Troyus

Great book. Different thinking.

Revisado: 10-02-23

I am eager to try out what he says in this book. It is very convincing and I think it will work. But who knows until you try.

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Good Performance bad translation

Revisado: 06-25-16

This translation uses a lot of archaic speech such as "thee", "thou" and "goest" making it very inaccessible to the modern reader. The speaker does as much as he can with it given the limitations but it is tough to follow.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Great conclusions even if the "data" isn't so hot

Revisado: 12-31-15

While I disagree strongly with the author about the past I think he makes compelling arguments about the future. Rising robotic and AI capabilities are changing the relationship of labor and capital and that will have profound long term affects on the world. Over the last few decades we've seen the middle class starting to disappear, what happens to the bulk of people when jobs are either very high end or subsistence with very little in between?

Mr. Ford pushes the idea of a "basic Income" in which everyone would be guaranteed a certain amount of money on a set basis. This would alleviate poverty and allow everyone to share in the massive productivity gains robotics and AI allow. He goes into some detail about the pitfalls and how this system would have to be structured so as to make sure most people still sought out work. This is all very well thought out.

While I disagree with many of Mr Ford's comments there are a few I'd like to point out. He asserts that a basic income would spur innovation as people knowing they had a safety net would be more willing to take risks. Unfortunately, there's good real world evidence to show that this isn't true. This same argument was made by the Scandinavian countries in the 1970's and 1980's but hey found innovation decreased markedly after the safety net was put in (and remain low to this day). It seems that the possibilities of great reward are what motivates many people so the high taxes hurt innovation much more than the safety net helped spur it.

He also advocates a single payer health care system. Having spoken to a number of heads of large providers of laboratory tests I can say that the one thing they all agree on is that the USA's health care system is the main driver of innovation in the world. If the company creates a new test, such as to identify rectal cancer, the US hospitals will buy it as long as they think they will get enough use from it to pay for itself. Countries with socialized medicine, however, face limited fixed budgets and to buy new things they have to find something else to phase out. New technology is a VERY hard sell to these countries. Based on this, I strongly believe that socializing medicine in the USA would have disastrous effects on innovation in medicine and ultimately be a huge disservice to our grandchildren.

Despite disagree with the author on so much, I think his vision of the future is likely to be close to correct and I think most of his ideas about how to shape the future are right on.

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Rambling and off focus

Revisado: 08-20-15

I read quite a few books about the frontiers of science and when I saw this one was available through a special deal I pounced on it. Unfortunately, it suffers from a number of serious flaws.

First and foremost, this book isn't about 11 discoveries, it's about discoveries in 11 broad areas. For instance, in one chapter they go from talking about quantum effects in photosynthesis to the idea that our universe is a hologram to the idea that our universe is a computer. Yes, these all involved research in quantum physics, but it's a huge stretch to say they are a single discovery.

This gives the book an overall feeling of flitting from topic to topic without ever really exhausting a single topic. It more like a road tour of science but the attractions are driven by too quickly to fully grasp and to slowly to provide a sense of excitement.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Surprisingly Funny

Revisado: 07-30-15

I don't share all of Lena Dunham's outlook on life but I nevertheless found this book amusing, insightful and very well written.

The essays were of varying quality with many being superb and most of the rest still being interesting. Only one essay was really poor as the calorie log section didn't translate well to the spoken word. This probably worked in print but listening to a long list of food with calories is mind numbingly boring.

Overall I highly recommend this book.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Excellent message but poor solution

Revisado: 09-03-14

The basic message of this book, that leadership is about taking care of people, is inspirational. The author goes to great lengths to talk about, and give excellent examples of, how companies with a people first approach can be very successful. The world could do well to listen.

Unfortunately, while the first half of the book pushes leadership and individual responsibility to make the world a better place the last half strongly pushes government regulation as a big part of the solution. He goes so far as to lament the government no longer forcing TV stations to devote a portion of their broadcasts to "public service". Worse, he pines for renewal of the Fairness Doctrine from the 1950's wherein public officials would decide if your programing was "balanced" enough.

Several of the issues the author hit on, particularly around regulation, were subjects I have followed for years and the author cherry picks the evidence that fit's his argument while ignoring both the opposing arguments and supporting evidence.

Were the Fairness Doctrine in place for books I believe the author would be forced to rewrite substantial portions of this book. I dare say that would give him a new and useful perspective on the very large downside of these regulations he supports.

Differences aside, overall the book was very inspirational and has caused me to look afresh at my management style. Companies can benefit from an employee friendly culture. Convincing companies that this is in their best interest is the surest course to propagating this idea. Having government try to enforce it is unlikely to have lasting success.

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esto le resultó útil a 355 personas

Excellent insight but too much filler

Revisado: 07-28-14

The parts of this book which detail the admissions process and decisions are truly excellent and invaluable to anyone seeking to understand how elite schools make their decisions. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in this topic.

This book was adapted from a series of articles. It shows. Substantial time is taken on detailing people and their backgrounds to get a better sense of where the different characters are coming from. This was somewhat interesting when the subject was an admissions officer, still bearable when it was one of the various applicants but the author didn't stop there. Are in-depth details the admissions officers parent's stories really of any value? Not so much, but still worse was the many minutes on his grandfather. I skipped over quite a bit at this point but, given the trend, I expect that in the hour+ I skipped we learned quite a bit of the back story of the UPS delivery man and the barista at the local coffee shop.

However, once it got to the actual decision making process the book was informative and riveting.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Takes awhile to grow on you but then is great

Revisado: 07-22-14

Overall this book is an excellent guide to SAT prep while being amusing.

The narrator is an obsessed overly involved mother of the kind I generally dislike. I found this off-putting at first but since she knows this about herself and isn't above poking fun at herself about it I really grew to enjoy it over time.

The walk-through of various aspects of the SAT and test prep is among the most comprehensive I have read (or listened to) and being in the testing industry I've seen hundreds of such books.

Two thumbs up to this informative and funny book.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Slanted but intensely interesting and well written

Revisado: 02-19-14

This is one of the best books I've listened to in years. Being born in Chicago in the late 1960's I grew up hearing a lot about the Chicago Democratic convention as well as the Prague Spring and, of course, the various civil rights marches and actions. This book did a tremendous and entertaining job of providing the historical background to those events to a depth I had never before heard.

Right at the start of the book the author notes that while he is trying to be as objective as he can it is impossible to write a book without some bias. This shows through quickly as he clearly is a bit starry eyed over the student movements of the time. That said, his bias doesn't get in the way of the facts. For instance, he tells how the various factions in the student movements had different agendas (and sometimes no real agenda).

While normally I would strongly dislike such bias in a book about historical events, in this case it added to the book as it helped show the feelings of the participants in a way a dispassionate voice couldn't hope to.

Overall this is an excellent book for anyone looking to get a better understanding of the events of that era and what led to them.

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Fantastic!

Revisado: 08-27-13

Where does The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've listened to over 500 Audible titles and this is certainly in the top 10. The author clearly has great knowledge and passion for his work.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World?

I thought the part on Sparta was especially good, such as how kids were put in positions where they had to steal to survive,. But there were many, many memorable parts.

Which character – as performed by Professor Robert Garland – was your favorite?

He didn't actually have "characters" as it was a lecture, not a reading.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The peasants aren't revolting after all.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona