Tessa Lau
Founder/CEO at Dusty Robotics. Roboticist, data scientist, PhD in AI. She/her. I build companies that change the world. 🌱based. Opinions are my own.
10+ Book Recommendations by Tessa Lau
The Autonomous Revolution
William Davidow
Two Silicon Valley pioneers describe how the rise of artificial intelligence and virtual environments are ushering in an epic cultural transformation--and how we can thrive in this new era. We are at the dawn of the Autonomous Revolution, a technological revolution as decisive as the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. Autonomous machines are capable of learning and adapting faster than humans and entirely on their own. And for the first time in human history we no longer require physical locations to work, play, shop, socialize, or be entertained. William Davidow and Michael Malone, authors of the seminal book The Virtual Corporation, explore the enormous implications of these developments. They show why increases in productivity no longer translate into increases in the GDP, how invisible algorithms control what you see and hear, and much more. Many of the book's recommendations--such as monetizing internet usage and making companies pay for personal information--are likely to be controversial, but this debate needs to begin now, before the Autonomous Revolution overcomes us.Impressed by @BillDavidow's clarity of thought on this panel with Michael Malone at the @ComputerHistory museum. Fascinating discussion covering #UBI, the disappearing link between wealth and jobs, and the danger to democracy of free speech. Excited to read the book! https://t.co/yDIu7J15vI
The Four Steps to the Epiphany
Steve Blank
The bestselling classic that launched 10,000 startups and new corporate ventures - The Four Steps to the Epiphany is one of the most influential and practical business books of all time. The Four Steps to the Epiphany launched the Lean Startup approach to new ventures. It was the first book to offer that startups are not smaller versions of large companies and that new ventures are different than existing ones. Startups search for business models while existing companies execute them. The book offers the practical and proven four-step Customer Development process for search and offers insight into what makes some startups successful and leaves others selling off their furniture. Rather than blindly execute a plan, The Four Steps helps uncover flaws in product and business plans and correct them before they become costly. Rapid iteration, customer feedback, testing your assumptions are all explained in this book. Packed with concrete examples of what to do, how to do it and when to do it, the book will leave you with new skills to organize sales, marketing and your business for success. If your organization is starting a new venture, and you're thinking how to successfully organize sales, marketing and business development you need The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Essential reading for anyone starting something new.@m2jr @semil Chapter 3 of Four Steps to the Epiphany. Steve Blank gives you a step by step instruction manual for exactly how to get out of the building and talk to prospective customers -- very useful for technical founders who need rules of social interaction spelled out for them!
Talking from 9 to 5
Deborah Tannen
Your project went off without a hitch--but somebody else got the credit...You averted a crisis brilliantly--but no one noticed...You came to the meeting with a sensational idea--but it was ignored until someone else said the same thing... HOW CAN YOU GET CREDIT & GET AHEAD? In her extraordinary international bestseller, You Just Don't Understand, Deborah Tannen transformed forever the way we look at intimate relationships between women and men. Now she turns her keen ear and observant eye toward the workplace--where the ways in which men and women communicate can determine who gets heard, who gets ahead, and what gets done. An instant classic, Talking From 9 to 5 brilliantly explains women's and men's conversational rituals--and the language barriers we unintentionally erect in the business world. It is a unique and invaluable guide to recognizing the verbal power games and miscommunications that cause good work to be underappreciated or go unnoticed--an essential tool for promoting more positive and productive professional relationships among men and women.The War on Normal People
Andrew Yang
From entrepreneur Andrew Yang, the founder of Venture for America, an eye-opening look at how new technologies are erasing millions of jobs before our eyes-and a rallying cry for the urgent steps America must take, including Universal Basic Income, to stabilize our economy. The shift toward automation is about to create a tsunami of unemployment. Not in the distant future--now. One recent estimate predicts 13 million American workers will lose their jobs within the next seven years-jobs that won't be replaced. In a future marked by restlessness and chronic unemployment, what will happen to American society? In The War on Normal People, Andrew Yang paints a dire portrait of the American economy. Rapidly advancing technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and automation software are making millions of Americans' livelihoods irrelevant. The consequences of these trends are already being felt across our communities in the form of political unrest, drug use, and other social ills. The future looks dire-but is it unavoidable? In The War on Normal People, Yang imagines a different future -- one in which having a job is distinct from the capacity to prosper and seek fulfillment. At this vision's core is Universal Basic Income, the concept of providing all citizens with a guaranteed income-and one that is rapidly gaining popularity among forward-thinking politicians and economists. Yang proposes that UBI is an essential step toward a new, more durable kind of economy, one he calls "human capitalism."The Geography of Thought
Richard Nisbett
An award-winning professor of psychology examines the divergent ways in which eastern and western cultures view the world, offering suggestions about how today's interdependent global cultures may be bridged. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.The Decline and Fall of IBM
Robert Cringely
IBM is in trouble in 2014. The iconic computer company has mismanaged itself into a rut it may be unable to get out of. Technology journalist Robert X. Cringely explains how Big Blue got to where it is today and what can still be done to save the company before it is too late.The Jungle Effect
M.D. Daphne Miller
Why do the relatively poor native populations in Mexico and Africa have such low levels of the chronic diseases that plague the United States? Why is the rate of seasonal affective disorder in Iceland—a country where dreary weather is the norm—so low? Why is it that older women in Okinawa have such low breast cancer rates that it is not considered cost-effective for them to get screening mammograms? The Jungle Effect has the life-changing answers to these important questions, and many more. Whether it's the heart-healthy Cretan diet, with its reliance on olive oil and fresh vegetables, the antidepressive Icelandic diet and its extremely high levels of omega-3s, the age-defying Okinawa diet and its emphasis on vegetables and fish, or the other diets explored herein, everyone who reads this book will come away with the secrets of a longer, healthier life and the recipes necessary to put those secrets into action. The Jungle Effect is filled with inspiring stories from Dr. Miller's patients, quirky travel adventures, interviews with world-renowned food experts, delicious (yet authentic) indigenous recipes, and valuable diet secrets that will stick with you for a lifetime.I'm Working While They're Sleeping
Erran Carmel
American University researchers Carmel and Espinosa distill more than a decade of research to address time-zone challenges in practical terms. The authors offer case studies, stories from global corporations, and recommendations that can immediately be put to use.The China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition
T. Colin Campbell
The revised and expanded edition of the bestseller that changed millions of lives The science is clear. The results are unmistakable. You can dramatically reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes just by changing your diet. More than 30 years ago, nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell and his team at Cornell, in partnership with teams in China and England, embarked upon the China Study, the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease. What they found when combined with findings in Colin’s laboratory, opened their eyes to the dangers of a diet high in animal protein and the unparalleled health benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet. In 2005, Colin and his son Tom, now a physician, shared those findings with the world in The China Study, hailed as one of the most important books about diet and health ever written. Featuring brand new content, this heavily expanded edition of Colin and Tom’s groundbreaking book includes the latest undeniable evidence of the power of a plant-based diet, plus updated information about the changing medical system and how patients stand to benefit from a surging interest in plant-based nutrition. The China Study—Revised and Expanded Edition presents a clear and concise message of hope as it dispels a multitude of health myths and misinformation. The basic message is clear. The key to a long, healthy life lies in three things: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.Makers
Cory Doctorow
From the New York Times bestselling author of Little Brother, a major novel of the booms, busts, and further booms in store for America Perry and Lester invent things—seashell robots that make toast, Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls that drive cars. They also invent entirely new economic systems, like the “New Work,” a New Deal for the technological era. Barefoot bankers cross the nation, microinvesting in high-tech communal mini-startups like Perry and Lester’s. Together, they transform the country, and Andrea Fleeks, a journo-turned-blogger, is there to document it. Then it slides into collapse. The New Work bust puts the dot.combomb to shame. Perry and Lester build a network of interactive rides in abandoned Wal-Marts across the land. As their rides, which commemorate the New Work’s glory days, gain in popularity, a rogue Disney executive grows jealous, and convinces the police that Perry and Lester’s 3D printers are being used to run off AK-47s. Hordes of goths descend on the shantytown built by the New Workers, joining the cult. Lawsuits multiply as venture capitalists take on a new investment strategy: backing litigation against companies like Disney. Lester and Perry’s friendship falls to pieces when Lester gets the ‘fatkins’ treatment, turning him into a sybaritic gigolo. Then things get really interesting.The Power of Less
Leo Babauta
With the arrival of the 21st century we have encountered a mental and material explosion in the Western world: we have near-unlimited information at our fingertips, we can have children who are healthy and safe, and we have wealth and possessions beyond what most of the world can dream of. However, this is not a boast. We are more stressed than we have ever been: the majority of us are profoundly unhappy. Despite the potential of prosperity, our fears are undiminished: we are stuck with cars and computers and houses and mobiles and hundreds of other tiny apparent "needs" that, when all combined, build to something unsustainable. Though we are surrounded by what we want, our desire to keep and still get more creates a pressure that we cannot tolerate. But we do not need to "keep up with the Joneses". The flip side of our society's growth is that we can choose what to accept, and what not to accept: what to keep, and what to lose, joyfully and consciously. With this handbook of simplicity, Leo Babauta shows us: • why less is powerful • how to know what you want, and what you need • how to choose what is essential, and clear out the rest With The Power of Less, you will be able to start a complete shift from wanting everything to needing nothing, be able to live your life simply without compromise, and discover that though we cannot have everything we want, we can obtain anything we will ever need. With this book, you will find how to go through life not carefully, but carefreely.