Uncanny Valley: A Memoir

“The ecosystem” refers to the startup scene in Silicon Valley. It is a term used by insiders and participants in the scene “high on the fumes of world historical potential” (3). It stands in juxtaposition to other ways of describing the burgeoning industry, for example as a “bubble.” Recalling a chaotic web of relationships and chain reactions, it nods toward the disruption, volatility, and unpredictability of startups. Wiener begins to use the phrase casually and liberally after moving to San Francisco—a sign that she has become an insider herself.

God Mode is a setting that allows members of the Solutions team at the mobile analytics company to view customers’ data sets, enabling them “to experience the product through their eyes” (45). Since the company’s product is widely used as a tool for collecting user data across the industry, God Mode gives Wiener and her teammates privileged access to other companies’ engagement metrics—a “business education” that allowed Wiener to view companies’ private successes, struggles, and failures across the industry. God Mode is an early example of the exceptional power and transgressions of privacy that come to define the tech industry.

Meritocracy refers to a system in which power and wealth are awarded to members of a society who display the greatest level of talent. When Wiener begins work at the open-source startup, she notices a banner proclaiming “In Meritocracy We Trust” hung in the company’s Oval Office-themed lobby. Wiener gradually begins to appreciate the way this concept is a favorite operating philosophy in many startups across the industry. The concept of meritocracy claims to be an egalitarian system, but in practice, Wiener sees that it is ahistorical and amoral, overlooking dynamics of individual privilege and structural inequity.

The term “pickax” refers to a business-to-business tool made to improve business infrastructure, as opposed to providing a service. The mobile analytics company makes such a pickax: a product providing not only data collection but sleek, dynamic visualization of metrics. As Wiener arrives in San Francisco in “the era of big data” (39), companies rush to collect user data with the goal of drastically increasing revenue. Wiener emphasizes a parallel of blind opportunism between the two eras of mining: “History saw the Gold Rush as a cautionary tale, but in Silicon Valley, people used its metaphors proudly, provided they were on the right side of things” (38).

The term “rocket ship” refers to Silicon Valley startups that enjoy high revenue, fast growth, and heavy investment from venture capitalists eager to drive the business towards “unicorn” status. Wiener’s bosses at the e-book startup refer her to the mobile analytics company believing it is a rocket ship, which turns out to be true: “We weren’t just beating the odds; we were soaring past them. This was what everyone who trekked out to the Bay Area wanted, but it was not supposed to happen” (57).

The term “unicorn” refers to a startup that is valued at over a billion dollars by its investors; a rare achievement in a scene defined by experiment and frequent failure. Along with other vernacular, the term “unicorn” reflects the absurd aesthetics of the generation of young men brought up on cartoons and video games who now dominate the industry. After immersing herself in the culture of Silicon Valley, Wiener grows wary of such rhetoric. In one anecdote, she walks onto a recruitment banner covering a train platform, featuring people standing in V-formation wearing unicorn masks, which reads, “BUILT BY HUMANS, USED BY UNICORNS.” The ad is, to her, as meaningless as it is overwhelming.