Book Review: The Code by by Margaret O’Mara

About:

The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America by Margaret O’Mara tells the history of Silicon Valley, and how it shaped America. Ms. O’Mara is a historian, educator, and helped shape digital policy.

• 512 pages
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Press
  
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0399562184

My rat­ing for The Code  — 5
Buy The Code from Amazon.com*
More Books by Margaret O’Mara*

Thoughts:

This book traces, and more importantly documents, the history of Silicon Valley and the digital revolution. The author has a perspective eye of a historian, as well as an inside knowledge from working the White House during the Clinton administration when the Internet was just starting to change the world as we know of it.

While books like Coders emphasizes the role of mavericks and geniuses, The Code by Margaret O’Mara also includes the government, universities, business investments, and genius marketing. As a country that prides itself on individuality, we often forget the role private and public sectors play in success.
Not to mention luck.

Ms. O’Mara digs into the past, highlighting the critical role that Standford University played, as well as the Department of Defense. Most interesting was the story of William Shockley, who was the co-investor of the transistor. He helped found Fairchild Semiconductor which created a blueprint of finding outside investors in return for stock ownership. While today it looks obvious, back then it was a serious business disruptor.

The author doesn’t shy away from harshly criticizing Silicon Valley, their toxic culture, and misogynistic philosophy. As a person who was “in the room where it happened”, her analysis of regulations and policy is fascinating and enlightening.

The epic battles between Bill Gates and the rest of the valley, Google’s dethroning of Microsoft, and PayPal’s Peter Theil’s contribution to bankrolling firms are stuff of legend. As someone who saw this book happening in real-time, knowing what really happened as oppose to what was reported at the time was a captivating, and educating journey.

Buy The Code from Amazon.com*
More Books by Margaret O’Mara*

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I bought this book.
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books