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A review by mchester24
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez
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).