Book Review: Silicon Valley Porn Star
Book is available here.
When I met Jason Portnoy in 2016 at Kauffman Fellows, there were many things about him that were highly unusual. First, he was absolutely vague and hand wavy about what was clearly a storied career. "If I were the founding CFO of Palantir and part of the PayPal Mafia, I'd let people know," I thought to myself. Then, he would speak profusely about his wife, Anne-Marie. About how great she was, how she was his partner for life, how she was the most important person in his life. And, lastly, he had this life coach, Sham, that occasionally would come to with him to events. I remember looking up Sham on LinkedIn and wondering 'he doesn't seem to have any investment experience, I don't see his links to capital'.
Hmm, Jason must be on a self-discovery journey, I thought.
It wasn't until a month ago when an early copy of Silicon Valley Porn Star dropped in my inbox that I fully appreciated Jason's reality.
A Memoir! From Jason!
I immediately downloaded the PDF version on my phone and took every opportunity of downtime to read until the end.
It's honest, real, and raw.
Jason brings the reader into the room to experience his reality of porn addiction, sexual hookups, and grappling with his prior traumas. There were several times that I found myself choking up when I could feel the pain and also the long-awaited breakthrough. It made me think deeply about life-partnership and working through the generational trauma that we all carry in a different way and bring to ourselves and our relationships.
I am, also, a big believer in memoir writing.
If not to share with the world, at least to process personal learning and past experiences. In 2017, I shared with Jason some writing I did after attending Burning Man. After reading my writing, he wrote back:
For the last 7 years I’ve been on a path of learning how to live in the stillness of my self but still participate in the earth-bound experience. I feel like you are perceiving a similar journey. I believe it is possible, and my recent experiences prove it to me beyond a doubt. I have sunken to much deeper levels of stillness in the last year, and it feels like it is only accelerating in recent months. I have subtracted almost all noise, and the results are incredible. I see so much now that I never saw before. I see through everything everyone is saying to me - like I can see right into their souls. I know they are feeling it too - they tell me with words and frequently through tears. It’s been amazing.
It's amazing to see him sharing his story 5 years later.
I highly recommend the book. It's original and courageous. Jason addresses and works through modern masculinity in way I've never seen written about before. I believe this book will inspire and bring hope to many people to start on their own journey for stillness.
Silicon Valley Porn Star will be released June 21st, but you can get a sneak peak today on Tim Ferris's podcast where he interviews Jason here.