Work and Culture in Tech Ecosystems Winter 2022

After watching the documentary on Elizabeth Holmes and learning about the thoughts of those that worked with her and interviewed her, one can say that her attitude towards 'fake it till you make it' really worked against her in the end. However, at the beginning of her road to becoming a well-known entrepreneur like Steve Jobs, someone she idolized very much, her blind attitude to win the support and followership of others through her speeches and karma led her to garner such a huge follower base and following. I had prior knowledge of both Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos and their so called revolutionary technology in blood testing and the medical industry. What they were trying to do, both Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, was very important and pretty much affected everyone around the world because if their Edison machine could work it could not only save lives but change the way we detect diseases through blood. Just like those who were interviewed in the movie said,...

 Just in time for our blog discussion, this article appeared in today's (January 24, 2022) New York Times Opinion | What Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos Reveal About Venture Capitalism - The New York Times (nytimes.com) The article may behind a paywall if you do not have an NYT subscription as I do, so here is the text: By  Sebastian Mallaby Mr. Mallaby is the author of “ The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future ,” from which this essay is adapted. The conviction this month of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the fraudulent blood-testing start-up Theranos, has been presented as something grander: the discrediting of venture capital. Gullible investors poured  almost $1 billion  into Theranos, only to discover that it had all the substance of a B-movie prop. Coming on top of the venture crowd’s well-known offenses — sexism (women account for a shockingly low 16 percent of venture capital investment partners), racial bias (just 3 percent of partners ar...

This was such an interesting documentary to me as I was vaguely familiar with Elizabeth Holmes prior to the video but mainly knew her from the infamous "Steve Jobs" photo. Before the documentary had even mentioned Steve Jobs, I had an idea that Holmes would be compared to him due to the popular image that Holmes took.    I thought this was a rather intriguing story as it outlines Holmes' invention and the rise and quick downfall that came with it. Holmes invented Theranos and an alternative that allowed for individuals to stop having to get blood drawn in the traditional sense (phlebotomy) and erase this discomfort from the lives of everyone. Her reason behind the invention was due to her uncle getting sick and shortly passing after the diagnosis, which led her to want to create something that could relieve the pain these individuals had to face every time they gave blood. This story struck a chord in me as I have a chronic illness that forces me to get bloodwork done twi...

  In order to incite some initial discussion on the blog, I want to pose some questions about the “moral space” of the tech industry and how people in tech attempt to orient themselves in that space in their work. The history of the tech industry—as it is told and understood by key actors within it—is often rendered as a story or tale of virtuous striving by individual entrepreneurs who found their own companies and create radically innovative products that are not just commodities, but technologies that “change the world” as know it. Think Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and so on. In the moral space of tech in particular and informational capitalism writ large, the biographical stories of ascent and accomplishment become narrative frames and templates by which inhabitants of tech culture assess and evaluate their own identity, ambition, and moral worth.   Consider the stories of Wendy Liu and Elizabeth Holmes. Obviously, their specif...

After watching the Elizabeth Holmes documentary, this week’s readings which I originally found boring, suddenly gained my interest. I believe the video did a great job in tying in the readings on the subject of ethical issues within tech companies with a modern example.  One of the things I found interesting was the idea that when an ideology becomes well known to the point that it becomes common sense, is when it becomes powerful. This can be seen with Wendy Liu’s adventure so far, as there are many ideologies that she experiences. The main ideology which I believe relates to all of this, is her belief of meritocracy. It seemed to be common sense to her that she deserved to earn the money that she did when she interned at Google, even though she felt unfulfilled in some way. She based this belief off of the high value of her work, as well as the effort she put into enhancing her coding skills. In the Elizabeth Holmes video, we can also see an example of ideology becoming common se...

  Welcome to the CS400Y  Work Cultures of Tech Ecologies Blog! 1) Our class will maintain a collaborative course blog throughout the semester. We are using the blog form as a medium for: • Sharing resources, ideas, links, and feedback with your classmates • Maintaining engagement with the themes and concerns of the course • Using a social media platform to write for a closed and supportive audience 2)  You are required to post  at least  four  original substantive entries and at least ten substantive comments  in response to classmates’ posts over the course of the term. 3)  You must post at least two blog entries and four comments in response to the entries and comments of other class members by the beginning of Reading Week,  February 18, 2022 . 4) Your contributions to the blog will be assessed at the end of the semester and given a single overall mark — you will be assessed on evidence of engagement with ideas, and on clarity and effectiv...