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Margaret O’Mara

@margaretomara.bsky.social
1.8K followers 377 following 23 posts

Bullitt Prof of American History @UW. Teacher, speaker, historian of Silicon Valley and author of THE CODE. margaretomara.com

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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Here’s a recap and @geekwire.com podcast recording of the great conversation we had last week before a great crowd at the National Nordic Museum. Thanks to all who organized and came out! www.geekwire.com/2026/seattle...
geekwire.com
Seattle and San Francisco: Big tech, political backlash and the AI boom
In a live joint recording of the GeekWire and Blue City Blues podcasts, GeekWire's John Cook, historian Margaret O'Mara and journalist Jonathan Weber join Blue City Blues hosts David Hyde and Sandeep ...
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Oh hi there...is this thing on? Stepping gingerly back into the feeds and trying out a newsletter experiment, the second installment hot off the presses here: open.substack.com/pub/margaret...
open.substack.com
Where the energy flows
The AI attention-suck and writing as thinking
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 19/07/2025
seattletimes.com
KUOW listeners give nearly $1.5 million in one day after Congress cuts funding
The station raised nearly $1.5 million by 1 p.m. on Friday afternoon in response to Congress slashing Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding.
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uofwa.uw.edu @uofwa.uw.edu · 11/07/2025
“What we have seen in the past 15 years is the supersizing of the tech sector, and certain companies like Microsoft have been at the forefront. The bottom line is, how many people do these companies really need?" @margaretomara.bsky.social told @alexhalverson.bsky.social.
seattletimes.com
Behind Microsoft’s layoffs: A new attitude shaped by AI
More tech workers feel the pain as Microsoft pivots. Suddenly, the world's most valuable company is going on without them.
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Alexis Madrigal @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
So excited for this! Margaret is one of my favorite historians — and there’s just so much trade and tech stuff to talk about.
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Looking forward to welcoming @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social to @uofwa.bsky.social this coming Tuesday 4/8 for a chat about his new book THE PACIFIC CIRCUIT. 4PM in HUB 340 - free and open to the public. Join us! artsci.washington.edu/news/events?...
Book cover for Alexis Madrigal, THE PACIFIC CIRCUIT (2025)
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
In case anyone still is wondering why high tariffs usually don't end well, here's a quick history I wrote back in the olden days of Trump trade war 1.0. What's happening now is far bigger, and hitting big & small firms alike. Who Will Survive the Trade War? www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Who Will Survive the Trade War? (Published 2019)
History shows that big businesses profit most when tariffs reign.
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Thanks @markzbarabak.bsky.social for this thoughtful conversation about my book and the high-tech hubris of DOGE www.latimes.com/politics/sto...
latimes.com
Commentary: Elon Musk brought a Silicon Valley mindset to Trump's Washington. It's been a disaster
The fancifully named Department of Government Efficiency is grounded in a fundamental misapprehension of how the federal government works. The recklessness and destruction is not a bug but a feature.
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Eric Klinenberg @ericklinenberg.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
One columnist, a professional pundit, is living in a paranoid delusion. The other, a sociologist, is living in America.
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
I talk billionaires (yes, one in particular) and politics in the latest issue of INC. Thanks @mikehofman.bsky.social for this conversation www.inc.com/mike-hofman/...
inc.com
What Kind of World Do Silicon Valley Billionaires Want to Create?
The world's richest entrepreneur and its most powerful political leader have joined forces. What comes next is unknown.
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
2 points. @margaretomara.bsky.social fantastic history of Silicon Valley, The Code, has the goods on how crucial hype is. Second, screenshot is a nice example of Balaji "Network State" Srinivasan and Marc "Current Thing" Andreessen in action pumping the hype-cycle. stanforddaily.com/2016/05/19/i...
“The technologies to look at are those that people have written off. You know, VR after Second Life,” he said, in reference to the 2003 online virtual world.

The two both expressed great enthusiasm for virtual reality and augmented reality, declaring “magic is happening” and that “the world is divided into two groups of people, people who haven’t tried the shipping version of Oculus and think it’s stupid, and the people who have tried it and think it’s the future of everything.”
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Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Just been relistening to this brilliant @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast with @margaretomara.bsky.social: a timely reminder that the financial foundation of the "tech bros" was in massive US government funding during the Cold War newbooksnetwork.com/margaret-oma...
newbooksnetwork.com
Margaret O’Mara, "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America" (Penguin Press, 2019) - New Books Network
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Great to join @hughesstephanie.bsky.social and @marketplace.org for this conversation on tech first movers past and present (RIP Friendster) www.marketplace.org/shows/market...
marketplace.org
Will DeepSeek disrupt American AI's first-mover advantage? - Marketplace
Even famed tech companies like Netscape and Friendster that pioneer product categories can lose their dominance to new rivals. Historian Margaret O'Mara examines whether the Chinese upstart can dislod...
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Clive Thompson @clivethompson.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
I've long enjoyed @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social's "Garbage Day" newsletter for keeping abreast of overall internet scuttlebutt .. ... but in the last week he's also been really good about tracking Musk's coup and the 20something Musk kids doing it subscribe www.garbageday.email/p/musk-s-sup...
garbageday.email
Musk's superteam of former iPad babies
Read to the end for Plimbo
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
And so it begins: my thoughts on @bloombergtv.bsky.social this AM on tech in the era of Trump 2.0 Tech's History With the White House www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/...
bloomberg.com
Tech's History With the White House
As prominent US tech leaders show up for President Trump's inauguration, Margaret O'Mara, professor of American History at the University of Washington, breaks down the relationship between Silicon Va...
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Lots to say these days about the intersection of politics and tech, and these folks are making news faster than I can write it. In the meantime, there’s podcasts! Listen for me starting at minute 15. Thanks @bbcradio4 for the thoughtful conversation. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
AntiSocial - "Masculine energy": Does the workplace need more of it? - BBC Sounds
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sparks a row about gender in the workplace.
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Michael Vorenberg @mikevorenberg.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
PM (PoliticoMagzine) article of 2017: www.politico.com/magazine/sto...
politico.com
Can History Prepare Us for the Trump Presidency?
Twenty-one historians explain which moments in history are closest to this one—and what we can learn.
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
So great to be part of the inaugural ROADMAP summit today in DC! www.roadmapsummit.com
roadmapsummit.com
Home | ROADMAP Summit
Join us at ROADMAP Summit, the inaugural conference for leaders of science and technology initiatives unleashing a new era of American innovation and competitiveness in the face of intense global comp...
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Kate McNamara @katemcnamara.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
“Complicated politics rarely break down into easy stories of who to blame.” Great stuff from @himself.bsky.social on the long uneasy relationship between Silicon Valley and the Dems. Plus shout outs to @markblyth.bsky.social & @margaretomara.bsky.social!
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Joe Weisenthal @weisenthal.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
There's this popular DC view that the original sin of the Biden administration was too much spending causing inflation because they listened too much to left-wing views on fiscal policy. Yet here is Goldman's top economist on Odd Lots yesterday saying inflation really was a a supply-side story.
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
This by Diana Lind (+ comment by @ericklinenberg.bsky.social ) just nails it 🎯
slate.com
It’s Time to Leave the House
There’s still time to save ourselves from the loneliness remote life ushered in five years ago.
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Stéphane Taillat @staillat.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
2️⃣Sur la Silicon Valley, il faut lire l'ouvrage incontournable de l'historienne @margaretomara.bsky.social : www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534709... (et pour l'aspect visuel, cette récente série sur @artefr.bsky.social : www.arte.tv/fr/videos/RC... ) 4/
penguinrandomhouse.com
The Code by Margaret O'Mara: 9780399562204 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
One of New York Magazine's best books on Silicon Valley! The true, behind-the-scenes history of the people who built Silicon Valley and shaped Big Tech in America Long before Margaret O'Mara became...
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
My newsletter is back, friends. Will be occasional, short, newsy, e.g. this : open.substack.com/pub/margaret...
open.substack.com
Life moves pretty fast
The latest from me
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Joe Weisenthal @weisenthal.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
I wrote this in 2016. One of the only things I've written that holds up well. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Think I have a busy four years ahead of me! Story today by @adamclarkestes in @voxdotcom, with my comment www.vox.com/technology/3...
vox.com
Trump’s techno-libertarian dream team goes to Washington
Silicon Valley didn’t shift right. It just wants to be left alone.
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 28/03/2024
It was such a pleasure to have this conversation with @draftingthepast.bsky.social. Come for the coffee shops, stay for the club sandwiches!
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 29/12/2023
Going to @ahahistorians.bsky.social Annual Meeting in SF next week? Join me and this all-star panel as we discuss all things Silicon Valley -- Thursday Jan 4, 3:30-5:00 PST. It's going to be a good one! More details here: www.historians.org/annual-meeting
Silicon Valley as Place, Phenomenon,
and History
Hilton Union Square, Continental Ballroom 6
Chair: Margaret O’Mara, University of Washington,
Seattle
Panel: Leslie Berlin, Steve Jobs Archive and Stanford
University
Jeannette Estruth, Bard College and the Harvard
Berkman Klein Center
Louis R. Hyman, Johns Hopkins University
Fred Turner, Stanford University
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 08/12/2023
I wish this hadn't become so topical so quickly www.programmablemutter.com/p/who-really...
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Margaret O’Mara @margaretomara.bsky.social · 03/12/2023
Need to manifest Andrew Carnegie’s powers of delegation (fr David Nasaw’s biography, p 184)
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HEN A.B. FARQUHAR, a Pennsylvania businessman, mentioned to Carnegie that he was always sure to be in his office by "seven in
the morning," Carnegie remarked laughingly:
"You must be a lazy man if it takes you ten hours to do a day's work'
"What I do,' he said, is to get good men, and I never give them orders.
My directions seldom go beyond suggestions. Here in the morning I get reports from them. Within an hour I have disposed of everything, sent out all of my suggestions, the day's work is done, and I am ready to go out and enjoy myself."
What was most remarkable about Carnegie's newfound success as a capitalist was how little it required of him. At each stage of his business career from bobbin boy to steelmaker, he had worked less and earned more.
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Molly White @molly.wiki · 03/12/2023
this is the most 2020s paragraph i have ever read
When he’s not tweeting about e/acc, Verdon runs Extropic, which he started in 2022. Some of his startup capital came from a side NFT business, which he started while still working at Google’s moonshot lab X. The project began as an April Fools joke, but when it started making real money, he kept going: “It's like it was meta-ironic and then became post-ironic.” He used the money he made to buy GPUs, sold his car and moved back in with his parents.
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American Prestige @amprestigepod.bsky.social · 28/11/2023
E123 - The Making of Silicon Valley, Ep. 3 w/ @margaretomara.bsky.social The conclusion to our series on the rise of Silicon Valley. We end around 2000, so in our story, the dot-com bubble burst, the internet ended, and we all lived happily ever after. www.americanprestigepod.com/p/e123-the-m...
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Margaret Mitchell @mmitchell.bsky.social · 28/11/2023
Great from @khari.bsky.social @knibbs.bsky.social @laurengoode.bsky.social highlighting smthn brewing amongst tech women: How idea of joining OpenAI board creates repulsion. 🔥Insights: Timnit @sashamtl.bsky.social @meredithmeredith.bsky.social @margaretomara.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/women-...
wired.com
Prominent Women in Tech Say They Don't Want to Join OpenAI's All-Male Board
After internal chaos earlier this month, OpenAI replaced the women on its board with men. As it plans to add more seats, Timnit Gebru, Sasha Luccioni, and other AI luminaries tell WIRED why they would...
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