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[Book Review] Smart People should build things by Andrew Yang

Smart People Should Build Things – Andrew Yang – Pavan Raju

Andrew Yang is an American 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. He has started a non-profit "Venture For America" which aims to generate 1,00,000 jobs by 2025.
                       Andrew Yang discusses entrepreneurship at a high level - why does it mean to the nation and also discusses it at a low level - what does it mean to the individual. It offers valuable insights in to the subject. What does it mean if smartest people are not building business? "Best minds are not working on the toughest problems of our time" - this is the quote from the book which i liked the most.
                       In this book, he discusses current American job market. He wishes America gets back to the culture of building things again. America which once created large business are now focused on finance, consulting and law. He argues these, and especially the established firms, do not necessarily create value, have a assured revenue model. But these are attracting the top most talent in the country while the startups struggle to find worthy people. And we have a problem.
                        Andrew discusses in detail what it means to work at a large corporate and what can it mean to work at a small startup building things. He offers various anecdotes from his own life and from people around him. This is a good learning from this book. It makes us think about our own experience in professional life and challenges its meaning. Whatever maybe the answer, you come out with a better perspective of your own work after reading this.
                       His own experience at Manhattan Prep is discussed which is interesting. His initiative Venture For America is also discussed in detail. He tells about experience of various people in detail. At some point, you may feel that you are reading about too many people and too little about the ideas you wanted to read about.

Conclusion:

If you are interested in entrepreneurship and want to know some of the stories of struggle, this is a worthy read. Entrepreneurship is a very vast and difficult subject with many dimensions. Here we get know, few things about it. But if you have already read few books about the subject or know good deal about it, you may find this one trivial. For anyone who is starting on the subject, it is a good read.

After reading this, you wish there was a similar book which discusses about talent and business in India. I hope to find one soon :)

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