Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
The Third Wave summary
Steve Case
An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future
4.1 (41 ratings)
16 mins
7 key ideas
Audio & text
What is The Third Wave about?
The Third Wave (2016) explains that, at this point in the information age, entrepreneurial relevance and success depend on awareness about the current environment. Find out how the next revolutionary innovators will be disrupting the status quo by using the internet to change mainstay industries like healthcare, food and education.
About the Author
Steve Case is the cofounder of AOL and the CEO of Revolution, an investment firm in Washington, D.C. that supports entrepreneurs and companies such as Zipcar and Sweetgreen. He is a member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship and a founding chairman of the White House initiative Startup America.
Table of Contents
The Third Wave
summarized in 7 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 7
The history of the internet has had two distinct phases, and a third phase is beginning now.
In 1980, futurist Alvin Toffler wrote The Third Wave, a book describing how the next “wave” of evolution in the information age would transform the world and create an electronic global village.
But to understand this “third wave,” let’s first take a step back and look at what came before.
The first wave began with the creation of the foundation and infrastructure of the online world.
Companies like Sprint, Cisco, Apple, Microsoft, AOL, and IBM created crucial hardware, software and networks, making the internet available to everyday users.
This wasn’t exactly an easy task. These online pioneers faced an uphill battle, struggling to convince people that the internet was relevant and worthwhile. Indeed, many saw it as a fad. In a 1995 interview on PBS, the author was asked, “Why do people need [the internet]?”
By the turn of the twenty-first century – the beginning of the second wave – the answer to that question was more than apparent.
By this time, search engines like Google were helping people navigate ever vaster amounts of information; online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay appeared; and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter emerged, connecting more and more people.
The second wave further revolutionized the world when mobile devices like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android enabled people to access the internet wherever they went.
This brings us to the third wave, on the threshold of which we currently stand.
The third wave is about integrating the internet into everything we do. No longer limited to PCs, tablets and other devices, the internet is becoming part of our homes, automobiles, agriculture and cities. This technologically-integrated age has also been referred to as the Internet of Things.
The third wave will find entrepreneurs taking advantage of this new era to challenge major industries such as healthcare, education, food and commuting.
So, let’s dive in and discover what these future fields of entrepreneurship may look like.
Want to see all full key ideas from The Third Wave?
Key ideas in The Third Wave
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
Best quote from The Third Wave
If you dont cannibalize yourself, someone else will. - Steve Jobs
—Steve Case
Who should read The Third Wave
- Innovators hoping to be relevant in the next phase of the internet’s evolution
- Entrepreneurs who still think they can make it big by making the next viral app
- CEOs who want to combine business with positive social impact
Categories with The Third Wave
Books like The Third Wave
What our members say
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
Start growing with Blinkist now
25 Million
Downloads on all platforms
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
91%
Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers