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We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of REDDIT, the Internet's Culture Laboratory
Christine Lagorio-Chafkin
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'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
Read MorePraise for We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of REDDIT, the Internet's Culture Laboratory
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Reddit is life. Or at least that's the case for millions upon millions of people on the Internet. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin has done a masterful job of explaining how Reddit became the Internet's dominant cultural force. Fast-paced, packed with insight and, above all, wonderfully entertaining, this is a must read for anyone hoping to make sense of the century aheadThis is the untold story of how one of the world's most popular websites was hatched -- and how it took on a mind of its own. It's a gripping read, and it's full of lessons for building startups and organizing communities. - Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl SandbergIncisive, witty and brilliantly written. Lagorio-Chadkin gives you a front row seat to the world-altering consequences of sometimes responsible decisions made by a few tiny humans on the front lines of the internet, nerds and allIn WE ARE THE NERDS, Christine Lagorio-Chafkin has done for social media what Tracy Kidder did for the dawn of the modern computer age in The Soul of a New Machine, namely, provide a riveting narrative that captures the spirit of an industry being born. Thanks to the extraordinary access she had to the founders of Reddit and other key players, she is able to show us in dramatic detail the hopes and fears, triumphs and frustrations of the team that invented what is now the third most popular website on the Internet after Google and YouTube, having surpassed Facebook in 2018. This is an excellent book. It is also a great read. - Bo Burlingham, author of Small Giants and Finish BigThe best, grittiest, most accurate book yet about what it's like to build a startup and a community from scratch (a struggle I know well). And it's a great story; truly fun to read!I've heard every start-up story you can imagine, but Reddit's is as fascinating as it gets. Christine has captured what it really looks like to start a company and turned Reddit's struggle for success into a gripping, entertaining book that is a must-read for every entrepreneurChristine Lagorio-Chafkin has stepped into a male-centric genre, the start-up narrative, and produced a book of monumental power and importance: a rich, thoughtful chronicle of Reddit that grapples just as brilliantly with the dark side of tech-its trolls, its problems with gender and diversity-as it does its culture-shattering innovations. I was wowed by this book. - Liza Mundy, New York Times bestselling author of Michelle and Code Girls
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