Review: Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley, As Told by the Hackers, Founders, and Freaks Who Made It Boom

Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley, As Told by the Hackers, Founders, and Freaks Who Made It Boom by Adam Fisher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An excellent history of Silicon Valley, from its origins to the passing of Steve Jobs. 

I confess the format really turned me off at the beginning, and I was about to leave it unfinished. Especially with the audio version, this takes some getting used to. But after a while it sort of grows on you. 

Always interesting to hear about General Magic. I remember seeing a documentary on it which was fascinating. 

Also fascinating to read about The Well (The whole earth ‘lectronic link) as the first online community/social media. This group of misfits and hackers still decided real ID had to be used to sign up for The Well because “you have to own your words”. Seems like a gap in the market these days tbh. 

The predictions at the end of the book were a bit telling, however. When they talk about the Valley extending and making one big city past Berkely, it sounds a tad naive, having seen the cities empty out during Covid, and a race by many people to move to more isolated areas. 

Also the prediction of self-driving cars basically becoming RVs and making houses obsolete seems very US-centric. I like the idea of making houses obsolete, but I think the idea would be that with a phone+laptop you don't really need a car or anything else. I guess. 

https://4201mass.blogspot.com/

View all my reviews

Review: Zero to IPO: Over $1 Trillion Worth of Advice from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

Zero to IPO: Over $1 Trillion Worth of Advice from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs by Frederic Kerrest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A great book if you have anything to do with silicon valley, or are looking for investment (especially from silicon valley or somewhere along those lines). The author has been in there in the trenches and got a big investor (Andreessen Horowitz), so he knows his stuff. These only touch me tangentially, but I still found quite a few interesting tidbits, including how the average age of the founders Andreessen Horowitz invest in is in the 40's, so substantially higher than you tend to hear about. 

I will probably give this another read if and when I have to do a road show for any business, in the meantime it was good background knowledge. 

Much of the advice (how to deal with a team, talk to investors, etc.) probably doesn't apply outside the US. 

View all my reviews