The Sound of Two Backs Being Scratched
Posted on March 17th, 2013 in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Sheryl Sandberg on Michael Lewis, in Thursday’s New York Times:
Michael Lewis’s ability to boil down the most complicated subjects is like a magic trick. You can’t believe your eyes. He takes on important issues — from the 2008 Wall Street crash in “The Big Short” to parenting in “Home Game” — and breaks them down to their deepest truths. His combination of an extraordinary analytical mind and a deep understanding of human nature allows him to weave together data and events to offer a fresh and insightful narrative. Whatever the topic, the result is always compelling and even thrilling. I am in awe of him.
And Michael Lewis on Sheryl Sandberg, in the April Vanity Fair:
Sheryl Sandberg is one of those people who attract more attention than they want. [Blogger: I guess she didn’t really want to go on 60 Minutes or appear on the cover of Time or pose for Vogue.] If she were a man, no one would think twice about her career: McKinsey consultant, chief of staff to U.S. Treasury secretary Larry Summers, head of one of Google’s biggest businesses, and now chief operating officer of Facebook. Those are the sorts of jobs that people who finish at the top of their Harvard Business School class wind up in. Alas, Sheryl Sandberg is not a man, and so her career is not just a bunch of jobs she happens to have held but a social statement.
…Some women will be annoyed by Sandberg’s challenge, but I’ll bet most will be thrilled by it. And I suspect at least a few men will read this book and think, Oh no, they’re starting to catch on.
Sometimes it is a very small world….