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Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
Liar s Poker meets The Social Network in an irreverent expose of life inside the tech bubble, from industry provocateur Antonio Garcia Martinez, a former Twitter advisor, Facebook product manager and startup founder/CEO.The reality is, Silicon Valley capitalism is very simple: Investors are people with more money than time.Employees are people with more time than money.Entrepreneurs are the seductive go-between.Marketing is like sex: only losers pay for it.Imagine a chimpanzee rampaging through a datacenter powering everything from Google to Facebook. Infrastructure engineers use a software version of this chaos monkey to test online services robustness their ability to survive random failure and correct mistakes before they actually occur. Tech entrepreneurs are society s chaos monkeys, disruptors testing and transforming every aspect of our lives, from transportation (Uber) and lodging (AirBnB) to television (Netflix) and dating (Tinder). One of Silicon Valley s most audacious chaos monkeys is Antonio Garcia Martinez.After stints on Wall Street and as CEO of his own startup, Garcia Martinez joined Facebook s nascent advertising team, turning its users data into profit for COO Sheryl Sandberg and chairman and CEO Mark Zuck Zuckerberg. Forced out in the wake of an internal product war over the future of the company s monetization strategy, Garcia Martinez eventually landed at rival Twitter. He also fathered two children with a woman he barely knew, committed lewd acts and brewed illegal beer on the Facebook campus (accidentally flooding Zuckerberg's desk), lived on a sailboat, raced sport cars on the 101, and enthusiastically pursued the life of an overpaid Silicon Valley wastrel.Now, this gleeful contrarian unravels the chaotic evolution of social media and online marketing and reveals how it is invading our lives and shaping our future. Weighing in on everything from startups and credit derivatives to Big Brother and data tracking, social media monetization and digital privacy, Garcia Martinez shares his scathing observations and outrageous antics, taking us on a humorous, subversive tour of the fascinatingly insular tech industry. Chaos Monkeys lays bare the hijinks, trade secrets, and power plays of the visionaries, grunts, sociopaths, opportunists, accidental tourists, and money cowboys who are revolutionizing our world. The question is, will we survive?"
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TimSpalding
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I‘m divided on this one. An insider account of various startup and Silicon Valley situations appeals to me, and there‘s a walk-on by Paul Graham, whom I know slightly and whose work I know well. But the style, voice and content are that of a world-class, and only half self-aware asshole.

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LittlePixels
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
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If you are interested in tech and/or the Silicon Valley startup scene, and if you can resist throwing the douchebag out with the bath water, this is worth the read. There really was a lot of douchebaggery to look past, but getting to look behind the curtains at Y Combinator and Facebook kept me reading. Yep, I'm a #geekgirl 😊👍

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Abailliekaras
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Bailedbailed

I was curious to read this 'insider account' of Silicon Valley, but the author comes across as an arrogant schmuck, the writing is not great, and it reads more like a 500 page bloated boast, of which I lasted about 45.

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Abailliekaras
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I'm reading this for the #ReadHarder challenge - a book about technology - but with passages like this I might have to bail soon. 😣

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ChrisMeier
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
Bailedbailed

Started reading this just before Susan Fowler's infamous blog post about her time at Uber became public. Then all I could notice was the misogynistic behaviour of the author of this book, and couldn't stomach finishing it.

5 likes1 stack add
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DocBrown
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Mehso-so

One part memoir, one part explanatory journalism. Also, two halves: first chronicles the story of a tech startup, which is interesting if you can get past all the testosterone soaked hypermasculinity of overcompensating geeks (all male of course). Second half describes the all-consuming, never-ending quest to monetize Facebook. Basically smart young men trading a few (or more) years of soul-crushing work for a chance at obscene fortune. Meh.

1 like1 stack add
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DocBrown
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Want to know why all the photos in demonstrations of software intended to filter out obscene pics posted to Facebook were of kittens? Because there were no women on FB's software development team!

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DocBrown

Want to know which is the most expensive word in the English language? Around 2011 or so, and probably still up to this day, The priciest word in this global auction on words was mesothelioma. Want to screw a slimy lawyer? Google 'mesothelioma' and start randomly clicking on the ads that appear. You're costing a lawyer almost a whole Benjamin every time you do that.

Spiderfelt That sounds infinitely satisfying. 8y
DocBrown @Spiderfelt I just did it and the earth didn't move. Perhaps I'm just not doing it right? 😉 8y
3 likes2 comments
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BookishMarginalia
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
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Too simple, maybe?

RinaBrahmbhattBarot Marketing is like sex....;-) 8y
minkyb Some truth there. 8y
89 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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BookishMarginalia
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
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A little too detailed for my taste, but I might give this look at #SiliconValley #startups a try as an audiobook. #Harper

86 likes1 stack add
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BookishMarginalia
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
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fmcgeough
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
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Key for startups - it helps to have enemies.

B.Reader Omg, that is so funny! Good life advice as well. 8y
fmcgeough @B.Reader this book has got a lot of funny lines if you can get past the author being a snarky pompous ass. 8y
6 likes2 comments
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fmcgeough
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
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Want to know which is the most expensive word in the English language? Around 2011 or so, and probably still to this day, the priciest word in the global auction on words was "mesothelioma"... Thanks to a series of class-action lawsuits against former factory owners, filed by plaintiffs' attorneys who make fortunes on contingency fees, the value of this word was bid up as high as $90 per click.

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Ellen
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
Mehso-so

With some unnecessary exposition and slow first chapters (so many unnecessary footnotes), it was a slog at first but picks up steam as the author moves from Goldman Sachs to Silicon Valley. With raw honesty, a good dollop of cynicism, and self-admitted hubris, the author tells the true inside story of the Valley, one that very few in this book want revealed. Read it for the Valley gossip and a look inside the machinery of the start-up scene.

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Readaholics
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
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Pickpick

Having grown up in Silicon Valley and worked for big tech and start ups, I can vouch for the sheer madness that Antonio writes about during his time at Y Combinator, selling his start up AdGrok ( which I remember) and his time at Facebook building FBX. It's way more cerebral than the recently released Disrupted. As with all CEOs, there's a twinge of ego infused rhetoric which can be annoying. But overall his historical parallels are entertaining.

52 likes2 stack adds
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Readaholics
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
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A chaos monkey is a software tool created by Netflix that tests a server's resiliency against random failures. Imagine a monkey in your server farm unplugging cables and smashing server boxes....

manifestsanity This sounds fascinating! Thx! 8y
HotMessJess I live in Silicon Valley and I couldn't agree more haha looks good! 8y
72 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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Readaholics
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
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Thus, many markets were and are inefficient, because that inefficiency is very profitable to those running the market, even if only in the short-term picture. As I would eventually see, Wall Street and Silicon Valkey possess surprising parallels.

Readaholics You know what's chaotic? That blanket on the bed. Lol 8y
britt_brooke 💙🐶 8y
MrBook 😻 8y
93 likes3 stack adds3 comments
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Johnbiggs
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley | Antonio Garcia Martinez, Antonio Garcaia Martainez
Pickpick

Great look inside startups that we rarely get to see.