Next: The Future Just Happened
By Michael Lewis
W.W. Norton, October 2001 - 192 pages

Just about everyone I know that has worked in the investment business has read the book Liars Poker, Lewis' first book and bestseller that got his writing career off to a start. I have also read Money Culture but this is the first book I have read from Lewis that is outside of the financial services industry.

In this book Lewis begins to look at some of the social implications of the Internet and some of the crazy stories that are occurring as a result of the Internet Phenomena. Examples include:  "A 15 year old becomes the leading legal advisor on AskMe.Com." Another youth (15 also) draws SEC fire after earning $800K in security trades through various pump and dump schemes on message board.  An older rock band (40+ years old) get their fans to pay for their overseas tour BEFORE the concert. Ie. The fans funded the tour and they then show Lewis how they are, "leveraging the Internet to build a stronger relationship with their fans." He talks about Gnutella and peer-to-peer computing, created by an 18 year old that will radically affect intellectual capital and the way knowledge workers seek to protect it. All and All the book is a good look at the social implications of the Internet. Other interesting books about American Culture/social changes are Credit Card Nation by Robert Manning, Free Agent Nation by Daniel Pink and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

 

About the Author: Michael Lewis is the author of several best-selling books, including Liar's Poker (#1 New York Times national bestseller in both hardcover and paperback), based in part on his own experience working as an investment banker for Salomon Brothers. Lewis is currently a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, a columnist for Bloomberg, and a visiting fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. His freelance writing appears in places including The New Yorker, Slate and Foreign Affairs. Michael Lewis has served as editor and columnist for the British Weekly The Spectator and as senior editor and campaign correspondent of The New Republic. He has filmed and narrated short pieces for ABC-TV's "Nightline" and has hosted a series on presidential politics for National Public Radio. He holds a B.A. from Princeton and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics. He lives in Paris, France, with his wife, Tabitha Soren (MTV fame), and their daughter.