The Sea We Swim In

How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World

“Terrifically readable, as compelling as the many successful stories and stories of success it tells.”

— Brian Boyd, author of “On the Origin of Stories” and emeritus professor of English at the University of Auckland

BUILDING ON INSIGHTS from cognitive psychology and neuroscience, ‘The Sea We Swim In’ shows us how to see the world in narrative terms, not as a thesis to be argued or a pitch to be made but as a story to be told. This is the essence of narrative thinking. More about The Sea We Swim In…

The Art of Immersion

How the Digital Generation Is Changing Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories

“We’re in the midst of a fascinating — and delirious, often overwhelming — cultural moment, one that Rose, with his important new book, astutely helps us to understand.”

— Holly Willis, KCET-TV Los Angeles

NOT LONG AGO WE WERE passive consumers of mass media. Now we approach television, movies, even advertising as invitations to participate. We are witnessing the emergence of a new form of narrative that is native to the Internet. More about The Art of Immersion…

The Agency

William Morris and The Hidden History of Show Business

“A must-read for anyone who wants to understand both the general thrust of Hollywood innovation and the general influence of agents behind that innovation, starting in 1898 when William Morris opened shop.”

— WME partner Bradley Singer in Business Insider

FOR DECADES, the Morris agency made deals that determined the fate of stars, studios, and television networks alike. But everything changed after the agency’s president dismissed his own best friend, the man who’d brought Barry Diller and Michael Ovitz out of the mailroom. A multi-generational saga of loyalty and betrayal in Hollywood. More about The Agency…

West of Eden

The End of Innocence at Apple Computer

“Readers don’t need to worry that Mr. Rose was chewed up by Apple’s public relations machine. . . . He provides convincing proof that life at young California companies was anything but laid back.”

— Michael Moritz, The Wall Street Journal

IT SEEMS UNTHINKABLE TODAY—but nearly 40 years ago, when personal computers were still new and the World Wide Web had yet to be invented, Steve Jobs was cast out of Apple. And it wasn’t just Wall Street that applauded—it was most of Silicon Valley. More about West of Eden…

Into the Heart of the Mind

An American Quest For Artificial Intelligence

“Lucid and authoritative . . . it demystifies a disturbing subject. . . . No one knows how the cognitive areas [of the brain] work: how vision is interpreted, memory is stored, or thought is processed. No one even knows what thought is. Consequently, computer simulations of the brain are attempts to imitate the unknown.”

— The Washington Post

IN A CRAMPED LABORATORY in the Berkeley engineering school, scientists are trying to teach a computer to think—not just to shuffle data but to learn, reason, remember, understand English, and exhibit common sense. But first they have to get it to put on a raincoat before going out in the rain.

Real Men

Sex and Style In An Uncertain Age

“What Rose has drawn out are the candid — sometimes even intemperate — self-revelations of seven men living in what he calls ‘an uncertain age.’ All seven . . . admit to being confused about themselves, unsure of what comes next. Their willingness to share these doubts . . . is what makes these men more real than their predecessors.”