Chaos Monkeys

By his own account, Antonio García Martinez suffers profound flaws. His sins include chronic disloyalty to his employers and indifference to his children. He’s greedy and “ruthless.” This all makes him an ideal tour guide to the pitfalls of Silicon Valley. By embracing his own amorality, the former tech entrepreneur frees himself to write a snarky, brutally honest look at life in the tech capital. He labels San Francisco “a cultural desert” and describes a Facebook exec as exuding “an air of arrogance that stank like bad aftershave.” The publisher’s libel attorney likely spent many hours vetting this manuscript, but it’s a romp to read and an enlightening guide to business in the Valley. The author worked as a Wall Street quant and cadged a $10 million offer for a doomed start-up. getAbstract recommends his uncensored tale to investors, entrepreneurs and interested onlookers seeking an unvarnished view of Silicon Valley.