Fearless Genius: The Digital Revolution in Silicon Valley 1985-2000

by Doug Menuez

An award-winning documentary photographer delivers a stunning visual history of the Silicon Valley technology boom, in which he was witness to key moments in the careers of Steve Jobs and more than seventy other leading innovators as they created today’s digital world.

An eye-opening chronicle of the Silicon Valley technology boom, capturing key moments in the careers of Steve Jobs and more than seventy other leading innovators as they created today’s digital world

In the spring of 1985, a technological revolution was under way in Silicon Valley, and documentary photographer Doug Menuez was there in search of a story—something big. At the same time, Steve Jobs was being forced out of his beloved Apple and starting over with a new company, NeXT Computer. His goal was to build a supercomputer with the power to transform education. Menuez had found his he proposed to photograph Jobs and his extraordinary team as they built this new computer, from conception to product launch.

In an amazing act of trust, Jobs granted Menuez unlimited access to the company, and, for the next three years, Menuez was able to get on film the spirit and substance of innovation through the day-to-day actions of the world’s top technology guru.

From there, the project expanded to include the most trailblazing companies in Silicon Valley, all of which granted Menuez the same complete access that Jobs had. Menuez photographed behind the scenes with John Warnock at Adobe, John Sculley at Apple, Bill Gates at Microsoft, John Doerr at Kleiner Perkins, Bill Joy at Sun Microsystems, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove at Intel, Marc Andreessen at Netscape, and more than seventy other leading companies and innovators. It would be fifteen years before Menuez stopped taking pictures, just as the dotcom bubble burst. An extraordinary era was coming to its close.

With his singular behind-the-scenes access to these notoriously insular companies, Menuez was present for moments of heartbreaking failure and unexpected success, moments that made history, and moments that revealed the everyday lives of the individuals who made it happen. This period of rapid, radical change would affect almost every aspect of our culture and our lives in ways both large and small and would also create more jobs and wealth than any other time in human history. And Doug Menuez was there, a witness to a revolution.

In more than a hundred photographs and accompanying commentary, Fearless Genius captures the human face of innovation and shows what it takes to transform powerful ideas into reality.

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction, Photography, Business, History, Apple, Biography

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2014

About the author

Douglas Menuez began his varied career as a photojournalist for Time, Newsweek, Life, USA Today, Fortune and many other publications. Over his 25-year career, his subjects have included the Ethiopian famine, the Olympics, the AIDS crisis and the rise of Silicon Valley and its visionaries, such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Bill Joy and John Doerr. His many portrait assignments range from Robert Redford to former President Bill Clinton. Menuez’s work has won numerous awards and have been featured in nine of the bestselling Day in the Life books. In 1989, Menuez co-produced with David Elliot Cohen the bestseller, 15 Seconds: The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1989, which generated more than five hundred thousand dollars in relief money for earthquake victims. His other books include Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton, 1993, and Heaven, Earth, Tequila: Un Viaje al Corazón de México, 2005.

Profits from Transcendent Spirit will be used to help orphans in Uganda.

Reviews

[Caesar Min · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining read with great photographs. All pages are glossy. Actually I love this book so much that all pages are worth to frame and hang on your wall. They are all about genius who never give up and they are great inspirations who changed the world. I just happen to bought two copies of hard cover.
You will see much of energy behind Silicon Valley and every bricks of Silicon Valley' foundation.

[David Kopec · Rating 4 out of 5]

A talented photographer is given unprecedented access to Silicon Valley's otherwise paranoid-about-secrecy young companies and this book is what ensues. Menuez tries to tell a cohesive story about a time and place that transcends any individual company, and he largely succeeds. However, I would argue that some of the artistic choices made were not particularly valuable. Out of the 250,000 photos he took, some of Menuez's choices for the book of about 250 seem bizarre. Sure, empty Chinese food take-out cartons tell a story, but a story worth printing full page?

None the less, this book is an enjoyable, quick read (about 2-3 hours of careful study), and some of the photographs of Steve Jobs in particular, are spectacular. I would not recommend this book as a first introduction to the story of Silicon Valley, but it's certainly an excellent additive piece.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perusing through this book really gives the reader a sense of the energy, emotions, triumphs, and challenges in Silicon Valley during the 1985-2000 time period through the photographer's innate ability to capture key moments. My husband had wanted to go through this book to remind him of that era also when he was entering the Silicon Valley workforce and becoming an entrepreneur, so that is how I discovered this interesting coffee table book. For fans of Steve Jobs and those who want to indulge in a bit of Silicon Valley nostalgia through great photographs, this book serves the purpose.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's largely a photograph collection from the ultimate Silicon Valley photographer during the hayday great rise of US tech companies. The book is timed to cover the period from the initial rise of Apple to the peak of the dotcom boom (right before the bust). Menuez had unbelievable access to Apple, Steve Jobs' Next, and a number of other tech firms big (Sun Microsystems) and small (NetObjects). The photos go a great job of capturing risk and struggle and excitement and hard work and defeat. Fun and interesting, and an important artifact of the time.

[Gary Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this in a bookstore in Santa Fe and picked it up. This is a series of photographs from the 80s and 90s of people in the valley creating the world we're living in. Many of them are friends and colleagues of mine. I think this was a project for Time Life that never got published. It's Halt and Catch Fire, but in real life.

[Palak Bhansali · Rating 4 out of 5]

doesn't justify what this book is much acclaimed for, handful pictures, event particulars, that's it, covered less than a magazine. I don't recommend to buy it, if you expect details. However, It was amazing experience to see some of pictures, specially when Steve Jobs took Ross Perot for lunch right in the middle of the abandoned factory, visionary showman leader executioner.

[Snorlax · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and interesting.

[Mohammad Al-ubaydli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable even in Kindle

For fans of Silicon Valley this is a joy to flip through. Snack sized romance of a golden era, the format works on a kindle too.

[Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Вторая прочитанная книга 2017 года “Fearless Genius: The Digital Revolution in Silicon Valley 1985-2000” от Doug Menuez.

Центральная фигура в книге, естественно, Стив Джобс. На обложке как раз его фото.

Доуг Менуез больше десяти лет имел возможность фотографировать многих громких имён Кремниевой Долины, а все началось довольно случайно.

Среди них создатели компании Adobe, Autodesk, Sun, Microsoft, NetObjects, и так далее. Кстати, в книге Apple без Стива Джобса, под управлением Джона Скалли (Впервые прочёл о нем положительные воспоминания.) Все фотографии Стива Джобса во время работы над проектом NeXT.

Книга - уникальный фотоальбом с подробными комментариями впервые опубликованный два года назад. Изначально предполагалось, что фотографии должны были попасть в статью для журнала Life о процессе создания NeXT, но в последний момент Джобс передумал. А Менуезу сказал оставить фотографии себе, когда-нибудь они ему понадобятся.

[Federico Lucifredi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unique collection of photographs navigating NEXT and Apple history. A primary source for the history of Silicon Valley at a time when creation, not selling ads, was the primary mover.

[Rene Schlegel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a unique document to capture people at work. It raises business people to a rock star status and delivers behavirol detail by showing quite a lot of the photos as series, e.g. of gestures. The only point which I would critisize that there is too much of Jobs in here. Many people may think otherwise and it may also be a major selling point of the book. The qusality of the photos is documentary / journalistic and this style fits perfectly well. The cover shot is a fantastic composition aswell. Good idea well done.

[Minh · Rating 3 out of 5]

"since the beginning, the pathfinders of Silicon Valley have always found that success was gained through fearless risk-taking and years of struggle. Failure often preceded success. Many also discovered meaning in their lives as they changed ours, through their quests to invent the impossible"

[Andy Wang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some snapshots of the lives of some legendary. However just some snapshots.

[Vidit Bhargava · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fearless Genius is a brilliantly told story in the form of pictures. When Jobs told Menuez that it some day, Menuez would make great use of the photos he's taken, he was quite right.

[Carlos Fenollosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of inside pictures from the digital revolution. Would have loved to see more!

[Nathan Kester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for conversation starter and on your coffee table.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful photographs of the era.....Doug had amazing access.