eBook, 290 pages
Published Oct. 29, 2020 by MCD.
The prescient, page-turning account of a journey in Silicon Valley: a defining memoir of our digital age
In her mid-twenties, at the height of tech industry idealism, Anna Wiener—stuck, broke, and looking for meaning in her work, like any good millennial--left a job in book publishing for the promise of the new digital economy. She moved from New York to San Francisco, where she landed at a big-data startup in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble: a world of surreal extravagance, dubious success, and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent on domination, glory, and, of course, progress.
Anna arrived amidst a massive cultural shift, as the tech industry rapidly transformed into a locus of wealth and power rivaling Wall Street. But amid the company ski vacations and in-office speakeasies, boyish camaraderie and ride-or-die corporate fealty, a new Silicon Valley began to emerge: one in far over its head, one that enriched itself …
The prescient, page-turning account of a journey in Silicon Valley: a defining memoir of our digital age
In her mid-twenties, at the height of tech industry idealism, Anna Wiener—stuck, broke, and looking for meaning in her work, like any good millennial--left a job in book publishing for the promise of the new digital economy. She moved from New York to San Francisco, where she landed at a big-data startup in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble: a world of surreal extravagance, dubious success, and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent on domination, glory, and, of course, progress.
Anna arrived amidst a massive cultural shift, as the tech industry rapidly transformed into a locus of wealth and power rivaling Wall Street. But amid the company ski vacations and in-office speakeasies, boyish camaraderie and ride-or-die corporate fealty, a new Silicon Valley began to emerge: one in far over its head, one that enriched itself at the expense of the idyllic future it claimed to be building.
Part coming-age-story, part portrait of an already-bygone era, Anna Wiener’s memoir is a rare first-person glimpse into high-flying, reckless startup culture at a time of unchecked ambition, unregulated surveillance, wild fortune, and accelerating political power. With wit, candor, and heart, Anna deftly charts the tech industry’s shift from self-appointed world savior to democracy-endangering liability, alongside a personal narrative of aspiration, ambivalence, and disillusionment.
Unsparing and incisive, Uncanny Valley is a cautionary tale, and a revelatory interrogation of a world reckoning with consequences its unwitting designers are only beginning to understand.
In the future, when people ask me what it was like working in Silicon Valley, and why I left, I'll be able to point them to this book, which contains a some of the answers. My own time overlaps with the time covered in the book, and I found myself nodding in agreement many times.
Interesting insider account of working in a data analysis firm that supported Silicon Valley's obsession with surveillance and metrics and the rise and fall of glamor associated with Silicon Valley culture. Not as deeply informative as a book like Alice Marwick's Status Update but a lighter lift for those who aren't looking for scholarly depth.
As a San Franciscan who has worked in tech since the late 90s (once a journalist, now a lawyer), I eagerly anticipated getting my hands on this book, which is perhaps why I found it so disappointing.
It feels as if the author created a checklist of every Silicon Valley stereotype (including non-tech types, like Berkeley co-op evangelists and advocates of shipping container homes) and set about writing a story that contorted itself to check all the boxes on that list, rather than serving as an interesting narrative. The checklist includes not just every stereotyped character you can imagine, but every business model and known industry problem, such as misogyny, misuse of customer data, and management inexperience. The plot was such an afterthought that she really should have instead written a book of essays about her observations on Silicon Valley... except that the vast majority of those observations are lazy …
As a San Franciscan who has worked in tech since the late 90s (once a journalist, now a lawyer), I eagerly anticipated getting my hands on this book, which is perhaps why I found it so disappointing.
It feels as if the author created a checklist of every Silicon Valley stereotype (including non-tech types, like Berkeley co-op evangelists and advocates of shipping container homes) and set about writing a story that contorted itself to check all the boxes on that list, rather than serving as an interesting narrative. The checklist includes not just every stereotyped character you can imagine, but every business model and known industry problem, such as misogyny, misuse of customer data, and management inexperience. The plot was such an afterthought that she really should have instead written a book of essays about her observations on Silicon Valley... except that the vast majority of those observations are lazy and obvious.
To top it all off, while mocking everyone else, the narrator lacks the self-awareness to recognize that she, herself, is worse than all of them: The sort of East Coast, materialistic striver who moves to San Francisco while constantly romanticizing New York, has no interest in the Bay Area and its community beyond her overpaid tech job, and does nothing to grow roots or contribute to the community. Perhaps most damningly, she is the sort of person who pretends California doesn’t have seasons (in noting that it didn’t rain in 3 years, one wonders if she is even aware of how global warming has created a historic drought in California, creating real hardship for residents of the Central Valley).
Ultimately, this book left me longing for a better satire that skewers Silicon Valley’s unique culture in a way that’s actually original and genuine. There’s just SO MUCH to make fun of! I can only hope that somebody out there is writing it as we speak, tapping out chapters during her downtime from answering customer support emails at Salesforce, or rather, “an unnamed sales software company with forest-themed cartoon characters as its mascots.”
