The Second Machine Age

The Second Machine Age, subtitled "Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies," by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee is an unmitigated load of business school crap. I waded through the first two-thirds, which is a rehash and regurgitation of every digital trend in the past twenty years, emphasizing (again and again) the ramp up of new technologies hitting us. It's, in effect, an update of Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital, with all the awe, but none of the understanding. However, where I gave it up was in their last third, where they discuss the consequences of this brave new world. This part of the book could have been written by the American Enterprise Institute. It suggests (for examples) that companies should hire the most expensive CEO possible, because in the new digital economy it's worthwhile to pay top dollar to get marginally more economic performance out of the company. This despite constant proof that there is exactly no correlation between company performance and CEO pay.