Ryan Floyd

Undeniable and Undiscussed

Reviewed: 2020-09-18

I don't mean this to seem dismissive of people who disagree with the thesis of the book, BUT once you understand the general argument being made it seems so obvious, that I don't know how anyone could disagree with it. Not talking about specific details, like the ETA for generally AI. But the core "Technology is deflationary, and central banks are try to fight this deflation with inflationary forces" is basically un-deniable. You might ask "why does an obviously true premise = 5 star review?" Answer: "It doesn't" It's the complete obviousness of the premise in combination with the fact that this phenomenon, is NEVER discussed. If I had a dollar for every time I was told "Printing money / QE isn't inflationary, because this was done in 2008 and there was little to no inflation, " from a bunch of blind empiricist mid-wits, then I would have... well... probably not that much (considering dollars have been DEBASED!!!). If you were ask 99% of people why products/services are getting more expensive, despite the fact that they are being delivered more efficiently, they will probably say "greed" or "I don't know" or "that's just the way things are". Madness!

Poor Man's Phoenix Project

Reviewed: 2019-08-24

Might be ok for someone completely new to IT, who just wants a feel for how things work. Not too helpful for anyone who already has experience. Similar to The Phoenix Project except: - Not as well written - Not as technical - Doesn't provide insight in dealing with the problems IT organizations face (the 'game' seems to be set on easy-mode for the protagonist) There is also a bunch of nudges in the books about the importance of "consultants", which seem to be more for the benefit of the authors, than the story. I find it somewhat strange that the narrator is a women, given that the mine character is a man, and so are the majority of key characters.

Mainly for Senior Managers

Reviewed: 2019-05-25

Most of the advise in this book is mainly/only applicable for people at fairly senior levels in an organization. The author frequently assumes that you will have people directly reporting to you, and often an assumes that your direct reports will have direct reports. There is also the assumption that you will have the role power to make changes to process and strategic decisions within your organization. If the above applies to you, this book may be helpful. If you are more junior (as I am) their isn't much helpful advise in this book.

2 people found this helpful

Hippie-dippie nonsense

Reviewed: 2019-01-31

Started out ok, but the author starts throwing out a lot of bold claims with no real evidence. The author rarely tries to examine alternate hypotheses that fit the facts he is looking at. His idea that the cause of ADHD kids not having sufficient emotional connection with their parents is a little too vague, and un-falsifiable. If this were 100% of the story, everyone has something in their childhood that could be pointed at that 'explains' ADHD (even those without it). Also his prescription for avoiding ADHD, would not be anything like the parenting style that people employed before ADHD rates started to spike. He claims that 'spanking' and 'timeouts' essentially traumatize a child into being ADHD... ok... so we should have seen ADHD rates WAAAAAYYYYYYYY higher 70 years ago then we do today.... right... The author also attributes a child's (emotional) sensitivity as the reason why some kids end up with ADHD more easily, and why there is the appearance of a genetic basis. If this were the case, why do way more boys have ADHD than girls? This is a bunch of hippie dippie, laissez faire parenting, nonsense.

2 people found this helpful

Short on basics

Reviewed: 2018-09-09

The first couple chapters of this book do a good job of stressing the importance of relationships with respect to career success. However, the majority of the book focuses on achieving a level of connectivity and contacts that seem to be well beyond the point of diminishing returns. For the sort of person who most needs to focus on increasing/improving relationships to get ahead, it goes much further than what would likely be achievable in practice. I would have appreciated more detail on the basics of how to build useful connections, rather than advocating that people try to build/maintain a massive network and giving advice on how to do so. 99.9% of people will never get to the level the author spends most of the book focusing on, nor would most people's careers be best served by trying to get to this level.

2 people found this helpful