Siliconned

After enjoying reading the book Smart Until It’s Dump by Emmanuel Maggiori, there was no question that I would pick up the author’s new book on its release date, especially with such a provocative title as Siliconned—How the tech industry solves fake problems, hoards idle workers, and makes doomed bets with other people’s money. The subtitle sets the stage precisely, and the reader of the book should have a crystal-clear expectation of what the book will deliver. And the book does so.

While the book has six main chapters, I found the structure a bit less intuitive and self-explanatory. However, I suspect that my background may have contributed to it. As an engineering manager, I have always paid more attention to the front-line aspects of the work than to the broader strategic considerations. Nevertheless, I didn’t suffer from this while advancing with the book.

For the same reason, the book significantly opened my eyes to previously overlooked aspects of the tech industry, particularly in startups and software-heavy organisations. When I started my career at a startup company, I wasn’t really thinking about it at the time. Later, when I joined a large software consultancy and outsourcing company, it became less relevant. I’m especially thankful for the book for broadening my knowledge with terms such as Unicorn, Copycat, Moat, Network effect, and Switching cost.

The book is even more helpful in terms of financial concepts, providing clear explanations of key terms such as venture capital, limited partner, quantitative easing (QE), zero interest rate policy (ZIRP), and The Greater Fool Theory. It also mentions alternative theories of business cycles, such as the Austrian school and the Post-Keynesian school, as well as the financial instability hypothesis, including that of Minsky.

As the book advances through its chapters, it decorates nicely everything with relevant examples and stories. Many were shocking. For instance, I didn’t know that Spotify required 15 years and the total loss of 4.5 billion dollars before finally being able to make a profitable year in 2024. But the other stories are no less crazy or shocking either.

In its last chapter, the book switches to a positive tone and provides some thoughts on what else we can do. This chapter balanced out the very critical viewpoint of the book.

What I liked the most:

• The subtitle perfectly describes the book
• The book is fresh, and its content is relevant up to 2023

What I didn’t like much:

• Some of the example startups were overused in several chapters, such as the Juicero. Indeed, it had an utterly foolish startup idea, but more diverse examples would have been more representative.