Tools and Weapons
The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age
by Brad Smith
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More Recommenders
“@BradSmi @wef @CarolAnnBrowne Well deserved. Great book. | A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in Technology, today. | A good book: | Coming from an industry driven by disruption, it’s refreshing to read the author’s call for the tech sector to assume more responsibility. | In the new book "Tools and Weapons," Microsoft president @BradSmi and @CarolAnnBrowne bring some of tech's current key issues to life through interesting stories from inside Microsoft and from history. An important and enjoyable read: | This is a colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how Technology, is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.”
Source →“@BradSmi @wef @CarolAnnBrowne Well deserved. Great book. | A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in Technology, today. | A good book: | Coming from an industry driven by disruption, it’s refreshing to read the author’s call for the tech sector to assume more responsibility. | In the new book "Tools and Weapons," Microsoft president @BradSmi and @CarolAnnBrowne bring some of tech's current key issues to life through interesting stories from inside Microsoft and from history. An important and enjoyable read: | This is a colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how Technology, is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.”
Source →“@BradSmi @wef @CarolAnnBrowne Well deserved. Great book. | A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in Technology, today. | A good book: | Coming from an industry driven by disruption, it’s refreshing to read the author’s call for the tech sector to assume more responsibility. | In the new book "Tools and Weapons," Microsoft president @BradSmi and @CarolAnnBrowne bring some of tech's current key issues to life through interesting stories from inside Microsoft and from history. An important and enjoyable read: | This is a colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how Technology, is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.”
Source →“@BradSmi @wef @CarolAnnBrowne Well deserved. Great book. | A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in Technology, today. | A good book: | Coming from an industry driven by disruption, it’s refreshing to read the author’s call for the tech sector to assume more responsibility. | In the new book "Tools and Weapons," Microsoft president @BradSmi and @CarolAnnBrowne bring some of tech's current key issues to life through interesting stories from inside Microsoft and from history. An important and enjoyable read: | This is a colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how Technology, is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.”
Source →“@BradSmi @wef @CarolAnnBrowne Well deserved. Great book. | A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in Technology, today. | A good book: | Coming from an industry driven by disruption, it’s refreshing to read the author’s call for the tech sector to assume more responsibility. | In the new book "Tools and Weapons," Microsoft president @BradSmi and @CarolAnnBrowne bring some of tech's current key issues to life through interesting stories from inside Microsoft and from history. An important and enjoyable read: | This is a colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how Technology, is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.”
Source →Recommended by 7 notable people, including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett
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Reading Profile
Should I read this?
Brad Smith writes from an executive vantage point, linking vivid company anecdotes to the policy dilemmas created by rapid digitization. The most useful material is the catalog of real-world incidents and clear, concrete explanations of how corporate choices meet legal pressure — handy for briefing others or framing policy debates. The writing favors managerial reasoning over systematic critique, so readers seeking sharp outsider skepticism or deep technical unpacking may feel underserved. Repetitive defense of corporate decisions appears at times, and long regulatory passages slow the pace.
Read this if...
- •a legislative staffer drafting tech regulation who must explain corporate behavior and real incidents to skeptical lawmakers, because the book supplies executive-framed examples and trade-off language useful in briefings
- •a product manager at a large platform company defending content-moderation or security trade-offs to leadership, because it offers executive-level rationales and precedent cases that map to boardroom questions
- •an NGO policy analyst preparing advocacy on cybersecurity or privacy who needs to anticipate corporate positions and likely regulatory responses, since the book outlines how companies have historically reacted
Skip this if...
- •you'll likely put it down when the middle chapters dig into legal and regulatory detail — tedious if you wanted a fast narrative or emotional memoir
- •annoying if you prefer skeptical outsider analysis: the corporate perspective sometimes reads defensive and self-justifying rather than hard-hitting
- •not for readers seeking deep technical explanations of algorithms or engineering — the book provides policy context and anecdotes more than technical breakdowns
With a foreword by Bill Gates From Microsoft's President and one of the tech industry's wisest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates.Microsoft President Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: when your Technology, changes the world, you...
Before You Buy
Reading Specifications
Difficulty:easy
Audience Fit
- a legislative staffer drafting tech regulation who must explain corporate behavior and real incidents to skeptical lawmakers, because the book supplies executive-framed examples and trade-off language useful in briefings
- a product manager at a large platform company defending content-moderation or security trade-offs to leadership, because it offers executive-level rationales and precedent cases that map to boardroom questions
- an NGO policy analyst preparing advocacy on cybersecurity or privacy who needs to anticipate corporate positions and likely regulatory responses, since the book outlines how companies have historically reacted
- you'll likely put it down when the middle chapters dig into legal and regulatory detail — tedious if you wanted a fast narrative or emotional memoir
- annoying if you prefer skeptical outsider analysis: the corporate perspective sometimes reads defensive and self-justifying rather than hard-hitting
- not for readers seeking deep technical explanations of algorithms or engineering — the book provides policy context and anecdotes more than technical breakdowns
Check formats, pricing, and availability options for Kindle, physical print, or audiobooks directly.
View available editions on AmazonKey themes
Why recommended
Recommended by 11 sources and appears in Books Recommended by Warren Buffett, Books Recommended by Bill Gates, and Books Recommended by CEOs.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Børge Brende
“@BradSmi @wef @CarolAnnBrowne Well deserved. Great book. | A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in Technology, today. | A good book: | Coming from an industry driven by disruption, it’s refreshing to read the author’s call for the tech sector to assume more responsibility. | In the new book "Tools and Weapons," Microsoft president @BradSmi and @CarolAnnBrowne bring some of tech's current key issues to life through interesting stories from inside Microsoft and from history. An important and enjoyable read: | This is a colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how Technology, is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.”
View sources (4) ▾80%
Appears In
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“Phil Knight’s memoir is a raw, first-person sprint through Nike’s chaotic early years, loaded with near-bankruptcies, strained partnerships, and the obsessive hustle of an underdog. The useful part is its unfiltered look at the emotional cost of entrepreneurship—the sleepless nights, the lawsuits, the brinkmanship. It will lose you when the endless travelogue and repetitive financial close-shaves start to feel like a highlight reel without a clear lesson, and Knight’s own voice can grow self-mythologizing.”
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Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.