“… The decisions to develop and disseminate world-changing technologies cannot be left to a few overly confident rich men with Stanford degrees and a deep contempt for history, politics, language and culture, not to mention the suffering of the poor…”
Corey Pine
The Internet is a free and frictionless medium of exchange where everyone plays on equal terms and the best ideas inevitably make their way to the top. If you don't agree with this, then you are an eccentric and a cynic. As well as the author of the book "Live, work, work, work, die!". Little is known about the author: Corey Pein lives in Portland, Oregon, a journalist, ran a news site in London, decided to change his career and became interested in information technology. Like many who came to the tech industry after the 2008 economic crisis, he studied programming on his own, read tech blogs on Hacker News . But I soon realized that the skills that he had acquired (writing an application in Ruby on Rails, manage a virtual server) do not bring him income. And then he made a decision, which sooner or later comes to mind for a person somehow connected with the development of digital technologies - to go to San Francisco, to Silicon Valley, to open his own startup.
Silicon Valley is a Mecca for a developer, coder, programmer. The capital of America's billionaires, an innovation factory and home to high-tech heroes. In Hollywood, everyone has a script for a movie; in Silicon Valley, everyone has an idea for a startup. But unlike Hollywood, Silicon Valley will have no problem finding investors, shareholders and financiers.
Indeed, you can participate in workshops and present your startup on PowerPoint or speak at meetUp with one-minute pitches. Such events are held there every week. There are plenty of opportunities. Gather the courage and dare! Everyone succeeds; only a fool can fail! But the author has failed many times. And he has seen almost all beginners fail. And this book is about that.
The first half of the book tells about the author's tolls, about the search and renting of housing, about visits to technical meetings.
"... Accommodation cost $ 85 per night - less than the market average, but all exactly more than I could afford ..."
You will find out what the goals of organizers of such events for developers are pursuing, how the presenters are bluffing, and what is really behind the bonus drinks and food in the offices of Google, Apple and GitHub. How companies like Uber and Yelp came about , who sponsors them, and how they beat all lawsuits. What is the difference between "drones" from "bulls" and what other classifications of techies are. How the work in Mechanical Turk works (for more details there is an article by Habr here ) and Fiverr.
The second half is devoted to the luminaries of the world of the digital industry and what ideas they preach.
“Are startup founders capital or labor? Mark Zuckerberg - Capital. But for every Zuckerberg, there are a hundred guys who got fired from their own startups. This is a labor force. "
You will find out how the founders of corporations see the future, whose principles they have inherited and what they want to do with world states. Why do they write about Steve Jobs and Elon Musk as if they are rock stars, what they do with negative Facebook reviews, and what does politics have to do with it. Get to know Mencius Moldbag and the Red Tablet Philosophy. How Peter Thiel and Vincent Cerf achieved success . How Jeff Bezos and Netflix Dodge Taxes. And much more.
Is it worth reading? Undoubtedly. Reminiscent of the novels "Microsoft Slaves" and "J-Pod" by Douglas Copeland... But still, this is documentary prose, not fiction. Everything is written in simple language, there are well-aimed and caustic jokes. If you have an idea to open your own startup or go to Silicon Valley (why not!), Then reading this book will be at least useful.
The only possible minus is the author's excessive bias towards "techies". On reading, one might get the impression that the author is describing only one side of the coin. But even lighting only this one side gives food for a lot of thought.
"... Even if our institutions survive in the near future, there is a clear trend towards increasing corporate control over all areas of life. Due to their relative popularity, huge financial reserves and proven ability to disrupt and absorb other industries, leading tech companies are ready to take on a disproportionate share of this control. Well, as for all the others - we will have to work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard ... "
