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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
#62/2021 .. you can feel the research and work that went into this on every page.
Both An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination and Facebook: The Inside Story
are the most comprehensive books about FB.
The former reported on stories that are not as well collaborated since it had few witnesses to the incidents, and also less flattering to FB; and FB corporate refused to work with the authors.
The latter is less critical, and had full cooperation from corporate. The author had also been interviewing Zuckerburg since the very early days of FB, and built up a rapport with him over the years.
If you want to know the full extent the the damage FB has done, read the former. If you're more interested in how FB operates as a business and the fun/interesting parts of it's early history (especially if you loved the story behind the movie The Social Network), read the latter. Though both do a decent job on both.
The latter's overall criticism can be summed up as: FB was too naive for the responsibility it gained and was too aloof to handle its challenges [though at times its more harsh than that]. The former's overall criticism is that facebook willfully let damage happen in order to increase profits. Note: this is a very oversimplified take.
If you loved reading one book, the other is worth reading.
Further reading:
-About how tech and silicon valley influences political systems: I highly recommend The Contrarian, a book about Peter Thiel. It actually shares the same audiobook narrator as the latter.
-About tech business: I recommend No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson, the Amazon books by Brad Stone, and Samsung Rising.
are the most comprehensive books about FB.
The former reported on stories that are not as well collaborated since it had few witnesses to the incidents, and also less flattering to FB; and FB corporate refused to work with the authors.
The latter is less critical, and had full cooperation from corporate. The author had also been interviewing Zuckerburg since the very early days of FB, and built up a rapport with him over the years.
If you want to know the full extent the the damage FB has done, read the former. If you're more interested in how FB operates as a business and the fun/interesting parts of it's early history (especially if you loved the story behind the movie The Social Network), read the latter. Though both do a decent job on both.
The latter's overall criticism can be summed up as: FB was too naive for the responsibility it gained and was too aloof to handle its challenges [though at times its more harsh than that]. The former's overall criticism is that facebook willfully let damage happen in order to increase profits. Note: this is a very oversimplified take.
If you loved reading one book, the other is worth reading.
Further reading:
-About how tech and silicon valley influences political systems: I highly recommend The Contrarian, a book about Peter Thiel. It actually shares the same audiobook narrator as the latter.
-About tech business: I recommend No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson, the Amazon books by Brad Stone, and Samsung Rising.
informative
medium-paced
dark
informative
fast-paced
informative
medium-paced
I expected so much more from this book.
Frankly if you want to learn about how Facebook algorithms work to keep you scrolling and how radical political ideas impact the algorithm, watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix. If you want to learn about the beginnings of Facebook and their company's scandals in particular, there are great YouTube videos that break them down more concisely than this book. I personally enjoyed the Corporate Casket two part series that YouTuber iiluminaughtii did to cover Facebook.
Another issue I had with this book is how it tried to sell this narrative of Zuckerberg as some evil supergenius. I really think that's giving him too much credit. Zuck is just some nerd who got a taste of money and power and now doesn't know how to act. I don't think he set out at 17 to build an empire, controlling the world through a social network site like the book seems to suggest. He couldn't have known what social media would become in the future, no one could. And if Zuck hadn't invented it, someone else would have.
Frankly if you want to learn about how Facebook algorithms work to keep you scrolling and how radical political ideas impact the algorithm, watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix. If you want to learn about the beginnings of Facebook and their company's scandals in particular, there are great YouTube videos that break them down more concisely than this book. I personally enjoyed the Corporate Casket two part series that YouTuber iiluminaughtii did to cover Facebook.
Another issue I had with this book is how it tried to sell this narrative of Zuckerberg as some evil supergenius. I really think that's giving him too much credit. Zuck is just some nerd who got a taste of money and power and now doesn't know how to act. I don't think he set out at 17 to build an empire, controlling the world through a social network site like the book seems to suggest. He couldn't have known what social media would become in the future, no one could. And if Zuck hadn't invented it, someone else would have.
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
There are 2 lines I think sum up this book and Facebook perfectly. The first is, "Yet again, the company had figured out a way to abdicate responsibility, under the guise of doing what was best for the world." And the second, which is from an anonymous Facebook employee, "We've been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn't be surprised that it's now out of control".
This book took me a lot longer than most works typically do, and that's because it made me so mad. I have to put this book down so many time because I was just frustrated. You shouldn't come to this book for solutions though. What this book does is perfectly lay out the problem.
This book took me a lot longer than most works typically do, and that's because it made me so mad. I have to put this book down so many time because I was just frustrated. You shouldn't come to this book for solutions though. What this book does is perfectly lay out the problem.
challenging
informative
tense
medium-paced