America’s infatuation with boy geniuses and ‘Great Men’ is ruining us

We’re obsessed with narratives about powerful men and how they got that way. But our mania for founder myths obscures an ideology of inequalityOne Saturday in the spring of 2021, a little achy after receiving our first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, my husband and I decided to stay in bed and click on the first thing suggested to us by our TV. It was WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn, a documentary produced by Hulu about the New York startup WeWork’s spectacular fall from grace. The film mostly chronicles the misdeeds of founder Adam Neumann, the surfer-dude dolt who turned a good idea – co-working spaces that lease small offices to tech startups – into a surreally overvalued conglomerate, before he made a mortifying attempt to take the company public that eventually ended in his forced resignation. As a consolation prize, Neumann infamously received a $1.7bn golden parachute.The WeWork cautionary tale is partly about slick marketing, which is what seems to have convinced its investors that it was a tech startup. Neumann tried to position WeWork as something much more than a real estate company: he borrowed the tech industry’s idealistic language about changing the world but upped the ante, insisting that the company’s sole mission was “elevat[ing] the world’s consciousness”. Continue reading...

Comments

Tech news

Beloved TV channel shuts down TONIGHT on Sky and Virgin Media after more than ten years of broadcasting

The Sun

RFK Jr. Will Shrink The Substance Abuse And Mental Health Services Administration. Here’s What That Means For Public Health

about 4 hours ago

3 New Studies Remind Us There’s More To Eating Well Than Just Weight Loss

Forbes

Comments

Similar News

Elon Musk’s Starlink Hits a Roadblock in Its March Across South America

Elon Musk's poison-spewing prized possession faces shutdown that could reshape America

North America takes the bulk of AI VC investments, despite tough political environment

Flock’s AI Cameras Are Watching Cars All Over America. They’re About To Get A Lot More Powerful.

Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America

Trump Makes America’s Refugee Program a Tool of White Racial Grievance

Ancient DNA reveals a new group of people who lived near land bridge between the Americas

This Top VC Wants To Use Main Street America As An AI Lab

Meet America's Only 3 Native Parrots — One Is Extinct, One Relocated To Mexico, And One Thrives In This Southern State

Old Leatherman mystery could be solved as experts expose troubling probe into America's real-life Bigfoot and demand hidden archive is unsealed

Scientists warn America's wealthiest cities are SINKING... and could disappear in 25 years

Make America Tan Again: “Big, Beautiful Bill” Burns The Tanning Tax

Seed Oils, UPFs, And Carni-Bros: Is RFK Making America Healthy Again?

Draining cities dry: the giant tech companies queueing up to build datacentres in drought-hit Latin America

America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain

America is on the precipice of an academic brain drain

The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan

The Coming A.I. Catastrophe for Middle America’s Gen Z

Abortion-rights groups denounce censorship on Meta-owned apps in Latin America and beyond

Small mountain town to become America's nuke hotspot as uranium mine opens

Tech news

Beloved TV channel shuts down TONIGHT on Sky and Virgin Media after more than ten years of broadcasting

10 Of The Best-Looking Indie Games From 2025’s Summer Showcases

Xbox Games Showcase 2025: all the news and trailers

Pokémon studio&#8217;s action RPG Beast of Reincarnation launches in 2026

This is how Microsoft is combining Windows and Xbox for handheld PCs

Microsoft and Asus announce two Xbox Ally handhelds with new Xbox full-screen experience

What is a Strawberry Moon? Best time and how to see full moon in the UK

The Climate Solution Hiding In Plain Sight

Vivo’s telephoto extender makes the world’s best phone camera better

$3.3 Trillion Energy Boom: Renewables Soar As Grid Bottlenecks Loom

`Big Beautiful Bill’ Likely To Reverse Affordable Care Act Gains In Coverage

New Apple Passwords Attack Confirmed — What You Need To Know

What The Spanish Blackout Says About Renewable Energy In The U.S.

‘Quordle’ Hints And Answers For Monday, June 9

The Latest Update About ‘Dept. Q’ Season 2 On Netflix

What Hitler, Putin And Trump May Have In Common — By A Psychologist

Do Not Answer These Calls — Google Issues New Smartphone Warning

Meet 4 ‘Killer’ Birds That Have Been Known To Attack People — Explained By A Biologist

NYT ‘Connections’ Hints For Monday, June 9: Clues And Answers For Today’s Game

RFK Jr. Will Shrink The Substance Abuse And Mental Health Services Administration. Here’s What That Means For Public Health

3 New Studies Remind Us There’s More To Eating Well Than Just Weight Loss

The Verge’s favorite summer gear for 2025

Government considers social media time limits for children

FBI Warns iPhone And Android Users—Do Not Answer These Calls

Samsung Confirms Upgrade Choice—Galaxy Users Must Now Decide

Republicans are barreling toward remaking the internet

The most fun camera app I’ve used in forever

The OnePlus Pad 3 tablet is still perfect for play and still awkward for work

Prince William warns world's oceans are 'diminishing before our eyes'

William warns ocean life 'diminishing before our eyes'

Chinese hackers and user lapses turn smartphones into a 'mobile security crisis'

Popular Freeview box receives upgrade that fixes bug wreaking havoc on Netflix, recordings and more – check yours now

Phone app loved by 30 MILLION users shutting down in weeks as hit download disappears from stores and refunds promised

Microsoft Windows Cyberattack Warning — Do Not Open These Files

Restaurant Review: What’s a Neighborhood Restaurant Without a Neighborhood?

“The Queen of Bad Influences,” by Jim Shepard

Are We Paying Too Much Attention To Machines?

Mario Kart World: How To Dodge Blue Shells

Slate 7 Wi-Fi 7 Travel Router Launches With Advanced Customization And Security

Xbox console games are suddenly showing up inside the Xbox PC app

Elon Musk’s Starlink Hits a Roadblock in Its March Across South America

Takeaways From Graduation Speeches by Trump, Taraji P. Henson and Others

The Victims of the Trump Administration’s China-Bashing

Jim Shepard Reads “The Queen of Bad Influences”

Ina Garten on Calvin Tomkins’s Profile of Julia Child

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Good Vibes Are Being Put to the Test

Brian Lehrer and Errol Louis Take the Pulse of New York City

Jim Shepard on Catastrophes and Timing

Exact time Strawberry Moon will appear in the UK as 18 year record to be broken

UFC 316 Results: Sean O’Malley Has Been Left With Just 1 Option

The Ardent Belief That Artificial General Intelligence Will Bring Us Infinite Einsteins

‘R-Type Delta: HD Boosted’ Really Needed The M2 Treatment

Has Apple Just Accidentally Leaked A Major Upgrade For iPhone 17?

Sky TV finally gets much cheaper this week, you'll just need to ditch your dish

Ignoring worrying new Android 'risk' could be costly - all users put on red alert

Households warned over common vape mistake that can cause ‘ferocious’ toxic fires that are nearly impossible to put out

‘Mario Kart World’ Review: Amazing, Enormous And Overwhelming

Pokémon studio’s action RPG Beast of Reincarnation launches in 2026