[(Geek Silicon Valley)] [Author: Ashlee Vance] published on

by Ashlee Vance

The Real Silicon Valley

 

Some people say that Silicon Valley is a state of mind, but the cultural trends that drive us today were actually born in a very real place—the garages and back rooms of the cities between San Francisco and San Jose, California. Geek Silicon Valley delivers Silicon Valley history, taking us from success story to failed start-up and back again as we drive the roads from Menlo Park to Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara.

 

Place by place, readers get the background info on all the addresses that count: Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Stanford University, NASA Ames, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Santana Row, Genentech, and many more.

 

Journey through a circuitry of places and people—and the stories that created today’s high-tech lifestyle—with Geek Silicon Valley.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Technology, Business

Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Ashlee Vance is an award winning feature writer for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Vance is also the host of the "Hello World" TV show. Previously, he worked for The New York Times and The Register.

Vance was born in South Africa, grew up in Texas and attended Pomona College. He has spent more than a decade covering the technology industry from San Francisco and is a noted Silicon Valley historian.

Reviews

[Raoul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I though the book was very good in the sense that it explained the history of Silicon Valley well and briefly. However, there were parts of the book I did not like, such as the off-topic text blocks in the middle of a chapter or section. It would seem more appropriate to add that at the end of a chapter. Also, I understand the title of the book infers that it is a Silicon Valley guide, but I did not expect there to be actual tour guides, which is ok but I was more interested in the history of Silicon Valley and how it came to be, so when I read several pages of what you can see and where, it threw me off a little.

[Mary Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good survey of Silicon Valley history that specifically looks at the tech history of the area. I really like that the book points out specific addresses, marker locations, telephone numbers, and web links. Granted, the book was published in 2007 and is already a bit out-of-date, but of course the history is pretty spot on. A good enjoyable read. The printing itself is not fantastic, and the organization is a bit off. I agree with other reviewers who recommend pictures, but I know the purchasing rights for some pictures might be pretty pricy.

[Trish Honch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greetings and hello!

I am an interstellar talent scout of the Castor Moving
Group Network. You may call me Glorbalorbl. My
home is in the Zubenelgenubi system, a multi-star
neighborhood which lies conveniently close to your
home system's ecliptic plane. As a result of this
geometric convenience, us Zubenelgenubians have
long been capable of analyzing your home planet
using techniques like the TTV method familiar to
you, and we are even fully capable of direct
spectroscopic analysis of your atmosphere, but even
if we were limited to your primitive methods, or
limited to one star system, we would still have
known about your biosphere since long before your
particular species showed up on the scene, because
we are a much older civilization that has migrated
into the area from elsewhere in the galaxy.

We have occasionally glanced your way in curiosity
since before the first campfires began dotting the
dark side of your planet. Upon observing your
behaviors as you developed your unique identity
among the lifeforms of your world, we quickly knew
that you showed a lot of promise, but also
possessed many problematic qualities. As for these
troublesome characteristics, you seemed apparently
unable or unwilling to recognize and remedy them in
as timely of a manner as we have come to expect
from most species that we consider to be developing
toward true intelligence.

We have long wanted to give you the benefit of the
doubt, noting that your home planet is as dynamic
as it is beautiful. The challenges faced by the
evolution of life on your world presented you with
many harsh realities and many long threads of
intergenerational trauma. We get it, you grew up in a
tough neighborhood. You did not have the benefit of
growing up slowly on a fully-stable paradise planet
orbiting neatly in a flare-free band of space around a
fully-convective star with an extremely long main-
sequence lifespan, like my species originally did... or,
in fact, like most of the intelligent species in the
galaxy did.

Nonetheless, it was frustrating enough watching the
constant setbacks that resulted from your
stubbornly persistent myopia that we decided to
stop paying much attention to what was going on
over here. The last time anyone in our network took a
serious peek must have been a few hundred Earth
orbits ago. Upon reflection, I must say this appears
to have been a significant oversight on our behalf,
as you have experienced a surprising amount of
change in that time interval.

During a normal shift break on a routine research
mission through the local void, my colleagues and I
were recreationally surfing the plasma veil on the
edge of your Sun's magnetic field when we
happened upon a small craft of yours containing
some cute cartoons and a record that appears to be
titled "THE SOUNDS OF EARTH THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA PLANET EARTH" - as lovers of music
and recording arts ourselves, we immediately threw
that shit onto the decks and put the needle down.
While the sound was a little bit primitive and mostly
contained what seemed to our sensibilities like under
-produced source material captured from a single
linear timeline, we had to admit it had some pretty
good tracks on it. Even Greglorbalor the Horrible was
delightedly clapping his digits at times.

As the resident talent scout on our mission, it was
incumbent upon me to reach out to you. Our team
quickly analyzed the current state of your common
languages and colloquialisms, as well as the state
of your science. Using that information I was able to
write you this message, and even select a few
anthems of my alien nation to share with you, which
I hope you will enjoy. My home system, after all, is
renowned for pumping out the phattest beats in the
Orion Arm.

Now, to get more serious. Some of the things I say
may feel to you like harsh criticisms, but I want you
to keep in mind that if I didn't see potential in you, I
would not bother to send you this message. With
that in mind, there are some things I would like you
to consider. In order to apply for galactic citizenship
and be liberated from your current state of
quarantined containment, you are going to need to
meet the following requirements:

1) You must cease your habitual engagement in
avoidable conflict. This includes conflict within your
own species as well as conflict between your
civilization and its environment. Amongst nearly all
enlightened interstellar civilizations, this is the
primary measure by which the relative intelligence of
a life form is established. Any civilization with a
tendency toward violence, duplicity, sabotage, and ill
-will is simply not considered mature enough to
populate beyond their native star system. As long as
you avoid making the breathtakingly obvious
decision to work in harmony with the world you are a
part of, then I must woefully inform you that you and
your music will not be welcome at any of our public
parks, or on any of our relativistic highways, or in
any of our universally-acclaimed utopian garden-
metropolis sanctuaries, or at any of our Galactic
Music Awards ceremonies.

2) You must eliminate poverty. Mismanagement of
resources is generally considered a bad sign when
analyzing the inhabitants of any world. By our
standards, as long as any one member of your
civilization is involuntarily unable to meet their basic
needs, including access to food, shelter, information,
and care, the title of "intelligent" will continue to
elude your species.

3) You must transmit a new collection of your best
music in the direction of my home system, the star
system you know as Alpha Librae, from between the
longitude you call 100°W and 110°W, at the time you
call 12:08 AM, on the date you call June 21, 2038. I
repeat: new mixtape, right ascension 14h 52m 07.6s,
declination 16°08'06.0", at the moment of the
solstice closest to your aphelion, sixteen orbits from
the time of this message, and from the part of your
planet facing most directly away from your Sun at
the time. This isn't an intelligence test like the other
two items I have listed, I simply want a more up-to-
date demo from you. We will have a
receiver/transmitter in position to then distribute
your message rapidly to the Zubenelgenubi system
and, from there, to my colleagues in the Castor
Moving Group Network.

To put it lightly, a good demo is a great first step
toward building your rapport with the rest of us, and
would make your application for galactic citizenship
much more likely to be approved. If your demo is
good, and you've met the other two requirements I
mentioned, then we might be able to finally invite
you to the party. If your application is indeed
approved, you will then have access to the collective
knowledge of the various networks tangling their
way around the Milky Way. That includes an
abundance of helpful information about travel,
communication, computation, longevity, and
spacetime itself, to name a few points of interest.

Good luck, Earth People.

Kindest regards,
Glorbalorblorlbrrgkjegrlkust6;l9[-t67/0

[Metin Ozsavran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is an excellent book by Vance. Better than his semi-forced lube job for Musk. He provides some rare tidbits about the valley not easily found elsewhere. Having a solid geographical structure helps the book organization a lot. Although quite a bit dated now, it’s still a pleasure to read.

[Jackfaith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a delicious overview of Mediterranean cuisine! It’s amazing how each region brings its own unique flavors to the table. I’m especially excited about the mention of Neapolitan pizza—there's nothing quite like it https://wellexpertcleaning.com/cleani...

[Rick Jam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book ever I seen in my career.

[Mahroze Gul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thrilling to be honest!

[Heather Pagano · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun approach to the history of technology by organizing information geographically instead of chronologically. This form of organization allowed the author to visit and revisit key players in Silicon Valley's history, which helped the reader review important people and corporations, and gave a feel for how interactions, combinations and recombinations of technical talent made history.

The mesh of history and tourist tips was a little odd, but gave a friendly tone to the book. Some tourist tips were very useful, such as hours for museums, private companies that do or do not offer tours, etc. An awful lot of tourist tips concerned beer and hamburgers- not necessarily fare I'd ever want to consume. I also detected a slight bias against San Jose as lacking taste and culture. Obviously the book was written before the social networking revolution. In addition, the dot com bust was constantly referred to as an important event in the Valley's history, but very little attention was given to forces that led to the burst bubble.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the voice and conversational style of this book. It contains a lot of interesting information about the history of the Silicon Valley and a bunch of cool tidbits about people and places that were new to me. It's organized according to city first so it doesn't necessarily read as a linear narrative, so there was a little overlap but nothing too troublesome. I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a quick and dirty history of the Silicon Valley as its various hamlets.

[Simone Gambirasio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sembra una semplice guida turistica alla Silicon Valley. In realtà è un modo originale e divertente di conoscere la storia di tante aziende che hanno cambiato la storia. Tante curiosità sui CEO e sulle sfide, sulle location e sulla vita che effettivamente si vive negli uffici di start-up e multinazionali. Ottima sia per chi visiterà davvero la Silicon Valley sia per chi si accontenta di un tour "virtuale" nel tempo e nello spazio.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"During these experimental times the house, too, became part of the manufacturing process. Hewlett and Packard would often spray-paint some of their products and then cart them into the home's oven to make the markings permanent. Health inspectors have since marveled at the idea of cooking what was probably lead-baed paint inside the house. Lucille Packard is said to have remarked, 'The roasts never quite tasted the same after that.'" (25)

[Xian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fluid and informative. Wish it had some pictures though, of the buildings or maybe of logos so I might recognize companies I don't know by name. Also it has a couple really basic spelling mistakes (reeking a bit of havoc on page 216 and you're next stop will be on page 232 of the 2007 edition).

[Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

At this point, the book is almost a decade old. I ready about 1/3rd of the book before deciding I wouldn't finish it. Although it was interesting to ready all the stories about different areas of Silicon Valley, it was very hard to make any connection to them without having visited the area.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful and enjoyable travel guide to points of interest. Really enhanced my visit.