YouSaid · the spoken record

Antonio García-Martinez

lines on the record: 89
first: 2016-07-25
most recent: 2016-07-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Right, right, which, I mean, can mean something real because company culture in a company like Facebook does exist, but often it's just a little loophole for things, actually, like sexism and racism, and basically like me isn't, right? Like everyone, and everyone's little tribal story, they're the center of the universe, right? And so if you're some little affluent white kid from Stanford, like, well, of course, that's the model of what a community should be like, and you hire people like that. And then the little loop that you get into that is cultural fit. And so I think some way to actually screen for cultural fit or maybe actually just create it. So Facebook had this, it was literally called boot camp, right? And if you think about it, it's like, you know, the army or the marines, right, takes in whoever and makes out of it a fighting force. So instead of maybe trying to find this magical cultural fit that you think other people have, you make it. Maybe you actually have a strong enough culture that you actually mold people into that rather than actually screening for it.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What would I change? I mean, I do think that there is, I wouldn't say necessarily call it sexism or racism. I think one can call it that. There's a lot of like-meism, right? Like I mentioned the book in the interview process, for example. There's this notion of cultural fit, right? Which is always”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would agree with that and see who has more diversity there. And I don't think Silicon Valley would be the first on your list of industries that need to change.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think it's really good, actually. But it's 20 years old. And if you look at the Silicon Valley that he describes, that really was a white male sort of old boys network thing, which I think would be hard to break into. But since then, changes have happened. And look, the reality is of Chinese, Indian, or Persian background run like half of Silicon Valley, right? And in that world, it's a little bit hard to claim that, oh, there's diversity as a major problem. Journalists who say that I'd love to look at their newsrooms and compare their newsrooms. I would agree.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, well, compare. So, the other startup book that I sort of admired and modeled was a book called Startup by Jerry Kaplan.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do I think it depends what you talk about when you mean diversity? Do you mean diversity as it's broadly understood, like ethnic and cultural diversity? I worked at Facebook surrounded by people in which I was the only one who spoke English as a first language and born in the United States. I don't think diversity with a little D is a problem in Silicon Valley. Is diversity with a big D, i.e. what we actually mean by diversity, i.e. certain minorities who have historically been disenfranchised or discriminated?”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How would I fix things? I mean, the usual people usually say things like sexism or racism, whatever, but that's not really my hangup.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Paul Graham, sorry, yeah. I mean, the people that, aside from Paul Graham that I admired was sort of, again, the man in the arena, like the random startup entrepnor, often who came from a nothing background like I did. I didn't have any network or anything. And just trying to make it happen and struggling and risking his entire life and aging five years and one year that you do in startup life, trying to make something happen. I felt that guy in the arena was sort of, to me, the hero or guy they admired.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think he's a genius. Yeah, I say so in the book. I think he is a genius. I don't admire him in the sense that I'd want to be him necessarily, but I think, yeah, he is absolutely a genius. I mean, I read, you know, as much as he is a fanboy, Andreessen, I think, is worth reading, PG is worth reading. The people that I admire are the people that”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The same way you got Dell Carnegie to build libraries all over the United States. They come like in New York, you walk around in every hospital or school has some rich guy's name on it. And he might have been some hedge fund piece of shit, but you know what? He paid like Carl Icon, but you know what? He paid for a hospital on the upper east side. And so you make, I mean, I think Benny Off is good at this, right? And Zuckerberg actually funded the public hospital. You make them compete for social prestige, not with the next Tesla, the next company, but the fact that they actually funded a hospital or school. And then you're going to watch them clamor to actually build these things.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it does, which is why I think Silicon Valley is here. I am like a YC fanboy a game. But Sam Altman is funding this experiment and universal basic income in Oakland. And so I think they do have. Yeah. I mean, I think one of the biggest to me criticisms of Silicon Valley is they have no sense of civic duty whatsoever. Like we're living, to get back to your example, the equivalent of the Elizabethan age or like Florentine, Italy, North Italy in the 15th century, this flourishing of technology and money. And yet, I don't exactly see a bunch of schools or roadways or anything being built in the city or for greater society other than these companies. And yeah, I think they do have a debt. And they should feel a debt.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Larry Page has brought this up several times and sort of come back upon it, but many, many people have talked about this issue. Does Silicon Valley have a responsibility to change that? Or is it just the way it's going to be if computers do?”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think it's a big issue enterprise work thing. And one of the big issues I want to talk about is this idea of... Silicon Valley, eliminating jobs, decimating them, not replacing them. And they always go well. There used to be stables and horses, and then there were cars, and it just changed. And I was like, I don't think you're making things. No. Like, I don't think you're replacing. I think you're actually decimating. That's right.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At a higher level, yeah. I mean, I think this is a totally cliche opinion in Silicon Valley, right? But the whole thing about universal basic income, the reality is, like, I go to YC Demo Day and literally every company is coding somebody out of a job or automating somebody out of a job, literally one after the other. And I think once we get things like autonomous vehicles and truck driving is no longer the most popular job in like 10 US states and the only way for non-college grads to pay for a family, once that just goes away.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no. We're not. No, I always think of the quote the famous Churchill quote that democracy is the worst way to organize societies except for all the other systems And so Kaplan is literally the worst way to distribute the means of production and resources, except for all the other ways. But we should treat it as that. It's a necessary evil, kind of like plumbing or something or like a toilet on a boat or something, that it's really horrible when you get into the muck of it. But like, I guess what's the alternative?”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I find it really hard to believe that anymore. Yeah. I was just making fun of Mark Andreessen, who I always called him, he's the chief bear hugger of capitalism. Whenever anybody has a criticism of Silicon Valley, he's like, capitalism work today. And I'm like, okay, there's not a choice between the two necessarily, but you can somehow insult something without having to completely insult it. So taking that idea that this enormous amount of money, this capitalism that has worked so well, is there a better way? Let's finish up on that. No, no, no.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, I didn't piss off anybody that much. Capitalism is an immoral farce in which every player, investor, employee, entrepreneur, consumer, is complicit, which I think ultimately is my cynics lesson, which I think capitalism makes beasts of us all and is fundamentally a complete amoral sort of charade. And it's hard to really believe in the sort of capitalism as self actualization, which sort of the principle of Silicon Valley. I go to a yoga meditative retreat, and then I do a startup, and they're both supposed to improve me as a person, right? I find it really hard to believe that anymore.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of the lawsuit. Right. But the reality is, assuming you can afford it, and maybe even if you can't, it actually doesn't really matter. Nothing really, which is why that's why I publish this book at the end of the day, they can sue me, if anything. It'll guarantee this will be 10 weeks in the bestseller. So they do. It's like, great. You want to sue me? Go ahead. If Facebook is that stupid, then they can go ahead. Don't ask too much.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Lawsuits are merely expensive feints and a well scripted conflict narrative between corporate entities. So we got sued, which was one of the big conflicts. And I think most normal people who don't run into trouble with the law, they get completely shit scared whenever legal mizs start flying out.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Greed and vanity are the twin engines of bourgeois society. I mean, if you think about almost every startup exploits either one or the other vices, most managers are incompetent and maintain their jobs via inertia and politics. I definitely saw that in bigger companies. I mean, he's there because he's there. And it would just be too costly to sort of fire him or her or whoever.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As I mentioned examples of greats like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and all the various sins they committed when they were younger, and nobody cares anymore. Meritocracy is propaganda we use to bless the charade, and that's billion dollar people aren't.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, which often means that, in fact, the culture doesn't exist. Because if you have to define it, then in fact it doesn't exist. There are no real rules, only laws. That's absolutely true. There really are no rules in Silicon Valley. Success forgives all sins, that is absolutely true.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And, you know, the only bad news is no news when you're an entrepreneur. Company culture is what goes without saying. And in case that's unclear, if people have actually asked me about that, what that means is in the same way that your own religious or national culture or just the things you do without people having to openly say it, it's similar about company culture.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Here's the tablet Investors are people with more money than time. Employees are people with more time than money. Entrepreneurs are simply the seductive go betweens, which is true. You're literally joining investors with employees because one has more time, one has more money, and you're just the fast talking guy in between. That's all you are. Startups or business experiments performed with other people's money. That's exactly what it is. You're literally just doing an experiment and it might succeed or fail. Marketing is like sex. Only losers pay for it, which is totally true.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I have that section with my entrepreneurial commandments in there somewhere, which I can pull up. I don't have it marked. So this is, I mean, commandments. This dilation of what I went through.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think the complacency. I think it's the nature of the incumbency. I cite one of the chapters as a super failed ads product they shipped, which is ridiculous. Like no one actually ever stopped to ask an advertiser. Like, would you actually ever spend money on this? And that level of arrogance is bread. I would say the bottom.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Get Microsofted. Yeah, of course. I mean, yeah, the dementia in Alzheimer's will happen to us all, right? If we live long enough.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, just big, clunky, slow, always missing, doing the fast follow-that sort of thing. And so I was really shocked to hear that things had ossified to the point where it was approaching Microsoft.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Reputation Right, I mean, the stock price is quadruple since I've left, which much to my consternation because I didn't have all my shares. So it's hard to criticize his leadership, but I think you're right, he has done a great job. But what I've heard, and this is obviously hearsay. Okay, it's not directing things, but since I've left, you know, obviously I have my little network of spies internally. And one guy who had actually did very well, and he put up with the bullshit and had a long career there and rose to be head of a part of a thing. I want to say more because it'll identify him. But he actually said, you know, I think Facebook might get to Microsoft before Google does, like to get to Microsoft level with him, like, wow. And this guy was pretty raw, raw.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, yeah, I just think, again, my story wasn't necessarily important in any sense of the word, but I think it's extraordinarily representative, right? I think a lot of Silicon Valley is what I portray in Chaos”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Google talk about that? Exactly. I mean, and the other, well, right. So, like Machiavelli, getting back to your Florentine example, you know, he cites very specific examples about, you know, the Ghibellines and whatever faction, but the point is that's a general principle, right? So another thing, for example, the two-tier system inside Facebook, how there were some who were really wealthy, right? Like the very early employees. And the people now who by any normal standard are wealthy, but really aren't. They're like Silicon Valley middle class, right? And there's this huge rift between those who are like sentimentaires and have private aviation. And those who are still wondering who their kids, they can afford Stanford or whatever, right? And so there was a huge, obviously I'm in the ladder camp, right? And that was a huge divide in the company. I understand that's also very typical at Google and other companies as well.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nicknames for all of them. Right. So, watching the weasels, I wouldn't say necessarily take over but become important, I think, is”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I'm not going to be that guy. I mean, you know, I mean, what's a one veteran the mission coffee these days? 56k a month. Where do I see it? I mean, I think what's unique about Chaos Monkeys is that it captures that period, and Facebook's life cycle in which it was going from scrappy startup where you could blow up the plumbing and nobody would care. To it being kind of like a bigger company political thing. I'm not going to name names, but if you read the book where some of the characters in the latter part of the book come into play, people who couldn't run a company if their lives depended on it, but can operate in that sort of region between the sort of founder level who created it and the sort of junior level sort of guy. And they just weasel their way into sort of middle management layer and I've weasel.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To use your metaphor, this is like Machiavelli's The Prince. He also was knocked out of court and was trying to curry favor and he wrote a book. And so that was the.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And you don't like certain people. And I'm actually very pro Facebook, and I think some parts of it as well. I look at this crazy circus and I think, well, if all this bullshit needs to exist for one Elon Musk to emerge. Or I'm naming him as a prominent interpreter. There's several others whose careers I follow. And given how disruptive things like SpaceX and Tesla are going to be, then maybe it's actually worth it. And again, I think the problems in Silicon Valley are problems that any other country in the world would love to have their startup ecosystem.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm actually not maybe quite a cynical. I think very cynical. Not talk about somebody. Well, don't own it. It is. Okay, it's a little worldary. I mean, but I want to distinguish from Dan Lyons, who was like universally negative. He was the universal troll. He was negative about everything and just literally hated everything about it. He's funny, though.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a total cliche, but it's like that hardball old detective or soldier who thinks he's this total mercenary. But then, well, it's like Rick in Casablanca, who ends up, who thinks he's a total sinning. But at the end of the day, like I say in the book, inside every cynic lies a heartbroken idealist. So I think it's the heartbroken idealist, actually.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then had to lay on my sword for it and literally pissed off everyone at Facebook to support this vision. And that due to both political reasons and whatever, even though it was a fairly successful product, Facebook just decided that was not the future for you.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They still do. I like it. It takes rocks. So, yeah, I mean, the weird thing is, you know, the tragedy, I guess, of it is that I went in as a total mercenary get financial independence, what I call fuck you money, whatever everyone calls fuck you money, right? Right. And then at the end, I ended up falling in love with the girl, i.e. my product, and actually risking my career to make that vision a reality because I came so enamored of that vision and so invested in what we had built”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're a more sophisticated. You know what I mean? You like a person who goes there. He did. He goes there. I can't believe”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was unhinged at the time Know it's sort of very Ted Cruzian. You went there. You went there. You know what I mean? You're like a person who goes there. He did. He goes there. I can't believe I liked Ted Cruz this morning, but I do.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. No, no, of course. And I try to make that. I mean, I try to present what I was thinking at the time, not necessarily what I want reflection.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, well, that's the famous one, the Cheryl meeting with the pussy filter. You remember that one? Have you gone to that? Yeah. By the way, that was not my doing. Somebody else did that, okay? Just to be absolutely clear. And then what was the fifth one? Oh, there was the Baz meeting. Baz is the guy who had ads. And this really awkward meeting, which it's clear that heads will start rolling. Right. And there was this really ambiguous meeting with him in which it was like really weird. And that kind of preceded the end.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I can't. I can tell you what. So I held a poll to see what I should read at my reading at passage yesterday. So I can tell you the winners there. The final Cheryl meeting where it's decided Facebook is not going to do real-time bidding and that like basically my career is over. The passage I read about the famous sexist paragraph. The story about homebrewing at Facebook, I was really good. And then I blew up the plumbing and flooded Suck's desk.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, so I mean, the hope is that even if I didn't burn my bridges in Silicon Valley, maybe there's a second book in me, and I think it'd be interesting to have some sort of career like that.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's why. And then you're just kicking me out the door, and that was it. And then I was like, oh, okay. And then, you know, that and my mother's dad's like, okay, so maybe I should make a go of it.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't do anything. I assume you probably don't remember, but I mentioned that in the email. So, yeah, no, no, no. You remember three years ago. I wrote a little chunk tip of what became the book around the Mopub acquisition by Twitter. And then you out of nowhere emailed me and said, you like dragged me into your office on second. And you said, you should take writing. You basically lectured me and said, you need to take writing series. Because you're a good writer.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Fucking world, what I like to do drugs with you. That's absolutely true. I mean, if you look at the textbook definition of sociopathy, a glib superficial charm, risk-taking behavior, sexual promiscuity, like physically risky behavior, treating people like objects, that describes about over half the people I know in Silicon Valley. Okay. Okay, excellent.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know. They're like, you want to do with me? I'm like, never in the fucking world would I like to do drugs with you? But it was interesting that there is this little moment of a lot of people talking about that idea that you have to be a psychopath to be successful.”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“sociopathic antonio mode. I'd have to become like American psycho again, which I absolutely was Interesting. I just recently have had a lot of lunches with people like you, and they're saying, oh, now I want to be nicer. And one of them was taking ayahuasca and that suddenly become nicer. That's the new thing, right? R”
2016-07-25 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: "Chaos Monkeys" author Antonio García-Martinez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT