Uncanny Valley

A very funny book that I devoured in a few days. The author comes from a journalism background, and you can tell she is a bit of a fish out of water in Silicon Valley. Her point of view is that of an outside observer of all the oddities of this unique bubble, full of people who want to become billionaires and, honestly, a bit out there.

She leaves an internship in publishing to go first to Oyster, then to an analytics startup, and then to Github. I do not really have bullet points to jot down; it is a pleasant read I would revisit without big lessons, but these lines stuck with me:

• That world is full of exaggeration and hypocrisy.
• The world (in general) is full of fluff.
• Irony is the best way to see things from the outside
• Study IT (my take)
• Do not burn yourself out for these inflated CEOs, even if some are fine
• Women are still treated as second-class
• Privacy (see God Mode) is not the priority in there
• Watch out if lots of salespeople show up: not a good sign