Uncanny Valley
Anna Weiner
Anna Weiner
That day—or rather, those years—I felt like my job was slowly but surely consuming me. I was anxious, burned out, increasingly irritable, and had less and less time to do anything other than stare at a screen. I carried my laptop around in my bag all day, even on vacation, and juggled expenses to pay rent, which took more than half of my salary. At the same time, I was 24, and I felt guilty for "complaining" or not feeling lucky about the opportunity I was being "given." For all these reasons, I decided to buy Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener.
I had read her article published in N+1 magazine, recounting different anecdotes from her first job, and I felt a strong connection to some of the things she described. I don’t know why people were surprised by how quickly it went viral when most young people entering the workforce for the first time (especially in creative fields—don’t even get me started) feel exactly like this writer.
This book originates from that article: her firsthand experience in Silicon Valley, working at a seductive tech startup at the age of 25. And you don’t have to live in San Francisco, work at Amazon, commute to the office on a skateboard, or drink at the company bar to identify with her story. Sadly, it seemed to me that many young people feel lost between societal expectations and workplace realities: endless hours, low salaries, corporate culture seeping into everything (even your kombucha bottle), “the prettier, younger, thinner, and—most importantly—quieter, the better,” the microcosm you believe you belong to, poke bowls for lunch, sexist institutions, power-hungry ambitions, uncontrollable egos, and… people referring to money like K.
I loved Anna Wiener’s clarity and bravery in giving a voice to the dark side of these jobs: the conformity that so many of us accept for the sake of our dreams. The promising future they paint for you every day, and that you cling to every night when you return home on the subway with your packed lunch in your bag, realizing it’s been four days since you called your mom to ask how she’s doing.
A series that also touches on this: The Social Dilemma (Netflix)
Related books: El descontento by Beatriz Serrano
Note
“Warm laundry, radio, waiting for the bus. I could get frustrated, overextended, overwhelmed, uncomfortable. Sometimes I ran late. But these banal inefficiencies—I thought they were luxuries, the mark of the unencumbered. Time to do nothing, to let my mind run anywhere, to be in the world. At the very least, they made me feel human.”