The Code

More about the book

When O'Mara worked in the White House of Bill Clinton and Al Gore, she saw firsthand how deeply intertwined Silicon Valley was with the federal government, and how shallow the common understanding of the secrets of the Valley's success actually was. She tells the story of mavericks and visionaries, but also of powerful institutions creating the framework for innovation. It is a story of a community that started off remarkably homogeneous and tight-knit and stayed that way, and whose belief in its own mythology has deepened into a collective hubris that has led to astonishing triumphs as well as devastating second-order effects. -- adapted from jacket