounds thoughtful and considered in her observations.
Inventing something new, especially in tech, requires daring and an open mind. It’s not a recipe for success in most parts of life, but it’s still the motto for too many people.
This sounds like an interesting book for the times when everything is becoming digitised and moving technologically faster and faster. And the motto so relevant too. Things are happening so fast we can’t keep up. Like new phones are coming out faster than we can sit down and think about which one we really want. It seems that we are moving so fast and neglect what’s broken or what’s not new these days. I’m not someone who wants to move fast all the time, especially with technology. I like to think about what my next phone or laptop might look like and how it might serve me, before committing. Hope you are well, Nicki 🙂
It’s good to consider carefully before jumping into new technology. My phone still serves me, so I haven’t looked into the new ones. Changing our tech is also a life choice. What do we want out of life? Of course, we don’t always know until we try something. I don’t think I could have imagined how much I would enjoy a phone that takes photos before I had one. New technology can also be terrifically frustrating when you can’t figure out how to make it do what you want.
“Move fast and break things” is definitely Elon’s motto. It makes my aerospace engineer husband livid to watch Space X constantly exploding and grounding flights rather than being careful and safe.
Oh, wow! Those two big Space X explosions must have made your husband furious. That’s not the kind of thing to be sloppy about.
Unfortunately, the motto seemed to be effective then. I worked for a guy who “ask for forgiveness rather than permission.” Sometimes that makes sense and sometimes not. Sounds like an interesting book.
It is an interesting book. The author does a good job of describing the personalities and their mindset. We forget how many of these tech companies flamed out. They were big news for a while, and now we don’t even remember their names.
I never liked that “Move fast and break things” motto. It’s 180º opposite of how good things happen, but then doing good might not be the goal.
Maybe it’s not such a bad idea in the beginning when you’re just trying something out, but then the time comes to get serious. Swisher points out that it’s a childish attitude. Young children love to stomp in mud puddles and break things.
Wow. That motto of moving fast and breaking things seems very chilling these days with lives at stake.
It’s chilling that they don’t seem to care.