Book Review: Burn Book
Title: Burn Book
Author: Kara Swisher
Year Published: 2024
My mom brought over this book to me one day, shortly after she had read it. “I think you’ll really like this,” she said. I felt a little queasy. Elon was in full DOGE mode and reading about more tech entrepreneurs seemed like something I’d only do if I had a lot of Pepto Bismol. The book has been sitting on my “to read” shelf, with Kara’s fiery face looking at me every day when I wake up and when I go to bed (My to-read shelf is right next to my bed).
Not too long ago I watched a pretty good documentary about the rise and fall of Twitter. Twitter is/was a really important part of my professional career. It was truly magical back in the day, and I had no idea at the time that it was a constant soap opera beyond my chats and new friends. Kara Swisher was a commentator on that documentary and I thought, “Hm, she does have really interesting insights about Twitter. I wonder what else she has…oh right. I have one of her books on my shelf.” Finally, over my winter vacation, I sat down to read it. Boy have I been missing out.
Let me be clear, Kara Swisher probably rubs a lot of people the wrong way. She is an opinionated woman, which doesn’t go well with the tech world (part of what she writes about). Her writing can be callous, and she admits it. But the amazing thing about Burn Book, despite the name, is that you also see a mushy nuggety center. While there are some passages about Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk that are downright mean, the way she talks about the perfect imperfections of Steve Jobs is truly amazing, and the impact Dave Goldberg’s death had on her is also quite touchingly revealed.
Essentially, Burn Book traces Swisher’s journey through life, and writing about and breaking news about the tech world has been part of that life for about 30 years now. She was there when AOL first launched and did not scoff when they said they’d eventually purchase Time Warner. She was there for the earliest days of Twitter, Facebook, Google Glass, TikTok, and pretty much everything else you can think of. A lot of the companies she mentions I’d never heard of. Some platforms I’ve heard of didn’t make the book, like good ole Google+ (we hardly knew ye) and Friendster. Do you remember Friendster?
Reading Burn Book is kind of like being on the show This is Your Life, except it’s your life with technology only. What Swisher reminds us is that all of these bigger than life (mostly white) men who now rule the world are still just men. They have complexities of character, great characteristics, gross characteristics, and sometimes put the fate of the world at risk so they can complete their products. See also AI impact on environment and water supply.
The only problem with Burn Book is that like any book about tech, it’s already outdated. Swisher mentions ChatGPT, but there is no mention of Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, or NotebookLM. AI Overviews hadn’t even popped up yet by the time the book was published. That being said, I wouldn’t mind having to read an updated version of the book every year to get insights into people like Sam Altman (whom she does talk about a little), Aravand Srinivas, and Demis Hassabis.
I recommend this book if you’re interested in our current tech world. It’s nostalgic for those of us who were around for some of the early stuff. I still patently refuse to call Twitter X. I’m one of those. If you read the book let me know what you think. I look forward to talking about it.