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If this short bio is interesting, you may enjoy the much more in-depth biography, _Titan_, by Ron Chernow. In addition to an incredibly thorough (and even-hand
by dharmon 10y ago
If this short bio is interesting, you may enjoy the much more in-depth biography, _Titan_, by Ron Chernow.
In addition to an incredibly thorough (and even-handed, IMO) treatment of Rockefeller, I found it an interesting perspective on the post-war period in the US.
- travmatt 10y agoThat book was invalualable for exactly those two reasons: the evenhanded portrait of a very complex individual, and a detailed portrait of the world in which he lived and knew. That book started me on a long tear of other biographies of large individuals in American history, specifically from Reconstruction through the Vietnam War. I'm currently working through Robert Caro's multipart series on Lyndon Johnson, another awesome biographer.
- AndrewKemendo 10y agoIn that case it might be worth reading Factory Man, which is a somewhat biography of John D. Bassett III, third generation owner of Bassett furniture. Completely fascinating history of the home furnishings industry and how globalization completely upended it.
- rpgmaker 10y agoI wonder if I will ever get to read Caro's LBJ books. They've been on my to-reads for ages.
- Nicholas_C 10y agoThey were incredible, especially the first book, The Path to Power. It's a fascinating story of a man from humble beginnings who just wouldn't quit and had an unrelenting desire to be somebody powerful.
- adventured 10y agoI'll second that book. It's an excellent read, covering his rise from almost nothing to oil monopolist, and everything in-between (eg there are fascinating parts in there about Standard Oil's collision with the first Russian oil gushers, which significantly threatened Standard's international expansion).
- WalterBright 10y agoWhat's amusing about the book is Chernow would sum up each chapter with the popular narrative of how awful Rockefeller was, yet the facts presented in that chapter told another story.
- jhwitham 10y agoTitan is a great read. For a more throughout book of the oil industry there is also Yergin's The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power.
- saryant 10y agoFollow that up with Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll and you've got a fascinating and compelling look at the last ~120 years of oil and American history.
- aerovistae 10y agoCool anecdote from Titan, one of countless: Rockefeller was relentless in ferreting out ways to cut costs. During an inspection tour of a Standard Oil plant in New York City, for instance, he observed a machine that soldered the lids on five-gallon cans of kerosene destined for export. Upon learning that each lid was sealed with 40 drops of solder, he asked, "Have you ever tried 38?" It turned out that when 38 drops were applied, a small percentage of the cans leaked. None leaked with 39, though. "'That one drop of solder', said Rockefeller,...'saved $2,500 the first year; but the export business kept on increasing after that and doubled, quadrupled--became immensely greater than it was then; and the saving has gone steadily along, one drop on each can, and has amounted since to many hundreds of thousands of dollars"' (Chernow 1998, pp. 180-81). Over the course of his career at the helm of Standard Oil, "Rockefeller cut the unit costs of refined oil almost in half" (Ibid., p. 150).
- samstave 10y agoPlease explain
- coderholic 10y agoVersion that's possible to read: "Rockefeller was relentless in ferreting out ways to cut costs. During an inspection tour of a Standard Oil plant in New York City, for instance, he observed a machine that soldered the lids on five-gallon cans of kerosene destined for export. Upon learning that each lid was sealed with 40 drops of solder, he asked, "Have you ever tried 38?" It turned out that when 38 drops were applied, a small percentage of the cans leaked. None leaked with 39, though. "'That one drop of solder', said Rockefeller,...'saved $2,500 the first year; but the export business kept on increasing after that and doubled, quadrupled--became immensely greater than it was then; and the saving has gone steadily along, one drop on each can, and has amounted since to many hundreds of thousands of dollars"' (Chernow 1998, pp. 180-81). Over the course of his career at the helm of Standard Oil, "Rockefeller cut the unit costs of refined oil almost in half" (Ibid., p. 150).
- aerovistae 10y agoWhat, don't you like monospace fonts??
- markdog12 10y agoHighly recommend. One of the best bios I've ever read. The man had an iron will.
- travmatt 10y agoThe part that struck me about the descriptions of him was his metronome-like consistency.
- samstave 10y agoI wonder, who in our day is Rockefeller - as it would seem that it might be musk but without being an asshole. Zuck is just a manipulator and as he is so young, I don't expect his actually legacy to take hold for at least 40 years. But musk is much more a Titan than zuck. Zuck isn't really doing anything outside his comfort zone - but that doesn't mean that oculus won't be a thing in 20 years - but I wouldn't credit that to zuck.
- travmatt 10y agoHands down it would be Peter Thiel. After I read that book I heard so much of Rockefeller in his worldview, I really thought it was uncanny. Specifically, Thiel's view on monopolies had some hints of Rockefeller.
- arzt 10y agoBezos - hands down, similar degree of ruthlessness in controlling all markets he touches. An anecdote from the "The Everything Store" which sheds more light below: “Bezos kept pushing for more. He asked Blake to exact better terms from the smallest publishers, who would go out of business if it weren't for the steady sales of their back catalogs on Amazon. Within the books group, the resulting program was dubbed the Gazelle Project because Bezos suggested to Blake in a meeting that Amazon should approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle. As part of the Gazelle Project, Blake's group categorized publishers in terms of their dependency n Amazon and then opened negotiations with the most vulnerable companies. Three book buyers at the time recall this effort. Blake herself said that Bezos meant the cheetah-and-gazelle analogy as a joke and it was carried too far. Yet the program clearly represented something real--an emerging realpolitik approach toward book publishers, an attitude whose ruthlessness startled even some Amazon employees. Soon after the Gazelle Project began, Amazon's lawyers heard about the name and insisted it be changed to the less incendiary Small Publisher Negotiation Program.” ― Brad Stone, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
- samstave 10y agoThat seems like the same author who wrote about Alexander Hamilton from which a lot of the research for the Broadway play "Hamilton" came from...