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by utdoctor 11 days ago
I’m a bit over halfway through the book after purchasing it based off the premise alone and, I may be in the minority, but I find her insufferable and very naive.

On more than one occasion makes comparisons to the lofty idealized and non pragmatic goals of governmental institutions like the UN and seems bewildered that a business like Meta doesn’t (obviously) have the same aspirations/alignment.

She just reminds me of a very naive college student from what I’ve read thus far. Grinds my gears but I’m going to finish it.

3 comments

So you’re saying that it’s naive to expect a company to care whether they are facilitating a genocide in one of their growth markets?

You must be fun to work with

At one point, she makes Zuckenberg meet with presidents who consider facebook harfull. It is around after everyone realizes facebook decides elections.

She expects presidents to tell Zuckenberg about harms of facebook. To kind of unload onto him, so that Zuckenberg stop doing bad things. Instead, presidents kiss his ass ... probably to get help in the next election.

It is this sort of thing that makes her come accross naive.

"insufferable and very naive."

IMHO she is just not from US. US culture _is_ totally foreign to anyone not from there.

Read the part where she describes her interactions with New Zealand prime minister and you will get it. That part to me feels natural (I'm from Finland). Everything else in the book reads like absurdist black comedy to me and not how I would expect people to behave normally.

I think yes, she is naive. She understands diplomacy, but is perpetually surprised by politics of the situation. But, if she was not naive, she would either leave much sooner or comfortably fit into the dark side.

Also, when I read the description of the workplace, between dleep deprivation and isolation from non facebook people, everyone ends up in a bit of "cult group" thinking. That makes you even less likely to think accurately about what goes on around you.

TBH to me she reads as high performing idealist, not naive. Different things, may give similar signals.