Palo Alto
by Malcolm Harris, Malcom Harris · first published 2023
71% recommend24% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Traces California and Silicon Valley history back to the 1800s, linking tech business practices to older capitalist and regional roots; a well-researched account for readers wanting historical context on tech.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…other companies - gets rich through wage theft. Airbnb has been a negative influence on the housing market, so people can’t buy or rent a home. Uber, well, do I even need to discuss that one? The book “Palo Alto” by Malcolm Harris shows the historical context for Silicon Valley and damn it’s beyond the pale. If you are in IT I think you should read it. But in the end, though, it’s not about big tech, it’s about…
on “Amazon's Union-Busting Training Video” ↗The book “Palo Alto” by Malcolm Harris does underwrite a lot of the terse remarks made in this blog post. I think that book should be “mandatory reading” for the HN crowd. In particular, I found the history on Stanford…
on “Silicon Valley's worldview is not just an ideology; it's a personality disorder” ↗The book Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris is a must-read for the HN audience in my opinion. The book really explains the historic + larger context of the “forces” at play that has lead to people like Peter Thiel and companies…
on “Palantir seeing 'unprecedented' demand for its military AI” ↗Not sure if this is what you're interested in, but a friend recently recommended reading these two in tandem: "The Image" by David Boorstin, and "Palo Alto" by Malcom Harris Both offer views on the evolution of technology, but from authors with somewhat opposing viewpoints. "The Image" is particularly interesting to read today, because it was written in…
on “Ask HN: Good Books on the History of Technology?” ↗This is true for the whole VC HN stuff anyway. “Palo Alto” by Malcolm Harris should be mandatory reading for the HN crowd.
on “Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Crypto Project Officially Launches” ↗…book about utopian community experiments but is so much more, imaginative conjuring on thinking outside the box, how we blindly just accept things the way they are, so dismissive of nonorthodox ideas 4. Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcolm Harris — just as the title advertises, have read a lot of history but the 19C on California presented here was so interesting
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2023 and recommend for 2024” ↗A great book on exactly that subject: Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcolm Harris https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61108472-palo-alto
on “Big Tech and Silicon Valley are transforming the military-industrial complex” ↗Reading the book Palo Alto was a serious eye-opener into how SV culture came to be the way that it is. Let's just say this goes way, way back. https://www.amazon.com/Palo-Alto-History-California-Capitali...
on “Google says it is obligated to disclose confidential info to U.S. government” ↗…pretty unbroken path from today back through the history of business in Silicon Valley. It's always been a smokescreen. I recommend this book, it's highly illuminating and specific: https://www.amazon.com/Palo-Alto-History-California-Capitali...
on “Silicon Valley, the new lobbying monster” ↗Malcolm Harris' book Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World goes into surprising depth on the history of the California Genocide[0] in the first few chapters. It's a very well-researched work [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_genocide
on “Amazonian civilization had estimated 3M people in 3% of forest area” ↗Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris - a re-read about the history of Silicon Valley, highly recommended.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…notices if they skipped the lanthanides and actinides. I’m a fan of blending the two! It’s just really really hard to do both well at the same time. My most recent example is Malcolm Harris’ history of Palo Alto, it is incredibly well-done.
on “You Don't Have To” ↗…Gulag https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520242012/golden-gulag Huey P Newton (co-founder of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, CA October 1966) Revolutionary Suicide, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Suicide Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/malcolm-harris/palo-alto/... Mike Davis, City of Quartz https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Quartz
on “Silicon Valley’s Vast Wealth Disparity Deepens as Poverty Increased” ↗"Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World" by Malcolm Harris is a really, really fantastic book that shows how far back this line of thought goes in the region. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/malcolm-harris/palo...
You should check out the book Palo Alto if you haven't. Malcom Harris should write an epilogue of this era in tech history. You'd probably like how the book's author structures his thesis to what the "Palo Alto" system is. Feels like OpenAI…
on “People are losing loved ones to AI-fueled spiritual fantasies” ↗