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New Imperialists
If you use a personal computer or automated teller machine, make purchases online, or consume media of any kind, your life is directly impacted by the five digital-age visionaries profiled in The New Imperialists . Reams have already been written, of course, about Microsoft's Bill Gates, AOL-Time Warner's Steve Case, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, and Cisco's John Chambers. But Mark Leibovich, national technology reporter for The Washington Post , digs deeper here to present insightful individual portraits of these "generals of the networked world's ruling empires" that reveal what has really driven them to the leading edge of today's business universe. Based on some 400 interviews with relatives, friends, associates, and adversaries, in addition to one-on-one sessions with its usually more reticent subjects, the book offers a very readable account of key formative events and subsequent reactions that are not typically part of such titans' shared résumés. From the personal experiences that helped shape their generally serene youth--Ellison "had difficulty telling the truth," for example, while Chambers "battled dyslexia and for a time believed he was stupid"--to the public manifestations that now affect millions, Leibovich presents eye-opening accounts recommended for anyone drawn to the human stories behind our day's most ubiquitous corporate names. --Howard Rothman
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Published April 15, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 11, 2019
The New Imperialists: How Five Restless Kids Grew Up To Virtually Rule your World
(2002) Mark Leibovich
Published shortly after two cultural shocks, the 9/11 terrorist attack on America and the financial Dot.com bubble bust (the NASDAQ lost half its value), this is a somewhat interesting, biographical study and story about five technology titans who wanted to, and did, change the world: Larry Ellison, Oracle; Jeff Bezos, Amazon; John Chambers, Cisco; Bill Gates, Microsoft; and Steve Case, AOL/Time-Warner.
I remember what it was like back then—the mid nineties—when the Internet, email, and the World Wide Web was just getting started. In 1994, at the age of forty-four, I returned to college to pursue a degree in Psychology, and an education in this seemingly brand new world. I was familiar with the Macintosh desktop computer and its software, Appleworks, but thought I should get ‘up-to-speed’ with the newer and fast growing Microsoft and Windows DOS, and this new thing—the Internet. I took courses in both and even wrote in http code. I had an edu email address. I also made some money in the market betting on this new thing, and then lost some, a lot. In school at that time, there was a “computer lab” with desktop computers for general use, and a “bank” of five Psych-Lit terminals in the Library. That was it. There was no social media nor wide-spread use of the Internet. The Web was primarily used by academics and scientists.
Reading about these men then, it’s apparent none of them envisioned that the world we are living in now would be a consequence of what they were creating. Oh, they all had a notion that they were changing the world, but not how. It might be that their successes, and the extraordinary wealth created, was just a case of timing—right time, right place, a “coincidence of circumstance” (Tolstoy). Sure, they were all smart, driven, creative and confident … but maybe mostly lucky. You can’t really say they are of a specific “type”—meaning personality, or share a management style, the same formula for success. They are all different, though all white men and come from “privileged” zip codes. And, they are all super competitive for sure, ego driven.
It seems this age we are living in was a confluence of events, an accident—like us humans. No grand design by some creative force or god, just one thing leading to another and all things interacting, “playing” off one another, and if you stop and contemplate, try and make sense of it all, well, damn – I’m just a man, and you can find me, “down drinking at the bar” (Wainwright).
Saturday, May 11, 2019
(2002) Mark Leibovich
Published shortly after two cultural shocks, the 9/11 terrorist attack on America and the financial Dot.com bubble bust (the NASDAQ lost half its value), this is a somewhat interesting, biographical study and story about five technology titans who wanted to, and did, change the world: Larry Ellison, Oracle; Jeff Bezos, Amazon; John Chambers, Cisco; Bill Gates, Microsoft; and Steve Case, AOL/Time-Warner.
I remember what it was like back then—the mid nineties—when the Internet, email, and the World Wide Web was just getting started. In 1994, at the age of forty-four, I returned to college to pursue a degree in Psychology, and an education in this seemingly brand new world. I was familiar with the Macintosh desktop computer and its software, Appleworks, but thought I should get ‘up-to-speed’ with the newer and fast growing Microsoft and Windows DOS, and this new thing—the Internet. I took courses in both and even wrote in http code. I had an edu email address. I also made some money in the market betting on this new thing, and then lost some, a lot. In school at that time, there was a “computer lab” with desktop computers for general use, and a “bank” of five Psych-Lit terminals in the Library. That was it. There was no social media nor wide-spread use of the Internet. The Web was primarily used by academics and scientists.
Reading about these men then, it’s apparent none of them envisioned that the world we are living in now would be a consequence of what they were creating. Oh, they all had a notion that they were changing the world, but not how. It might be that their successes, and the extraordinary wealth created, was just a case of timing—right time, right place, a “coincidence of circumstance” (Tolstoy). Sure, they were all smart, driven, creative and confident … but maybe mostly lucky. You can’t really say they are of a specific “type”—meaning personality, or share a management style, the same formula for success. They are all different, though all white men and come from “privileged” zip codes. And, they are all super competitive for sure, ego driven.
It seems this age we are living in was a confluence of events, an accident—like us humans. No grand design by some creative force or god, just one thing leading to another and all things interacting, “playing” off one another, and if you stop and contemplate, try and make sense of it all, well, damn – I’m just a man, and you can find me, “down drinking at the bar” (Wainwright).
Saturday, May 11, 2019
February 10, 2020
Lifts back the veil on tech CEOs before the days of Zuckerberg and Web 2.0. Shows some overachieving, competitive, egoistic kids who grow up to be salesmen really more than technologists; as well as some if not all of them being quite dysfunctional, greedy, power hungry, naive, overly positive, unwilling to criticize themselves, relentless workaholics
December 8, 2020
More interesting than I thought it would be and still relevant even though it is almost 20 years old. Glad I read it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews