NY Times opinion page hires tech editor

New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet sent out the following announcement on Monday:

The title of the 2017 blog post was innocuous enough: “Reflecting on One Very, Very Strange Year at Uber.” The author, a young developer named Susan Fowler, described how she was sexually harassed by a manager within days of starting work, how her efforts to report the problem went ignored, and how she eventually learned that other women at Uber had faced similar harassment, only to be similarly ignored. The 2,900-word post became an overnight sensation in Silicon Valley, leading not only to the downfall of Uber’s chief executive but also some serious soul-searching in the industry that continues today.

It also changed Susan’s life, convincing her of the power of the written word. The Times Opinion department is now the lucky beneficiary of that transformation: We are proud to announce that Susan will be joining the team as Op-Ed’s technology editor.

Susan’s post is only one part of her quite remarkable story. The second of seven children raised in rural Arizona, she was home-schooled by her parents. After essentially talking her way into Arizona State University, she transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in physics and philosophy. (Plutarch’s “Lives” and Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations” sit comfortably alongside David Griffiths’s “Introduction to Electrodynamics” on a list of her favorite books.) After Uber, she joined Stripe, the internet payments company, to start a new magazine called “Increment,” a sort of literary how-to-publication for technologists, developers and entrepreneurs. She has written a book on microservices (you’ll have to get her to explain) and is at work on two more: one a memoir and the other about quantum physics and time travel.

Susan will be based in Northern California. As our tech editor, she will be responsible for commissioning — and sometimes writing — pieces on all the ways technology is shaping our culture, economy, relationships, politics and play. She will bring her unique brand of courage, clarity of mind and moral purpose to our pages starting in September.

Please join us in welcoming her.