Product Description

Is our 24/7, CrackBerry, more-faster-now culture eating us alive or setting us free? For everyone feeling trampled by the speed of life and business, author Vince Poscente reveals why harnessing the power of speed is the ultimate solution for our time-starved era. The Age of Speed shows this and other groundbreaking revelations at work with case studies drawn from renegade companies such as Netflix, Geico, and Nintendo. With smart personal revelations, addictively clever pop science, practical case studies, and a fresh voice, The Age of Speed is a fast, fun read.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132277 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-04
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Business consultant Poscente employs velocity as a catchall term for explaining how to thrive in our hyperstimulated society. A former Olympic speed skier, he explains how people and organizations can best equip themselves to surf the endless assault of tasks and data familiar to any office worker. To him, speed both causes and solves the ambiguity surrounding high technology and the competing demands of career and personal life. But even if speed is the answer, this book doesn't uncover any insight that hasn't occurred to anyone who's ever stayed late tapping out e-mails. For case studies, the book wheels out long-suffering Eastman Kodak as an example of a Zeppelin that couldn't keep pace with new technology. Google, meanwhile, is a Jet that upped the ante. But readers who want to learn from that savvy company would be better served by other studies than this brief sketch. Poscente dallies on the Aligned Organization and the notion that work is no longer a place—it's a state of mind, but the result is a string of business clichés. With almost every other page left blank, Poscente's kind enough not to demand too much of his readers' time. But the lack of substance ensures that they'll forget it even faster. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

TIME Magazine
"Thought provoking new book ...advocates coming to terms with --nay, savoring -- the `more-faster-now world'".

Chicago Tribune
"The trick isn't trying to slow things down but knowing when and how to speed them up."

Customer Reviews

Bard Press lists this for $22?
Olympic-speed skier turned business consultant (and "Speaker Hall of Fame" inductee) Vince Poscente reveals "for everyone feeling trampled by the speed of life and business, how to get ahead of the rush once and for all." He identifies four behavioral profiles: Jets (the best), Bottle Rockets, Zeppelins and Balloons.
Rarely have I seen a book that offers so little content for a $22 hardcover list price. The 232 pages are padded with 44 full-page chapter and section headings and full-page quotes like "We drown ourselves in trivia and excess." It also contains space-filling "Fast Facts" like "Thirty-six people died when the 804-foot Hindenberg exploded and crashed into the ground in 1937. It was filled with more than seven million cubic feet of hydrogen" and "Reverend Run of Run-DMC is Russell's little brother." Page 12 offers a half-page definition of a Mach number.
After reading a few banal observations (for example, Technology has made life busier and more complicated and Blackberries have the potential to erode productivity) I reviewed the index to find anecdotes on a few companies of interest and then returned this book to the library. This material might support a solid oral presentation but has been stretched far too thin for this medium.

OK good but not for readers
The book has some interesting insights but presents them in a pop culture manner, and the pace of the book is perhaps more suited to a speech by the author than readers who actually enjoy more challenging books....

Zero value
I tried very hard to extract any value out of this book, but without any luck. the only good thing about it is the quality of paper and production. Its pages of boring text with no clear goal or target.