Silicon Valley prides itself on radical new ideas, but are its philosophies truly groundbreaking – or just old concepts dressed up in a hoodie? In What Tech Calls Thinking, Adrian Daub unpacks the intellectual roots of the tech industry, showing how its defining ideas – like the glorified dropout or the gospel of “disruption” – aren’t as original as they seem.
Drawing connections to thinkers like Heidegger and Ayn Rand, the New Age Esalen movement, and even religious traditions like tent revivals and predestination, Daub reveals how Silicon Valley recycles familiar narratives to justify its actions. With sharp analysis and a lively style, What Tech Calls Thinking pulls back the curtain on the myths tech tells about itself, offering a compelling critique of its self-image and influence.
About the Author
Adrian Daub is an academic and critic based in San Francisco and Berlin. He is currently the J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor in the Humanities in the Departments of Comparative Literature and German Studies at Stanford University, where he specializes in culture and politics of the nineteenth century, as well as questions of gender and sexuality. Since 2019, he has also served as the Faculty Director of the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research.
