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The cover of Private Equity

Private Equity

Carrie Sun, 2024

See how elite finance quietly turns other people's time into wealth, and why one assistant's choice to stop optimizing her life became the way she reclaimed her own time.

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8 parts, about 18 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • A memoir of working as assistant to a billionaire investor, showing whose time counts as priceless and who pays for it
  • Helps you see how perks, gifts and discretionary raises can bind workers while leaving the system unchanged
  • Links elite finance, family history and the body, tracing how habits of silence were rewarded as strengths

Who it is for

  • High achievers who keep working through burnout
  • Assistants and support staff in demanding firms
  • Readers curious how private wealth compounds from the inside

What the summary covers

  1. The promises I made in the hospital2 min
  2. Visible excellence, hidden labor2 min
  3. Access compounds3 min
  4. When doing becomes survival2 min
  5. Rewards without equity3 min
  6. The histories inside my obedience1 min
  7. Speaking up does not guarantee change3 min
  8. Leaving the optimization problem2 min

Recommended by

  • Stephanie DanlerNew York Times bestselling author of Sweetbitter
    Piercing and propulsive.
  • Oliver BurkemanNew York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks
    Private Equity is an extraordinarily gripping and revelatory journey through a world we rarely get to glimpse, despite its influence on our lives.
  • Oliver BurkemanNew York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks
    Private Equity is an extraordinarily gripping and revelatory journey through a world we rarely get to glimpse, despite its influence on our lives.

About the author

  • Carrie SunWriter and author of the memoir Private Equity
    • Born in China and raised in Michigan
    • Emigrated from China in 1990
    • Dual degree in mathematics and finance from MIT, graduated early
    • Left a Wharton and Lauder dual MBA and MA program before completing it
    • Worked as an analyst at Fidelity Investments and Two Sigma
    • Worked at Tiger Global as assistant to founder Chase Coleman (the basis of the memoir)
    • MFA in creative writing from The New School; Private Equity is her first book

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