The World's Best Book Summaries
Are Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google monopolies? How can competition be encouraged? In The Four, entrepreneur and marketing professor Scott Galloway takes a close look at four technology companies that dominate the modern marketplace: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (the “Four”). He makes the case that it’s time for the law to treat them as monopolies. Keep reading for Galloway’s idea on how to break up Big Tech.
What were Soviet labor camps designed to do? How were they like Nazi death camps? What happened to released prisoners? The Gulag Archipelago is a work of historical nonfiction that describes life in Soviet labor camps, popularly known as gulags, in the USSR from the late 1910s to the mid-50s. Prisoners such as author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn were arrested on minor or fabricated charges, tortured and robbed, and held in camps for decades. Keep reading to learn how gulags subjected prisoners to forced labor, physical abuse, long prison terms, and exile.
Does it matter where ideas come from? How could that understanding help you solve problems? When you understand where an idea came from, you’ll better understand the idea in the present and where it could go in the future. In The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird explain how you can leverage this understanding to improve your problem-solving abilities. Keep reading to learn how to understand the evolution of ideas and to use history as a guide to the future.
What was the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Did Russia really place divisive ads on Facebook? According to Scott Galloway, Facebook is perhaps the worst Big Tech offender when it comes to prioritizing profit over privacy and democracy. He discusses Facebook’s scandals affecting the 2016 election, its polarizing ad model, and its refusal to take responsibility for fake news on its platform. Keep reading to learn about the troubling history of Facebook and politics.
How can the natural elements—earth, fire, air, and water—help you understand the process of effective thinking? How can you use this in your life in a practical way? In The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking, Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird explain that thinking is the source of all improvement and achievement. They describe the processes involved in thinking effectively and how this type of thinking can improve your life in the classroom, in the workplace, and in life in general. Continue reading to discover how you can maximize improvement and achievement by learning to think effectively.
What are “the four” of big tech? What makes them so? Should—and can—they be reigned in? In The Four, Scott Galloway takes a hard look at four technology companies that dominate the modern marketplace: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. He discusses their success and their impact, how their power might be limited, who’ll be the next tech giant, and how you can make it in the economy they’ve created. Keep reading for our overview of this important book.
How is an organization’s purpose determined? Should profit be a driver or merely a byproduct? The strongest driver of a company’s culture is its overriding purpose in the world. As Frédéric Laloux explains in Reinventing Organizations, this purpose is not dictated from on high but emerges organically from the work the company does and the values of its members. Keep reading to learn about the preeminence of organizational purpose in visionary companies.
What effect do Amazon’s automated processes have on jobs? How are Facebook and Google eliminating jobs? The products and services from Amazon, Facebook, and Google fulfill some of our deepest human needs. However, they’re taking away our livelihoods, says Scott Galloway. He argues that these companies destroy more jobs than they create. Keep reading to learn how job elimination in their own and their competitors’ workplaces is caused by Amazon’s emphasis on automation and Facebook and Google’s massive advertising capabilities.
Is it possible to compete with Facebook, Google, Amazon, or Apple? How fair is the market’s environment? In his book, Scott Galloway harshly criticizes the Four’s efforts to eliminate their competition, creating a landscape of big tech monopolies. While large, powerful companies always have a competitive edge, he argues that the Four wield their size and power unfairly to purposefully eliminate competitors from the market. Read more to learn how the Four purchase competitors, force competitors out of business, and engage in other questionable tactics.
How are CEOs in visionary companies different from other CEOs? How should board members and investors be selected? In Reinventing Organizations, Frédéric Laloux discusses how upper management functions in visionary companies. He explains that the role of a CEO in a visionary company is different than it is in traditional organizations. He also discusses board members and principal investors. Keep reading to learn about Laloux’s assessment of a visionary management style.