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We Are the Nerds
We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of REDDIT, the Internet’s Culture Laboratory | Christine Lagorio-Chafkin
2 posts | 1 read
'A gripping read' Adam Grant, bestselling author of Originals Reddit hails itself as 'the front page of the Internet'. It's the sixth most-visited website in the world - and yet, millions have no idea what it is. They should be paying attention. This definitive account of the birth and life of Reddit is perfect for readers of The Everything Store, Googled and The Facebook Effect. We Are the Nerds takes readers inside this captivating, maddening enterprise, whose army of obsessed users have been credited with everything from solving crimes and spurring millions in charitable donations to seeding alt-right fury and even landing Donald Trump in the White House. Reddit has become a mirror of the Internet itself: It has dark trenches, shiny memes, malicious trolls, and a heart-warming ability to connect people across cultures, oceans, and ideological divides. This is the gripping story of how Reddit's founders, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, transformed themselves from student video-gamers into Silicon Valley millionaires as they turned their creation into an icon of the digital age. But the journey was often fraught. Reporting on Reddit for more than six years, conducting hundreds of interviews and gaining exclusive access to its founders, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin has written the definitive account of the birth and life of Reddit. Packed with revelatory details about its biggest triumphs and controversies, this inside look at Reddit includes fresh insights on the relationship between Huffman and Ohanian, staff turmoil, the tragic life of Aaron Swartz, and Reddit's struggle to become profitable. In a time when we are increasingly concerned about privacy and manipulation on social platforms, We Are the Nerds reveals Reddit's central role in the dissemination of culture and information in history's first fully digital century. Rigorously reported and highly entertaining, We Are the Nerds explores how this unique platform has changed the way we all communicate today. PRAISE FOR THE BOOK: 'Incisive, witty and brilliantly written' - Emily Chang, bestselling author of Brotopia 'A triumph - a business book that reads like a page-turning novel' - James Ledbetter, author of One Nation Under Gold 'The best, grittiest, most accurate book yet about what it's like to build a startup and a community from scratch' - John Zeratsky, bestselling author of Sprint and Make Time 'A gripping, entertaining book that is a must-read for every entrepreneur' - Daymond John, bestselling author of Rise and Grind 'Too many books on tech feel like they have been Googled together; Lagorio-Chafkin's is rich in original reportage' - TLS
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review
TimSpalding
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Finished. The earlier bits were the most interesting to me, as I knew some of the participants and events. Everything to do with Aaron was just gutting. The latter bits were also engaging. So with the short-lived tenure of Ellen Pao, although the divergent narratives make we question if we have a true account, and I wish Lagorio-Chafkin had been clearer in attributing her sources. It was fun to hear about Ohanian's romance with Serena Williams.

blurb
TimSpalding

Came back to this after a hiatus. Surfaces more of the story of Aaron and Reddit than I knew before—sad things I was only partially aware of. I was also struck by something that's probably well known; that Reddit's algorithm hid things with 5 down-votes, but showed them again, with a boost, if they got 100 down-votes, on the theory that the REALLY bad was fun. The future of social media was here; it just wasn't evenly distributed.