Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener review – bullies, greed and sexism in Silicon Valley
I sometimes wonder, having studied engineering at university, whether I should have headed for California to pan for digital gold, working as a coder for one of Silicon Valley's tech giants or trying my luck at an overvalued startup with employee share options. Anna Wiener's book is a reassuring reminder that, had I gone, I probably would have hated it.
Uncanny Valley is a memoir with few revelations for those who have had contact with the technology industry. Even people familiar with it only through media coverage will already recognise Silicon Valley as a world of young men (and it has to be said, a few women) who have had their egos massaged perhaps a little too hard and a little too long. Their stories of failure and greed, sexual harassment and bullying, toxic cultures fomented by bloated valuations of firms that turn out to be built on thin air, have become our generation's cautionary tales. And that's to say nothing of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.
Continue reading...