I nearly didn't finish this book, but I'm glad I powered through, because the last half of the book was tolerable and relatively insightful. I will not be engaging with how she discusses AI at the end of the book because her discussion of it is extremely vibes-based👍

I only even slightly enjoyed Burn Book after I made it halfway through. Near the VERY END, I realized why the first half of the book is so intolerable, and it's because (I think) Swisher wrote it in a tone that reflects her thoughts and priorities in the beginning of her career. Sure, I respect that. It's good craft, to shift your tone through a book like this, and I'm impressed by it!

However. The first half of this book is ATROCIOUSLY shallow, dull, and paints Swisher as extremely self-serving and completely disengaged with the actual ethics of tech, showing more interest in taking CEOs down a peg based on weird personalities and office choices rather than anything else. This definitely shifts later in the book. But it still stands that the first half of this book was borderline unreadable.

Additionally, because the first half of the book is just setup, I'm missing a lot of substance about different aspects of the tech industry that can be dubious (manufacturing, warehouses, and cloud computing systems being a few). I did appreciate the relatively brief discussions of privacy and safety on social media, as well as the lack of legal regulations on tech, but I missed discourse in other areas.

Would I recommend this book to people in the industry? Not really? Unless the person in question is EXTREMELY clueless about tech and related ethics. Maybe it would be good for the CEOs of startups who have never engaged with the tech industry ever?