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Jonathan Taplin
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Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Have Cornered Culture and What It Means For All Of Us (Expert Thinking) Kindle Edition

by Jonathan Taplin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 374 ratings
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The question isn't who's going to let me: it's who is going to stop me.

"A powerful argument for reducing inequality and revolutionizing how we use the web for the benefit of the many rather than the few." Kirkus

"Jonathan Taplin, more than anyone I know, can articulate the paralyzing complexities that have arisen from the intertwining of the tech and music industries ... Every musician and every creator should read this book." Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning singer and songwriter

Google. Amazon. Facebook. The modern world is defined by vast digital monopolies turning ever-larger profits. Those of us who consume the content that feeds them are farmed for the purposes of being sold ever more products and advertising. Those that create the content - the artists, writers and musicians - are finding they can no longer survive in this unforgiving economic landscape.

But it didn't have to be this way.

This is the story of how a small number of ideologically driven libertarians took the utopian ideal of the internet and turned it into the copyright-mauling, competition-destroying, human-hating nightmare it has become. Their revolution began with a simple premise: to conquer the world, they would steal the value of art (as well as the value of everything else of importance to human beings) from its creators.

It is the story of a massive reallocation of revenue in which $50 billion a year has moved from the creators and owners of content to the monopoly platforms. And if you think that's got nothing to do with you, their next move is to come after your jobs.

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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Macmillan
  4. Publication date
    26 April 2017
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. File size
    3352 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Review

Taplin’s sense of outrage is palpable and his case is often compelling ― The Guardian

Jonathan Taplin's new book could not be more timely. Twenty years after the initial euphoria of the Web, ten years after the invention of social media, it's time to stop breaking things and start thinking seriously about the new habitat we're creating. Move Fast and Break Things provides a blueprint for a future that humans can live in ― Frank Rose, author of The Art of Immersion

Taplin is angry as hell about the immense size and power of the tech giants, and has a compelling pitch for why we should all be worried too ― The Evening Standard

Mr Taplin brings an informed perspective to his task ― Wall Street Journal

Insightful.... Taplin provides a keen, thorough look at the present and future of Americans' lives as influenced and manipulated by the technological behemoths on which they've come to depend. His work is certainly food for thought ― Publishers Weekly

Jonathan Taplin's Move Fast and Break Things, a rock and roll memoir cum internet history cum artists' manifesto, provides a bracing antidote to corporate triumphalism - and a reminder that musicians and writers need a place at the tech table and, more to the point, a way to make a decent living ― Jeffrey Toobin, author of American Heiress

Jonathan Taplin's excellent new book explains exactly how Google, Facebook and Amazon are undermining democratic institutions, accelerating the rise of oligarchy...and destroying both cultural and economic opportunities for millions of people. ― The Chicago Tribune

Comprehensive…Where Taplin excels is by putting all this into the context of the changing global economy ― The Times

A new analysis of the dark side of the digital revolution...Taplin goes beyond familiar critiques ― Financial Times

A breakthrough, must-read book… a tour de force―a compelling, story-driven work focusing on the handful of men who have shaped and essentially taken over the massive tech industry. Along the way, Taplin tells his own personal story with charm and insight. If you want to understand what has happened to our country and where tech will take us in the era of Trump, put aside some time to read this book. It will take your breath away ― Alternet

Jonathan Taplin, more than anyone I know, can articulate the paralyzing complexities that have arisen from the intertwining of the tech and music industries. He counters the catastrophic implications for musicians with solutions and inspiration for a renaissance. He shows the way for artists to reclaim and reinvent subversion, rather than be in servitude to Big Tech. Every musician and every creator should read this book. ― Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning Singer and Songwriter

An absolute must-read for anyone who wants to gain a little savvy in the internet era ― Newsweek

Taplin wields his axe mercilessly...by the end of this book you will agree with Taplin that the tech firms are abusing their monopoly power to rip us off and debase our culture - breaking the world as he sees it...It is time for consumers to break back. This manifesto is a punchy start. ― The Sunday Times

Move Fast and Break Things goes on my bookshelf beside a few other indispensable signposts in the maze of life in the 21st Century--The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul, The Image by Daniel Boorstin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan, The Media Monopoly by Ben Bagdikian, Christ and the Media by Malcolm Muggeridge, and Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. I pray the deepest and highest prayer I can get to that this clarion warning is heeded. The survival of our species is at stake ― T Bone Burnett, Oscar-Winning Songwriter, soundtrack and record producer

A bracing, unromantic account of how the internet was captured…Move Fast and Break Things is a timely and useful book ― The Observer

A powerful argument for reducing inequality and revolutionizing how we use the Web for the benefit of the many rather than the few ― Kirkus Review

A nuanced look at the downside of what is glibly tossed around as "disruption" by various cyber-messianic blowhards. Taplin is hunting big game; it is his contention that the giants of the cyberworld-from Google to Amazon-are threats to the fundamental foundations of democracy and that they also cement inequality into our systems in new and dangerous ways ― Esquire

Review

Fake news. Digital monopolies. Stealth Marketing. This is the story of how the internet - which began as a dream - has become a nightmare.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06VW166SK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Macmillan; Air Iri OME edition (26 April 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3352 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 374 ratings

About the author

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Jonathan Taplin

Jonathan Taplin

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Jonathan Taplin’s extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century: he was tour manager for Bob Dylan and the Band in the ’60s, producer of The Concert For Bangladesh and major films in the ’70s for Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders and Gus Van Sant, an executive at Merrill Lynch’s Media Mergers and Acquisition Group in the ’80s, creator of the Internet’s first video-on-demand service in the ’90s, and a cultural critic and author writing about technology in the new millennium.

He is the author of Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy, The Magic Years: Scenes From a Rock and Roll Life and the forthcoming The End of Reality: How 4 Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars and Crypto. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Medium, The Washington Monthly and the Wall Street Journal. He is the Director Emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California and the Chairman of the Americana Music Foundation. For more info, visit jontaplin.com.

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Top reviews from Australia

  • Rossleighbrisbane
    4.0 out of 5 stars Heading to dystopia?
    Reviewed in Australia on 28 September 2017
    Verified Purchase
    While many sing the praises of the heroes of Silicon Valley,
    Taplin offers a healthy questioning of where it’s all heading. At times the book is a bit of a meander, but it’s full of interest perspectives and certainly worth reading!
    Helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Fran
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente libro
    Reviewed in Mexico on 16 December 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Recomendable para todos los que trabajen en el mundo tech/startup!
    Report
  • Claude Forthomme
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Deep Look into the Dark Side of Silicon Valley
    Reviewed in the United States on 19 July 2017
    Verified Purchase
    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.
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  • Brian W. Raymond
    3.0 out of 5 stars Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy, get real.
    Reviewed in Canada on 24 May 2017
    Verified Purchase
    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.
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  • B. A. Anderson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Makes a strong case that the internet giants are killing the arts
    Reviewed in India on 10 April 2018
    Verified Purchase
    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.
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  • Libéral
    1.0 out of 5 stars Idéologique et peu argumenté
    Reviewed in France on 4 December 2017
    Verified Purchase
    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
    Report

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