Smart People Should Build Things: How to Restore Our Culture of Achievement, Build a Path for Entrepreneurs, and Create New Jobs in America

Entrepreneur and “recovering lawyer” Yang is the founder and CEO of Venture for America, a nonprofit that seeks to match top graduates with startups and other high-growth companies. Yang suggests that many young people graduate from college and seek jobs in finance, law, and medicine because it’s expected of them. The downside is that many of these promising young people hit their mid-20s with tons of student debt, and realize they’ve been trained very narrowly, in addition to not enjoying their jobs. How much could the world be changed if these young and energetic people went to startups, rather than going corporate? Yang’s pitch for entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to more structured careers is enticing, but readers will get the book’s points after the first 10 pages. Overall the book, which contains far too much of Yang’s own story, reads like an advertisement for Venture for America. A few half-hearted tips only serve to throw the overall weak presentation into stark relief. Agent: Byrd Leavell, Waxman Leavell Literary. (Feb.)