‘Uncanny Valley’ Named One of the 10 Best Books of 2020

Read OneZero’s interview with author Anna Wiener

Damon Beres
OneZero

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“Uncanny Valley” author Anna Wiener. Photo: Kelsey McClellan, as seen in OneZero’s February Q&A.

Anna Wiener’s Uncanny Valley, a ruminative and cutting memoir about tech startups in the 2010s, is officially one of the best books of the year—at least, according to the New York Times. On Monday, the paper placed the book on its always buzzy top-10 list.

Earlier this year, OneZero held a panel discussion with Wiener, Jessica Powell, and our senior editor Brian Merchant, touching on topics like sexism, power, and diversity in Silicon Valley. Wiener reflected on her decision to write Uncanny Valley as nonfiction.

“My reason for writing the book as memoir was I felt that — especially as a nontechnical woman with the story I had — if I had disguised it as fiction, it would not be taken seriously,” she said. “I wanted people to understand that these things all happen, the good and the bad, that my experience here was as fortuitous as it was disenchanting.”

Read the full interview below:

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Damon Beres
OneZero

Co-Founder and Former Editor in Chief, OneZero at Medium