barbara fister reviewed Voices from the Valley by Moira Weigel
Review of 'Voices from the Valley' on 'LibraryThing'
The title is a trifle misleading. It sounds as if it's a manual for people who want to emulate the richest, most powerful tech bros in the world. How do they do it? And can I do it too? returnreturnInstead, it's much more valuable: interviews that document what it's really like to work in tech. In addition to an engineer and a data scientist there's an interview with a cook and a masseuse. A lot of people work in Silicon Valley who are not rich and powerful, and all of the interviewees (with the possible exception of a technical writer, who seems to have a fairly good opinion of the industry) have things to say that need saying. Most AI is hype. The monopolization of talent has hindered creativity and innovation. The people whose work makes lives pleasant for the technocracy are badly paid and have to commute from afar …
The title is a trifle misleading. It sounds as if it's a manual for people who want to emulate the richest, most powerful tech bros in the world. How do they do it? And can I do it too? returnreturnInstead, it's much more valuable: interviews that document what it's really like to work in tech. In addition to an engineer and a data scientist there's an interview with a cook and a masseuse. A lot of people work in Silicon Valley who are not rich and powerful, and all of the interviewees (with the possible exception of a technical writer, who seems to have a fairly good opinion of the industry) have things to say that need saying. Most AI is hype. The monopolization of talent has hindered creativity and innovation. The people whose work makes lives pleasant for the technocracy are badly paid and have to commute from afar because not only can they not afford to live within two hours of work, they can't afford the places that they live in because they, too, are being taken over by gentrification. This is a nicely insightful collection of interviews that range from technical but accesible - a useful overview of what machine learning and AI really are compared to the hype, for example - to a glimpse into the lives of contract workers who cook or try to unknot the muscles of people who spend too many hours staring at screens.
