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ISBN 9781576752944
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Amazon Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review to be helpful:

The Pebble and Social Science,  December 6, 2005

By Linda Freedman

I thought that without an engineering or business background that I might not "get" this book. Wrong! Dr. Yudkowsky writes as a master teacher. He reviews concepts and outlines chapters to make this most intelligible and provides clear, entertaining examples. As a family systems therapist, I found it a brilliant treatment of systems, the ultimate metaphor for what happens to all of us as we grow up and move on in life. That complex organism we call the family naturally disaggregates and evolves as children leave home, evolve, raise children, and inevitably modify the culture of the family of origin, or "parent company". This should be required reading for all sociologists and mental health professionals, and obviously for anyone who intends to go corporate in the business world.





6 of 8 people found the following review to be helpful:

Really eye-opening book about people and technology!,  November 9, 2005

By Lin L. Chase

I loved this book...the ideas Yudkowsky presents really got me thinking about how social and organizational decisions can have such a serious impact on how technologies succeed or fail,and what impact technology has on the quality of our lives. The topics in some of the chapters have also sparked some very interesting conversations at the office (I work in the technology lab of a big management consulting firm)...which is always fun!





2 of 3 people found the following review to be helpful:

Breaking things down to build them anew works!,  February 3, 2006

By Roxanne King

Moshe Yudkowsky proposes a thought-provoking premise: Breaking entities apart causes more progress and development than building them does. As this is the opposite of conventional thought, it is remarkable how well he is able to illustrate and defend the view in these few chapters. Using the breakup of AT&T as a primary - but far from the only - example, he shows how increased competition foments innovation.

This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in business management, government or history. It should probably be a must-read for students of all of those disciplines.





3 of 5 people found the following review to be helpful:

Fascinating read, even without interest in business,  November 30, 2005

By Shimon Unterman

This is a really wonderful read. The book manages to pack a rather impressive amount of material backing up a solid thesis into a relatively short, readable, and *enjoyable* form. Even though I never expect to do anything from the management/business side of managing disaggregation, the paradigm Yudkowsky presents provides an excellent framework for assessing changes in technology and society. Furthermore, in just a few days I've already come up with dozens of possible applications to my own interests and work, and I'm currently using the ideas in the book to sort through how I can apply these ideas.

A highly recommended read.





3 of 5 people found the following review to be helpful:

Fantastic Book!!!,  November 24, 2005

By Vivian Blech

This is a book well worth reading. it's written clearly and concisely and gives the reader plenty of food for thought. How do things happen the way they do? Read the book!!!







  • Offers a completely new, "big picture" look at what causes whole industries to change
  • Shows how this concept can be applied in any industry to unleash creativity and create dramatic improvements
  • Demonstrates that many of the most important breakthroughs of the past 200 years resulted from applying this concept


The Pebble and the Avalanche shows how the Internet, the auto industry, music downloading, and other rapidly evolving industries are all connected by the same dynamic -- disaggregation. Moshe Yudkowsky shows why this dynamic is crucial to survival in the 21st century marketplace, and how you can use it to bring about change in your industry.

Disaggregation means taking things apart -- for example, the break-up of AT&T, which greatly improved phone service. But there are more subtle examples. Separating information from the storage medium -- digital music doesn't rely on records, tapes, or CDs; digital photographs don't require paper; and digital movies don't need film -- has enabled millions of people to create and share their work (and others') far more easily than ever before, with enormous implications.

Think of this process as an avalanche: at the top of a mountain, rocks are jammed together in a solid mass. Pry some of these rocks loose and you will unleash a tremendous outpouring of energy that sweeps everything from its path. The same thing happens in technology: with the right innovation, you can pry the pieces of technology apart and unleash an outpouring of powerful ideas that shake apart whole industries.

Yudkowsky details exactly how disaggregation works, describing five different ways of taking things apart, and the many ways it can be used to generate new innovations. The Pebble and the Avalanche provides strategies for successfully adapting to a disaggregation revolution, and points towards the future, identifying several industries that are about to be completely transformed by disaggregation.