DON'T BE EVIL

No longer “high on the Kool-Aid.”

In this sharp, searing account, a Bay Area native takes us inside Google’s frothy early days—and her own experience as a newly beguiled “Googler” who slowly awakens to a harsher reality. Stapleton joined Google in 2007, a young writer finding her way, drawn to the company’s buzzy mantra “don’t be evil,” assured that tech could solve the world’s problems. She recalls the vibrant energy of the campus: “Starting there felt like being inducted into a secret society, a world so magnetic that famous people came orbiting through of their own volition”—including Barack Obama, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. “For celebrities, Google was a credibility portal; for Googlers, proximity to star power only amplified our own collective ego.” She grew to love her work in “internal comms”—“the inner sanctum, where Google defined and replicated itself.” Over 12 years, she honed her craft, crafting speeches, blog posts, presentations, and weekly reflections for company leaders. Dubbed “the Bard of Google,” she excelled at weaving narratives that captured the company’s internal mythology. But unsettling encounters with managers and a growing discomfort with inequitable working conditions led her to challenge the bro culture and power imbalances in the organization. Eventually, she organized a 20,000-strong women’s protest—the Google Walkout—which became a pivotal moment both in the tech industry and in her own intellectual journey. Still, challenges persisted, and Google’s present-day championing of AI draws her tart response: “Now that is the Google magic: turning the machinery of extraction into a story about human creativity.” Stapleton’s account is personal and timely—puncturing the myth of tech companies’ self-proclaimed benevolence reveals how corporate merging of identity and work distorts the authentic self.

A witty, razor-sharp exposé from the ultimate insider—a true believer who lived it, loved it, and finally saw through it.