Summary

Anna Wiener arrived in Silicon Valley at a pivotal time in tech when startups were taking off. Unsatisfied with her job at a literary agency in Manhattan, Anna applied for a job at an e-book startup, despite the fact that she was unfamiliar with the tech world. She began a three-month trial run at that company in 2013 but the scope and responsibilities of her job were unclear. Nevertheless, she feels she is useful and can contribute. She enjoys the work but soon comes to feel that her position at the company is expendable. She is soon let go. Looking back, Anna realized that she did not have enough of the existential entrepreneurial spirit to make herself indispensable in the tech industry.

Anna travels to San Francisco where she interviews and lands a job at a data analytics startup. She moves to the...