System Upgrade – The New York Times (free article)
System Upgrade
We explore the new vibe in Silicon Valley.
A Twitter sign being removed in San Francisco in 2023. Credit…Jim Wilson / The New York TimesI’m the editor of this newsletter.
Aug. 4, 2025, 7:03 a.m. ET You’re reading The Morning newsletter. Make sense of the day’s news and ideas. Times journalists guide you through what’s happening — and why it matters.Silicon Valley has transformed. No surprise there — change is its business, after all. But just as artificial intelligence will upend the economy, it has already upended the culture of the place that makes it.
America’s tech corridor holds immense influence over our future. So it’s worth understanding life there — and the people who power it. Today’s newsletter is about the new vibe in Silicon Valley. That’s the focus of several stories our tech journalists have recently reported from the world’s tech capital.
‘Shut up and grind’
Silicon Valley behemoths like Google, Apple and Facebook became famous a generation ago for pitching great lifestyle jobs: Forget the cubicles and neckties of the old economy. Come enjoy free sushi and workout classes; take breaks for Ping-Pong. Let’s change the world!
Then, around 2022, they decided they had become bloated. Meta eliminated a third of its work force. Elon Musk bought Twitter and fired three-quarters of its staff.
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