150-WORD BOOK REVIEW: Bold by Peter Diamandis and Stephen Kotler

Bold cover

Bold cover

‘Go big, create wealth and impact the world.’ Bold’s subheading is quite a boast, and for two thirds of the book, it will certainly inspire most readers to think they can do exactly that. The book starts by giving examples and case studies of businesses engaged in disruptive/exponential technologies like 3D printing, biotech, AI, robotics and more.

The second part of the book explores how people can get into the ‘bold’ mindset – looking at some of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs and their moonshots as well as digging into psychological theories like flow and others.

As with their previous book, Abundance, the authors are at their best when they’re broadening the reader’s horizons and talking about those technological leaps we’re likely to make over the next 10 to 20 years. Sadly the final third of this book gets slightly lost with what felt like digressions into creating communities, crowdfunding and more.

Read it. Be inspired. Skip chapter 8 on.

150 WORD BOOK REVIEW: Without Their Permission by Alexis Ohanian

Without their permission book cover

Without their permission book cover

Reddit is incredible. In biological terms, it’s one of the Internet’s arteries. It has humour, character, seriousness and solemnity – and much more besides.

It should come as no surprise that the site’s co-founder, Alexis Ohanian has written a book with the same characteristics. Without their permission is at once funny, informative and touching. Writing conversationally is a difficult trick to pull off, but in Ohanian’s case, he does it with aplomb.

Expect lots of brilliant advice, interesting anecdotes and nods to pop culture in a book that is both a memoir of his time at Y Combinator, Reddit and Hipmunk and a how-to guide for startups.

If you’re have a passing interest in where the Internet is going, you’re going to want to read this. The best books are the ones where I’m left with notes after reading. This generated pages of them.  Enjoy.