Rating: 
Summary: Your best review of the impact of globalization
Review: ... Juan Enriquez' book - better than anything you'll ever read - frames the entire globalization debate in a clear, pragmatic, level-headed way. He blitzes through a complete review of inter-country economics - from agri-society to the Industrial Revolution to the Information Age, now giving way to the force of Genomics.Enriquez has a way of making startling points in a pithy, almost prose-like fashion. [In fact, don't be put off by the Tom Peters-like spacing and font shifts. Here, it works. He brings heady and potentially esoteric subjects down to size in an inviting 'read me' fashion.] Here's an example (and one of Enriquez' main points): "Science and technology allow people to multiply their productivity much faster than those who do not have the same knowledge or instruments. .... The text is spread out just like that in short, punchy, well-crafted sentences. As you can tell from that passage, one of the book's main thrusts is Enriquez' comparison of countries that can or will meet the challenge, vs. those that don't or will not. In one of the book's best sections, he compares South Korea ("the ulitmate meritocracy"), the USA (he makes the point that, increasingly, we rely on imported brain power) and Mexico (he recounts some shocking stories of Mexico's capacity to squander its intellectual capital). Enriquez is well-positioned to make a S. Korea/US/Mexico comparison. He's a true 'man of the world' - an HBS professor and former CEO of Mexico D.F.'s Urban Development Corporation. He remains a harsh critic of Mexico's need to 'shape up' or be left behind at the station. [In fact, he has an eye-opening, scalding commentary in the book of Ernesto Zedillo's tenure as Education Minister and President of Mexico.] A good way to learn a little more about Enriquez and this book - before comitting to buy it - is to take a look at a recent piece wrtitten about him in Fortune (they call him "Mr. Gene"). This article is available online & you can find it at the Fortune site by putting in "Juan Enriquez" as your search term.
Rating:
Summary: Your best review of the impact of globalization
Review: ... Juan Enriquez' book - better than anything you'll ever read - frames the entire globalization debate in a clear, pragmatic, level-headed way. He blitzes through a complete review of inter-country economics - from agri-society to the Industrial Revolution to the Information Age, now giving way to the force of Genomics. Enriquez has a way of making startling points in a pithy, almost prose-like fashion. [In fact, don't be put off by the Tom Peters-like spacing and font shifts. Here, it works. He brings heady and potentially esoteric subjects down to size in an inviting 'read me' fashion.] Here's an example (and one of Enriquez' main points): "Science and technology allow people to multiply their productivity much faster than those who do not have the same knowledge or instruments. .... The text is spread out just like that in short, punchy, well-crafted sentences. As you can tell from that passage, one of the book's main thrusts is Enriquez' comparison of countries that can or will meet the challenge, vs. those that don't or will not. In one of the book's best sections, he compares South Korea ("the ulitmate meritocracy"), the USA (he makes the point that, increasingly, we rely on imported brain power) and Mexico (he recounts some shocking stories of Mexico's capacity to squander its intellectual capital). Enriquez is well-positioned to make a S. Korea/US/Mexico comparison. He's a true 'man of the world' - an HBS professor and former CEO of Mexico D.F.'s Urban Development Corporation. He remains a harsh critic of Mexico's need to 'shape up' or be left behind at the station. [In fact, he has an eye-opening, scalding commentary in the book of Ernesto Zedillo's tenure as Education Minister and President of Mexico.] A good way to learn a little more about Enriquez and this book - before comitting to buy it - is to take a look at a recent piece wrtitten about him in Fortune (they call him "Mr. Gene"). This article is available online & you can find it at the Fortune site by putting in "Juan Enriquez" as your search term.
Rating:
Summary: Catch Me If You Can
Review: A captivating read and hard to put down. As a librarian I believe that this book will have a broad audience. Like most books on the future it makes the future, as described, seem inevitable. Though when one checks, the future seldom turns out as predicted. As a counter point I'd like to suggest "The Future of Humanity" by educator/philosopher J. Krishnamurti and physicist David Bohm. This book(ATFCY) should serve as a stimulant to conversations about the Gods of our time Capitalism, Science, Egoism... This may be the most important book you read this year.
Rating:
Summary: As the future Catches You: How Geonomics and Other Forces
Review: As I read Juan Enriquez' new book, I clarly was reminded that of Aldoux Huxley's. The impact that Enriquez text made on me today was pretty much similar to the one Huxley made to me some 20 years ago or even more.
I believe that Enriquez' book is a must to those readers or social actors -if you will-, that like to keep themselves on top of the trends.
If one does not understand the impact of Geonomics on the contemporary world, not to mention that of our children, is like if we were still craving on a stone.
I decided to make Enriquez' book my choice for those special gifts I have to make for the Holyday Seasson. From the feedback I have gotten, my friends have love it.
At the University of Miami some two years ago, Enriquez delivered a conference on a similar topic. His words still sound on the Business and International Studies Schools halls.
Once you open the book, you'll never close it untill you are finished!
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Trigger!
Review: As the Future Catches You is an excellent trigger of ideas and questions surrounding the impact of biotechnology in our daily lives in the years to come. Enriquez has the ability to build strong arguments, with few well-chosen words, that make you think differently about: science and technology as a driver of economic growth; the relationship between scientific progress and society; and most of all the importance of countries and regions in acquiring the necessary tools to participate in this new revolution. As someone who lives in
Europe and works in the technology sector, I see this debate increasingly gaining importance, and this book has been a boon to understanding the issues at hand.
Rating:
Summary: Introductory to Economics
Review: As the Future Catches You, by Juan Enriquez, is a great book that explains the future, past, and present state of the economy. The book is written in many different types of font, which makes it interesting when the reader becomes tired of facts. It includes many statistics that amaze the reader by how large a gap there is between the wealthier countries and the poorer countries. The book is hard to understand at times because of the business language and confusing information. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in business and is willing to take the time not only to read it, but also understand the content. Also the reader might want to be of a certain age before they try to read it so they can have a better understanding of it. The book focuses on four main countries, USA, Mexico, China, and Japan. The writing style was clear and had a new approach that made it enjoyable. The information presented made it impossible to stop reading because you wanted to learn what happened next to the country. Each country took form and was a type of character that the reader sees through the tough times and through the good times. This book helped me understand how fast the economy is changing and how much more business is coming to depend on knowledge and not manpower or natural resources.
Rating:
Summary: Introductory to Economics
Review: As the Future Catches You, by Juan Enriquez, is a great book that explains the future, past, and present state of the economy. The book is written in many different types of font, which makes it interesting when the reader becomes tired of facts. It includes many statistics that amaze the reader by how large a gap there is between the wealthier countries and the poorer countries. The book is hard to understand at times because of the business language and confusing information. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in business and is willing to take the time not only to read it, but also understand the content. Also the reader might want to be of a certain age before they try to read it so they can have a better understanding of it. The book focuses on four main countries, USA, Mexico, China, and Japan. The writing style was clear and had a new approach that made it enjoyable. The information presented made it impossible to stop reading because you wanted to learn what happened next to the country. Each country took form and was a type of character that the reader sees through the tough times and through the good times. This book helped me understand how fast the economy is changing and how much more business is coming to depend on knowledge and not manpower or natural resources.
Rating:
Summary: As the FUTURE Catches YOU is fascinating and fun
Review: Bottom line: Countries that educate their people are growing richer; those that do not are in decline. Genetic engineering is the next breakthrough. Enriquez reinforces his analysis with facts and statistics. This book is fascinating and fun. At first glance, the book appears to be typeset by an amateur experimenting with fonts, type sizes and reverses. Then you discover that each page has a thought and the unusual layout is designed to emphasize a point. I received this book as a gift. It is a treasured gift. As a publisher, author of 28 Books, 109 revised editions, six translations and over 500 magazine articles as well as a consultant to the book publishing industry, I spend much of my time doing research. I will refer to this book again and again.
Dan Poynter, Para Publishing.
Rating:
Summary: Brain Candy
Review: Every now and then there is a book that absolutely captures the imagination. "As the Future Catches You" clearly caught me. The writing style is more like poetry than prose, but works very well. Rather than sorting through detailed text, Enriquez hits you with bullet point after bullet point to get his message across. Loaded with facts, insight and some futuristic dreaming which you become convinced is more reality than dream, the book fascinated me from start to finish. I think Enriquez is absolutely correct in his assessment of the critical importance of knowledge in the future. He focuses on genomics as the main wave, but certainly points out the importance of the data technology wave. The one wave that is missing is the demographic wave of the rapid aging of the Western world. That force, I believe, only further validates his arguments for the importance of knowledge and the dangerous ledge upon which Europe is perched. Europe is fighting the genomics wave and is about to be overwhelmed by the demographic wave. An interesting follow up to Enriquez' work would be the future of Europe. Great book. Captivating and thought provoking. If you want a glimpse of the future, get this one. My only complaint is what appears to be a mixing of some financial facts. Comparing Microsoft's market capitalization to the exports of Latin American in a given year is comparing wealth to income. It seems this is done often, but the points being made are still valid.
Rating: 
Summary: Introduction of the next wave ??
Review: First of all, I would like to thank the author for exposing enoromous potential of genetic revolution (if you can call it that !). Also, the author provides an interesting look at history - history of nations. How some nations simply failed to progress due to faulty policy-making. From that regard, I would consider this book a must-read for policy-makers all across the world, specifically, developing countries like India, Mexico, etc.. This book is more like a article stretched into a book in an innovative way by using different fonts. Personally, I found the chaning fonts a bit irritating while reading. Author promises to publish three "serious" book going forward, this book is suppossed to be an introduction. It does a good job as an "introductory" book. I wish the author had highlighted some more disturbing ramifications of "genetic engineering" . The movie "Gattaca" comes to mind. In conclusion, this is a book that you could read in few hours and it gets you excited about some fascinating possibilities. However, it is skewed more towards hype.
| 
