I believe that some of the genius of the show has to go to Dan Lyons as well. He worked at HubSpot for a stint and wrote a book about it called "Disrupted" (https://www.amazon.com/Disrupted-My-Misadventure-Start-Up-Bu...). Really funny, in a sad way.

In a private Slack with a thousand or so industry people, I've seen "WeWork is a cult" mentioned more than once.

That isn't particularly surprising to me. Not because of anything specific to WeWork, but just because of general tech industry dynamics. Job advertisements want people who are "passionate", who "believe", who want to "change the word". We have had decades of "holy wars" and quasi-religious behavior, starting with editor choice [1] and OS [2], going up to the present moment [3][4].

It's pretty common for exposes of tech companies to talk about cult-like behavior. E.g., Dan Lyons on Hubspot [5] or John Carreyou on Theranos [6]. I don't think all startups are this way, or even most of them. But the seeds of cult-ish behavior are clearly commonplace. E.g., charismatic leaders, a group dedicated to a non-mainstream vision, people spending a lot of intense time together, hazy boundaries, top-down power structures, and a lot of young, impressionable people.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor_war

[2] https://tidbits.com/1995/06/26/computings-holy-war/

[3] https://www.recode.net/2018/5/30/17386068/brad-garlinghouse-...

[4] https://www.recode.net/2017/12/6/16680816/elon-musk-spacex-t...

[5] https://www.amazon.com/Disrupted-My-Misadventure-Start-Up-Bu...

[6] https://reason.com/blog/2018/06/07/theranos-elizabeth-holmes...