I guess it is hard to show what you know in relatively few pages. As a writer, Kelly is clearly his own worst enemy. He uses cryptic graphics that sometimes convey a lot, sometimes convey nearly nothing. He writes oddly--his language is often imprecise, and since he is sort of terse, that occasional vagueness is pretty deadly. Often, too, he reduces what he has to say to sound bites. I'm wary of people who do that. They might be smart, they might be covering up dumb. They oversimplify, and usually end up sounding partly goofy. In this case, some of what Kelly says is sufficiently goofy that I don't know whether he is unaware of what has been written, doesn't understand what he has read, or doesn't believe what he has read.
If you know what you are talking about, you are likely to be interesting. I think Kelly might be an interesting guy. He's no academic, but he's an educational omnivore. He shows evidence of having read some serious work in technological forecasting--but evidence, too, of not having read deeply on the subject. For example, he appears to be unaware of much of econometric and psychometric--that is, measurement--literature, and some of his statements make it appear that he is unaware of fairly well-known literature pertaining to diffusion and substitution in high-technology markets. At the same time, he appears to be intellectually and professionally very much in the center of the transformation of our economy from industrial to informational.
I thought the book was thought-provoking. I recommend it primarily for the relative newcomer to information-economy writings, with the caveat that readers will have to identify for themselves facts, opinions, conjectures, overstatements, baloney, and a few really good ideas.
Kevin Kelly, as founding editor of Wired magazine, has long been one of the new economy's chief advocates. In New Rules for the New Economy, Kelly tries to encapsulate the characteristics of this emerging economic order by laying out 10 rules for how the wired world operates. It is very well thought out and well written. A superb synthesis of new economy thinking. Right or wrong, it does a phenomenal job of putting forth the premises and substantive arguments that make the new economy such a provocative topic. Kelly manages to do this while maintaining a fluid and natural story telling style. Here is a representative sample excerpt:
"Communication is the foundation of society, of our culture, of our humanity, of our own individual identity, and of all economic systems. This is why networks are such a big deal. Communication is so close to culture and society itself that the effects of technologizing it are beyond the scale of a mere industrial-sector cycle. Communication, and its ally computers, is a special case in economic history. Not because it happens to be the fashionable leading business sector of our day, but because its cultural, technological, and conceptual impacts reverberate at the root of our lives."
This book both informs and, more importantly, inspires. Its powerful message has no doubt launched careers and changed lives. It will remain an important read for many, many years to come.
Kevin, like all good pioneers, has taken more than his fair share of "arrows in the back", but don't be mis-led by the naysayers, this one is the real deal.