Monster - A Tough Love Letter on Taming Machines That Rule Our Jobs, Lives,

"In their 'deliberately short book' IT analysts, management consultants and technology practitioners Roehrig and Pring explore how big a beast technology has become, and how we can tame it to maintain our freedom and privacy while still realising its benefits. The pandemic has shown just how much we rely on technology and how addictive it has become...The authors address the important questions...[and] urge us not to slay the monster but rather to leverage its power and reorient technology as a tool for good."
--Financial Times
 
Monster explains how we can responsibly engage with technology, and avoid its darker tendencies, while accepting its necessary gifts. The authors, insiders at one of the world's largest tech consulting firms, give a unique take on:
* The addictive nature of tech and how to fight it
* The growing backlash against big tech--where it's right and what it misses
* Crucial steps for taming technology's role in your life and in your organization--without becoming a modern Luddite
 
Written for managers, leaders, and employees at companies of all sizes and in all industries, Monster will help you understand and take control of technology's powerful role in your life and your organization.
 
"You must read this book."
--Michael Schrage, Research Fellow, MIT Sloan School Initiative on the Digital Economy
 
"Pithy insights and recommendations on helping tech fulfill its potential as a force for good."
--Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and co-author of The Second Machine Age
 
"Making technology serve--not subvert--the public interest requires better leaders, not more engineers and coders. Monster explains how to become one of those leaders."
--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Professor and author of Think Outside the Building
 
"A bracing new book about some of the most pressing questions of our time."
--Carl Benedikt Frey, Oxford Martin Citi Fellow at Oxford University and author of The Technology Trap
 
"Provocative and concise, Monster is an important book on rescuing ourselves from technology that now feels corrosive and overwhelming."
--Daniel H. Pink, author of WHEN, DRIVE, and TO SELL IS HUMAN
 
"Clarifies a complex web of issues and provides bold steps for a healthier economy, society, and future."
--Francisco D'Souza, former CEO and Vice Chairman of Cognizant
 
"Sheds light on how we can collectively use technology for the good of all."
--Soumitra Dutta, Founding Dean, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University
 
"A cornucopia of pragmatic, actionable, and bold ideas."
--Gary J. Beach, Publisher Emeritus, CIO magazine and author of U.S. Technology Skills Gap

List of contents

1. Have we created a monster? 1
 
Can we tame the beast? 9
 
2. Machines 15
 
Welcome to the web 18
 
Entangled in the dark: Quantum computing powers up 20
 
Speed makes it harder to drive 22
 
Big Brother was an amateur 25
 
From MAD to MADD 26
 
3. Capital 31
 
Income return, growth, and I dream of Gini 34
 
Surveillance capitalism and the digital oligarchs 38
 
Data, privacy, and the health of nations 40
 
Belt, road, and surveillance communism 43
 
Tribes and borders in cyberspace 46
 
Power shifts from the G7 to the D7 48
 
Intermission: Sunflower: When tech meets capital
 
4. Psychology 59
 
Digital fentanyl 62
 
Your 70,000-year-old operating system is melting 65
 
Who are you again? Identity in the digital age 70
 
The singularity is near. Unfortunately 73
 
5. Society 77
 
Modern Luddites and the growing techlash 80
 
Lessons from the rearview mirror 82
 
War has already been declared 85
 
6. A manifesto for taming the Monster 89
 
I. Co-author new rules of the road 92
 
II. Govern technology by community 95
 
III. Apply the Golden Rule in cyberspace 97
 
IV. Accept your role as part of the solution 98
 
V. Don't give up on loving tech 101
 
VI. Treat your data like your reputation 103
 
VII. Fight against the relentless brain hacks 105
 
VIII. Modernize the authority over technology and capital 109
 
7. Off? 113
 
8. Postface: A story (as old as time) about the future 131
 
Notes 135
 
Acknowledgments 143
 
About the Authors 145
 
Index 147

About the author

PAUL ROEHRIG, PhD, is the global head of strategy for Cognizant Digital Business & Technology. Previously he co-founded the Center for the Future of Work. BEN PRING is the director of Cognizant's Center for the Future of Work. In 2018 he was a Bilderberg Meeting participant and in 2020 was named one of world's top management thinkers by Thinkers 50. Ben and Paul, along with Malcolm Frank, co-authored What To Do When Machines Do Everything and Code Halos.

Summary

"In their 'deliberately short book' IT analysts, management consultants and technology practitioners Roehrig and Pring explore how big a beast technology has become, and how we can tame it to maintain our freedom and privacy while still realising its benefits. The pandemic has shown just how much we rely on technology and how addictive it has become...The authors address the important questions...[and] urge us not to slay the monster but rather to leverage its power and reorient technology as a tool for good."
--Financial Times

Monster explains how we can responsibly engage with technology, and avoid its darker tendencies, while accepting its necessary gifts. The authors, insiders at one of the world's largest tech consulting firms, give a unique take on:
* The addictive nature of tech and how to fight it
* The growing backlash against big tech--where it's right and what it misses
* Crucial steps for taming technology's role in your life and in your organization--without becoming a modern Luddite

Written for managers, leaders, and employees at companies of all sizes and in all industries, Monster will help you understand and take control of technology's powerful role in your life and your organization.

"You must read this book."
--Michael Schrage, Research Fellow, MIT Sloan School Initiative on the Digital Economy

"Pithy insights and recommendations on helping tech fulfill its potential as a force for good."
--Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and co-author of The Second Machine Age

"Making technology serve--not subvert--the public interest requires better leaders, not more engineers and coders. Monster explains how to become one of those leaders."
--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Professor and author of Think Outside the Building

"A bracing new book about some of the most pressing questions of our time."
--Carl Benedikt Frey, Oxford Martin Citi Fellow at Oxford University and author of The Technology Trap

"Provocative and concise, Monster is an important book on rescuing ourselves from technology that now feels corrosive and overwhelming."
--Daniel H. Pink, author of WHEN, DRIVE, and TO SELL IS HUMAN

"Clarifies a complex web of issues and provides bold steps for a healthier economy, society, and future."
--Francisco D'Souza, former CEO and Vice Chairman of Cognizant

"Sheds light on how we can collectively use technology for the good of all."
--Soumitra Dutta, Founding Dean, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University

"A cornucopia of pragmatic, actionable, and bold ideas."
--Gary J. Beach, Publisher Emeritus, CIO magazine and author of U.S. Technology Skills Gap

Product details

• Authors: Ben Pring, Pring Ben, Pau Roehrig, Paul Roehrig, Paul Pring Roehrig, Roehrig Paul
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.05.2021
• EAN: 9781119785910
• ISBN: 978-1-119-78591-0
• No. of pages: 176
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Technology > General, dictionaries; Social sciences, law, business > Business > Management; Wirtschaft, Business & management, Wirtschaft u. Management, Wirtschaft u. Gesellschaft, Business & Society, Unternehmenstechnologie, Business Technology