Opportunism
How to Change the World--One Idea at a Time
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this bold and forward-looking book, an Israeli civic leader shows how reorienting our society to make the most of "opportunity" could restore the global economy to health—and give added value to the contributions of the new class of knowledge workers.
For most of us, opportunism is a tainted concept. Shraga F. Biran thinks otherwise. He shows that our present economy favors the wealthy few more than at any point in history. But such an economy is both unstable and outmoded, unable to recognize the true value of the work done by the new knowledge class, whose commerce is in ideas, not financial assets. This is why most of us have seen no real gains from the spectacular increases in paper wealth during the past three decades.
Biran sees a transformative new way in Opportunism. In today's economy, he argues, the way to thrive is to create an opportunity and make the most of it. With great passion, he proposes that we as a society should establish a "right of opportunity," akin to patents and copyrights, enabling all members of society to lay claim to their ideas and benefit from them financially. Thus empowered, the new opportunists can help bring about a revolution in applied knowledge on the scale of the Industrial Revolution— and a more just, stable, and prosperous society.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a time when creativity and innovation, not manufacturing and industry, are creating real value, society must enable all citizens to lay claim to their ideas and benefit from them financially, argues this sprightly manifesto from Israeli entrepreneur Biran. Though opportunism that cagey ability to take advantage of a fortuitous constellation of time, place, and one's own abilities has a bad name, it's an essential tool for change, and our current economic climate has opened up opportunities that governments and individuals must investigate. The financial crisis allows enormous possibilities for societies to redistribute wealth and implement reforms to create an overhauled system of creativity encouragement through patents and intellectual property protection "social privatization," passing the intellectual capital back to the individual. Though Biran has a number of valid points and certainly argues them passionately, he's stretched a decent argument too thin in book-length format, resulting in a great deal of repetition and padding. Those interested in intellectual property and its legislative overhaul will be fascinated; others may find it overly academic and strained.
