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Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley
A scathing exploration into the heart of Silicon Valley, laying bare the greed, hubris, and retrograde politics of an industry that aspires to radically transform society for its own benefit
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. Determined to cut through the clichés of big tech—the relentless optimism, the incessant repetition of vacuous buzzwords—Pein decided that he would need to take an approach as unorthodox as the companies he would soon be covering. To truly understand the delirious reality of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, he knew, he would have to inhabit that perspective—he would have to become an entrepreneur. Thus he begins his journey—skulking through gimmicky tech conferences, pitching his over-the-top business ideas to investors, and interviewing a cast of outrageous characters: cyborgs and con artists, Teamsters and transhumanists, jittery hackers and 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 self-image that the tech tycoons have crafted—as benevolent creators of wealth and opportunity—to reveal 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.
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. Determined to cut through the clichés of big tech—the relentless optimism, the incessant repetition of vacuous buzzwords—Pein decided that he would need to take an approach as unorthodox as the companies he would soon be covering. To truly understand the delirious reality of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, he knew, he would have to inhabit that perspective—he would have to become an entrepreneur. Thus he begins his journey—skulking through gimmicky tech conferences, pitching his over-the-top business ideas to investors, and interviewing a cast of outrageous characters: cyborgs and con artists, Teamsters and transhumanists, jittery hackers and 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 self-image that the tech tycoons have crafted—as benevolent creators of wealth and opportunity—to reveal 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.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published April 24, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 188 reviews
March 20, 2021
Gosh, I don't want to review this one. I really don't. But I think I will.
This is one really depressing book that touches on a lot of points that are simultaneously hilarious, terrifying, irritating and are, have I already said that? A MAJOR DEPRESSANT.
I don't think this techy-geeky culture is moving our society to any comfortable place. This is a race of crazy people doing crazy stuff that no one really needs. I feel for all the people who are participating in this rat race towards singularity, Agile, boot-licking, fish-bowl privacy, MVP, unicorning, stand ups, pitches, seeds, racism/sexism/ageism and all the other crazy shit while spending the best years of their lives doing worthless shit that no one will ever consider even remotely useful. I think it's a waste of resources that our society promotes so far, blindened by the glimmer of all the things that look nice on their virtual surface.
Yes, I'm writing this on GR and the irony doesn't escape me.
The book's a bit of a mess but it's not messier than the issues it raises. So, full marks. And I need those antidepressants right this moment.
This is one really depressing book that touches on a lot of points that are simultaneously hilarious, terrifying, irritating and are, have I already said that? A MAJOR DEPRESSANT.
I don't think this techy-geeky culture is moving our society to any comfortable place. This is a race of crazy people doing crazy stuff that no one really needs. I feel for all the people who are participating in this rat race towards singularity, Agile, boot-licking, fish-bowl privacy, MVP, unicorning, stand ups, pitches, seeds, racism/sexism/ageism and all the other crazy shit while spending the best years of their lives doing worthless shit that no one will ever consider even remotely useful. I think it's a waste of resources that our society promotes so far, blindened by the glimmer of all the things that look nice on their virtual surface.
Yes, I'm writing this on GR and the irony doesn't escape me.
The book's a bit of a mess but it's not messier than the issues it raises. So, full marks. And I need those antidepressants right this moment.
August 30, 2018
The author has failed to decide what this book is going to be, and what is the message he wants to convey.
I started reading it as a kind of humorous "arriving to the Valley to build something" participatory adventure, with healthy irony towards the coliving, corporate swag wearing, free beer chasing founder-hopefuls... which at some point drifted into a more macro-level Silicon Valley critique. I continued reading, now curious for solid tech skeptic arguments, but... didn't really find them.
Instead, the story moved from observations to second-hand speculation, media recitals and plain old conspiracy theories, trying to tie big tech, the entire Stanford university, early stage VCs on Sand Hill (well, actually barely mentioning anyone but 2 firms), extreme right wing white supremacists and economic libertarians into one big intertwined mud ball. The author visibly lacked any access to his subjects, or even anyone who would know these people personally, though, which adds up to little more than ValleyWag with a touch of extra snark.
Then again, this is my first time reading a sentence like "cockamamie libertarianism of hucksters like Tamkivi," in a book - so maybe it is all true after all. :)
I started reading it as a kind of humorous "arriving to the Valley to build something" participatory adventure, with healthy irony towards the coliving, corporate swag wearing, free beer chasing founder-hopefuls... which at some point drifted into a more macro-level Silicon Valley critique. I continued reading, now curious for solid tech skeptic arguments, but... didn't really find them.
Instead, the story moved from observations to second-hand speculation, media recitals and plain old conspiracy theories, trying to tie big tech, the entire Stanford university, early stage VCs on Sand Hill (well, actually barely mentioning anyone but 2 firms), extreme right wing white supremacists and economic libertarians into one big intertwined mud ball. The author visibly lacked any access to his subjects, or even anyone who would know these people personally, though, which adds up to little more than ValleyWag with a touch of extra snark.
Then again, this is my first time reading a sentence like "cockamamie libertarianism of hucksters like Tamkivi," in a book - so maybe it is all true after all. :)
February 12, 2020
This is almost two separate books stuck together. Part one is based on the author's personal experiences of investigative/stunt journalism and is captivating. Part two is more about the ideas of people who, in most cases, he hasn't met. That is still interesting, just not as much.
He travels to SF in 2015 and tries to make it rich in the internet startup culture. Not being rich already, he has to endure horrible housing conditions. It is shocking how much you have to pay to share a shitty Air BnB, or even a tent, with other wannabe techies living in places where previous tenants were either forced to leave, or forced to rent out rooms, due to skyrocketing prices. (I live nearby and know pretty well how insane prices are, but I left the city itself in 2001 and was still shocked by reading the conditions he encounters in 2015.) He goes to tech-sponsored parties where he enjoyes the free food and drinks, goes to job fairs, and tries to pitch start-up ideas to venture capital firms. About 99% of the other people doing the same thing as him will never get rich from this, but everyone is striving to be the next founder of a disruptive tech company. (Even if they succeed at that, the life of a founder often sucks, too.) He has the realization that like in the old gold rush, the ones getting rich are not the miners, but the guys selling shovels to them. But who exactly are the shovel-sellers in this economy? The people hosting job fairs and tech parties, maybe? I dunno....
The next part is only loosely related. He might meet someone who tells him something about, say, Larry Page or Peter Theil, but then he goes off and researches that from secondary sources. What he finds is that powerful tech people have some very wacky and dangerous ideas, mostly ideas that reinforce their feeling that they are the natural leaders of the world now and the rest of us should get out of the way while they build their Utopias.
I was at first annoyed by him treating San Francisco as part of Silicon Valley. When I lived there, they were still distinctly separate. But sadly the merger is now almost complete.
I definitely enjoyed reading this. Your mileage may vary.
One of my favorite stories was when he asks some guy for a description of the great new app idea he has thought of. The guys is too scared to give away the secret, so describes it as 'like Angry Birds, but there are no birds and no one is angry.'
He travels to SF in 2015 and tries to make it rich in the internet startup culture. Not being rich already, he has to endure horrible housing conditions. It is shocking how much you have to pay to share a shitty Air BnB, or even a tent, with other wannabe techies living in places where previous tenants were either forced to leave, or forced to rent out rooms, due to skyrocketing prices. (I live nearby and know pretty well how insane prices are, but I left the city itself in 2001 and was still shocked by reading the conditions he encounters in 2015.) He goes to tech-sponsored parties where he enjoyes the free food and drinks, goes to job fairs, and tries to pitch start-up ideas to venture capital firms. About 99% of the other people doing the same thing as him will never get rich from this, but everyone is striving to be the next founder of a disruptive tech company. (Even if they succeed at that, the life of a founder often sucks, too.) He has the realization that like in the old gold rush, the ones getting rich are not the miners, but the guys selling shovels to them. But who exactly are the shovel-sellers in this economy? The people hosting job fairs and tech parties, maybe? I dunno....
The next part is only loosely related. He might meet someone who tells him something about, say, Larry Page or Peter Theil, but then he goes off and researches that from secondary sources. What he finds is that powerful tech people have some very wacky and dangerous ideas, mostly ideas that reinforce their feeling that they are the natural leaders of the world now and the rest of us should get out of the way while they build their Utopias.
I was at first annoyed by him treating San Francisco as part of Silicon Valley. When I lived there, they were still distinctly separate. But sadly the merger is now almost complete.
I definitely enjoyed reading this. Your mileage may vary.
One of my favorite stories was when he asks some guy for a description of the great new app idea he has thought of. The guys is too scared to give away the secret, so describes it as 'like Angry Birds, but there are no birds and no one is angry.'
April 28, 2018
"Live Work Work Work Die" by Corey Pein sits comfortably alongside other Silicon Valley/tech startup takedowns such as "Disrupted" by Dan Lyons and "Chaos Monkeys" by Antonio Garcia Martinez. While Martinez gave an unflattering insiders perspective behind a successful tech company (Facebook) and Lyons stripped away the facade of a sham tech company (HubSpot), Pein takes aim at some of the weird and downright disturbing philosophies bubbling up from Silicon Valley that are gaining increasing acceptance in mainstream society.
Engaging in a form of stunt journalism, Pein travels to San Fransisco to try to strike it rich as an entrepreneur and then document the process as a journalist. To his credit, Pein is upfront about his desire to get rich and how he could not possibly provide an objective journalistic account of his experience. The result is both hilarious and horrifying.
For me, Pein's book provided concrete examples of some of the toxic effects of Silicon Valley culture that I have only read about in passing. It's one thing to hear about the cost of housing skyrocketing in SF, it's another thing to read Pein's eye-opening account of AirBnB rentals that sound like throwbacks to the squalid conditions in flop houses during the Gilded Age. I have read about the "gig economy," but Pein's accounts of what people do for $5 or as a little as a penny were thoroughly depressing.
Pein spends the latter part of "LWWWD" discussing the convergence between the near-religious embrace of technology-as-savior and fascism. Crackpot ideas such as eugenics and neofeudalism, which only circulated at the margins of society in recent decades, now have a respectable veneer when spouted by billionaires and Stanford professors. It's one thing for these sentiments to be expressed on a sub-Reddit by an anonymous poster, it is quite another when it is embraced by someone (Peter Thiel) who has the ear of the President.
Engaging in a form of stunt journalism, Pein travels to San Fransisco to try to strike it rich as an entrepreneur and then document the process as a journalist. To his credit, Pein is upfront about his desire to get rich and how he could not possibly provide an objective journalistic account of his experience. The result is both hilarious and horrifying.
For me, Pein's book provided concrete examples of some of the toxic effects of Silicon Valley culture that I have only read about in passing. It's one thing to hear about the cost of housing skyrocketing in SF, it's another thing to read Pein's eye-opening account of AirBnB rentals that sound like throwbacks to the squalid conditions in flop houses during the Gilded Age. I have read about the "gig economy," but Pein's accounts of what people do for $5 or as a little as a penny were thoroughly depressing.
Pein spends the latter part of "LWWWD" discussing the convergence between the near-religious embrace of technology-as-savior and fascism. Crackpot ideas such as eugenics and neofeudalism, which only circulated at the margins of society in recent decades, now have a respectable veneer when spouted by billionaires and Stanford professors. It's one thing for these sentiments to be expressed on a sub-Reddit by an anonymous poster, it is quite another when it is embraced by someone (Peter Thiel) who has the ear of the President.
May 4, 2018
Begins with the possibility of great gonzo journalism: a guy who's been wronged by the modern venture-based cash-burning machine sets out to game the broken system and dupe the jerks with his own outlandish idea. Turns out he has neither the skills, ideas, nor charisma to convince any rich person to hand him a large bag with dollar signs on it. His initial relate-able accounts and criticism of the tech industry's casual bacchanalian excesses devolves into a scattered tin-foil hat expose of the tech industry and ends with a push against of the libertarian kookiness (secession, physical and mental immortality, racism) of Peter Thiel and company.
Read Antonia Garcia Martinez' "Chaos Monkeys" instead, it's an account from someone who actually played the game, built a company, managed a minor cash out and clearly explains the craziness of it all.
Read Antonia Garcia Martinez' "Chaos Monkeys" instead, it's an account from someone who actually played the game, built a company, managed a minor cash out and clearly explains the craziness of it all.
October 9, 2019
So, here's the story in a nutshell:
A low-key SJW who considers himself to be a pinnacle of humour and writing talent (but he is obviously not one) moves to Bay Area. There, he is shocked with housing prices and unbearable startup/corporate spirit. Somehow, he still decides to launch a startup, but his idea is, unsurprisingly, complete bullshit, and noone wants to finance it. All that drives the author insane, and he concocts a wild conspiracy theory that includes: Neo-nazis, Ray Kurtzweil (do not ask how these to can go well together, for I do not know), Google, and even Stanford University.
So, the book starts as a pretentious story of a silicon valley loser, but starting at chapter VII it rapidly descends into schizophrenic screeching full of meaningless buzzwords and accusations.
A low-key SJW who considers himself to be a pinnacle of humour and writing talent (but he is obviously not one) moves to Bay Area. There, he is shocked with housing prices and unbearable startup/corporate spirit. Somehow, he still decides to launch a startup, but his idea is, unsurprisingly, complete bullshit, and noone wants to finance it. All that drives the author insane, and he concocts a wild conspiracy theory that includes: Neo-nazis, Ray Kurtzweil (do not ask how these to can go well together, for I do not know), Google, and even Stanford University.
So, the book starts as a pretentious story of a silicon valley loser, but starting at chapter VII it rapidly descends into schizophrenic screeching full of meaningless buzzwords and accusations.
May 23, 2018
Can a book be delightful AND terrifying? Pein's is both. It's also hilarious and witty. He tries to launch an app to disrupt capitalism through labor organizing. I mean, if that's not the best thing I've ever contemplated, I don't know what is. Granted, this is one man's view of silicon valley--and a particularly skeptical man--but it's one I am very sympathetic too so it was a joy to read and also a fright.
June 9, 2018
After reading excerpts of Live Work Work Work Die posted online a couple months ago, I wasn't sure whether or expect a humor-filled memoir or ethnographically-inclined journalism, but I thought it'd be interesting either way. What I did get was a half-baked mess that doesn't dive any deeper than Vice on any given Tuesday. Pein admits in the introduction that he went into the project with nothing so much as resembling a plan and that he had to split the difference between memoir and journalism out of (mostly financial) necessity. Pein may have "Journ[ied] into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley" but I could have written 90% of this book sitting in my living room in the Midwest. Everyone who has ever wandered into a Reddit thread knows the Bay Area rental market is functionally nonexistent, that Silicon Valley hates labor unions, and that venture capitalists are enamored with eugenics.
I don't know if Pein is just incredibly out of his depth or he's contained here by the scope and imagined audience of this book. It's probably some of both, but passages like the following make me lean towards the former at times:
Bro, the reason they're laughing is that, said with most varieties of heavy accent, 'Greender' and 'Grindr' sound phonetically alike!
I don't know if Pein is just incredibly out of his depth or he's contained here by the scope and imagined audience of this book. It's probably some of both, but passages like the following make me lean towards the former at times:
But the next pitch beat them all. The presenter had a thick, indeterminate accent. His app would help arrange marriages between would-be migrants and citizens in their country of choice. He called it 'Greender, the Tinder for green cards,' which got a big laugh, either because no one knew such marriage arrangements would be illegal or because everyone did. (167)
Bro, the reason they're laughing is that, said with most varieties of heavy accent, 'Greender' and 'Grindr' sound phonetically alike!
February 24, 2018
The description of this book calls it scathing and that is certainly apt. Corey Pein seems to truly despise his subject matter. The book begins as the story of another person seeking to make it big in Silicon Valley. In many ways Silicon Valley has replaced Hollywood or New York City as the place young people go to make it big. Instead of dreaming of being the next big movie or Broadway star, now people want to be the next Zuckerberg or Musk. Pein starts as another aspirant, crammed into Bay Area Airbnbs with coders, engineers, and dreamers. Pein doesn’t really have an idea other than to tap into California’s latest gold rush. The whole experience leaves him so embittered that the second half of the book has him blaming the startup world for a variety of ills and indeed for tearing the very fabric of civilization. He's not wrong about a lot of it but he seems to bear a huge chip on his shoulder and one wonders if his perspective would be different if he had made it into the tech eleite. Pein is a talented and funny writer but his portrait of Silicon Valley culture is without nuance, an Upton Sinclair for our times.
February 21, 2022
This book makes me ashamed to contribute to the tech industry. Pein combines his personal misadventures in Silicon Valley with far-reaching investigative journalism to show Big Tech's least flattering angles. We see a Valley that chews up workers and entrepreneurs, makes false promises, provides platforms to fascists, encourages secession, and exacerbates poverty in the name of progress. Pein's investigation makes clear that these are features, not bugs.
The narrative sections of the book are irreverant and well-paced. Pein has the humility to lampoon his own inabilities to succeed in tech; he also shows that, for the most part, "ability" has nothing to do with success in the Valley. The startup bubble has ossified, and new unicorns are only horses with tacked-on horns, yet the hacker-house crowds don't seem to notice.
My main gripe is the latter half's meandering profiles of tech's "celebrities." The tangled web they form with far-right thinkers is extremely relevant, but is somewhat difficult to draw conclusions from. I would have appreciated more concise synthesis of Pein's many findings, so that when someone asks me "what's so wrong about Big Tech?" I can answer in coherent points, rather than simply sighing with a faraway look in my eyes.
The narrative sections of the book are irreverant and well-paced. Pein has the humility to lampoon his own inabilities to succeed in tech; he also shows that, for the most part, "ability" has nothing to do with success in the Valley. The startup bubble has ossified, and new unicorns are only horses with tacked-on horns, yet the hacker-house crowds don't seem to notice.
My main gripe is the latter half's meandering profiles of tech's "celebrities." The tangled web they form with far-right thinkers is extremely relevant, but is somewhat difficult to draw conclusions from. I would have appreciated more concise synthesis of Pein's many findings, so that when someone asks me "what's so wrong about Big Tech?" I can answer in coherent points, rather than simply sighing with a faraway look in my eyes.
Read
January 6, 2020In the spirit of George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, Corey Pein takes us on a gonzo misadventure through the underbelly of Silicon Valley, exposing the dystopian comedy behind the techno optimism with wry observation and gleeful contempt. A helluva ride.
Joe Hagan, Author of Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine
All praise to Corey Pein for jumping headfirst into the cesspool of Silicon Valley and returning without having lost his mind or sold his soul. His reports from the front lines of the startup frenzy are hilarious and terrifying. While all eyes are glued on President Trump, a shortsighted and reactionary techno-oligarchy aims to amass a fortune at the cost of the common good. There’s no app that can save us. But this book can at least wake us up to the dystopian future under construction.
Astra Taylor, Author of The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age
Pein’s absurdly funny journey is a Through-the-Looking-Glass tale for the dying days of tech utopianism. Built on the creative vanity of this new class of talentless speculator and designed entirely without human need in mind, this world of nonsense quickly turns dystopian when seen from the perspective of a worker and renter trying to make his way through it.
Angela Nagle, Author of Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right
You sleep in a pantry because you can’t afford a real apartment. You exploit yourself, destroy your health, and ruin the lives of millions when you finally succeed. You think of crime as a great business model. You embrace some of the worst politics ever devised. And you call it progress. Silicon Valley, the capitalist miracle. That is the American nightmare as Corey Pein brilliantly describes it, and it is not a work of the imagination. This is really happening, and soon it will be happening to you.
Thomas Frank, Author of Listen, Liberal and What’s the Matter with Kansas?
Both entertaining and damning, Pein’s book unmasks the shell game being run by venture capitalists in an industry that is not nearly as benign as it claims to be.
Publisher’s Weekly
Deeply unsettling … A clearheaded reckoning with the consequences of the tech industry’s disruptions and the ideology that undergirds it.
Kirkus Reviews
Like Jon Ronson, Pein combines serious journalism with humour and his own antics for an entertaining and caustic mix. If Silicon Valley and Black Mirror had a book baby, it would be Live Work Work Work Die.
Booklist
The Silicon Valley that Pein uncovers is not unlike dystopian visions we are accustomed to seeing in science fiction.
The New Republic
Impressive ... Reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels in both style and conceit, Live Work Work Work Die is a combination of New Journalism and muckraking told with an anthropological eye ... Alternately amusing and horrifying.
Salon
Fluent … entertaining … funny.
Justin Tyler Clark, The Los Angeles Review of Books
Despite and perhaps a little because of its lackadaisical approach to its subject, Live Work Work Work Die manages to capture something essential about Silicon Valley that has eluded other authors.
Nikil Saval, The New York Times
Pein's vivid account makes for fascinating reading about Silicon Valley and the tech industry and the often heartbreaking experiences of would-be entrepreneurs/techies struggling to achieve success.
Lucy Heckman, Library Journal
American investigative reporter Corey Pein is the latest to join the so-called “tech-lash”, the global pushback against the supremacy of tech … Pein identifies a growing “tech fascist” movement that embraces dubious philosophies and “neo-reactionary” ideas such as eugenics and the abolition of universities and government.
Megan Lehmann, The Australian
His just-published book, Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley, portrays a corrosive culture: start-ups funded by millions of dollars of venture capital where employees struggle to describe what is actually being produced; stressed start-up “chief executives” who work like navvies and rarely see pay-day; venture capitalists who would happily support an enterprise that would break the law so long as they could get in and out before everything collapsed; and a naked interest by those at the top in turning consumers into lab rats.
Shelley Gare, The Saturday Age
The book is a must read for any young people interested in working in technology.
Zachary Houle, Medium
An incisive portrait of a self-obsessed industry hellbent on succeeding by whatever means necessary.
Martin Coulter, Business Insider Australia
Joe Hagan, Author of Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine
All praise to Corey Pein for jumping headfirst into the cesspool of Silicon Valley and returning without having lost his mind or sold his soul. His reports from the front lines of the startup frenzy are hilarious and terrifying. While all eyes are glued on President Trump, a shortsighted and reactionary techno-oligarchy aims to amass a fortune at the cost of the common good. There’s no app that can save us. But this book can at least wake us up to the dystopian future under construction.
Astra Taylor, Author of The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age
Pein’s absurdly funny journey is a Through-the-Looking-Glass tale for the dying days of tech utopianism. Built on the creative vanity of this new class of talentless speculator and designed entirely without human need in mind, this world of nonsense quickly turns dystopian when seen from the perspective of a worker and renter trying to make his way through it.
Angela Nagle, Author of Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right
You sleep in a pantry because you can’t afford a real apartment. You exploit yourself, destroy your health, and ruin the lives of millions when you finally succeed. You think of crime as a great business model. You embrace some of the worst politics ever devised. And you call it progress. Silicon Valley, the capitalist miracle. That is the American nightmare as Corey Pein brilliantly describes it, and it is not a work of the imagination. This is really happening, and soon it will be happening to you.
Thomas Frank, Author of Listen, Liberal and What’s the Matter with Kansas?
Both entertaining and damning, Pein’s book unmasks the shell game being run by venture capitalists in an industry that is not nearly as benign as it claims to be.
Publisher’s Weekly
Deeply unsettling … A clearheaded reckoning with the consequences of the tech industry’s disruptions and the ideology that undergirds it.
Kirkus Reviews
Like Jon Ronson, Pein combines serious journalism with humour and his own antics for an entertaining and caustic mix. If Silicon Valley and Black Mirror had a book baby, it would be Live Work Work Work Die.
Booklist
The Silicon Valley that Pein uncovers is not unlike dystopian visions we are accustomed to seeing in science fiction.
The New Republic
Impressive ... Reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels in both style and conceit, Live Work Work Work Die is a combination of New Journalism and muckraking told with an anthropological eye ... Alternately amusing and horrifying.
Salon
Fluent … entertaining … funny.
Justin Tyler Clark, The Los Angeles Review of Books
Despite and perhaps a little because of its lackadaisical approach to its subject, Live Work Work Work Die manages to capture something essential about Silicon Valley that has eluded other authors.
Nikil Saval, The New York Times
Pein's vivid account makes for fascinating reading about Silicon Valley and the tech industry and the often heartbreaking experiences of would-be entrepreneurs/techies struggling to achieve success.
Lucy Heckman, Library Journal
American investigative reporter Corey Pein is the latest to join the so-called “tech-lash”, the global pushback against the supremacy of tech … Pein identifies a growing “tech fascist” movement that embraces dubious philosophies and “neo-reactionary” ideas such as eugenics and the abolition of universities and government.
Megan Lehmann, The Australian
His just-published book, Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley, portrays a corrosive culture: start-ups funded by millions of dollars of venture capital where employees struggle to describe what is actually being produced; stressed start-up “chief executives” who work like navvies and rarely see pay-day; venture capitalists who would happily support an enterprise that would break the law so long as they could get in and out before everything collapsed; and a naked interest by those at the top in turning consumers into lab rats.
Shelley Gare, The Saturday Age
The book is a must read for any young people interested in working in technology.
Zachary Houle, Medium
An incisive portrait of a self-obsessed industry hellbent on succeeding by whatever means necessary.
Martin Coulter, Business Insider Australia
January 29, 2020
The book was structured with a meandering exploration of some of the wackier sides of Silicon Valley. The author shows us chapter by chapter how many of our positive conceptions of this, presumed to be, emerald city are rather unrealistic.
He tells us the story of the many starry eyed youth who days are transfixed by the possibility of moving westward for a better life from booming economic gain, to more lax freedoms are misled in their beliefs of escaping the ailments of the modern economy. It is often presumed that in this pilgrimage to the great tech city that one will enter an immediately find or create a successful entrepreneurial venture. This adventurer imagines that they will, in just a few months join the ranks of Musk, Jobs, Theil, gates, and even the eccentric Tim Ferris. But, little do they know, when they enter the many mines once full of bountiful Gold that previously enriched the traveling stranger, they will hit a plain old rock.
These travelers follow the ranks of the many who traveled westward beyond the California Gold rush as they accompany the myriad the failed actors, musicians and performers wishing to be star. California has always struck the imagination to us non- cali types. And of course, it has often disappointed.
The author shows us soon how strange a place Silicon Valley is, from its many Juvenal elements, it’s peculiar working conditions, and the very strange nature of the elite who have strung up a pseudo religious cult of the singularity.
Of course though, the author touches upon many more themes than I have included in my brief attempt at an expose but for now here are some of my central take always.
I must admit though, while I found many of the ideas in this book to ring true, certain elements bothered me. I think the author is either unaware, or does not care to mention the particular perspective that they are coming from. And that is from one who has seeped themselves in both thought of Marxist ideas of class conflict, and a many readings of intersectional thought. It is not particularly bad, but in my eyes, shows that the author is trapped within certain philosophical traditions. It makes his ability to analyze this cloud like city, a bit more parochial than it would be if he had been more well read in other understandings of society.
Beyond this, I think he was not so deep a think, and often times came off as more of a journalist moving from story to story rather than that of an academic. There is a certain sensationalism that underpins this book, which clearly expresses it self to be released to the popular press.
All and all, it was an interesting read.
I recommend this for those curious about the oddities of Silicon Valley, and how it isn’t quite as lovely as it’s often portrayed.
He tells us the story of the many starry eyed youth who days are transfixed by the possibility of moving westward for a better life from booming economic gain, to more lax freedoms are misled in their beliefs of escaping the ailments of the modern economy. It is often presumed that in this pilgrimage to the great tech city that one will enter an immediately find or create a successful entrepreneurial venture. This adventurer imagines that they will, in just a few months join the ranks of Musk, Jobs, Theil, gates, and even the eccentric Tim Ferris. But, little do they know, when they enter the many mines once full of bountiful Gold that previously enriched the traveling stranger, they will hit a plain old rock.
These travelers follow the ranks of the many who traveled westward beyond the California Gold rush as they accompany the myriad the failed actors, musicians and performers wishing to be star. California has always struck the imagination to us non- cali types. And of course, it has often disappointed.
The author shows us soon how strange a place Silicon Valley is, from its many Juvenal elements, it’s peculiar working conditions, and the very strange nature of the elite who have strung up a pseudo religious cult of the singularity.
Of course though, the author touches upon many more themes than I have included in my brief attempt at an expose but for now here are some of my central take always.
I must admit though, while I found many of the ideas in this book to ring true, certain elements bothered me. I think the author is either unaware, or does not care to mention the particular perspective that they are coming from. And that is from one who has seeped themselves in both thought of Marxist ideas of class conflict, and a many readings of intersectional thought. It is not particularly bad, but in my eyes, shows that the author is trapped within certain philosophical traditions. It makes his ability to analyze this cloud like city, a bit more parochial than it would be if he had been more well read in other understandings of society.
Beyond this, I think he was not so deep a think, and often times came off as more of a journalist moving from story to story rather than that of an academic. There is a certain sensationalism that underpins this book, which clearly expresses it self to be released to the popular press.
All and all, it was an interesting read.
I recommend this for those curious about the oddities of Silicon Valley, and how it isn’t quite as lovely as it’s often portrayed.
July 14, 2018
If you've ever seen the show Silicon Valley and laughed or shook your head at the antics, douchbaggery, and the downright misanthropic eccentricities of the 'technies' caricatured in it, you'll love this book. The first half is about Corey's adventures as a wannabe start-up billionaire. Paying an arm and a leg just to sleep in some boarding/crack hous.... err, I mean Airbnb's, eating free pizza, drinking free beer, and hobnobbing with overly optimistic and probably more than a little socially maladjusted technies. Getting rejected by venture capital, and hearing about how everyone of these techies has an app which is a billion dollar 'unicorn' just waiting to happen is funny. Up until this point, no harm, no foul. But then somewhere near the middle of the book the tone starts to shift. In one of the more poignant and important parts of the book, Corey has a 'eureka' moment and figures out what's really going on in the Valley. Rather than being a hotbed of futuristic high-tech development which is destined to solve all the world's problems, Silicon Valley turns out to be a grifter's paradise; there's a new California Gold Rush on, and the only people making money are those "selling shovels" to the poor saps who think they're gonna hit it rich. After having his last big VC pitch crash and burn, Corey switches gears and lets us in on what's going on 'behind the curtains' of Silicon Valley. Racism, eugenics, right-wing reactionary loons, sleazy government contractors using their wealth and the political connections it buys masquerading as 'libertarian' free-market types, cultish beliefs in technology as religion, misanthropy, hatred of the poor, and con after con after con. Its all here, laid bare for all to see. If you have a hard-on for Elon Musk or any of these other tech guru's, just know something: they hate you. Read the book.
November 25, 2018
The book was an eyeopener for me, someone who is going through this Live-work-work-work-die cycle of slavery working within the tech industry. I should have known as all throughout history rich classes have always been very dismissive of the poor seeing them as a burden on development, crimping their lifestyles. These new techs millionaires are just the latest addition to the same old class issue prevalent in the world, they hate the government, they despise democracy for standing in the way of 'development', the sort of 'development' which only they are qualified to deliver effectively. But I think they might have gone too far with their tacit support of Trump and far-right nationalists as the governments have started to fight back their almost invincible power.
And I think the mighty tech giants might have miscalculated their move on established democracy paradigms. The fall of East India Company comes to mind, as they too at one time thought themselves to be invincible only to be taken down by the government of Britain.
And I think the mighty tech giants might have miscalculated their move on established democracy paradigms. The fall of East India Company comes to mind, as they too at one time thought themselves to be invincible only to be taken down by the government of Britain.
October 11, 2020
Так и не поняла, о чём книга - такое чувство, что с каждой главой автор уходит всё дальше от первоначальной темы, одновременно с этим читать становится всё более нудно и неинтересно.
January 4, 2022
I expected this book to be outdated and about some tech bros who feel overworked and exploited, but it actually felt very relevant despite the years that have passed since it was written (it came out in 2017, I believe) and really delved in to some topics I didn't expect it to.
The author didn't have much success of his own in going to Silicon Valley and trying to form a startup, but he did get a lot of firsthand experience of what it was like for those who went there with that goal. He lives in a few very expensive but spartan accommodations, including two group living situations and a tent in someone's yard. He goes into detail about how Uber and Air BnB are skirting laws and "disrupting" peoples' lives to the extent that it's not possible to live somewhere like San Francisco unless you're ultra rich, and includes scenes of the unhoused wherever he goes. He also goes into how doing illegal things or operating in the gray area where the law hasn't caught up to technology is part of these giant companies' agendas, and how they make their money.
Towards the end of the book he goes deep into the far-right, eugenicist, very dark ideologies of a lot of these tech bros, and also ties in how the tech media acts more as PR for these companies rather than doing the hard journalistic work of asking tough questions and pointing out negative effects of these technologies, because these companies are so wealthy and powerful they basically control the media and have the lobbying capabilities to control a lot of government as well. I was glad the author went as far as he did and actually addressed these issues because I see so few people doing so.
He also talked about the demonetization in India and how it was closely tied to wanting to make everyone use apps to transfer funds because this would be in big tech's interest. This is an aspect of demonetization I wasn't aware of, and it explains a lot. Apparently Modi's government was pushing everyone to use this new app which was not yet ready to take on the fund transfers of so many people, yet alone a population that mostly doesn't have smart phones so cannot even access the app. Demonetization was cruel and badly done but was seen as a success for tech companies, because it showed how quickly they were able to do away with a large sector of cash use and this was their ultimate goal so they could control transactions in a way you can't with cash.
He did a good job of pointing out that most of these Silicon Valley startup schemes are actually scams and that these capitalist monoliths are sucking us all into their orbit and making life miserable. He clearly states that technology does not equate with progress and that the main goals of these tech moguls is not to improve life for everyone but to make a lot of money for themselves. He pulls no punches with the ending of his book, which was "Off with their heads!"
Definitely a good book for anyone who wants to know more about the Silicon Valley scene and get some more background information about the huge companies that control our lives. If this were written today, I imagine it would have huge sections on Facebook, Elon Musk, and Apple as well, but otherwise it is still really relevant and the issues it brings up have only gotten more important with time.
The author didn't have much success of his own in going to Silicon Valley and trying to form a startup, but he did get a lot of firsthand experience of what it was like for those who went there with that goal. He lives in a few very expensive but spartan accommodations, including two group living situations and a tent in someone's yard. He goes into detail about how Uber and Air BnB are skirting laws and "disrupting" peoples' lives to the extent that it's not possible to live somewhere like San Francisco unless you're ultra rich, and includes scenes of the unhoused wherever he goes. He also goes into how doing illegal things or operating in the gray area where the law hasn't caught up to technology is part of these giant companies' agendas, and how they make their money.
Towards the end of the book he goes deep into the far-right, eugenicist, very dark ideologies of a lot of these tech bros, and also ties in how the tech media acts more as PR for these companies rather than doing the hard journalistic work of asking tough questions and pointing out negative effects of these technologies, because these companies are so wealthy and powerful they basically control the media and have the lobbying capabilities to control a lot of government as well. I was glad the author went as far as he did and actually addressed these issues because I see so few people doing so.
He also talked about the demonetization in India and how it was closely tied to wanting to make everyone use apps to transfer funds because this would be in big tech's interest. This is an aspect of demonetization I wasn't aware of, and it explains a lot. Apparently Modi's government was pushing everyone to use this new app which was not yet ready to take on the fund transfers of so many people, yet alone a population that mostly doesn't have smart phones so cannot even access the app. Demonetization was cruel and badly done but was seen as a success for tech companies, because it showed how quickly they were able to do away with a large sector of cash use and this was their ultimate goal so they could control transactions in a way you can't with cash.
He did a good job of pointing out that most of these Silicon Valley startup schemes are actually scams and that these capitalist monoliths are sucking us all into their orbit and making life miserable. He clearly states that technology does not equate with progress and that the main goals of these tech moguls is not to improve life for everyone but to make a lot of money for themselves. He pulls no punches with the ending of his book, which was "Off with their heads!"
Definitely a good book for anyone who wants to know more about the Silicon Valley scene and get some more background information about the huge companies that control our lives. If this were written today, I imagine it would have huge sections on Facebook, Elon Musk, and Apple as well, but otherwise it is still really relevant and the issues it brings up have only gotten more important with time.
August 14, 2021
The framing device of Pein's own "journey" to Silicon Valley is hit or miss, but overall the book provides a useful framework for understanding the culture and political economy of Silicon Valley. Chapter 7, "The Aristocracy of Brains," is especially important and everyone should read it even if they don't have time to read the whole book. Pein goes into detail about the history of eugenics in the the US and its role in the formation of the political underpinnings of what otherwise may appear to be West Coast idealism with woo woo features.
A significant part of the SV intelligentsia hold deep crypto-fascist beliefs about the leading role of great men of ideas in history and the irrelevance of the working class proletariat and liberal democracy. SV is the primary site where the remainders of the Third Reich has attached itself to the host body of the US. Post WWII, Operation Paperclip intentionally imported key elements of the Nazi intellectual class into the US and these people were assimilated into the scientific community and military-industrial complex. SV is a direct outgrowth of the military industrial complex and intelligence services and many of its most important members either directly collaborate with or are sympathetic to the most authoritarian aspects of the US govt and foreign policy. Bezos and Peter Thiel provide infrastructure for domestic and international spying and even clowns like Elon Musk have more sinister connections to weapons manufacturing. The influx of apartheid-era South Africans (Thiel and Musk) should always be a cause for alarm.
The book is good overall, but Pein's tracing of the strands of eugenics, Nazism, and fascism in SV is invaluable.
A significant part of the SV intelligentsia hold deep crypto-fascist beliefs about the leading role of great men of ideas in history and the irrelevance of the working class proletariat and liberal democracy. SV is the primary site where the remainders of the Third Reich has attached itself to the host body of the US. Post WWII, Operation Paperclip intentionally imported key elements of the Nazi intellectual class into the US and these people were assimilated into the scientific community and military-industrial complex. SV is a direct outgrowth of the military industrial complex and intelligence services and many of its most important members either directly collaborate with or are sympathetic to the most authoritarian aspects of the US govt and foreign policy. Bezos and Peter Thiel provide infrastructure for domestic and international spying and even clowns like Elon Musk have more sinister connections to weapons manufacturing. The influx of apartheid-era South Africans (Thiel and Musk) should always be a cause for alarm.
The book is good overall, but Pein's tracing of the strands of eugenics, Nazism, and fascism in SV is invaluable.
April 22, 2018
Stealing free beer from WeWork isn't making you fitter, happier, more productive,comfortable,not drinking too much,regular exercise at the gym,three days a week,getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries,at ease,eating well,no more microwave dinners and saturated fats,a patient, better driver,a safer car,baby smiling in back seat,sleeping well,no bad dreams,no paranoia,careful to all animals,never washing spiders down the plughole,keep in contact with old friends,enjoy a drink now and then,will frequently check credit at moral bank,hole in the wall,favours for favours,fond but not in love,charity standing orders,on Sundays ring road supermarket,no killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants,car wash,also on Sundays,no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows,nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate,nothing so childish,at a better pace,slower and more calculated,no chance of escape,now self-employed,concerned but powerless,an empowered and informed member of society,pragmatism not idealism,will not cry in public,less chance of illness,tyres that grip in the wet,shot of baby strapped in back seat,a good memory,still cries at a good film,still kisses with saliva,no longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick,that's driven into frozen winter shit,the ability to laugh at weakness,calm,fitter, healthier and more productive,a pig in a cage on antibiotics
October 23, 2018
Riveting, brutal, and darkly hilarious at times. Considering tech companies' level of power and influence in the world and in our lives, there is a considerable lack of scrutiny regarding their aspirations, the way they operate, and their general ethical values (or lack thereof). Individual convenience through technological progression oftentimes comes at the expense of the environment, our privacy, and the overall wellbeing of humanity--as the further commodification of cheap human labor is the oil on which many of these companies run on. There is a criminal disregard for the price we pay for convenience, and it's largely minimized or flatly ignored by the media (spoiler: there's a reason for this), and the sheer pace and distractive nature of these innovations prevent us from taking a step back and really examining their implications. With hundreds of billions of dollars at their disposal and world class lobbyists on their side, the reception of the media and of governments has largely been enthusiastic approval to push forward unrestricted and at an ever accelerating pace. "Disruption", the buzzword that so much of the industry strives for and worships, is often a simple sugarcoating for unfettered capitalism.
I was expecting a critical look at the underbelly of Silicon Valley and startup culture, but this book encompasses so much more. I can't recommend it enough.
I was expecting a critical look at the underbelly of Silicon Valley and startup culture, but this book encompasses so much more. I can't recommend it enough.
September 12, 2019
Pretty good rogue's gallery of Silicon Valley types of all different fields. My brother--and not even the one who reads books--made fun of me on vacation for consistently leaving out one of the "works" when I said the title, perhaps suggesting that I had not absorbed the book's observations adequately.
May 3, 2018
Decent.
September 18, 2019
Lek dla technoopytmistów zachłyśniętych propagandą sukcesu Doliny Krzemowej.
June 16, 2018
I picked this up because I’m a fan of Corey Pein’s podcast, “News From Nowhere,” and have liked some of his writings a lot. Pein’s a journalist covering what you could think of as the “high-concept political awfulness” beat, and has some of the better short-form writing on contemporary fascism and the altright around. After publishing an article on the embrace of “neoreactionary” thought in tech circles, Peter Thiel called Pein a conspiracy theorist- a few weeks later, we found out Thiel was bankrolling and orchestrating the lawsuit that destroyed Gawker.
“Live Work Work Work Die” combines first person gonzo-style memoir/journalism and more conventional journalistic writing. Pein depicts himself at his wits end by early 2015- journalism increasingly in shambles due to the impact of social media, getting dicked around by the tech-industry types increasingly calling the shots in his industry, he lights out for Silicon Valley with the sort of confused non-plan that characterizes a great many tech industry success stories. He’s going to become a billionaire and write a book about it- perhaps he’ll become a billionaire by writing the book?
He’s not clear about that in the book and one gets the impression it doesn’t matter. Hope and fear both drive people to the tech gold rush in the Bay Area and are basically indistinguishable. This is because your two options are basically become rich or slide down the slope of exploitation and misery- there’s no way to just be in San Francisco, as Pein tells it, or increasingly in the rest of the US, or the world.
So, like the those around him, even (especially) those who sincerely believe in what the tech industry says about itself, Pein bounces from plan to plan, between insanely expensive shitty short-term housing situations, around startup parties to get free food, and through all kinds of profoundly banal pitch meetings and networking groups. No one who isn’t already rich has any more control over their lives than he does, even as numerous gadgets and apps provide the illusion of control through structuring your tiny range of choices- the same way one tries to get toddlers to do what one wants by giving them two choices to do the same thing.
What Pein concludes during his time in Silicon Valley is that no startup succeeds because it’s brilliant or innovative or actually helps anyone- to the extent that describes any of them, it’s purely incidental. Successful startups either: - rip off an existing idea that a venture capitalist wishes they funded earlier; leverage government-funded research or infrastructure for private gain; or simply “disrupts” a given field by committing substantial breaches of regulations and law, and hoping they get big enough fast enough so that no one will stop them in time. That’s what happened with Uber and Airbnb, after all- taxis and hotels without those pesky regulations, insurance, etc. Pein’s own best idea along these lines is called Laborize- for a price, they’ll go start a union drive at a rival company, giving the client a competitive advantage. His motto- “disruption is not a dinner party.” Alas, it doesn’t get far beyond the pitch stage- too novel, probably, for venture capitalists, and perhaps their class consciousness was pricked by the specter of worker organization, even if weaponized against competing firms.
Pein’s description of his journey through the degradation and banality of non-billionaire life in the tech boom complements his discussion of what the tech industry means for the rest of us. The spectacle of a great city being swallowed by an industry that both fetishizes its authenticity and is in the process of destroying it is a reasonably good metaphor here. Notionally, all of these tech products are meant to enhance our experiences, including the social media platforms on which I am posting this review. But really, like what the industry is doing to San Francisco, the products are doing to us- parasitically mediating our experiences in an effort to produce dependency and extract endless labor and profit from every aspect of our lives. The people amongst whom he lives — the supposed pioneers of a new way of living — live like hamsters, in Pein’s telling, with no conception of agency in their own lives except for demanding goods and services- push the button and get your pellet from grubhub, or your streaming tv. Presumably, the fact that this is still considerably harder for needs such as human connection or sex helps produce the sort of violent “incel” misogyny we see among nerds...
Moreover, tech’s metabolization of the world is working, and unlike virtually every other major institution in our lives, people still by and large trust the tech industry, if polls are to be believed (it wouldn’t surprise me if this ardor has cooled in the last year or two). Given this, the last chapter of LWWWD is a baffling one. It describes the bizarre fantasies of the tech elite. This includes singulatarianism as well as the “neoreactionaries,” figures like Curtis “Moldbug” Yarvin, Balaji Srinivasan, and Peter Thiel who want to see something like a tech-CEO-monarchy and the breakup of contemporary power structures to be rebuilt on the basis of strict hierarchies. This might be naive, and I can think of answers, but I think it’s worth wondering- our society piles money, power, and adulation at these people’s feet and has bent itself in knots to please them, including literally giving them the government-funded architecture of the internet as a gift. What more could they possibly want? How can they possibly be as upset as they purport to be with the shape of a society that has blessed them so thoroughly?
At the end of the day, the more concentrated power is, the less capable it is of being truly secure. Among other things, as they themselves will tell you, these guys are nerds- with major insecurity and chips on their shoulders. Society has rewarded them for following their adolescent impulses for accumulation and control, why should they grow out of anything now, or even just reign in any of their other impulses? Moreover, there seems to be some awareness on their part — however papered over by a mind-numbing fog of biz-babble and techno-optimism — that their fortunes, positions, and most importantly senses of self rely on massive and increasing inequality and immiseration of the rest of the population. Perhaps they feel in that situation, they can’t afford to leave well enough (for them) alone. They need to keep going until they have secured all the resources and all the power, even power over death, time, space, etc, for themselves.
Apparently, the original draft of this book was 600 pages. I’d like to see that- you get the feeling in a few places that stuff has been cut, that you’re looking at an abridgment. In particular, the sections of first person description and of reporting of the ideological oddities of the Silicon Valley elite are joined a bit awkwardly. I even get the impression the frame — Pein seeking his fortune, not getting it, then having these epiphanies (as though he hadn’t been writing about this stuff for years) — is basically a device to squeeze a longer, more original work into a narrative the publisher felt comfortable with. Either way, it’s a fast read with a strong voice, appropriately angry and alarmed, avoiding the twin perils of febrile wailing or condescending dismissal of the “nerds” that you so often see in writing about tech, fascism, and the confluence of the two. Given how sensitive the likes of Thiel and Elon Musk are, I can only hope more writing like this gets out there- let’s give these people something to cry/tweet about. ****’
“Live Work Work Work Die” combines first person gonzo-style memoir/journalism and more conventional journalistic writing. Pein depicts himself at his wits end by early 2015- journalism increasingly in shambles due to the impact of social media, getting dicked around by the tech-industry types increasingly calling the shots in his industry, he lights out for Silicon Valley with the sort of confused non-plan that characterizes a great many tech industry success stories. He’s going to become a billionaire and write a book about it- perhaps he’ll become a billionaire by writing the book?
He’s not clear about that in the book and one gets the impression it doesn’t matter. Hope and fear both drive people to the tech gold rush in the Bay Area and are basically indistinguishable. This is because your two options are basically become rich or slide down the slope of exploitation and misery- there’s no way to just be in San Francisco, as Pein tells it, or increasingly in the rest of the US, or the world.
So, like the those around him, even (especially) those who sincerely believe in what the tech industry says about itself, Pein bounces from plan to plan, between insanely expensive shitty short-term housing situations, around startup parties to get free food, and through all kinds of profoundly banal pitch meetings and networking groups. No one who isn’t already rich has any more control over their lives than he does, even as numerous gadgets and apps provide the illusion of control through structuring your tiny range of choices- the same way one tries to get toddlers to do what one wants by giving them two choices to do the same thing.
What Pein concludes during his time in Silicon Valley is that no startup succeeds because it’s brilliant or innovative or actually helps anyone- to the extent that describes any of them, it’s purely incidental. Successful startups either: - rip off an existing idea that a venture capitalist wishes they funded earlier; leverage government-funded research or infrastructure for private gain; or simply “disrupts” a given field by committing substantial breaches of regulations and law, and hoping they get big enough fast enough so that no one will stop them in time. That’s what happened with Uber and Airbnb, after all- taxis and hotels without those pesky regulations, insurance, etc. Pein’s own best idea along these lines is called Laborize- for a price, they’ll go start a union drive at a rival company, giving the client a competitive advantage. His motto- “disruption is not a dinner party.” Alas, it doesn’t get far beyond the pitch stage- too novel, probably, for venture capitalists, and perhaps their class consciousness was pricked by the specter of worker organization, even if weaponized against competing firms.
Pein’s description of his journey through the degradation and banality of non-billionaire life in the tech boom complements his discussion of what the tech industry means for the rest of us. The spectacle of a great city being swallowed by an industry that both fetishizes its authenticity and is in the process of destroying it is a reasonably good metaphor here. Notionally, all of these tech products are meant to enhance our experiences, including the social media platforms on which I am posting this review. But really, like what the industry is doing to San Francisco, the products are doing to us- parasitically mediating our experiences in an effort to produce dependency and extract endless labor and profit from every aspect of our lives. The people amongst whom he lives — the supposed pioneers of a new way of living — live like hamsters, in Pein’s telling, with no conception of agency in their own lives except for demanding goods and services- push the button and get your pellet from grubhub, or your streaming tv. Presumably, the fact that this is still considerably harder for needs such as human connection or sex helps produce the sort of violent “incel” misogyny we see among nerds...
Moreover, tech’s metabolization of the world is working, and unlike virtually every other major institution in our lives, people still by and large trust the tech industry, if polls are to be believed (it wouldn’t surprise me if this ardor has cooled in the last year or two). Given this, the last chapter of LWWWD is a baffling one. It describes the bizarre fantasies of the tech elite. This includes singulatarianism as well as the “neoreactionaries,” figures like Curtis “Moldbug” Yarvin, Balaji Srinivasan, and Peter Thiel who want to see something like a tech-CEO-monarchy and the breakup of contemporary power structures to be rebuilt on the basis of strict hierarchies. This might be naive, and I can think of answers, but I think it’s worth wondering- our society piles money, power, and adulation at these people’s feet and has bent itself in knots to please them, including literally giving them the government-funded architecture of the internet as a gift. What more could they possibly want? How can they possibly be as upset as they purport to be with the shape of a society that has blessed them so thoroughly?
At the end of the day, the more concentrated power is, the less capable it is of being truly secure. Among other things, as they themselves will tell you, these guys are nerds- with major insecurity and chips on their shoulders. Society has rewarded them for following their adolescent impulses for accumulation and control, why should they grow out of anything now, or even just reign in any of their other impulses? Moreover, there seems to be some awareness on their part — however papered over by a mind-numbing fog of biz-babble and techno-optimism — that their fortunes, positions, and most importantly senses of self rely on massive and increasing inequality and immiseration of the rest of the population. Perhaps they feel in that situation, they can’t afford to leave well enough (for them) alone. They need to keep going until they have secured all the resources and all the power, even power over death, time, space, etc, for themselves.
Apparently, the original draft of this book was 600 pages. I’d like to see that- you get the feeling in a few places that stuff has been cut, that you’re looking at an abridgment. In particular, the sections of first person description and of reporting of the ideological oddities of the Silicon Valley elite are joined a bit awkwardly. I even get the impression the frame — Pein seeking his fortune, not getting it, then having these epiphanies (as though he hadn’t been writing about this stuff for years) — is basically a device to squeeze a longer, more original work into a narrative the publisher felt comfortable with. Either way, it’s a fast read with a strong voice, appropriately angry and alarmed, avoiding the twin perils of febrile wailing or condescending dismissal of the “nerds” that you so often see in writing about tech, fascism, and the confluence of the two. Given how sensitive the likes of Thiel and Elon Musk are, I can only hope more writing like this gets out there- let’s give these people something to cry/tweet about. ****’
March 31, 2021
Обожаю, когда автор едет кукухой в середине книги, и к концу ты такой - ого, нифига себе, я и не ожидал, что учебник по русскому языку для пятиклассников превратится в изучение причин того, почему власти скрывают иницидент в Розуэлле и что инопланетяне среди нас.
Начинается книга задорно, с сатирических описаний того, что и рынок аренды жилья в Калифорнии выглядит как-то неоднозначно, и что юные программисты-стартаперы, слетающиеся в Долину, выглядят довольно асоциально.
Но к последним двум главам автор делает резкий поворот, и без объявления войны поясняет следующее:
1. Смотрите за руками, основатель Стэнфорда был расист
2. После второй мировой войны в США бежал один из высокопоставленных чиновников нацисткой Германии, и устроился работать в инвестиционный фонд
3. Из этого следует, кто плутократическая клика крипто-фашистов и белых супремасистов, упарывающихся по евгенике и рулящих большими техническими корпорациями в США, стремится овладеть миром, и построить свой фашистский рай, надо бороться!!1
Под конец автор и вовсе съезжает с катушек, и заявляет нечто вроде того, что ну мы же все тут теперь понимаем, что жизни нам от них не будет, да? А я вам подскажу, что нужно делать, история знает способы борьбы с богатыми угнетателями - давайте поотрубаем им головы!
Из этого материала можно было бы сделать что-то приличное, если бы автор разделил его на две книги: сатирическое описание быта Кремниевой Долины (не уверен, впрочем, что тут есть еще что рассказать после сериала "Silicon Valley"), и глубокое, внятное, многостраничное расследование людей, управлящих большой четверкой, и приближенных к ним. Чем был хорош "Bad Blood"? Тем, что автор просто наизнанку вывернул историю Theranos, залез под каждый камень, и не оставил никаких сомнений в том, что это один из величайших в истории разводов людей на деньги. Тут же подача материала и все логические цепочки выглядят примерно так, как я это описал выше, в итоге получается нечто вроде кью-аноновских бредней.
Мне трудно понять, почему об этой книге было столько восторженных отзывов, или люди дальше первых двух-трех глав не заглядывали, или же любят подачу в стиле Рен-ТВ с масонами и рептилоидами, управляющими миром из своих рептилоидо-масонских лож.
Начинается книга задорно, с сатирических описаний того, что и рынок аренды жилья в Калифорнии выглядит как-то неоднозначно, и что юные программисты-стартаперы, слетающиеся в Долину, выглядят довольно асоциально.
Но к последним двум главам автор делает резкий поворот, и без объявления войны поясняет следующее:
1. Смотрите за руками, основатель Стэнфорда был расист
2. После второй мировой войны в США бежал один из высокопоставленных чиновников нацисткой Германии, и устроился работать в инвестиционный фонд
3. Из этого следует, кто плутократическая клика крипто-фашистов и белых супремасистов, упарывающихся по евгенике и рулящих большими техническими корпорациями в США, стремится овладеть миром, и построить свой фашистский рай, надо бороться!!1
Под конец автор и вовсе съезжает с катушек, и заявляет нечто вроде того, что ну мы же все тут теперь понимаем, что жизни нам от них не будет, да? А я вам подскажу, что нужно делать, история знает способы борьбы с богатыми угнетателями - давайте поотрубаем им головы!
Из этого материала можно было бы сделать что-то приличное, если бы автор разделил его на две книги: сатирическое описание быта Кремниевой Долины (не уверен, впрочем, что тут есть еще что рассказать после сериала "Silicon Valley"), и глубокое, внятное, многостраничное расследование людей, управлящих большой четверкой, и приближенных к ним. Чем был хорош "Bad Blood"? Тем, что автор просто наизнанку вывернул историю Theranos, залез под каждый камень, и не оставил никаких сомнений в том, что это один из величайших в истории разводов людей на деньги. Тут же подача материала и все логические цепочки выглядят примерно так, как я это описал выше, в итоге получается нечто вроде кью-аноновских бредней.
Мне трудно понять, почему об этой книге было столько восторженных отзывов, или люди дальше первых двух-трех глав не заглядывали, или же любят подачу в стиле Рен-ТВ с масонами и рептилоидами, управляющими миром из своих рептилоидо-масонских лож.
April 29, 2021
Started as a mildly interesting gonzo piece filled with interesting people and deep outsider insights into the culture of Silicon Valley and startup life half through the book the story turned into a full-blown left-wing propaganda hit piece finishing with outrageous “off with their heads” referring to the most successful technological leaders of the country. It felt almost like someone just flipped the switch and the book transformed from the vivid pictures of the raw truths of startup founder lives and overreaches by the established digital companies into an utterly boring critique of modern digital moguls full of incorrect, misrepresented and outright slanderous statements that paint every successful person in the Valley as either psychopath, Nazi or both. Not even mentioning how poor the book aged since then new and shocking election of Donald Trump given what the mentioned companies did to get rid of him, everyone who has a different political position from author gets a beating in the book. Corey, it is not journalism, it is pure propaganda and even though you have talent, you wasted final chapters of the book and as a result, the narrative itself. Hard pass.
May 14, 2020
this book has two parts:
1. Silicon valley life
2. bullshit about singularity and related stuff.
1st was interesting. 2nd is like from another boring book.
The “message” hasn’t been delivered.
1. Silicon valley life
2. bullshit about singularity and related stuff.
1st was interesting. 2nd is like from another boring book.
The “message” hasn’t been delivered.
April 11, 2021
До середины идет не очень интересное разоблачение культуры стартапов, потом начинается разоблачение фашистов, Трамп и вот это вот всё.
После вот этого этого книжку бросил:
После вот этого этого книжку бросил:
...да и вообще всех, кто критиковал сексистскую, расистскую и нетерпимую во многих иных отношениях культуру видеоигр, чью сущность можно передать двумя словами, описывающими содержание большинства массовых продуктов этого рынка: сиськи и стрельба.
Read
January 6, 2020In the spirit of George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, Corey Pein takes us on a gonzo misadventure through the underbelly of Silicon Valley, exposing the dystopian comedy behind the techno optimism with wry observation and gleeful contempt. A helluva ride.
Joe Hagan, Author of Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine
All praise to Corey Pein for jumping headfirst into the cesspool of Silicon Valley and returning without having lost his mind or sold his soul. His reports from the front lines of the startup frenzy are hilarious and terrifying. While all eyes are glued on President Trump, a shortsighted and reactionary techno-oligarchy aims to amass a fortune at the cost of the common good. There’s no app that can save us. But this book can at least wake us up to the dystopian future under construction.
Astra Taylor, Author of The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in The Digital Age
Pein’s absurdly funny journey is a Through-the-Looking-Glass tale for the dying days of tech utopianism. Built on the creative vanity of this new class of talentless speculator and designed entirely without human need in mind, this world of nonsense quickly turns dystopian when seen from the perspective of a worker and renter trying to make his way through it.
Angela Nagle, Author of Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right
You sleep in a pantry because you can’t afford a real apartment. You exploit yourself, destroy your health, and ruin the lives of millions when you finally succeed. You think of crime as a great business model. You embrace some of the worst politics ever devised. And you call it progress. Silicon Valley, the capitalist miracle. That is the American nightmare as Corey Pein brilliantly describes it, and it is not a work of the imagination. This is really happening, and soon it will be happening to you.
Thomas Frank, Author of Listen, Liberal and What’s the Matter with Kansas?
Both entertaining and damning, Pein’s book unmasks the shell game being run by venture capitalists in an industry that is not nearly as benign as it claims to be.
Publishers Weekly
Deeply unsettling … A clearheaded reckoning with the consequences of the tech industry’s disruptions and the ideology that undergirds it.
Kirkus Reviews
Like Jon Ronson, Pein combines serious journalism with humour and his own antics for an entertaining and caustic mix. If Silicon Valley and Black Mirror had a book baby, it would be Live Work Work Work Die.
Booklist
The Silicon Valley that Pein uncovers is not unlike dystopian visions we are accustomed to seeing in science fiction.
The New Republic
Impressive ... Reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels in both style and conceit, Live Work Work Work Die is a combination of New Journalism and muckraking told with an anthropological eye ... Alternately amusing and horrifying.
Salon
Fluent … entertaining … funny.
Justin Tyler Clark, The Los Angeles Review of Books
Despite and perhaps a little because of its lackadaisical approach to its subject, Live Work Work Work Die manages to capture something essential about Silicon Valley that has eluded other authors.
Nikil Saval, The New York Times
Pein's vivid account makes for fascinating reading about Silicon Valley and the tech industry and the often heartbreaking experiences of would-be entrepreneurs/techies struggling to achieve success.
Lucy Heckman, Library Journal
American investigative reporter Corey Pein is the latest to join the so-called “tech-lash”, the global pushback against the supremacy of tech … Pein identifies a growing “tech fascist” movement that embraces dubious philosophies and “neo-reactionary” ideas such as eugenics and the abolition of universities and government.
Megan Lehmann, The Australian
His just-published book, Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley, portrays a corrosive culture: start-ups funded by millions of dollars of venture capital where employees struggle to describe what is actually being produced; stressed start-up “chief executives” who work like navvies and rarely see pay-day; venture capitalists who would happily support an enterprise that would break the law so long as they could get in and out before everything collapsed; and a naked interest by those at the top in turning consumers into lab rats.
Shelley Gare, The Saturday Age
The book is a must read for any young people interested in working in technology.
Zachary Houle, Medium
An incisive portrait of a self-obsessed industry hellbent on succeeding by whatever means necessary.
Martin Coulter, Business Insider Australia
Joe Hagan, Author of Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine
All praise to Corey Pein for jumping headfirst into the cesspool of Silicon Valley and returning without having lost his mind or sold his soul. His reports from the front lines of the startup frenzy are hilarious and terrifying. While all eyes are glued on President Trump, a shortsighted and reactionary techno-oligarchy aims to amass a fortune at the cost of the common good. There’s no app that can save us. But this book can at least wake us up to the dystopian future under construction.
Astra Taylor, Author of The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in The Digital Age
Pein’s absurdly funny journey is a Through-the-Looking-Glass tale for the dying days of tech utopianism. Built on the creative vanity of this new class of talentless speculator and designed entirely without human need in mind, this world of nonsense quickly turns dystopian when seen from the perspective of a worker and renter trying to make his way through it.
Angela Nagle, Author of Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars From 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right
You sleep in a pantry because you can’t afford a real apartment. You exploit yourself, destroy your health, and ruin the lives of millions when you finally succeed. You think of crime as a great business model. You embrace some of the worst politics ever devised. And you call it progress. Silicon Valley, the capitalist miracle. That is the American nightmare as Corey Pein brilliantly describes it, and it is not a work of the imagination. This is really happening, and soon it will be happening to you.
Thomas Frank, Author of Listen, Liberal and What’s the Matter with Kansas?
Both entertaining and damning, Pein’s book unmasks the shell game being run by venture capitalists in an industry that is not nearly as benign as it claims to be.
Publishers Weekly
Deeply unsettling … A clearheaded reckoning with the consequences of the tech industry’s disruptions and the ideology that undergirds it.
Kirkus Reviews
Like Jon Ronson, Pein combines serious journalism with humour and his own antics for an entertaining and caustic mix. If Silicon Valley and Black Mirror had a book baby, it would be Live Work Work Work Die.
Booklist
The Silicon Valley that Pein uncovers is not unlike dystopian visions we are accustomed to seeing in science fiction.
The New Republic
Impressive ... Reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels in both style and conceit, Live Work Work Work Die is a combination of New Journalism and muckraking told with an anthropological eye ... Alternately amusing and horrifying.
Salon
Fluent … entertaining … funny.
Justin Tyler Clark, The Los Angeles Review of Books
Despite and perhaps a little because of its lackadaisical approach to its subject, Live Work Work Work Die manages to capture something essential about Silicon Valley that has eluded other authors.
Nikil Saval, The New York Times
Pein's vivid account makes for fascinating reading about Silicon Valley and the tech industry and the often heartbreaking experiences of would-be entrepreneurs/techies struggling to achieve success.
Lucy Heckman, Library Journal
American investigative reporter Corey Pein is the latest to join the so-called “tech-lash”, the global pushback against the supremacy of tech … Pein identifies a growing “tech fascist” movement that embraces dubious philosophies and “neo-reactionary” ideas such as eugenics and the abolition of universities and government.
Megan Lehmann, The Australian
His just-published book, Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley, portrays a corrosive culture: start-ups funded by millions of dollars of venture capital where employees struggle to describe what is actually being produced; stressed start-up “chief executives” who work like navvies and rarely see pay-day; venture capitalists who would happily support an enterprise that would break the law so long as they could get in and out before everything collapsed; and a naked interest by those at the top in turning consumers into lab rats.
Shelley Gare, The Saturday Age
The book is a must read for any young people interested in working in technology.
Zachary Houle, Medium
An incisive portrait of a self-obsessed industry hellbent on succeeding by whatever means necessary.
Martin Coulter, Business Insider Australia
June 27, 2019
Kolejna książka, która utwierdza mnie w rezerwie do tzw. branży hi-tech. A konkretnie do Doliny Krzemowej tym razem. Autor zręcznie i niemiłosiernie obnaża to, czym ona jest. Siedliskiem cwaniaków i frajerów. Frajerów, co oczywiste, jest większość. To wszyscy ci, którzy jadą tam z naiwną wiarą, że odniosą sukces i zostaną kolejnymi Zuckerbergami czy Thielami. Rzeczywistość jest brutalna i autor opisuje ją od spodu. Rosnące ceny najmu, absurdalne warunki mieszkaniowe i zbójeckie czynsze. Nie podoba się? Nikt cię tu nie trzyma.
Szkoda, że Pein nie skupia się na tych wszystkich zjawiskach bardziej szczegółowo. Z posłowia wynika, że pierwotna wersja liczyła ponad sześćset stron. Ostatecznie zostało ich trochę ponad dwieście sześćdziesiąt. A przydałoby się zanurzyć w świat tych, których ta Dolina przemieliła i wypluła. Mieszkańców San Francisco, gdzie ceny nieruchomości zostały wywindowane w zbójecki sposób, dla bogatych. Przez co aktualni mieszkańcy stawali się bezdomni i nikogo to nie wzruszało. Z pewnością nie bogatych "zbawców" z korporacji technologicznych.
Ci również stanowią swoistą mieszankę. Raczej nie wzbudzającą zaufania. Autor obnaża "intelektualne" prądy, popularne wśród różnych "guru" pokroju Petera Thiela czy Raya Kurzweila. Świadczące raczej o braku zasad moralnych lub ich odrzuceniu na rzecz jakichś technologicznych urojeń o Osobliwości. Próba stworzenia technologicznego "Boga" i autorytarnego systemu będącego wynaturzeniem libertarianizmu. Albo jego prawdziwą twarzą - nie mnie decydować.
Choć ci libertarianie wzbogacili się biorąc hajs od państwa. I nadal to robią, co autor punktuje. Zresztą nie byliby pierwszymi hipokrytami. Ayn Rand się nie certoliła ze swoją filozofią, kiedy przyszło płacić rachunki m. in. za leczenie. I tak dalej.
Pein zaczyna swobodnie, wręcz dowcipnie. Nawet rozumiem zarzuty, że nie mógł się zdecydować, o czym i w jakim tonie chce pisać. Ale mnie to nie przeszkadzało więc się nie czepiam. Nie kupuję też zarzutu, że nie wyszło mu w Dolinie Krzemowej to się tak mści. To nie jest żadną demaskatorska książka. Ani nawet pierwsza, która krytykuje choćby to jak korporacje technologiczne niszczą kapitalizm i rynek (w tym pracy) nie oferując niczego poza bogaceniem się bogatych i ubożeniem reszty. O schronach czy odludnych posiadłościach na wypadek większego kryzysu też nie dowiedziałem się wiele więcej.
Autor nie sili się na optymizm za co tym bardziej lubię jego książkę.
A ledwie dotknąłem tematu. To nie manifest ani wyłącznie komentarz. Doskonała pozycja, trochę mi otworzyła oczy np. na ściemę transhumanizmu. Ale można znaleźć i niezłe filmy dokumentalne o Dolinie Krzemowej. Na przykład o firmie Theranos, której historia jest miniaturą tego, co się tam dzieje. Polecam, jest na HBO GO. Warto po stokroć. Pein oszukańczym mechanizmem pompowania "sukcesów" też się zajmuje. Jego rozmowa z przedstawicielem funduszu venture capital jest znamienna. Nieważne, czy dana technologia działa. Ważne, aby inni uwierzyli że może działać. To pozwala na pompowanie wartości firmy i udziałów/akcji. A sztuką jest sprzedaż tego niczego w odpowiednim momencie i zainkasowanie hajsu. O frajerów, którzy się nabrali nikt się nie martwi. Tak było z Theranosem.
Tym jest Dolina Krzemowa. Złudzeniem, ale bardzo groźnym. Może dopiero książka Peina pokazuje jak bardzo. Choć też nie robi tego w sposób totalny. Ale dzięki niej będę szukał dalej.
Szkoda, że Pein nie skupia się na tych wszystkich zjawiskach bardziej szczegółowo. Z posłowia wynika, że pierwotna wersja liczyła ponad sześćset stron. Ostatecznie zostało ich trochę ponad dwieście sześćdziesiąt. A przydałoby się zanurzyć w świat tych, których ta Dolina przemieliła i wypluła. Mieszkańców San Francisco, gdzie ceny nieruchomości zostały wywindowane w zbójecki sposób, dla bogatych. Przez co aktualni mieszkańcy stawali się bezdomni i nikogo to nie wzruszało. Z pewnością nie bogatych "zbawców" z korporacji technologicznych.
Ci również stanowią swoistą mieszankę. Raczej nie wzbudzającą zaufania. Autor obnaża "intelektualne" prądy, popularne wśród różnych "guru" pokroju Petera Thiela czy Raya Kurzweila. Świadczące raczej o braku zasad moralnych lub ich odrzuceniu na rzecz jakichś technologicznych urojeń o Osobliwości. Próba stworzenia technologicznego "Boga" i autorytarnego systemu będącego wynaturzeniem libertarianizmu. Albo jego prawdziwą twarzą - nie mnie decydować.
Choć ci libertarianie wzbogacili się biorąc hajs od państwa. I nadal to robią, co autor punktuje. Zresztą nie byliby pierwszymi hipokrytami. Ayn Rand się nie certoliła ze swoją filozofią, kiedy przyszło płacić rachunki m. in. za leczenie. I tak dalej.
Pein zaczyna swobodnie, wręcz dowcipnie. Nawet rozumiem zarzuty, że nie mógł się zdecydować, o czym i w jakim tonie chce pisać. Ale mnie to nie przeszkadzało więc się nie czepiam. Nie kupuję też zarzutu, że nie wyszło mu w Dolinie Krzemowej to się tak mści. To nie jest żadną demaskatorska książka. Ani nawet pierwsza, która krytykuje choćby to jak korporacje technologiczne niszczą kapitalizm i rynek (w tym pracy) nie oferując niczego poza bogaceniem się bogatych i ubożeniem reszty. O schronach czy odludnych posiadłościach na wypadek większego kryzysu też nie dowiedziałem się wiele więcej.
Autor nie sili się na optymizm za co tym bardziej lubię jego książkę.
A ledwie dotknąłem tematu. To nie manifest ani wyłącznie komentarz. Doskonała pozycja, trochę mi otworzyła oczy np. na ściemę transhumanizmu. Ale można znaleźć i niezłe filmy dokumentalne o Dolinie Krzemowej. Na przykład o firmie Theranos, której historia jest miniaturą tego, co się tam dzieje. Polecam, jest na HBO GO. Warto po stokroć. Pein oszukańczym mechanizmem pompowania "sukcesów" też się zajmuje. Jego rozmowa z przedstawicielem funduszu venture capital jest znamienna. Nieważne, czy dana technologia działa. Ważne, aby inni uwierzyli że może działać. To pozwala na pompowanie wartości firmy i udziałów/akcji. A sztuką jest sprzedaż tego niczego w odpowiednim momencie i zainkasowanie hajsu. O frajerów, którzy się nabrali nikt się nie martwi. Tak było z Theranosem.
Tym jest Dolina Krzemowa. Złudzeniem, ale bardzo groźnym. Może dopiero książka Peina pokazuje jak bardzo. Choć też nie robi tego w sposób totalny. Ale dzięki niej będę szukał dalej.
July 20, 2018
Pein, a journalist and entrepreneur, decided to investigate the 'underbelly' of modern day startups in Silicon Valley. His investigation sought to learn how seemingly mindless ideas launch and get astronomical sums of money. Many barely have an idea but due to namesake and alma matter, can still garner fairly high valuations to roll along these unproven businesses. Pein does the poor mans SV experience that is comprised of meetups for 'wannabes,' lame branded events to show off 'progressive company ideologies,' and cheesy paid pitch competitions. All are seemingly soul crushing experiences designed to show how competitive and ridiculous the environment has become (modern day scams that harken back to paid pitches for show ideas, modelling, etc..). The insanity ensues with people paying astronomical fees to pitch a tent on someones' lawn (the most affordable means to remain in SV). Peins' original smugness in his underlying intention to humiliate and 'one over' his competitors proved more challenging than he originally fathomed. I think, however, his 'experiment' is a success in that it proves the idea that access and social circles play the most important piece of how an entrepreneur can attain 'easy money' and succeed. Crinkle was one one such example noted in the book in addition to Theranos (see my review on that book later). This company existed because Elizabeth Holmes checked all the boxes: Stanford dropout, stiff Ivy persona, Jobs copycat (in image), overly hyped media coverage of CEO with conflated claims, unverified promises of companies financial abilities, etc.. The difference was Theranos was a company with a product that can affect lives not friends or getting a box of product. Unicorns are what made the legends that continually draw people from all over the world to SV. The reality is that a strong majority of these companies fail and many never even make it past the idea stage. The wunderkinds that manifest Palo Alto and surrounding areas are the stuff that myths are made. Simply because as easily as they rise, they often fall (think Vine, Zenga, and Myspace, etc... They drive the falsetto ideologies that comprise the Valley. They are the Hollywood of the tech world and everyday, people get off the plane or the bus with the dream of being the next behemoth. This book mocks that fairytale and presents a more realistic 'true world' view of what most of us that have not attended the big tech schools, can expect. The book is very entertaining and serves to deliver an important message for the reader. My only issue is that various chapters in the book are not seamless and tend to disconnect. Part of the book is Peins' day to day and then part are think pieces with inserts that cover futurists/tech predictors. I do think the Epilogue well encapsulated his key findings. I agree that Americans need to wake up and pull the plug on some of these companies that have too much power and influence in our day to day life to fail. The masses fall under the 'tech cocaine' that uses behavior modification via pings, dings, and bings. Additionally, companies like Facebook have undermined the checks and balances that comprise our political system in our most recent election. More people pay attention to social media and mindless drivel of pop culture than local politics etc... Scary times!
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