Unit X by Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff

UNIT X by Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff explores “How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War.” In the past, it was the Pentagon which often funded private experimentation with technologies like nuclear power, lasers, and even early versions of the internet. But in the early twenty-first century, military technology was far behind available options (think GPS, drone application, facial recognition, etc.).  Acknowledgement of this situation led to the establishment of Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, DIUx, formed in 2015 and headquartered in Mountain View, California. Shah and Kirchhoff were two of the founders and hence provide an inside look at Unit X’s evolution. They chronicle the initial resistance from DoD as officials sought to protect relationships with traditional suppliers and appropriations from Congress. And then there was resistance within Silicon Valley, as when three thousand Google employees signed a letter arguing that the company “should not be in the business of war.” Readers will be fascinated by stories involving companies like Palantir, Anduril, Shield AI, Joby Aviation and venture capitalists as well as the authors’ insightful analysis of the culture clash between the military, clearly risk-adverse and bureaucratic, and tech innovators. The authors poignantly conclude: “the ultimate goal is not to win wars but to deter them. … Advocates of innovation must keep pressing despite the seemingly Sisyphean task of reform. Leadership must back them to the hilt.” An extensive Bibliography (about 15% of the book) and a helpful Index are included. Recent analyses of military tech “disruptors” and future trends are available online from sources such as RAND, McKinsey and Brookings.  UNIT X was longlisted for the Financial Times Best Book of the Year and reviewed further in publications like The Wall Street Journal and briefly in Foreign Affairs.

Happy for You by Claire Stanford

HAPPY FOR YOU by Claire Stanford is a novel that made me smile (I loved the repeated references to the third-most-popular-internet company), but also this debut text made me sigh as the pace was rather slow. True to form, the main character, a young woman named Evelyn Kominsky Kumamoto, is very introspective; even noting at one point: “How was it possible that I knew so much about how to think, but so little about what to do?” She struggles to understand and cope with Silicon Valley norms while working with colleagues on a research project to define and promote happiness. Also, Stanford deftly captures Evelyn’s inability to commit when grappling with unclear feelings in her personal life with boyfriend Jamie and with her widowed father who has found a new companion after almost twenty years. The many incidents where Evelyn reflects on what it means to be bi-racial were often more perceptive than her comments on happiness. HAPPY FOR YOU may be worth a look, particularly if you enjoyed recommended titles like Joan is Okay by Weike Wang, Sourdough by Robin Sloan, or Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong. 

No Filter by Sarah Frier

NO FILTER: The Inside Story of Instagram by Sarah Frier has a beautiful, attention-grabbing cover as befits a topic that is so visually oriented. Frier, a reporter on social media companies for Bloomberg News, also provides a fascinating read, beginning with an author’s note where she explains that this story takes place over ten years and that she wrote in a narrative style to help protect the identities of her sources due to the non-disclosure contracts they had signed. NO FILTER discusses the founding and coding of the app, its uses and misuses (including during election times), and the role of celebrities and influencers. Of particular interest to readers will be the way in which this innovative product was transformed after its purchase by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion. An noteworthy and informative case study worth reading, NO FILTER is currently one of the nominees in the Science and Technology category for the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2020.