Book description
The Pebble and the Avalanche shows how the Internet, the auto industry, music downloading, and other rapidly evolving industries are all connected by the same dynamic -- disaggregation. Moshe Yudkowsky shows why this dynamic is crucial to survival in the 21st century marketplace, and how you can use it to bring about change in your industry.Disaggregation means taking things apart -- for example, the break-up of AT&T, which greatly improved phone service. But there are more subtle examples. Separating information from the storage medium -- digital music doesn't rely on records, tapes, or CDs; digital photographs don't require paper; and digital movies don't need film -- has enabled millions of people to create and share their work (and others') far more easily than ever before, with enormous implications.
Think of this process as an avalanche: at the top of a mountain, rocks are jammed together in a solid mass. Pry some of these rocks loose and you will unleash a tremendous outpouring of energy that sweeps everything from its path. The same thing happens in technology: with the right innovation, you can pry the pieces of technology apart and unleash an outpouring of powerful ideas that shake apart whole industries.
Yudkowsky details exactly how disaggregation works, describing five different ways of taking things apart, and the many ways it can be used to generate new innovations. The Pebble and the Avalanche provides strategies for successfully adapting to a disaggregation revolution, and points towards the future, identifying several industries that are about to be completely transformed by disaggregation.
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I. Disaggregation: Why the Sum of the Parts Is Greater Than the Whole
- Part II. Case Studies: Two Hundred Years of Revolutions
-
Part III. Business Strategies: How to Cope, How to Fail, and How to Predict the Future
- Chapter Eight Interfaces and Standards: The Nuts and Bolts of Modern Civilization
- Chapter Nine Coping with Surprises
- Chapter Ten Marx, Lenin, and Gates: Failed Counterrevolutions
- Chapter Eleven The Role of Government
- Chapter Twelve Predictions: Three Revolutions in Progress
- Chapter Thirteen Getting Started, Finishing Touches
- Endnotes
- Index
- About Disaggregate
- About the Author
- About Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Product information
- Title: The Pebble and the Avalanche
- Author(s):
- Release date: November 2005
- Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
- ISBN: 9781576759615
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