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Recorded Time: How to Write the Future
Recorded Time: How to Write the Future is a memoir on the origins of bioGraph, a company that tells and preserves stories. Businesses, like lives, are quantum phenomena: recording them transforms them. This book is not in the genre of “how I built this” but rather “how we’re building this.” Yet, in writing the company’s story, the company’s story has become worth writing.
Starting a business takes a leap of faith. It’s like falling in love or writing a book. You throw your doubts to the dogs and commit to something radical, scary, and fragile. You open yourself to failure. You take risks because you must. The inspiration and holy ambition are too powerful to ignore.
The brothers who co-founded bioGraph, an engineer and a Shakespearean, believe that our humanity depends on narrative. Without stories, life slips away. We become isolated blips in the vast darkness of history. There’s never been more information about us available. Our DNA is collected in online databases. Our every move ends on social media between glossy ads for couches and designer sunglasses. But this sea of data is shallow, more puff and pretense than substance or reflection. bioGraph helps people tell their own stories in the richness and depth they deserve.
"I found the memoirs of bioGraph's early days fascinating"
-Norman R. Bobins, Vice Chairman of CIBC US
"More than a business book, this is about the dreams that make us human. Yes, they offer guidance for budding entrepreneurs, as well as enlightening reflections on culture and technology. But this authentic book is about the art of business--the vaults of imagination necessary to conceive a business, the faith to build it. It is, they say, like falling in love: an act beyond reason, an act of pure dreaming, magnificent and mad, fertile and full of life. Accept their invitation, friends: step into their dream to enrich your own."
-Amparo Garcia-Crow, Dramatist, Actor, Director/Producer; Founder of "The Living Room: Storytime for Grown-ups," Austin, Texas
Starting a business takes a leap of faith. It’s like falling in love or writing a book. You throw your doubts to the dogs and commit to something radical, scary, and fragile. You open yourself to failure. You take risks because you must. The inspiration and holy ambition are too powerful to ignore.
The brothers who co-founded bioGraph, an engineer and a Shakespearean, believe that our humanity depends on narrative. Without stories, life slips away. We become isolated blips in the vast darkness of history. There’s never been more information about us available. Our DNA is collected in online databases. Our every move ends on social media between glossy ads for couches and designer sunglasses. But this sea of data is shallow, more puff and pretense than substance or reflection. bioGraph helps people tell their own stories in the richness and depth they deserve.
"I found the memoirs of bioGraph's early days fascinating"
-Norman R. Bobins, Vice Chairman of CIBC US
"More than a business book, this is about the dreams that make us human. Yes, they offer guidance for budding entrepreneurs, as well as enlightening reflections on culture and technology. But this authentic book is about the art of business--the vaults of imagination necessary to conceive a business, the faith to build it. It is, they say, like falling in love: an act beyond reason, an act of pure dreaming, magnificent and mad, fertile and full of life. Accept their invitation, friends: step into their dream to enrich your own."
-Amparo Garcia-Crow, Dramatist, Actor, Director/Producer; Founder of "The Living Room: Storytime for Grown-ups," Austin, Texas
163 pages, Paperback
Published December 26, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 26, 2021
This book was recommended me by a mentor when I shared my dream of one day starting my own business and making a living through writing and art and creativity. Could not have been a more relevant recommendation: I honestly felt like every page, every word, was written for me, even though the authors frankly come from a different background than me and have different goals. Everything was so relatable and the powerful language pulled me in. Before reading the book, I had heard about bioGraph, a storytelling firm and publisher in Chicago, but I never considered it as a business that had to grow out of nothing. This book provides an unvarnished look into the rewarding but scary and uncertain process of starting and running any business.
I’ve never read a book quite like Recorded Time, which is, strictly speaking, a so-called “business book/biography/memoir” but which really is impossible to categorize, containing as it does elements of prose poetry, philosophy, history, journalism, and more. It is a story about telling stories. Books that try to be many things at once can fail to be anything definite at all, but the authors naturally interweave different genres to create something entirely new. It’s cool that this book, while a work of art in and of itself, is also just a single example of the kind of books bioGraph creates for clients and authors.
Recorded Time is the kind of book that not only makes you feel smarter, but actually makes you smarter--not through cheesy self-help prescriptions, but by challenging you to consider some of the deepest questions we can ask as human beings, for example about relationships with ourselves and others, and the meaning of life. Nonetheless, despite its depth, somehow the book was an easy read, written in a style that felt more like a conversation with a friend, mentor, or family member. Highly recommend this to aspiring writers, entrepreneurs, and all thoughtful, caring humans.
I’ve never read a book quite like Recorded Time, which is, strictly speaking, a so-called “business book/biography/memoir” but which really is impossible to categorize, containing as it does elements of prose poetry, philosophy, history, journalism, and more. It is a story about telling stories. Books that try to be many things at once can fail to be anything definite at all, but the authors naturally interweave different genres to create something entirely new. It’s cool that this book, while a work of art in and of itself, is also just a single example of the kind of books bioGraph creates for clients and authors.
Recorded Time is the kind of book that not only makes you feel smarter, but actually makes you smarter--not through cheesy self-help prescriptions, but by challenging you to consider some of the deepest questions we can ask as human beings, for example about relationships with ourselves and others, and the meaning of life. Nonetheless, despite its depth, somehow the book was an easy read, written in a style that felt more like a conversation with a friend, mentor, or family member. Highly recommend this to aspiring writers, entrepreneurs, and all thoughtful, caring humans.
February 6, 2021
Awesome book! A must read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews