What I'm Reading

A few years ago, an article appeared in Wired magazine about the long tail and how it was manifesting itself on the Internet and how it was affecting the economy in a very broad and global way. I thought it was a ground breaking article which stated everything that we had been thinking about and working on in a very elegant way.

Now those thoughts have been put down in a book and expanded upon. The Long Tail is a great book, a fast read, and so relevant and important for the Internet age.

From Google to Amazon and others, capitalizing on the long tail of markets and customers is the money making way of the future, and it shows the demise of some traditional ways of marketing products and reaching customers.

If you're on the Internet, this book is not one to miss.

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I picked up this book while cruising through Barnes and Noble and noticed it was already about 3 years old. The topic looked interesting, so I thought it might be worthwhile to read it. Boy was I right!

While the observations he makes are many years old now, many of the points are still relevant. Also, in my new company David Shen Ventures, LLC, I am finding that the ideas presented in this book are sparking my creativity with some of the companies I am working with now.

Rheingold's observations and conclusions about communities and cultures in a connected world are very insightful. They may seem more common now but I love his interpretations of the underlying reasons and causes behind the behaviors that are out there now, given that we are in such a connected world.

Sometimes books from years past are worth reading again...!

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I wanted to learn more about global warming, and this book was highly recommended. Tim Flannery paints a scary picture, showing how humans have upset the balance of carbon and other important gases in our atmosphere, and disrupted the environment which can have wide ranging results through our climate and thus into every part of our lives.

As a result, many animal species are threatened with extinction, through the cascade of effects from the simple rise of carbon dioxide by what seems to be small amounts. Will humankind follow to extinction as the earth attempts to right the balance in itself?

At some point, we're going to need to switch from carbon based fuels to something else. We're harming the earth faster than it can repair itself. And we may be the victims of our own actions.

Buy it from amazon.com