Glob: Library

Short Tale of the Long Tail

Wired magazine packs some of the best technology writers and new economy experts in the world, and with this book Chris Andersen asserts his position as the leader of the pack. This book has the right mix of the essential ingredients of a good business book: enough rigor for business theory but not so much as to make it dry; enough anecdotes to bring the point home but not so much as to make it repetitive; enough opinions and wit to make the reader question but not so much as to make it biased and shallow.

Like all mainstream business books, this one does not resist the temptation to encapsulate all business and socio-cultural phenomena around one simple theory. However, Anderson maintains the humility to admit discovery than claim invention. Expect this concept to become as widespread and oft-quoted (if not more) in understanding the digital consumer economy, than Geoffrey Moore's Chasm was/is in understanding the evolution of hi-tech products.

AS A S(O)ONNET, TELL

Seth can write, for better or verse,
A novel with a novel rhyme scheme.
His metaphors and tropes are terse,
It reads just like as in a dream.
From acknowledgments, dedication and contents
To punctuations, italics and indents,
From back to back, and cover to cover,
From estranged friends to hopeless lovers,
You can sing along. Seth does expose,
Six hundred ninety and three times
How well it reads, how much it rhymes,
Manifesting the very cons of prose.
As if the rhyme-scheme were a trifle,
It's spelled out in this review title.

How on earth can one man write
A story of San Francisco thus,
So credible in its setting, one might
Doubt (and why, really make a fuss),
That he also wrote with as much joy
The Indian story of A Suitable Boy.
The best things come in packages small,
These sonnets will please one and all
Despite the Friscan liberal bent,
Global warming, anti-war and peace,
Same-sex love and pets saving trees,
It's musical would compete with Rent.
So buy this book before you sleep
Because this one is one to keep.

Bard of the Silicon Valley

I first read this book a month before my first visit to the Silicon Valley in 1999 to meet my Angel investor - another concept native to the area. I re-read this now after 7 years of living the Silicon Valley life. There is no doubt that Po Bronson is the best messenger that the Valley has. Whether you are an insider or an outsider, if you ever sat back and wondered "what the heck is the Silicon Valley", Bronson is your go-to guy. In an earlier review of a book by the same author, I likened Bronson's First $20 Million... about Silicon Valley to Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker about Wall Street. Being a collection of true stories, Nudist on the Late Shift is a more appropriate comparison.

An outstanding movie script

The Kite Runner would make for an outstanding international movie on Afghanistan. Powerful and popular fiction stories can usually be transformed to a screenplay and be adapted into a good movie. However, this book is almost written as one! The story has emotion, melodrama, twists, an ending that provides closure (though the author insists it is not a happy ending like Hindi movies), and even interludes (in italics) with highly visual flashbacks and daydreams.

Liar's Poker of Silicon Valley

Po Bronson is Silicon Valley's Michael Lewis. Po Bronson does with this novel what Scott Adams did with comic strips. The characters in the book reminded me of the movie Office Space. Although, the book has a much superior plot. This book caricatures the personality of the Silicon Valley and is written to be made into a movie. It made me burst into laughters and some steep turns in the story made me gape in wonder.

It was a nice and fun read; with a peppy and ruthless sense of humor. It is a casual read for the most part. When the plot thickens, you've got to pay attention to some details to convince yourself that you did not get tricked. Fellow geeks and nerds would enjoy it the most, if not all engineers!