System Error and Masters of Scale

Our students and social workers have been enthralled by The Wall Street Journal investigative project titled “The Facebook Files,” particularly sections about the known negative impact of Instagram on teenage girls. If you are, too, then look for SYSTEM ERROR by Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami, and Jeremy M. Weinstein which outlines “Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot.” The text is divided into three sections: Decoding the Technologists, Disaggregating the Technologies, and Recoding the Future. The authors, three professors from Stanford, have kept the last section the shortest and most broad. But, as the Wall Street Journal review explains, “the book’s contribution … is to spell out what needs to be fixed” and there are numerous references to digital surveillance, biased algorithms, toxic content, and impact on democracy. Containing illustrative examples of unethical practices and misplaced values, SYSTEM ERROR offers extensive notes and a helpful index for researchers; it received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

MASTERS OF SCALE by Reid Hoffman (with June Cohen and Deron Triff) will certainly interest our Business students. Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, offers “Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs,” based on interviews with seventy entrepreneurs including the inventor of Spanx, founders of Shake Shack, Airbnb, and Canva, plus Bill Gates, Howard Schultz, and Arianna Huffington, to name just a few.  Hoffman references the Masters of Scale podcast and notes “we believe scaling is not just a science but also a mindset – a journey that requires equal measures of faith and a willingness to fail.”  There are ten key themes related to the entrepreneurial journey and Hoffman devotes an entire chapter to the value of hearing “no” and learning from feedback.  Other themes he discusses include finding the big idea and learning to unlearn, with each chapter ending in a boxed summary section. Our students do a project each year involving business leaders and these stories and insights offer valuable information and discussion prompts for them.