Book Review: Inside Larry and Sergey’s Brain
| Title: | Inside Larry and Sergey's Brain |
|---|---|
| Author: | Richard L. Brandt |
| Published: | 2009 |
| My rating: |   |
This book is a biographical insight into the rise of Google and its founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin.
Compared to the other book from the series I have read (second was Inside Steve’s Brain), this book is very general and focused more on Google as a company, as a representation of them.
It doesn’t go into details about their management style and techniques, how they motivate their employees or what their thinking process is, and gives only basic information about how they actually think.
Also, please take into consideration that this book was published in 2009 and the content of the books ends in 2008, so any information about what kind of projects, plans, successes and struggles Google has, is very outdated.
What I take from this book
Here are three things I have learned from this book (not necessarily about Larry Page and Sergey Brin):
Too much money can make you dumb and blind
Having too much money from the investors and no or very little restrictions on spendings will make you not to look at the business fully from the top to bottom as you can ignore costs, risks and need to create income.
But when the streams of money dry out, you already need to have a strategy in place, not to start looking for one, because there is no such thing and as too big or too famous to fail.
One mistake, one bad decision, one deal taking too long to sign can be the start of the end.
Having a monopoly equals being bad company
When you are too big and have a monopoly in some industry, you are automatically considered as the evil big company, the enemy, the suppressor who doesn’t let others play.
You can also be called “a bad company” if you profile yourself as non-profit (or for example open source) and then you decide to create a profitable company, as happened to Google.
They originally wanted their search technology to be kept on an academic level, but decided to set up a company around that, which some see as a betrayal of their cause.
Do not be afraid to challenge the status quo
Because something works or has been done in some way, it does not mean that there isn’t a better, more effective or cheaper way to do the same thing.
Search engines existed before Google and then they came up with different approach and took the world by storm years later.
Fun fact
During preparation for Y2K bug companies massively invested into new technology to fix the problem in advance, but the apocalypse did not happen and it all turned out to be just panic.
So, they stopped all investments immediately, which caused disruptive waves across the whole industry and helped destabilize the internet boom, creating a dot-com bubble and crash in early 2000s.
Would I recommend this book?
If you are new to entrepreneurship, the rise of Internet stories and online business, this could be a good book to pick up and start your journey.
If you are looking for some practical information on how to lead people, make better decisions or how to create your own successful company, look somewhere else. This is not a book for you.
I pretty much didn’t find any inspiration which I could use as a manager in my daily work life. Information I have learned was more about the company and its failures, successes and struggles.
But if you want some easy reading for the road or before bed, this book can work for you.
Is this book a keeper?
No. Unless you are a Google fanatic.
Did you find this post helpful?
Share it with a friend.
You can also support me
and buy me a coffee. Thank you.
You may also like this post:
Book Review: Do the Work
