Next

The Future Just Happened

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Michael Lewis

In Liar's Poker barbarians seized control of the bond markets. In The New New Thing some guys from Silicon Valley redefined the American economy. Now, with his knowing eye and wicked pen, Michael Lewis reveals how the Internet boom has encouraged great change in the way we live, work, and think. He finds that we are in the midst of one of the greatest revolutions in the history of the world, and the Internet is a weapon in the hands of revolutionaries. The old priesthoods-lawyers, investment gurus, professionals in general-have been toppled. The amateur, or individual, is king: fourteen-year-old children manipulate the stock market; nineteen-year-old take down the music industry; and wrestlers get elected to public office. Deep, unseen forces seek to undermine all forms of collectivism, from the mass market to the family. Where does it all lead? And will we like where we end up?©2001 Michael Lewis; (P)2001 Random House, Inc., Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, a Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

Next does not come too late to the crash-and-burn Internet book fest. It come just in time—at the speed of a falling safe. —USA Today

Great Listen

If you've read Liar's Poker or The New New Thing by Michael Lewis, you'll probably know what to expect here. Lewis reverse engineers business advancement and evolution, then hints at what trends may result from these changes. Liars Poker shone light into the stock market, The New New Thing into the birth of the mainstream internet. Next builds on both of these concepts and delivers even more hints at where the business world may be looking next.

Lewis writes less as a question/answer writer, where at the beginning there is a linear hypothesis that will be proven or disproven by the end, then quickly summed up to tie loose ends and make a point, than he does as an inquiring mind looking at how new business trends are the way they are. He carefully picks his examples, then tells an elaborate story about them to advance the theme of the book. It's wonderfully done and, as one of my favourite authors, I was entertained throughout.

Don't listen if you're looking for answers, listen in order to add perspective to your own questions. Lewis is an enabler of ideas, and uses the success of others through his writing to express these views. This book is not written to tell you what will happen next, but written so you can better understand where we may truly be headed.

Highly recommended as a 'light' read. Those looking to learn where the 'Next Big Thing' will be, I'll spoil the plot by saying the answer in not in these pages... it's for you to figure out on your own.

Good Vinettes.

Lewis does a very good job at what he understands, which is business. He takes us through vignettes of young kids and disenfranchised adults who view the world differently and use this to change the business future.

The only down side is that authors should understand what they are writing about, and the last chapter about the BIG future is just random bits of mildly interesting science fiction. Since he is not a scientist, he does not know how to filter plausible science from impossible and it shows. But the beginning, with his keen insights into business, I found very valuable.

As far as authors go who read their own works, he is much better than most; he neither detracts, as Steven King, nor adds to the book, as John le Carre.

Next

This book is a masterpiece! A must read. Michael Lewis truly understands the impact of technology on our society.

Ignore the Title

The book’s cover, title, and subtitle are terrible/outdated. But the contents are solid.

‘Next’ should be repackaged with a new foreword and a more fitting title like:

The First Wave:
Profiles from the Rise of the Internet in the 1990s

Despite the book’s title, it isn’t so much about predicting the future. Instead, it documented the present from a specific vantage point when much change was occurring.

In this light, it is a worthwhile addition for a Michael Lewis fan. It’s lesser Michael Lewis, but it’s still Michael Lewis.

If you like this, read Po Bronson’s ‘The Nudist on the Late Shift.’

Worth your time

This book brought to light several very interesting events and technologies currently directing change in our society. While it hinted at general trends in power shifts and the effects of certain technologies, it didn't do a great job of synthesizing what exactly the author thinks is coming up.

This isn't really a positive or negative, but the book definitely provoked more questions than it gave answers. It also looked more at current happenings than predicting future ones. That said, it succeeded at picking out some great representative case studies of how our lives are truly being changed by technology. Most succesfully, it described a power shift. With the value of experience decreasing, and being replaced by an openness to new habits and thinking best embodied by children.

I didn't get everything I hoped for out of this book, but I was very pleased with what I did get. I look forward to this authors next book, and definitely think "Next" is more than worth your time.