How nerds became bros is one of the central stories in this book. : Beware the callow misfit who becomes part of the ruling class; rather than disrupt the social order that excluded him, he might just reap its spoils for himself. A number of the men depicted in Emily Chang’s Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley seem to be making up for lost experience, using their new-found wealth and power to get whatever it is they had previously been denied — mainly stuff, status and sex.