Book Review: Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech
by Paulina Borsook
In a delightfully trenchant and hilarious narrative Paulina Borsook presents a much needed woman’s perspective on the computer industry from the inside—this book has stood the test of a quarter-century, and it’s as true or more today than when it was first written. Those who lived through the 1990s as adults will likely recognize the types of people, events, and publications chronicled in this book. The obvious composition of this tech bro culture is almost exclusively white and male, with its toxic mixture of Calvinist work ethic and sense of predestination for the worthy ones to rule the world—while this culture may be artificial its existence is also historical prior to the advent of cybertech, and it has permeated everyone’s perception of what are healthy relationships more than many people are aware or willing to admit. Although it’s easy (and fun) to laugh at the antics, hangups, and distorted societal views of tech industry executives, their contribution to the erosion of free time and family life as well as their unhealthy accumulation of wealth is no laughing matter—the proto-Nerd Reich they spawned then is killing us today.
Borsook skewers the related start-up culture, with its fixation on the venture capital driven frenzy to deliver a profitable unicorn primarily through low overhead software development alone—and the focus on an early high return cash out exit strategy over nurturing a firmly established business. The norm in these cases is too often sleepless all night coding sessions, calling out for pizza at 1 AM, and foregoing any semblance of a personal life, all for the rush and high of moving fast and breaking things (and dreams of getting rich)—then doing it all over again with a new venture. One doesn’t have to step back very far to see the insanity of this race to the life-sucking pot of gold at the end of the cyber rainbow, with leisure time and even community service belittled as meaningless and unproductive. From the societal benefit and human well being aspects (for founder and tech grunt alike) the whole process is senseless, even as its touted to would-be techies as the only cool way to live.
Throughout the book Borsook exposes the corrosive effects of reducing everything to its market value—allowing to no other metric any meaningful significance (there’s little room for art and music, and original research—the latter of which is happily delegated to taxpayer supported endeavors, and then glommed on to when proven profitable from others’ inventions). In the tech world the philistines really do rule due to their being smarter than everyone else—just ask them. With the market as their beacon, fake philanthropy abounds. Giving is done from overstocked inventory to reduce taxes and make the books better for the next earnings call. Borsook mocks this attitude with effect, comparing it to the cat dropping a dead rat on your doorstep because in her world it’s an item of value (yours, not so much)—the tech bros only give things that they think are important, such as computers and even routers that are of little use to schools that are instead in dire need of funding for teachers in a high cost area.
The false axiom that greed is good has long since worn out its welcome—real world events have exposed both neoliberal economics and tech fascism as just two sides of the same coin. Wealthy tech executives are numb to the sufferings of the people who make their success possible—the humanity of persons who are not them is not a factor in their universe. There is ample evidence that capitalism works only when it’s choke chain is yanked by moral decency and effective protection of common human well being. Borsook has revealed the selfish cyber-child as a self-selected lone wolf who is oblivious to the real world communal support that continues to feed and sustain him. To stop the selfish child from eating his own house (and ours too!) it’s time to take away his toys until he learns to value all of his fellow humans—as well as his own humanity.