Buy new:
$17.95
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$17.95
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 14 hrs 59 mins
In Stock
$$17.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$17.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$13.28
Rarely circulated withdrawn exlibris. Appears unread. Minor shelfwear to cover. Ships in padded bubble mailer. We always try to ship same day if ordered by 12 Noon CST. Rarely circulated withdrawn exlibris. Appears unread. Minor shelfwear to cover. Ships in padded bubble mailer. We always try to ship same day if ordered by 12 Noon CST. See less
$4.49 delivery May 16 - 21. Details
Or fastest delivery May 14 - 16. Details
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$17.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$17.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Ships from and sold by EastTexasBooks.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Rod Wallace
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Drowning in Potential: How American Society Can Survive Digital Technology Paperback – September 18, 2018

by Rod Wallace (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$17.95","priceAmount":17.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"17","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"i5y94K3QeUGpN1cc3oCx1WGRjSpaKhDqNy5zSfTTAc%2BJzlutmiAer3mzRyZYNKxcV9U2NZC5ITlhOl39MCa0GRSmqeNzQxtdboUIrQlzAx9OIlgQpg1bi0hVtdKD70tDok1j1JMEJ0fcNN01msvmTQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$13.28","priceAmount":13.28,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"13","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"28","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"i5y94K3QeUGpN1cc3oCx1WGRjSpaKhDqGY8scAMe%2FkuV%2FRv%2BY6%2FT0cpUGhEFElfJId0J6Md7n%2B1Rzv8uKY33qPwPtufelZsfLjtgaSporSKBhrFMdTHNmt25p9%2BQomljmtew19BlS3D%2F2%2FtZVeFS9LKh2Ag9Vodc7anvQgKCS%2FQrxqVXDfKYQdoadnBlgdmg","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

In Drowning in Potential, Rod Wallace, PhD, explores the stark contrast between digital technology’s potential and failures in America today. American business and society have been transformed by digital technology, with spectacular benefits. So why is society suffering from such pressing issues?

  • With smart phones, our loved ones are only a click away—yet chronic loneliness is at an all-time high.
  • On the internet, citizens can track politicians’ voting and spending, along with the resulting national debt—yet politicians have spent the past 35 years inflating America’s first massive, peacetime government debt.
  • Thanks to computers and robots, we’re reinventing healthcare—yet American life expectancy is the shortest in the developed world—and getting shorter.

Drowning in Potential provides a probing investigation into digital technology’s unintended consequences. This groundbreaking book offers insights, strategies, and tools for overcoming American society’s most pressing issues. In six chapters, Wallace’s vision is clearly presented through compelling stories supported by in-depth-analysis and more than 60 diagrams and illustrations.

  • What are the side effects of digital technology?
  • How have some societies successfully overcome the unintended consequences of new technologies, when most have not?
  • How can we redesign our approaches to leadership and collaboration so we can overcome the fallout from digital technology?

Speaker, economist, and business strategist, Wallace challenges readers with his unique expertise. Wallace earned his Ph.D. with a leading economic historian, worked worldwide on billion-dollar business challenges, and partnered with a Silicon Valley pioneer to explore the impact of artificial intelligence on society. In this insightful book, he weaves his perspectives into a thought-provoking bird’s-eye view of American society today and of a future society in which our children might prosper.

Learn why we are Drowning in Potential and how to meaningfully improve society—while benefiting yourself. This is essential reading for business leaders and fans of Yuval Harari, Ray Kurzweil, Hal Varian, and Erik Brynjolfsson.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    414 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    September 18, 2018
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 0.94 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1732624003
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1732624009
  7. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Economic Systems Press (September 18, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 414 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1732624003
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1732624009
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.36 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.94 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Rod Wallace

Rod Wallace

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Uniquely positioned at the intersection of business strategy, technology, and societal good, Rod Wallace, Ph.D., is a leading strategist focused on helping organizations deliver profit in service to society.

In his book Drowning in Potential: How American Society Can Survive Digital Technology, Wallace provides groundbreaking insights, strategies, and tools for overcoming American society’s most pressing issues.

Teams working with Wallace integrate diverse perspectives into a coherent vision. Rod also challenges teams by sharing his own view based on a background that crosses international business, economics, and technology.

Wallace has worked with Fortune 500 companies and executives to find concrete, actionable solutions to multi-organization, global, and large-scale problems. To date, leaders working with Wallace have delivered strategic plans for businesses with over $10 billion in turnover and strategic fit analyses for more than $4 billion in potential acquisitions.

Rod has also been a Leadership Team Member focused on sales, marketing, and business development for Cargill Incorporated Refined Oils Europe, a $3 billion enterprise headquartered in the Netherlands. He has collaborated with Silicon Valley pioneer Dr. Steve Omohundro, with whom he explored the impact of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technology on society. And, he has been an invited researcher to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.

Wallace earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan as a Fulbright fellow, studying with leading economic historian Gary Saxonhouse. Wallace’s academic research and publications have focused on the interplay between business collaboration and competition.

More than any aspect of his experience, however, organizations choose to work with Rod because of his approach. He helps organizations deliver the greatest profit by expanding their ability to improve society meaningfully and profitably.

Wallace has lived on four continents and is currently based in Wilmington, Delaware. He is a husband and the father of three young sons. He fears the state of the world we will pass on to the next generation and believes American society must do more than survive—it must flourish.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
36 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

BJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and Stimulating
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2018
Verified Purchase
Professor Wallace does a masterful job of developing parallels across history to create (or reawaken) our awareness of innovation and the way in which society absorbs the changes that result from it. His writing style and command of details makes this journey both entertaining and informative.

Rod intertwines storytelling and credible facts to draw us into his view on historical progression as well as society’s potential for the future, and from there, to consider the implications on major aspects of life.

One of the best (and rarest) aspects of his book is that it gives the reader substance to mull over after putting the book down, and to seemingly interactively evaluate his views and opinions as the book unfolds.

Drowning in Potential is a treatise on change, specifically the change that Digital Technology brings to our world and our society, that invites the reader to decide whether to work to harness the potential of Digital Technology to make positive changes in a society that sorely needs positive direction, or to be a passive element buffeted by change and inured to its potential.

After walking us through eons of change, Rod leaves the reader with a simple and compelling call to action and a beacon of hope.

Well done.
Helpful
 Report
Gerry Lantz
5.0 out of 5 stars Wallace unravels the complexity and negative effects of digital technology
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2018
Verified Purchase
The effective use of digital technology for positive social, cultural, governmental and business ends is possible--if we collaborate and create relationships that deliver helpful and improving outcome according to Dr. Wallace. He lays out in thorough explanations about how we can spend more on health care and education, for example, yet have some of the poorest outcomes in the industrialized world. He brings these complex issues to living, breathing reality with stories, e.g., Betty, an old woman shivering on a gurney in a hospital hallway where tons of data about her condition are available but no one can cover her with a simple blanket. More broadly he demonstrates that "more than 60% of our economy is dedicated to markets failing to deliver what society needs". Over and over again, Wallace concludes that the antidotes to systemic failure is collaboration and personal relationships aimed at an improving human condition. Industry, digital, and governmental leaders should be required to read this book. Wallace thoroughly annotates his points of view and makes them eminently accessible to the everyday reader.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Anurag Siroliya
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking and Articulate!
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
Dr. Wallace really hits the nail on the head with his beautifully penned down thoughts on how digital technology (aka D-tech) impacts each and every aspect of our lives, and how we can "survive" it. The book is interspersed with heart-touching and striking anecdotes, eye-opening and relatable facts, and well-founded and robust solutions which are bound to keep you highly engaged. Dr. Wallace discusses the effect of D-tech on culture, economy, finance, government, among others, so there is something or the other that everyone would be able to relate to. As our lives these days is dependent so much more on technology, we ought to know how it is affecting our present and shaping our future. A must read for sure!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Karen
5.0 out of 5 stars Relevant, very well-researched and thought-provoking
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
The author explores the effects of digital technology on different areas of our lives and society, from our personal lives as individuals and our intimate relationships, to government, culture and business and health care. It's a pervasive, insightful and enlightening study with an enormous amount of interesting and useful information.

Dr. Wallace also offers solutions and insights as to how we can use D-tech to improve our lives and society and how we can overcome the challenges it brings. A much-needed book in today's world!
Helpful
 Report
smb
5.0 out of 5 stars A hard hitting look at the ways in which personal technology affects our lives
Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book ponders a question as old as the beginnings of technology itself, how will the introduction of this into our every day lives affect us as humans? The answers provided in this book pretty much let us know that its not all a bed of roses. The author delves into thought out, detailed analysis, illustrated through real life stories as well. A must read if your technology owns you. Read it on your tablet. :-)
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
CK
5.0 out of 5 stars It inspired me to take action to preserve the fundamental values of human society
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book delivered what I expected and more. It's a thorough analysis of the impact of technology in society, down to every aspect of it. If you're an analytical person, you'll really enjoy it. With specific examples, data, detailed charts, illustrations, and thought-provoking questions, the book has helped me have a much better understanding of how technology is impacting all of us, and has inspired me to take action to preserve the fundamental values of human society.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Heath8200
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking and eye opening!!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2019
Verified Purchase
Absorbing read! Thought provoking to be sure! This book is filled with creative analogies along with startling and fascinating statistics. With so much creative detail, I found the concepts easy to understand and digest. This book examines with pinpoint accuracy what needs to happen as we launch into the next exciting generation of D-Tech and AI. Interesting and eye opening! Readers will be positively affected after reading this book!
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Garbage
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2018
It's not like the rest of the western world is without digital technology. Europe has faster internet, better, cheaper effective healthcare because the government isn't bogged down keeping a for profit healthcare system in place. Profits are our biggest problem. Or rather rw-think tanks manipulating our govt so they can generate more profits for fewer people. We have a huge problem but it's not technology. btw why do we have to now rely on the Russians to get us to the ISS? We used to have a working space program. But we dismantled it hoping rich brats will get other rich people into space.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Evelyn Sinclair
5.0 out of 5 stars DTech analysis
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
I found "Drowning in Potential" an erudite and exciting read. In my 70s, I have always attempted to maintain my technology skills/awareness and I truly believe this book ultimately points the way forward. Dealing with the complexities of Dtech, and learning greater collaborative methods as described in the book, reinforces the need to see the technology as a tool for which we must take responsibility. You make very clear the urgency of managing and guiding Dtech in achieving society's best interests.
We say in the UK that what begins in America eventually arrives here, so if our government and businesses take time to consider the premise of this book, then we could find ourselves ahead of the game with a flourishing business sector, to say nothing of our National Health Service.
Report