Overview

Imagine a chimpanzee rampaging through a data center powering everything from Google to Facebook. Infrastructure engineers use a software version of this chaos monkey to test online services' robustness--their ability to survive random failure and correct mistakes before they actually occur. Tech entrepreneurs are society's chaos monkeys, disruptors testing and transforming every aspect of our lives, from transportation (Uber) and lodging (Airbnb) to television (Netflix) and dating (Tinder). One of Silicon Valley's most provocative chaos monkeys is Antonio Garcia Martinez. After stints on Wall Street and as CEO of his own startup, Garcia Martinez joined Facebook's nascent advertising team, until he was forced out in the wake of an internal product war over the future of the company's monetization strategy, and eventually landed at rival Twitter. In Chaos Monkeys, this gleeful contrarian unravels the chaotic evolution of social media and online marketing and lays bare the hijinks, trade secrets, and power plays of the visionaries, grunts, sociopaths, opportunists, accidental tourists, and money cowboys who are revolutionizing our world.

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9780062669797

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Reviews

[Garcia Martinez] reads like a philosopher and historian, the exact travel guide you'd want to walk you through the inner workings of Facebook. His tell-all memoir is the best writing out there on one of the world's most powerful companies. And he even manages to make the ins and outs of online advertising fascinating. --Aarti Shahanti, npr.org Traces the evolution of social media and online marketing and reveals how it's become a part of our daily lives and how it will affect our future. --Leonard Lopate, WNYC This gossipy insider account from the former Twitter adviser, Facebook product manager, and start-up CEO dishes dirt while also explaining the ins and outs of Silicon Valley. --Neal Wyatt, Library Journal If you're in a startup or even plan to sue one, Chaos Monkeys is the book to read. --John Biggs, TechCrunch An unvarnished account... of Silicon Valley. --CBS This Morning An irresistible and indispensable 360-degree guide to the new technology establishment.... A must-read. --Jonathan A. Knee, New York Times Incisive.... The most fun business book I have read this year.... Clearly there will be people who hate this book -- which is probably one of the things that makes it such a great read. --Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times This year's best non-business book about business.... Garcia Martinez is a real writer.... A classic tale, well told. --Techcrunch Reckless and rollicking... perceptive and funny and brave.... The resulting view of the Valley's craziness, self-importance and greed isn't pretty. But it's one that most of us have never seen before and aren't likely to forget. --Washington Post Michael Lewis was never a top Wall Street bond salesman, but in Liar's Poker he captured an era. Chaos Monkeys aims to do the same for Silicon Valley, and bracingly succeeds. --New York Times Book Review Brilliant. --Financial Times Unlike most founding narratives that flow out of the Valley, Chaos Monkeys dives into the unburnished, day-to-day realities: the frantic pivots, the enthusiastic ass-kissing, the excruciating internal politics.... [Garcia] can be rude, but he's shrewd, too. --Bloomberg Businessweek There are some books that are just too good to miss.... In his insider-tells-all book, Garcia Martinez discusses everything from goofy stories to cultural secrets about some of the country's most powerful and influential businesses. --Atlantic Romps through Martinez's wild trajectory from Wall Streeter to pre-IPO Facebook employee, with the dramatic sale of his Y Combinator-backed ad-tech startup (to Twitter) in between. --Jillian D'Onfirio Business Insider [Garcia Martinez] is, by his own account, a dissolute character.... He is nonetheless, by the end of his account, a winning antihero, a rebel against Silicon Valley's culture of nonconformist conformity.... The reader can't help rooting for him. --Jacob Weisberg, New York Review of Books An NPR Best Book of the Year - A Business Insider Top 20 Business Book of the Year - An Inc. Best Book of the Year for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners--

This gossipy insider account from the former Twitter adviser, Facebook product manager, and start-up CEO dishes dirt while also explaining the ins and outs of Silicon Valley. --Neal Wyatt, <i>Library Journal</i>

Traces the evolution of social media and online marketing and reveals how it's become a part of our daily lives and how it will affect our future. --Leonard Lopate, WNYC [Garcia Martinez] reads like a philosopher and historian, the exact travel guide you'd want to walk you through the inner workings of Facebook. His tell-all memoir is the best writing out there on one of the world's most powerful companies. And he even manages to make the ins and outs of online advertising fascinating. --Aarti Shahanti, npr.org An NPR Best Book of the Year - A Business Insider Top 20 Business Book of the Year - An Inc. Best Book of the Year for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners-- Romps through Mart nez's wild trajectory from Wall Streeter to pre-IPO Facebook employee, with the dramatic sale of his Y Combinator-backed ad-tech startup (to Twitter) in between. --Jillian D'Onfirio Business Insider Unlike most founding narratives that flow out of the Valley, Chaos Monkeys dives into the unburnished, day-to-day realities: the frantic pivots, the enthusiastic ass-kissing, the excruciating internal politics.... [Garc a] can be rude, but he's shrewd, too. --Bloomberg Businessweek [Garc a Mart nez] is, by his own account, a dissolute character.... He is nonetheless, by the end of his account, a winning antihero, a rebel against Silicon Valley's culture of nonconformist conformity.... The reader can't help rooting for him. --Jacob Weisberg, New York Review of Books There are some books that are just too good to miss.... In his insider-tells-all book, Garc a Mart nez discusses everything from goofy stories to cultural secrets about some of the country's most powerful and influential businesses. --Atlantic This year's best non-business book about business.... Garcia Martinez is a real writer.... A classic tale, well told. --Techcrunch Brilliant. --Financial Times Michael Lewis was never a top Wall Street bond salesman, but in Liar's Poker he captured an era. Chaos Monkeys aims to do the same for Silicon Valley, and bracingly succeeds. --New York Times Book Review Reckless and rollicking... perceptive and funny and brave.... The resulting view of the Valley's craziness, self-importance and greed isn't pretty. But it's one that most of us have never seen before and aren't likely to forget. --Washington Post Incisive.... The most fun business book I have read this year.... Clearly there will be people who hate this book -- which is probably one of the things that makes it such a great read. --Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times This gossipy insider account from the former Twitter adviser, Facebook product manager, and start-up CEO dishes dirt while also explaining the ins and outs of Silicon Valley. --Neal Wyatt, Library Journal If you're in a startup or even plan to sue one, Chaos Monkeys is the book to read. --John Biggs, TechCrunch An unvarnished account... of Silicon Valley. --CBS This Morning An irresistible and indispensable 360-degree guide to the new technology establishment.... A must-read. --Jonathan A. Knee, New York Times

Author Information

Antonio Garcia Martinez has been an advisor to Twitter, a product manager for Facebook, the CEO/founder of AdGrok (a venture-backed startup acquired by Twitter), and a strategist for Goldman Sachs. He is an Ideas Contributor for WIRED and lives on a forty-foot sailboat on the San Francisco Bay.

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