Долина богів

by Alexandra Wolfe

Це книжка про місце, де навіть XXI століття вийшло з моди — так далеко вперед дивляться мешканці Кремнієвої долини. Саме тут, у Сан-Франциско та у містах Затоки Сан-Франциско, вдруге за останні півстоліття відбувається маштабна культурна революція, яка радикально змінює життя планети. І якщо в 1960-х роках про тодішню революцію писав Том Вулф, то про наших сучасників пише його донька, журналістка Александра Вулф. У центрі її оповіді — не хіппі, а юні стартапери, учасники й учасниці стипендіальної програми легендарного інвестора Пітера Тіля, які отримали від його фундації 100 тисяч доларів з умовою покинути школу, відмовитися від навчання в коледжі на час програми і заснувати власну компанію. У них багато спільного з тими, хто здійснював культурну революцію у 60-х: вони живуть комунами, експериментують зі стилем життя і прагнуть змінити світ, але пристрасть, якій вони віддаються, інша — робота. Як і сорок років тому, не всі кумири виправдовують очікування, не всі мрії збуваються і не всі амбіції виявляються досяжними. А тим часом Кремнієва долина й надалі живе найсміливішими амбіціями і мріями, навіть мріями про докорінну зміну людства як виду. Як і сорок років тому, люди в Долині тягнуться до небес

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Technology, Audiobook, Cultural, Startup, Entrepreneurship

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 17, 2017

Reviews

[Tom Armstrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very disjointed book. It purports to follow the story of a few of the first class of Thiel Fellows and their decision to forgo college, move to Silicon Valley, and start companies. But it diverges all over the place (Uber's government relations, Ray Kurzweil, etc). It also rehashes some tired valley cultural crap (everyone wears hoodies, where are you on the spectrum, etc). Overall, this is a pretty disappointing book lacking organization.

[erforscherin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't usually hand out reviews this low - much less for nonfiction! - but this is truly one of the most terrible excuses for journalism I've ever read.

Rambling and often incoherent, it feels like the author ran about eight different articles through a blender and didn't even bother to copy edit; often I'd have to stop several times per chapter and reread a page multiple times because I couldn't follow the train of thought. The narrative wanders all over the place, jumping from topic to topic at random, then going off on some wild unrelated tangent, then suddenly chattering on again about the life of someone who was last mentioned twenty pages ago who you now can't remember.

More than that, the journalism here is just plain lazy: the author recites facts but never connects anything together critically, or digs into anyone's motivations at all. Even the most basic questions - How did A lead to B, and then to C? Why did that person do X instead of Y? How did Z make them feel, and what did they do about it? - go completely unanswered. It's like reading a first-grader's book report: all quotes and no analysis, just empty substance.

And just in case you think I'm exaggerating about the incoherence, here are just a few random examples:

Zuckerberg took the program as an attack and spent all night writing a JavaScript obfuscatory to break the Winklevi's - how the Mark Zuckerberg character jokingly refers to the Winklevoss twins, as though Winklevi (pronounced "winkle-vie") is the plural of a Latin -us ending - code.

(Ye gods, that was painful even just to type out. My kingdom for some punctuation, or at least a footnote!)

Polyamory intrigued Burnham, though he didn't subscribe to it. Friedman did too. Granted, he wasn't as excited about Friedman's Seasteading Institute.

(I've reread it five times and still can't make heads or tails of it...)

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book on SV culture and people. The best stories started out as magazine articles, and the worst parts are pretty disjointed. She's a good writer, and I did (mostly) enjoy the book, skimming over the weakest parts. The student stories were the most variable, but the best of these were the best parts of the book. I can see why the book got mixed reviews. 2.7 stars

[Віталій Роман · Rating 4 out of 5]

Типова книга про шлях до багацтва через комп'ютерні технології, стартапи, бунт щодо традиційної освіти. Початок був трохи дивний, а далі все стало на свої місця. Посміхнувся: виявляється, є думка, що видалення тестикул може подовжити життя о_0

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars*

I don't really care about Silicon Valley. And I'm even less enamoured with the crazies who inhabit it. But this one held my attention as it follows the ups-and-downs of Peter Thiel's dropout fellows. They're the special kids. The ones who go to MIT at 14 with no social skills. But then they arrive in the Valley and are fêted (with copious kale), encouraged, and worshipped (sometimes polyamorously).

It helps that many are working on immortality projects, trying, literally, to become gods.

So, take a trip to the Valley.

[Alex Moskalyuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overly repetitive and delves into needless details, such as names of people, projects and companies that go nowhere and are mentioned in the book once. Entire chapters are dedicated to digressions (e.g. co-living) that have no relation to the rest of the book contents, and could've easily fit into a few paragraphs.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for bookclub. I did not enjoy it. The experience was like reading a bunch of short articles that were loosely connected. this book was written for the East Coast about the West Coast. As a US West Coast resident surrounded by tech companies I don't think the author understands the vibe here.

[indy ❁ ⋆⁺₊⋆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

the only useful about this book is that it gives me list of geniuses in silicon valley i can google about

[Serena · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book disjointed and hard to follow. I was interested in reading more about the distinct culture of Silicon Valley but there was no engaging narrative to follow, and the author's feelings seeped into the reporting more than I would like. I decided not to waste my time about half-way through the "Gluten-Free Open Marriages" chapter.

[Neville · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just horrible and uninteresting.

[Rob Galbraith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great portrait of Silicon Valley in the 2010s

Wolfe does a great job in this tale to peel back much of the culture and zeitgeist of Silicon Valley in the 2010s, and given how its culture is permeating more and more of our lives, this is an instructive read that will cause you to reflect on our society as you were taught, your upbringing and the importance of a college education to get ahead in life. The contrast between elitist East Coast institutions and egalitarian West Coast institutions is really called out. My only critique is that the narrative sometimes feels a bit disjoint - some material was previously published as news and magazine articles, so the flow is not as smooth at points. Overall, I recommend this book for anyone trying to go behind the scenes in Silicon Valley to learn about the people and mindset that has shaped their culture - and ours.

[Christin.P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Halfway through the book, I gave up and a two-star rating is generous. The main points I couldn't get past:

* Structure of the book
It's not clear to me what Wolfe's overall storyline is. She gets lost too many times in side stories of a gazillion people and it feels like she info-dumps just to show off her connections and "insights".

*Language
Typos, convoluted sentences, missing punctuation, more typos. Who proofread this book before publication?

*Writing Style
This book lacks flow and clarity, both in style and content. A chapter ends and you're left hanging: What's her message here? Which conclusions does she draw? Also, her observations of the Valley stay very much on the surface: people's relationship status, party/networking/work locations, housing situations, wardrobe styles, to name a few. The reader is left to figure out how those pieces of information are in any way relevant to what the tech companies actually do.

*Logic
The timeline is absolutely confusing because Wolfe jumps between people's stories, what they work on, who they work for. One chapter you find yourself in late 2012, the next you're moved back to early 2012 with someone else's story. I couldn't keep up.

With everything that Silicon Valley is known for and pumps out into the world, it's beyond me how Wolfe got away with publishing such a low-quality book.

[Jim]

http://observer.com/2017/01/peter-thi...

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not just her father's daughter, Wolfe is a little less satirical and a little more empirical than father Tom as she chronicles the quirky world of the Silicon Valley inventors who change the world day by day in a binary way, but who have social and emotional deficits that leave them spinning toward an uneasy adulthood casting about with diet and exercise regimens, polyamory, and a quest for immortality. It is not for nothing that Google's logo looks like the front of a crayon box, that its premises can resemble a playground, and that its employees dress like dorm rats. No need to leave childhood behind when one becomes wealthy beyond one's wildest imaginings in one's twenties.

How the actual nurturing of the bright and inventive happens is of note, with the Thiel fellowships offering an alternative to college, and with the entire notion of college being cast into doubt. The struggles of the fellows are noteworthy, but the book's attempt to cover a range of issues seemed to sacrifice some depth.

The book caused quite a stir when published but many of its trenchant observations have been more than amply eclipsed by Mike Judge's Silicon Valley, which presents disrupters in their habitats in a fiercely funny way. The book and the show affirm each other. I enjoyed Wolfe's work, but would wish that she dig deeper and not wider next time.

By the way, as I am counting this toward my 2018 book goals, I note that I am counting this although the "reading" experience was by way of audiobook. No sense in letting a good listen go to waste.

[Megan Nigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was really intrigued by the topic, but after many major grammatical errors, I'm done with this book. I'm giving it one extra star for the clever title. However, apart from the clever title, the actual content is full of very basic grammatical mistakes that should have been caught. Examples: on page 88 "With occupants ranging from their late teens to their midthirties, the $5 million houses full of telescopes, terminals, and other high-tech toys, and everything from pools to motes to koi ponds....." Umm you mean moats, right?

Page 30: "He, like many of the people in the room, from the tech execs to the aspiring fellows, weren't the kind of people you would find schmoozing at Manhattan cocktail parties." In this instance, "he" is the subject. So he wasn't the kind of person , not he weren't the kind of people. Such a basic, basic concept that a decent writer and halfway decent editor should have caught. How many people read this prior to publication and missed this?

Anyway, I'm pretty thoroughly disgusted and am quitting halfway through. Story was interesting enough, but it reads like a poorly written, Sex in the City column knock-off. Not what I expected from a Wall Street Journal reporter.

[Mariya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite interesting book about the life of Silicon Valley - the way of living, the values, everyday things, and people around. It tells a lot about the atmosphere in the Valley and why West is so different from the East - because of the same values, because of the dreams people have and different wishes, because of the desire to change the world and leave their mark on Earth. It is really interesting to get deeper into the world of "Gods" and see how it is all created from the inside. Even though not everyone who goes there is successful or even stays.
The story though sometimes looked a bit messy to me - too many names in one chapter that I could lose the link to the previous chapter or even paragraph.
But still, the book that worth reading for general knowledge and with some good advice of other books to add to my to-read list.

[Mei Dean Francis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a voyeuristic person in tech who likes Silicon Valley (both in real life and as a topic) and loved Tom Wolfe, but I couldn't get past the second chapter of this book, which I paid full price for (I never do that!). It received a positive review in a womens' magazine I trusted until now.

The writing is amateurish, clickbait-y, repetitive, disjointed. As a deep dive article, it might have been interesting, but I'm having trouble figuring out who this book's intended audience is-- people familiar with the tech world will find it grating and explicatory, and people unfamiliar with it will get lost quickly. Hopefully someone in between will find it in the Tiny Library I'll be leaving it in. (I never do that, either.)

[Alida Hanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am interested in this topic, Wolfe has excellent contacts and was invited to shadow Peter Thiel. Unfortunately her writing style has two modes, gushing and flat, which to me is awkward, stilted, and boring. I'm halfway through the book, in the middle of the section about the Symbolic Systems major at Stanford, and wish that Asne Sierstad or Masha Gessen wrote this instead of Wolfe.

Even more painful, references to her father's work (Tom Wolfe), instead of enhancing the book, made me consider nepotism in Wolfe's career, and destroyed my appreciation for her work. I'm not saying my opinion is "right," I'm just trying to explain my response without a snarky one liner which is very tempting in this case.

[Eion Williamson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agree with other reviews that this book is disjointed, as I finished it only to determine if any take home messages.

Thing that resonated with me as to what drives people to Silicon Valley. Whilst mentions within the book of entrepreneurial start-ups outside this space, my conclusion is this could be done practically anywhere in the world, unless your ego required like-minded people around you. This is a similar argument to nature v nurture, as does Silicon Valley really produce an entrepreneurial drive, or does this exist in persons that would make this work minus the geographic location? My thoughts are that Silicon Valley, whilst home of many of the biggest tech companies, is a mixture of both good and bad.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a start up story with a twist. Instead of focusing on one company and assessing how it made it, it didn’t make it, this book looks at the culture of Silicon Valley and informs outsiders what it is like, how it has changed and how the culture changes people.

I enjoyed this book because I’ve worked in start ups but I’ve never been to San Francisco and I found it interesting to compare working at start ups in Sydney with Silicon Valley. I’ve read quite a few of these books more but Wolfe cites many people and companies that I’ve never heard of to give a further depth to the culture. It was particularly interesting how the ‘don’t go to college’ sentiment started and why people still travel to Silicon Valley to make it rich.

[Hizonfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and enlightening snapshots of arguably the tech center of the world. Would’ve wanted a little more focus on the narrative, as it tends to meander. Is it a story about the self-styled gods (as the title refers to) as they attempt to gain control on time, laws, biology, life, space and the like. Or is it a story about the bright eyed geniuses of the Thiel program - it seems to be but the details go in and out, never fully diving into their stories. Is it a Silicon Valley story or stories? Would’ve worked better that way, since upon reading the acknowledgments, it’s actually a collection of the author’s previous articles, which explains the rather hodge podge approach. A stronger edit or focus would’ve made this tale/s of Silicon Valley much more compelling.

[Cristian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to know about this book while listening to the New York Times Book review podcast. I decided to give the book and within a week I was done. The podcast host discussed on who was the audience for this book and I have the same question now. The book is part fiction, part real and it follows a bunch of teenagers admitted to the 1st batch of Peter Thiel's Fellowship program.

I loved this part though:
"The young, aspiring entrepreneurs were seduced by the lifestyle, by the oddity of it all. They were the new waiters and waitresses on Sunset Boulevard trying to win Oscars in Hollywood".

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure what this book is about. It started off detailing the experiences of the Thiel Fellows (which is a recurring theme throughout the book), then it moved into the culture of silicon valley (mostly shared housing and shared mates) and then moved into a quick bio of people the author seems to have met along the way. Overall this books is like Seinfeld, it’s about nothing. While mildly interesting I felt as if the book didn’t shine light on any one person, group or company, didn’t help explain anything and didn’t even have a coherent theme.

[Audrey's Book Corner · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not a fun read. I tought it would talk more about the day-to-day life in the Sillicon Valley, but it was more about the big compagnies, their programs and the general way of living. I wasn't interested in that part. I also didn't like the writing. It seemed like the information was thrown into the book without any organization. It was really hard to follow. In general, I didn't finished this book because I didn't like it. I would recommand only if you're interested in the giants of Sillicon Valley an how they spend their money.

[Nicole Byer · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it was very informative of the Silicon Valley lifestyle, a concept that is completely foreign to me, it had a habit of jumping around way too much. New people would be introduced in the middle of talking about one of the fellows and then suddenly jump back to the fellow in a few paragraphs. It was very hard to keep track of who they were talking about. But overall, I did learn a lot about Silicon Valley and the tech geniuses that inhabit it

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book tracks the lives of some of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and how they have come up with innovations in the IT industry, but in other areas of life such as converting garages into innovation hubs, communal living, etc. The book also looks at the disruption of the American formal education system by enabling entrepreneurs to find an alternative track to the Ivy Leagues. Very inspiring book.

[Ainsley Jeffery · Rating 3 out of 5]

This whole book is giving that Guardian article “I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers” & I hate it. I really enjoyed this book and I learned a lot, but I wish I had read it in 2019 because the tone of the world of technology, AI, start-ups, founder culture, etc etc etc feels quite different now. Something quite quirky and girlboss that took hold in the 2010’s that I think has shifted.

[Angela Yap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agree with the several reviews here that points to the lack of organization and repetitive nature of the content. Nonetheless, the author gave an interesting insight into how it is so different in the Valley, how Thiel's idea of stopping out of college started a new era of non-traditional education and how such unconventional path is just not for everyone.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

As many have pointed out, this book is disjointed and shoddily edited. It's an adaptation of various previously published magazine articles all loosely based around the subjects of silicone valley, tech and the startup world and it shows. This material deserves a better written, more focused and compelling treatment.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im wasn’t familiar with much about SV except what I know of Apple, FB, and the show Silicon Valley and this book is an in depth glimpse. It introduced me to Laura Deming and her work which I’m currently obsessed with. Fun read for anyone curious about the inside of the tech, VCs, the Thiel Fellowship and some interesting stories from this world.