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A quick read that covers a lot of ground. It does tend to stray from the monopoly/platform problem when it discusses real estate and healthcare. For the real estate section, a better point would have been the discussion of RealPage, which allows landlords to share information to effectively promote price fixing without even needing a single company to own millions of homes.

Overall, it's a good book and had me thinking deeply about what can be done to make switching from different extractive platforms easier, as well as how much of modern "innovation" will be illegal within in the next 50 years once people remember how bad monopolies are.

It breaks my heart to give this 3 stars. About 50% of the book is an incredible dive in fashion, pop music, and stardom. Marx captures how this evolves under modern capitalism into what it is today. You can see how the result is an emphasis on widespread appeal, rabid fandoms, and a focus on merch/product endorsements.

But Marx has a fatal flaw. He LOATHES Trump. That's not a dealbreaker, but he consistently allows his hatred of Trump, MAGA, and the right-wing to override cultural history/analysis (the premise of the book). The book would have been a lot stronger if he'd taken a more neutral viewpoint. The flaws of major GOP figures are covered in plenty of books and newspapers. This book was a chance to just let their cultural impact be analyzed. But Marx hates them too much to allow for a thorough analysis. It's the book fatal flaw and it breaks my heart it went this route. There are tons of books hating on the GOP (Fascism: A warning by Madeline Albright is a particularly well-written example), but not many books analyzing 21st century cultural change. Marx sacrificed his opportunity to make in impact in order to indulge some of his personal feelings.

John Green delivers an interesting, venerable book whose various essays always approach their topics with such interesting ideas. My only complaint is that after each essay, I feel like I've read an entire book. I'm content, happy, and then need to remind myself that there is more to read. Despite it being an easy read, it took me a while because I was always satisfied after each essay.

It's an fun read. Quick, easy, engaging.

It's a fine book, but not a great book. Jimmy Wales explains his views on the importance of trust clearly, but it leave me lacking. This felt like a book that should have been a home run, full of drama and triumph. But instead, it read like a pretty basic summary of trust. It's not bad. The book is fine, but only fine.