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Books Read This Month: March ‘23
On tech and confidence
While the 2 books this month seem valuable, they didn’t resonate with me for the most part.
I noticed a bit of repetition in the writing styles as opposed to a nice flowing story. However, the underlying messages are important for people to consider.
As another reminder, for $10–20 a month you can learn anything from anyone’s decades of experience by reading books. So get some.
Work Pray Code by Carolyn Chen
Work Pray Code tells the story of how Silicon Valley’s tech and startup cultures heavily mimic that of organized religion. The author notes that many inhabitants of the Silicon Valley region are from other cultures and regions around the world.
Many of these “migrants” bring with them religious roots from growing up with families and in communities that actively practiced some religion. However after some time in the valley, many of these people grow apart from their past communities and stop practicing religion altogether.
Tech companies offer things like “wellness retreats”, free lunches, and yoga all in the name of achieving better well-being. However, the underlying motivation seems to be offering these services for the purpose of making workers “as productive as possible”.
