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Chaos Monkeys
- Inside the Silicon Valley Money Machine
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
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Summary
An adrenaline-fuelled exposé of life inside the tech bubble, Chaos Monkeys lays bare the secrets, power plays and lifestyle excesses of the visionaries, grunts, sociopaths, opportunists and money cowboys who are revolutionising our world. Written by startup CEO and industry provocateur Antonio García Martínez, this is Liar's Poker meets The Social Network.
Computer engineers use 'chaos monkey' software to wreak havoc and test system robustness. Similarly, tech entrepreneurs like Antonio García Martínez are society's chaos monkeys - their innovations disrupt every aspect of our lives, from transportation (Uber) and holidays (Airbnb) to television (Netflix) and dating (Tinder) - all in search of the perfect business miracle.
Describing himself as 'high strung, fast talking, and wired on a combination of caffeine, fear, and greed at all times', García Martínez left Wall Street to make his fortune in Silicon Valley, becoming CEO of his own start-up before bailing and being poached by Facebook's nascent advertising team. Here he turned users' data into profit for COO Sheryl Sandberg and chairman and CEO Mark 'Zuck' Zuckerberg.
Forced out of Facebook in the wake of a bitter internal product war, García Martínez took his unique brand of entrepreneurial hyperactivity to rivals Twitter. Along the way he got into a lot of trouble with a lot of people, brewed illegal beer on the Facebook campus (accidentally flooding Zuckerberg's desk), lived on a yacht, raced sport cars on the highway, and enthusiastically pursued the lifestyle of an overpaid Silicon Valley mercenary.
In Chaos Monkeys he tells you how - and how not - to make a fortune through start-ups and digital marketing. Highly entertaining and always offering genuine insight, García Martínez unravels the chaotic evolution of social media and online marketing. From start-ups and credit derivatives to Big Brother and data tracking, social media monetisation and digital 'privacy', he shares both his scathing observations and outrageous antics, taking us on a subversive and very funny tour of the fascinatingly insular and unbelievably wealthy tech industry.
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What listeners say about Chaos Monkeys
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Xanyar
- 05-10-16
Lacks depth
If you really liked liars' poker you'll also like this otherwise it'll come across as quite shallow...
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6 people found this helpful
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- phil chadwick
- 11-08-16
Honest and self-critical view of silicon valley
Loved this frank, sceptical review. Real change from the usual evangelical writing about Silicon Valley
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-01-17
My new tech-guide bible
This book set a wild fire inside me.
Antonio's narrative with his unadulterated truth resonates with anyone working on the high end tech of the startup environment.
I finished the book and am going to go through it again. Don't want to miss a thing.
This is not only an incredible current account of the tech scene in Silicon Valley. It's full with snippets of marketing wisdom for success in the golden age of social networking, where product and brand perception is paramount.
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3 people found this helpful
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- stuart
- 20-11-19
Fantastically candid
Just finished listening for the second time and already know I will listen again in the future. this book is a must read for anyone who is even remotely interested in tech, silicon valley, or any of the big tech companies residing there. the foot notes alone could while an hour away. very informative and at times even laugh out loud funny. Cliché I know but this really should be a movie.
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1 person found this helpful
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- HI
- 09-09-19
Unnecessary slow.
too slow and seems like it's more to feed the ego of the writer. not much happens at all.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Laura
- 24-05-18
Self indulgent and too long
Intermittently both interesting and amusing, this book is unfortunately around 4-5 hours too long and very self-indulgent.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mael Dujardin
- 18-03-18
unsympathetic character
at the beginning it was interesting, but then it becomes like listening to a self-absorbed and slightly drugged executive in a pub, droning about their accomplishments and always portraying themselves as the hero who saves the day.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Steve
- 20-09-16
Great story, beautifully read
I really enjoyed this book. It gave real world insights into Silicon Valley and Facebook. The narrator, Dan John Miller, is one of the best I've heard - perfect match.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jeff T Matthews
- 21-12-21
Blah
Not an interesting story, I am no better a person for having wasted the time and credit to endure half of this tripe.
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- mira
- 08-08-21
Entertaining
Read it as a story, don't take it seriously as some sort of industry guide.
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