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Valley of Genius
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
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Valley of Genius
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Publisher's Summary
A candid, colorful, and comprehensive oral history that reveals the secrets of Silicon Valley - from the origins of Apple and Atari to the present day clashes of Google and Facebook, and all the start-ups and disruptions that happened along the way.
Rarely has one economy asserted itself as swiftly - and as aggressively - as the entity we now know as Silicon Valley. Built with a seemingly permanent culture of reinvention, Silicon Valley does not fight change; it embraces it, and now powers the American economy and global innovation.
So how did this omnipotent and ever-morphing place come to be? It was not by planning. It was, like many an empire before it, part luck, part timing, and part ambition. And part pure, unbridled genius...
Drawing on over 200 in-depth interviews, Valley of Genius takes listeners from the dawn of the personal computer and the Internet, through the heyday of the web, up to the very moment when our current technological reality was invented. The audiobook interweaves stories of invention and betrayal, overnight success and underground exploits, to tell the story of Silicon Valley like it has never been told before. These are the stories that Valley insiders tell each other: the tall tales that are all, improbably, true.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Critic Reviews
"This is the most important book on Silicon Valley I've read in two decades. It will take us all back to our roots in the counterculture, and will remind us of the true nature of the innovation process, before we tried to tame it with slogans and buzzwords." (Po Bronson, The New York Times best-selling author of Top Dog and NurtureShock)
"Valley of Genius is a blast - it's like eavesdropping on a huge party of all the hackers, thinkers and creators that built our digital world. Every page has some crazy detail I never knew before; I couldn't put it down." (Clive Thompson, author of Smarter Than You Think)
"A fantastic read! Adam Fisher's history of Silicon Valley is compelling and thorough, full of fascinating and inspiring stories carefully curated by someone who truly knows his stuff. Should be on every entrepreneur's desk!" (Ben Mezrich, The New York Times best-selling author of The Accidental Billionaires)
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What listeners say about Valley of Genius
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Jo M
- 04-10-2018
Silicon's inspiration
Memorable moment: looking ahead, past VR towards MR and coexistence with AI and robotics. Thoroughly enjoyable.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 28-01-2019
Riveting
I love all things tech and this gave me such valuable insight to the history of tech development and those key figures with in it. It's a must have!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anthony Eales
- 21-01-2019
Uncensored Look at the History of Silicon Valley
I listened to this over a few months. Was a great read. I learnt so much in the early years of Silicon Valley. If you are after a solid history of Wired Magazine this is your book. But there was a lot of other chapters outlining the histories of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, ebay, Atari and many more as told by the key figures in each of their histories.
I found this book highly entertaining and informative. The uncensored aspect was a twist and lots of fun. Sex, drugs and...
...technology I guess. And stay tuned for the epilogue for these great minds' take on the future of technology and Silicon Valley. You'll get 15 and a half hours of great content before it. I also enjoyed the quotes format where nearly all of the book was made up of quotes from people who were there. I understand the author conducted extensive interviews.
I'd also recommend the Valley of Genius podcast as a chaser on the TWiT podcast network.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 23-08-2019
Difficult to understand
The first book I have given a poor review to and I really wanted to like it. Conceptually it sounds fantastic but it is a series of anecdotes from people who were there during the formation and growth of silicon valley.
Maybe it's just me but I find it very discordant and hard to establish a solid narrative through the initial chapters and gave up after a few hours.
It would have been much better if there were distinct themes in each chapter and the anecdotes were used to punctuate the story.
Disappointing as I think it could be a lot better if it was more cogently structured.
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