Non-fiction 29 Nov 2003 16:30

Silicon Boys

coverThe Silicon Boys and Their Valley of Dreams
David A. Kaplan
In 2003, it’s a little weird reading a book about Silicon Valley that was written before the bubble burst. Actually, even before the bubble was as its peak. However, David Kaplan tells the history of the Valley, from the old days of David Packard and Bill Hewlett (and even before them) to the “recent” days of Jerry Yang and David Filo, in a way that is very fun to read.

All the well-known characters of the Valley in the last 50 or so years are in there: Gordon Moore, the two Steves, Andreessen, Jim Clark, Larry Ellison, Bob Metcalfe… some characters that are not so much in the actuall Valley are also well presented: Gates, Allen, Bezos, Ballmer. And, more important, the not-so-well-known characters, like the pioneers Shockley and Farina, the big money from Kleiner Perkins (mostly in the person of John Doerr), the sadly forgotten Gary Kildall, and so many others.

It all adds to probably the best book on Silicon Valley culture and history I have ever read. If you want to understand what goes on there, this is the book to read. If you just want to have fun while getting to know better the history behind the names and places you already know so well, this is the book as well. By the way, if you want to understand how venture capital works, this is a good introduction.

David follows a more or less chronological order of events, while focusing on different aspects and personalities on each chapters. As the book was written in 1998-99, it ends with the Valley’s most recent (at the time) great success story, Yahoo! It was still too early for Google, and too early to tell of the lost billions of 2000. The general tone of the book, then, is one of optimism, with not a small amount of bewilderment at what is going on and the amount of money involved. “The scale of success has changed”, says Metcalfe in the last chapter; money flows easily and everyone feels that he is entitled — nay, required — to get rich.

Well, things have changed a little since them, but it is still a Valley of Dreams. And, as a local TV station there says (or used to say), it may well be “the best place on earth”.

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