A slog, but it will interest small-L libertarian techies.
A deep dive into efforts to build the next internet, one free of government interference and regulation.
Russo, a leading cryptocurrency journalist, recounts the story of “an idealistic hero, his band of misfits, and the challenges they face to make their incredibly ambitious dream a reality.” The hero is Russian Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin, gifted in mathematics and committed to a certain kind of anarchy, with numerous like-minded allies scattered across the globe. Some, like Russo, are South American, convinced that the key to breaking government control is to develop a cryptocurrency even more thoroughly hidden away than Bitcoin. But that’s only a start, a kind of proof of concept of a larger “world computer,” the dream in question, called Ethereum. Cryptocurrency is just beginning—however, notes the author, it now outstrips many national economies in capital. By way of an analogy, explains one of the players in this book, “email was to the internet what Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency, was to blockchain technology,” and Ethereum is bigger still, “bigger than any application built on top of it.” Though, as Russo writes, it turns out that cryptocurrency is subject to the familiar boom and bust of the business cycle, there are still plenty of hackers working on it, even as government agencies such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seek to regulate it. The same is true of Ethereum, which seems more desirable than ever since “long-ago scrappy upstarts Facebook and Google had now become megacorporations serving as the main gateways to the internet.” Russo’s narrative, based on more than 100 interviews, is dense, detailed, and often overstuffed. It’s also quite arcane, and it could use some of the patient explication that Michael Lewis and Katie Hafner, among other technology writers, bring to bear on their work.
A slog, but it will interest small-L libertarian techies.Pub Date: July 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-288614-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper Business
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
Harris still has plenty to learn, but he provides an informative study of why the millennial generation faces more struggles...
A millennial writer talks about the coming crises his generation will face.
Millennials—defined by the author as those born between 1980 and 2000—have been sold on the idea that if they work hard in school, forfeiting play and creative time for work and sports, and go on to a four-year college, where they continue to work hard, then a solid, well-paying job awaits them once they graduate. But as Harris (b. 1988), an editor at New Inquiry, points out, many in that age group have discovered there is no pot of gold at the end of that particular rainbow. In today’s competitive economy, he writes, “young households trail further behind in wealth than ever before, and while a small number of hotshot finance pros and app developers rake in big bucks…wages have stagnated and unemployment increased for the rest.” Those who manage to attend college are often burdened by high student-loan debts, forcing them to work any job they can to pay the bills. Athletes who attend college on a sports scholarship pay with the physical wear and tear on their bodies and the stress of high-stakes games alongside a full academic schedule. Harris also evaluates how millennials interact with social media (a topic that could warrant an entire book on its own), which creates a never-ending link to nearly everything every day, never giving anyone a chance to unwind. Professional musicians, actors, and other performing artists face strong competition in a world where anyone can upload a video to YouTube, so those with genuine talent have to work that much harder for recognition. After his intense analysis of this consumer-based downward spiral, the author provides several possible remedies that might ease the situation—but only if millennials step forward now and begin the process of change.
Harris still has plenty to learn, but he provides an informative study of why the millennial generation faces more struggles than expected, despite the hard work they’ve invested in moving ahead.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-51086-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An earnest self-help work, but one that may not appeal to all audiences.
Attorney, mediator, and coach Schick walks readers through her conflict resolution approach.
The author created the Third Ear Conflict Resolution Program, which essentially encourages people to listen to their “h-EAR-ts” when they approach conflicts. The method urges the readers to first make seven choices, including “Forgive yourself for having conflicts,” and “Assume that you know nothing about anything,” in order to create a “clear space” to take “Five Actions”: “Define the conflict,” “Identify the interests,” “Play with the possibilities,” “Create the future,” and “Plan, Act, Revise, and Repeat the action steps until you eliminate or transform the conflict.” The chapters are structured in a way that describes a specific conflict, applies the Third Ear Conflict Resolution Program to the solution, and then summarizes how the latter can be applied more broadly to the reader’s life. Schick powerfully describes her own experience of violent assault, and in doing so, effectively shows how the program may be applied to trauma. Her account of her approach to recovery illuminates the ways in which she continues to use her program to heal herself and others. The layout of the book makes the content more actionable; every chapter in Part 1 starts with a situation and ends with “Practices” that ask readers self-reflective questions, which allows readers to readily put new lessons into action. Additional examples and workbook content in Part 2 also clearly encourage readers to embrace the author’s practices. However, readers may take exception to a section that seems to highlight the benefits of discounting medical professionals’ advice when faced with a catastrophic health issue.
An earnest self-help work, but one that may not appeal to all audiences.Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-45-662557-3
Page Count: 132
Publisher: eBookIt.com
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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