New Power: How Power Works in our Hyperconnected World – and How to Make It Work for You

This is one of the most eye-opening books of 2018 because it dissects how mankind's mindsets and behaviors are currently being transformed by hyperconnectedness.

Co-writers Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms' tone is mostly optimistic, usually pointing out to the endless possibilities for socioeconomic transformation through digital technologies.

They caution that we are currently living in a world ruled by the so-called "participation farms", a concept that the authors describe as a "number of big platforms that have fenced, and harvest for their own gain, the daily activities of billions". That means that Social Networks like Facebook can play a huge role in the outcome of an election or, as has been done already, its algorithms might even try to shape the user's mood.

Luckily there are plenty of people and organizations that are using all kinds of digital platforms to collaborate and to engage with others to create new forms of communities based on individual participation.

There is also a very interesting chapter that focuses on the Old Power Values VS New Power Values dichotomy. These 2 mindsets are kinda at war with each other. In part because some of their core values couldn't be more different:

Competition vs Collaboration

Long-term affiliation and loyalty vs Short-term conditional affiliation

Confidentiality vs Radical Transparency

Expertise vs Maker Culture

This book is a perfect guide to help the reader understand this reality. It's also very entertaining because it's packed with both hard data and compelling anecdotes and contains tons of practice-focused advice about topics like how to build a crowd and the best ways to connect with like-minded people.

In summary, New Power is an undisputed page-turner, mostly due to the fact that the writers are excellent storytellers and have a background working in the non-profit sector.

Beware: make sure you have at least an hour to spend when you start reading it because it will be very hard to put it down.