Hi, welcome to your Weekend!

More than any other industry, tech attracts a global workforce. According to one 2018 report, 71% of tech workers in Silicon Valley are foreign born. And tech leaders have never been shy about their desires for the US to reform its immigration laws in order to attract even more foreign talent.

So it should come as little surprise that last week’s Russian invasion on Ukraine hit so close to home for people who work in tech. Everyone in the industry, it seems, knows at least one colleague whose family has been impacted. And so this is much more than just a geopolitical story for our readers—it’s a personal one as well.

In this week’s cover feature, we asked 16 tech workers to share, in their own voices, what they’ve been going through since war came to Ukraine. Their testimonials are painful, raw and angry, but also filled with determination and hope. I hope their words resonate with you as much as they did with me.

the big read

‘Defend the Country, Defend the Truth’: How 16 Ukrainian- and Russian-Born Tech Workers Are Responding to a Nightmare

Fathers hunting for saboteurs, nine-year-old nieces making molotov cocktails, coworkers cowering in basements and grandmothers stranded in high-rises. For thousands of expat Ukrainians in the tech industry, abject fear for their friends and loved ones has dominated life over the past week. And Russian-born people are experiencing their own kinds of shame and anguish. To paint a fuller picture of the complex emotions surrounding the conflict in Ukraine, we spoke with expats in the tech industry about the war and its impacts.

the takeaway

Covid-19 Didn’t End the Tech Backlash. Could Putin?

There’s nothing like a common enemy to unite an industry and its antagonists—at least temporarily. In halting sales and blocking propaganda outlets in Russia, big tech companies may have finally found a cause that both they and their most vocal critics agree upon. But that’s only if they continue demonstrating their true superpowers in public, something they’ve long been queasy about.

10 QUESTIONS

Laurie Segall’s Memoir Confronts Tech Titans, Media Moguls and All Sorts of “Special Characters”

In Segall’s new book, “Special Characters,” the former CNN senior technology correspondent and founder of media company Dot Dot Dot charts her professional and personal life, from her days as a 23-year-old CNN news assistant to interviewing Mark Zuckerberg in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. “My story is intertwined with this last decade of tech,” she tells Annie. “And lord knows there’s so much to say.”

my life’s work

How a Venture Founder’s Aesthetics Obsession Influences How She Picks Companies

Sarah Kunst’s venture fund Cleo Capital has invested in culture-shifting companies like Cameo and MasterClass, cryptocurrency exchange platform Gemini and digital asset manager FalconX. But her professional background—which ranges from picking strawberries in Michigan to joining the marketing department at Chanel in New York—is not the classic path to venture capital. She chats with Malique about her journey to picking the next big things in tech.

The Endorsement

Reporter Margaux MacColl on Mykhailo Fedorov’s Twitter feed: A year ago, Fedorov, the vice prime minister of Ukraine, had 98 followers on Twitter. Today he has over 200,000 and is a must-follow account, seismically shifting global tech policy in 280-character increments. Through his brazen and sometimes comical tweets, the 31-year-old has turned the conflict in Ukraine into an hour-by-hour referendum on Silicon Valley. “While you create Metaverse—Russia ruins real life in Ukraine!” he tweeted at Mark Zuckerberg, calling for a Facebook and Instagram ban in Russia. In another tweet, Fedorov criticized Elon Musk’s obsession with Mars, before requesting the billionaire send Ukraine some Starlink terminals. Russia experts and tech executives alike questioned Fedorov’s pleas, arguing that shutting down services in the country would create a void filled solely by propaganda and misinformation. But then Russia made those criticisms moot on Friday, booting many of tech’s most popular platforms from the country. Was Fedorov’s Twitter feed what spurred the moves and counter-moves? Maybe. Was it keeping tech leaders on the edge of their seats? Absolutely.

Watching: Hollywood does Silicon Valley scandal

The TV gods gaveth this week with two premieres based on Silicon Valley scandals: Showtime’s “Super Pumped,” about the adrenaline-fueled early days of Uber, and Hulu’s “The Dropout,” about the disgraced founder behind Theranos. Each is delicious in its own way, though “The Dropout” has the more refined flavor, a blend of empathy for Elizabeth Holmes the human being, and scorn for Elizabeth Holmes the convicted fraudster, both played with real depth by Amanda Seyfried. “Super Pumped” is the TV equivalent of a WarHeads candy—the initial sourness may make you grimace, but the sweetness underneath Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s portrayal of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick will keep you happily sucking.

Reading: Why WarTok is a Pandora’s Box

Social media has documented wars for years, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the first to appear in real time on TikTok. Chris Stokel-Walker’s Wired story, “TikTok Was Designed for War” clearly details why the “quick and dirty” video platform is particularly fit for disseminating on-the-ground glimpses of the crisis. But, of course, these characteristics also make it ripe for misinformation. The article cites one viral video featuring a Russian soldier, which actually turned out to be from 2015. Stokel-Walker’s story paints a complete picture of a new kind of war reporting—and government propaganda.

Noticing: A Ukrainian describes living entirely off of crypto

Business Insider spoke with Artyom Fedosov, 27, a Ukrainian traveler, photographer, and software engineer, who was visiting Kazakhstan when Russia invaded his country. Fedosov decided to stay put—the only issue was that his Ukrainian credit cards no longer worked. Fortunately he had amassed thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency, which he’s made off of selling NFTs. His account offers a striking description of war’s unanticipated absurdities—and a pretty solid use case for oft-mocked crypto.

Makes You Think

Wear your heart on your sleeve and your tweets in your lining…but actually maybe don’t.

Until next Weekend, thanks for reading!

—Jon

Weekend Editor, The Information