Nerd Reich

Should I Read This: Yes

Book Seller Link (non-affiliate, but I do know the owner): The Nerd Reich a book by Gil Durán

Author’s Website: gilduran.com

This might be the first non-fiction book that reads better as a diss track than a book. And that irreverance is why I would recommend it, despite my misgivings. The misgivings are not around the quality of the book; quite the opposite. It is a well-written book, very well-researched, careful in its conclusions, and clear-eyed about its implications. The problem for me is two-fold. First, the book doesn’t really tell me anything I did not already know. Second, reading it is a kind of torture, a deliberate re-hashing of how things have gone so wrong, so recently, so quickly. And, honestly, I am not sure I need that in my life right now. But the book has one remarkable redeeming quality that overcomes my reluctance to recommend it: its complete commitment to taking the piss out of these people.

The people at the heart of the books are not especially interesting, at least not at this point. The book focuses on tech leaders, people like Musk and Thiel, and the clingers-on, con-people, puddle-deep thinkers, and other sycophants that make up our current ruling class. The book traces both their rise to power and the oddly thin but dangerously eugenic and anti-democratic ideologies and quasi-religious organizations that underpin their actions. The book pulls no punches and makes it abundantly clear just how dangerous these people are, how thin-skinned, and how absolutely certain they and only they are fit to rule the world. And it does so methodically and carefully. It treats their ideas to serious critique, exposing the shallowness at their heart not by assertion but by evidence.

But it is also evidence of the recent past, and reading through the work is more than a little depressing. Some of this stems from the fact that I learned very little new in this book. I, however, am exactly the kind of nerd who pays very close attention to these people and have done so for a very long time. My bachelor’s, after all, has concentrations in computer and political science. I am a sicko, in other words, and people who are politically active but not obsessive or who follow the tech but not the politics will almost certainly find revelations in the book. Again, this is a very well put together work that supports its conclusions with impeccable research. But living through all of it again — seeing, again, how we as a society allowed this to happen, the near misses, the other, better possibilities missed and strangled in their cribs — is an unpleasant experience. Almost unpleasant enough to sour me on the whole book.

Almost.

Because the book is also funny. Gil Durán does not like his subjects and does not hold back on his opinions. This gives the material a dark humor that I am sure is intentional. It is peppered with the literary equivalent of diss tracks. Seeing these people and their pathologies and pathetic-ness treated with the humorous contempt they deserve is very refreshing. Durán does not pretend that just because they have been successful they should be revered. Nor does he pretend that their success is entirely due to their own efforts. He never fails to credit where credit is due, but he also, more importantly, never fails to point out where luck, connections, and government largesse built these empires. Despite the subject matter, the book is a fun read, or as fun a read about the death of American ideals can ever be.

So if you are not the kind of sicko who follows the intersection of tech and politics very closely, this book will undoubtedly help you understand that intersection well, and how it is harming normal Americans. If you are that kind of sicko, there are still likely pieces you do not fully know or understand, and the book will provide you with, if nothing else, the joy of watching someone take the piss out of people who manifestly deserve such treatment. It is not an easy or pleasant read, but Nerd Reich is an informative and, somewhat counterintuitively, a fun read.

Cross posted to Metaphors are Lies

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