Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
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How a controversial rationalist blogger became a mascot and martyr in a struggle against the New York Times. Illustration by Ben Wiseman On June 22nd, visitors to Slate Star Codex, a long-standing blog of considerable influence, discovered that the site’s cerulean banner and graying WordPress design scheme had been superseded by a barren white…
San Francisco police officers wait while homeless people collect their belongings Tuesday, March 1, 2016, in San Francisco. Photo: Ben Margot (AP) In spite of some public bellyaching over perceived fairness on behalf of several high-profile, wealthy technology company heads prior to election day, the voters of San Francisco have cast their ballots in favor…
When Facebook moves into its new offices in Mountain View this fall, a signature Silicon Valley perk will be missing — there won’t be a corporate cafeteria with free food for about 2,000 employees. In an unusual move, the city barred companies from fully subsidizing meals inside the offices, which are part of the Village…
The San Francisco Bay Area has rapidly become the richest region in the country—the Census Bureau said last year that median household income was $96,777. It’s a place where $100,000 Teslas are commonplace, “raw water” goes for $37 a jug, and injecting clients with the plasma of youth —a gag on the television show Silicon Valley—is being tried by…
Photo: Jeff Chiu (AP) Throughout Bad Blood, John Carreyrou’s excellent new book about fraudulent blood-testing company Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes, the $9 billion company keeps running into the same problem: would-be investors or retailers want to see a demonstration of its technology. This is an issue for Elizabeth Holmes’s company, because their shit…
In September, I met with a prominent entrepreneur looking for positive press on his new project. Meetings like these are a common, usually formulaic, part of my job—except in this one, the conversation drifted to the tech industry’s year of bad headlines. As we discussed the latest sexual harassment scandal, he posed a question: Will…
If 2016 was the year of “Uber for X,” 2017 was the year of Silicon Valley “inventing” things. The tech industry officially ran out of ideas this year. Rather than tacking on some tech element to things that already exist, it edged closer to just renaming the things that already exist. To be fair to…
A top Uber executive who reportedly obtained the medical records of a woman who was raped by her Uber driver was only fired after journalists learned of the incident, it emerged on Wednesday. According to reports on the tech website Recode and in the New York Times, Eric Alexander, the president of business for Uber…
There was a “lactation/quiet room” sign on the door and the room had been reserved for that purpose on the company calendar. So Hannah was surprised when she walked in to discover a male co-worker using the lactation room for a phone call. “I had to stand there with my sore, full boobs and explain…
The first question in the FAQ section of Juicero’s website is “How do I make juice?” The answer is a five-step process, starting with “Take a pack from the Juicero carton in your refrigerator.” The next three steps involve properly situating the pack in your $400 Juicero machine, hanging it on a small internal hook,…