AWall Street Journal Bestseller
An insiders revealing and in-depth examination of Big Techs failure to keep its foundational promises and the steps the industry can take to course-correct in order to make a positive impact on the world.
Trampled by Unicorns: Big Techs Empathy Problem and How to Fix It explores how technology has progressed humanitys most noble pursuits, while also grappling with the origins of the industrys destructive empathy deficit and the practical measures Big Tech can take to self-regulate and make it right again. Author Maëlle Gavet examines the tendency for many of Big Techs stars to stray from their user-first ideals and make products that actually profoundly damage their customers and ultimately society.
Offering an account of the world of tech startups in the United States and Europefrom Amazon, Google, and Facebook to Twitter, Airbnb, and Uber (to name a few)Trampled by Unicorns argues that the causes and consequences of Big Techs failures originate from four main sources: the Valleys cultural insularity, the hyper-growth business model, the sectors stunning lack of diversity, and a dangerous self-sustaining ecosystem. However, the book is not just an account of how an industry came off the rails, but also a passionate call to action on how to get it back on track.
Gavet, a leading technology executive and former CEO of Ozon, an executive vice president at Priceline Group, and chief operating officer of Compass, formulates a clear call to action for industry leaders, board members, employees, and consumers/users to drive the change necessary to create better, more sustainable businessesand the steps Western governments are likely to take should tech leaders fail to do so. Steps that include reformed tax codes, reclassification of platforms as information companies, new labor laws, and algorithmic transparency and oversight.
Trampled by Unicorns exploration of the promise and dangers of technology is perfect for anyone with an interest in entrepreneurship, tech, and global commerce, and a hope of technologys all-empowering prospect. An illuminating book full of insights,Trampled by Unicorns describes a realistic path forward, even as it uncovers and explains the errors of the past. As Gavet puts it, we dont need less tech, we need more empathetic tech. And how that crucial distinction can be achieved by the tech companies themselves, driving change as governments actively pave the road ahead.
Introduction 1
Part One Monsters of Scale
Chapter 1 Making the World a Better Place 7
Tech as Driver of Economic and Social Progress 7
Hidden Effects 10
Chapter 2 Culture Bubble 13
What Do Engineers Know About the World! 16
Steve Jobs Didnt Build Apple by Being Humble and Caring About People 19
Chapter 3 Emerald Cities 23
Landlords Pounding on the Door 25
We Know Our Responsibility to Help Starts at Home 28
Shockingly Poor Value for Taxpayers 29
Chapter 4 The New Feudalism 35
The Human Impact of Tech Disruption 35
They Do a Lot More Revenue with a Lot Fewer People 39
$1.42 per Hour 41
Chapter 5 Anti-Social Networks 43
Undermining Facts and Science 44
Democracy Under Attack 47
Unrelenting Hate 50
When She Showed Me the Messages, I Just Felt Sick 53
#NewZealandmosqueattack 54
The Ugly 57
YouTube Recommended Alex Jones 15 Billion Times 58
Section 230 60
Youre Arguing About Whether the Babys Dead 61
Im Going to Show You More Car Crashes 65
Chapter 6 Venture Capital and the Holy Grail of Scale 67
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 69
Its All About Scale 70
You Dont Scale Fast If You Try to Get Everything Perfect 72
FOMO 73
Harvard or Stanford? 74
A New Investor Class? 76
Chapter 7 Psychos of the Valley 79
A Grandiose Sense of Self-Worth and Poor Behavioral Controls 81
Shallow Affect (Superficial Emotional Responses) 83
Pathological Lying 85
A Lack of Remorse or Guilt and a Failure to Accept Responsibility for Ones Own Actions 86
Callousness and Lack of Empathy 87
Juvenile Delinquency 88
Chapter 8 Between Scylla and Charybdis: What Happens If We Do Nothing 91
The Orwell Scenario 92
The Huxley Scenario 96
Part Two Fixing the Chaos Factory
Chapter 9 We Should All Be Chief Empathy Officer 105
What Does an Empathetic Company Look Like? 107
1. People 108
2. Decision-Making Processes 114
3. Business Model and Economics 119
Chapter 10 A Multiplayer Game: Corporate Governance in Tech 121
1. Investors 121
2. Boards and Shareholders 122
3. Stock Exchanges 125
4. Investment Bankers and Proxy Advisors 126
5. Industry Bodies 127
Chapter 11 Breaking Up Big Tech? 129
Big Techs Anticompetitive Behavior 130
The Anti-Antitrust Cocktail 132
Reinvigorating Antitrust 133
Zuckerbergs Pushback (And Where HesWrong) 139
Antitrust Is Not a Universal Tool 143
Chapter 12 Tax, Privacy, and Other Running Sores 145
Implementing Fair and Equitable Taxation 146
Modernizing Employment and Labor Protections 151
Protecting Privacy and Rethinking Data Ownership 153
Fighting for the Preservation of Facts and Civil Discourse 158
Setting Standards for Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and Facial Recognition 166
Chapter 13 Big Tech Broke the News Media: Whats Next? 173
Sign a Big Check, Then Get Out of theWay 174
Facebook and Google Are New Versions of Media Companies 177
News Organizations Need More Than Ever to Keep Big Tech Accountable 178
Chapter 14 People Power 181
Epilogue: A Manifesto for Change 185
Acknowledgments 191
About the Author 193
Index 195
