Book Review: Without Their Permission

I'll be honest, I've been excited about this book since I heard about it's release a couple of months ago. I consider Alexis Ohanian to be a true defender of internet freedom and of all the good things that can come from it. Without Their Permission definitely highlights some of the most recent awesome things that have come from the internet being free where anyone can create a site for their passion.

What's Inside?

The book is divided into three basic parts - how Alexis co-founded reddit - one of the most visited web sites today, a few examples of other websites that are changing the world, and how anyone else can do the same.

The story of how reddit was started was itself an interesting tale and perhaps even one that can be its own book since it's also an inspiring read. Who would have thought that one of the most popular web sites may never have existed.

Alexis gives a few examples of other websites that set out to help the world be a better place. With sites like Kickstarter and DonorsChoose, it's hard not to see that people really want to help...and they do. I've participated in both, myself and it is, indeed, very rewarding just knowing that I played a part in helping out.

In fact, with DonorsChoose you can get the added reward of thank you notes directly from the students of the class in which you supported. It gives the reward a bit more of a personal touch. Below is one that I've gotten recently and I can't express what I felt when I read through them.

The third part is where Alexis gives his advice on how anyone can create something without anyone's permission. He gives the advice based on his own experience as well as the experience when he did his investments to other web sites who he feels will help the world. He even gives ideas on how to learn to code if you've never done it before.

Final Thoughts

It didn't take me long at all to finish this book as it was an easy read. It even made me laugh a few times. I'll definitely keep this on the book shelf and will even re-read it several times.

If you're looking to start something this book will definitely be a good kick in the right direction. It even felt like the book made me want to start something at the moment I was reading it. It's not just for people wanting to start a business, it's for people wanting to start anything.

Bonus

Alexis has done quite a bit for the community as a whole. To help introduce you to his work here are a couple of things he's done.

TED Talk about social media and the power of community.

Audio excerpt from the final chapter of Without Their Permission.

Book Review: Masters of Doom

If you were like me and you grew up in the 90s and played any sort of video games then I'm sure you've played Wolfenstein 3D or Doom. Though, regardless if you were into gaming, these games probably marked the beginning of an era in computing in general.

I've heard about this book when I just happened to find it on Amazon, but what wanted me to read it was that it is apparently the book that helped Alexis Ohanian want to start a company so it actually helped make reddit a reality.  After finding that out I thought I just had to read this book.

What just starts out as a few guys who just want to make games that they themselves wanted to play soon turns into an empire. Instantly I can tell this is another nonfiction book that just reads so much like a novel. It starts off with telling the early stories of the Two Johns, John Romero and John Carmack. About their gaming passion and how they got into programming games, and early on you can tell that they were destined to create their own masterpieces. After a little while creating and developing games for a small company they get the itch to create their own company. With Romero's creative ideas and Carmack's programming talent, they definitely have what it takes. They created id Software.

With the help of a few others they recruited, they were able to make their first game Commander Keen. Now I remember playing this back in the Windows 3.1 days and I had no idea it was id who created the game. Their next big title was Wolfenstein 3D. I still have memories of when I first played this and I'm sure, like myself, it the first time others have played a first person shooter. Their next blockbuster is perhaps the one they're most famous for, Doom. I think it was the first time I was hesitant to open a door in a game because I wasn't sure what was behind it.

Of course, there were some inner struggles within the small company that the book goes over as well. Eventually a few of them left to pursue other interests, but their initial passion of creating great games never ceased.

This was definitely a joy to read and, if you're a developer as well, you may just get a little interest in graphics or game programming yourself.

Book Review: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

I'm sure I'm a bit late reading this and I'll admit I didn't know hardly a thing about Steve Jobs before coming into this book. The only reason I decided to give it a shot was that it was so well recommended by the tech community online, especially after the Ashton Kutcher movie went out in theaters. "Why not?", I figured. "I like biographies and it'll give me some more background of the man himself as well as to how he ran Apple." So I went straight to my library to get a copy.

It was definitely a great read. It felt more like a novel than just a biography which makes it an easy read and helps it get read that much faster. It still took a couple of weeks to get through it, though I believe I'm a bit of a slower reader than many as I think it helps understand more of what I'm reading.

The main things that became instantly interesting was how much of a visionary Steve Jobs apparently was at Apple as well as how much business sense he instantly had. True Steve Wozniak basically did the engineering for the Apple I and II. However, if it wasn't for Jobs then I doubt the company exist at all. Truly, his drive to create a company definitely came to fruition.

There were many things the biography helped to learn about why certain events occurred, such as how and why he was ousted from Apple in the mid 80s, how Microsoft helped the company when he was brought back to Apple, how he was involved with Pixar, and the beginnings of what became the the iPod and iPhone. Interestingly, the way they came about is just the other products out there, as Jobs would say, sucked.

Steve Jobs' love of technology and design is a rare combination even in these days. How many developers do you know are actually good designers? I'm definitely not one of them (though, I am trying to learn) . I used to think that the closed ecosystem of Apple creating their own hardware, software, and services was a bad idea, but like Wozniak I'm beginning to understand how it helps the end user experience as a whole.

The biography even helped with a bit of understanding of the business culture as a whole since it repeatedly went to how meetings went with Jobs and the Apple board. Even as a CEO Jobs tended to be different than others by taking hours or days to make a decision on something instead of months to do research how the decision could affect the company. That tells you how passionate he was about his products and what his company could do for people.

If you haven't read it yet, I definitely recommend it. Of course, you can always just wait for the movie. I have high hopes it'll be better than the aforementioned one.

As for myself, I think I'll be test driving more Apple products in the future.