In some ways, Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener is a memoir in two parts.

The first part is set in New York, when Anna was in her mid-twenties, and working in the publishing industry. There was none of the glamour or perks that she had anticipated and while the ‘meaningfulness’ of her work had initially sustained her, it did not pay the bills.

While my future peers were hiring wealth advisors and going on meditation retreats in Bali to pursue self-actualization, I was vacuuming roaches off the walls of my rental apartment, smoking weed, and bicycling to warehouse concerts along the East River, staving off a thrumming sense of dread.

She describes herself as ‘privileged and downwardly mobile’, her life in the city subsidised by her ‘generous, forgiving parents’.  But with less than a year left on her parents’ health insurance plan, Anna turns to the emerging digital economy and takes a job – with health benefits – with a startup. It had a book-and-publishing angle, so she hadn’t completely sold-out. Continue reading →