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Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez
elsily7's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
2.25
Interesting subject matter, but the author seems to suffer from obnoxious misogynistic&homophobic asshole-ism, a condition sadly prevalent in tech bros.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Homophobia
Minor: Sexual content
mchester24's review against another edition
3.0
I went back and forth on loving this book and really not liking it-- though I think the parts of me that didn't like it were really just finding I didn't like Antonio Martinez (the author) himself. Rather than try to prose it all, I'll just bullet out the parts I found interesting and the parts that turned me off.
Overall, it was worth a read for the insights Martinez has-- but his attitude and the fact that he's so off putting hold me back from rating it higher than 3 stars.
The good:
- Hearing how the world of internet advertising operates, including how it targets ads to consumers, how it integrates different 'versions' of yourself across mobile/desktop/in stores, how the ads are sold by the host (Facebook) to the advertisers, and how the success of advertising is assessed and interpreted.
- I found it refreshing to hear about how decisions were made even at the top of Facebook-- that the people at the top only read the summary slides and make decisions based on gut without looking at the details you worked hard to map out. The discussion of these meetings rang close to home.
- Gave an interesting take on how work visas work in Silicon Valley, and how they essentially boil down to indentured servitude. Piqued my curiosity here and want to learn more about that.
- He's obviously very intelligent and his insights into the various stages of his career (Wall Street, entrepreneurship, negotiations, big tech) are very fascinating.
- The analogy of Chaos Monkeys to describe tech startups-- randomly pulling at the wires in society and culture to see what breaks and what's an opportunity-- made a lot of sense to me, even outside of tech startups. Reading about 'disrupters' in general is always good for some new insights on society/capitalism/careers.
The bad:
- The start of the book is Martinez at his first role on Wall Street-- specifically Goldman Sachs. This section really helped solidify how much I never want to be a type of that culture or attitudes. It reinforced the icky sense you get watching the Wolf on Wall Street.
- Martinez also spends too long singing his own praises (even trying self-deprecation, but failing), and trying to convince you of how cool he is. While that led to my distaste for him, it certainly synced up with preconceived notions I had of both stereotypical Wall Street bankers and Silicon Valley tycoons.
- Other issues I had with Martinez and the excuses he made for his shitty behavior: drunk driving, overly boastful and taking credit for a team's success, shamelessly objectifying women, admitting to being an absentee father to both of his daughters. I thought maybe this was just coming out in the beginning of the book to set up up to redeem himself at the end, but that redemption never came.
- Going back to his objectifying of women and disregarding of his children and their mother-- he almost wears these facts of his life as a badge of pride. Can't get that out of my head. He really writes vindictively of the mother, despite him admitting how he was in the wrong. He even accuses her of getting pregnant on purpose because that's apparently all women are good for and she just wants to 'trap' him (his disgusting words).
Overall, it was worth a read for the insights Martinez has-- but his attitude and the fact that he's so off putting hold me back from rating it higher than 3 stars.
The good:
- Hearing how the world of internet advertising operates, including how it targets ads to consumers, how it integrates different 'versions' of yourself across mobile/desktop/in stores, how the ads are sold by the host (Facebook) to the advertisers, and how the success of advertising is assessed and interpreted.
- I found it refreshing to hear about how decisions were made even at the top of Facebook-- that the people at the top only read the summary slides and make decisions based on gut without looking at the details you worked hard to map out. The discussion of these meetings rang close to home.
- Gave an interesting take on how work visas work in Silicon Valley, and how they essentially boil down to indentured servitude. Piqued my curiosity here and want to learn more about that.
- He's obviously very intelligent and his insights into the various stages of his career (Wall Street, entrepreneurship, negotiations, big tech) are very fascinating.
- The analogy of Chaos Monkeys to describe tech startups-- randomly pulling at the wires in society and culture to see what breaks and what's an opportunity-- made a lot of sense to me, even outside of tech startups. Reading about 'disrupters' in general is always good for some new insights on society/capitalism/careers.
The bad:
- The start of the book is Martinez at his first role on Wall Street-- specifically Goldman Sachs. This section really helped solidify how much I never want to be a type of that culture or attitudes. It reinforced the icky sense you get watching the Wolf on Wall Street.
- Martinez also spends too long singing his own praises (even trying self-deprecation, but failing), and trying to convince you of how cool he is. While that led to my distaste for him, it certainly synced up with preconceived notions I had of both stereotypical Wall Street bankers and Silicon Valley tycoons.
- Other issues I had with Martinez and the excuses he made for his shitty behavior: drunk driving, overly boastful and taking credit for a team's success, shamelessly objectifying women, admitting to being an absentee father to both of his daughters. I thought maybe this was just coming out in the beginning of the book to set up up to redeem himself at the end, but that redemption never came.
- Going back to his objectifying of women and disregarding of his children and their mother-- he almost wears these facts of his life as a badge of pride. Can't get that out of my head. He really writes vindictively of the mother, despite him admitting how he was in the wrong. He even accuses her of getting pregnant on purpose because that's apparently all women are good for and she just wants to 'trap' him (his disgusting words).
mjhere's review against another edition
3.0
I usually divide books into two categories: worth the time and waste of time. I could not really decide in this case. It is an interesting insight into the valley and uncovers how small events and random encounters influence the most powerful companies in the tech world.
I did not like the general hate tone that in many cases crossed the line of disrespect towards people that have achieved much more than many. A strange grudge is felt from many of the judgments made.
I do appreciate the footnotes that are in a very simple way describing the ad and other tech to possible outsiders to whom it will be a great help.
I did not like the general hate tone that in many cases crossed the line of disrespect towards people that have achieved much more than many. A strange grudge is felt from many of the judgments made.
I do appreciate the footnotes that are in a very simple way describing the ad and other tech to possible outsiders to whom it will be a great help.
kivt's review against another edition
narrator is a tedious unoriginal misogynist, skip it
rembrandt1881's review against another edition
2.0
This book had a lot of potential but throughout the book it seemed to not have much help focus. Maybe it was trying to capture the feeling of the start up and tech world but it just was so jumbled back and forth that it can be hard to follow. I struggled to finish this and the lack of a linear narrative was a big reason why. It's not that you have to go straight in order but this particular book was crazily hectic. The story could have been much more compelling because there are good elements there,however the execution was just poor.
libellum_aphrodite's review against another edition
2.0
In terms of writing abilities, Antonio ranks rather highly, particularly compared to some of the lingually inept modern authors I've encountered lately. He's got a knack for breaking down opaque financial and techno babble: I knew nothing about fin-tech and start-up investment stages when I started the book, and now feel like I could be decently conversational about both, without too much headache in the learning process. He also paints decent quippy character snapshots (I had some good chuckles from his descriptions of the ads leads at Facebook), but never goes much further than that in characterization.
While Antonio is a good sentence constructor, he's unfortunately kind of a misogynistic asshole. I begrudging admired his vocabulary, but I got sick and tired of the everyone-is-against-me routine, which ultimately meant I didn't enjoy the book, despite its few good qualities. At every turn, Antonio pretty much embodied the saying, "If everyone around you seems like an asshole, you're the asshole."
While Antonio is a good sentence constructor, he's unfortunately kind of a misogynistic asshole. I begrudging admired his vocabulary, but I got sick and tired of the everyone-is-against-me routine, which ultimately meant I didn't enjoy the book, despite its few good qualities. At every turn, Antonio pretty much embodied the saying, "If everyone around you seems like an asshole, you're the asshole."
bentrevett's review against another edition
4.0
This is a better version of Michael Lewis’ Liar’s Poker
djr100's review against another edition
2.0
I may be rating this too high at 2 stars. Can’t believe I wasted my time reading this tripe. The author has to be one of the most egotistical people on the planet and compounds that by trashing basically everyone he has ever come into contact with, both personally and professionally.