I've just started reading Matt Mason's; "The Pirate's Dilemma" and feel compelled to write a review before finishing it because I want other people to start reading it. So, this is not so much a review, nor is it a preview, because I already have the finished product in my hands, so I'm calling it a "pre-temps" review. It's a review of what I've read, before I've read it.
In short, I think the book is, and will be; great. Mason's writing really snaps, everything he says is new, exciting and highly engaging. Like the nu-capitalists he describes bursting out from the corpse of the crusty punks who killed rock and roll the sections within chapters are refreshingly concise and to the point, and teach you about really cool exciting technologies and ways of doing things: 3D printers anyone?
Unlike Naomi Klein, who wrote the heavyweight but important "No Logo", Mason is far better at reaching downward to be with the kids, and in some respects his book is like the much cooler younger brother of Klein's book having descended into further middle age with the "Shock Doctrine" To make specific my shanty comparison "No Logo" taught me some really important facts about the power of the brand over the product it was actually selling, how our percieved impressions of associated meanings, such as being fashionable or ethical, that come with the product completely overshadow much of its truth as a mere item. However, at the age of not so sweet 17 I couldn't finish the damn thing! So much of the book was endless statistical analysis temepered with interjections from a highly educated but downbeat optimist ("Forget it, its Labeltown.") that I too felt myself being dragged down into the murky pit of no-hope cynicism that has scarred so many of an already quite apathetic generation.
Against this Mason's friend or foe consideration of the potential threat of the emergent pirates is much more thrilling as is the books overarching message: nowadays everyone is a Pirate. So if you don't like the way things are in today's culture/politics/capitalism: D.M.Y, D.I.Y!
p.s. If the owners of the above logo attempt some kind of legal shenanigans I will ironically piss myself.
In short, I think the book is, and will be; great. Mason's writing really snaps, everything he says is new, exciting and highly engaging. Like the nu-capitalists he describes bursting out from the corpse of the crusty punks who killed rock and roll the sections within chapters are refreshingly concise and to the point, and teach you about really cool exciting technologies and ways of doing things: 3D printers anyone?
Unlike Naomi Klein, who wrote the heavyweight but important "No Logo", Mason is far better at reaching downward to be with the kids, and in some respects his book is like the much cooler younger brother of Klein's book having descended into further middle age with the "Shock Doctrine" To make specific my shanty comparison "No Logo" taught me some really important facts about the power of the brand over the product it was actually selling, how our percieved impressions of associated meanings, such as being fashionable or ethical, that come with the product completely overshadow much of its truth as a mere item. However, at the age of not so sweet 17 I couldn't finish the damn thing! So much of the book was endless statistical analysis temepered with interjections from a highly educated but downbeat optimist ("Forget it, its Labeltown.") that I too felt myself being dragged down into the murky pit of no-hope cynicism that has scarred so many of an already quite apathetic generation.
Against this Mason's friend or foe consideration of the potential threat of the emergent pirates is much more thrilling as is the books overarching message: nowadays everyone is a Pirate. So if you don't like the way things are in today's culture/politics/capitalism: D.M.Y, D.I.Y!
p.s. If the owners of the above logo attempt some kind of legal shenanigans I will ironically piss myself.
