Troublemakers

Silicon Valley's Coming of Age

By: Leslie Berlin

Narrated by: Amanda Carlin

Acclaimed historian Leslie Berlin’s “deeply researched and dramatic narrative of Silicon Valley’s early years…is a meticulously told…compelling history” (The New York Times) of the men and women who chased innovation, and ended up changing the world.

Troublemakers is the gripping tale of seven exceptional men and women, pioneers of Silicon Valley in the 1970s and early 1980s. Together, they worked across generations, industries, and companies to bring technology from Pentagon offices and university laboratories to the rest of us. In doing so, they changed the world.

“In this vigorous account…a sturdy, skillfully constructed work” (Kirkus Reviews), historian Leslie Berlin introduces the people and stories behind the birth of the Internet and the microprocessor, as well as Apple, Atari, Genentech, Xerox PARC, ROLM, ASK, and the iconic venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In the space of only seven years, five major industries—personal computing, video games, biotechnology, modern venture capital, and advanced semiconductor logic—were born.

“There is much to learn from Berlin’s account, particularly that Silicon Valley has long provided the backdrop where technology, elite education, institutional capital, and entrepreneurship collide with incredible force” (The Christian Science Monitor). Featured among well-known Silicon Valley innovators are Mike Markkula, the underappreciated chairman of Apple who owned one-third of the company; Bob Taylor, who masterminded the personal computer; software entrepreneur Sandra Kurtzig, the first woman to take a technology company public; Bob Swanson, the cofounder of Genentech; Al Alcorn, the Atari engineer behind the first successful video game; Fawn Alvarez, who rose from the factory line to the executive suite; and Niels Reimers, the Stanford administrator who changed how university innovations reach the public. Together, these troublemakers rewrote the rules and invented the future.

either bad recording or robot voice

It really does sound like a robot. Or it could just be a bad recording.

Good Story, Poor Reading

The reader is not a machine but unfortunately she seems to be imitating one. At first, I wasn't sure I would get through the book but after a while, I got into the story and got used to the reading. In the end, the book was pretty good overall.

A look at less known icons of Silicon Valley

This book covers the lives of some lesser known Valley founding individuals and how the culture of Silicon Valley helps it continue to innovate. It focuses on short period of time and is a well written and researched history. For those of us from the old "smoke stack" industries, it is enlightening. I did not find the reader annoying, just lacking emotion.

Great history of a brief period

Great history of a brief period of time that led to today's high tech industry. Very enjoyable!

Great book. Horrible narrator.

A great book about the early days in Silicon Valley spoiled by a narrator who sounded like a robot, mispronounced names, and said "Silicone" instead of "Silicon."