Category: Book Reviews

There Will Be Dragons. Imagine. (Full Review)

So, here it is. And the question that might occur to you before you read or as you finish “How to Build a Dragon or Die Trying: A Satirical Look at Cutting Edge Science” is, Can we do it? Because when you get around a group of synthetic biologists, talk often turns to de-extinction projects […]

There Will Be Dragons. Imagine.

Excerpt from an unpublished review of “How to Build a Dragon or Die Trying: A Satirical Look at Cutting Edge Science.”  There is enough in HOW TO BUILD A DRAGON OR DIE TRYING to obsess the true, mainlining dragon-builder for a godly amount of time. The Knoefplers do a good job considering, for example, all […]

Please Kill Me (Review)

Pedro Paramo is the book I’ve most given away. It’s a thin, easy to read, very influential novel. It will haunt you. The second book I’ve most given away is Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. Through a series of alternating interviews, PKM traces the history of punk. From New […]

The Sprawl Trilogy

Netflix just started airing Altered Carbon. It’s a rad take Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 cyberpunk novel. One of my favorite genres, cyberpunk typically explores how the street repurposes tech, life in cyberspace and off-planet. Last fall, I reread William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy – Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. (Neuromancer, BTW, is credited with […]

The Story Grid. Pedro Paramo.

I’m a story nerd. I enjoy re-reading books, re-watching movies. I like figuring out how the authors or film makers put the story together. What hints did they place at the beginning of the story, and resolve at the end? I’ve read plenty of books on writing screenplays, plotting, and character development. Last year, I […]

Product Market Fit

To paraphrase, Lean Startup author Eric Reis, “We can build any product. The question is: Will anyone buy it?” True Story: She is developing a new chip set. It’s revolutionary in its design and potential applications. When I ask about customers, she answers, “We’re building a platform, like the app store.” When I ask about […]

2017 Media Consumed: Highlights

Here’s a link to my Pinterest board of media consumed during 2017. It’s always fun to go back and review what I read, listened to and watched. In many ways, it was a year for cyberpunk because I was anticipating Blade Runner 2049 and I wanted to reread Snowcrash. But overall, I didn’t read as […]

What’s Your Bio Strategy? First Review from Life Science Leader

Life Science Leader’s editor Rob Wright posted a very positive review of What’s Your Bio Strategy? Says Rob: Today we stand on the precipice overlooking a new frontier — the century of biology, and businesses of all kinds need to be prepared to not only embrace what is coming, but have a strategy for how to […]

How to Create 10,000 Jobs?

How do you create 10,000 jobs? Train 500 brewers. Originally, I was going to write: Train 10,000 teachers. Despite the overwhelming need for teachers [1], the profession currently is looked down upon in the United States and people don’t understand that if you don’t invest in education, you’re not investing in the future. (Cynically, I […]

A Brief, Personal Reading List – Fiction September 2016

I recently shared this reading list with thesalesblog author and sales guru Anthony Iannarino. Anthony’s extremely well read but admitted he didn’t read much fiction. Here’s what I wrote him: I grew up on science fiction and have read a lot of it and admit it’s inspired my career. But I’ve also read a lot […]