Book · 2021 · Biography & Autobiography
In the Plex
How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
Why people recommend it
In the Plex by Steven Levy is a comprehensive non-fiction history that chronicles the meteoric rise, corporate culture, and technological evolution of Google. On episodes of the Acquired podcast, hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal frequently cited the book as a foundational research source for their deep dives into the company. Gilbert referenced a small passage from the text detailing an early conversation about data compression and language models, and noted an anecdote about the founders securing an early meeting with Vinod Khosla. Rosenthal utilized Levy's reporting to illustrate Wall Street's early perception that Google was tossing business ventures into the air like a drunken juggler, as well as sharing a story about Bill Gates reacting to Gmail's massive storage capacity at Newsweek headquarters. Additionally, on the Lex Fridman Podcast, host Lex Fridman discussed the book with guest Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, who revealed that he had looked up to Larry Page and Sergey Brin and could actively recite passages from Levy's work because it profoundly influenced his understanding of how Google operated. Across these podcast episodes, the book was consistently celebrated as the definitive historical account of the tech giant's formative engineering breakthroughs and corporate philosophy.
Who recommended it
- Ben Gilbert Recommended
- David Rosenthal Discussed
- Lex Fridman Discussed
Ben Gilbert — 2 mentions
“This is like a small little passage in Steven Levy's great book that's been a source for all of our Google episodes, In the Plex.”
“So supposedly this is according to In the Plex, Steven Levy's book, great book that we used as a source for the episode. They end up getting a meeting with Venode Kosla”
David Rosenthal — 2 mentions
“Steven Levy writes in in the Plex that the perception of Google's ventures beyond search at the time was that the company was tossing balls into the air like a drunken juggler.”
“There's another great story from In the Plex that Steven Levy has. He's interviewing Bill Gates at the Newsweek headquarters office in New York shortly after Gmail comes out...”
Lex Fridman — 1 mention
“I read that you looked up to Larry Page and Sergey Brin and that you can recite passages from 'In the Plex' and, like, that book was very influential to you and how Google works was influential.”