70+ Book Recommendations by Marc Andreessen
Future Shock
Alvin Toffler
Predicts the pace of environmental change during the next thirty years and the ways in which the individual must face and learn to cope with personal and social changehttps://t.co/IGV1h6Ofhp https://t.co/2W506Kvdea https://t.co/wVoXG5oOXf https://t.co/iQoLtMvEbr
The Car
Bryan Appleyard
The more things change... https://t.co/1K9Ih2xeae https://t.co/b1LUssHL5P
Rainbows End
Vernor Vinge
Legit answer!: From visionary author and real-life professor Vernor Vinge --> https://t.co/PmSNKNIbQU https://t.co/UuKTZn2qOx
Americana
Bhu Srinivasan
Most interesting telling of the story of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower: https://t.co/L5XV8TCdkQ @bhu_srinivasan https://t.co/jt4YyGKA5z
The Image
Daniel J. Boorstin
Complement with these two: https://t.co/rBz1Cwa9YX https://t.co/CXB1tkULBV https://t.co/y9keIJfiwb https://t.co/je8fBMwphb
History Has Begun
Bruno Macaes
Complement with these two: https://t.co/rBz1Cwa9YX https://t.co/CXB1tkULBV https://t.co/y9keIJfiwb https://t.co/je8fBMwphb
Life
Neal Gabler
Examining such diverse topics as O. J. Simpson, Martha Stewart, Court TV, and Clinton vs. Kenneth Starr, an awardwinning writer explores the transformation of modern life into an entertainment medium, explaining how everything from religion to politics has become a form of show business. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.Most underrated book of the last 30 years. https://t.co/PClpWLINWK https://t.co/ik8FvZCACm
10. The True Believer by Eric Hoffer -- a brilliant book on the nature of mass movements and collective psychology.
Witness (Cold War Classics)
Whittaker Chambers
6. Six books on the deep history of the American left. The God That Failed by Richard Crossman The Romance of American Communism by Vivian Gornick Witness by Whittaker Chambers Joseph McCarthy by Arthur Herman Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe
The God That Failed
Richard H. Crossman
This classic work and crucial document of the Cold War brings together essays by six of the most important writers of the twentieth century, including André Gide, Richard Wright, Ignazio Silone, Stephen Spender, Arthur Koestler, and Louis Fischer, on their conversion to and subsequent disillusionment with communism. In describing their own experiences, the authors illustrate the fate of leftism around the world.6. Six books on the deep history of the American left. The God That Failed by Richard Crossman The Romance of American Communism by Vivian Gornick Witness by Whittaker Chambers Joseph McCarthy by Arthur Herman Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe
The Romance of American Communism
Vivian Gornick
6. Six books on the deep history of the American left. The God That Failed by Richard Crossman The Romance of American Communism by Vivian Gornick Witness by Whittaker Chambers Joseph McCarthy by Arthur Herman Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe
Private Truths, Public Lies
Timur Kuran
If you haven’t read @timurkuran book Private Truth Public Lies, now’s the time. Unwind of mass preference falsification can happen VERY fast and hit with extraordinary force. https://t.co/7sFkvNIlYG
The Machiavellians
James Burnham
@nytdavidbrooks @JosephBottum @RichardvReeves @bureaucatliu For further *further* reading, start with James Burnham's https://t.co/DX0SxHaOYM and then work backwards to Pareto, Mosca, and Michels; they collectively explain the social/political/economic substructure of this whole topic.
Virtue Hoarders
Catherine Liu
@nytdavidbrooks @JosephBottum @RichardvReeves An even more vigorous modern attack on the Professional-Managerial Class/managerial elite and their hoarding of power and money, from the left, by @bureaucatliu -- https://t.co/CatWkzRuNs
Dream Hoarders
Richard V. Reeves
@nytdavidbrooks @JosephBottum On how the managerial elite is hoarding the American dream and leaving everyone else behind, while feeling good about themselves in the process, by @RichardvReeves -- https://t.co/lPPMQIon5V
An Anxious Age
Joseph Bottum
@nytdavidbrooks On how the secularized Protestantism became our current civil religion and the rise of the Elect, aka the political energized managerial elite, by @JosephBottum -- https://t.co/pcXSzwSwXJ
Bobos in Paradise
David Brooks
The definitive book on class in America circa the onset of the 21st century by @nytdavidbrooks -- the managerial elite as "bourgeois bohemians" or bobos -- https://t.co/K9W4cDNgxF
Class
Paul Fussell
This book describes the living-room artifacts, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from top to bottomThe definitive book on class in pre-WWII America, including "Category X" aka the new managerial elite: https://t.co/PFYkz2aoGH
Blitzed
Norman Ohler
This is one of the craziest books I've ever read; highly recommend. https://t.co/Y0wqV4Z0Es https://t.co/31omSAiyRo
The Machiavellians
James Burnham
From James Burnham and Gaetano Mosca in https://t.co/DX0SxHaOYM
The Managerial Revolution
James Burnham
This is true. It’s the older, bourgeois, pre-managerial model of capitalism that created the modern world. Contrast with the present degraded, wokified, zombified oligarchy. The book to read -> The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World https://t.co/97EP5tyl2Y https://t.co/BWVRqysSiv
The Myth of the Rational Voter
Bryan Caplan
"Caplan argues that voters continually elect politicians who either share their biases or else pretend to, resulting in bad policies winning again and again by popular demand. Calling into question our most basic assumptions about American politics, Caplan contends that democracy fails precisely because it does what voters want. Through an analysis of American's voting behavior and opinions on a range of economic issues, he makes the case that noneconomists suffer from four prevailing biases: they underestimate the wisdom of the market mechanism, distrust foreigners, undervalue the benefits of conserving labor, and pessimistically believe the economy is going from bad to worse. Caplan lays out several ways to make democratic government work better.THE MYTH OF THE RATIONAL VOTER by @bryan_caplan is must reading -- even if you think the thesis is obvious, you'll learn a lot. https://t.co/YNIhLx7pS0 @GarettJones https://t.co/5qQuawY3b8
Season of the Witch
David Talbot
The backstory of San Francisco is bananas beyond belief. https://t.co/afg2m1e6eW https://t.co/n423oNNU5v
Tulipmania
Anne Goldgar
In the 1630s the Netherlands was gripped by tulipmania: a speculative fever unprecedented in scale and, as popular history would have it, folly. We all know the outline of the story—how otherwise sensible merchants, nobles, and artisans spent all they had (and much that they didn’t) on tulip bulbs. We have heard how these bulbs changed hands hundreds of times in a single day, and how some bulbs, sold and resold for thousands of guilders, never even existed. Tulipmania is seen as an example of the gullibility of crowds and the dangers of financial speculation. But it wasn’t like that. As Anne Goldgar reveals in Tulipmania, not one of these stories is true. Making use of extensive archival research, she lays waste to the legends, revealing that while the 1630s did see a speculative bubble in tulip prices, neither the height of the bubble nor its bursting were anywhere near as dramatic as we tend to think. By clearing away the accumulated myths, Goldgar is able to show us instead the far more interesting reality: the ways in which tulipmania reflected deep anxieties about the transformation of Dutch society in the Golden Age. “Goldgar tells us at the start of her excellent debunking book: ‘Most of what we have heard of [tulipmania] is not true.’. . . She tells a new story.”—Simon Kuper, Financial TimesA surprising number of alleged bubbles don't actually hold up as bubbles after the fact. Including, incredibly, the tulip bubble. https://t.co/F0COSlC1xF https://t.co/4PCI4roI0j https://t.co/fUsJpEKb5S
The Hemlock Cup
Bettany Hughes
No, really, he was. https://t.co/5sk63bjfeF https://t.co/LL5Ss04eHC
The Concept of the Political
Carl Schmitt
https://t.co/J5r9qecsgR https://t.co/kd1HKSVnGL
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Neil Postman
Thirty years ago, television addiction was the current thing. We were to be a nation of passive couch potato drones. People still watch a ton of television, yet it is no longer the current thing. Curious! https://t.co/F6B0TaQReK https://t.co/2bBl8XicUb
The Courage to Be Disliked
Ichiro Kishimi
Outstanding book on whether to be liked -- Adlerian psychology meets Stoicism meets Japanese culture: https://t.co/mHnQxuh4yw https://t.co/PsDeQ6PpdB
Last Call
Daniel Okrent
Excellent book on the current thing circa 100 years ago: https://t.co/nsd1zS26qE @okrent https://t.co/qfJ6vixaaN
Public Opinion
Walter Lippmann
"Written by one of the most influential men of his times and one of the greatest journalists in history, Public Opinion is an incisive examination of democratic theory, the role of citizens in a democracy, and the impact of the media in shaping thoughts and actions. It changed the nature of political science as a scholarly discipline and introduced concepts that continue to play an important role in current political theory."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved(3) The definition of expert as he who creates and enforces the current thing has been running for 100 years. https://t.co/stc8UngMRC
The Making of an American Thinking Class
Darren Staloff
"An invigorating contribution to the scholarly literature on Puritan New England--original in perspective, forceful in argument, and graceful in presentation....By reading the sources with an uncommonly keen eye for the nuances of power, Staloff sheds new light on many heretofore slighted aspects of Massachusetts history....Old hands at Puritan studies as well as newcomers to the field will profit immensely from this insightful book."--Alden T. Vaughan, ColumbiaUniversity(2) The American engine for creating and enforcing the current thing has been running for 400 years. https://t.co/4HrtsMKLiS
The Ultimate Resource 2
Julian Lincoln Simon
Arguing that the ultimate resource is the human imagination coupled to the human spirit, Julian Simon has led a vigorous challenge to conventional beliefs about scarcity of energy and natural resources, pollution of the environment, the effects of immigration, and the "perils of overpopulation." The comprehensive data, careful quantitative research, and economic logic contained in the first edition of The Ultimate Resource rebutted widely held professional judgments about the threat of overpopulation. In Simon's view, the key factor in natural and world economic growth is our capacity for the creation of new ideas and contributions to knowledge. The more people alive who can be trained to help solve the problems that confront us, the faster we can remove obstacles, and the greater the economic inheritance we shall bequeath to our descendants. In conjunction with the size of the educated population, the key constraint on human progress is the nature of the economic-political system: Talented people need economic freedom and security to bring their talents to fruition.Not that it's necessary, but the classic economic *and* environmental case for more kids --> https://t.co/a3EXZ382t0
Affairs of Honor
Joanne B. Freeman
Seems like a good night to recommend these two outstanding books about violence in early American politics by @jbf1755 -> Affairs of Honor https://t.co/5vFM9MGA17 and The Field of Blood https://t.co/GTkTmPHGnQ
The Field of Blood
Joanne B. Freeman
The previously untold story of the violence in Congress that helped spark the Civil War In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the U.S. Congress. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that the Capitol was rife with conflict in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery. These fights didn’t happen in a vacuum. Freeman’s dramatic accounts of brawls and thrashings tell a larger story of how fisticuffs and journalism, and the powerful emotions they elicited, raised tensions between North and South and led toward war. In the process, she brings the antebellum Congress to life, revealing its rough realities—the feel, sense, and sound of it—as well as its nation-shaping import. Funny, tragic, and rivetingly told, The Field of Blood offers a front-row view of congressional mayhem and sheds new light on the careers of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and other luminaries, as well as introducing a host of lesser-known but no less fascinating men. The result is a fresh understanding of the workings of American democracy and the bonds of Union on the eve of their greatest peril.Seems like a good night to recommend these two outstanding books about violence in early American politics by @jbf1755 -> Affairs of Honor https://t.co/5vFM9MGA17 and The Field of Blood https://t.co/GTkTmPHGnQ
Homage to Catalonia
George Orwell
Homage to Catalonia is political journalist and novelist George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War...And then, of course, the ultimate chronicle of a Western volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell --> https://t.co/fmIorvR72n
Mine Were of Trouble
Peter Kemp Kemp
And another very interesting book about a British volunteer on the *other* side of the Spanish Civil War -- https://t.co/EKer6lxkqM https://t.co/KCbFkNIPFw
Spain In Our Hearts
Adam Hochschild
Very interesting book on American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War -- written from the left, melancholy and wistful. https://t.co/lPpq4DzgYU
The Network State
Balaji Srinivasan
The hive mind has spoken! https://t.co/wCY31wWVzq https://t.co/6GJBjO8FNN
The End of History and the Last Man
Francis Fukuyama
Enhanced by a new afterword dealing with the post-September 11th world, a provocative exploration of issues of human society and destiny answers such questions as, is there a direction to human history? does history have an end? and where are we now? Reprint. 25,00 first printing."The End of History and the Last Man" by @FukuyamaFrancis really is an incredible guide to our times, 30 years old this year, amazing blend of sophisticated worldly shrewdness and sweet early 90's optimism. https://t.co/lseS2urJGM Thanks @antoniogm for recent proselytizing.
Lenin
Victor Sebestyen
Yes, the bridge from LARP to horrifying reality jumps right out from the life of Lenin, as just one example. This book is spellbinding on this topic: Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror https://t.co/8AxOzBvNeN https://t.co/Auck3rVXCC
The Machiavellians
James Burnham
I am going to start Burnham-posting soon. He just keeps becoming more relevant, including in these times. Recommended reading: https://t.co/7NaYn0kabv
Becoming Steve Jobs
Brent Schlender
Now in paperback, the #1 New York Times bestselling biography of how Steve Jobs became the most visionary CEO in history. With a new foreword by Marc Andreessen and new afterword by the authors, Becoming Steve Jobs is a narrative on Jobs' evolution as a manager and leader, as an astute CEO, as a father, and as a visionary with an unparalled sense of what consumers wanted--before they knew what they wanted themselves. But he didn't start out with those skills. When he first left Apple in 1985 and struck out to form his own company, NeXT, he knew little about running a company, holding to a budget, or developing successful products. It was during his years in the wilderness, unsuccessfully launching NeXT and helping to revitalize Pixar, that he learned the skills that would make him so successful upon his return to Apple in 1996.The archetypes are Intel founder Bob Noyce and of course Steve Jobs. See https://t.co/hh9yHU8wKi and https://t.co/cvUMzOaRvR . https://t.co/lHHXMQdwKs
Who Really Matters
Art Kleiner
Argues that a "core group" of business executives are the ones who determine the behavior of a company, not the shareholders, and that the primary purpose of these organizations is to provide wealth for senior executives and their descendants.Pmarca Smackdown Watch! Pow, oof. Valid. See also the hugely underrated -> https://t.co/V6w1QWxePj https://t.co/Bl8GNv6FXA
Life
Neal Gabler
Examining such diverse topics as O. J. Simpson, Martha Stewart, Court TV, and Clinton vs. Kenneth Starr, an awardwinning writer explores the transformation of modern life into an entertainment medium, explaining how everything from religion to politics has become a form of show business. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.This is the book yo: Life: The Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality https://t.co/gLhF8q15NA https://t.co/JZiLUamqFo
The Mystery of Capital
Hernando De Soto
A renowned economist's classic book on capitalism in the developing world, showing how property rights are the key to overcoming poverty "The hour of capitalism's greatest triumph," writes Hernando de Soto, "is, in the eyes of four-fifths of humanity, its hour of crisis." In The Mystery of Capital, the world-famous Peruvian economist takes up one of the most pressing questions the world faces today: Why do some countries succeed at capitalism while others fail? In strong opposition to the popular view that success is determined by cultural differences, de Soto finds that it actually has everything to do with the legal structure of property and property rights. Every developed nation in the world at one time went through the transformation from predominantly extralegal property arrangements, such as squatting on large estates, to a formal, unified legal property system. In the West we've forgotten that creating this system is what allowed people everywhere to leverage property into wealth. This persuasive book revolutionized our understanding of capital and points the way to a major transformation of the world economy.@JimiWen I'd nominate 'digital property rights'. https://t.co/BrZ5nlFMJ9
@thogge The creation of the city of Los Angeles. 🙂 https://t.co/asdu6g011n
The Thirteenth Floor
Armin Mueller-Stahl
@MichaelGuimarin To figure out why this one is being run. https://t.co/86NFWUAIRd
The Ancient City - Imperium Press (Traditionalist Histories)
Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges
Fustel de Coulanges hands us the skeleton key unlocking classical civilization: the Indo-European domestic cult. This is the story of the descent of the traditional social order par excellence into something approximating liberalism, and it has never been better told, nor more fully explained.@oldbooksguy This book completely reordered how I think about the world: https://t.co/rcv8WGDWDW
The Righteous Mind
Jonathan Haidt
@conor64 How about the same three books to all three? "The Righteous Mind" by @JonHaidt https://t.co/5OGoPaatGa "A Conflict of Visions" by @ThomasSowell https://t.co/nvwJLnG9Cb "The Machiavellians" by James Burnham https://t.co/0HhAUWJQvy
A Conflict of Visions
Thomas Sowell
@conor64 How about the same three books to all three? "The Righteous Mind" by @JonHaidt https://t.co/5OGoPaatGa "A Conflict of Visions" by @ThomasSowell https://t.co/nvwJLnG9Cb "The Machiavellians" by James Burnham https://t.co/0HhAUWJQvy
The Machiavellians
James Burnham
@conor64 How about the same three books to all three? "The Righteous Mind" by @JonHaidt https://t.co/5OGoPaatGa "A Conflict of Visions" by @ThomasSowell https://t.co/nvwJLnG9Cb "The Machiavellians" by James Burnham https://t.co/0HhAUWJQvy
This is Not a Game (Dagmar Shaw Thrillers Book 1)
Walter Jon Williams
@jfeckstein I think about this novel all the time: https://t.co/MAM83lqKuF
The Mind Is Flat
Nick Chater
@hardmaru Quite frankly, I more often wonder whether we human beings are actually conscious. I suspect the Turing Test is malformed; it's too easy to trick people; this raises a lot of interesting and disconcerting questions. See also: https://t.co/7rpp88EBwU
Talent
Tyler Cowen
@oldbooksguy @thogge Thank you, yes, I'm a huge fan of Dean Keith Simonton and recommend his books and papers to anyone interested in this topic. His work is probably the best on this topic. Also this book will be excellent: https://t.co/piK8cQUQAL
The Ancient City - Imperium Press (Traditionalist Histories)
Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges
Fustel de Coulanges hands us the skeleton key unlocking classical civilization: the Indo-European domestic cult. This is the story of the descent of the traditional social order par excellence into something approximating liberalism, and it has never been better told, nor more fully explained.This is the book yo: https://t.co/rcv8WGDWDW https://t.co/XgqT3jUsWU
Uncontrolled Spread
Scott Gottlieb
The former FDA commissioner outlines how the United States must prepare for future pandemics by learning from the mistakes made handling the Covid-19 outbreak. In the early 2000s, Scott Gottlieb spent years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration developing a "Pandemic Influenza Plan" to ready the United States for the threat of a global pandemic. Besides developing a response playbook, the Bush Administration also drilled for the event. But when he returned to Washington as FDA director in 2017, Gottlieb discovered that the agency had been using the same outdated plan and obsolete tools to face Ebola, Zika, and swine flu. Shortly after his departure in late 2019, Covid-19 hit the United States. Members of the Trump administration were slow to mount an effective response. Nine months later, the federal government's response remains woefully inadequate and the Trump administration continues to focus on the wrong things. Schools should be opening safely and the government should be building the infrastructure for hundreds of millions of vaccines. Instead, the administration is cutting funding, has amassed warehouses full of hydroxychloroquine, and speak as if the virus has disappeared, even as infections--and deaths--continue to rise. In Preparing for the Inevitable, Gottlieb identifies the reasons why the U.S. was so underprepared for the pandemic, from failing to enlist the private sector in large-scale manufacturing of testing supplies and medical equipment to resolutely sticking to the narrative that Covid would go away on its own. He warns that if we don't correct these failures, the virus will continue to flourish, more people will get sick and die, and may impact the distribution of a vaccine when one is available. Hard-hitting and informed by Gottlieb's experience both in government and medicine, Preparing for the Inevitable is the essential inside account of one of the most tragic--and preventable--failures in American history.Looking for the inside story on COVID? This is the book: https://t.co/0plS2EAF3P by @ScottGottliebMD -- also listen to our interview with Scott -- https://t.co/OL2Mzl7WAv
The Jewish War
Flavius Josephus
Josephus� account of a war marked by treachery and atrocity is a superbly detailed and evocative record of the Jewish rebellion against Rome between AD 66 and 70. Originally a rebel leader, Josephus changed sides after he was captured to become a Rome-appointed negotiator, and so was uniquely placed to observe these turbulent events, from the siege of Jerusalem to the final heroic resistance and mass suicides at Masada. His account provides much of what we know about the history of the Jews under Roman rule, with vivid portraits of such key figures as the Emperor Vespasian and Herod the Great. Often self-justifying and divided in its loyalties, The Jewish War nevertheless remains one of the most immediate accounts of war, its heroism and its horrors, ever written.The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus https://t.co/k6gxlkWbV7
Why It's OK to Want to Be Rich
Jason Brennan
Why It's OK to Want to Be Rich by Jason Brennan https://t.co/FWMOR2JWOI
Working Backwards
Colin Bryar
Working Backwards is an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, two long-time, top-level Amazon executives...Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon Hardcover by Colin Bryar, Bill Carr https://t.co/CaCXwFU7cN
Sons of the Fathers
Catherine L. Albanese
Sons of the Fathers: The Civil Religion of the American Revolution by Catherine L. Albanese https://t.co/N6bl9b32f4
The Making of an American Thinking Class
Darren Staloff
"An invigorating contribution to the scholarly literature on Puritan New England--original in perspective, forceful in argument, and graceful in presentation....By reading the sources with an uncommonly keen eye for the nuances of power, Staloff sheds new light on many heretofore slighted aspects of Massachusetts history....Old hands at Puritan studies as well as newcomers to the field will profit immensely from this insightful book."--Alden T. Vaughan, ColumbiaUniversityThe Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts by Darren Staloff https://t.co/q1znwkALRV
Black Spartacus
Sudhir Hazareesingh
Ben's book choice #2: https://t.co/VhCzqb2W6S
The WEIRDest People in the World
Joseph Henrich
Ben's book choice #1 by @JoHenrich, which I also highly recommend: https://t.co/ZvVjYjHmG9
Dream Park
Larry Niven
Marc's science fiction novel #3: https://t.co/pJ9JXHKcI0
Rainbows End
Vernor Vinge
Marc's science fiction novel #2: https://t.co/gW5qN6CYx5
This is Not a Game (Dagmar Shaw Thrillers Book 1)
Walter Jon Williams
Marc's science fiction novel #1: https://t.co/4nLQSPhHCm
The Righteous Mind
Jonathan Haidt
Presents a groundbreaking investigation into the origins of morality at the core of religion and politics, offering scholarly insight into the motivations behind cultural clashes that are polarizing America.On morality and politics, and on the two kinds of fairness, I can't recommend this book by @JonHaidt too highly: https://t.co/1cMGkWbdGq
The Internet is My Religion
Jim Gilliam
From Douglas Adams, the legendary author of one of the most beloved science fiction novels of all time, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, comes a wildly inventive novel—in trade paperback for the first time—of ghosts, time travel, and one detective’s mission to save humanity from extinction. DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY We solve the whole crime We find the whole person Phone today for the whole solution to your problem (Missing cats and messy divorces a specialty) Douglas Adams, the “master of wacky words and even wackier tales” (Entertainment Weekly) once again boggles the mind with a completely unbelievable story of ghosts, time travel, eccentric computer geniuses, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the end of the world, and—of course—missing cats.Oh, and! https://t.co/8NfFQz7KaX by our late genius friend Jim Gilliam. See also: https://t.co/n1YEnwZYu0
Golden Gates
Conor Dougherty
https://t.co/iMnL6ZAawy by @ConorDougherty on why we can't build in great American cities like San Francisco today and what we need to do about it.
Triumph of the City
Edward Glaeser
https://t.co/a1SzZloNIN by Edward Glaeser @triumphofcity on the central role cities play in our world and why it's so important for us to build them -- more, bigger, better.
Edison
Edmund Morris
https://t.co/SEP8lKsEhc by Edmund Morris on perhaps the greatest American builder of all, the builder who brought electricity to us all, Thomas Edison.
The Tycoons
Charles R. Morris
https://t.co/6SyHCEdwCA by Charles Morris on how four great builders of the 19th century built the world we live in today.
Recapturing the Spirit of Enterprise
George Gilder
The wellspring of capital will not be found on Wall Street or in the stuffy halls of corporate America, but instead in the hopes and dreams of people who want to create new products and new approaches to problem solving. It is this wellspring that will ultimately cleanse the soul of corporate America corrupted by power and age. George Gilder's 1984 classic was substantially revised for the 1990s and remains relevant today. This authoritative book looks at what went right in the 1980s and how we can jump-start the economy of the new millenium, featuring unforgettable portraits of entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow, from Bill Gates to members of the dynamic Cuban immigrant community of Miami.https://t.co/FMWXatz2Mu by George Gilder @ScandalOfMoney on how economic systems that encourage aggressive entrepreneurship build the most for the benefit of the most.
The Power of Productivity
William W. Lewis
The disparity between rich and poor countries is the most serious, intractable problem facing the world today. The chronic poverty of many nations affects more than the citizens and economies of those nations; it threatens global stability as the pressures of immigration become unsustainable and rogue nations seek power and influence through extreme political and terrorist acts. To address this tenacious poverty, a vast array of international institutions has pumped billions of dollars into these nations in recent decades, yet despite this infusion of capital and attention, roughly five billion of the world's six billion people continue to live in poor countries. What isn't working? And how can we fix it? The Power of Productivity provides powerful and controversial answers to these questions. William W. Lewis, the director emeritus of the McKinsey Global Institute, here draws on extensive microeconomic studies of thirteen nations over twelve years—conducted by the Institute itself—to counter virtually all prevailing wisdom about how best to ameliorate economic disparity. Lewis's research, which included studying everything from state-of-the-art auto makers to black-market street vendors and mom-and-pop stores, conclusively demonstrates that, contrary to popular belief, providing more capital to poor nations is not the best way to help them. Nor is improving levels of education, exchange-rate flexibility, or government solvency enough. Rather, the key to improving economic conditions in poor countries, argues Lewis, is increasing productivity through intense, fair competition and protecting consumer rights. As The Power of Productivity explains, this sweeping solution affects the economies of poor nations at all levels—from the viability of major industries to how the average consumer thinks about his or her purchases. Policies must be enacted in developing nations that reflect a consumer rather than a producer mindset and an attendant sense of consumer rights. Only one force, Lewis claims, can stand up to producer special privileges—consumer interests. The Institute's unprecedented research method and Lewis's years of experience with economic policy combine to make The Power of Productivity the most authoritative and compelling view of the global economy today, one that will inform political and economic debate throughout the world for years to come.https://t.co/0rxb8x8uGs by William Lewis on how technology-driven productivity growth improves human welfare and creates more jobs and higher wages.
More from Less
Andrew McAfee
https://t.co/UPHA24DBVf by @amcafee on how modern technological economies can build more outputs with less inputs, and why we need all economies to be modern and technological.
Whole Earth Discipline
Stewart Brand
https://t.co/gt6oFCeIFN by @stewartbrand on why even environmentalists should be pro building, pro cities, pro nuclear, and pro genetic engineering.
What You Do Is Who You Are
Ben Horowitz
Ben Horowitz, a leading venture capitalist, modern management expert, and New York Times bestselling author, combines lessons both from history and from modern organizational practice with practical and often surprising advice to help executives build cultures that can weather both good and bad times. Ben Horowitz has long been fascinated by history, and particularly by how people behave differently than you’d expect. The time and circumstances in which they were raised often shapes them—yet a few leaders have managed to shape their times. In What You Do Is Who You Are, he turns his attention to a question crucial to every organization: how do you create and sustain the culture you want? To Horowitz, culture is how a company makes decisions. It is the set of assumptions employees use to resolve everyday problems: should I stay at the Red Roof Inn, or the Four Seasons? Should we discuss the color of this product for five minutes or thirty hours? If culture is not purposeful, it will be an accident or a mistake. What You Do Is Who You Are explains how to make your culture purposeful by spotlighting four models of leadership and culture-building—the leader of the only successful slave revolt, Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture; the Samurai, who ruled Japan for seven hundred years and shaped modern Japanese culture; Genghis Khan, who built the world’s largest empire; and Shaka Senghor, an American ex-con who created the most formidable prison gang in the yard and ultimately transformed prison culture. Horowitz connects these leadership examples to modern case-studies, including how Louverture’s cultural techniques were applied (or should have been) by Reed Hastings at Netflix, Travis Kalanick at Uber, and Hillary Clinton, and how Genghis Khan’s vision of cultural inclusiveness has parallels in the work of Don Thompson, the first African-American CEO of McDonalds, and of Maggie Wilderotter, the CEO who led Frontier Communications. Horowitz then offers guidance to help any company understand its own strategy and build a successful culture. What You Do Is Who You Are is a journey through culture, from ancient to modern. Along the way, it answers a question fundamental to any organization: who are we? How do people talk about us when we’re not around? How do we treat our customers? Are we there for people in a pinch? Can we be trusted? Who you are is not the values you list on the wall. It’s not what you say in company-wide meeting. It’s not your marketing campaign. It’s not even what you believe. Who you are is what you do. This book aims to help you do the things you need to become the kind of leader you want to be—and others want to follow.My partner @bhorowitz has a new book! You can buy it here https://t.co/bD1mtsCAjY and this is what it's about and where the $ is going: https://t.co/Tj8MDUProC #WhatYouDoIsWhoYouAre
- "Venture capitalist Scott Kupor explains what start-up entrepreneurs need to know about venture capital. He answers such questions as who gets a pitch meeting and who doesn't, and which metrics should you stress in a presentation, and which should you ignore. Includes a sample Term Sheet"--
Want to learn the deepest secrets of Silicon Valley and venture capital? Pick up my partner @skupor's new tell-all book here! --> https://t.co/Uum7Ha5IIj