The happy couple. (Photo: Instagram/aubrey)

Leaning Out of Tumblr Jessica Bennett, the Tumblr employee who was laid off with the shuttering of Storyboard, announced today on Twitter that she's taken a job with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. "Turns out being fired ain't that bad," she tweeted, along with a link to a Facebook post by Ms. Sandberg herself announcing Ms. Bennett's hiring:

"So excited to welcome Jessica Bennett to the Lean In team! Jessica is joining us to run Editorial - helping us connect women all over the world with their passion for leaning in! Special thanks to Nell Scovell and Rachel Sklar for introducing us to Jessica!"

How much leaning in was required to land that job?

Must Square TV You may not have realized it, but the most recent episode of Parks and Recreation was actually one big native ad for Square. An excited @Jack Dorsey retweeted a fan noticing that the mobile payment dongle was being used at the digitally attuned boutique owned by Tom Haverford. If Rent-A-Swag is the first Pawnee outpost to employ Square, what will be the second? We’re guessing Paunch Burger.

https://twitter.com/ShawnMarieH/status/330153591467802626

Sunglasses at Night Since an appeals court judge blocked the TLC’s ehail pilot program again, the city’s would-be disruptors have kept quiet (for now). Now, they’re not totally hunkered down: Last night, Ed Casabian, Uber New York’s senior community manager, made the brief stroll from the company’s Long Island City HQ to demo their black car app at the Queens Tech Meetup. But mum was the word about yellow cabs. He prefaced the Q&A: “I can’t say anything about taxis.”

But he didn’t turn up wholly empty-handed. He brought a discount for new users, and, for loyal customers, Mr. Casabian pulled a pair of white faux-Wayfarers out of his back pocket and said he could offer “a shiny new pair of Uber shades.”

“Come see me, I have a big box over there.”

Disrupt This Monday brought the yearly entrepreneurial orgy that is TechCrunch Disrupt New York. Tech stars like Dennis Crowley, John Borthwick and the bros of Rap Genius all took their turn onstage, leading the tech blog to triumphantly announce in a post, “New York City Turns Out For The First Day Of Disrupt NY 2013.” Well, Meetup founder Scott Heiferman has his doubts about that. He retorted on Twitter, “actually vast majority of ny tech is busy making internet.” Pardon the cliched expression, but ZING!

Dinner Club Oh, so this is what FOMO really feels like. Four Silicon Valley power players had dinner the other night and you weren’t invited. In attendance were the CEOs from Twitter, Pinterest, Square and something called Box. Scarfing down a roast chicken at Zuni Cafe in, where else, San Francisco, they probably talked about Amanda Bynes' breakdown or something equally important.

Checking Into Married Life Foursquare VP of Engineering Harry Heymann tied the knot with social software researcher Alice Marwick at Bayard's Private Dining Hall in the Financial District on Saturday. Former Tumblr employee Rick Webb officiated the ceremony, which hosted attendees like Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley and his fiancee Chelsa Skees, Sailthru VP of marketing and gal-about-town Aubrey Sabala, Vizsla founder Alex Rainert, Business Insider executive editor Joe Weisenthal, Etsy CTO Kellan Elliott-McCrea and Fashism founder Brooke Moreland.

Here's a Vine of the duo having their first dance (to Goldfrapp!), posted with the official hashtag #hplusa. Mazel, you two!

https://twitter.com/fimoculous/status/328578677480771584

Ms. Sandberg.

Since hitting bookstores, Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In has inspired a national conversation about gender and work. There's some evidence it's already having an impact, offering women a great excuse to play hardball in salary talks.

Now comes the inevitable commercial spin-off. The New York Times reports that the technology used to organize and maintain those controversial "Lean In" circles is now available for brands, corporations and their ilk. Starting this summer, users will be able to pony up for features like data analytics.

The software was created by Mightybell, a new startup from Lean In Foundation cofounder and former Ning CEO Gina Bianchini. She explained the tech to the Times: "What if an influencer, or a brand, or an organization, could go from having passive followers to an active army? It’s like nothing that’s been offered before.” Did she mention they power Lean In circles?

It's a little disconcerting to see all that activist energy harnessed to hawk software. But then, "Lean In" is just too great a tagline to belong only to the cause of feminists. And so Betabeat has some suggestions for potential licensing opportunities:

1. A clothing line heavy on boxy business suits.

2. A new digital currency to rival Bitcoin--but for the ladies, and therefore worth only $.77 to the dollar.

3. A sex position where the girl climbs on top and leans forward. It's empowering and sexy!

4. This summer's hottest haircut, that kind of bob that sort of curves forward.

5. A new fast-casual dining establishment where you have to eat messy food standing up.

6. Psy-inspired dance craze.

7. A game show hosted by Ryan Seacrest, who'll constantly yell "LEAN IN! LEAN IN!" at contestants.

8. Special-edition Baby Bjorn.

9. HerbalLife-style home-based business (and/or pyramid scheme), in the grand tradition of Mary Kay. Maybe there's an opportunity here for Bedroom Kandi?

10. A book of dating advice for lovelorn beta males, authored by a pickup artist.

But we can't help but think this is also the face she'd make unless you run into your boss' office and demand a raise THIS INSTANT.

(Photo via Flickr Creative Commons, © Thomas Williams/Crossroads Foundation)

She is just so, SO disappointed in you for leaving before you leave.

Ms. Sandberg, who has a date with some lawyers.

Seven Silicon Valley giants stand accused of making a no-poaching pact with each other. Such a cease-fire would violate antitrust laws, and a lawsuit filed in 2011 is currently crawling slowly through the legal system. The latest development in the case, according to Bloomberg News: Facebook COO and leaner-in Sheryl Sandberg will likely be questioned as part of the proceedings.

Facebook isn't among the defendants but Google, where Ms. Sandberg worked at the time, is. It's not clear exactly what the court wants to discuss with Ms. Sandberg. She's not a defendant in the trial, but her employment agreement is among the evidence Google has handed over.

Bloomberg reports:

Plaintiffs argue their discovery has confirmed that senior officers at the companies personally entered into non- solicitation agreements to eliminate competition for each other’s employees, kept the pacts hidden from the workers, supervised the implementation of the plans and policed each other.

We eagerly await the meeting of Ms. Sandberg and presiding judge Lucy Koh, whom you might remember for her brusque responses during the Apple-Samsung case.

Ms. Losse.

Here's the thing about Lean In: Your reaction to the book depends, in no small part, on whether you think a hard-charging life filled with work is a worthwhile goal. If you have little interest in the boardroom, this is not the manifesto you were searching for. And if you’re outright suspicious of corporate America’s seemingly endless demands for more work on less pay, Lean In is your new worst frenemy.

Kate Losse was an early Facebook employee who worked her way from a customer support position to a gig as Mark Zuckerberg's speechwriter. Last year she published a memoir of her time at the company, The Boy Kings, which covered those heady days of rapid growth. Much of the press coverage focused on a couple of anecdotes about Ms. Sandberg and how she cleaned up the worst of the antics.

Well, it appears Ms. Losse's time in the frat house gives her a unique vantage point on Lean In. She writes at Dissent:

By arguing that women should express their feminism by remaining in the workplace at all costs, Sandberg encourages women to maintain a commitment to the workplace without encouraging the workplace to maintain a commitment to them.

In fact, Ms. Losse compares the Lean In “movement” itself to Facebook’s tendency to clone or acquire potential threats (think Snapchat and Poke):

By launching a feminist platform, Sandberg is able to contain the broader threat that a feminist critique poses to Facebook’s business, simultaneously generating more power for herself and her organization — Silicon Valley “revolution” at its finest. This maneuver, as I learned in my years at Facebook, is how the game is played, and both Sandberg and Zuckerberg play it well.

The question for the rest of us, according to Ms. Losse: "What does the game do for those not at or near the top? Are workers playing or are we getting played?"

This reading seems a little harsh. We picture Mark Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg less as robber barons out to screw the 99 percent, and more like exceptional workaholics who aren’t especially interested in talking about the plight of the worker.

But Lean In--which this reporter enjoyed!--is tailored to suit-clad, fresh-faced Ivy League grads with their feet planted firmly on the path to the corner office.  If you’re looking to carve out any other kind of life–whether it's as a family-focused homemaker or as a singleton in search of actual work-life balance, then all Ms. Sandberg has to say is good luck and God bless.

Ms. Sandberg.

Guess you can convince a friend to cover up your Most Likely to Succeed win, but there's no escaping destiny. On top of everything else, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, is now a successful author. The New York Post reports:

"Sandberg's "Lean In" sold 140,000 copies its first week of publication, has gone back to press seven times for additional printings and now has 400,000 copies in print, publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced Wednesday."

It's also topped Amazon's best-seller list since its debut.

Guess folks finally read the book!

As far as technophiles seeking political office go, Jack Dorsey is taking the opposite approach from Sheryl Sandberg.

Ms. Sandberg's new book may read like the source material for a campaign platform, but on a recent 60 Minutes appearance, she evaded questions about leaning in to the White House. Mr. Dorsey, on the other hand, is once again boldly pointing to his desired political office (Mayor of New York City), just not, you know, when he's running or what exactly he'd do when he got here--besides marvel at our transportation system, of course.

Last night, the Twitter and Square cofounder also took the hot seat on 60 Minutes. Actually, the temperature was rather warm and welcoming. The CBS crew seemed smitten with the man "many people" call "the intellectual successor" to Steve Jobs and his shy, contemplative ways. Indeed, it was hard not to read a note of admiration as Lara Logan asked about his inability to communicate, as is befitting the new mode of deference to our nerd-boy-kings, who are somehow still able to snag model girlfriends and charm celebrities.

The segment was also bookended with mentions of Mr. Dorsey's vague mayoral campaign. As Ms. Logan intoned:

"Square is still a startup, but we were surprised to learn that Jack Dorsey already has his eye on the next job he wants, Mayor of New York City--an unlikely role for a man who calls himself a loner and spends a lot of time dreaming and thinking."

The daydream believer revisits that ambition as he and Ms. Logan are filmed riding around the subway. Here's their exchange from the middle of the Times Square station:

Dorsey: What I love about New York is just the electricity I feel right away. Just look at us in this station, there's just people walking everywhere--

Logan: Chaos.

Dorsey: It's chaos. It's kind of like being in a car in the middle of a thunderstorm. Everything is raging around you but you're safe inside that car. So New York feels very much to me like that.

Yeah, "safe" isn't the first word most New Yorkers would use to describe life in the city?

That segues into a photo of Mr. Dorsey and Mayor Bloomberg. "Jack Dorsey knows it helps to be a billionaire if you run for mayor in New York," according to Ms. Logan's voiceover. In fact, as David Kirkpatrick noted in 2011, Mr. Bloomberg explicitly advised Mr. Dorsey to "make a lot of money first."

At that point, Ms. Logan swings it back his comfort level with face-to-face communication with voters. Mr. Dorsey looks down as he responds:

"I guess my natural state would be through mediation of letters or through text, all those mediums I definitely find ease with. But do I appreciate it as much as face to face communication? No. Do I feel like I'm an expert at having a normal conversation, face to face? Absolutely not. That's just not my natural state. I would rather be walking in Land's End [across from the Golden Gate bridge] and thinking about things."

Sounds more like he's running for successor to Steve Jobs than mayor.

(Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

"I want to be clear--I'm not trying to tell anyone what do to. And I'm not trying to prescribe goals for anyone," said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg last night at Time Warner. She was patiently explaining yet again the purpose of Lean In: "I'm trying to help women answer the question, 'If I do want leadership, how do I get there?'"

"My book is not meant to be comprehensive. I don't have parenting advice, it doesn't go deeply into the public policy issues. It's one piece of the puzzle."

As she was introduced, Ms. Sandberg took a brief moment to examine her sleek dark dress for imperfections, picking at a few invisibile specks of fluff before settling back into her chair with cotillion-appropriate demureness and flashing that million-watt boardroom-ready smile. Moderating: Time deputy managing editor Nancy Gibbs. The audience was full of heavy hitters, with questions from attendees like Leslie Stahl and Gayle King. 

It's not like Ms. Sandberg relishes breaking the bad news to her fellow working women. Sure, she tells women they have to frame requests for raises in terms of the company's best interests, but "I hate that advice. I hate the advice I have to give women. I want all of this to change."

"In the meantime, I'd rather teach women to say 'we' and get paid more."

It also sounds like Ms. Sandberg spends a fair bit of her jetset life seething with exasperation. She recently attended "very exclusive conference of course attended mostly by men." A fellow conference-goer (male, of course) sat down next to her at lunch, and as she recounted, their conversation went a little something like this:

Him: "Remember us."
Ms. Sandberg: "What do you mean?"
Him: "Remember us. There's a place for men when you're all running the world."
Ms. Sandberg: "Look around this conference. You guys are in good shape! You're good to go."
Ms. Sandberg, again: "There has never been a woman who ran a company in your industry ever."
Him: "Well, the end of men is coming."

Someone rescue this man from his own Atlantic subscription, please.

Forget all that, though: What about working from home?

Ms. Sandberg didn't miss a beat, and she certainly didn't mention Marissa Mayer: "There are Facebook employees we've never met. Not joking."

Boss. (Photo: flickr.com/jurvetson)

Did you think you were going to be able to escape talking about Lean In if you just kept quiet for a few days? How wrong you were! Sheryl Sandberg's kinda-sorta manifesto is everywhere this week: 60 Minutes, Cosmo, and Time have all run big, splashy features on the Facebook COO. The latest to join the love-fest: USA Today.

But in her interview with the USA Today, Ms. Sandberg took the time to push back on one common assumption about her plans for the next few years:

She also denied the book is a springboard to a run for political office, as some recent reports suggest. "Absolutely not."

In her 60 Minutes appearance, she admitted it frosts her cookies there's been no female president of the United States, but said, "I feel like I'm doing all the leaning in that I can do right now."

That's not exactly a "no," now is it?

We'll grant that Lean In isn't some sort of cynical attempt to cash in on the world's fondness for feminism. The topic is one she's been discussing for a couple of years now, rather than something she ginned up as a way to introduce herself to the citizenry. Besides, it's not like packaging yourself as a modern-day Betty Friedan is the best way to write your own ticket in American politics, circa 2k13, when we can barely get the GOP to agree that rape is bad, period.

But what else is she going to do? The odds of Mark Zuckerberg checking out of Facebook aren't great. She could take the helm at another company, sure, but this is someone who once worked with the Treasury Secretary and still professes a little surprise she ended up in corporate America as opposed to the non-profit world. Why wouldn't she be considering an eventual run?

If I was a betting woman (and InTrade still existed) I know where I'd put my pennies.

(h/t Callie Schweitzer)

It wasn't so long ago that the Nook was the key to Barnes & Noble's future. Now the bookseller is planning to back off of its efforts to sell its own e-reader, and is working on strengthening partnerships with tablet suppliers. [NYT]

It's not that Julian Assange isn't giving interviews—it's just that he's leading a busy life inside the Ecuadorian government's London embassy, and it's a question of fitting reporters in. [Ars Technica]

Kara Swisher leans into the backlash against Facebook COO's Sheryl Sandberg's new book. [AllThingsD]

In case you can't wait for the competing biopics currently in production, here's what it's like to go on a double-date with John McAfee. [PandoDaily]