I have to admit: when I first got this book I thought it was yet another vanity book project by a powerful egomaniacal Silicon Valley bigshot promising to solve all of the World’s problems by recasting them in the mold of his own special insight. I’ve read several such books and have even bought into the hype of some of them. They were full of grand proclamations and even grander visions of the future, but most of them left any crucial nitty-gritty steps out and did not really connect with the majority of the ordinary workers hoping to further their own careers. However, I was in for a big pleasant surprise. “Rebooting Work” is a succinct and to-the-point case for the emerging world of entrepreneurial approach to the individual careers.

Maynard Webb is a well-known figure in Silicon Valley circles. He has helped reinvigorate eBay’s technological backbone and push it into the stable and sophisticated online trading platform that it has become. In “Rebooting Work” he tries to distill decades of experience working in the high-tech sector, mentoring workers and colleagues, and helping launch a new online working platform in LiveOps. The book tries to instill the entrepreneurial mentality in all workers; regardless of what work environment you might find yourself in right now. The goal, in the words of this book, is to become a “CEO of your own career.” The book presents a simple four-square grid of four different types of career situations, and tries to help you to the successful entrepreneurial square.

One of the big points of the book is that the recent developments in technology, especially the wide penetration of fast internet, are finally making it possible for a vast majority of workers to work virtually from anywhere. I am afraid that this is still more of a desideratum than an actual reflection of the state of marketplace for work. However, just a few years ago I would have also thought that a book like this one is unrealistic in its expectations. Today I am much more cautiously optimistic. “Rebooting Work” presents the reader with the vision of work in the 21^st century as it should be. I sincerely hope that it does become a fully functioning reality before too long.

**** What could have made this book even better. ****

I would have like more concrete examples of various careers options and steps in building them from scratch online. This would also include a proper assessment of various career tools and skills, and ways of acquiring them. In particular I would have liked a better advice of how marketable various skills are and will be in the upcoming years.

This book is a great resource, motivator, and a mindset builder for the kind of work world that will (hopefully) emerge in the upcoming years. It’s very to the point and largely devoid of hype and overselling of the case that it’s making. However, you should still be prepared to do most of the footwork on your own and be able to avail of various online and offline resources that are out there.