Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy

Brilliant, convincing and an eye-opener for me. Like many people, I had been shocked to see Peter Thiele emerge as a strong Trump supporter and I thought he was an outlier in Silicon Valley. Well, it seems I was wrong, he is not an outlier at all. Jonathan Taplin makes a strong case that Thiele's position is far from unusual and in fact, it is depressing to read how really most tech entrepreneurs see themselves as Ayn Rand characters. Sad.All the more so that Ayn Rand is a poor writer, her characters are cliché, they say banal things and she, as an author, reflects a paranoia of Communism - totally understandable in her case, she was a refugee from the Soviet Union and I fully agree with her that the Soviet system was awful, despicable, immoral, dangerous - in short, a catastrophic form of totalitarianism, I've seen it up close, I lived twice in Soviet Russia, in the 1950s and and the 1970s, and I certainly can't think of a worse form of government. This said, her books are passé, they reflect an era that is no more. I've always been surprised to see young Americans going for her, to me, this is an aberration. Her depiction of capitalism and entrepreneurs is hopelessly romantic and unrealistic, in short totally fictional. But now that I've read Jonathan Taplin's book, I understand better what happened and why.Certainly this book depicts the dark side of Silicon Valley, and, as Taplin himself acknowledged, not everyone is in the grips of Ayn Rand's fictional world. But that many are is a matter for concern. And for anyone wishing to understand the mentality of tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley (and elsewhere) this is a must read. Highly recommended.

Being a " Contemporary" of Taplin's Rock and Roll " Journey" , a Drummer, Manager,I was both saddened and shocked by Taplin's " Exposure " of the " NEW World "of Musical / Literary Piracy, being perpertrated on an unsuspecting Public." Move Fast and Break Things" is an important book for all those out there,that realise , " One , cannot ACT, until One is INFORMED".THIS BOOK, acts as a " Beacon" to free thinking people who believe , There are ALTERNATIVES.

"Move Fast and Break Things" is the most important book yet about the tragic consequences of monopoly power in the internet. Google, Facebook and Amazon have done wonderful things, but by a combination of design and unintended consequences, they have caused great harm to the creative arts, our culture and (in the case of Google and Facebook) our politics.I have been a professional tech investor for 35 years. My first investments in Google, Amazon, and Facebook happened when they were tiny private companies. I don't think these companies intended to do harm, but it never occurred to them to take appropriate steps to prevent harm. The result was disastrous. Jonathan Taplin explains it all. If you care about technology or politics, this book is a must read.

To say this is a must read in a review is the same as saying this is the best thing since CATS: an ad not a review. A detailed review that affirms or challenges the author's assertions would be met by a Too Long; Didn't Read (TL;DR) response. So I have to keep this short and perhaps offer a detailed response elsewhere.1. If you are looking for a historically accurate description of the history of the innovations, people and organizations that gave rise to the World Wide Web, an application over the OSI Internet stacks for interoperable networks, this is not the book for you.2. If you are looking for an honest appraisal of the conditions of the music industry prior to the rise of the cherry picked villains of this piece, this is not the book for you.3. If you are looking for a synopsis of means and ways modern artists might work profitably in an industry where the rates for selling works can be better, this book has suggestions that might work. Here the author makes a well reasoned case.Otherwise a tough long read more like a movie script where the heroes and villains are selected to create the finale and experience the author decided before writing the book he would create. I do not disagree with the issues he presents as issues we must confront as artists. They are there. I disagree that they are necessarily worse for new artists however much they have impacted the incomes of the retiring artists of our generation. One can reasonably argue that the artists are facing the future with better tools and zero cost access to fans around the world and that reconstituting the old systems of curators and other middle men who controlled access to world markets will not do more than assure a Princeton elitist view and tastes prevail in a time when we ARE enjoying a renaissance in the creative arts. One can tell an audience that the works of Scorcese are better movie making than Lucas or that they should watch Mean Streets over Star Wars and the audience will reply "Woolly Bully".The very people he cites as heroes made the technical decisions that made these monopolies possible. Whatever their ideals, they did not ensure the systems as designed would grow in those directions. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.

Unbelievable! We're all being screwed by the Internet! What a surprise! And none of us know it! Well, Jon Taplin knows it, and he explains beautifully in his well-written book! Amazon is located in Seattle because they only have to pay taxes there. Bezos lobbied congress to get this law passed and it's saved him 60 billion dollars! He doesn't use heat in his warehouses because he believes the workers that are strong will survive. And Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook have screwed the American artists out of half of what we used to make! What jerks!

Recomendable para todos los que trabajen en el mundo tech/startup!

A well written book with an interesting entertainment perspective on these businesses. The idea of a news and information network without advertising influence similar to the BBC is interesting but not possible in the USA because everyone wants ratings and they think their opinion is important. The large businesses only care about peoples personnal interests in items which they can supply, and the money they can make. They are not personal. I expeced more technical insite into the marketing aspects and how that plays out as leaving the customer feel their interaction is personal with the companies. They are not, there mechanical and complex so as to feel personal. They aren't art.

99% of web megacorp revenue is from advertising, the algorithms, searches and feeds are rigged using real time supercomputing to throw advertising spaghetti at us (mining all the private data they have on us) as individuals hoping some will stick, creators get hardly any of the money for their work and are now overlooked in the main because talent, quality and entertainment is not what the machine is designed for, it's designed for ads revenue. The designs of systems and apps we use are purposely addictive, when we give our kids smartphones, it may as well be introducing them to gambling/slot machine addiction. (lookup Tristan Harris ex-google). Most of the people that design these addictive apps wont use them and don't let their families use them. Many are now speaking out. Most of the internet passes through undersea cables, and the trinet as it is now are buying them up and we lost net neutrality too. Lookup tim berners-lee (created the net) and see what he says today. Spread the word so that people wise up and parents...set an example for your kids before you moan at them.

I found this book fascinating. The author has had a very interesting life. Taplin makes a strong case that the internet giants are killing the arts. I was surprised that he didn't mention Aaron Swartz.

Le livre est un pamphlet, motivé par un discours anti internet, motivé par la revanche, qui se retrouve finalement assez peu argumenté. 2 exemples parmi d'autres : l'auteur ne cesse de dénoncer le monopole des GAFA... tout en expliquant qu'ils se livrent à une concurrence terrible entre eux ; il décrit la Silicon Valley comme adepte d'Ayn Rand, tout en disant qu'ils sont d'extrême droite quasiment néo-fascisante. Le livre est excessif et il en perd sa crédibilité