The Sovereign Individual
The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization. Few observers of the late twentieth century have their fingers so presciently on the pulse of the global political and economic realignment ushering in the new millennium as do James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg. Their bold prediction of disaster on Wall Street in Blood in the Streets was borne out by Black Tuesday. In their ensuing bestsellar, The Great Reckoning, published just weeks before the coup attempt against Gorbachev, they analyzed the pending collapse of the Soviet Union and foretold the civil war in Yugoslavia and other events that have proved to be among the most searing developments of the past few years. In The Sovereign Individual, Davidson and Rees-Mogg explore the greatest economic and political transition in centuries -- the shift from an industrial to an information-based society. This transition, which they have termed "the fourth stage of human society," will liberate individuals as never before, irrevocably altering the power of government. This outstanding book will replace false hopes and fictions with new understanding and clarified values.
Stats for nerds
23recommend
57mentions
49people
2009–2026years
44% recommend47% neutral9% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I read a very interesting theory in a great book called the Sovereign Individual.
The optimum firm size will go down as the cost of communications goes down. Back when messages had to be delivered on horseback, you wanted all your people in one office building.
But now you can send an email in 10 seconds for $0, so it becomes practical to have many spread-out firms cooperating.
Obviously this is not the only factor, but still.
There's another interesting idea in Marvin Minsky's Society of Mind: when many agents with approximately the same processing power cooperate, the higher-level agents must necessarily be out of touch with the details, and will make big policy decisions that look stupid to many of the lower-level agents who have more of the details but less of the big picture. His agents were all part of the same mind, but it seems eerily similar to politics and big-company management.
So maybe startups should try to hire people with startup experience from the same industry since big-picture politicking is less valuable to a startup.
- It is amazing how prescient the book "The Sovereign Individual" is despite being written in 1997. I recently re-read it and it's spot on with what's been happening lately. Highly recommend if you want to better understand how the internet is changing society and causing nation states to lose their grip.
- Human Action
The Sovereign Individual
- My background is mainly in BD (tech) and policy (US & international gov) and I've always found business books with the exception of How to Win Friends and Influence People to be incredibly lacking. Instead, some of the most influential books for me have been sci-fi or more in the future prediction category.
1) Stand on Zanzibar: Helped me understand one direction of a potential world unfolding and stands out as incredibly prescient
2) Sovereign Individual: Helped me understand emerging tech trends potential impact on how government/society is organized
3) The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Helped me better understand relationships, human needs, and dealing with impossible choices
- I’m actually a well-known author and this is a pseudonym.
This really isn’t that crazy of an idea though.
Read “The Sovereign Individual” by Davidson & Mogg. Written in 1999/2000.
- I suggest some better books for understanding Musk are Blood in the Streets, The Sovereign Individual and
The New Barbarian Manifesto
Ian Angell, dubbed ""the Angell of Doom"" by The (London) Times, lays out his manifesto for the New Barbarians who will lead the economic elite into a Brave New World over the next two decades. He rejects the long-held view of information technology as our benign liberator from mundane work. Instead, he regards it as the seed for a new society, in which the winners in the knowledge economy will construct their own ""smart regions"" founded on libertarian principles and enlightened self-interest. https://www.amazon.com/New-Barbarian-Manifesto-Survive-Infor...
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