Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change

Incredibly heart wrenching and relatable! I work in an industry that is just very similar and what Ellen describes in her book is the struggle I deal with everyday. It's so refreshing to see it published and see an inspiring female leader reveal the truth and few people dare to speak up about. The World need more female leaders like Ellen Pao who's not afraid of speaking out and take it to court, until then we can keep hearing about gender / racial discrimination complaints, empty big words compaigns but no real fundamental change is going to happen.

The bulk of Reset covers Pao's experience suing one of the most powerful VC firms in the Valley, KPCB, for gender discrimination. The trial was closely watched by the tech world, with daily courtroom coverage from many of the best known tech publications. Reporters weren't always the most sympathetic during the trial, but it's now widely seen as a pivotal point in Silicon Valley's reckoning with its gender issues.Interestingly enough, I read the book after observing Pao's expertly crafted tour of the press. She has clearly learned from her trial experience: the high quality publicity she and her team drummed up for the release of the book included NYT articles, as well as positive coverage in pretty much every major paper out there.But this brings me to my main criticism of this book: much like the press received over the past few weeks, parts of Reset felt too deliberately engineered. This was particularly true about the first part of the book, namely her coverage of her pre-tech life. She provides some vignettes about how she's fought for women and minorities in her school years, implying that this foreshadows her later battle. I have no doubt these things happened, but Pao's attempt to paint herself as a lifelong fighter for disadvantaged groups fell flat for me. I got the same vibe from the ending of her book.My read of what happened is that this trial was more about her seeking justice for herself rather than anyone else. Pao is not a martyr. She is a businesswoman - a successful one with a good story to tell.And it is indeed a great story: the middle sections of the book covering her career in tech, her experiences in VC as well as what happened during her trial were worth slogging through the first parts. We get her honest voice describing at times amazing and at times harrowing experiences. It's all particularly compelling because of Pao's ability to make us empathize with her by not shying away from describing the personal toll of the trial. Her writing shines brightest then.In all, I struggled with rating this book. I think three stars is a bit low and four is a bit much - 3.5 is what I'd pick if it were allowed by Amazon. She is obviously a gifted writer and has a unique take on one of the biggest gender scandals in tech. Parts of Reset feel non-genuine though.

As someone who lives near Sand Hill, well, technically, as you drive East away from HP towards FB, it becomes another street, and someone with a GM in family in the industry and who has attended the kind of party lampooned (but not exaggerated) on the cable show "Silicon Valley," I can say with authority that every single word in this book by Ellen Pao is 100% true (and the VC bros know it). Period. So I guess vox me and troll me and whatever else you can think of doing, so what? Ellen said so what to you, so I can too!Extremely well written, because after all, Ellen has a journalism past life. Should be a movie, and when it is, it will be better and just as timely as the one about the FB guy. Moral and ethical too, which are not embarrassing words but nice ones. We live in a very mean world, don't we, where what percentile of presidential voters said they hated Hillary Clinton? Why do you suppose that was? Frankly, when I encounter those people, I want to hide my children. Ellen fought back against quite a lot, and often did not have the support she should have had. Hopefully she has more now, since we can all say out loud, thanks to her, it's not anti-free speech to remove child porn, revenge porn, and intentional hate speech against transgender, women, and underage teens, etc.Meritocracy is actually a nice word too. Ellen's enemies did not think so and probably still don't think so. Read this book and think, in their beloved trolling jargon, 'suqs to be them.'. .

I read the excerpt of this book in New York magazine and immediately ordered the book. I work in tech so I was familiar with the broad strokes of Ellen Pao's story and court case, but I was astonished and horrified when I first read the specifics of how she was harassed. The painful, uphill battle of fighting a legal case to right an incredibly unfair wrong was depressing -- but I felt a sense of gratitude to her as I read, because she put herself out there and was the lightning rod that's allowed other women to come forward with their stories in the years since. This is essential reading for every professional woman -- as well as an important read for anyone who manages women.

Reset is required reading for all leaders and persons seeking to become leaders. As an engineer in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for over 15 years, this is the most accurate account of the often toxic work culture here. Ellen Pao’s life story is extraordinary and fascinating. She’s known to be an incredibly private person, however, in the book you learn of her family upbringing and her marriage to Buddy Fletcher. Ellen gives great insight into the structure and workings of Venture Capitalism. The book is infuriating, but also pee-in-my pants funny as hell. You will roll your eyes many times. The absurdity, arrogance and ignorance of the dominantly male managing partners at Kleiner Perkins will make you want to punch them in the face through the pages of this book. I especially liked the last chapter where she gives wonderful advice to her readers about how to navigate your career and how to make better choices based on her experience. Don’t even bother with Lean-In, Reset is the book to read!

Good read.

A detailed, no drama and solid account by Ellen Pao of howher experience and the discriminatory system in Silicon Valley tech and VC world operates-only by understanding this and activity such as hers will the world and powerful interests evolve.

Important book by Ellen Pao and very topical. She comes across as fairly self-centred but guess that's the point of the book. The tech world she describes is still dominated by nerdy guys who probably always struggled with women. Fair play to her for standing up to them. n