Waldman is clearly exhilarated by the story he’s telling, and his zest comes through in the book’s best turns of phrase ...
That said, SAM poses some stumbling blocks for the lay reader. An index and glossary would have come in handy to help keep track of all the acronyms and specialized vocabulary Waldman uses ... to fully understand the book’s details requires constant Googling. Elsewhere, Waldman’s word choice can seem off ... The book’s incidental pleasures include Waldman’s visit to the annual 'World of Concrete' trade show where Construction Robotics introduced SAM. Details on the U.S. Brick Olympics and International Brick Collectors Association offer quirky surprises, too.
All in all, SAM reveals a world that surrounds us but mostly eludes our notice – and that’s quite a feat.
When grand vision meets repeated humiliation we usually get tragedy or comedy. But SAM is not sad, or funny ha-ha. It is peculiar, though ... some major tonal weirdness. Waldman seems determined to write an epic entrepreneurship tale — and it blinds him to the reality of poor SAM, while rendering Scott Peters nearly mute ... the monotony of chapters devoted to each gig exposes the book’s most inexplicable flaw — the chasm between what Waldman reveals and what he withholds ... What’s missing is Peters’s voice ... The scarcity of the protagonist’s voice is so bizarre that it becomes a distraction. Did author and subject have an arrangement restricting quotes? Was Waldman not present for many of the events he recounts? Is Scott Peters … a robot? ... If Peters’s absence is mystifying, the lack of key financial facts in a book about entrepreneurship is unforgivable.
Relating the history of Construction Robotics and SAM, Waldman illustrates the tension between innovation and tradition in a millennia-old profession ... Waldman’s storytelling draws readers in, particularly through his use of color-adding footnotes that appear throughout the book. Readers interested in business and innovation will find a fascinating insider’s view of a small, ambitious organization in SAM.
Mr. Waldman follows all the drama like a fly on a brick wall, richly reporting scenes and conversations, many on job sites where both circuitry and civility break down. The book is reminiscent of a reality-TV show about a scrappy startup, complete with backstory segments as we learn the pasts and personalities of each new hire. There are also a lot of digressions—the history of the bricklayers union, how much pinboys at bowling alleys were tipped, how literal sausages are made, Mr. Peters’s 16th-century ancestors, his high-school swim coach’s career as a famous-in-Japan professional wrestler. None of it is boring, exactly, but the book is not in a hurry to get anywhere ... Despite its themes of technological advancement, the book is above all a human-interest tale. Sure, automation could reduce injury and speed construction, but there’s much to celebrate in quirk and inefficiency. That goes even for bricks.
Waldman offers a lively, accessible overview of the bricklayer’s art, which is much more complex than one might think. Apart from engendering an appreciation for the uses of technology, the author also adds to the literature surrounding the dignity of artful labor.
Human meets machine, and both prevail in an engaging story of technology and discovery.
...a lively look at the team behind SAM ... Waldman has an eye for details that sum up character ... Despite the sometimes dizzying proliferation of technical acronyms...Waldman’s storytelling remains engaging ... This gripping story of a 'scrappy little start-up' proves its author to be an industrious reporter and natural storyteller.
