Kara Swisher

This is an amazing recounting of the author's deep knowledge of the early (Steve Jobs) and late (Tik Tok guys) tech dudebros whose arrogance, immense wealth, and massive influence have ruled our lives since the dawn of the digital age. As read by Kara Swisher herself (maybe not the best artistic choice, but contributes to the reader's sense of her sincerity) love of all things tech but loathing of phonies and sycophants is saturated with candor and genuine admiration for some, and contempt show more and loathing for most. She finds them all to be working through childhood rejection issues by aggrandizing their own admittedly (in most cases) innovative skills and by refusing to admit to some very big and costly mistakes. They're all here - Bezos, Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg - and the most vicious tales are reserved for those whom Swisher finds truly repellent - venture ("vulture") capitalists; the creator of Uber, Travis Kalanick; the latest version of Elon Musk; and Rupert Murdoch, one of her former employers. She's a good writer and is truly able to analyze her own flaws, while admitting that there's envy involved as well. Anyone who uses tech, and that's us all, will enjoy Swisher's three-decade journey behind the scenes of how our gadgets and toys brought about the scary surrender of our privacy. show less

Kara Swisher’s Burn Book offers both an autobiography and an engaging, thoughtful, and sometimes funny review of the history of the internet (and the rise of Silicon Valley) almost from the beginning.

As one of the earliest reporters whose beat focused solely on the internet Kara Swisher takes us on a first-hand ride through that history as no one else can. The author herself is a person of strong views and high ideals, who can come across as irreverent, even arrogant, but also show more charming.

Swisher sought out a role dedicated to covering the internet because she was not only a journalist but an early adopter of and a true believer in the internet, who saw its potential. In her time covering the industry she has also proven to be a keen observer and predicter of internet business trends.

I listened to the audiobook version of the book and that’s what I’d recommend for anyone else interested in this. It’s narrated by the author, whose voice will be familiar to many who have listened to her various podcast ventures over the years. She is an excellent writer and delivers her work in crisp sentences demonstrating a keen intellect and a cutting sense of humor.

While an interesting work, here’s a word of caution about what the book is and what it is not. The book serves as a broad review of Swisher’s thirty years covering the industry and is not a deep dive into any particular company or technology. In fact, Swisher covered so many companies and their CEOs over the years that the repeated name dropping can become a bit much. Just about every tech CEO you can think of over the last thirty years gets a mention at one point or another. This is a personal history of the rise of the internet.

Toward the end of the book Swisher delivers her opinions on how and why those industry leaders have gone from nose-to-the-grindstone innovators not much interested in the workings of government, who thought they were changing the world for the better, into crony capitalists who see themselves as attacked by lesser folk who don’t understand them, and who are colluding with a President with an authoritarian bent. That part of the book was the best and most interesting to me.

If you’re looking for the definitive history of the internet era, this book is not it. But, if you want to hear the ruminations of a smart, funny and opinionated journalist who has covered the internet from the start, well this is that book. show less

A “burn book” is where you write unpleasant information about others. Kara Swisher does not pull punches as she writes the often unpleasant truth. Arriving on the Tech Scene just as things start popping in the late 90’s and riding the elevator for the next couple decades with all the tech moguls big and small—Swisher details the right turns and wrong moves with blunt insight and sometimes appropriately caustic humor. Exciting read as Swisher has always and continues to think big show more picture about where Tech is going and where it should go. Tech and I are not on intimate terms but I still found this fascinating and fun. show less

I love a good smart-ass tone so this was a lot of fun. I also enjoyed her take on all the stories we kinda knew, especially as it turned into the cumulative, long-term analysis that we need as we face down our AI future.