Ctrl Alt Delete

by Mitch Joel

A game-changing book that outlines the ways in which technology has transformed how brands and businesses innovate and connect with "An indispensable read for a time when so much is in transition" (Arianna Huffington).

The DNA of business has changed. Forever. You can blame technology, smartphones, social media, online shopping and everything else, but nothingchanges this we are in a moment of business purgatory.

So, what are you going to do about it?

Mitch Joel, one of the world's leading experts in new media, warns that the time has come to CTRL ALT DELETE . To reboot and to start re-building your business model. If you don't, Joel warns, not only will your company begin to slide backwards, but you may find yourself unemployable within five years.

That's a very strong warning, but in his new book, CTRL ALT DELETE , Joel explains the convergence of five key movements that have changed business forever. The movements have already taken place, but few businesses have acted on them. He outlines what you need to know to adapt right now. He also points to the seven triggers that will help you take advantage of these game-changing factors to keep you employable as this new world of business unfolds.

Along the way, Joel introduces his novel concept of "squiggle" which explains how you can learn to adapt your personal approach to your career, as new technology becomes the norm.

In short, this is not a book about "change management" but rather a book about "changing both you AND your business model."

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Self Help, Leadership, Psychology, Social Media, Design

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Mitch Joel is currently an investor, media personality, podcaster, journalist and Co-Founder of ThinkersOne. His first book, Six Pixels of Separation, named after his successful podcast is a business and marketing bestseller. His second book, CTRL ALT Delete, was named one of the best business books of 2013 by Amazon.

Reviews

[Elisabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book did have some good things in it, like adding value is the best way to engage the consumer; mobile is and should be first right now; use data to help your strategy; etc.

However, for the most part this book is just a rah rah aren't we marketers great book. The author loves being a marketer and this is another book that trots out the same old examples of highly successful companies and completely fails to address any issues with those same companies, or any others. There's no mention of all the many companies that fail, or why they fail.

In addition, I find the focus on "brands" and "consumers" with no mention whatsoever of the coming disaster that faces us all if we keep consuming at our current rate is rather irresponsible. At some point companies are going to have to face up to the fact that the earth is basically one big trash heap already and "consuming" is going to have to change dramatically. What will that mean for companies? Marketing? Where is this discussion happening?

So unless you're a marketer and you want to read about how great marketing is, don't bother with this book. Or get it from the library and read the summary points at the end of each chapter, and skip the rest.

p.s. I feel sorry for this guy's wife and kids. He brags more than once about how he works "all the time" and if you want to be successful then you need to too. There is no life balance needed because we're all supposed to love our work so much, we never want to get away from it.

[Jonathan Chiriboga · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the revolutionary 1999 movie, The Matrix, a character by the name of Morpheus gives the protagonist Neo a choice of either waking up and seeing the truth of the world around him, or remaining asleep and accepting what is. He tells Neo, "This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember all I am offering is the truth, nothing more." When you pick up Ctrl Alt Delete by Mitch Joel, you are taking the `Red Pill' so be ready to have your eyes opened and allow Mitch to take you deep down the rabbit hole. It truly is a rush.

When I heard this book was coming out, I pre-ordered it right away and had the opporutnity to read an early copy. Mitch is the marketing and advertising thought leader I go to when I want to learn. His previous book, Six Pixels of Separation, was one of the best business books I have ever read so I have been eagerly awaiting his second work of art and he certainly does not disappoint. In his new book Mitch sets the stage off the bat by stating that we are currently in a state of business `purgatory' - a place where we are still trying to figure things out. Technology has turned things upside down and created chaos. Mitch states that during this state of purgatory, "...many businesses will die and many jobs will disappear, but in the same breath, many businesses will thrive, many new businesses will be created, and many new jobs will be invented."

The first half of the book is called `Reboot: Business' that talks about the change that brands need to make in order to survive in this new world. In this section you get introduced to terms such as `Utilitarianism marketing', one screen, passive and active media, and 'having sex with data', to name just a few. You certainly get a peak at the future of marketing through the eyes of Mitch Joel and it is enlightening.

The second half of the book is called `Reboot: You' and Mitch makes the strong case that in order for You to survive in this ever changing new work place, You have to change. A new skill set, new mindset and new attitude is required. In this section you get introduced to terms such as digital first posture, squiggle, and Generation Flux, to name just a few. Mitch inspires you as he tells his career journey and you can't help but become a `raving fan' after reading about it. Throughout the book Mitch gives some amazing case examples and introduces you to other thought leaders and books that you begin writing them all down to put them on your reading list. While reading this book I caught myself downloading apps Mitch mentions and looking up products, articles and videos he refers to. Nike needs to pay him royalties because I got a Nike Fuel band after reading about it in Ctrl Alt Delete.

Please do yourself a favour and open your eyes by reading this book. Take the ` Red Pill' like Neo did and enter the Matrix, or as Mitch puts it, Purgatory.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the vast majority of reading that I do in non-fiction areas I do online: in forums, blogs, help systems and so forth. Digging out facts or procedures or ways of dealing with some fairly technical problem. Only once in a while do I pick up a published non-fiction book, and usually I only dip into them a bit, skimming for something useful. Mitch Joel's “Ctrl Alt Delete” is one that pulled me past dipping to skimming through the whole thing, pausing frequently to digest. I'm sure there are many other books that cover much the same ground; whenever a major paradigm shift is taking place it's normal for more than one person to see what's going on as it is happening.

The paradigm shift Mitch Joel is specifically addressing is how our global culture is moving from a 40 hour a week career doing some kind of middle class or higher work for 20 or more years to a new kind of career that consists of periodic online contracts interspersed with periods of unemployment (and study). The new career pattern, when handled well, will bring in about the same level of compensation.

But learning how to handle it well is not going to be a trivial task. In fact Mitch recommends a number of fairly drastic measures, nicely summed up with a piece of computer jargon everyone who reads this is familiar with: reboot.

Reboot -- in other words, let all your assumptions and ideas about how to live life go to zero and rebuild your behavior patterns, work habits and so forth based on your web presence(s).

Web presence is my own term, at least as I write this I'm not aware of it being used elsewhere, though I'd be surprised if it hasn't. Web presence is like a forest: every email account, social media account, site membership and so forth is like one of the trees or bushes in that forest. Google might be a small forest of its own. Sometimes web presence is public, sometimes it's limited to a private group, but it is still possible to make some kind of living without any web presence. Though if you count cell phones and texting, even day laborers and fast foot workers have web presence related to their work.

Mitch Joel does an excellent job of describing how this paradigm shift is taking place and offers a wide range of ways in which to rebuild behavior patterns and work habits to embrace and take advantage of the new electronic world. A world where career no longer means a long term commitment of time and energy mastering some specific kind of work to a world where career means a way of merging work and play into a continuous interaction with many more people than ever before.

[Dawn Lennon · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a marketing book, Ctrl Alt Delete takes the reader on wild ride. The metaphor about rebooting is a broad one, so the book opens up many possibilities for the reader to connect his or her life/career with where they are and where they want/hope to go.

I saw it as a book about entrepreneurism, driven and almost threatened by technology. The threat isn't about the technology in place but the existing technology that should better understood and ultimately expanded then ultimately replaced. There's a lot here about the paradigms business needs to break and the new ones they need to implement. The reality of the marketing purgatory we're in, as Joel describes it, is that business owners/leader/managers aren't clued into what consumers want and if they are, they don't know how to deliver it. As I read, I sensed that his purgatory is ultimately the not knowing, the confusion, and the ambiguities of the new age of marketing.

Joel writes about the expectations of the consumer and how disconnected business is from it. He exposes what he sees as the crumbling theories of how to market in this new age...how vertical strategies are being replaced by horizontal ones. He writes about social media, device platforms, and finally us.

The most compelling aspect of the book is how our absorption (essential and non-essential)with technology affects our lives and our careers. It changes the landscape of new grads and, as he suggests, requires everyone to think about their lives as entrepreneurs, whether you're a fine artist, an engineer, or a farmer.

His book is about the future which has already started. Although I believe his purpose was to be inspiring, the book's message is, in many ways, scary and intimidating. We can try to believe that it will take years before any of this catches up with us or that the devil is on our doorstep. If Joel wanted to make the reader think, he surely did that.

[C.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again Mitch Joel takes his years of experience, mixes it with a healthy dose of future gazing and delivers a first class book that any business professional must read to be prepared for the world we live in today.

The way business use to be done has been rebooted. It doesn't matter if you are just starting your career or a C-Suite executive. You must reboot as well.

[Myna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it more than a 3-star but there's no 3-and-a-half star rating. It's well-written and moves along at a clip, describing just the sort of things you'd expect it to: the shape of business vis-a-vis the new era of online marketing. It's remarkably prescient for a book published in 2013. There are a lot of things I learned about self-promotion (even things that can apply to writers) that I'll take away from this book and a lot of things I can point to that he predicted would take place. I'd recommend it if you're wondering what you can do online that will benefit both you and your followers, regardless if they're a hundred or a thousand.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ctrl Alt Delete immediately resonated. It's what you're forced to do when you're stuck and can't move forward or backward for that matter. You're trapped. Not necessarily looking to start over, but rather resume in a forward motion, preferably on stable ground. Then the aha, let's try a Ctrl Alt Delete.

Change is rampant, specifically in the area of technology. Things are happening and morphing so fast, just trying to keep up can seem like a full time job, at least to me. I didn't need the book to tell me, though, because I'm living it. Joel says CAD will answer my cry of "Now what?" How do I proceed?

My ideal "now what" answer will be steps, in linear fashion that get me from a to b to c. That's what I'd really like--if it were only that simple it would be heavenly, I guess. But the preferred path according to Joel is squiggly. Embrace the squiggle. The straight and narrow path and the gold watch are out. Rats!

Joel describes our current condition as a purgatory of sorts. The image works for me. Purgatory purportedly is a temporary state and that's somewhat of a relief. There's some pain to go through, heat to endure but at least there is hope and a way out--but only if you take action. There's no stopping, no throwing up your hands, no waiting and seeing what happens. Keep going and eventually you'll emerge from purgatory--that's my take.

I like the way Joel writes. He clearly gets that we feel caught in a tornado of changes. Some people are fast and furiously throwing darts in every direction and others are paralyzed. In a way it's all different, but it's all the same. We're constantly being told relationships are king, so build 'em. Nothing new here, it's just the how that's evolved. There's more opportunities to build those relationships and equally as many ways to mess them up.

And how about this, Joel writes, here's what it all comes down to: Great communication will lead you and your team to a place where deeper collaboration and concurrent innovation start happening--simply by re-booting how everyone communicates and defines the value of content...starting with you...starting now.

Of course great communication has always been paramount; I seriously doubt that will ever change. It's the ways--there's so many ways to communicate that it's become easy to over communicate, over promote, spam. Joel quips, "Life's a Pitch. Deal with it." How? Simple, keep it real, keep it human and sincere. Tell a story. That's it? Relief again.

If it's embracing digital that's your purgatory, Joel's 6 ways are easy too. Learn it, read more, create more, love it, live it, practice it. Can you do that?

The way I see it, in the end, some things never change. Do your homework, make your choices. Stay in the game or throw in the towel. Joel's final wish, or call it a prayer, for us is longevity. After all in "real" purgatory, you can't get yourself out. It's the prayers and indulgences of others that lead you out. So Joel indulges us. He want us to make it, to survive purgatory and move forward into heaven. Pretty cool.

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first stumbled upon Mitch Joel during college. I only wish I found him sooner. Joel’s first book, “Six Pixels of Separation,” opened my mind and eyes to the world of marketing and all the creativity that resides within it. His passion for connectivity, technological advancement and ability to keep an open mind is inspiring. When he announced that he was in the midst of writing a second book, “CTRL ALT Delete- Reboot Your Business (and Yourself) in a Connected World” I knew it would be amazing and I can happily say that the book has exceeded all expectations.
“CTRL ALT Delete,” is a book broken in two. The first part of the book is about rebooting your business, and the second part focuses on rebooting yourself. Joel takes the time to focus on finding your company’s true passion and how to make something of it. Joel also touches on what areas of business are causing challenges and the opportunities that have not yet been taken or seen. The business world is changing rapidly and you can either adapt to the change or be consumed by stagnancy. It is not too late to try and change things up; Joel guides you with what he refers to as the “5 Key Movements,” that you can accept and implement.

After you “Reboot the Business,” the focus shifts to “Rebooting Yourself.” Joel devises 7 attitudes a person must embrace to adapt. I can personally attest to the solidity of Joel’s advice. I too have rebooted myself and I have “embrace(d) the squiggle” and I am confident in my career choices.

I do not want to give away all his advice and the findings he reveals so I will leave you with this:

Joel is a focused writer who captures his audiences’ attention by speaking openly and honestly about business and the technological shift that is currently taking place. Some fear this technological advancement while others simply embrace it. It is okay to fear change, but it is unwise to ignore it. Joel guides his reader through the process of this shift, provides personal stories that are relatable and uses technical data to support his advice.

For more information visit the link below:

http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archiv...

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

In December I read the newest book by "Media Hacker" Mitch Joel. This was followed up by a live Q&A call I hosted with Mitch. Ctrl Alt Delete, despite its name is a positive book about opportunity in the new world of digital media. The book is seemingly split into two; first addressing businesses and organizations and then addressing individuals.

The book really addresses the idea that media is changing so fast that we all have a need of starting afresh with a new strategy, new plan, and new tools.

One of the biggest lessons for me were Mitch's thoughts about Utility Marketing. Digital media has forced companies to figure out how they can stop broadcasting messages and advertising and start creating more value to their customers. By becoming useful we create a relationship with the consumer.

Mitch also speaks about how in today's world we are all publishers. Publishing content is no longer reserved for newspapers and broadcast companies. This wave of content forces us to stand above the noise and dig deeper to create value.

Mitch reiterates the importance of mining data and making informed decisions. Even small local businesses today can quickly gather fast and relevant data about their product, market, and customers to help grow the business faster and improve it's service or product.

These are among some of the great concepts discussed in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who is overwhelmed with the introduction of digital media and to anyone who works in the media or marketing industry.

[Seth Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Ctrl Alt Delete, Mitch draws upon his client experience, research, and network to synthesize a slew of environmental factors that will impact businesses and individuals over the next five years. He tackles business and individuals separately in the book, but there’s a mutual inclusivity that never really allows them to stand apart. In Reboot: Business, there’s (as expected) a focus on media, digital technologies, data science, and mobile. In Reboot: You, he expands the scope of the book to address the need for a digital first posture, what a career path looks like today (hint: non-linear), the characteristics of successful squigglers, how to spur innovation, blending work and life, and the new realities of marketing yourself.

Mitch finds a way to cover the breadth of topics in the book with ease, and shares a multitude of examples to bring the lessons to life. As a business civilization we’re merely on the cusp of where Mitch says we are heading, but the predictions align with the daily business concerns and research firm reports that popularize LinkedIn headlines today. If you’re following the likes of @JayBaer, @CC_Chapman, @TheGrok, @KenBurbary, @briansolis, @cspenn, and others, the content won’t be a major revelation for you. But even if you are following them, the book’s a great synthesis of many issues brought on by the digital revolution. It highlights the expansive impacts of modern business chaos, and offers actionable advice to help you reboot for success.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit dated because Ctrl Alt Delete is probably not the typical keystroke combination that people would use to reboot their devices these days. It shows in the examples used.

Take for instance Kickstarter, which has turned out to be a double-edged sword. Outdated are also Klout (a service that was shut down in 2018) and Nike's FuelBand.

Even SitOrSquat, a clever app that was bought by Charmin, does not seem to be maintained anymore.

The author admitted as much in the last chapter, saying that:

"Some of the business cases may not have unfolded as I had hoped. Some of the businesses that I have written about may not even be in business anymore. That doesn't change the narrative of this story."

Granted, but it doesn't excuse the author from drinking too much Kool-Aid when he postulates that fixed machines (such as your refrigerator) will be mobile (i.e. engaged, networked, and connected through the one-screen world), or for that matter, they should be.

These aside, the book is well organised and easy to read as the author breaks down chapters into digestible chunks with a summary of lessons at the end of the chapter to jog your memory.

[Tim Dimo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book was a bit difficult to read. It wasn't any of the concepts - on which the author seems to have a firm grasp - but rather the sentence structure. I could not get through a page without a parenthetical observation breaking the flow and my concentration. Many of these items could have been restructured slightly and therefore made part of the primary content.

The second half was a bit easier to deal with, perhaps because by that time I had become familiar with the author's style.

In the end the author provided some thought fodder and that was what I was hoping to find. Hence my rating of three stars. I'll be putting some of the concepts into practice and hoping that my results will make the read worth it.

[P Michael N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly insightful and relevant book on how to view and run business in his day and age and for a while to come. The book covers aspects of business from ideas and marketing to execution and delivery. Excellent read.

[Jaanus Treilmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reminder that you have to to give people what they actually want and need. A true utility. And the'll love you forever. Or until your competitor is giving more utility.

[Omar El-Mohri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too much exited to recommend this book, to sum it up, the world is changing be ready!

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Digital technology and the Internet have changed American business from top to bottom (what else is new?). What can you, or your company, do to survive in this new landscape? This book gives some answers.

If your company doesn't already have a social media presence, forget about hiring some college kids to create one, while the rest of the company continues with its 20th century mentality. The entire company has to embrace social media, starting with the CEO. Most companies assume that they know who their customers are. Do some research, and find out for sure.

There are ways to measure, for instance, who visits your website, what pages they click on, and how long they stay. If your company is not already up to its eyeballs in analyzing such data, you are missing out on a lot of potentially useful information.

When you are talking to your customers, ask them how they stay connected. It's not a case of web or mobile or tablets being most important, but whatever screen the customer is using now. How can you make your customer's lives easier?

This book also looks at how individuals can thrive in this new landscape. It is very rare for a person to, for instance, grow up wanting to get into marketing, and then spend their entire career in marketing. It's even more unlikely for it to happen at one company. You career path is going to resemble a squiggly line. Embrace the squiggle.

As much as possible, get rid of cubicles and internal walls at your company. Encourage collaboration between different parts of your company. Such collaboration may create the new must have "killer app." The office itself is becoming less of a requirement, as it is now possible for a person's "office" to be anywhere they can use their laptop, tablet or smart phone.

Many books have been written about the new digital world. This one belongs high on the list. It is easy to read, and is full of information for employers and employees.

[Aaron Maurer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another marketing book that I read while filtering all content through the eyes of an educator. Once again I have found a business/marketing books to be quite helpful when thinking about education. These people are cutting edge and Mitch Joel is right there among the best. Since reading this book I have been listening the podcasts he creates and learning so many new ways of thinking.

As I read through all my notes in Evernote that I jotted down I think one of my biggest takeaway ideas was how we look at things or ideas. I don't know if that was the central idea, but I found myself constantly writing down ideas and questions about viewing things through the mind of a consumer or someone who is actually going to use the product.

I finished this book excited to pioneer new ideas. I am going to embrace the squiggle and see what develops. Life is not linear and therefore it can get messy sometimes. Life is too short to not go out and make things happen. There is no need to wait for someone to tell us what to do. Take charge and do it!

The book is a great read. I am not going to go into his key ideas and triggers as you can read those for yourself. What I will tell you is that you will find great resources to other people who will challenge your thinking as well as take away key ideas to make yourself better. In terms of education the ideas fit. Shift your ideas and mind and don't wait around. Get out of your comfort zone and push the envelope. That is what great businesses and innovators do and therefore teachers should be doing the same.

Another must read. You have to be willing to take from the book what you want. For me it was thinking and challenging my ideas and beliefs as an educator. This book did just that.

[Angelo Fernando]

Good, fast read for business people. You could hear Mitch Joel's voice resonating through --meaning it is not written in typical business argot. How do I know? I'm a big fan of Mitch Joel's podcast, TwistImage. In fact some of the insights in the book are drawn out from some of the interviews he does on his fascinating show.

What I liked a lot is how Control Alt Delete makes the case for being 'Squiggly' in planning (or launching) your career. The 'squiggly' concept is very relevant today, especially for young people who may not know where they are headed, but need to absorb every ounce of experience from the seemingly mundane jobs. About a week before I read Control Alt Delete, I met someone who said that in a different way. And this man was an astronaut who had flown the space shuttle! His path had definitely been squiggly.

But there's one reference that, in retrospect, might have made the author wish he didn't include. The reference to J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson, who 'reset' the company by eliminating its promotional campaigns. A few months after the book was published, Johnson was shown the door. He more or less second guessed (wrongly) consumer behavior. But despite that there are dozens of examples in Control Alt Delete where courageous mavericks have re-booted organizations, and Mitch has compiled a compendium of this business practice.

[Ray Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marketing in purgatory! In our current state of social, technological and economic flux, we have to embrace change and change our approach to business as usual. Mitch Joel does a nice job of listing ideas, principles and strategies for success not only in product marketing, but life.

As a forming marketing professional and teacher of young people who will someday have to live in this world, I like to get an update from time to time. This is the usual call to action with lots of current business jargon and vignettes about success and failure in modern business. Joel is not as big on the numbers, but he is very dramatic about some of the GREAT successes and MASSIVE failures owing to various titans of business following or not following his ideas.

If you enjoy the occasional look at current trends in business, if you read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or the One Minute Manager or anything of even The World Is Flat, this one may be interesting. Joel is a marketing guy with some good ideas, though most of this book is about online culture and developing customer centered strategies as the world changes. He is no Malcolm Gladwell or Stephen Covey - but it wasn't bad and was least, concise and well written.

[Jeridel Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The search for books about re-positioning brands started with Brand Aid: An Easy Reference Guide to Solving Your Toughest Branding Problems and Strengthening Your Market Position, then Seth Godin's Free Prize Inside: The Next Big Marketing Idea, and now this one by Mitch Joel. What I like about this book is it really doesn't concentrate on the branding itself but the personas running the whole show. From changing how the people in marketing think to really looking at your own life goals, this book hits valid and relatable points for any leader or entrepreneur. The only reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that there are a lot of self-served ramblings in it. This book could easily be slimmed to half with just the key points. For those without a marketing background, I'd suggest reading the books I mentioned first to really understand some of the things that Joel is saying in Ctrl Alt Delete.

[Beth Jusino · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You can do a whole lot with very little."

I've been a fan of Mitch Joel's for years, because he says the things that I think, only better. He understands that marketing today, whether it's for a major brand or an individual artist or an out-of-work middle manager, is personal. You have to know who your audience is and share with them what they want, not what you want. And you can't outsource passionate, genuine relationships.

This new book plays a lot of the same notes of Joel's message from Six Pixels of Separation, but it also looks at the ways that the world continues to change. We now live in "purgatory," where brands and jobs are failing, where career paths are "squiggly," and where every person needs to think about how they market themselves in the online arena. Joel seems to be writing a book for the job seeker as well as the ad executive. It's an ambitious goal, and it doesn't always work. The individual chapters of Ctrl Alt Delete are great, but I have a hard time identifying the one Big Idea, or even the one clear audience. It's part marketing text, part self-help, and part tangent.

3.5 stars, rounded up because he's usually right.

[Robert Hays · Rating 5 out of 5]

_Ctrl Alt Delete_ is a view of the new business future from Mitch Joel, who has authored the blog "Six Pixels of Separation" for years. Thanks to technology and especially social media, business is changing - fast. That means all of us must change how we manage our careers. The author has a number of suggestions for how to deal with this disruption:

- Create direct relationships with customers
- Provide something of utility to your customers
- Don't broadcast - create content that touches customers
- The screen in front of the customer right now is the only one that matters

Mr. Joel has numerous suggestions for how to deal with these changes.

I'm glad I got to read this book - it's so current its almost futuristic, and the writing style is warm, inviting and clear. If you're looking for a book to direct your career over the next few years, this is a good choice.

[Atleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just highlight the whole book?

I think this is the book with the most notes compared to pages of the 200+ kindle titles I've completed. It is also the most "expensive" to read, as I ended up searching up and buying three of the books referenced. A cheap price for inspiration and energy of this caliber.

Unlike Mitch's last book, this is not aimed primarily at the digitally curious, but at more or less anyone working today. that's a tall order, but the book pulls off the premise.

It feels a bit disjointed along the way, since (as the subtitles imply) it is in fact two books broken into related themes. But looking back at the sum of the parts, it makes sense as a narrative as well. Business is changing, business is becoming more about the people in them and relationships, so business is becoming more about you.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mitch Joel does it again! His earlier Six Pixels caught the wave a few years back on the changing digital landscape. Ctrl Alt Delete is a splendid update. The book is in two parts; the first handles the changing perspective for marketers and business folks generally. Read it to understand what your new project is: to connect deeply with your customers in ways you haven't before, not by dumping your ads on them, but by having a real conversation. The second parts is addressed to individuals and the changing nature of careers in the digital age. Be prepared for a squiggly line career, Joel warns, and get your voice out there. A job no longer goes to a resume -- it goes to a blog, or a Facebook presence, or a Twitter following.

[Gregory · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few interesting points in this book...career as squiggle...twelve easyish steps to starting a blog - both of these were good information. BUT the authors fan-boy attitude towards Apple got in the way. You can't go very many pages or often paragraphs without a mention of Apple, or Steve Jobs, or ipad, or iphone or etc., etc.... I have Apple products but after being bombarded with adoration of a single device, platform, I just got irritated. Surely there has to be other examples that could have served as well if not better.

[Dina London · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few interesting ideas in this book. The author says that we have to accept that our careers are going to "squiggle" as opposed to the straight line of the past. He also reiterated what other contemporary authors are saying which is that we need to reach people on an individual, relational level when we are considering marketing our product. I felt like this book was just a string of the author's blog posts and could have been edited down to one long magazine article.

[Ben Van Horn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone taking stock of their life, their career, or their business. The world is not changing...it HAS changed. If you want to be prepared for the new economy that we are a part of, and want to know where we are headed, I recommend this book. Mitch Joel breaks down the ways that you can reboot your skills for the jobs of the future. It's an exciting time that we are living in, and this is a great guide on how to take advantage of it.

[J.F. Penn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aimed at business people rather than individual entrepreneurs, I really love Mitch Joel's podcast so I wanted to read this book. It's about how the world has changed and is changing so fast, the adaptations we need to make around mobile, squiggley careers (which i already have) and how creating and sharing are now mainstream modes of connection.

[Briana Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book got right to the point. Not much fluff at all. Some good information. I do feel like the 2nd part of the book still focused on business though, more so you as an employee rather than you as an individual.

[Marjorie Clayman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, offering insights into how the business world is undergoing a revolution, and thus individuals must as well. I would have liked more actionable items rather than just observations, but otherwise it's a good read, and timely.