Jonathan Taplin is the Director Emeritus of the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, and a former tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band, as well as a film producer for Martin Scorsese. An expert in digital media entertainment, Taplin is a member of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and sits on the California Broadband Taskforce and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's Council on Technology and Innovation.
"Jonathan Taplin's Move Fast and Break Things, a rock and roll
memoir cum internet history cum artists' manifesto, provides a
bracing antidote to corporate triumphalism--and a reminder that
writers and musicians need a place at the tech table and, more to
the point, a way to make a decent living."
--Jeffrey Toobin, author of American Heiress
Praise for Move Fast and Break Things
A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceAn Amazon Best Business
& Leadership Book of the year
Longlisted for Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year A
strategy+business Best Business Book of the yearAn Inside Higher ED
Best Book of the year
"Move Fast and Break Things goes on my bookshelf beside a few other
indispensable signposts in the maze of the 21st Century--The
Technological Society by Jacques Ellul and The Medium is the
Message by Marshall McLuhan. I pray the deepest and highest prayer
I can get to that this clarion warning is heeded. The survival of
our species is at stake."
--T Bone Burnett, Grammy-winning producer and musician
"Move Fast and Break Things is a compelling work with a clear
central vision and a cumulative power that is convincing ....To
read Move Fast and Break Things is to be forced to ponder one's
implicit support of technological platforms whose creators are, on
matters of markets and deregulation, more closely aligned with the
likes of Robert Bork, Paul Ryan, and Grover Norquist than with,
say, Ruth Bader Ginsberg...there is a lot at stake in Move Fast and
Break Things, and a real urgency to do something about
it."--Chapter 16
"A bracing, unromantic account of how the internet was captured...a
timely and useful book. Taplin's book ranges widely over the
digital landscape and ventures where most commentators rarely
go."--The Guardian
"A breakthrough, must-read book...a tour de force...If you want to
understand what has happened to our country and where tech will
take us in the era of Trump, put aside some time to read this book.
It will take your breath away."
--AlterNet
"A necessary book that shows how the Internet revolution has
damaged the way we interact as human beings, along with democracy
itself."
--The Nation
"A powerful argument for reducing inequality and revolutionizing
how we use the Web for the benefit of the many rather than the
few."
--Kirkus Reviews
"A radical remedy."--The Economist
"A scathing indictment of these tech companies' greed and
arrogance."
--The Guardian
"A solid qualitative and quantitative analysis...most every creator
of music and film should welcome the clarion call of Taplin's
book."
--Forbes.com
"A stinging polemic that traces the destructive monopolization of
the internet by Google and Facebook."--The Australian
"An absolute must-read for anyone who wants to gain a little savvy
in the internet era."
--Newsweek
"An excellent new book...Taplin makes a forceful and persuasive
case that companies like Google and Facebook could employ their
powerful artificial intelligence programs to prevent the
infringement of existing copyright laws."
--Chicago Tribune
"An impassioned new book...Taplin is at his strongest when he pulls
back the curtain on vague and lofty terms such as 'digital
disruption' to reveal the effects on individual artists...His prose
is bold...his overall point is an important one."--Washington
Post
"An important new book...[Taplin is] a smart and thoughtful student
of the cultural landscape."--Peter Bart, Deadline Hollywood
"Comprehensive...Where Taplin excels is by putting all this into
the context of the changing global economy."--The Times of
London
"In a remarkably innovative and precise amalgam of political
economy and cultural criticism, Taplin delivers a devastating
critique of our "knowledge-based" economy. This book is a profound
analysis of the ruinous impact of the internet economy on the
promise of American life."
--Benjamin Schwarz, national editor, The American Conservative,
former national editor, The Atlantic
"In this incisive work, Taplin makes the case that Internet
monopolies have reshaped the online marketplace, via data mining
and advertising, to enormous, unconstitutional profit....Taplin
draws on his own experience in the entertainment industry, wherein
he worked as a tour manager for artists like Bob Dylan and the
Band, and as a producer for Scorsese. He employs a measured,
persuasive tone, and makes a compelling case for re-envisioning the
Internet and reinstating value in creating meaningful art. He
considers solutions such as a universal basic income, artist co-ops
and greater emphasis on community in order to salvage creative
cultural output and assess its value....Taplin's topic is as
important as his arguments are enlightening."
--Shelf Awareness
"Insightful.... Taplin provides a keen, thorough look at the
present and future of Americans' lives as influenced and
manipulated by the technological behemoths on which they've come to
depend. His work is certainly food for thought."
--Publishers Weekly
"Jon Taplin's Move Fast and Break Things is a provocative and long
overdue examination of the giant Internet monopolies that have come
to dominate our economy, politics and culture with grave
consequences for the quality of our lives. Well written and highly
entertaining, this is an ideal book for the lay reader and for
students. I like it so much I am using it in my classes this
year."
--Robert W. McChesney, co-author, People Get Ready: The Fight
Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy
"Jonathan Taplin has a bone to pick with Silicon Valley, and it is
a big one."--Huffington Post
"Jonathan Taplin, more than anyone I know, can articulate the
paralyzing complexities that have arisen from the intertwining of
the tech and music industries. He counters the catastrophic
implications for musicians with solutions and inspiration for a
renaissance. He shows the way for artists to reclaim and reinvent
subversion, rather than be in servitude to Big Tech. Every musician
and every creator should read this book."
--Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning Singer and Songwriter
"Jonathan Taplin's brave new book unmasks a grid of high tech
corporate domination that didn't have to be but that now threatens
democracy itself. Like the great muckrakers of a century ago,
Taplin explains clearly how that domination works and challenges us
to do something about it. Our future may well depend on whether we
heed him."
--Professor Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American
Democracy
"Jonathan Taplin's new book could not be more timely. Twenty years
after the initial euphoria of the Web, ten years after the
invention of social media, it's time to stop breaking things and
start thinking seriously about the new habitat we're creating. Move
Fast and Break Things provides a blueprint for a future that humans
can live in."
--Frank Rose, author of The Art of Immersion
"Required reading...a nuanced look at the downside of what is
glibly tossed around as 'disruption' by various cyber-messianic
blowhards."--Charles Pierce, Esquire.com
"Taplin brings an informed perspective to his task, and an
idiosyncratic background...[his] broader explanation of the
upheaval in the music and media industries is illuminating."
--Wall Street Journal
"Taplin does a brilliant job of making his case.... If you're
interested in how technology is shaping the world around us, this
book is well worth reading."
--Evening Standard (UK)
"Taplin is uniquely poised to deliver us Move Fast and Break
Things, a relentless critique that seeks to answer the above
question of why the internet has hindered, rather than helped,
those trying to make a living in the arts."
--New York Daily News
"Taplin outlines in devastating detail how the digital economy has
hurt creative types...a punch to the gut of Silicon Valley's
self-righteous posture."
--Fast Company
"Taplin writes eloquently and passionately about the human toll of
the Internet age.... This is not a "technology book" because that
term would be far too limiting. By reading Move Fast, we can
understand much of the acceptance of Donald Trump in 2016."
--Jon Friedman
"Taplin's new book is an eye-opening portrait of the adversaries in
the war over control of new ideas and big data, and what it will
take to win."
--IP Watchdog
"The book to read right now is Move Fast And Break Things, by
Jonathan Taplin."--Rod Dreher, The American Conservative
"This is an essential book and a singular hybrid--lucid alternate
history of our digital transformation, digital memoir of a
pioneering culture industry player, and bracing polemic on how our
culture was hijacked and might still be redeemed. And my reaction
to Move Fast and Break Things was a three-party hybrid
too--provoked, enlightened and inspired."
--Kurt Andersen, host of the Peabody-winning public radio program
Studio 360
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