Amp It Up
Amp It Up is not a good business book. It is, in book terms, quite bad: there is no through-line,
no overarching theme, no clear message. It reads as if Frank Slootman has cornered you in a room for
an hour and just started talking about whatever came to mind. He bounces from stint to stint at varying
resolution; he re-introduces concepts and quotes multiple times as if he hadn't mentioned them before; he
diretly contradicts himself multiple times. It's a mess.
The thing is — ghostwriting horrors aside — it's actually opinionated, which sets it aside from many
other books in the semi-autobiographical hagiography genre. I respect Slootman for treating the reader
with enough respect and honesty to say things like "yeah, just fire the executive team; it's faster than
figuring out who'se worth keeping" — which is not to say that I think that advice is great, but it's at
least not mealy-mouthed.
It's a short book, and its one that is not really worth reading over the essay-length LinkedIn post that
sparked its publication. But it took me all of like four hours to listen to, and has the same level of
value as an above-average podcast.