The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google

Behemoth tech companies are favorite subjects for Galloway, a serial entrepreneur and New York University business professor, when he talks on digital media panels, and actor Ross captures the author’s swagger in the audio edition of Galloway’s book. The effect is similar to hearing Galloway in full stride. The book’s thesis is that each of the four technology giants—Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google—appeal to consumers’ instinctual needs: Amazon sates the hunger for acquisition, Apple appeals to the need to create, Facebook plays on the need for love and human interaction, and Google satisfies the need for God. It may sound outlandish at first, but the book manages to be both fun and convincing, as Galloway details the eight key factors each company uses to establish dominance in the marketplace. The book ends with a sober warning about the “distortion created by the steady march of digital technology,” which Galloway believes is “dangerous for society.” Narrator Ross delivers this coda with a gravity that counters his earlier animation. The combination makes the audio edition of this timely book all the more forceful. A Portfolio hardcover. (Oct.)