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Summary: the future becomes clear
Review: this book is about what the future of information technology will look like and how you can best capture it using microsoft tools/technologies.well-written and clear... suggested for those who may feel lost in what information technology is about and where it will most likely be going. bill gates has been in this business for long enough to justify his claims... it is worth the effort to read it.
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Summary: Some good info but....
Review: There is a lot of good information to take from this book; I was scribbling down information for the first half of the book. Then I bored easily with the numerous biased advertisements for Microsoft solutions. It was more like receiving a demonstration from a Microsoft sales representative; I was hoping for a general, more unbiased take on the industry.
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Summary: Want to know what you're really getting here?
Review: OK. I usually don't bother reveiwing a bad book, but I think you ought to know what you're getting into here. The setup at the beginning is remotely beneficial as internet scope/impact primer. It goes down hill from there. Bill's main point is that the internet and PC combination is powerful. While that is hardly a revelation, the book never goes anywhere from there. Over half of this book is overly simplistic examples of successful PC/Windows implementations. There is no practical 'take home' information here. Nothing to apply. This book suffers from several maladys: 1. There is nothing novel here. 2. The prose is really boring. 3. Half the book is pointless examples - (they all make the same point) 4. Ultimately you realize that this book just an advertisment encouraging you to use PCs and Microsoft produts. If you are considering this book because of who wrote it (like I did) save your money. You're not missing anything.
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Summary: Only for an american audience
Review: This is the typical business book for Americans : filled with examples, very low in concepts. The only motive they have for reading this is the wealth of the author : they think they will be turned into gold by touching a book that is written by the wealthiest man on earth! Does Bill Gates really thinks that we have time for reading 500 pages of boring and obvious stuff that have already been made and provide no guidance as to the future (if that is what you are looking for, which is an error) All reading in the world will not make up for real thinking and action based on a curiosity for the world and an education to frame it.
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Summary: Interesting to read but .... only for top people
Review: I find the book to be quite interesting but not really relevant for normal people.... I think this book is only meant for CIOs, CEOs, CFOs... they are the one that are able to propose such huge investments in Digital Nervous System !! At the last part of the book, Digital Nervous System is compared against the older methodology "Business Re-engineering" without giving some background about what Business Re-engineering actually means...... Anyway, reader need to have some sense of business before reading this... there are plenty of business terms.
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Summary: Business @ The Speed of Thought is good common sense
Review: Like a living organism, a company functions best if it can rely on a nervous system that instantaneously delivers information to the parts that need it. In clear, nontechnical language Bill Gates shows us how a digital nervous system can do this. Well, I read it, page after page & dipped here & there. I'm no CEO of a fast, innovative company on the cutting edge of commerce however, even though most of what Bill Gates says goes over my head, much of it is common sense & stuff I've been doing for all my life. Now why am I not a multi-billionaire? Ah yes, I was having kids when Bill was having software ideas. Well worth the read.
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Summary: 900 Lb Gorrilla Writes Book, Essential Reading
Review: No doubt largely written by staff assistants, this book can be considered a watered-down version of Microsoft's game plan for taking over the world, i.e. being the operating system for everything. Each chapter has a useful figure that sums up business lessons and methods for diagnosing one of the aspect's of one's digital nervous system. This is a great airplane book. Like him or not, when the 900 lb digital gorrilla writes a book, we all have to read it.
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Summary: Sharing Is Good, But What Should Be Shared?
Review: One of the primary benefits of a human nervous system is to allow the senses and the mind to be in close contact. This is most helpful to alerting us to opportunities and dangers so we respond more quickly. When the nervous sytem is working well, this is great. Disease can cause these signals to be scrambled, and the individual fares poorly. In this book, Mr. Gates argues persuasively for having a digital counterpart to the human nervous system. What he fails to focus on enough is how to identify what data to capture, how to turn it into knowledge, and how to turn knowledge into timely action. For those subjects, you'll have to read Bill Jensen's book on Simplicity. If you only have time to read one or the other, I suggest Simplicity over Business @ the Speed of Thought. The wired world easily overwhelms. Timely e-mails can turn into hundreds of e-mails. Data can turn into overwhelming quantities of confusion. Without the skills and tools to do data mining, the digital nervous sytem may just make things worse. Think about it. A reason for being concerned about this point is the history of Microsoft itself, usually having to buy or copy innovations by others to advance its technology . . . usually arriving after targeted dates with software that crashes all the time . . . usually arriving with software that is so filled with unecessary features that it runs more slowly than typewriters did in the predigital age. My sense from a recent site visit to Dell Computer is that Dell is far ahead of Microsoft in communicating and acting on information. I suggest you read Direct from Dell instead of this book if you only have time to read two books. From a man who is supposed to be a great visionary of technology, I was quite disappointed in this book. I only saw a flawed vision that was more backward looking than forward looking.
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Summary: Inspiring book
Review: Very inspirational. Gates combines Andrew Deming's total quality management style with today's connected network. If a company is going to survive in today's world it must use a "the digital network".
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Summary: Good Reading
Review: I know some people say that Gates pushes Microsoft products in this book instead of ideas, but that is not the case. He instead takes you into the belly of the beast and lets you see how Microsoft, one of the world's most valuable companies, operates using a "digital nervous system". It is hard to argue with success.
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