Silicon Valley tech journalist Kara Swisher discussed her new book Burn Book: A Tech Love Story with Atlantic political writer Mark Leibovich at an Institute of Politics (IOP) event held at Bond Chapel on March 21.
Burn Book is both a memoir and a behind-the-scenes narrative of Swisher’s years observing the tech giants who have become household names. In the book, she offers an overview of her 35-year career, as well as her opinions on issues within the tech industry, its interaction with politics, and where the industry is headed in the future.
Leibovich opened the discussion by asking how and why, in Swisher’s view, the wealthy—including prominent wealthy figures in tech—often seem to victimize themselves. Swisher responded that the problem began as early as the birth of the internet in 1993, which was only a year or so before she began her career as a reporter.
“Tech, more than anyone, likes to cosplay as the good guy, like they’re here to save the world,” she said. “They all think they’re Ready Player One, and the rest of us are fungible. But they have turned into the villains they were fighting.”
Leibovich said that there is a certain degree of similarity between the victim complexes expressed by tech giants and those of political leaders. He compared Bill Gates’s fight against antitrust laws to Bill Clinton’s handling of the Lewinsky scandal and named Trump as the most dramatic example.
Swisher agreed but said that it was unsurprising. “They all have a certain number of ‘chromosomes’ in common,” she said. For Swisher, the worst example of this “hero view” is Elon Musk. According to her, Musk has ceased to be a hero and has become widely disliked, if not despised, by the public but still sees himself as the savior he believed he was when he started his first company.
Swisher believes that part of what leads to this problematic mindset is the corruption of wealth among the big tech leaders. “As you get immensely wealthy, your world gets smaller and smaller. Any of them—whenever I give slight pushback, they think I’m attacking them.” She compared tech leaders to kings, with subjects too fearful to offer any sort of criticism.
Swisher and Leibovich then shifted to a discussion of the concept of “undeserved power.” Swisher introduced the concept through a short narrative of a recent encounter with a Ukrainian man at a party. According to Swisher, the man told her, “We need Elon not to geofence Crimea. You know him, you can convince him.” Geofencing refers to the use of GPS technology to track when people leave or enter a certain geographic area. Swisher said her first reaction was, “Why is he [Musk] deciding?” She said that because Musk is not an elected official, he should have no power to make that decision. “He’s way past sideways,” she added.
The main issue at the intersection of tech and politics, Swisher said, is the lack of regulation in the tech industry. She said current efforts to regulate the tech industry—a potential bill to force a sale or ban of TikTok—are not enough. She advocated for a larger bill that addresses surveillance, foreign adversaries, propaganda, and algorithmic transparency. “This is their only chance to do this,” she said. “A bill like this should benefit the American people, not Facebook.”
Swisher said that she does hold some hope for the future of the technology sector.
“Talking to current entrepreneurs, I get the sense that they’re a little more worldly, they’re more aware of politics, and they seem more interested in climate change,” Swisher said. “They’re more mission driven, and I think they actually believe [in] their mission.”
She cited healthcare tech and environmental tech as two sectors she is especially excited about.
Leibovich also brought up the topics of mortality and the pursuit of happiness, themes that feature prominently in Burn Book. Swisher observed that the relationship between money and happiness is heavily studied and that the problem is not only money, it is choice: too much choice detracts from human happiness, and immense wealth leads to immense choice.
Swisher cited Steve Jobs as the tech leader whose life philosophy she admires most. She went to visit Jobs shortly before he died and asked him, “What do you plan to do with the rest of your life?” She said that he instantly launched into a discussion of the future of streaming television and where he envisioned it heading. Swisher admired that even as he faced death, he was still looking forward.
At the end of the discussion, Leibovich brought up a stroke Swisher suffered in 2010. Swisher said that she refused to follow people’s suggestions to work less and relax more.
“Don’t you want to smell the flowers a little bit?” Leibovich asked.
“I don’t like flowers, so no,” Swisher replied tartly. “It’s none of your business what I want to do with the rest of my life. My stroke had nothing to do with my hard work. I have four children—do you think I’m not smelling flowers?”
Leibovich then asked where she could see her life going. Swisher answered that she would simply follow whatever idea came into her head at any given moment, never tied down to only one life pursuit.
“I’ll leave when the wind changes,” she said.
