Chaos Monkeys - Revised Edition

Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley

By: Antonio Garcia Martinez

Narrated by: Dan John Miller

Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

The instant New York Times best seller, now featuring a new afterword from the author - the insider's guide to the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, the inner workings of the tech world, and who really runs Silicon Valley.

Imagine a chimpanzee rampaging through a datacenter 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. One of Silicon Valley’s most audacious chaos monkeys is Antonio García Martínez.

After stints on Wall Street and as CEO of his own startup, García Martínez joined Facebook’s nascent advertising team. Forced out in the wake of an internal product war over the future of the company’s monetization strategy, García Martínez eventually landed at rival Twitter. In Chaos Monkeys, this gleeful contrarian unravels the chaotic evolution of social media and online marketing and reveals how it is invading our lives and shaping our future.  

©2016, 2018 Antonio Garcia Martinez (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

“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) 

Best audio book I’ve listened to in a while!

Really loved the book. Narration was great, loved the unflinching honesty. Really recommend it . Probably will listen to again !

Best Non-fiction (and entertaining frolic) I’ve listened to in years!

Like others have already said, AGM’s candidness (including his unabashed criticism of himself) is a breath of fresh air and his ability to explain things with fabulous metaphors makes it even that much better.

Very interesting book by a surprisingly super-smart author

I am adding this book to must-reads along with “Hard thing about hard things” and others. It fills the gap in guidance for mid-career periods of life without bullshit and with a lot of truth and thought provoking.

Entertaining and informative

Keep in mind that the author has his right to subjectivity.
AGM delivered a deftly written dissection of the life of a tech scene officionado that was easy to digest and highly informative.

What the SJW Cancel Culture idiots are doing...

to you IS NOT RIGHT!! When are people going to come together and stand up to these Mentally Ill Tyrants?!?!?

Brutally Honest

Great insight into the Silicon Valley scene, start-up life and Facebook. Very entertaining and informative. Highly recommended.

the author seemed like a big jerk

the author seemed like a big jerk, but after book I listened to the interview and he came across much nicer.

Absolutely fantastic. Clever insights

I really enjoyed this book and have recommended it to all my Bay Area friends. Brave subject matter to tackle as an insider

Sometimes smart but grossly misogynistic

I’m glad I finished it because I always find the inside workings of Facebook interesting. Kills me that this guy had smart and valuable observations about emerging tech but it was completely ruined but the unnecessary and persistent theme of misogyny. The only purpose women served in the story were passive, gross objects in the sidelines of the actually story. It would have been better for him to write this as if women didn’t exist rather than how he referenced them. It’s one thing to think it but how dumb do you have to be to publish this? Read that he lost a job offer at Apple due to his lack of moral alignment, which was the only thing that gave me some hope that men in the tech industry and evolving faster than this guy.

An essential read for PM and entrepreneurs

The biggest selling point of this book is an exploration of human nature. You'll need to look at yourself and others with a clear eye to succeed in this world.

Interesting worth a listen

Good personal account based insight into silicon valley, startup culture and the inner workings of Facebook a few years back.