Antonio García Martínez: Chaos monkeys (2016)
515 pages
English language
Published Jan. 18, 2016
"The industry provocateur behind such companies as Twitter and a nascent Facebook presents an irreverent exposé of life inside the tech bubble that traces his hedonist lifestyle against a backdrop of early social media and online marketing, sharing critical insights into how they are shaping today's world."--NoveList.
El autor cuenta, con salero y prosa a veces demasiado florida, sus años en una startup del Silicon Valley y luego en Facebook. Hay capítulos muy divertidos, pero en otros pierde el distanciamiento irónico y se toma el vital trabajo (plataformas de intermediación de anuncios, aparta Pasteur que viene Antonio) demasiado en serio. Entretenido, un poco largo.
This book tells the autobiographical story of a Goldman & Sachs worker bee who headed to the shores of California, looking for some entrepreneurial gold. After working for a small startup, he founded his own, then sold it to Twitter and went to work for Facebook fairly early on (like around 2011). In Chaos Monkeys, he tells the story of getting involved in Y Combinator, how to work a startup, and how crazy Facebook is. All in all, a pretty entertaining read, with 2 major caveats:
1] The macho factor is set to stun. While he is candid about his shortcomings, he still tends to objectify women too much. Which, sadly, makes it even more accurate.
2] My distaste for working for giant companies remains intact. As a developer, I just don't know how you can do it. Towards the end of the book, he mentions how a big tech …
This book tells the autobiographical story of a Goldman & Sachs worker bee who headed to the shores of California, looking for some entrepreneurial gold. After working for a small startup, he founded his own, then sold it to Twitter and went to work for Facebook fairly early on (like around 2011). In Chaos Monkeys, he tells the story of getting involved in Y Combinator, how to work a startup, and how crazy Facebook is. All in all, a pretty entertaining read, with 2 major caveats:
1] The macho factor is set to stun. While he is candid about his shortcomings, he still tends to objectify women too much. Which, sadly, makes it even more accurate.
2] My distaste for working for giant companies remains intact. As a developer, I just don't know how you can do it. Towards the end of the book, he mentions how a big tech company becomes a sort of Peter Principle of tech, especially when it comes to middle management. Anyone with any drive has long left, so it is mostly just managers trying to solidify their fiefdoms. Not for me, thank you very much.
But if you're looking for an honest, searing and quite funny dissection of the Silicon Valley tech scene, you need go no further!
Well written insider's account. In 2018, some of the things you read about have an unintended double meaning, in light of Facebook's complete takeover by hostile interests in the 2016 election. "Move Fast and Break Things" is fine when we are talking about some unimportant ads from a Fortune 500 advertiser; it has a totally different implication when we realize how Martinez's technology was used to subvert an election.
One of the saddest quotes was when, talking about some product decision at Facebook, he intoned (something like) "you can either be someone, or do something", and his version of taking a stand was about ... some new way of selling advertising.
Perhaps that is why he now lives on a houseboat in the Pacific Northwest. Exploring his transition out of Silicon Valley would be a more interesting, not too mention open and honest book; instead we have thrown-off remarks about …
Well written insider's account. In 2018, some of the things you read about have an unintended double meaning, in light of Facebook's complete takeover by hostile interests in the 2016 election. "Move Fast and Break Things" is fine when we are talking about some unimportant ads from a Fortune 500 advertiser; it has a totally different implication when we realize how Martinez's technology was used to subvert an election.
One of the saddest quotes was when, talking about some product decision at Facebook, he intoned (something like) "you can either be someone, or do something", and his version of taking a stand was about ... some new way of selling advertising.
Perhaps that is why he now lives on a houseboat in the Pacific Northwest. Exploring his transition out of Silicon Valley would be a more interesting, not too mention open and honest book; instead we have thrown-off remarks about how he fathered two children and didn't take much interest in their lives.
Though I don't agree with everything he says and in some parts he sounds too over the top and sexist, this book is a jewel.
