Thread by @doctorow

Abolish Silicon Valley is @dellsystem's new memoir about her journey from community-minded online fandom nerd to cyberselfish startup person to anticapitalist activist. It's marvelous and timely.

boingboing.net/2020/04/14/sei…

1/

Liu's work traces an emotional and political journey from joyful participation to driven striving to urgent solidarity, and is a perfect case-study for understanding the rise and rise of tech worker politicization.

2/

Liu is pitiless and remorseless in her self-examination, and that honesty provides the insight needed to understand how smart people kid themselves into doing terrible things -- and what it takes to pull back from the brink.

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She rejects the tech-exceptionalist idea that tech is intrinsically corrupting or corrupt. Rather, she locates her critique at the intersection of unregulated, runaway capitalism and the power of tech to act as a force-multiplier for the people who control it.

4/

Which is why the book ends with a set of proposed reforms that would liberate tech from rapacious, uncaring capitalism. I like the majority of these (as I point out in my review, I think that licensure/liability for programmers is at odds with making all software free/open).

5/

But that's a small quibble. This is an outstanding book: beautifully written, urgent and timely.

repeaterbooks.com/product/abolis…

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