The History of the Future Review
Genre📚
Nonfiction: Biography/technology
Quick Summary📝
This is the story behind the origins of modern-day virtual reality. It follows the 19-year-old kid, Palmer Luckey, who grew his experiments from a tiny RV into a multimillion-dollar industry. Harris illustrates the many ideas, conversations, competition, and drama that came from the beginning of this revolution.
Review🤔
This book was surprising. I say that because when I read the summary, it screamed “nerdy tech dictionary.”
But no, this was good.
It’s a biography, but it never feels like one because of the clever writing; multiple conversations and various perspectives create the shape of the storytelling.
And I call this a story because that's what it feels like: fiction.
The book is mainly composed of dialogue. When you read this, you’re like a fly on the wall, experiencing firsthand every argument or conversation, or invention. Harris really drops you into this world of early 2010’s California and says, “listen.” It's genius, and allows the reader to become immersed in the story; watching a new problem or competitor arise for the crew at Oculus, and then seeing each member come up with their own solution and debate the best one. Harris has crafted a truly compelling “narrative” by blending hundreds of documents/emails, and I'm sure it took months to put this whole thing together.
As for the plot, it's intriguing. You follow 19-year-old Palmer Luckey, the kid who was tinkering in a tiny van on a piece of technology most people found useless. Then the book lets you experience Palmer’s breakthrough, the founding of his company Oculus, and its eventual acquisition. I loved seeing Luckey and his cofounder, Uribe, moneyball their way into finding talented employees across the earth; giving strong sales pitches for different engineers to quit their jobs and join Oculus. The book also ping-pongs around different influential people and their reactions to VR.
Oh and here’s another surprising element of this novel: there's a sizeable amount of drama. Seriously, for a book about the startup that made VR happen, there were a lot of hurt feelings, and people stepped on. An ensuing lawsuit, political interference, the death of a coworker, and betrayal are just a few of the tiny twists in the rest of this narrative. Especially near the end, as Harris navigates the tension between everyone at post-acquisition Oculus perfectly; displaying all the nerves, excitement, and anger between each character. I won't say more, but there's definitely drama. I'll leave it at that.
Overall, I found this story inspiring for anyone young and looking to change the world. It displays the real power of the internet in modern-day startups while subsequently showing the dangers of selling out to large corporations. Its powerful storytelling, which I'll admit has started to influence me. The book’s illustration of tech startups, alongside my already existing passion for VR, has led me to study computer science part-time, along with Psychology. I don't know where this will go exactly, but that's the type of influence this story can have.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable read. If you love VR, I would highly recommend this book.
Who is this for?🤷♂️🤷♀️
Technology Enthusiasts
Anyone who enjoys biographies
People interested in Virtual Reality
Top 3 Quotes💬
“All in all, [Luckey’s van] resembled Walter White’s mobile lab from Breaking Bad. Except instead of being equipt to cook crystal meth, Palmer Luckey's trailer was optimized for building virtual reality headsets.”
“This is really, really something,” McCauley said. “This is really going to change things. Provided, of course, that you guys don’t fuck it up.”
“He was intelligent but still intelligible.”
Criticism🧐
While I think this book is interesting, it's not for everyone. I love it because I'm the sort of technology VR nerd who digs this type of story; simply witnessing this relatively infant piece of hardware grow up and inspire others to create was fascinating. But for people who just aren't into VR or computers, I might advise avoiding this.
As I said, this is the story of the technology, not Luckey. Luckey is the vessel to Oculus and the birth of consumer VR, but he's not the only one involved.
If you’re looking for “tech genius” character pieces, I think Isaacson’s Steve Jobs might be a better fit. I haven’t read it, but I've heard it's a more traditional biography.
Otherwise, if VR is your forte or you think this might be interesting, jump in. I loved it.
Reading Difficulty Level📊
Overall, reasonably simple to read and understand. Not much here to confuse.
Book vs. Audiobook📖/🎧
The audiobook is excellent. For this type of story, I would recommend listening to it over the physical version. I found it immersive to actually hear the conversations between each character, and it made the narrative more compelling.
The plot is also fairly straightforward, so you won't get lost hearing it.
Final Score out of 10⭐️
7/10 - Great book but not for everyone.
