WTF?

What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us

By: Tim O'Reilly

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Silicon Valley's leading intellectual and the founder of O'Reilly Media explores the upside and the potential downsides of our future - what he calls the "next economy".

Tim O'Reilly's genius is to identify and explain emerging technologies with world-shaking potential - the World Wide Web, open source software, Web 2.0, open government data, the Maker Movement, big data. "The man who can really can make a whole industry happen", according to executive chairman of Google Eric Schmidt, O'Reilly has most recently focused on the future of work - AI, algorithms, and new approaches to business organization that will shape our lives. He has brought together an unlikely coalition of technologists, business leaders, labor advocates, and policy makers to wrestle with these issues. In WTF, he shares the evolution of his intellectual development, applying his approach to a number of challenging issues we will face as citizens, employees, business leaders, and a nation.

What is the future when an increasing number of jobs can be performed by intelligent machines instead of people or done by people only in partnership with those machines? What happens to our consumer-based societies - to workers and to the companies that depend on their purchasing power? Is income inequality and unemployment an inevitable consequence of technological advancement, or are there paths to a better future? What will happen to business when technology-enabled networks and marketplaces are better at deploying talent than traditional companies? What's the future of education when on-demand learning outperforms traditional institutions? Will the fundamental social safety nets of the developed world survive the transition, and if not, what will replace them?

The digital revolution has transformed the world of media, upending centuries-old companies and business models. Now, it is restructuring every business, every job, and every sector of society. Yet the biggest changes are still ahead. To survive, every industry and organization will have to transform itself in multiple ways. O'Reilly explores what the next economy will mean for the world and every aspect of our lives - and what we can do to shape it.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2017 Tim O'Reilly (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Changed my life, but

This is a great, up to date book full of recent innovations and progress. Great in depth overview of big ideas, and peer to peer market, how it was built, why it have worked and a little on what to expect from future.
For my taste, this book was overly optimistic on future possibilities of advancement of human race. He describes mostly an utopian world where everything works perfectly which it never has, never does and most likely never will, due to high complexity of the world. And he also makes a really huge assumptions that, for example something like universal basic income or negative taxation WOULD be implemented, and that people would buy other people's products instead of buying robotics because of authenticity ( whatever that means), considering that robotic produced products would be a small fraction of the cost and of superior quality and I can go on and on, etc. , etc.
But off course it's his subjective view of the future, which are conflicting with mine, and I can't discount any points just because we disagree on subjective opinions.
Other than that, this book provides a unique inside perspective on past developments of technologies like internet,computers and AI, from insiders perspective ( He knew Bezos back in 2000-s). Overall I can recommend this book, and if you read through this review you'll probably be able to finish this book too.

Convincing vision

O'Reilly's important message is served in a robotic, monotone voice. I realise this is hard work, but it could have been done nearly as well with text-to-speech software.

Great Information But a Bit Preachy

For me this book had great information and some occasional brilliant insights sprinkled among fluff.

A book that will force you to think

This book will challenge your knowledge & make you think about capitalism in a different way. There are models of capitalism that are healthier for all of us in the long run. I enjoyed it & it made me challenge my own beliefs.

Mind Blown!

I am an avid reader. I am also a senior citizen. I have never read a book that better explains our capitalist system and why it not only exists but there is a need for it, it can exist to serve the people. This book is eye-opening. It should be required reading.

pretty interesting, but got a little political

Good narrator. great section on gov't as a platform...code America info was cool. too much reliance on Google economist

Good book to understand implications of future

Thoroughly enjoyed. Hope the future will be better with new tools and platforms. Look forward for more such books on agricultural automation for productivity

The insides in this book is really cool

liked the explanations, and I really enjoyed the insides, but I want to be wow'ed more for 5 stars

Inspiring book

I really enjoyed listening to this inspiring book on Audible. Not always easy to follow when the author gets deeper into the intricacies of technology, it’s overall a great read. The narration is excellent.

Really, WTF?

Overall I enjoyed this work. I found the information provided to be interesting and in line with other works in a similar vein. Voice work was avuncular and resonated well.