The Resurgence and the Mystery
Paulina Borsook's career had been in a state of dormancy for decades, but a series of recent offers have reignited interest in her work. However, the 72-year-old's mind is still reeling from the question of what had ruined her life. In 2000, she published a book, 'Cyberselfish,' that critiqued the malevolent tendencies within the tech industry. Despite receiving warm reviews, her career seemed to take a nosedive, and she began to wonder if she had been blacklisted. Her health deteriorated, and she found herself living in others' homes, eventually turning to crowdfunding for support. The book, 'TDB,' became a source of shame and aversion for her.
The Rise and Fall of 'Cyberselfish'
'Cyberselfish' was a book that discerned the dead-eyed, woman-hating social malevolence within the tech utopianism of the era. It was smart and funny, and it sold well, with 7,000 copies in total. However, after 2000, her career seemed to fall into a deep freeze. Editors stopped calling, and no second book deal materialized. She began to suspect that she had been blacklisted. Her health issues only worsened, and she found herself living in other people's homes, eventually turning to crowdfunding for support. The book, 'TDB,' became a source of shame and aversion for her.
The Resurgence and the Revelation
In December of last year, Borsook began a period of what she terms as a 'resuscitation thing.' Her work was being celebrated by tech critics, and she was being recognized as a prophet in her time. However, her mind was still haunted by the question of what had happened to her career. The recent offers have reignited interest, but she remains confused about the cause. She believes that her work may have been a source of her downfall, but she also wonders if it was something as depressingly commonplace as sexism. She is left questioning how to think about herself, even after her recent success.
Early Insights into Technology
Before she became one of the sharpest media observers of early Silicon Valley, Borsook first learned how to see tech. In the early 1980s, she worked as a technical writer for Construction Information Systems, documenting the workings of a minicomputer. She learned two important things at that job. The first is that tech is "infrastructure, not magic," and the second is that the computer is a way of seeing into the mind of another human. It is, ineluctably, social. Learning about PICK taught her that software was a human artifact, and that she began to be able to think the way the creators of PICK thought. The dyer's hand, the design sensibility, the cognitive blind spots: all evident and all human artifacts. Technology is idiosyncratic like the humans who devise it and the people who make it are just people.
The Human in the Machine
Borsook's work as a journalist covered the industry, and her writing seemed to flow from a simple imperative drawn from her experience at that minicomputer: never lose sight of the human in the machine. She described her writerly voice as one of "agonized humanism." Her own politics ran to the left, broadly speaking, and she seemed to cherish her own à la carte apostasies. She wasn't embarrassed to say she agreed with the libertarians in their premises. More than anything, she wanted "to be left alone." Her work as a journalist and her early insights into technology have shaped her perspective and continue to influence her work today.
The Mystery of Her Career
Paulina Borsook's career resurgence is a mystery, but her early insights into tech's human side may have been her undoing. The recent offers have reignited interest, but she remains confused about the cause. She believes that her work may have been a source of her downfall, but she also wonders if it was something as depressingly commonplace as sexism. She is left questioning how to think about herself, even after her recent success. The mystery of her career may never be fully solved, but her work as a journalist and her early insights into technology continue to shape her perspective and influence her work today.