Book · 2018 · Business & Economics
Chaos Monkeys
Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley
- mentions
- 20
- people
- 9
- podcasts
- 4
- episodes
- 7
- critical mentions
- 0
This is his story of Silicon Valley and what I liked about it is it's very energetic, very lively.
What they say about it
- Wrote it about his tech career“wrote a best-selling tell-all book”3
- Calls it a great read“which is actually a great read”2
- Tells the Silicon Valley story“this is his story of Silicon Valley”2
The best things said about it
Chaos Monkeys which is actually a great read.
Jason Calacanis This Week in Startups · May 2021 Most of the book is about the startup game, it's about modern digital advertising, it's like super wonky business-y stuff told in this kind of slightly gonzo tone.
He is some really smart guy who uses a lot of big words and wrote a book called Chaos Monkeys, which is a great book, where he takes um a very Jack Kerouac kind of, you know, a lot of prose, and uh he wrote this book about his time at Facebook.
Jason Calacanis All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · May 2021 He wrote a best-selling tell-all book about the last big tech company he worked at.
It made me sick that people are trying to get him fired from his job because he wrote a book that was a new york times bestseller and he wrote it in a like you said hundred thompson way and some of the things he did in there were great.
Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
2
9
8
1
How it comes up
Most mentions, by podcast
9 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez is an insider account of the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem and modern digital advertising. On This Week in Startups, Jason Calacanis endorsed the work as a great read during a discussion about the author's public firing. On The Book Review, Greg Cowles similarly shared a positive review, praising the narrative for its high energy and lively tone. On the Big Technology Podcast, Zach Coelius brought up the book while recounting Facebook's early advertising platform and the company's decision to open its ecosystem to independent providers. During another episode, Alex Kantrowitz spoke with Antonio Garcia Martinez about whether the author expected the book to provoke a strong reaction or affect his ability to work in tech. Garcia Martinez himself explained that the text primarily focused on the wonky, gonzo business of startups and digital advertising rather than personal drama, comparing its edginess to vintage television comedy.
Every mention
Jason Calacanis antonio garcia martinez who was recently fired over comments in his book chaos monkeys which is actually a… 5
Discussed
“He is some really smart guy who uses a lot of big words and wrote a book called Chaos Monkeys, which is a great book, where he takes um a very Jack Kerouac kind of, you know, a lot of prose, and uh he wrote this book about his time at Facebook.”
Recommended
“antonio garcia martinez who was recently fired over comments in his book chaos monkeys which is actually a great read”
Discussed
“it was very funny i could believe someone said that i've heard it said but people won't say it in person so like i said it's the reviews have been all over the place”
Discussed
“um he's gonna have a heck of a lawsuit i think he could sue them for five years a five-year settlement um and because he did it's he's a published author with the new york times bestseller”
Discussed
“because they they he's a new york times best-selling author they can't say we didn't know he wrote this book and he they can't say that they hired from this position and didn't know about the kara swisher interview”
Gilbert Cruz chaos monkeys is the title obscene fortune and random failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez 1
Recommended
“chaos monkeys is the title obscene fortune and random failure in Silicon Valley by Antonio Garcia Martinez”
Greg Cowles I'm Greg um um I really liked this book chaos monkeys that Antonio Garcia Martinez just talked about on on… 1
Recommended
“I'm Greg um um I really liked this book chaos monkeys that Antonio Garcia Martinez just talked about on on the podcast um this is his story of Silicon Valley and uh what i liked about it is it's very energetic very Lively”
Antonio Garcia Martinez Chaos Monkeys is like a Mormon picnic compared to like an average episode of Seinfeld from whenever, I don'… 4
Discussed
“Chaos Monkeys is like a Mormon picnic compared to like an average episode of Seinfeld from whenever, I don't know what year that episode came out but the show was big in like what, the 90s and so I would just say that many things have changed”
Discussed
“before that I thought Chaos Monkeys might be a little bit spicy and hot but it wasn't because of, and again, most of the book is about the startup game, it's about modern digital advertising, it's like super wonky business-y stuff told in this kind of slightly gonzo tone”
Discussed
“And so that's mostly what I made fun of in the 400 or whatever plus pages of Chaos Monkeys and that's what I thought would get me into trouble. I actually wrote it in Europe thinking, well, I might have to reboot my career.”
Discussed
“I mean in the last chapter in Chaos Monkeys I warned that like growth is so has been so high for so long, at some point you just run out of humans on the internet, right? And I think I predicted when it would happen and I got it roughly right”
Cher Scarlett So he got hired and I had read his book and somebody messaged me and they were like, Hey, did you see this… 2
Discussed
“So he got hired and I had read his book and somebody messaged me and they were like, Hey, did you see this guy got hired”
Discussed
“You know, this, this man wrote a book about, you know, his colleagues too, like, how are you going to protect his future colleagues from ending up in a book like chaos monkeys?”
Zach Coelius it made me sick that people are trying to get him fired from his job because he wrote a book that was a new… 2
Discussed
“And there's a great book by this Antonio Garcia Martinez wrote this book, Chaos Monkeys about this whole journey. And we, and he wrote about, we were in that about part of this whole process. He, he wrote the book. It's a good book.”
Discussed
“it made me sick that people are trying to get him fired from his job because he wrote a book that was a new york times bestseller and he wrote it in a like you said hundred thompson way and some of the things he did in there were great”
Alex Kantrowitz I mean, I think you've mentioned that, that you wrote the book not expecting to ever have, you wrote Chaos… 1
Discussed
“I mean, I think you've mentioned that, that you wrote the book not expecting to ever have, you wrote Chaos Monkeys which is inevitably what the uprising at Apple was about. You wrote the book not expecting to be able to work in tech again”
Chamath Palihapitiya And Apple acquiesced, right? They're like, we don't like, you know, Antonio's book Chaos Monkeys and he sai… 1
Discussed
“And Apple acquiesced, right? They're like, we don't like, you know, Antonio's book Chaos Monkeys and he said these three things in an award-winning book that we find are we're going to fire him.”
David Sacks I mean, number one, I think there was a really good reason not to hire this guy, which is that he wrote a b… 1
Discussed
“I mean, number one, I think there was a really good reason not to hire this guy, which is that he wrote a best-selling tell-all book about the last big tech company he worked at. So why if you're a big tech company, why in the world would you hire him?”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker2
Discussed
“because you know you've gotten dinged for it and deservedly for some of your lines in the book are a little misogynist i think to be fair uh very misogynist”
Discussed
“most women in the bay area are soft and weak costed and naive despite their claims of worldliness and generally full of [ __ ] they have their self-regarding entitlement feminism and ceaselessly want their independence”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (12: passing, ad reads, own books)
Plugged
“Um wrote a book about that time called Chaos Monkeys that came out in 2017 that they read well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I quoted it in the book.”
Plugged
“I'm gonna be that guy self. I think I have a line in Cows Monkeys that says, you know, Andy Warhol was wrong.”
Passing
“Our guest today is Antonio Garcia Martinez. He's the author of Chaos Monkeys, which was an NPR Best Book of the Year, an early Facebook employee, a notoriously former Apple engineer.”
Passing
“The only one I could think of is a book called Startup by Jerry Kaplan that came out in like 1998 or something which is actually a pretty good book. I went and reread it before I wrote Chaos Monkeys”
Passing
“Okay, I have to get to a break. Antonio Garcia Martinez is with us. He is the author of Chaos Monkeys. He's a senior fellow at the Lincoln Network and author of Pull Request on Substack.”
Plugged
“check out thepullrequest.com by chaos monkeys and listen to it and read it if you haven't it's hilarious and insightful”
Plugged
“i uh after this book this chaos monkeys thing that uh caused some trouble for me at apple i uh cause like i'm a very like ambiguous media personality”
Plugged
“book was called chaos monkeys which i can explain the title if you want if you want me to explain it but basically long story short phd student drop out of the phd go to work at wall street”
Passing
“the first one uh the catalyst was obviously the firing of antonio garcia martinez the author of chaos monkeys and i covered that on episode 1215”
Passing
“and i i don't think i've addressed this on the pod yet but apple's recently been accused and uh i don't know if we could make a definitive ruling to your point about cooling off periods um that some of the suppliers to their iphones are using uyghurs and slave labor”
Passing
“Antonio Garcia Martinez a former Finance guy turned startup Chief is here to talk about his book chaos monkeys”
Passing
“Antonio Garcia Martinez is the author of a new book called chaos monkeys obscene fortune and random failure in Silicon Valley”