Live Work Work Work Die cover art

Live Work Work Work Die

A Journey into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Live Work Work Work Die

By: Corey Pein
Narrated by: Corey Pein
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

A scathing, sardonic exploration of Silicon Valley tech culture, laying bare the greed, hubris, and retrograde politics of an industry that aspires to radically transform society for its own benefit. This enlightening audiobook is a must-listen for anyone interested or involved in the tech industry.

At the height of the startup boom, journalist Corey Pein set out for Silicon Valley with little more than a smartphone and his wits. His goal: to learn how such an overhyped industry could possibly sustain itself as long as it has. But to truly understand the delirious reality of the tech entrepreneurs, he knew he would have to inhabit that perspective—he would have to become an entrepreneur himself. Thus Pein begins his journey—skulking through gimmicky tech conferences, pitching his over-the-top business ideas to investors, and rooming with a succession of naive upstart programmers whose entire lives are managed by their employers—who work endlessly and obediently, never thinking to question their place in the system.

In showing us this frantic world, Pein challenges the positive, feel-good self-image that the tech tycoons have crafted—as nerdy and benevolent creators of wealth and opportunity—revealing their self-justifying views and their insidious visions for the future.

Vivid and incisive, Live Work Work Work Die is a troubling portrait of a self-obsessed industry bent on imposing its disturbing visions on the rest of us.

Business Development & Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship Future Studies Labour & Industrial Relations New Business Enterprises Politics & Government Social Sciences Technology Business Computer Science Witty Feel-Good Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence Robotics

Listeners also enjoyed...

Brotopia cover art
American Exit Strategy cover art
Data and Goliath cover art
Makers and Takers cover art
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning cover art
Quantum Lens cover art
Meltdown cover art
Hoodwinked cover art
The Deluge cover art
Atlas Shrugged cover art
Fooled by Randomness cover art
METAtropolis cover art
The Next 100 Years cover art
Business Adventures cover art
The Trillion-Dollar Conspiracy cover art
The Price of Tomorrow cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I found this book after listening to an extract of the Guardian newspapers Long Reads. Here was someone who went to Silicon Valley and gave it a real go... at least that's how it initially came across. The author's time subletting was amusing and eye opening. Frankly, all the first- hand accounts were pretty interesting at first. But, it quickly becomes apparent that the author wasn't actually trying to create a startup. instead he was just slumming it in order to write this book with a bit more credibility, I guess? He seemed to be there just to mock entrepreneurs. Not everyone is a crook, or charlatan! And, after a while even the thinly-veiled attempt at business is dropped in favour of over-long, boring stretches of things the author has researched about the business world and business history. That wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily, in better hands. But, this is dry stuff here and not what was initially promised, in my opinion.

A strong start that peters out

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

nothing terribly new but an interesting, scathing and sardonic romp into the contradictions of silicon valley

interesting, funny

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Looking at tech industry at 2025 and comparing with the content of the book. That is scary

That was prophecy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A sardonic look at Silicon Valley. This comes across as the standard hack approach of adversarial journalism. There is a step beyond this where you comment on the madness but get to understand more behind it. It also claims to be honest, yet at times if doesn't feel like it's being at all honest - it feels more like a novel in places and there's too much of the writer in the way. Maybe this was an attempt to get all 'fear and loathing' but doesn't ring true in many places. It's too tidy, to cut and dry. It's dubious. I'm not saying Silicon Valley isn't messed up - but I'm left wanting to know why and some of the stories of those caught up in it more. Good subject - just needs better journalism.

Hack Hacking Hackers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

A very timely book in view of the recent revelations about Facebook.

If you enjoy the HBO comedy Silicon Valley this book will really click.

I really enjoyed.

Tech fantasy exposed as a scam

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.