Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech

by Sara Wachter-Boettcher

The platforms in this chapter have much in common: they rose to power during the early 2000s, and built unique models of social connection. They also share an abdication of responsibility—a collective shrug of the shoulders at the harm they have caused, and an unwillingness to take responsibility for preventing it in the future.

The problem is that Uber’s idea of meritocracy—a workplace where the best idea wins, and people are encouraged to clamber over one another to have their name on it—tends to fall back on a really narrow concept of “best.”

Study after study shows that diverse teams perform better.

Uber may be an extreme example, but it can help us understand tech’s insular culture much more clearly: if tech wants to be seen as special—and therefore able to operate outside the rules—then it helps to position the people working inside tech companies as special too. And the best way to ensure that happens is to build a monoculture, where insiders bond over a shared belief in their own brilliance.

design and programming are just professions—sets of skills and practices, just like any other field. Admitting that truth would make tech positions feel a lot more welcoming to diverse employees,

One of the first things Butterfield wants to know about when interviewing candidates for a position isn’t which programming languages they know or where their computer science degree is from. It’s whether they believe luck played a role in getting them where they are—whether they think their success is a product not just of merit and talent, but of good circumstances. His goal is simple: to build a team where people don’t assume they’re special. No rock stars, no gurus, no ninjas—just people who bring a combination of expertise, humility, and empathy.