Anna Wiener

Repetitive, Meandering and Bloated

Started off well, then it became repetitive and meandering. Insider phrases, boring dialogue and stories that even to a tech nut like myself, I found disinteresting. I was expecting so much more from this book, but it turned out to be more of a disappointment. We all kind of knew that the Millenials were narcissistic, egomaniacal, money hungry, spoiled brats. This book just tells us that we were right all along. Instead of a 300 page book, this could easily been cut back to a short series of New Yorker articles..… (més)

After working in tech for several years, this book was an interesting read. I do not work in the bay area but it's interesting to see the lasting cultural influence it has on the entire tech workforce. The book had a lot of good build up but kind of cut off at the end. I am interested in learning more about the rising interest rates and tightening of venture capital, the patagonia vest recession and how San Francisco has responded to that. It needs some sort of sequel. It's interesting how she places these men in technology in a mystical enlightened visionary box through her vivid descriptions. The truth, as a woman software developer myself, is some of these developers are delusional and make collaboration difficult. Their conversations are just them enjoying listening to themselves. I dread coding with these people. She came close to that in concluding that it's all just business and luck but seemed rushed. Very enjoyable read.… (més)

(More of 2.5 stars)

It is a memoir about a person who works in the publishing industry of New York venturing into the tech scene. She tries her hand at a flailing tech startup in New York. She then moves to San Francisco, works for Mixpanel and Github. She seems to strike a chord and befriend Patrick Collison of Stripe. She opines a lot about the scene of SFO, Tyler Cowen, Julia Galef, and various people and shares her view.

The author seems to be a down-to-earth person and the book is written well. But she seems like a bickering person. Someone who is an outsider with some strong views and couldn’t come to digest the changes in Silicon Valley. I could not resonate with a lot of problems she was facing.

I had the same problem with a graphic novel based memoir, Good Talk. I could understand their point of view but I don’t resonate or agree with the writer’s judgment. I totally didn’t understand the point of why this book was celebrated so much. Is it because she is against the grain and criticizing Silicon Valley? Or is she an insider in the New York publishing coterie who knows how to market and distribute a book well? I persisted through the book to find out views that are something new but in vain.

She complains a lot about the garbage language that the tech startups in San Francisco use. She might have taken a snapshot of that and captured it in her book. But I think she misses the point of emergence. Language evolves, morphs, and grows. Personally, I might not like using the term “Let’s double click on that” or “Let’s pin that down for a moment” but what is wrong with it if people understand it.

When I was new to the startup scene, I was curious about the term “copy text” or “copywriter”. I was baffled at that term and used to ask what the fuck it was. But slowly learned what it is and I see that it’s a remnant of the publishing and advertising industry. I might have hated that term for a day or so.
In my son’s generation, the terms like “outro” are commonly used and people get it. We all are aware of introduction music or intro title. But people simply get that “outro” is related to the end of the video and move forward. They don’t ruminate about this term and classify it is a garbage language. Many people still are finicky about using the term “pre-pone” and emphasize using the term “advance” or “reschedule”. But the joke is on us, as people who “prepone”, the “outro” music is moving forward and do give a damn about me and likes.… (més)