HBR Press Presents "LIKE: The Button that Changed the World"

We click the “like” button billions of times per day – but have you ever wondered how it was invented and how it become so ubiquitous?

LIKE: The Button That Changed The World is an insider's story of a technology that shapes our lives. It uncovers many of the same processes which are shaping the rise of AI and other new technologies.

On May 20, authors Martin Reeves (BCG Henderson Institute Chair) and Bob Goodson (a Silicon Valley pioneer and contributor to the creation of the "like" button) will be joined by HBR Editorial Director Melinda Merino to discuss the fascinating story of the world's most recognizable icon of approval. They will explore such questions as:

• Who, exactly, invented the like button?
• What does the creation and adoption of the like button reveal about how innovation works?
• What mechanisms in the brain and body light up when hitting the like button? How is it so addictive?
• How did the like button fundamentally transform advertising and marketing?
• How do we contend with the button's unintended consequences: mental health issues, privacy violations, and social polarization?
• What is the future of the like button in the age of Artificial Intelligence?
• What can the particular history of the like button teach us about technology, Innovation, regulation and ourselves?

For those curious about the intersection of technology, human behavior, and innovation, join us to find out how a simple button became a powerful force shaping the modern world.

Martin Reeves is chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, BCG’s think tank dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. Bob Goodson is President and Founder of Quid, a Silicon Valley-based company whose AI models are used to understand customer context by a third of the Fortune 50. Before Quid, he was the first employee at Yelp, where he played a role in the genesis of the like button in the early days of the social media industry. He served on WEF’s Global Future Council for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics. Melinda Merino is Editorial Director and Associate Publisher of Harvard Business Review Press where she oversees acquisitions and editorial strategy for HBR’s book publishing program. She acquired and edited many of HBR’s best-selling books and is the editor of LIKE.

Register to confirm your place. You will receive the online link to the event in your confirmation email. This event is recorded and you will receive a link to watch in your own time if you can’t join live.

The event is hosted by Harvard Business Review and is free to attend. Click here to learn more about HBR and how to subscribe. For group subscriptions please email alexander.bart@hbr.org

You can purchase a copy of LIKE at the discounted price of £23.00 by choosing the webinar + book/ebook ticket option. Please note the print edition can only be sent to UK residents but the ebook is available wherever you are based.