Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism

"Abolish Silicon Valley" is a timely read, even if published prior to the Global Pandemic. Given the subject matter (Capitalism, Silicon Valley, technology and its impact on society), the fact that it is difficult to ascertain this slight observation speaks highly to the importance of its subject matter. Though not unique in this experience, I came to this book with slightly different expectations; it does have quite a Manifesto-friendly title, in fairness. Initially, I was disappointed by that, but the second half offers more than enough manifesto-friendly "food for thought". Wendy Liu has an interesting story and, coupled with a proclivity for the poetic (Liu has a soft spot for David Foster Wallace and it shows in her writing), still strikes a chord with those even remotely influenced by the decisions and outputs of Silicon Valley (that is to say, a whole lot of people currently). This book promises a lot and promises almost too much for the work of this book to be contained between these modest 214 pages. Heck, I am already awaiting a follow-up perhaps humorously entitled "Pivoting Silicon Valley" - but maybe that is better off belonging on Liu's well-maintained blog.

I recognized a lot of the author's experiences and feelings as a tech worker, and agreed with a lot of the conclusions in the last quarter of the book. I admit that there was an air of "here's what I think should be", that might not convince people who are predisposed to stupid capitalist ideas - but evidently they're not the target of this book. I'd absolutely recommend this book to myself 5-10 years ago, when I was starting out. I think it would have helped me come to the conclusions I had already arrived at much earlier. I would put this on the reading list for interns and people seeking graduate positions in tech.

Another strong point of the book is that it referred to lots of other interesting sounding books and articles, and as a result my reading of this book has caused my reading list to grow, not shrink, which is infuriating in a fun way.

Also, can the publisher please not give Jeff Bezos exclusive rights to the audio releases of all of their books? It sucks. I find reading physical books to be exhausting and hard to engage with. I would have got more out of this book if I had access to the audio book (I absolutely will not use Bezos's Audible, and yes I understand the irony of typing that sentence into Bezos's Goodreads).