Hatching Twitter
by Nick Bilton · first published 2013
37% recommend57% neutral7% critical
Why HN recommends it
Gossipy, dramatic account of Twitter's early years, covering the founders' friendships, betrayals and the CEO handoffs from Dorsey to Williams to Costolo. Suits readers who want Silicon Valley lore and entertainment.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The story of the Social Media website Twitter and it's Founders.
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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…love this. - Brave New World by Huxley, Aldous. Classic novel with interesting thoughts about engineered society, where every human is assigned class, purpose in the society and feature at birth. - Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Bilton, Nick. Read this book in a weekend, really well written and well researched about the inception of Twitter. - Superforecasting: The…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗…Hafner >> Entertaining stories, but less historical value: - "Ghost in the Wires", Kevin Mitnick - "Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley", Antonio Garcia Martinez - "Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal", Nick Bilton >> On my to-read queue: - "How the Internet Happened", Brian McCullough [just started; very promising] - "Troublemakers: Silicon…
on “Ask HN: What are more books like “Masters of Doom” or “Showstoppers”?” ↗…Art of the Start (Guy Kawasaki) -Getting ready to pitch? read this! Also watch Guy's many presentations/talks on YouTube. A good companion book- "Pitch Anything" By Oren Klaff !Escaping Reality! 1. Hatching Twitter (Nick Bilton) -Sooooo much drama! Definitely learnt what not to do! Very interesting read. 2. The accidental Billionaires (Ben Mezrcih) -I have heard that not everything in this book is "completely-true"…
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗…year I recommend: Somehow tech/startup related: - Spelunky, Derek Yu: book about creating the game of Spelunky + notes on game design - Disrupted, Dan Lyons: book about "old" guy working in startup - Hatching Twitter, Nick Bilton: book about Twitter Non-startupy books: - A Wild Sheep Chase, Haruki Murakami: modern Japanese novel - The Hills of Chianti, Piero Antinori: story about wine company and notes on wine…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗A couple that were quite entertaining for me were: 1) Hatching Twitter 2) The Everything Store (Amazon Story) 3) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success --This one was particularly interesting when thinking about employees and recruiting and what to look for in people that…
on “Ask HN: Inspirational books on entrepreneurship” ↗I highly recommend reading Hatching Twitter (http://www.amazon.com/Hatching-Twitter-Story-Friendship-Betr...) which talks about the behind the scenes CEO transitions between first Jack Dorsey, then Ev Williams, then Dick Costolo. Both Jack and…
on “Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo Is Stepping Down” ↗There is a lot of color to the context of this tweet which is very well described in Hatching Twitter [0]. Definitely would recommend, even for entertainment value, but definitely for the SV lore and understanding these references. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Hatching-Twitter-Story-Friendship-Bet...
on “Twitter accidentally suspends its own CEO's account” ↗…the founding of Zendesk. I personally liked it's perspective because it's founders were 30 somethings (instead of the usual out of college types), and they are from Europe. I also really enjoyed: - "Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal" - "The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions and Created Plenty of Controversy"
on “Ask HN: Recommendations on books and documentaries on tech companies/people?” ↗I quite enjoyed this book because it gave insight into the hard work and dedication that characterised many individuals, such as Max Levchin, the co-founder of Paypal. As an aside, I also recommend Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton. This book details the tumultuous roller-coaster ride that was the early days of Twitter. I feel it is an essential read to truly understand the mentality, minds and drive of many within…
on “Ask HN: Recommendations on books and documentaries on tech companies/people?” ↗Hatching Twitter - Nick Bilton Bad Blood - John Carreyrou How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story - Billy Gallagher Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork…
on “Ask HN: Books on the inside stories of big tech?” ↗…seem a bit gimmicky but negotiation always comes off gimmicky Motivational stories: 4. The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson 5. The Founders by Jimmy Soni 6. The Upstarts by Brad Stone 7. Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton 8. That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph 9. Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's by Ray Kroc Can't skip: 10. Zero To One by Peter Thiel
on “Ask HN: What books helped you in your entrepreneurship journey?” ↗I really like those "case study" books about our industry, too. Off the top of my head, two more: - "Hatching Twitter" by Nick Bilton (published in 2014, about the early days of Twitter) - "Super Pumped" by Mike Isaac (published in 2019, about the early days of Uber) Neither of them go into great detail or nuance…
on “Substack Notes Launched” ↗One of my favorite genres! Any book by Steven Levy is great, he is the master! He wrote multiple books about Apple, and also about Google, Facebook,… Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Nick Bilton Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined…
on “Ask HN: Books like Androids:The Team That Built the Android Operating System?” ↗This makes the mistake of correlating monetary success with wisdom. Those are all salesmen. Go read Hatching Twitter. Jack Dorsey doesn't come off well. Ed Catmull was extolling the virtues of the creative environment at Pixar in Creativity, Inc. while John was regularly harassing women there. I like Paul but he's one…
on “Nuggets of Thought – Modern thinkers on business, philosophy of success and life” ↗Not OP, but read the book 'Hatching Twitter,' most of it is in there.
on “ICOs and VCs” ↗