Transcripts For CSPAN2 Anna Wiener Uncanny Valley 20240713 :

Transcripts For CSPAN2 Anna Wiener Uncanny Valley 20240713

We are honored and excited to come full circle tonight. And those that have appeared in wired the Technology Reporter and from cnbc and msnbc. We appreciate it. [inaudible] [applause]. With a congressional hearing. So i will not curse tonight. I will try not to. We should probably start off. Thank you for coming especially those of you who are standing. But yes thank you for coming this is nice. And the section dear to my heart about venture capitalist on twitter and this was is relevant and then venture capitalism. [laughter] thank you for your service. Do you hate yourself asked the therapist in berkeley . [laughter] that comes on strong for the intake session but then following venture capitalist on the microblogging platform the venture capitalists discussing the universal basic income and i cannot look away very concerned about the potential of the urban poor as the oceans temperatures took the added habitability that specifically the question if they are china would own it. And then to have the renaissance to do the work for the rest of us so we can focus on our arch. And then the rationale for new zealand i believe in the ai renaissance and poverty classes but they were automated out of a job. Sometimes they talk most days a talk ideas. Into those complex social problems that higher ed in cultural stagnation to talk about to generate more ideas and despite that feverish advocacy of open markets and deregulation they cannot be reply one relied upon for capitalism talk about the structural hypocrisy from the smart throne as if defending it was not grotesque. If you want to eliminate economic inequality the most effective way is to start your own company. Like the entrepreneur like the antiquity learn from the masters and learn from the eminent people in your generation and return home with the knowledge of the networks that you need. Other people can see them . [laughter] they were not above inspiration. Did you get my laugh track . [laughter] they were not bad inspiration sharing reading list to have followers stay humble travel and meditate and find your why. Never give up preaching the gospel of the 80 hour work week whenever they denigrated the idea with this determination for startup success i couldnt imagine making millions of dollars every year than choosing to spend my time stirring shipped on social media to get to feed their internet addiction. But the internet was good for anything transparency and action on an action theres no better way to know then the impact of identity politics or how that was going. Which members of the venture class with those you could not scale or those that perceive themselves as victims and to understand the deliberately amplified identities of Investment Strategies and those that i were helping to make ric rich. [applause] to be ambivalent. I dont know how many people have read in the audience but the beginning of your narrative with wideeyed approach toward publishing so i am just wondering what happens . From the beginning where you ready or did you was at as genuine as it seems how did you come into that quick. That is definitely a good description of the years 2012 working in publishing and realize people make money in their jobs and this was a revelation to me. [laughter] so for a long time yes i didnt believe in a long time i wanted to let those selfdelusion like a game of solitaire. I think it wasnt funny to me the way people speak like corporate hasnt been easy to me because it has to be otherwise it is depressing but i didnt think about writing about it or criticizing it gently i think i read the meanest part. [laughter] that venture capitalists dont get a break. But they can take it. We are openminded individuals just day structural position. Lot of the criticism that new yorkers are coming in and being critical. I am wondering if your criticism is unique or to apply this as you were in publishing before as part of the spinal tap commentary. Yes. [laughter] i think that this is inherently interesting that provides the staff literature i dont know if i necessarily would have written a book about Book Publishing many have done that before. But. For just going through what thats like. That there is no future not it is different in ways that are more economic but they each have the said of internal rules and norms and the social relationships you need to have to make those conditions to be a person who works in business. Like twitter. May be expect your career can be determined who you have dinner with on a thursday. [laughter] but to enter on what an awesome having dinner alone on twitter. [laughter] so yeah i think you could probably steer the industry i just remember that the reason i wrote the Book Publishing is because i felt there had to be firstperson narratives about this particular era that had a similar point of women sorry people keep asking me things like you are a woman. [laughter] but something that wasnt even close to that or still have them feel good. There is a lot of literature that reflect bad experience and also Book Publishing and thats in material. My next book is focused on the incident. [laughter] so take Book Publishing so initially but that is what im wondering but wondering if. But if you have a certain skill set from what you are trying to do or accomplish to make the feeling of being on the mission oriented. But initially for that library for a monthly fee so i went out that this company had 3 million. [laughter] is so this is part of the industry and how it will be. And to see a future for myself. But then you need money for the next book the venture capitalists. So i figured i would be the book expert. And then to know what the backend is i am a reader you need someone like me on staff. And thats that. [laughter] im just wondering was a moment where you are inspired and you get into it for whatever, to pick the thing that a lot of folks in new york or journalism or whatever has decided on a mission and was mission there for you in the beginning . Yeah, i was not a journalist at any point until last year. And so that skepticism, i was not reading a lot about the Tech Industry, i didnt know you had cynical snark from alleyway or business, you will believe with this young billionaire wears on sundays. [laughter] and its a same thing he wears every day. 17 of the same outfits. We have not talked a lot about it but coming from the industry where public there was no momentum everything was a dead end to be a 20 Person Company into matter and to feel useful and not only was i useful but i was contributing in a way that kept the momentum going and the Customer Support. In the geniuses here to build infrastructure. I was less about the mission of the company then the feeling of working on the small group of people away really liked and it seems probable that you have this organization of 20 people run by 24 or 25yearold, it just kept Getting Better and better anyway, i think i was down for that momentum if not this is going to make the world a better place. Analytics is fascinating and i personally find this product interesting and can sort of justify it as a bachelors degree from six years ago. But i dont think i was over like Data Collection storage analysis, unbeknownst to the user, god knows what goes, fascinating by making the world better but this is fundamentally interesting. And if this is education, i think this is an industry that emphasizes the individual and so im not individually quite useful and great in a way that was tied to the collective effort but also less distracting and perhaps Data Collection is a broader economy, we were not having this conversation. You ever get into the large larger no, it is working for your customer and help it is optimize your making money and they make money when you make money, whatever it does not matter. But the feedback, the thing that you helped make even though i did not make it im just helping people use it, the thing youre participating in is helping us make money. Or you have no problem with the software, let me take how to fix it, have you ever had knowledge about something its amazing. [laughter] i can fix your problem, ive never fixed anyones problem. [laughter] in any way. Theres a lot of intoxicating and cultural stuff. [laughter] the hierarchy of Customer Support because pms are very interesting and i always wonder how does not become eventually we can feel good about your position of the company, was that ever underscored over time, i was here that its an image culture and we want to go there or they dont value x amount and im wondering if i create overtime. When someone says ivan heavy and and he wants to go there. For soft skills, hard skills, often soft skills are being told youre not technical or no enouh or show work credentials or someone else in your role, i think often the economy is used certain inequities or biased and i think its a gender as racial as cicad economy, the engineerig skills are more valuable, live to do clearly with the market but having been in the position of hiring people for soft skill jobs or nontechnical jobs is incredibly hard. And potentially harder for certain things like to find someone who can write fluently about data was harder than finding for engineers to find a midlevel engineer. I see both sides of that equation but i think that engineering skills are the primary focus, a lot of the Company Perks are oriented towards hiring those employees. Obviously you cannot have a product without it. But without those people it does lead to the internal hierarchy that can leave a lot of people feeling like secondclass citizens. So i mention race je and gender because thats into the hierarchy. And it can influence internally. I think thats exactly what im getting at. And im wondering and appreciate you laying that out. I think that is now coming a little bit more right now in the question around what should be the most prized Position Company and whos going to be hired and you tell me, fundamental assumption thats being asked the question in the wake of whatever just questioning. I think what is concerning to me is a completion of american capitalism. And amplified in the valley, and your personal work is directly correlated contribution or value in the marketplace. And being an engineer and a certain mindset or in a certain value system. It has a sort of weird at least to a certain hierarchy and mindset that is very oriented toward the bottom line or something free and an approach in life to leadership and organization. I think the leadership thing so we get past and we go to your neck start up and you reference but not exactly no but when do we get to the second ceo who is challenging or interesting sort of like i dont know exactly what i described but it seems like a lot of the issues that one might have for a leader here, im just wondering problems in leadership how did you proceed the sky . It is in the book mike. [laughter] the ceo of the company that i work for in San Francisco was 24 when i joined the company, i was 25. Its a worldly experience and the company had been through i think its hard to get to do run a company full of adult many who have dependents or debts or whatever i do not envy anyone in opposition or who self select for that position if youre lucky. But i have a lot of sympathy for someone who is growing up at the same time they are learning i think the reason i dont know executives, there are few of them in the behavior that i saw institutionally as well as individually was more of a result of a structural position than individual failure. I realize that is exculpatory narrative and exculpatory framework. So if you had not read the book she does not name any companies or people but theres obvious. Is not to be coy or to offer a puzzle for people to solve may be as good its good. A common leadership style has more to do with the incentive of the Business Models and industry and let me illustrate this, i told the antidote that i was reading. I feel like im walking onto these readings with my own book and im an American Girl doll. [laughter] hearing with my book until im antidote. [laughter] i think it was in new york someone came up to me and they mentioned in which they talk about how early members of my team were brought into a Conference Room in my manager asked us who are the five smartest people that you know. Right there names down and we all did this, and then he said look at your list, why dont they work here. [inaudible] [laughter] and i was like why would they work here, theres so many other useful things to do in the world. Why would my friends who are in graduate school they probably would make their way but why would these people who are smart and talented and interested in other things why should they work at the analytics company. Im here because i dont know my purpose and im trying to figure that out while making a salary and having Health Insurance. Its the idea that they should work here because it has economic value. Anyway you think thats endemic to how these companies work. This is the antidote that im telling. Sorry. [laughter] its a very long story. Im behaving as we should have a one line answer for everything. So the woman came up after this event and the same thing happened in my company. And it wasnt the first time i heard it, another woman had texted me too say this is like deja vu, i cant believe this happened they must have read it on the blog post. Because i was too was pulled into a room and asked to write down the names of the people that i know at a totally Different Company, ceo is probably not friends. I feel like theres this thing that happened with what had to do with intellectual culture which i would call in tight antiintellectual and people read business advice, they send you a ton of money and a ton of accountability to their investors inattentive responsible due to their employees. And theyre trying to figure out how they read and they read a post how you can scale hiring and get really good people for your core team that will set the tone for the rest of your company, corral your employees and push them to recruit them and say will pay you 5,008,0000 tried so hard to recruit people without the smartest people that i knew. Anyway it was endemic and i think the industry has values and maybe youve seen this in your excellent book investigation of uber. It is called super pump by mike isaac available at this book store. He will be signing after words. I think the Company Cultures or by the Business Model in the business incentive of an venturecapital so you have prioritization of speed and skill in the industry that has been incubating if you will for 25 years, 30, 40 years. 50 years . And you get this weird cultural product that does not value expertise values that we need over consideration and research and has an interrogative i dont know what im talking about im so sorry. Im just going for. I dont remember actually. Cspan. You should just wave hi. Its fair to say im wondering if there are parts of your experience that actually appreciated, journalist in the valley now are typically handed a lot of tech folks that think tech is doing good for the world in a positive thing. Even questioning that is kind of dangerous sometimes. I guess im wondering for the benefit of the doubt if there are parts of the culture that you took away from her time in prep. There is. This is the heart of the book and i think there was a lot that i appreciated about working there, i dont know if in my 30s i would go back and appreciate the same things to be totally honest. I happen to be the right age and the right your needs to be an ideal employee in a certain way. In my 20s. Im 32. In my 20s having mentor not knowing anyone from a different city trying to find meaning, i think what i admire and appreciate it was the commodity and the commitment to a common project, a collective project if you will, i liked that people seem to have an autonomy for a little while and i think thats part of the problem people having a ptolemy who dont necessarily have the authority to have the a ptolemy or should not necessarily but there seem to be some potential even people with the autonomy replicates how structures that exist externally and for years. Initially that was i think, theres one more thing that i actually did enjoy and appreciate the culture. I think its very earnest someone who is constantly going back and forth between detached marker in deep painful earnestness. [laughter] i dont know if you can relate. They might be wrong but i generally believe people in texas and for doing good for the world, i believe that they believe it and they trust them when they say it. I think whats missing, the problems are systemic and i dont think there rooted in the individual also id be curious what do you think on uber and travis. [laughter] but i do wonder, i dont even actually know for legally allowed to answer this question you can move to the next one if you want to but do you feel like someone ive heard people say uber could not exist if it did not have a crazy culture, my question should exist . And obviously that culture should not exist and if you dont have a culture and communism does not happen maybe that is fine. [inaudible] thats where youre going with this. [laughter] you see a structural explanation for his behavior one that is related to the incentive or of the industry that could potentially be forgiving of Something Like that. I think your getting at the exact right thing. I think the whole if you boil down how this works, youre getting investment in your company and you have to hit the next level whether users or revenue or something and for most companies it can get desperate and you have to start doing things that you might not of been legal. [laughter] and i dont know think its baked into how this works but i also think there is justification. Like the people who already own space, the incumbents, protected in ways that are not fair and believe, im not saying this is wrong, you can believe in your own reasons for doing a lot of this stuff. To go back on my own argument i think that people are in the same structural position and not hassles. Do you have to be a jerk to do well in the industry, depending on who the ceo is. Right. Seems fair to answer that. I was thinking about a moment that were in the phenomenon of something the tech brings about as bad. When would somebody call a trough of disillusionment. Were all

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