Wired Magazine Editor Chris Anderson’s best-selling book “Free: The Future of a Radical Price” explains the history, the origins, psychological effects and the future of one single word, “Free,” and how offering something for nothing or almost nothing is, in his eyes the new right way of doing business.
Anderson believes that Free as a concept is undergoing a dichotomy: Mistrusted by older generations, embraced and almost expected by the younger ones. As the economy keeps progressing from atoms to bits, Free will become the rule rather than the exception and he believes that is a good thing as it will force businesses to remain more competitive rather than less.
It is my opinion that in his eagerness, Anderson becomes his own worst enemy. He turns his book into a scattered list of figures, examples and anecdotes of Free succeeding and failing, although mostly succeeding. Instead of a more orderly essay akin to Anderson’s previous best seller, “The Long Tail,” the reader gets into a bumpy rollercoaster that only slows down toward the end chapters.
Anderson’s “Free,” much like “The Long Tail” is entertaining and engaging, with references to popular culture that make it easy to understand the concept of Free at first.
However, Anderson’s belief in the concept of Free is so strong that he overwhelms the reader with information, which tends to work against his argument, as they tire and confuse the reader rather than convince.
Right from the start, he begins the prologue with a 21st century example –Monty Python- and a smart, sharp contrast between how people respond to Free in the 21st century and how they did in the 20th century. The latter point is well made and anyone who encountered a two-for-the-price-of-one in the last ten years can relate to that.
Anderson then follows the prologue with stories from the 20th century –Jell-O and Gillette—an examination of the roots of the word Free, an economics lesson on the types of Free in today’s market, and a history lesson on Free, from the Babylonians to the 1990s.
Then, we’re back to the beginning with more psychology on chapter 4 and then we’re thrust back into a historical survey of the mid-1900s in chapter 5. From the 21st century, to the fourth century and then back to the 20th century again, and by this point we’re not even one-fourth into the book
Such back-and-forth buries something truly astounding: the reality of businesses making money by turning their merchandise into free goods. Twenty-two years ago, greed was good. Now, to hear Anderson tell it, freed is good.
In the midst of Anderson’s barrage of information, three redeeming qualities are worth noting. First, it is my opinion that Anderson comes across as an honest writer, unafraid to give space to those who doubt that the concept of Free he so loves is nothing more than a gimmick.
Instead of offering the literary equivalent of a dismissive shrug, we get an understanding, if succinct view of why people would and do fear the concept of Free.
This is first mentioned in the prologue and later given a chapter of its own, with a list of reasons why some people don’t quite buy into the concept. Reasons range from fear of getting burned (i.e. Free isn’t really gratis after all) to the idea of Free being synonymous with something of low quality.
It is quite an accomplishment for Anderson to even try to be that objective, when one considers how committed and into the concept of Free the author is.
Second, and this is particularly useful to the uninitiated reader, Anderson pairs this list of reasons people mistrust the concept of Free with two more sections that define and synthesize why and how Free works. After Anderson’s almost stream-of-consciousness approach to the book, these lists are a welcome change.
Third, Anderson offers examples from all over the world, a globalizing trait shared by Anderson’s prior best-seller, “The Long Tail.”
This time, Anderson tells the reader about street vendors in Brazil, piracy and doctors in China and a Danish gym that charges you only if you don’t go work out.
This, besides showing the amount of work Anderson put into this book, also shows the global impact of the Free phenomenon, for better or worse.
However, as remarkable as Anderson’s capacity for research is, I still believe Anderson’s heart overcame his brain when writing this book.
It is such his love for the topic and so constant his hopscotching from one thing to the next that it almost reads like a blog at times, choppy and disconnected from one topic to the other, (e.g., “Nature Wastes Life”, dealing with, among other things deoxyribonucleic acid, followed by “Making the world safe for cat videos,” which deals with YouTube.)
It’s almost like he opened a faucet and tried to pour every argument in favor of Free he could find.
Once you get past the fact that you never know where the book is going to take you next, this is a decent read. If this book is readable at all, it is because of Anderson’s skill at writing in a way that is colloquial without being condescending.
In conclusion I would recommend this book openly with just the following caveat. Those who loved The Long Tail and are expecting more of the same precise prose will find plenty of a lot of things in this book, but not that. This book makes the reader wonder, but also meander. This book informs and amuses but also confuses.
References List
Anderson C., (2009) Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Hyperion Press, New York, NY.
Pressman, E. (producer) Weiser, S. [writer] & Stone, O. (writer/director) (1987) Wall Street [Motion picture] United States, Twentieth Century Fox.
