This book was intended to provide a snapshot of life in Silicon Valley in the last third of the 1990’s. Po Bronson, a contributing editor for Wired Magazine, is as close to the “inside” as someone can get in Silicon Valley, a place characteristic for not having an “inside,” or as Po points out, even a “there.”
The book tells the stories of a handful of people and companies — from immigrants living on time borrowed from the INS, trying to build an enterprise as quickly as they can, to successful companies on the day of their IPO. Bronson absolutely captures the flavor of the dot-com craze.
Especially intriguing are the stories of Sabeer Bhatia (founder of Hotmail) and Danny Hillis (of the Long Now Foundation and its 10,000-year clock), as well as anecdotes about programmers and salespeople. Bronson captures some outrageous, hilarious dialog, and his retelling of stories makes this book a must-read.
It’s easy to get a preview; the book was excerpted in Wired as well as Salon. Further, some of Bronson’s other articles in Wired seem to have originated with the same notes and interviews that led to this book. For example, see his profiles of Sabeer Bhatia and Danny Hillis.
The saturation-level press received by the book is typical of anything having to do with Silicon Valley in 1998-1999. Since early March of 2000, when the dot-com bubble burst, there’s been no way to know where this industry is headed. Whether it recovers or not, though, this book will always remind me of the insanity that was rampant in the industry for so long.
Patronize these links, man:
posted to area: Non-Fiction
updated: 2004-04-19 02:17:27
