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Title: Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus

Subtitle: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity

Author: Douglas Rushkoff

Narrator: Douglas Rushkoff

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-01-16

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 262 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Technology

Publisher's Summary:

Digital technology was supposed to usher in a new age of distributed prosperity, but so far it has been used to put industrial capitalism on steroids. It's not technology's fault but that of an extractive, growth-driven economic operating system that has reached the limits of its ability to serve anyone, rich or poor, human or corporate. Robots threaten our jobs while algorithms drain our portfolios. But there must be a better response to the lopsided returns of the digital economy than to throw rocks at the shuttle buses carrying Google employees to their jobs, as protesters did in December 2013.

In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed media scholar and technology author Douglas Rushkoff calls on us to abandon the monopolist, winner-takes-all values we are unwittingly embedding into the digital economy and to embrace the more distributed possibilities of these platforms. He shows how we can optimize every aspect of the economy - from central currency and debt to corporations and labor - to create sustainable prosperity for business and people alike.

Members Reviews:

Heavy on Rhetoric, Light on Facts

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The author should have backed up his assertions about the roots of capitalism and wealth disparity with specific historic and economic data. Some of his claims about power law distributions not cropping up in more community-based systems are demonstrably false. Power laws are ubiquitous across nature and society, and arise due to naturally-occurring feedback loops in systems which grow via aggregation.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Haven't decided yet

What three words best describe Douglas Rushkoffs performance?

Clear, Passionate, Emotive

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It addresses important questions about the societal benefits of grow-or-die capitalism, but misattributes the causes and solutions.

Interesting perspective on late-stage capitalism

Rushkoff avoids the dread "S" and "C" words (for the most part), while giving an interesting take on the problems of a capitalist society in the digital age.

Thought provoking...

Excellent and thorough presentation on how wealth gets concentrated into the hands of the few, and some interesting ideas on how we can, in our current business and technical climate, begin to unravel this and create more widely held prosperity. Be prepared for a long listen, he covers a lot of ground. Could easily be two books!

A new way to see economy to a new generation

This book is a must read (listen) for anybody wanting to fix the present society or just willing to understand the roots of all inequality we witness now a days.

I needed this optimism.

What made the experience of listening to Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus the most enjoyable?

After listening to Harari (Homo Deus) which partly fed the paranoid part of my personality, Rushkoff provided a plausible future for humanity that was refreshing and gave a little boost to my faith.