Michael S. Malone

Having only known HP from the 90s on, and largely from a consumer perspective, I thought the early days of HP described in this book were very interesting. I had no idea that HP had such an impact on the modern workplace, flex time, open door policies, etc. I do think the author tended to paint HP, and especially Bill and Dave in a glowing light, even it was HP's golden years. Bill and Dave certainly accomplished amazing things, and set a great framework from running a business. ( original show more HP corporate objectives ) I'm certainly going to read more about Fred Terman now, as this book seems to indicate that besides HP, he had a lot to do with the birth of Silicon Valley and Stanford. show less

This book contains lots of useful information about how to give your organisation a chance of survival (be it a new one or an existing one of any size). It was repetitive at times and at points it felt like a Singularity University sales pitch but there was sufficient useful content for me to deem it a worthy read.

Despite it's repetition later in the book, I thoroughly enjoyed the perspective that Salim details in the book. A lot of the trends, even several years later, still ring true for a lot of companies and industries. The examples provided are also enough to get you to think about ways you can try to introduce and nudge your organization to adopt some of the ExO characteristics.

This book is a fascinating survey of the history of mankind's attempts to immortalize human knowledge. From the birth of communication to the advent of the Internet, Malone touches on all methods of documentation and recording. Despite the huge scope of the topic, this book did not seem neglectful or too ponderous when discussing details. I file this book alongside Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything in terms of edutainment value. Highly recommended!