• Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener Summary
• Uncanny Valley Book

1. Divided into two parts — “Incentives” and “Scale” — “Uncanny Valley” begins across the country, where 25-year-old Wiener is a low-paid assistant at a small New York literary agency, “oblivious to.
2. Likewise, “Uncanny Valley” is a cultural critique offering a stark look at what the tech industry is really like behind all the buzzwords. HuffPost talked with Wiener ― now 32 and a contributing writer at The New Yorker ― about what memoir can do that satire can’t, what keeps her hopeful about the tech industry, and what other works.
3. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener review – bullies, greed and sexism in Silicon Valley This closely observed account of everyday life in the tech capital reminds us to be wary of all those boy geniuses.

Anna Wiener is an American writer, best known for her 2020 memoir Uncanny Valley. Wiener currently writes for The New Yorker as a tech correspondent.^[1]

Life[edit]

― Anna Wiener, Uncanny Valley. Like “The internet was a collective howl, an outlet for everyone to prove that they mattered.” ― Anna Wiener, Uncanny Valley. Like “Being the only woman on a nontechnical team, providing customer support to software developers, was like immersion therapy for internalized misogyny.

Wiener, who grew up in Brooklyn,^[2] began working in tech in New York City, later moving to San Francisco. She chose the tech sector in an attempt to find a career path with more 'momentum' than the book publishing industry, where she was previously employed.^[3] Wiener was likewise deeply interested in data, particularly the way in which it could be used to tell stories.^[3] In San Francisco, she ended up working for an analytics startup and GitHub,^[4] and befriending Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.^[5] Her book, Uncanny Valley, never mentions the names of the companies she worked at or interacted with, though she often describes their products and corporate cultures in sufficient detail for the reader to deduce what they are.^[4] After several years in San Francisco, she chose to leave the tech industry for several reasons, including its lack of response to the classified information released by Edward Snowden and a wider disillusionment with the corporate culture and sexism present therein.^[6]

Since leaving tech, Wiener has been writing about Silicon Valley for The New Republic, n+1, Atlantic, and others. She is a contributing writer to the New Yorker.

Selected works[edit]

• Uncanny Valley (MCD Books, 2020) ISBN9780374719760^{[7][8][9][10]}

References[edit]

1. ^'Anna Wiener'. newyorker.com.
2. ^'About'. Anna Wiener. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
3. ^ ^abSimon, Scott (11 January 2020). 'Living An Everyday Life Amid The Disrupters In 'Uncanny Valley''. NPR. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
4. ^ ^abKois, Dan (January 7, 2020). 'A Complete Guide to the Handful of Proper Nouns Anna Wiener Uses in Uncanny Valley'. Slate. Archived from the original on March 21, 2020.
5. ^Tiffany, Kaitlyn (2020-01-14). 'Why Normal People Want to Work in Silicon Valley'. The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
6. ^Todd, Sarah (11 January 2020). ''There's a deep sadness to it': A new book takes on masculinity in Silicon Valley'. NPR. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
7. ^Westenfeld, Adrienne (14 January 2020). 'Anna Wiener Dissects the Brain Rot of Big Tech in Her Searing New Memoir'. Esquire. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
8. ^Muhammad, Ismail (2019-12-22). 'Inside Tech's Fever Dream'. The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
9. ^Saini, Angela (2020-01-26). 'Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener review – bullies, greed and sexism in Silicon Valley'. The Observer. ISSN0029-7712. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
10. ^Ghaffary, Shirin (2020-01-17). 'Things can get 'really bad, really quickly' when a 24-year-old runs a company'. Vox. Retrieved 2020-02-18.

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Constance Grady, Uncanny Valley author Anna Wiener on the stories tech companies tell themselves Vox, Feb 3, 2020
• Pete Tosiello, Silicon Valley Hustling: An Interview with Anna Wiener, Paris Review, January 9, 2020

Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener Summary

Anna Wiener is an American writer, best known for her 2020 memoir Uncanny Valley. Wiener currently writes for The New Yorker as a tech correspondent.^[1]

Life[edit]

Wiener, who grew up in Brooklyn,^[2] began working in tech in New York City, later moving to San Francisco. She chose the tech sector in an attempt to find a career path with more 'momentum' than the book publishing industry, where she was previously employed.^[3] Wiener was likewise deeply interested in data, particularly the way in which it could be used to tell stories.^[3] In San Francisco, she ended up working for an analytics startup and GitHub,^[4] and befriending Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.^[5] Her book, Uncanny Valley, never mentions the names of the companies she worked at or interacted with, though she often describes their products and corporate cultures in sufficient detail for the reader to deduce what they are.^[4] After several years in San Francisco, she chose to leave the tech industry for several reasons, including its lack of response to the classified information released by Edward Snowden and a wider disillusionment with the corporate culture and sexism present therein.^[6]

Uncanny Valley Book

Since leaving tech, Wiener has been writing about Silicon Valley for The New Republic, n+1, Atlantic, and others. She is a contributing writer to the New Yorker.

Selected works[edit]

• Uncanny Valley (MCD Books, 2020) ISBN9780374719760^{[7][8][9][10]}

References[edit]

1. ^'Anna Wiener'. newyorker.com.
2. ^'About'. Anna Wiener. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
3. ^ ^abSimon, Scott (11 January 2020). 'Living An Everyday Life Amid The Disrupters In 'Uncanny Valley''. NPR. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
4. ^ ^abKois, Dan (January 7, 2020). 'A Complete Guide to the Handful of Proper Nouns Anna Wiener Uses in Uncanny Valley'. Slate. Archived from the original on March 21, 2020.
5. ^Tiffany, Kaitlyn (2020-01-14). 'Why Normal People Want to Work in Silicon Valley'. The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
6. ^Todd, Sarah (11 January 2020). ''There's a deep sadness to it': A new book takes on masculinity in Silicon Valley'. NPR. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
7. ^Westenfeld, Adrienne (14 January 2020). 'Anna Wiener Dissects the Brain Rot of Big Tech in Her Searing New Memoir'. Esquire. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
8. ^Muhammad, Ismail (2019-12-22). 'Inside Tech's Fever Dream'. The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
9. ^Saini, Angela (2020-01-26). 'Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener review – bullies, greed and sexism in Silicon Valley'. The Observer. ISSN0029-7712. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
10. ^Ghaffary, Shirin (2020-01-17). 'Things can get 'really bad, really quickly' when a 24-year-old runs a company'. Vox. Retrieved 2020-02-18.

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Constance Grady, Uncanny Valley author Anna Wiener on the stories tech companies tell themselves Vox, Feb 3, 2020
• Pete Tosiello, Silicon Valley Hustling: An Interview with Anna Wiener, Paris Review, January 9, 2020