Next, Technology Reporter anna weiner on her experience working with Tech Startups in san francisco. We are honored tonight to host a [inaudible] her work has appeared in the atlantic magazine among other publications. [inaudible] we appreciate if you keep the line along the wall. [applause] i thought there would only be like 20 people here. [inaudible] beyond our best to cspan behavior. [laughter] im not going to curse tonight. Try not to. Im thinking and you probably think we should start off with i think that it would be nice to have you read apart. Thank you. And thank you for coming also. Especially for those of you that are standing. I stood at many events in this bookstore. Buy a frequent customer, i think they mean by a person that used to go for a run to hear and stop. Thank you guys for coming though, this is nice. I figured i would read something sort of towards the end of the book that is the section dear to my heart about Venture Capitalists on twitter. [laughter] are there any Venture Capitalists . [laughter] thank you for your service. [laughter] do you think you hate yourself can ask the therapist in berkeley. [laughter] coming in strong fo for an intae session i thought, but the next day i followed a bunch of capitalists on the blogging platform. It wasnt exactly an act of self care. The Venture Capitalists were discussing a universal basic income and i couldnt look away. They were concerned about the unbossed economic potential of the urban poor. As the ice melts and the temperatures have the uninhabitable bb were concerned the eye of a specific question whether they or china would own it, would bring about a certain world war. They wanted to see artificial information jumpstart the renaissance. The machines would do the works of the rest of us rendered useless to focus on our part. One might deduce to the block grant government services, or should ai inspire revolution the rationale for earning in new zealand stocked with guns. I believe in the ai renaissance as soon as Venture Capitalists started enrolling in these classes. As soon as they were automated out of a job. They were prolific. They talked with nobody i knew. Sometimes they talked their own book but others ideas, enlightenment and how to apply microeconomic theories to complex social problems. Future media, the decline of higher ed, cultural stagnation and the builders i decide. They talked about how to find a good here in fix for generating moretti is, presumably to have more things to talk about. Despite the feverish advocacy of open markets and deregulation and continuous innovation, the venture class couldnt be relied upon for the defense of capitalism. They spiked about the structural hypocrisy of criticizing capitalism from a smartphone as if defending capitalism from a smartphone were not grotesque. It was a kaleidoscope of startups. If you want to eliminate economic inequality, the most effective way to do it would be to outlaw certain your own Company Cover with the founder of this excellent reader. Every anticapitalist person ive met is a failed entrepreneur said an angel investor. The assets are like the antiquities, send your best scholars can learn from the masters and maybe other people in the generation, and then return home with the knowledge and networks that you need. Did they know people could see them . [laughter] the Venture Capitalists were not above inspiration culture. Your sounds are my laugh track. Beautiful. [laughter] the Venture Capitalists and the integration culture shared reading recommendations and advice followers stayed humble. Eat healthy, drink less, travel, meditate, find your body. Look for marriage, never give up. They preach the gospel of 80 hour work week. Whenever they denigrated the idea of work right balance as soft or antithetical to the termination necessary for startup success, i wondered how many of them had an executive assistant, a personal assistant. I couldnt imagine making millions of dollars every year and then choosing to spend my time string up on social media. There is almost an internet addiction. [inaudible] [laughter] they do. They talk on whats app. If it was good for anything wasnt this, access to the minds of the industry elite. Theres no better way to know which Venture Capitalists runs their hands over the impact of identity politics or how applying these practices to life was going. How else can you know which members of the class defended the back of megalomaniac scale or the criticism of harassment and perceived themselves as victims. How else to understand the deliberately amplified identities, ideologies and Investment Strategies of the people transforming the society, the people. We can stop there. [applause] subpoena [applause] im going to mention a positive book. In embezzlement book. I dont know how many have read it. Im thinking about probably the beginning of the narrative into your sort of wideeyed approach of publishing a, and i guess im just wondering what happened. From the beginning did you come in with this sort of maybe a things are as optimistic as they seem, by cow did you come into this . Wideeyed is definitely a good description. The year is 2012. Im working in publishing. I realize people make money in their jobs and this is a revelation to me. [laughter] yes, i think for a long time for a little while i found it hard to leave it and then for a long time i wanted to believe it. So there was a sort of an intricate balance that lasted for a long time, like a game of solitaire. I think that the industry has always been funny to me. I think the way people speak and sort of like corporate fealty has always been amusing to me, otherwise it is just terribly depressing. But, i didnt think about writing about it or obscuring it in any critical way or criticizing it justly, even i think im pretty fair in the book. Its not a wildly negative book. I think that [inaudible] my dad was like the Venture Capitalists dont get a break in your book. [laughter] if anyone can take it, its been. There are these middlemen. [laughter] sorry to the one guy in the back. [laughter] we are both openminded individuals. The new yorkers are coming in and theres a sor there is a sol approach to this. I guess im wondering if your criticism is unique to how things work around here, could you apply this to other Industries Like if you were in publishing before and there is some commentary. Yes, absolutely. [laughter] i think that this is inherently interesting that they provide the stuff of literature and have identified it as something in spite of a workplace. I dont know that thats necessarily written a book about the Book Publishing. Many have done so before. Many of the editorialists. But i [inaudible] it goes through the trappings of what its like. Is no future in that. The publishing is different than the economics obviously. But i think that each has a sort of set of internal rule said ofd norms and the things you take for granted and for social relationships you need to have to maintain certain professional ambitions, and this might be what it is for a person in the business where the network is small. It sounds like twitter. [laughter] well, except you are advanced and depends on who you are having dinner with a mothers day. But everyone is having dinner alone. [laughter] but yes i think that you could probably steer any industry. There are people in the room from the book world. No, go for it. I felt that there had been a ton of firstperson narratives. There have been those in the previous era that were from the similar Vantage Point of the entrylevel employees and nontechnical employee, what is it like to be a woman in tech. Sorry, people keep asking me these things. Like you work in tech, how is that going . There is a lot of literature about tech that reflects my own experience. So, i think that theres a lot of literature about the Book Publishing that reflects the common experiences and how it hasnt changed for like 60 years, so it is consistent material. This book is focused on the two years i spent in Book Publishing. So, we go from Book Publishing into Silicon Valley initially the first is still a jump from publishing and i wonder if there is now i guess you are a skeptic of the arena but its what they were selling. If you have a certain skills that you can go into whatever company to know what you are trying to do and accomplish. This feeling of being in the mission driven. The first product everyone was careful to. But it was initially just for iphone, like the Library Monthly fee and i had reached out because i read on the blogs that this company had 3 million. [inaudible] for me, 3 million was like oh, shit sorry, cspan, this is what the industry will be. I want to do that because i couldnt see a future for myself in books. That is a lot of money for most people in the world. It is a ton of money for recent graduates building up but not for the next netflix. So that is for the Venture Capitalists. Im sure that they are cringing. Sorry, we dont know anything. I wrote a lot of emails and i know that its annoying to you i have to keep asking what the back end is. I am a reader and you need someone like me on the staff and they didnt. Theres a company that you should know about. Ive been using the same software to sort of see how people are using the apt and doing very minimal not even analysis, just be a collection. The people that make the software have fewer than 20 people. [inaudible] every one in Book Publishing thinks that this could potentially make the list. So yes, that sounded good and i went and interviewed a company that makes the Data Analytics product and thats that. Sorry. It feels like a job interview. In new york or germany. I wasnt a journalist at any point until like last year. So, that skepticism and cynicism i wasnt reading a lot about the Tech Industry. I didnt know that you had this historical start from these business you wont believe what this young billionaire wears on sunday, like 17 of the same outfits. I think that we have now talked a lot about Book Publishing but coming from that in the im a 20 Person Company to matter to feel useful and not only were they use for the momentum going and ive seen the Customer Support. It wasnt like the geniuses here to build the infrastructure, but it felt like it was less about the mission of the company than working on something with a small group of people and it was working and that seemed so probable to have this organization of people run by 24, 25yearold who it just kept Getting Better and better. They can sort of justify it as an extension of the sociology. This is fundamentally interesting and. It was distracting enough that it wasnt just the Data Collection as part of a broader economy. Youre helping us optimize whatever flowed to achieve whatever goal is usually just some monetization events. They are making money and you are making money when they do with the intricacies of the product. You are having a problem with the software, like have you ever had of knowledge about something. Its amazing to be like i can fix your problem. Ive never, ever fixed anyones problem in any way. So theres a lot of intoxicating cultural stuff. Hierarchy of the Customer Support its always very interesting to me and i guess i am wondering how that view worked out initially to feel good about your position in that company but was that ever an overtime. When someone has a heavy amount of [inaudible] the soft skills were being told you are not technical enough for you to potentially show the credentials to someone else. It is used as a kind of cover for certain inequities. I think that this idea that it is more valuable has to do with the market. But having been in that position with it is incredibly hard. And potentially harder for certain things like you find someone i can write fluently about data. That was harder for me van i think it was for the engineers to find in the the engineering skills the primary focus of them are oriented towards hiring thousand you cant have a product without it, i get it. But it does lead to the sort of internal hierarchy that can leave a lot of people feeling like citizens. Imagine race and gender because i think it is baked into the hierarchy so it can influence the way things are run internally. That is where im getting at. I appreciate you laying that out and who was, if you like the fundamental assumption of not in the wake of whatever just actually questioning them. I think what is concerning to me is its not specific to the value your personal worth is directly correlated to your economic output or your Economic Contribution and value. And the ceo it seems typical of a lot of nations and then with problems the leadership. The Second Company that i work for was 24 when i joined the company i was 25 and they have been through the commentator for those who dont have dependence or death i do not envy anybody enough so i have a lot of sympathy for someone who grows up at the same time they are learning how to be a ceo. The reason i Name Companies and executives is i feel the behavior institutionally as well as individually was more of a position than a failure with that exculpatory framework. But its not to be core a or to offer a puzzle for people to follow. But so that was a common leadership style the Business Model and of the industry and then as the American Girl doll. So somebody came up to me after a reading so we talk about how early members and then they asked us who are the five smartest people that you know. And then why dont they work here . [laughter] why would they work here . It just doesnt make sense there are interesting things to do in the world. And then to be smart and talented why should we be with their Analytics Company so it is the idea that and to have the economic value. So. So i should have a one line answer. So somebody came up to me after this in the same thing happened to my company to say this was a deja vu for me that i mustve read it on the blog post with the five smartest people that i underrated ceos and so with this culture the intellectual culture that i would call anti intellectual that people with Business Advice they have never run a company before. With the attentive responsibilities with employees so here is how you can scaling get really people to set the tone for the rest of your company and then to pay 5000 per recruit i tried so hard. [laughter] but anyway so if that but the link investigation of huber it is available at the bookstore. The Company Culture is shaped by the Business Model and those incentives those are shaped by the incentive of Venture Capital with speed and scale and the couples with that libertarian spirit that has been incubating for 25 years or 30 or 40 years so you get this weird cultural product with these values of over consideration. I dont know what im talking about im so sorry. [laughter] i dont remember actually. [laughter] so its fair to say that you take with you that you actually appreciate. So allied of those folks so in questioning that i guess i am wondering if there are parts of the whole culture from the time you took . This is at the heart of the book there is a lot that i appreciated. I dont know in my thirties if i would go back to appreciate the same thing to be honest but to have the right yearnings to be the a deal in the certain way yes i was in my twenties. And when it mattered. So in my twenties just moving here to get ahead all new meaning but what i admired and appreciated was the camaraderie to a common project in the collective so that people seem to have autonomy for a while that those that have autonom autonomy. Necessary have that authority but there seems to be some potential so that they just replicate that structure that exist externally so one thing i did enjoy about that culture for those that are constantly vacillating with that painful earnestness i dont know if you can relate. [laughter] they might be wrong but and that doing good for the world and that they believe and trust them when they say it and that what is missing is that the problems are systemic but i dont know why do i wonder but ive heard people say if they didnt have this crazy culture. So do you see that . [laughter] do see that structural explanation for his behavior or of the industry that could be forgiving. And then to boil down how this works. But there is that justification and those that are protected in ways that are not fair not saying that it is wrong their reasons for doing a lot of this stuff. And then to go back on the own argument they are in that structural position. It depends on who the ceo is. It seems fair to answer that that is what we are in. With that phenomenon and thats a call that trough of disillusionment. [laughter] so you can wallow in this. For a long time but then worried about the next part of this for a long period of time. So this is great leverage for me as a futurist so yes so potentially the narrative that the tech is not bad but boring and unimaginative. So what i mean by that is that there could be so much more to be a much more vibrant and creative industry. Have you not heard this criticism before . So some are bad but i guess i feel there so much we havent tried yet. I know i just feel like it is so rooted so i dont want to say it is exceptional and i feel like what we have not tried to the things like privatization. And that atomization that happens that is hyper customize like spot if i. So i dont know what comes next but with the incentive and tell that changes that monopoly and and i the also feel that a lot it has to do with this baked in spirit of intervention. That i dont mean to pick this for the friend of mine because i was reading something earlier. Sorry im choosing the path. But this is hugely useful to me as someone whos constantly running late and i would prefer to be taking Public Transportation so do they augment them . And then part of that rationale is you can get a job very quickly there is that income jump but also that could be getting a degree in english. I do not have an english degree. So the crisis makes it so hard to live to orient the entire life to have your education to get a job that is a social failure and that functional society totally legitimate to launch yourself into a different career track that this is the startup model to circumvent what shed in a functional society whether thats education or transportation. So things have to change to be less exciting and should not be the option. So outside of that existing model if its the Public Sector it stuck in what it is for maybe they are just content and that is the status quo. So you work at a newspaper and then to be infiltrated but i am not trying to defend the dmv website. [laughter] i would you show up in three months. But i think that to be better experienced at least on a spiritual level. And there is reliant i guess trying to answer your question with tech like publishing like windup doll with that whole idea you push your products and with that patch or fix so when your book is done its done and there is a reason to take so long and you have to copy editors go through it and you send it to friends and your editor and multiple eyes on the product you dont want to rush better expedite certain things for the sake of quality. So this is the feverish defense of a book in a bookstore but those values and that isnt necessarily value or smallscale but it is endemic with that social moment. And then to ask you a few questions. [inaudible] [laughter] not all people. [laughter] so i have a section in the book when i just cannot drink anymore caffeine but then i wrote my book so you can tell when i was blasting it. So i think there is that energy and music that has speed. I dont know. There is someone in the audience i would love to ask. So as you live in the city but edm exploded 2008 but that also coincides with rent getting more expensive. [laughter] so it is amazing we could be wrong im so sorry a vici. I have never said that out loud. [laughter] and it is incredible and they couldnt understand the drugs to understand that but anyway i recommend reading that. What will it take to get the tech ceos with those philosophies and with those solutions so then in this way. If we have solutions for the problems they created so this is more of what we were doing with that underlying assumption it isnt true so is that the direction we are going . If i knew what could change the ceo mind i would be so wealthy. [laughter] but in facebooks defense it does have the unprecedented problems but for me the question is it does exist and Mark Zuckerberg will continue into ethically and responsibly and so for me but just because you can operate a video so what does that mean to throttle User Generated Content with fulltime staff with fulltime benefits and Mental Health benefits if necessary. If you invested in research with those repercussions and for all the place where facebook exist. Whatever. I dont have a diagnosis for facebook i just made that up but for facebook to invest in a solution to itself its for the consumer and then to give the option for Data Retention i suspect a lot of people would not care and that this could the to the erosion that you could get a nice platform and then they dont care. But that solution and that time set but for whom and to what en end . End . Or we want to push for whatever policy. Og he is organized, so then that becomes a question of what are the reasons, and more payments and salaries. So i think that these are all bigger questions. Does anyone have any questions from the audience . I would love to hear what you all are thinking about. For the whether you had any response and you were not expecting . People i work with were in general . Anybody. That has been interesting and exciting for anybody in the industry. It is observation and ive heard from people, nothing has surprised me a. I think when you write about things people will say it is too political. I think the i have the same situation i just worked and it selfserving and put ice use for only an. A the experience in Previous Companies in areas young people being is that a . Like . The people are always excited about it because its the newest things people are interested in technology. But i think that the industry also has a sort of a historical plant that if you wear working in politics or the industry you probably want to do the resear research. We can get into different things. I think that it is people who can behave in certain ways who are 18 who we all know someone that is millennial or acts like a baby boomer that people respond to their environment. The book comes out of an essay that i wrote, fictionalized essay that started out as a book review and morphed into these anecdotes for my own life and entertainment when it came out i enjoyed writing it because of the bigger project in mind and approaching it with both literary like this is my worklife and maybe i will write a book or a short story. The youth articulated something unsettling to me. It was a running joke you have to write a novel about a. And then to put on the back burner and writing a little bit about the Tech Industry and a critical way that not just reflecting on the news. The experience is going to change the same people would be there to. It felt things were going to change and i develop more urgent to write about it. It also coincided with my job shifting. The rightwing material surfacing. It felt like it was over for me. I dont know where im going or if i believe in the endgame. I felt like i had aged out of my particular and when i start to think where am i going with this and what is the trajectory for someone like me, i have trouble feeling good about my options. Not to be arrogant but this is an industry if you believe that you try and you are a white woman with a College Degree with the liberal Arts University you are rewarded for nothing but. But yes i think it shifted into the urgent in a way that i really didnt anticipate. We will go to this one right here. To take the experience they have a and the others were based on real moments and real people. The other was Silicon Valley [inaudible] i was curious if that even came up. This is a litigious industry. They really dont like criticism and they are not used to it either. My general fear was enough things happen to me here that i participated in that if i had pretended nobody would believe me and i think that coming from a nontechnical physician and as a woman that people would ignore or discredit or undermine it in some way so it was important to me to write this and that it not be misread as satire because there is a lot of stuff that is quite funny but the book is documentation saying how things are and how they speak could be read as satire that is a knowing my own strengths and staying in my own lame kind of thing. A lot of the books are personal and im curious as they were recalling the stories of where you angered when he remembered some oyouremembered s or sad or happy or nostalgic . This conversation happened over three things like mia about to become an executive so i was reading this its like reading a diary and it felt like i had my own enthusiasm for the reading and buying own disillusionment and anger especially about things happening in the world into the industry into the book is from 2012 to 2016 and i knew i was so close to it i had to try to beat a dead most emotionally honest for the longterm and often clarified into some other position that would probably take away all fol for me to understand the you have to treat it like a Research Project [inaudible] about the shared institutions and experiences in some cases a vital some point theres not necessarily those specific stories of the kind of thing i can highlight as a journalist. But i think that generally it was more of sorting through the emotional im wondering if you find more meaning and if so, w why . I think that they dont want to say that its a more meaningful career than being a product manager. Its something that makes sense to me and what was exciting in the first place. That moment that is interesting to me and i could have found a better way to engage and write about it. Its like a stay in your own lame kind of thing where its most useful i hope and thats meaningful to me but i dont think there is any empirical value from one to another i feel lucky to have had a place that makes sense right now. Everyone please give a round of applause. [applause] with a airport as she is featuring the working class in america. Their biggest tightrope americans reaching for hope. They are interviewed by oregon senator jeff barkley. Im pleased to be with you to talk about the new book that youve put out, tightrope, and particularly because it is taking a look at a small town in oregon that you come from, and i come from a small town in oregon and i just ponder how in your career traveling