Alan
DNF at 15%. I really want to know more about DeepMind, but I just. could. not. get past the fawning nature of this hagiography. OMG! Demis Hassabis is so smart! Because big important people say he is very smart! That's about as deep as it seems to get, and I'm not willing to give up any more of my time in hopes it gets any better.
Simon Winchester is the Shipping Forecast of authors - I could listen to him read just about anything.
Fast paced narrative - as always with his books there are multiple tied in topics, and in this one he discussed Dutch colonialism, the significance of undersea telegraph cables, and the science behind the great sea volcanoes.
"Write a biography of William Shakespeare, with scant historical records or evidence to draw from," is what Bill Bryson's editor said to him, probably. Credit to Bryson that he acknowledges that... there just isn't much we currently know about Shakespeare the person. Nice read for the Shakespeare completionist, or the Bryson fan (speaking as the latter, not the former).
Enjoyed the first half, which provided a credible history of ad agencies, in the aggregate, up through ~2010. But “digital”, mobile, and social ads are presented as unproven as formats that are still on the horizon, so reading it now the history is out of date. The latter half gives the author's point of view on how to fix ad agencies, for which I'm not the target audience.
Having read this immediately following Matthew Stewart's The Management Myth, I was on the lookout for the many telltale signs of Bad Business Books. This didn't disappoint. Aphorisms, management advice from gurus, and common sense told with hushed reverence. There are some mildly interesting snippets about how Verizon missed out on the iPhone (really wasn't in the game due to CDMA, it turns out), and one actual humanizing moment describing the company response to 9/11. Other than that, be prepared to THRILL in hearing unending descriptions of (mostly) dudes who are promoted to this or that executive position in charge of... something? (Exactly what those executives do is never really explained). But be damned sure that those executives were really, really important. The other employees? You'll learn that union members were not even invited to “employee” meetings. Take a shot whenever you hear a non-executive mentioned by name - don't worry, you'll still be sober after finishing the book. And board meetings – board meetings! You'll learn how Verizon made their board, like very effective by... forcing them to attend meetings in person, sit around a round table (oval actually) and eat dinner together. Seriously. I, for one, am ready for my board seat!
Oh, and spoiler alert: the CEO at the end of the book has already retired.
