Inside Larry and Sergey's Brain
Starred Review. Author and technology journalist Brandt provides an in-depth look at famously brainy Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, whose radically positive "do no evil" corporate philosophy has achieved astounding success. Though competitors and copyright lawyers may not trust them, one insider goes so far as to say, "never once... have they failed to make the correct moral decision."  Brandt follows the genesis of Google during the duo's Stanford years through their impressive entrepreneurial trajectory to current operations. Hiring and managing policies are trusting and aspirant; they look for employees with "a slight disdain for the impossible," and give their engineers and scientists a day a week to work on their own ideas. One chapter focuses on a joint project between Google Book Search and Oxford University to digitize a collection of more than one million 19th century books, concluding that "there is logic behind most of the company's... diversification. Put at the top of the list 'Because they can.'" In this must-read for anyone who deals seriously with cyberspace, Brandt has a remarkable profile in present-day innovation and potential.