The Cult of We

Recently I was watching a YouTube video about meal prep, my endless battle as someone who wants to eat healthy, but hates diet culture, and who also resents the way we've set up our society to leave me two days of the week to cram my life into around work (hello coworkers, I love my job but I am correct in hating the way we do life).

Anyway, the video was sponsored by WeWork. This threw me for such a loop that I listened to a 450+ page nonfiction book about it. My interest in white collar criminals is casual; I watched and liked both The Social Network and The Dropout. And also an Elon Musk documentary about how he's a cruel liar loser, who would have thought.

What really fascinates me is the psychology and groupthink woven into startup culture. The cult-like frenzy that leads companies lacking substance to skyrocket in relevance and value. The self-righteous fervor around a noble, transcendent mission they can't even articulate. The pretentious word salad they expect others to not just buy into, but laud.

The hypocrisy of laying off hundreds of people and banning the rest from eating meat while taking your private jets across the globe daily because you'd rather talk in-person than do a video conference call. The party culture that stokes reckless conduct and muddies the waters between the professional and personal until they're one big blob. How much your work shapes your worldview.

TL;DR— all grifts are one and the same and the worst criminals always have been and always will be rich white people. That's the conclusion I drew, at least. This is an oddly political Goodreads review.

The audiobook is extremely well done. The narrator is fantastic. The research is so meticulous you feel like a fly on the wall. It's a horrifying yet somehow entertaining story about rising and falling equally fast. For fans of both [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490528560l/4671.SY75.jpg|245494] and [b:Bad Blood|37976541|Bad Blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup|John Carreyrou|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1523311515l/37976541.SX50.jpg|59699437].