This book is 25 years old; yet it’s sort of a mysterious time capsule that only recently surfaced. We (used to) associate Silicon Valley culture with positive California hippie culture, pride flags and all that. This book describes how there is a wide-spread strain of “I got mine, now fuck you” selfishness and libertarianism in the industry. Now prescient as the new money of tech turns into old money and jostles for the political stage and power with little regard for the good of anybody, revealing its true colours. Despite being 25 years old I couldn’t help but nod along thinking “Yup! She got that right” many many times as I read the book.
A critique of the book can be that it occasionally reads like a campy gossip column based on hearsay and anecdotes; but the author does put in the work going through studies and multiple angles; and that’s why it still stands correct. Some may be disappointed by the fact that author doesn’t offer solutions; but she admits that she’s just as perplexed by the state of affairs and it isn’t her goal to do so.