Burnrated
This being the first post and all, this is going to be quite short and less than interesting.
Anyway, I just finished The Burnrate by Michael Wolff, an interesting if too wordy account of the dotcom gold fever. A more cynical observer would note that the book is the author's attempt to cut his losses from his Internet enterprise; i.e. if he was not able to make money then by taking his company public, he is going to make them selling this book. However, as someone who tried it, I can affirm that book publishing is in fact a harmless hobby, not a way to get money.
Wolff tells about several (six, if by my count) interesting deals he and his backers attempted at the time and describes in great deal how they all failed. While it appears that the book is focused on a reader who never moved in the world of corporate negotiations, it must be most appealing to the readers with similar experience. Here they can see that they did not anything wrong; it is normal that the execs don't return phone calls, that the assurances of one day are flatly denied the morning after, that nobody takes responsibility for decisions.
The problem with the book is that is just too wordy. A good editor could cut it to half, without any perceptible loss of information. It is even more ironic because Wolff repeats several times that he is a man of pen, a journalist, that writing is what he does best. This is a thing I noticed elsewhere, too: the people from journalistic schools believing that they learned how to write and therefore this is something they can do best. Sure, Wolff is no fresh graduate, and wrote hundreds of thousands words, so it is no wonder he thinks he is a writer. But I took a look at his latest article (the link above) and it just like the book: scratch out every second word and it would be twice as good. He is not a writer, he is just a journalist.
If you can find somebody -- as I did -- who would lend the book to you, then I would recommend reading it, otherwise it has just too low value per pound of paper.
Anyway, I just finished The Burnrate by Michael Wolff, an interesting if too wordy account of the dotcom gold fever. A more cynical observer would note that the book is the author's attempt to cut his losses from his Internet enterprise; i.e. if he was not able to make money then by taking his company public, he is going to make them selling this book. However, as someone who tried it, I can affirm that book publishing is in fact a harmless hobby, not a way to get money.
Wolff tells about several (six, if by my count) interesting deals he and his backers attempted at the time and describes in great deal how they all failed. While it appears that the book is focused on a reader who never moved in the world of corporate negotiations, it must be most appealing to the readers with similar experience. Here they can see that they did not anything wrong; it is normal that the execs don't return phone calls, that the assurances of one day are flatly denied the morning after, that nobody takes responsibility for decisions.
The problem with the book is that is just too wordy. A good editor could cut it to half, without any perceptible loss of information. It is even more ironic because Wolff repeats several times that he is a man of pen, a journalist, that writing is what he does best. This is a thing I noticed elsewhere, too: the people from journalistic schools believing that they learned how to write and therefore this is something they can do best. Sure, Wolff is no fresh graduate, and wrote hundreds of thousands words, so it is no wonder he thinks he is a writer. But I took a look at his latest article (the link above) and it just like the book: scratch out every second word and it would be twice as good. He is not a writer, he is just a journalist.
If you can find somebody -- as I did -- who would lend the book to you, then I would recommend reading it, otherwise it has just too low value per pound of paper.
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5:37 PM
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