The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future
There are a lot of good ideas in AOL founder Steve Case’s new book The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future. The guy really does have a vision of the future. I wish he’d spent more time on it. This should be a book of ideas but instead it’s a hybrid, full of stories about his rise, the rise of AOL, and his company’s historically unfortunate merger with Time Warner. None of the memoir parts, even the deeply felt ones, come across with particularly insight, all covered better by other writers years ago. For a much more efficient and engaging tour through Case’s vision, check out an interview he did with lean startup stalwart Eric Ries. That Q&A is rare for both what it offers (intelligence and agility on both sides) and what it eschews (there’s no silly “Internet 3.0” stuff in here). Prodded by Ries, Case rattles off insight after insight: policy will be more important, disruption will increase the need to partner with incumbents, a heyday of regional entrepreneurship is coming. Hey, he should write a book about that. A whole book.