1:15:51We talk to the guy who knows Silicon Valley’s darkest secrets
From My First Million · Published Jul 4, 2025 · Watch on YouTube
TL;DR
Nick Bilton, author of American Kingpin and Hatching Twitter, details his investigative reporting process on Silicon Valley figures (Ross Ulbricht, Jack Dorsey, Steve Jobs) and explains how he marries novelistic techniques with narrative nonfiction.
Key insights
- Bilton reconstructs scenes physically (e.g., visiting campgrounds, coffee shops, the exact bench where Ross Ulbricht sat) to describe smells, sounds, and shadows, treating nonfiction like a novel.
- He uses a three‑tranche research method: (1) chat logs/diaries from the subject’s laptop, (2) social‑media timeline with timestamps, (3) interviews with everyone from elementary‑school classmates to n
- Jack Dorsey’s origin story about being inspired by taxi dispatch is a constructed narrative; the real Twitter was a collaboration among ~11 people at Odeo, and Dorsey forced out co‑creator Noah Glass.
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