Download or read book The Cult of We written by Eliot Brown and published by Crown. This book was released on 2021-07-20 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • A FINANCIAL TIMES, FORTUNE, AND NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • “The riveting, definitive account of WeWork, one of the wildest business stories of our time.”—Matt Levine, Money Stuff columnist, Bloomberg Opinion The definitive story of the rise and fall of WeWork (also depicted in the upcoming Apple TV+ series WeCrashed, starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway), by the real-life journalists whose Wall Street Journal reporting rocked the company and exposed a financial system drunk on the elixir of Silicon Valley innovation. LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD WeWork would be worth $10 trillion, more than any other company in the world. It wasn’t just an office space provider. It was a tech company—an AI startup, even. Its WeGrow schools and WeLive residences would revolutionize education and housing. One day, mused founder Adam Neumann, a Middle East peace accord would be signed in a WeWork. The company might help colonize Mars. And Neumann would become the world’s first trillionaire. This was the vision of Neumann and his primary cheerleader, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son. In hindsight, their ambition for the company, whose primary business was subletting desks in slickly designed offices, seems like madness. Why did so many intelligent people—from venture capitalists to Wall Street elite—fall for the hype? And how did WeWork go so wrong? In little more than a decade, Neumann transformed himself from a struggling baby clothes salesman into the charismatic, hard-partying CEO of a company worth $47 billion—on paper. With his long hair and feel-good mantras, the six-foot-five Israeli transplant looked the part of a messianic truth teller. Investors swooned, and billions poured in. Neumann dined with the CEOs of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, entertaining a parade of power brokers desperate to get a slice of what he was selling: the country’s most valuable startup, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a generation-defining moment. Soon, however, WeWork was burning through cash faster than Neumann could bring it in. From his private jet, sometimes clouded with marijuana smoke, he scoured the globe for more capital. Then, as WeWork readied a Hail Mary IPO, it all fell apart. Nearly $40 billion of value vaporized in one of corporate America’s most spectacular meltdowns. Peppered with eye-popping, never-before-reported details, The Cult of We is the gripping story of careless and often absurd people—and the financial system they have made.
Download or read book Billion Dollar Loser written by Reeves Wiedeman and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller: This "vivid" inside story of WeWork and its CEO tells the remarkable saga of one of the most audacious, and improbable, rises and falls in American business history (Ken Auletta). Christened a potential savior of Silicon Valley's startup culture, Adam Neumann was set to take WeWork, his office share company disrupting the commercial real estate market, public, cash out on the company's forty-seven billion dollar valuation, and break the string of major startups unable to deliver to shareholders. But as employees knew, and investors soon found out, WeWork's capital was built on promises that the company was more than a real estate purveyor, that in fact it was a transformational technology company. Veteran journalist Reeves Weideman dives deep into WeWork and it CEO's astronomical rise, from the marijuana and tequila-filled board rooms to cult-like company summer camps and consciousness-raising with Anthony Kiedis. Billion Dollar Loser is a character-driven business narrative that captures, through the fascinating psyche of a billionaire founder and his wife and co-founder, the slippery state of global capitalism. A Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller “Vivid, carefully reported drama that readers will gulp down as if it were a fast-paced novel” (Ken Auletta)
Download or read book The Cult of Smart written by Fredrik deBoer and published by All Points Books. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named one of Vulture’s Top 10 Best Books of 2020! Leftist firebrand Fredrik deBoer exposes the lie at the heart of our educational system and demands top-to-bottom reform. Everyone agrees that education is the key to creating a more just and equal world, and that our schools are broken and failing. Proposed reforms variously target incompetent teachers, corrupt union practices, or outdated curricula, but no one acknowledges a scientifically-proven fact that we all understand intuitively: Academic potential varies between individuals, and cannot be dramatically improved. In The Cult of Smart, educator and outspoken leftist Fredrik deBoer exposes this omission as the central flaw of our entire society, which has created and perpetuated an unjust class structure based on intellectual ability. Since cognitive talent varies from person to person, our education system can never create equal opportunity for all. Instead, it teaches our children that hierarchy and competition are natural, and that human value should be based on intelligence. These ideas are counter to everything that the left believes, but until they acknowledge the existence of individual cognitive differences, progressives remain complicit in keeping the status quo in place. This passionate, voice-driven manifesto demands that we embrace a new goal for education: equality of outcomes. We must create a world that has a place for everyone, not just the academically talented. But we’ll never achieve this dream until the Cult of Smart is destroyed.
Download or read book The Cult of the Amateur written by Andrew Keen and published by Crown Currency. This book was released on 2008-08-12 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amateur hour has arrived, and the audience is running the show In a hard-hitting and provocative polemic, Silicon Valley insider and pundit Andrew Keen exposes the grave consequences of today’s new participatory Web 2.0 and reveals how it threatens our values, economy, and ultimately the very innovation and creativity that forms the fabric of American achievement. Our most valued cultural institutions, Keen warns—our professional newspapers, magazines, music, and movies—are being overtaken by an avalanche of amateur, user-generated free content. Advertising revenue is being siphoned off by free classified ads on sites like Craigslist; television networks are under attack from free user-generated programming on YouTube and the like; file-sharing and digital piracy have devastated the multibillion-dollar music business and threaten to undermine our movie industry. Worse, Keen claims, our “cut-and-paste” online culture—in which intellectual property is freely swapped, downloaded, remashed, and aggregated—threatens over 200 years of copyright protection and intellectual property rights, robbing artists, authors, journalists, musicians, editors, and producers of the fruits of their creative labors. In today’s self-broadcasting culture, where amateurism is celebrated and anyone with an opinion, however ill-informed, can publish a blog, post a video on YouTube, or change an entry on Wikipedia, the distinction between trained expert and uninformed amateur becomes dangerously blurred. When anonymous bloggers and videographers, unconstrained by professional standards or editorial filters, can alter the public debate and manipulate public opinion, truth becomes a commodity to be bought, sold, packaged, and reinvented. The very anonymity that the Web 2.0 offers calls into question the reliability of the information we receive and creates an environment in which sexual predators and identity thieves can roam free. While no Luddite—Keen pioneered several Internet startups himself—he urges us to consider the consequences of blindly supporting a culture that endorses plagiarism and piracy and that fundamentally weakens traditional media and creative institutions. Offering concrete solutions on how we can reign in the free-wheeling, narcissistic atmosphere that pervades the Web, THE CULT OF THE AMATEUR is a wake-up call to each and every one of us.
Download or read book The Cult of the Customer written by Shep Hyken and published by Sound Wisdom. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In today’s competitive business climate, you can’t just satisfy your customers. You have to be better than that, giving them experiences that they won’t forget. Author Shep Hyken has spent thirty years studying great companies and the evangelists they create. In The Cult of the Customer, Hyken shows how to design a strategy that leads both customers and employees through five distinct cultural phases – from "uncertainty" to "amazement." By presenting dozens of case studies that show how great companies made this journey, Hyken identifies the critical internal and external changes that allowed them to build a Cult of the Customer – and shows how you can do it too. Hyken’s message is both powerful and timely: the happier your customers and employees are, the more successful your company will be. The Cult of the Customer is your guide to creating a customer-focused culture that turns satisfied customers into customer evangelists.
Download or read book The Cult of the Constitution written by Mary Anne Franks and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A powerful challenge to the prevailing constitutional orthodoxy of the right and the left . . . A deeply troubling and absolutely vital book” (Mark Joseph Stern, Slate). In this provocative book, Mary Anne Franks examines the thin line between constitutional fidelity and constitutional fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution reveals how deep fundamentalist strains in both conservative and liberal American thought keep the Constitution in the service of white male supremacy. Franks demonstrates how constitutional fundamentalists read the Constitution selectively and self-servingly, thus undermining the integrity of the document as a whole. She goes on to argue that economic and civil libertarianism have merged to produce a deregulatory, “free-market” approach to constitutional rights that achieves fullest expression in the idealization of the Internet. The fetishization of the first and second amendments has blurred the boundaries between conduct and speech and between veneration and violence. But the Constitution itself contains the antidote to fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution lays bare the dark, antidemocratic consequences of constitutional fundamentalism and urges readers to take the Constitution seriously, not selectively.
Download or read book Leaving Isn t the Hardest Thing written by Lauren Hough and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "A memoir in essays about so many things—growing up in an abusive cult, coming of age as a lesbian in the military, forced out by homophobia, living on the margins as a working class woman and what it’s like to grow into the person you are meant to be. Hough’s writing will break your heart." —Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist Searing and extremely personal essays, shot through with the darkest elements America can manifest, while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners. As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe--to Germany, Japan, Texas, Chile—but it wasn't until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond "The Family." Along the way, she's loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next. She's taken pilgrimages to the sights of her youth, been kept in solitary confinement, dated a lot of women, dabbled in drugs, and eventually found herself as what she always wanted to be: a writer. Here, as she sweeps through the underbelly of America—relying on friends, family, and strangers alike—she begins to excavate a new identity even as her past continues to trail her and color her world, relationships, and perceptions of self. At once razor-sharp, profoundly brave, and often very, very funny, the essays in Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely. Each piece is a reckoning: of survival, identity, and how to reclaim one's past when carving out a future. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
Download or read book Cult of the Dead Cow written by Joseph Menn and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shocking untold story of the elite secret society of hackers fighting to protect our freedom – “a hugely important piece of the puzzle for anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping the internet age." (New York Times Book Review) Cult of the Dead Cow is the tale of the oldest active, most respected, and most famous American hacking group of all time. With its origins in the earliest days of the internet, the cDc is full of oddball characters – activists, artists, and musicians – some of whom went on to advise presidents, cabinet members, and CEOs, and who now walk the corridors of power in Washington and Silicon Valley. Today, the group and its followers are battling electoral misinformation, making personal data safer, and organizing to keep technology a force for good instead of for surveillance and oppression. Cult of the Dead Cow describes how, at a time when governments, corporations, and criminals hold immense power, a small band of tech iconoclasts is on our side fighting back.
Download or read book The Cult of the Leader written by Christopher Bones and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-02-28 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critical look at the way that business leadership has gone so badly wrong. Modern business is obsessed with leaders. We talk about leadership all the time, but its real meaning is becoming more and more obscure. Recent corporate crises have shown that all too often, our leaders are missing in action when we need them most. In this groundbreaking and provocative new book, Chris Bones shows how we need to: Restore trust and confidence Be more realistic about what leaders can and can't do Redefine talent Revalue experience Reconsider remuneration
Download or read book The Cult TV Book written by Stacey Abbott and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As evidenced by the recent proliferation of fan conventions, television show boxed sets, and collectible character figurines, cult TV shows have arguably become the most vital and interesting programming on television. The once-marginal genre manifests itself in a remarkable variety of programs, from the suburban mob drama The Sopranos to the beloved occult fantasy Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Cult TV Book is a guide to this phenomenon, complete with lively and diverse analyses of the work that goes into conceiving and marketing a cult series, as well as numerous investigations that explore the unique cult appeal of individual programs. Leading scholars, journalists, and writers consider the many aspects of a show — both script-based and visual — that attract the kind of uncompromisingly loyal fan bases that we know as “Trekkies,” for example, or, more recently, “Losties.” The Cult TV Book sheds light on the heretofore under-examined science of addictive TV programming, pinpointing the complex arcs and intentionally inadequate explanations that keep viewers coming back for more. The contributors cover every corner of the cult map, all the while trying to define the elusive genre, to understand the cult TV obsession from the outside in.
Download or read book The Cult of Trump written by Steven Hassan and published by Free Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *As featured in the streaming documentary #UNTRUTH—now with a new foreword by George Conway and an afterword by the author* A masterful and eye-opening examination of Trump and the coercive control tactics he uses to build a fanatical devotion in his supporters written by “an authority on breaking away from cults…an argument that…bears consideration as the next election cycle heats up” (Kirkus Reviews). Since the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s behavior has become both more disturbing and yet increasingly familiar. He relies on phrases like, “fake news,” “build the wall,” and continues to spread the divisive mentality of us-vs.-them. He lies constantly, has no conscience, never admits when he is wrong, and projects all of his shortcomings on to others. He has become more authoritarian, more outrageous, and yet many of his followers remain blindly devoted. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert and a major Trump supporter, calls him one of the most persuasive people living. His need to squash alternate information and his insistence of constant ego stroking are all characteristics of other famous leaders—cult leaders. In The Cult of Trump, mind control and licensed mental health expert Steven Hassan draws parallels between our current president and people like Jim Jones, David Koresh, Ron Hubbard, and Sun Myung Moon, arguing that this presidency is in many ways like a destructive cult. He specifically details the ways in which people are influenced through an array of social psychology methods and how they become fiercely loyal and obedient. Hassan was a former “Moonie” himself, and he presents a “thoughtful and well-researched analysis of some of the most puzzling aspects of the current presidency, including the remarkable passivity of fellow Republicans [and] the gross pandering of many members of the press” (Thomas G. Gutheil, MD and professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School). The Cult of Trump is an accessible and in-depth analysis of the president, showing that under the right circumstances, even sane, rational, well-adjusted people can be persuaded to believe the most outrageous ideas. “This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the current political climate” (Judith Stevens-Long, PhD and author of Living Well, Dying Well).
Download or read book The Cult of Mac 2nd Edition written by Leander Kahney and published by No Starch Press. This book was released on 2019-12-05 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's been nearly fifteen years since Apple fans raved over the first edition of the critically-acclaimed The Cult of Mac. This long-awaited second edition brings the reader into the world of Apple today while also filling in the missing history since the 2004 edition, including the creation of Apple brand loyalty, the introduction of the iPhone, and the death of Steve Jobs. Apple is a global luxury brand whose products range from mobile phones and tablets to streaming TVs and smart home speakers. Yet despite this dominance, a distinct subculture persists, which celebrates the ways in which Apple products seem to encourage self-expression, identity, and innovation. The beautifully designed second edition of The Cult of Mac takes you inside today's Apple fandom to explore how devotions--new and old--keep the fire burning. Join journalists Leander Kahney and David Pierini as they explore how enthusiastic fans line up for the latest product releases, and how artists pay tribute to Steve Jobs' legacy in sculpture and opera. Learn why some photographers and filmmakers have eschewed traditional gear in favor of iPhone cameras. Discover a community of collectors around the world who spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy, restore, and enshrine Apple artifacts, like the Newton MessagePad and Apple II. Whether you're an Apple fan or just a casual observer, this second edition of The Cult of Mac is sure to reveal more than a few surprises, offering an intimate look at some of the most dedicated members in the Apple community.
Download or read book The Cult Called Freedom House written by Stephanie Evelyn and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone but Sophia and Cyrus were going to die. They were all goners well before they knew it. And they certainly thought whatever was happening, they were helping others and saving the world doing it. Samantha was only fourteen and looking for what every fourteen-year-old looks for-- freedom. She wanted to be as far away from her substance-riddled mother and abusive home as possible, but she never asked for anything like this. It always starts with just one person and one fucked up idea. This is the story about Samantha and the cult called Freedom House.A psychological horror thriller, this book will frustrate you, scare you, disturb you, and at times, it will make you want to be ill. Are you ready to learn what's going on behind the doors of Freedom House?"You're not going to want to miss this one. It's dark, creepy, disgusting, emotional, and I couldn't put it down. An amazing debut that I'll be thinking about for a long time." - Matt Redmon, Team Redmon Reads and Nightworms Reviewer"I'm now going to go bundle myself in a cozy blanket, hug my pets, and rock myself to sleep." - Steve Gomzi, Horror Reviewer
Download or read book Cultish written by Amanda Montell and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of those life-changing reads that makes you see—or, in this case, hear—the whole world differently.” —Megan Angelo, author of Followers “At times chilling, often funny, and always perceptive and cogent, Cultish is a bracing reminder that the scariest thing about cults is that you don't realize you're in one till it's too late.”—Refinery29.com The New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Magical Overthinking and Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how “cultish” groups, from Jonestown and Scientologists to SoulCycle and social media gurus, use language as the ultimate form of power. What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . . Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day. Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.
Download or read book The Cult of Youth written by James F. Stark and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first account of anti-ageing and rejuvenation in modern Britain, exploring hormones, diet, electrotherapy, exercise and skin care.
Download or read book The Cult written by Max Ehrlich and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Morse kidnaps young followers from The Souls for Jesus cult.
Download or read book The Cult of Personality Testing written by Annie Murphy Paul and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning psychology writer Annie Paul delivers a scathing exposé on the history and effects of personality tests. Millions of people worldwide take personality tests each year to direct their education, to decide on a career, to determine if they'll be hired, to join the armed forces, and to settle legal disputes. Yet, according to award-winning psychology writer Annie Murphy Paul, the sheer number of tests administered obscures a simple fact: they don't work. Most personality tests are seriously flawed, and sometimes unequivocally wrong. They fail the field's own standards of validity and reliability. They ask intrusive questions. They produce descriptions of people that are nothing like human beings as they actually are: complicated, contradictory, changeable across time and place. The Cult Of Personality Testing documents, for the first time, the disturbing consequences of these tests. Children are being labeled in limiting ways. Businesses and the government are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars every year, only to make ill-informed decisions about hiring and firing. Job seekers are having their privacy invaded and their rights trampled, and our judicial system is being undermined by faulty evidence. Paul's eye-opening chronicle reveals the fascinating history behind a lucrative and largely unregulated business. Captivating, insightful, and sometimes shocking, The Cult Of Personality Testing offers an exhilarating trip into the human mind and heart.
