Mele’s anecdotes from the Dean campaign are a genuine, historic glimpse into real changes wrought by the Internet, but these...
An exploration of the idea that our densely networked online future will spell the end for big institutions.
Recent releases like Jaron Lanier’s Who Owns The Future? and Douglas Rushkoff’s Present Shock are laden with dire warnings of a future where the Internet has destroyed our morals and values. Mele’s debut is at least slightly more optimistic than these other books. Change for the better, he writes, will come by “assuming control of the technology, embracing where it is taking us while also having the collective determination and strength of mind to steer it where we want.” The author theorizes how the power of online networking will ultimately change the big establishments we all know. For example, he asks how journalism will continue when small news blogs and Twitter can publish with an immediacy big news organizations lack (a subject trotted out in seemingly every recent tech book). Mele also examines academia, the entertainment industry, the military, and the government and its political parties. It’s this last big establishment that brings the author’s most lively prose and arguments—no wonder, since Mele ran the website for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, arguably the first online grassroots campaign. Hidden halfway into the chapter on political parties, the author recalls how he Googled the Dean campaign’s website; when he found it was buried in other search results, he simply bought a Google AdWord, and traffic to the site skyrocketed. Mele eventually left New York and drove to Vermont to work for the campaign, where staffers “had been calling a Web company in another time zone for every single edit to the site” and “seemed stunned that [the author] could make changes...without calling anyone.”
Mele’s anecdotes from the Dean campaign are a genuine, historic glimpse into real changes wrought by the Internet, but these are mostly lost in uninteresting, uninspired discussions of changes our networked future might bring.Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-250-02185-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection...
A Dumpster diver–turned-CEO details her rise to success and her business philosophy.
In this memoir/business book, Amoruso, CEO of the Internet clothing store Nasty Gal, offers advice to young women entrepreneurs who seek an alternative path to fame and fortune. Beginning with a lengthy discussion of her suburban childhood and rebellious teen years, the author describes her experiences living hand to mouth, hitchhiking, shoplifting and dropping out of school. Her life turned around when, bored at work one night, she decided to sell a few pieces of vintage clothing on eBay. Fast-forward seven years, and Amoruso was running a $100 million company with 350 employees. While her success is admirable, most of her advice is based on her own limited experiences and includes such hackneyed lines as, “When you accept yourself, it’s surprising how much other people will accept you, too.” At more than 200 pages, the book is overlong, and much of what the author discusses could be summarized in a few tweets. In fact, much of it probably has been: One of the most interesting sections in the book is her description of how she uses social media. Amoruso has a spiritual side, as well, and she describes her belief in “chaos magic” and “sigils,” a kind of wishful-thinking exercise involving abstract words. The book also includes sidebars featuring guest “girlbosses” (bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs) who share equally clichéd suggestions for business success. Some of the guidance Amoruso offers for interviews (don’t dress like you’re going to a nightclub), getting fired (don’t call anyone names) and finding your fashion style (be careful which trends you follow) will be helpful to her readers, including the sage advice, “You’re not special.”
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection or insight.Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16927-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Portfolio
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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