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I just read Move Fast and Break Things on my Nook, and I must say the reviews were better than the book. It is about how a handful of companies now dominate what we read and see on the Internet, and how their outsized power is reshaping the world based on the Libertarian beliefs of their founders/owners. We're talking Google, Facebook, and Amazon mainly. Good premise, but the author mainly backs it up with long-winded anecdotes about his work in the music industry with all sorts of icons, but only somewhat relevant to many of us. He is arguing that the loss of revenue due to digital reproduction is causing a huge loss for the world, but his stories mainly argue for why musicians and writers aren't getting paid what they used to be paid. I'm a writer who knows this all too well, but I think the author misses the point that the same structure that he bemoans has benefited many more people than have been hurt. And, I'm a writer who knows that wages today are less than they were in 1985, if you even have a job writing!
I was expecting more about how AI and huge data-driven companies are shaping the world discussion in ways even they don't understand, but I only read some of that in the book. For example, I find it incredible how political movements based on false facts (lies) have gained huge power.
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