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25 reviews for:
Wonder Boy: Tony Hsieh, Zappos, and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon Valley
David Jeans, Angel Au-Yeung
4.02 AVERAGE
25 reviews for:
Wonder Boy: Tony Hsieh, Zappos, and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon Valley
David Jeans, Angel Au-Yeung
4.02 AVERAGE
dark
slow-paced
From the outside and trying to look in to why Tony Hsieh's life took such a dark turn. You can read through his history and think "Ah yes, this is what caused it....or maybe it was this....or maybe it was this?" We only get the external viewpoints from Tony's inner circle. A timeline of his bright beginning to his tragic death.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
challenging
sad
tense
medium-paced
i think all these thing happened just before my time so i knew of Tony Hsieh and Zappos as a Taiwanese American success story and nothing more.
this was a well-told biography of Tony's life, from childhood to untimely death. the authors did a good job humanizing him and describing his (probable) fears, motivations, and aspirations, although the book, especially the second half, is quite sad.
having never lived in CA, reading about Silicon Valley is always a weird experience.
this was a well-told biography of Tony's life, from childhood to untimely death. the authors did a good job humanizing him and describing his (probable) fears, motivations, and aspirations, although the book, especially the second half, is quite sad.
having never lived in CA, reading about Silicon Valley is always a weird experience.
A well-researched and well-written biography on the turbulent life of Tony Hsieh, who rose quickly to fame and wealth in Silicon Valley as the CEO of Zappos, and later, died in a mysterious fire after years of intensive drug and alcohol use. I felt incredibly sad reading this. Framed around Hsieh’s quest for happiness and how he “ultimately succumbed to his own demons.” I wished for a bit more though—Hsieh’s mental and physical deterioration is largely framed as enabled by his inner circle, but is there more to the culture of techno-optimism and Silicon Valley in general that acted as an enabler in both his life and work philosophy, his mental health, and his death?
Thanks to Henry Holt for the gifted copy.
Thanks to Henry Holt for the gifted copy.
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I felt like they went into too much detail on Tony's decline, and wish they had spent more time trying to understand what the results of his pursuit of happiness imply for the business practices performed in silicone valley. That being said, it was a very touching read that was well researched and really insightful. It has me thinking a lot about the society we live in and what traits we put value in.
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5 stars for a well-researched but distressing book. I will have to separate the review into segments on craftsmanship vs. content:
Craftsmanship: The writers clearly did a thorough job researching all aspects of Tony Hsieh's life and approached their subject with a respectful but objective lens. It would have been easy to cast judgments on particular characters (I personally have no respect for Mimi Pham or Elizabeth Pezzello and Brett Gorman, among others) but the authors kept their cool and approached descriptions with adequate nuance. I learned a lot from this book and appreciated the questions it sparked internally on the cost of high pressure success in Silicon Valley and for Asian-American families in particular. Really well done!
Content: The FT put this book on its reads of the summer but described the last few chapters as "very hard to read," which I agree with. Necessary to understand the sycophantic leeches contributing to Tony's tragic demise, but so heart-wrenching to see laid out. As stated above, I hope those who took advantage of a sick man to personally enrich themselves see their karmic justice.
Craftsmanship: The writers clearly did a thorough job researching all aspects of Tony Hsieh's life and approached their subject with a respectful but objective lens. It would have been easy to cast judgments on particular characters (I personally have no respect for Mimi Pham or Elizabeth Pezzello and Brett Gorman, among others) but the authors kept their cool and approached descriptions with adequate nuance. I learned a lot from this book and appreciated the questions it sparked internally on the cost of high pressure success in Silicon Valley and for Asian-American families in particular. Really well done!
Content: The FT put this book on its reads of the summer but described the last few chapters as "very hard to read," which I agree with. Necessary to understand the sycophantic leeches contributing to Tony's tragic demise, but so heart-wrenching to see laid out. As stated above, I hope those who took advantage of a sick man to personally enrich themselves see their karmic justice.