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Title: The 500-Year Delta: What Happens After What Comes Next by James Taylor, Jim Taylor, Howard B. Means, Watts Wacker, Howard Means ISBN: 0-88730-838-4 Publisher: Harpercollins Pub. Date: 01 June, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (19 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Stimulating and thought provoking by disrupting assumptions
Comment: Wacker and Taylor challange the way we think about most aspects of our lives. The idea that there is a paradigm shift every 500 years is an exciting notion. While the book rambles at times it always rewards the reader with a new idea or a deep insight. As a guide to get accross the delta of change economically, socially, culturally and psychologically the book is exceptionally useful. Even if the authors are wrong on every point (doubtful) the direction they point to and the ideas they gesture to are worth double the price of the book. We need to be looking differently and Wacker and Taylor point a way

Rating: 4
Summary: Challenging if not perfect
Comment:

The book does what good books should: it makes you think.

However, the authors are (1) derivative in some cases (much of their work can be found in Thomas Handy's explorations of how the world of work is changing, such as in his book, The Age of Unreason, c. 1989); (2) don't footnote/cite their statistics (eg, 12 percent of Americans trust public-interest messages from large corporations - says who?); and (3) are somewhat "new-agey" (Part Four uses subheads pulled from the Noble Truths of Buddhism, not to imply that Buddhism is a new age religion).

They criticize macroeconomics, stating "when consumers control the market equation, they can have whatever it is that they want." Huh? Consumers have unlimited resources? Since when?

A good fast skim if you are familiar with changes in the world of work. Neat trivia (list of things that existed in 1960 that no longer exist today). Wild projections for 500 years hence.

I found on my second review that I argued more with the authors (in the margins of the book) than on the first take (which was on an airplane). That said, I'm surprised the book is not on Amazon.Com's top 50 business or computing lists.

Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting and insightful but overly wordy
Comment: In short the book could have been about 60% shorter. At times the hypothesis drawn are illuminating but very often the authors are spending entirely too much time to support their insights. My feeling is that anyone reading a book such as this doesn't necessarily need a whole lot of convincing as long as there is some sound rationale and telling examples to support the theories.

Having just completed the book I would recommend that anyone interested in picking up the book just look at the last 15 pages to get a sense of the nature of the book where the authors make predictions regarding the next 500 months and the next 500 years.

There are however some very keen insights on the power and use of technology (connectivity), tribalism, the role of corporations and government, business and social constructs, the importance of constant education, the nature of chaos, the power of the consumer... and almost all of this is addressed from primarily a marketing perspective.

There was very little that was written that I disagreed with but I feel like the same thing could have been said in many fewer words.

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