This past year was the cap to an exhausting decade and 2020’s list of must-read books reflects that. Yes, there are the usual chronicles of tech companies, but there are also books that attempt to understand the world we live in as a result of the innovations of behemoth corporations.
The 2010s have been characterized by a reckoning over Silicon Valley social values. Founders who built companies from the dirt of their garage floors with taglines like “don’t be evil” are being held to account for their track records. Organizing tech workers are asking their powerful employers to free victims from arbitration clauses and stop equipping deviant executives with golden parachutes when they sexually harass employees. They are asking for equal treatment for contractors. They are asking for ethical use of the technology they build.
These books also provide an opportunity to reflect on living life online and how this grand experiment has failed. Social media has turned out to be more effective at manipulating the masses than connecting them. Rather than democratize education, a greater access to information has polluted the truth in chaotic ways. Rather than freeing us, an onslaught of content has fried our brains and crippled our emotional well-being.
Here are eight books to help you untangle the impact of technology as we head into the next decade.
Mindf*ck by Christopher Wylie
Christopher Wylie, the pink-haired punk that first brought our attention to Cambridge Analytica, has written a memoir of his time at the political consulting firm. Cambridge Analytica is infamous for obtaining detailed information on tens of millions of Facebook users, which it used to sway voting behavior in several elections in favor of right-wing candidates. MindF*ck serves as a guidebook for understanding Cambridge Analytica’s elaborate campaign and the social manipulation mechanisms it used. Wylie also attempts to exonerate himself as he explains how a person who identifies as gay and liberal can be absorbed into a project that directly conflicts with their personal ethics.
Super Pumped by Mike Isaac
While this is a story about the unraveling of one CEO, it is really a bigger story about a certain kind of storied founder that was once held up as gold standard and has now fallen ungracefully from the unmerited favor of the church of Silicon Valley. During his time as CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick exemplified the kind of brash arrogance that retains its power through equity and super-voting shares. He flouted the law repeatedly on his way to the top, and his company was massively successful as a result. Then came the dissent from the overworked employees inside Uber. A blog about sexism and abuse inside the company set off a wave of problems for the ride-hailing giant, and as the company attracted more scrutiny, its previous above-the-law attitude no longer served it. Kalanick was ultimately dethroned unceremoniously.
Much of this story has already played out before our eyes in news stories (many of which were written by Isaac for The New York Times). But in book form, Uber’s rise and flatline breeze by cinematically. It is an opportunity to realize that while Kalanick suffered brutally in the press, he’s doing fine now, and that oftentimes, the bad guys win.
