url’s are off putting

I’m only a few hours into this and am finding it interesting BUT I’m also on the verge of abandoning it and getting a refund. Why? It seems like every five minutes the narrator reads out a web address. I’m not talk go to “John doe.com” but go to “John doe.com forward slash h t d c 3 ampersand forward slash v543 equals question mark “. It’s really tedious to hear!

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These bloody links...

Title of this book is frankly misleading and content very much outdated. No technicals, just mostly author's interaction with some known people in the industry. The worst part of this audiobook was probably listening to the author reading links to resources which was quite frankly painful to hear and useless, since don't think anybody is there writing it down to begin with. I was hoping to hear at the very least some valuable experience

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Difficult listen. Ruined by the flow. Some good content.

Although there is some great and valid content, the flow of the book makes it challenging to keep engaged. The most used word is ‘slash’ from the numerous hyperlinks, social media pages and references which are stated in full. I estimate an hour could have been shaved off the length by removing the padding.

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Conflicted

I was conflicted with this. I didn't feel the title represented the content as well as it could have, it was more a 'little black book' of contacts the author met sprinkled with anecdotes. I have to address one huge issue for me though, the narration, the chap providing the narration had a great voice but it needed some editorial/production smack-down. There's simply no way that every URL should have been delivered verbally in the format in which it was. It led to long chunks of grating tedium or fumbling for the phone to skip forward. Next time please put them in an appendix (audible supports attaching downloads with audiobooks because I have others that do this well), or maybe frame as searchable terms. It was enough of an annoyance that I would suggest re-recording or editing-out these portions and referring elsewhere and then reissuing the audiobook.

The anecdotes were positive and inspiring, and the author gives you the distinct impression that they've mastered the art of 'not having to know everything, only to know where to look and how to find it' with an impressive diary of industry contacts. It was good to hear the background story's of so many varied infosec careers.

It wasn't what I expected, but it I came away from it knowing more than when I started along with a renewed feeling of positivity towards infosec as a career and feeling that I had something of a shared mindset with several people who opened up on their motivations.

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3 people found this helpful

Pedantic narration

Whilst I find the subject matter interesting and could follow much of the technical aspect. The narrator constantly referring to their sources or references by the long url string was just too much to overcome. For example "...Jon Doe is still studying encryption and published his work at www.jon.doe at jondoe.com. His research on the subject can be found at www.jon.doe@jondoe.com forward slash notes, research amphisand two one nine forward slash percent percent 1 2 5 5."
And this is every five minutes.

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1 person found this helpful