MixedThe New York Journal of Books... more a historical narrative divided both chronologically and through the different facets of Amazon’s expanding empire. It is not a critical investigation however, and although Stone touches on issues around globalization and labor rights he tends toward a lighter touch review of how Amazon got it where it is today ... Stone is unable to secure facetime with Bezos himself and is reliant on former Amazon employees or \'Amazonians\' as they refer to themselves to reflect on the mega business. This can sometimes read a bit too much like an insider baseball tale as while the senior leadership of Amazon are looked at briefly, Bezos is the dominant figure. Rightly so as he’s a fascinating character whose personal story intrinsically reflects on how Amazon has developed ... Stone definitely leans to narrative over analysis. In telling the story of how Amazon’s size got it increasingly into trouble with anti-monopoly lawmakers, or those concerned with its labor standards, he opines that people don’t understand how the \'various components interlock\' within the ecosystem that Amazon has created ... The potential and inspiration about Bezos’s dream to have an enduring human presence of up to a trillion people in space is enthralling, yet you’ll not walk away from reading this book knowing much about it.
Fareed Zakaria
PositiveThe New York Journal of BooksZakaria is a rational, thoughtful thinker and an excellent communicator who has essentially put together ten extended opinion columns like you regularly see in the Washington Post ... As we must recalibrate our politics Zakaria writes that must we understand how Covid is challenging economic orthodoxy and revealing that markets alone are not enough. Predictably as an expert on global affairs he urges the pandemic to make us listen again to the experts. Yet his picture of how populism has supercharged culture wars and fissures across America and beyond is left as a problem without a clear sense of a solution ... A recognition of Covid catalyzing advances in the digital domain begins with a somewhat predictable look at remote working but ends in a far more interesting examination of what Artificial Intelligence (AI) will do to fundamental concepts of human labor. He skilfully paints a picture of AI not replacing humanity but allowing it to refocus ... Zakaria’s general idealistic realism is refreshing. However, Zakaria’s grasp of the big picture and his ability to channel such a wide narrative in a very readable format should be commended.
