The Silicon Boys: And Their Valley of Dreams

by David A. Kaplan

In "the best book to date on the subject" ( San Francisco Chronicle ), prize-winning journalist David A. Kaplan brings to life the culture and history of Silicon Valley. The symbol of high-tech genius and ineffable wealth, a place that competes with Hollywood and Washington in the zeitgeist of success and excess, the Valley is the epicenter of the New Economy. Depending on yesterday's stock market close, roughly a quartermillion Siliconillionaires live in the Valley. And they're building megalo-mansions and buying Lamborghinis as fast as they can. Combining reportorial insight and biting wit, The Silicon Boys tells the unforgettable story of dreams and greed, ambition and luck, that has become the Valley of the Dollars.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Technology, History, Biography, Computers, Entrepreneurship

Paperback

First published June 23, 1999

About the author

David A. Kaplan is the former legal affairs of Newsweek, where he covered the Court for a decade. His other books include The Silicon Boys (a New York Times bestseller that was translated into six languages), The Accidental President (an account of the 2000 election on which HBO’s Recount was partially based), and Mine’s Bigger (a biography of the largest sailboat in the world that won the Loeb Award for Best Business Book of 2008). A graduate of Cornell and the New York University School of Law, he teaches courses in journalism and ethics at NYU. He and his family live in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.

Reviews

[Larry Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read through this book 3 times - anytime I read a book twice it's a rare event. Some of the stories are a bit unbelievable and sensationalistic but the history of silicon valley and how these tech guys keep inventing and reinventing themselves is great fun. Well done.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want an engaging read about the history of Silicon Valley, this fits the bill.

You will want to read the prologue as well. The author is personally acquainted with many of the modern characters in the book. And yes, they are definitely characters.

I was already well-versed in the history of the invention of the microchip. Transistors and the microchip, originally, put Silicon Valley on the map. Prior to that, it was mostly a sleepy, agricultural area. Nobody associated with agriculture can afford that area anymore and few people are getting any sleep.

William Shockley may have been instrumental in the invention of the transistor, but his ego was bigger than his contribution. With his inflated ego and the perceived lack of respect at Bell Labs, he decided he was going to go back home to California, start a company and get the money and respect he deserved.

Let's just say ... it didn't work out that way.

But the world-class talent he lured out there (including Gordon Moore, for whom Moore's Law is named) had an effect for decades to come. The people he brought out there founded Fairchild Semiconductor (which brought some of the first Venture Capital to the Valley, as well as being a co-inventor of the microchip) and Intel. And from Intel flowed many great blessings (as well as a great many more Venture Capitalists).

This book was published in 2000. There's no mention of Google. Amazon gets a passing mention, mostly in that SV venture capitalists were early investors. Indeed, there's at least one chapter entirely about "vulture capital." The last chapter is about Yahoo, which hadn't yet fallen to earth, as far as stock valuation was concerned.

Netscape gets a full chapter, including their filing complaints with the US Federal Trade Commission which would, eventually, manage to get some anti-trust leveled against The Leviathan (aka Microsoft). Indeed, there's most of a paragraph devoted to the list of names various people have for Microsoft. I'm no fan of Microsoft (I'm a Linux guy; barely a mention of it but it didn't really hit critical mass until after the book was published). And while the author tries very hard to remain as neutral as possible, this is a chapter about Netscape. It's hard to tell the story of Clark, Marc and Bark and be neutral WRT Microsoft.

One theme in the book, which isn't mentioned explicitly, is that a company invents a technology which changes the world (Fairchild with the microchip, Netscape with the modern web browser) and then gets left behind, one way or another. The company which invents a world-changing tech rarely gets to control it, long-term. Witness IBM and the fact that a small fraction of machines IBM-compatible machines were actually made there. Indeed, when IBM tried to wrest control again (PS/2; I'm typing this on a Model M), the market consciously chose another direction.

I got kinda ill reading about the utterly obscene amount of money people like John Doerr and Larry Ellison raked in.

Definitely read the epilogue, where Bob Metcalf decided the Valley had just plain gone nuts and packed up and moved his family to Maine. Who, you ask? You know, Bob Metcalf. One of the greats from the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (if you haven't read "Dealers of Lightning," get your copy NOW and get busy reading; you won't regret it). Known forever as the inventor of Ethernet. You go, dude!

Overall an engaging read, throwing a lot of color on the history and the personalities behind it all.

I was a little disappointed. I'd hoped it would have more info about Bill Godbout, George Morrow and other people associated with S-100 / IEEE-696 systems. Silicon Valley was also the home of their great accomplishments. So far as I can tell, the book about them and their technological achievements has yet to be written. It's kind of a shame, as many of them are now deceased (Godbout died in the Camp Fire in 2018) and their accomplishments are being forgotten. A system which allowed you to mix and match CPUs, RAM, floppy controllers, hard drive controllers and various other boards, from different manufacturers, all in one case? Allowing you to build single-user or multi-user systems? In the 1970s, before the IBM PC? There are some absolutely tantalizing tales out there, but no one seems to have compiled them. Bill Godbout gets one mention in this book, in passing, mentioning that his machines also used CP/M (Gary Kildall, the creator of same, one of the main characters in this book). When someone finally writes THAT book, I'll be very interested to read it.

[David Fulmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gossipy history of Silicon Valley, that geographic region near San Francisco that gave birth to so much technology and mythology that fills our culture. The tone and content of the book resemble a long magazine article - it kind of feels like an oral history as written by a journalist and not a historian but the people and the companies and the stories here are compelling, fascinating, and actually quite entertaining.

The author talked to a ton of people who were important and less important figures in the history of the Valley in the late nineties, when this book was published. It is a bit dated but I think that’s part of its charm. There’s a quote in here from Steve Jobs describing himself as an “old man” and reflecting on his life and the history of the region. He talks about being worth a hundred million dollars in his twenties and doesn’t seem to be aware of what’s to come. It's definitely a time capsule.

Kaplan covers all the inventions that fueled the growth of the technology industry: he writes about the inventions of the transistor, the integrated circuit, the microprocessor. He covers relational databases, video games, operating systems, the World Wide Web, the browser wars, and the very early history of search engines like Yahoo. Mostly, though, he focuses on what he keeps calling the “largest legal creation of wealth in the history of the planet” which of course means the venture capital firms. This leads to much talk about people’s sports cars and boats.

I loved the balance between the more serious history of the inventors and businesses like Hewlett Packard and Apple and the more tabloidey sections about their obscene wealth, failed marriages, and personality conflicts. It makes the book hard to classify because it’s not really a sober account of important technology and business history but it also is not just a salacious book about Larry Ellison’s personal life and Steve Jobs’ betrayals. I think it has a broader appeal - if you like business history, technology history, or want to know better the personalities of Silicon Valley than you most certainly will enjoy “Silicon Boys.”

[John Bastin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book over a year ago, but then set it aside in lieu of a seemingly endless string of books that attracted my interest (so many books, so little time). I've finally actually picked it up and completed it, and it hasn't lost its attraction for me.

This is many of the nuts and bolts details of the beginning of the Internet, and the colorful individuals who made it happen (and reaped untold millions, no, billions of dollars doing so). It's been over ten years since this book was written (15 since it was actually begun) and the Internet is a markedly different place from its characterization here, and different from the projections of its future envisioned then.

Nevertheless, I find it a very interesting history. It was fascinating reading about, and remembering the men who got us to this place. Maybe the destination isn't what was visualized, most certainly not what was desired at the time this book was written, but it is what it is, and this book is a small rendering of how we got here.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A magazine style assessment of the silicon valley of the 90s. Best to read some other books, like the Innovators, to get a better technical understanding of the rise of Silicon Valley. This is more a collection of gossip around the newly rich and super rich. But, reading this today, there are some striking passages, such as around the anti-trust on Microsoft or the emptiness of the internet fueled boom. These perhaps were early indications of the potential anti-trust to come to today's FANG companies.

[Viktor Hrovat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I was one of them, this book recalls all my memories and dreams.

[Ivo Spigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun, breathtaking guide to the formative years of personal computing, inside and outside Silicon Valley.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, this was like reading a book by a character from Mean Girls. Snippy, jealous and gossipy. Sure, there are some gee-whiz facts scattered through the stories, but as someone who lived and worked in Silicon Valley and interfaced with a couple of the subjects, I have to say, it's as if the research source was US Magazine. I didn't finish it because my brain became overloaded with 'not reallys' and 'yes but...' mental footnotes. It's episodic, so fine fare for an airport or a couple of short flights. But I'm betting you won't lug it home after.

[David Kopec · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. For anyone interested in the culture of Silcion Valley it is a must read. Yes, as other reviewers pointed out it jumps around quite a bit. Both in terms of pace and interest. However, taken as a whole it provides exciting stories of busines, personal flare, finance, and technology. A good read for anyone with at least a vague interest in the subject matter.

[Aimée · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best book I've read on the history of Silicon Valley. Though a bit of a period piece (it was published in 1999), its history of the early days of the Valley -- from the founding of HP, Shockley etc -- is great.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Also pretty decent, good overview of the major players at the start of the tech boom. Covers the start of the computing revolution and the start of the internet boom.

[Bill Varon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best account on the history of the high tech industry, especially the early days of the micro chip through the VC created dot-com craziness and how successful start-ups are made.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book.

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on entrepreneurial success stories for the knowledge worker or aspiring entrepreneur.

[David Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great recap of the early history of the valley, recommended. Would love something like this of more current events.

[Rochelle Kopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the first things I read when I arrived in Silicon Valley. It was a very efficient way to orient myself, and entertaining as well!

[Nick Sachs · Rating 3 out of 5]

uncritical hero worship of greedy men