⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Chaos Monkeys by Martínez
| Full Title | Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley |
|---|---|
| Authors | Antonio García Martínez |
| Year Published | 2016 |
| Date Read | January 01, 2017 |
| Rating | 5/5 stars |
I went back and forth on 4/5 stars on this one. The description of advertising technology could be more lucid, the portion on Facebook seemed a tad long, and the romantic intrigues were pretty tame to be mentioned. Still, there’s alot to like: I enjoyed the autobiographical tour from quant to startup employee to startup founder to grown-up startup employee to unemployed, particularly the description of the AdGrok acquisition talks. It’s always difficult to ascertain what might or might not be true in these kinds of books, but I was left feeling like a friend of Martinez, him pulling back the curtain a bit and letting slip a few secrets, me discovering cracks in the Silicon Valley blend of meritocracy and ‘we’re changing the world’ companies.
Recommended read, though the meat of the book is in the first 1/2 to 2/3. Tone is pretty polarizing, though clearly I was a fan.