Tim O'Reilly
Founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media. Watching the alpha geeks, sharing their stories, helping the future unfold.
60+ Book Recommendations by Tim O'Reilly
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
George Saunders
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER PICKED BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES, SPECTATOR, TLS, NEW STATESMAN, MAIL ON SUNDAY, I PAPER, PROSPECT, REVEW31 AND EVENING STANDARD AS A BOOK OF 2021 'A masterclass from a warm and engagingly enthusiastic companion' Guardian Summer Reading Picks 2021 'This book is a delight, and it's about delight too. How necessary, at our particular moment' Tessa Hadley ________________ From the New York Times-bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves - and our world today. For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We're going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn't fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art-namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.@EconTalker @tylercowen Another great person to talk with about this is George Saunders! His book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a master class not just on how to read short stories, but how to read anything (not to mention how to write!)
The Game of Kings
Dorothy Dunnett
@emdashry @Ada_Palmer I do wish somebody would create a companion to @Ada_Palmer like the Dorothy Dunnett companion. The books are so erudite, with such deep backlinks that you could spend weeks researching to understand them more deeply. Speaking of @DunnettCentral, start with The Game of Kings!
Too Like the Lightning
Ada Palmer
Mycroft Canner is a convict. For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer--a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away. The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labelling all public writing and speech. What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations. And most of the world's population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded, whose endless economic and cultural competion is carefully managed by central planners of inestimable subtlety. To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell. To them, it seems like normal life. And in this world, Mycroft and Carlyle have stumbled on the wild card that may destablize the system: the boy Bridger, who can effortlessly make his wishes come true. Who can, it would seem, bring inanimate objects to life...@emdashry The science fiction that stretched my head the most in the past couple of years is @Ada_Palmer's four book Terra Ignota series starting with Too Like the Lightning. Her historical essays collected on her Ex Urbe blog are also amazing and will give an on ramp to how she thinks
Data Science at the Command Line
Jeroen Janssens
This thoroughly revised guide demonstrates how the flexibility of the command line can help you become a more efficient and productive data scientist. You'll learn how to combine small yet powerful command-line tools to quickly obtain, scrub, explore, and model your data. To get you started, author Jeroen Janssens provides a Docker image packed with over 80 tools--useful whether you work with Windows, macOS, or Linux. You'll quickly discover why the command line is an agile, scalable, and extensible technology. Even if you're comfortable processing data with Python or R, you'll learn how to greatly improve your data science workflow by leveraging the command line's power. This book is ideal for data scientists, analysts, and engineers; software and machine learning engineers; and system administrators. Obtain data from websites, APIs, databases, and spreadsheets Perform scrub operations on text, CSV, HTM, XML, and JSON files Explore data, compute descriptive statistics, and create visualizations Manage your data science workflow Create reusable command-line tools from one-liners and existing Python or R code Parallelize and distribute data-intensive pipelines Model data with dimensionality reduction, clustering, regression, and classification algorithms@jeroenhjanssens Thank you for writing such a fabulous book!
Breath
James Nestor
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren't found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.@monicabyrne13 11. :-). My brother and I used to have breath holding contests as kids, and I once got to 2 1/2 minutes. But that's nothing. The world champion freediver can make it to over 9 minutes passively, and 4 1/2 while swimming. BTW, I love the book Breath https://t.co/jcnCcnT9jm
Electrify
Saul Griffith
An optimistic--but realistic and feasible--action plan for fighting climate change while creating new jobs and a healthier environment: electrify everything. Climate change is a planetary emergency. We have to do something now--but what? Proposed solutions seem either impossible or inadequate. In Electrify, Saul Griffith lays out a detailed action plan--optimistic but feasible--for fighting climate change while creating millions of new jobs and a healthier environment. Billionaires may contemplate escaping our worn-out planet on a private rocket ship to Mars, but the rest of us, Griffith says, have to stay and fight for the future. Griffith's plan can be summed up simply: electrify everything. He explains exactly what it would take to transform our infrastructure, update our grid, and adapt our households to make this possible. Griffith, an engineer and inventor, calls for grid neutrality, ensuring that households, businesses, and utilities operate as equals; we will have to rewrite regulations that were created for a fossil-fueled world, mobilize industry as we did in World War II, and offer low-interest climate loans. Griffith's plan doesn't rely on big, not-yet-invented innovations, but on thousands of little inventions and cost reductions. We can still have our cars and our houses--but the cars will be electric and solar panels will cover our roofs. For a world trying to bounce back from a pandemic and economic crisis, there is no other project that would create as many jobs--up to twenty-five million, according to one economic analysis. Is this politically possible? We may have to change politics along with everything else.Just ordered. I read the galley but I am so looking forward to the final book. Very, very much worth your time. https://t.co/iJZCV1qFSu
Limits
Giorgos Kallis
I like this video but it can't do justice to @g_kallis's marvelous book Limits. The fact that as people grow wealthier they choose to have fewer children is one obvious refutation of the cartoon version of Malthus, but this book offers so much more. Must read. 5 stars! https://t.co/e0XXahfgCd
- "The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this ... symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ... podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale--from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar"--
I haven't yet listened to this podcast, but I am reading the book based on it, and it is marvelous, both in concept and execution. @johngreen is a treasure who helps us to treasure everything else all the more. https://t.co/TOresg07jO
- A memoir of life in the wild on the trail of the peregrine falcon chronicles the habits and hunting techniques of the elusive predator while revealing the effects of human encroachment on their habitats. Original.
@phylogenomics Have you read The Peregrine, by JA Baker? A book of astonishing beauty, passion, and style. You already love peregrines, but for anyone who hasn't, this will make you do so. https://t.co/Ax2ElW2sW6
How to Change
Katy Milkman
Award-winning Wharton Professor and Choiceology podcast host Katy Milkman has devoted her career to the study of behavior change. In this ground-breaking book, Milkman reveals a proven path that can take you from where you are to where you want to be, with a foreword from psychologist Angela Duckworth, the best-selling author of Grit. Set audacious goals. Foster good habits. Create social support. You've surely heard this advice before. If you've ever tried to change or encourage it -- to boost exercise or healthy eating, to prevent missed deadlines or kick-start savings -- then you know there are thousands of apps, books, and YouTube videos promising to help and offering sound guidance. And yet, you're still not where you want to be. This trailblazing book from award-winning behavioral scientist and Wharton Professor Katy Milkman explains why. In a career devoted to uncovering what helps people change, Milkman has discovered a crucial thing many of us get wrong: our strategy. Change, she's learned, comes most readily when you understand what's standing between you and success and tailor your solution to that roadblock. If you want to work out more but find exercise difficult and boring, downloading a goal-setting app probably won't help. But what if, instead, you transformed your workouts so they became a source of pleasure instead of a chore? Turning an uphill battle into a downhill one is the key to success. Drawing on Milkman's original research and the work of her dozens of world-renowned scientific collaborators, How to Change shares an innovative new approach that will help you change or encourage change in others. Through case studies, engaging stories, and examples from cutting-edge research, this book illustrates how to identify and overcome the barriers that regularly stand in the way of change. How to Change will teach you: * Why timing can be everything when it comes to making a change * How to turn temptation and inertia into assets that can help you conquer your goals * That giving advice, even if it's about something you're struggling with, can help you achieve more Whether you're a manager, coach, or teacher aiming to help others change for the better or are struggling to kick-start change yourself, How to Change offers an invaluable, science-based blueprint for achieving your goals, once and for all.A practical guide to self-improvement through behavioral economics. Really well done book about understanding yourself and your inner opponents by @katy_milkman https://t.co/2ZyrqNaxZI
Jackpot
Michael Mechanic
A senior editor at Mother Jones dives into the lives of the extremely rich, showing the fascinating, otherworldly realm they inhabit—and the insidious ways this realm harms us all. Have you ever fantasized about being ridiculously wealthy? Probably. Striking it rich is among the most resilient of American fantasies, surviving war and peace, expansions and recessions, economic meltdowns and global pandemics. We dream of the jackpot, the big exit, the life-altering payday, in whatever form that takes. (Americans spent $81 billion on lottery tickets in 2019, more than the GDPs of most nations.) We would escape “essential” day jobs and cramped living spaces, bury our debts, buy that sweet spread, and bail out struggling friends and relations. But rarely do we follow the fantasy to its conclusion—to ponder the social, psychological, and societal downsides of great affluence and the fact that so few possess it. What is it actually like to be blessed with riches in an era of plagues, political rancor, and near-Dickensian economic differences? How mind-boggling are the opportunities and access, how problematic the downsides? Does the experience differ depending on whether the money is earned or unearned, where it comes from, and whether you are male or female, white or black? Finally, how does our collective lust for affluence, and our stubborn belief in social mobility, explain how we got to the point where forty percent of Americans have literally no wealth at all? These are all questions that Jackpot sets out to explore. The result of deep reporting and dozens of interviews with fortunate citizens—company founders and executives, superstar coders, investors, inheritors, lottery winners, lobbyists, lawmakers, academics, sports agents, wealth and philanthropy professionals, concierges, luxury realtors, Bentley dealers, and even a woman who trains billionaires’ nannies in physical combat, Jackpot is a compassionate, character-rich, perversely humorous, and ultimately troubling journey into the American wealth fantasy and where it has taken us.At 7 pm, I’ll be on with @michaelmechanic at @bookshopsc talking about his new book Jackpot, about how extreme wealth affects those who have it https://t.co/JFeXsDncI8
The Overstory
Richard Powers
The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of--and paean to--the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers's twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours--vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.I love both of these books https://t.co/s6LCemg5pB
Short Circuiting Policy
Leah Cardamore Stokes
"Short Circuiting Policy examines clean energy policies to understand why US states are not on track to meet the climate crisis. After two decades of leadership, American states are slipping in their commitment to transitioning away from dirty fossil fuels towards cleaner energy sources, including wind and solar. I argue that organized combat between advocate and opponent interest groups is central to explaining why US states have stopped expanding and even started weakening their renewable energy policies. Fossil fuel companies and electric utilities played a key role in spreading climate denial. Now, they have turned to climate delay, working to block clean energy policies from passing or being implemented, and driving retrenchment. Clean energy advocates typically lack sufficient power to overcome electric utilities' opposition to climate policy. Short Circuiting Policy builds on policy feedback theory, showing the conditions under which retrenchment is more likely. Depending on their relative political influence, interest groups will work to drive retrenchment either directly by working with legislators, their staff and regulators; or, indirectly through the parties, the public and the courts. I also argue that policies likely effects are not easy to predict-an effect I term "the fog of enactment." But overtime, federated interest groups can learn to anticipate policies' consequences through networks that cross states-lines. Examining US energy policy over the past century, and Texas, Kansas, Arizona and Ohio's clean energy laws over the past two decades, I show how opponents have thwarted progress on climate policy"--“Laws are weakened not when they are implemented, not just when they are passed.” @leahstokes on how interest groups get their way in the face of public opinion. Great convo with @ezraklein about Leah’s very important book Short Circuiting Policy https://t.co/WHDhukjYpB
Limits
Giorgos Kallis
I love this book. So readable, so insightful, so actionable. There is also a really interesting connection between this book and @DrIbram's How To Be An Anti-Racist, namely that many establishment beliefs & policies originate as justifications for self-interest by powerful people https://t.co/XNZ7HhkLx4
The Alchemy of Us
Ainissa Ramirez
In the bestselling tradition of Stuff Matters and The Disappearing Spoon: a clever and engaging look at materials, the innovations they made possible, and how these technologies changed us. In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines eight inventions—clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips—and reveals how they shaped the human experience. Ramirez tells the stories of the woman who sold time, the inventor who inspired Edison, and the hotheaded undertaker whose invention pointed the way to the computer. She describes, among other things, how our pursuit of precision in timepieces changed how we sleep; how the railroad helped commercialize Christmas; how the necessary brevity of the telegram influenced Hemingway's writing style; and how a young chemist exposed the use of Polaroid's cameras to create passbooks to track black citizens in apartheid South Africa. These fascinating and inspiring stories offer new perspectives on our relationships with technologies. Ramirez shows not only how materials were shaped by inventors but also how those materials shaped culture, chronicling each invention and its consequences—intended and unintended. Filling in the gaps left by other books about technology, Ramirez showcases little-known inventors—particularly people of color and women—who had a significant impact but whose accomplishments have been hidden by mythmaking, bias, and convention. Doing so, she shows us the power of telling inclusive stories about technology. She also shows that innovation is universal—whether it's splicing beats with two turntables and a microphone or splicing genes with two test tubes and CRISPR.Social media retraining tip: keep a good book handy in places where you might idly pick up your phone. My breakfast table companion right now is this lovely paean to how materials science has changed our world, told through a beautiful tapestry of history. https://t.co/cZqYvUl2aw
Unrig
Daniel G. Newman
An intruiging and accessible nonfiction graphic novel about the role wealth and influence play in American democracy. Despite our immense political divisions, Americans are nearly united in our belief that something is wrong with our government: It works for the wealthy and powerful, but not for anyone else. Unrig exposes the twisted roots of our broken democracy and highlights the heroic efforts of those unrigging the system to return power to We the People. This stirring nonfiction graphic novel by democracy reform leader Daniel G. Newman and artist George O’Connor takes readers behind the scenes—from the sweaty cubicles where senators dial corporate CEOs for dollars, to lavish retreats where billionaires boost their favored candidates, to the map rooms where lawmakers scheme to handpick their voters. Unrig also highlights surprising solutions that limit the influence of big money and redraw the lines of political power. If you're overwhelmed by negative news and despairing for the direction of our country, Unrig is a tonic that will restore your faith and reveal the path forward to fix our broken democracy.I love @DanielGNewman’s new book Unrig. It’s a graphic “novel” explaining how to unrig the US's broken democracy. Here’s an excerpt: The history of voting rights and voter suppression--explained in comics. https://t.co/baRbjl2o6W
WTF?
Tim O'Reilly
@david_megginson Monetization was definitely the Achilles heel of #RSS/#Atom. The way our economy is structured, making money is what evolutionary biologist (now evolutionary economist) David Sloan Wilson calls “the target of selection.” It doesn’t have to be that way, as I explain in my book WTF
Frank Herbert
Tim O'Reilly
A study of the creator of the Dune saga, a landmark of modern science fiction.@tonystubblebine @jamescham I'm so glad that all you guys have discovered this book and are enjoying it so much. Frank's ideas were so formative for me. And he was a real mentor, one of a line of father figures who shaped me perhaps more than my own father did.
Unix Power Tools, Third Edition
Shelley Powers
By its very nature, Unix is a " power tools " environment. Even beginning Unix users quickly grasp that immense power exists in shell programming, aliases and history mechanisms, and various editing tools. Nonetheless, few users ever really master the power available to them with Unix. There is just too much to learn! Unix Power Tools, Third Edition, literally contains thousands of tips, scripts, and techniques that make using Unix easier, more effective, and even more fun. This book is organized into hundreds of short articles with plenty of references to other sections that keep you flipping from new article to new article. You'll find the book hard to put down as you uncover one interesting tip after another. With the growing popularity of Linux and the advent of Mac OS X, Unix has metamorphosed into something new and exciting. With Unix no longer perceived as a difficult operating system, more and more users are discovering its advantages for the first time. The latest edition of this best-selling favorite is loaded with advice about almost every aspect of Unix, covering all the new technologies that users need to know. In addition to vital information on Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD, Unix Power Tools, Third Edition, now offers more coverage of bcash, zsh, and new shells, along with discussions about modern utilities and applications. Several sections focus on security and Internet access, and there is a new chapter on access to Unix from Windows, addressing the heterogeneous nature of systems today. You'll also find expanded coverage of software installation and packaging, as well as basic information on Perl and Python. The book's accompanying web site provides some of the best software available to Unix users, which you can download and add to your own set of power tools. Whether you are a newcomer or a Unix power user, you'll find yourself thumbing through the gold mine of information in this new edition of Unix Power Tools to add to your store of knowledge. Want to try something new? Check this book first, and you're sure to find a tip or trick that will prevent you from learning things the hard way.@chanezon @carlmalamud @therealfitz @OReillyMedia It is also my own favorite of all the books I ever created. I had been exposed to the very early World Wide Web, and I was trying to recreate that experience in print. I think it came out pretty well.
The Making of a Democratic Economy
Marjorie Kelly
Our economy is designed to make the rich richer by plundering the earth--this book offers a compelling vision of an ecologically sustainable alternative, neither capitalist nor socialist, that meets the essential needs of all people, not just the 1 percent. Seventy-one percent of the American people say the economy is rigged against them, and they're right. Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard describe the current economic system as the Extractive Economy--it enables the financial elite to extract maximum gain for themselves, heedless of any damage to people or planet. As an alternative, they offer the Democratic Economy, which is responsive to the concerns of ordinary people and balances human consumption with the regenerative capacity of the earth. Kelly and Howard lay out seven principles of a Democratic Economy: Community, Inclusion, Place (keeping wealth local), Good Work (putting labor before capital), Democratized Ownership, Ethical Finance, and Sustainability. The book pairs each principle with a portrait of a place where it is being put into practice, from Pine Ridge to Portland to Cleveland to Preston, England, and more. This is a powerful, coherent, and achievable vision of an economy that serves the many, not the few.So many great lines in this book. It opens with Theodore Roosevelt: "There can be no real political democracy unless there is something approaching an economic democracy." https://t.co/SVZNrKRvL5
Human Compatible
Stuart Russell
A leading artificial intelligence researcher lays out a new approach to AI that will enable people to coexist successfully with increasingly intelligent machines.I just finished Stuart Russell’s marvelous book on AI safety Human Compatible, and I can’t recommend it highly enough! https://t.co/9XmUxouBA3
The Value of Everything
Mariana Mazzucato
Who really creates wealth in our world? And how do we decide the value of what they do? At the heart of today's financial and economic crisis is a problem hiding in plain sight. In modern capitalism, value-extraction - the siphoning off of profits, from shareholders' dividends to bankers' bonuses - is rewarded more highly than value-creation: the productive process that drives a healthy economy and society. We misidentify takers as makers, and have lost sight of what value really means. Once a central plank of economic thought, this concept of value - what it is, why it matters to us - is simply no longer discussed. Yet, argues Mariana Mazzucato in this penetrating and passionate new book, if we are to reform capitalism - to radically transform an increasingly sick system rather than continue feeding it - we urgently need to rethink where wealth comes from. Who is creating it, who is extracting it, and who is destroying it? Answers to these questions are key if we want to replace the current parasitic system with a type of capitalism that is more sustainable, more symbiotic: that works for us all. The Value of Everything will reignite a long-needed debate about the kind of world we really want to live in.@kellan @MazzucatoM The Value of Everything. See my review of it here: https://t.co/BS62EXpDU7
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
All the grief, grit, and unassailable dignity of the civil rights movement are evoked in this illustrated edition of James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, with photographs by Steve Schapiro. Together, Baldwin's frank account of the black experience and Schapiro's vital images offer poetic and potent testimony to one of the most important...@hellenomwando That whole piece is incorporated into The Fire Next Time. It’s brilliant.
Generative Deep Learning
David Foster
Generative modeling is one of the hottest topics in AI. It’s now possible to teach a machine to excel at human endeavors such as painting, writing, and composing music. With this practical book, machine-learning engineers and data scientists will discover how to re-create some of the most impressive examples of generative deep learning models, such as variational autoencoders,generative adversarial networks (GANs), encoder-decoder models and world models. Author David Foster demonstrates the inner workings of each technique, starting with the basics of deep learning before advancing to some of the most cutting-edge algorithms in the field. Through tips and tricks, you’ll understand how to make your models learn more efficiently and become more creative. Discover how variational autoencoders can change facial expressions in photos Build practical GAN examples from scratch, including CycleGAN for style transfer and MuseGAN for music generation Create recurrent generative models for text generation and learn how to improve the models using attention Understand how generative models can help agents to accomplish tasks within a reinforcement learning setting Explore the architecture of the Transformer (BERT, GPT-2) and image generation models such as ProGAN and StyleGANI'm really looking forward to reading The Generative Deep Learning Book by David Foster https://t.co/iO9j3VF2n7
WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us
Tim O'Reilly
‘The man who can really make a whole industry happen.’ Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google ‘A punchy and provocative book . . . WTF? is an insightful and heartfelt plea, daring us to reimagine a better economy and society.’ Financial Times Renowned as ‘the Oracle of Silicon Valley’, Tim O’Reilly has spent three decades exploring the world-transforming power of information technology. Now, the leading thinker of the internet age turns his eye to the future – and asks the questions that will frame the next stage of the digital revolution: · Will increased automation destroy jobs or create new opportunities? · What will the company of tomorrow look like? · Is a world dominated by algorithms to be welcomed or feared? · How can we ensure that technology serves people, rather than the other way around? · How can we all become better at mapping future trends? Tim O’Reilly’s insights create an authoritative, compelling and often surprising portrait of the world we will soon inhabit, highlighting both the many pitfalls and the enormous opportunities that lie ahead. ‘Tim O’Reilly has been at the cutting edge of the internet since it went commercial.’ New York Times ‘O’Reilly’s ability to quickly identify nascent trends is unparalleled.’ WiredI haven’t read @eliotpeper’s Analog trilogy yet (I like to wait till a trilogy is done.) Eliot tells me the novels are influenced by my own book WTF? so I’m eager to give them a read now that the third book is out. Here’s a review: https://t.co/kcj9wb99TY
Working
Robert A Caro
Robert A. Caro, 'one of the great reporters of our time and probably the greatest biographer’ (Sunday Times), is one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation, whose biographies are widely considered to be masterpieces. In Working he offers a captivating account of his life as a writer, describing the sometimes staggering lengths to which he has gone in order to produce his books and offering priceless insights into the art and craft of non-fiction writing. Anyone interested in investigative journalism and the pursuit of truth, in the writer’s process and the creation of literature, in the art of interviewing or simply the psychology of excellence will find a masterclass in all these subjects within these pages. Readers already familiar with Caro’s work, meanwhile, will be thrilled at the revelations on offer, including how he discovered the fiercely guarded secrets of his subjects, how he constructed the pivotal scenes in his books and the fullest description yet of his forthcoming final volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson. Including several of Caro’s most famous speeches and interviews alongside the new material, Working is the self-portrait of a man who knows the meaning and importance of great story-telling. It is, like all his books, an utterly riveting example of that too.Robert Caro's book Working succeeds on so many levels: brilliant lessons on the art of researching and writing, a teaser for his great biographies, an endearing autobiography. A quick and delightful read. I can't recommend it highly enough. https://t.co/UJ9X04xx9W
Coders
Clive Thompson
'Masterful . . . [Thompson] illuminates both the fascinating coders and the bewildering technological forces that are transforming the world in which we live.' - David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z. Facebook’s algorithms shaping the news. Uber’s cars flocking the streets. Revolution on Twitter and romance on Tinder. We live in a world constructed of computer code. Coders – software programmers – are the people who built it for us. And yet their worlds and minds are little known to outsiders. In Coders, Wired columnist Clive Thompson presents a brilliantly original anthropological reckoning with the most influential tribe in today’s world, interrogating who they are, how they think, what they value, what qualifies as greatness in their world, and what should give us pause. One of the most prominent journalists writing on technology today, Clive Thompson takes us into the minds of coders, the most quietly influential people on the planet, in a journey into the heart of the machine – and the men and women who made it.Here's where you can buy the book: Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World https://t.co/Tz2YS3GHFr
Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window
John Belton
This volume provides a fresh examination of Rear Window from a variety of perspectives."How did I not know that this business is really about manipulation of attention?" @moonalice describes his book as "about me as Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window", the guy who sees something odd going on and slowly wakes up to the fact that he's got to do something about it. https://t.co/uWllALsSTJ
The Once and Future Worker
Oren Cass
Examines how current economic and social policies in the United States are adversely affecting the American worker and explains why the governing elites need to implement changes that increase wages and provide access to job training and social welfare programs. --Breakfast at @bloombergbeta with @oren_cass and @roybahat talking about Oren's book The Once and Future Worker. And that's @Noahpinion mugging for the camera. https://t.co/Z5zrhPjVbn
Fiber
Susan Crawford
An illuminating vision of the next information revolution, centered on a fiber-optic infrastructureAt my second book event of the evening, for my friend @scrawford's new book, Fiber, which is about how the US is missing out on one more of the next big tech revolutions. https://t.co/QaPxXX5zNm
The Game of Kings
Dorothy Dunnett
@devonzuegel The Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett. Though it was Niccolo Rising that led me to the Game of Kings, so maybe that gets the credit.
Regulatory Hacking
Evan Burfield
Every startup wants to change the world. But the ones who truly make an impact know something the others don't: how to make government and regulation work for them. As startups use technology to shape the way we live, work, and learn, they're taking on challenges in sectors like healthcare, infrastructure, and education, where failure is far more consequential than a humorous chat with Siri or the wrong package on your doorstep. These startups inevitably have to face governments responsible for protecting citizens through regulation. Love it or hate it, we're entering the next era of the digital revolution: the Regulatory Era. The big winners in this era--in terms of both impact and financial return--will need skills they won't teach you in business school or most startup incubators: how to scale a business in an industry deeply intertwined with government. Here, for the first time, is the playbook on how to win the regulatory era. "Regulatory hacking" doesn't mean "cutting through red tape"; it's really about finding a creative, strategic approach to navigating complex markets. Evan Burfield is the cofounder of 1776, a Washington, DC-based venture capital firm and incubator specializing in regulated industries. Burfield has coached startups on how to understand, adapt to, and influence government regulation. Now, in Regulatory Hacking, he draws on that expertise and real startup success stories to show you how to do the same. For instance, you'll learn how... * AirBnB rallied a grassroots movement to vote No on San Francisco's Prop F, which would have restricted its business in the city. * HopSkipDrive overcame safety concerns about its kids' ridesharing service by working with state government to build trust into its platform. * 23andMe survived the FDA's order to stop selling its genetic testing kits by building trusted relationships with scientists who could influence the federal regulatory community. Through fascinating case studies and interviews with startup founders, Burfield shows you how to build a compelling narrative for your startup, use it to build a grassroots movement to impact regulation, and develop influence to overcome entrenched relationships between incumbents and governments. These are just some of the tools in the book that you'll need to win the next frontier of innovation.@codeforamerica @eburfield Video is available of my conversation with @eburfield about his book Regulatory Hacking on the @codeforamerica YouTube channel https://t.co/y41Z9JAkr1
In The Garden of Beasts
Erik Larson
Berlin,1933. William E. Dodd, a mild-mannered academic from Chicago, has to his own and everyone else's surprise, become America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany, in a year that proves to be a turning point in history. Dodd and his family, notably his vivacious daughter, Martha, observe at first-hand the many changes - some subtle, some disturbing, and some horrifically violent - that signal Hitler's consolidation of power. Dodd has little choice but to associate with key figures in the Nazi party, his increasingly concerned cables make little impact on an indifferent U.S. State Department, while Martha is drawn to the Nazis and their vision of a 'New Germany' and has a succession of affairs with senior party players, including first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as the year darkens, Dodd and his daughter find their lives transformed and any last illusion they might have about Hitler are shattered by the violence of the 'Night of the Long Knives' in the summer of 1934 that established him as supreme dictator. Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the times, and with brilliant portraits of Hitler, Goebbels, Goering and Himmler amongst others, Erik Larson's new book sheds unique light on events as they unfold, resulting in an unforgettable, addictively readable work of narrative history.@geoffreydgraham @EconTalker @JamesRomm Yes. I like that one too. By the way, the busts of Nero in the Uffizi, especially the one of a six-year-old Nero, look remarkably like the orange one. Also very good, In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larsen https://t.co/1PLkrv0zaw
Farsighted
Steven Johnson
The hardest choices are also the most consequential. So why do we know so little about how to get them right? Big, life-altering decisions matter so much more than the decisions we make every day, and they're also the most difficult: where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, whether to start a company, how to end a war. There's no one-size-fits-all approach for addressing these kinds of conundrums. Steven Johnson's classic Where Good Ideas Come From inspired creative people all over the world with new ways of thinking about innovation. In Farsighted, he uncovers powerful tools for honing the important skill of complex decision-making. While you can't model a once-in-a-lifetime choice, you can model the deliberative tactics of expert decision-makers. These experts aren't just the master strategists running major companies or negotiating high-level diplomacy. They're the novelists who draw out the complexity of their characters' inner lives, the city officials who secure long-term water supplies, and the scientists who reckon with future challenges most of us haven't even imagined. The smartest decision-makers don't go with their guts. Their success relies on having a future-oriented approach and the ability to consider all their options in a creative, productive way. Through compelling stories that reveal surprising insights, Johnson explains how we can most effectively approach the choices that can chart the course of a life, an organization, or a civilization. Farsighted will help you imagine your possible futures and appreciate the subtle intelligence of the choices that shaped our broader social history.Unbelievably, sound was recorded on a wax cylinder decades before Edison but the inventor never thought about playback, because he thought of it as a form of stenography. One of many stories from @stevenbjohnson's wonderful book Farsighted at #oreillyradar https://t.co/w3xZ4Y3bVt
The Myth of Capitalism
Jonathan Tepper
The Myth of Capitalism tells the story of how America has gone from an open, competitive marketplace to an economy where a few very powerful companies dominate key industries that affect our daily lives. Digital monopolies like Google, Facebook and Amazon act as gatekeepers to the digital world. Amazon is capturing almost all online shopping dollars. We have the illusion of choice, but for most critical decisions, we have only one or two companies, when it comes to high speed Internet, health insurance, medical care, mortgage title insurance, social networks, Internet searches, or even consumer goods like toothpaste. Every day, the average American transfers a little of their pay check to monopolists and oligopolists. The solution is vigorous anti-trust enforcement to return America to a period where competition created higher economic growth, more jobs, higher wages and a level playing field for all. The Myth of Capitalism is the story of industrial concentration, but it matters to everyone, because the stakes could not be higher. It tackles the big questions of: why is the US becoming a more unequal society, why is economic growth anemic despite trillions of dollars of federal debt and money printing, why the number of start-ups has declined, and why are workers losing out.If you’re wondering about the corrosive power of market concentration and how it distorts the economy, read The Myth of Capitalism, out now https://t.co/wtTAdUDJHl
Turing's Cathedral
George Dyson
How did computers take over the world? In late 1945, a small group of brilliant engineers and mathematicians gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their ostensible goal was to build a computer which would be instrumental in the US government's race to create a hydrogen bomb. The mathematicians themselves, however, saw their project as the realization of Alan Turing's theoretical 'universal machine.' In Turing's Cathedral, George Dyson vividly re-creates the intense experimentation, incredible mathematical insight and pure creative genius that led to the dawn of the digital universe, uncovering a wealth of new material to bring a human story of extraordinary men and women and their ideas to life. From the lowliest iPhone app to Google's sprawling metazoan codes, we now live in a world of self-replicating numbers and self-reproducing machines whose origins go back to a 5-kilobyte matrix that still holds clues as to what may lie ahead.@roybahat PS, if you want to have a history of so much that is fascinating, like this, be sure to read George Dyson's book Turing's Cathedral
How Asia Works
Joe Studwell
Until the catastrophic economic crisis of the late 1990s, East Asia was perceived as a monolithic success story. But heady economic growth rates masked the most divided continent in the world - one half the most extraordinary developmental success story ever seen, the other half a paper tiger. Joe Studwell explores how policies ridiculed by economists created titans in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, and are now behind the rise of China, while the best advice the West could offer sold its allies in South-East Asia down the economic river. The first book to offer an Asia-wide deconstruction of success and failure in economic development, Studwell's latest work is provocative and iconoclastic - and sobering reading for most of the world's developing countries. How Asia Works is a must-read book that packs powerful insights about the world's most misunderstood continent.@billjaneway Right now, I'm reading Joe Studwell's How Asia Works, which is not directly connected, but very much talks about the path by which rich countries get rich. It may need to be extended to tech as the fourth stage of economic development, if today's tech lives up to its potential
Bad Samaritans
Ha-Joon Chang
It's rare that a book appears with a fresh perspective on world affairs, but renowned economist Ha-Joon Chang has some startlingly original things to say about the future of globalization. In theory, he argues, the world's wealthiest countries and supra-national institutions like the IMF, World Bank and WTO want to see all nations developing into modern industrial societies. In practice, though, those at the top are 'kicking away the ladder' to wealth that they themselves climbed. Why? Self-interest certainly plays a part. But, more often, rich and powerful governments and institutions are actually being 'Bad Samaritans': their intentions are worthy but their simplistic free-market ideology and poor understanding of history leads them to inflict policy errors on others. Chang demonstrates this by contrasting the route to success of economically vibrant countries with the very different route now being dictated to the world's poorer nations. In the course of this, he shows just how muddled the thinking is in such key areas as trade and foreign investment. He shows that the case for privatisation and against state involvement is far from proven. And he explores the ways in which attitudes to national cultures and political ideologies are obscuring clear thinking and creating bad policy. Finally, he argues the case for new strategies for a more prosperous world that may appall the 'Bad Samaritans'.@Noahpinion This is also the point of the wonderful book Bad Samaritans by Ha Joon Chan https://t.co/brxWixZhCp
Winners Take All
Anand Giridharadas
'Entertaining and gripping . . . For those at the helm, the philanthropic plutocrats and aspiring "change agents" who believe they are helping but are actually making things worse, it's time for a reckoning with their role in this spiraling dilemma' Joseph Stiglitz, New York Times Book Review 'In Anand's thought-provoking book his fresh perspective on solving complex societal problems is admirable. I appreciate his commitment and dedication to spreading social justice' Bill Gates An insider's trenchant investigation of how the global elite's efforts to "change the world" preserve the status quo and obscure their culpability Former New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can - except ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. We see how they rebrand themselves as saviours of the poor; how they lavishly reward "thought leaders" who redefine "change" in winner-friendly ways; and how they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm. But why should our gravest problems be solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public institutions it erodes by lobbying and dodging taxes? Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, Giridharadas argues that we must take on the gruelling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions. Trenchant and revelatory, Winners Take All is a call to action for elites and citizens alike.https://t.co/9iWzWWtj0s for the live stream of the conversation between @AnandWrites and @pahlkadot about Anand's remarkable new book Winners Take All https://t.co/kx78xaXHNK
Why Nations Fail
Daron Acemoglu
Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2012. Why are some nations more prosperous than others? Why Nations Fail sets out to answer this question, with a compelling and elegantly argued new theory: that it is not down to climate, geography or culture, but because of institutions. Drawing on an extraordinary range of contemporary and historical examples, from ancient Rome through the Tudors to modern-day China, leading academics Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson show that to invest and prosper, people need to know that if they work hard, they can make money and actually keep it - and this means sound institutions that allow virtuous circles of innovation, expansion and peace. Based on fifteen years of research, and answering the competing arguments of authors ranging from Max Weber to Jeffrey Sachs and Jared Diamond, Acemoglu and Robinson step boldly into the territory of Francis Fukuyama and Ian Morris. They blend economics, politics, history and current affairs to provide a new, powerful and persuasive way of understanding wealth and poverty.@benedictevans @delong Another good book that is not obviously related, but deeply so, is Why Nations Fail, by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson https://t.co/fLU0j4HbjE
Under Pressure
Lisa Damour
Though anxiety has risen among young people overall, recent research studies confirm that it has skyrocketed in girls since the turn of the century. So what's to blame? And how can we help these girls? In the engaging, anecdotal style and reassuring tone that won over thousands of readers of her bestseller Untangled, clinical psychologist Lisa Damour examining the science of stress and anxiety and the many facets of girls' lives where stress hits them hard: - The parental expectations they face at home - Pressures at school - Social anxiety among their peers - Social pressures on social media Exploring the multiple layers of girls' lives, Damour shows us the critical steps we can take to shield them from the toxic stress to which both our culture and also we, as their caregivers, subject them. Readers familiar with Damour's bestseller Untangled or from her New York Times journalism will need to read this important new contribution to understanding and supporting today's girls - and tomorrow's young women.@gwern @cryptinfominer @robinhanson I agree that Dune and Dune Messiah stand alone, but I do think that Under Pressure, Frank Herbert's first book, and the Santaroga Barrier are also a cut above the rest of his work.
Bad Samaritans
Ha-Joon Chang
It's rare that a book appears with a fresh perspective on world affairs, but renowned economist Ha-Joon Chang has some startlingly original things to say about the future of globalization. In theory, he argues, the world's wealthiest countries and supra-national institutions like the IMF, World Bank and WTO want to see all nations developing into modern industrial societies. In practice, though, those at the top are 'kicking away the ladder' to wealth that they themselves climbed. Why? Self-interest certainly plays a part. But, more often, rich and powerful governments and institutions are actually being 'Bad Samaritans': their intentions are worthy but their simplistic free-market ideology and poor understanding of history leads them to inflict policy errors on others. Chang demonstrates this by contrasting the route to success of economically vibrant countries with the very different route now being dictated to the world's poorer nations. In the course of this, he shows just how muddled the thinking is in such key areas as trade and foreign investment. He shows that the case for privatisation and against state involvement is far from proven. And he explores the ways in which attitudes to national cultures and political ideologies are obscuring clear thinking and creating bad policy. Finally, he argues the case for new strategies for a more prosperous world that may appall the 'Bad Samaritans'.@benedictevans A good read on this topic is South Korean economist Ha Joon Chang's book, Bad Samaritans, about how South Korea got rich. Also see @delong's book Concrete Economics, which makes the case that America got rich much the same way https://t.co/hhVcnvzOdf
Concrete Economics
Stephen S. Cohen
“an excellent new book” — Paul Krugman, The New York Times History, not ideology, holds the key to growth. Brilliantly written and argued, Concrete Economics shows how government has repeatedly reshaped the American economy ever since Alexander Hamilton’s first, foundational redesign. This book does not rehash the sturdy and long-accepted arguments that to thrive, entrepreneurial economies need a broad range of freedoms. Instead, Steve Cohen and Brad DeLong remedy our national amnesia about how our economy has actually grown and the role government has played in redesigning and reinvigorating it throughout our history. The government not only sets the ground rules for entrepreneurial activity but directs the surges of energy that mark a vibrant economy. This is as true for present-day Silicon Valley as it was for New England manufacturing at the dawn of the nineteenth century. The authors’ argument is not one based on abstract ideas, arcane discoveries, or complex correlations. Instead it is based on the facts—facts that were once well known but that have been obscured in a fog of ideology—of how the US economy benefited from a pragmatic government approach to succeed so brilliantly. Understanding how our economy has grown in the past provides a blueprint for how we might again redesign and reinvigorate it today, for such a redesign is sorely needed.@benedictevans A good read on this topic is South Korean economist Ha Joon Chang's book, Bad Samaritans, about how South Korea got rich. Also see @delong's book Concrete Economics, which makes the case that America got rich much the same way https://t.co/hhVcnvzOdf
The Fifth Risk
Michael Lewis
'Will set your hair on end' Telegraph, Top 50 Books of the Year 'Life is what happens between Michael Lewis books. I forgot to breathe while reading The Fifth Risk' Michael Hofmann, TLS, Books of the Year The phenomenal new book from the international bestselling author of The Big Short 'The election happened ... And then there was radio silence.' The morning after Trump was elected president, the people who ran the US Department of Energy - an agency that deals with some of the most powerful risks facing humanity - waited to welcome the incoming administration's transition team. Nobody appeared. Across the US government, the same thing happened: nothing. People don't notice when stuff goes right. That is the stuff government does. It manages everything that underpins our lives from funding free school meals, to policing rogue nuclear activity, to predicting extreme weather events. It steps in where private investment fears to tread, innovates and creates knowledge, assesses extreme long-term risk. And now, government is under attack. By its own leaders. In The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis reveals the combustible cocktail of wilful ignorance and venality that is fuelling the destruction of a country's fabric. All of this, Lewis shows, exposes America and the world to the biggest risk of all. It is what you never learned that might have saved you.@jamescham @MazzucatoM 1. We talked about Michael Lewis’ new book The Fifth Risk (first two chapters available as free audiobook) https://t.co/uqz8g9QWPN
@JordanTSack @ben_mathes Yes. This is the subject of @AnandWrites’ excellent new book Winner Takes All https://t.co/qkgmUrouF3
The Overstory
Richard Powers
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2019 SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018 A wondrous, exhilarating novel about nine strangers brought together by an unfolding natural catastrophe ‘The best novel ever written about trees, and really, just one of the best novels, period’ Ann Patchett An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. An Air Force crewmember in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. This is the story of these and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, who are brought together in a last stand to save it from catastrophe. ‘Breathtaking’ Barbara Kingsolver, New York Times ‘It’s a masterpiece’ Tim Winton ‘It’s not possible for Powers to write an uninteresting book’ Margaret Atwood ‘An astonishing performance’ Benjamin Markovits, GuardianI put my hope for the future in this: “Man achieves civilization...as a response to a challenge in a situation of special difficulty which rouses him to make a hitherto unprecedented effort." -Toynbee, quoted in Richard Powers' book The Overstory https://t.co/9Lbp7rMCux
AI Superpowers
Kai-Fu Lee
THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER Dr. Kai-Fu Lee—one of the world’s most respected experts on AI and China—reveals that China has suddenly caught up to the US at an astonishingly rapid and unexpected pace. In AI Superpowers, Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power. Most experts already say that AI will have a devastating impact on blue-collar jobs. But Lee predicts that Chinese and American AI will have a strong impact on white-collar jobs as well. Is universal basic income the solution? In Lee’s opinion, probably not. But he provides a clear description of which jobs will be affected and how soon, which jobs can be enhanced with AI, and most importantly, how we can provide solutions to some of the most profound changes in human history that are coming soon.I read an advanced draft of @kaifulee’s book AI Superpowers, and I guarantee you won’t want to miss this. He does a beautiful job of handicapping the #AI race between the US and China, and the implications for all of us. And when the book comes out this fall, READ IT! https://t.co/ODRQSkQXW1
The Wealth of Humans
Ryan Avent
'Ryan Avent is a superb writer ... highly readable and lively' Thomas Piketty To work is human. It puts food on the table, meaningfully structures our days, and strengthens our social ties. When work works, it provides the basis for a stable social order. Yet the world of work is changing fast, and in unexpected ways. With rapid advances in information technology, huge swathes of the job market - from cleaners and drivers to journalists and doctors - are being automated, or soon will be: a staggering 47% of American employment is at risk of automation within the next two to three decades. Yet at the same time millions more jobs are being created. What does the future of work hold? In this illuminating new investigation of what this revolution in work means for us, Ryan Avent lays bare the contradictions in today's global labour market. From Volvo's operations in Sweden to the vast 'Factory Asia' hub in China, via Indian development economists and Silicon Valley venture capitalists, he offers the first clear explanation of the state we're in-and how we could get out of it. With an ever-increasing divide between the rich and the rest, Avent states, something has got to give. The traditional escape routes - improved education, wage subsidies, and new industries built by entrepreneurs-will no longer work as they once did. In order to navigate our way across today's rapidly transforming economic landscape, he argues, we must revisit our previous experiences of massive technological change - and radically reassess the very idea of how, and why, we work.I believe this is an extract from @ryanavent's wonderful book The Wealth of Humans. If you care about technology and the economy, it is one of the books you must read. Thoughtful and inspiring. https://t.co/AtFMyx5LCx
The Way of Life
Charles Hodge
@_spdz @oscon Oops. I left out the book I talked about the most, Witter Bynner’s beloved (by me) translation of Lao Tzu, The Way of Life According to Lao Tzu!
Who Gets What -- and Why
Alvin E. Roth
A Nobel laureate reveals the often surprising rules that govern a vast array of activities -- both mundane and life-changing -- in which money may play little or no role. If you've ever sought a job or hired someone, applied to college or guided your child into a good kindergarten, asked someone out on a date or been asked out, you've participated in a kind of market. Most of the study of economics deals with commodity markets, where the price of a good connects sellers and buyers. But what about other kinds of "goods," like a spot in the Yale freshman class or a position at Google? This is the territory of matching markets, where "sellers" and "buyers" must choose each other, and price isn't the only factor determining who gets what. Alvin E. Roth is one of the world's leading experts on matching markets. He has even designed several of them, including the exchange that places medical students in residencies and the system that increases the number of kidney transplants by better matching donors to patients. In Who Gets What -- And Why, Roth reveals the matching markets hidden around us and shows how to recognize a good match and make smarter, more confident decisions.@_spdz @oscon I assume those are the three books I referenced in the talk, Kernighan and Pike’s The Unix Programming Environment, Alvin Roth’s Who Gets What and Why, and Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics. (Name check in case others want to check them out.)
The Responsive Chord
Tony Schwartz
Utilizes the resonance principle to explain the ways in which the electronic media is reviving nonlinear communication in modern society@mkapor "'telling the truth' should be the least important social concern... [those] responsible for safeguarding public well-being should concern themselves with understanding the effects of a commercial." That's Tony Schwartz in 1973, from his book The Responsive Chord, about TV
Angry White Men
Michael Kimmel
"Kimmel has made a career out of being what you might call a man-translator."-The Atlantic The white American male voter is alive and well--and angry as hell. Sociologist Michael Kimmel, one of the leading writers on men and masculinity, has spent hundreds of hours in the company of America's angry white men--from white supremacists to men's rights activists to young students--in pursuit of a comprehensive diagnosis of their fears, anxieties, and rage. Kimmel locates this increase in anger in the seismic economic, social, and political shifts that have transformed the American landscape: Downward mobility, increased racial and gender equality, and tenaciously clinging to an anachronistic ideology of masculinity has left many men feeling betrayed and bewildered. Raised to expect unparalleled social and economic privilege, white men are suffering today from what Kimmel calls "aggrieved entitlement": a sense that those benefits that white men believed were their due have been snatched away from them. The election of Donald Trump proved that angry white men can still change the course of history. Here, Kimmel argues that we must consider the rage of this "forgotten" group and create solutions that address the concerns of all Americans.2/ and @MichaelS_Kimmel's book Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era https://t.co/ui0waJoaJv Great podcast episode, @InTheThickShow! #AspenIdeas
Eloquent Rage
Brittney Cooper
An Emma Watson "Our Shared Shelf" Selection for November/December 2018 • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2018 BY: The New York Public Library • Mashable • The Atlantic • Bustle • The Root • NPR • Fast Company ("10 Best Books for Battling Your Sexist Workplace") Rebecca Solnit, The New Republic: "Funny, wrenching, pithy, and pointed." Roxane Gay: "I encourage you to check out Eloquent Rage out now." Joy Reid, Cosmopolitan: "A dissertation on black women’s pain and possibility." America Ferrera: "Razor sharp and hilarious. There is so much about her analysis that I relate to and grapple with on a daily basis as a Latina feminist." Damon Young: "Like watching the world’s best Baptist preacher but with sermons about intersectionality and Beyoncé instead of Ecclesiastes." Melissa Harris Perry: “I was waiting for an author who wouldn’t forget, ignore, or erase us black girls...I was waiting and she has come in Brittney Cooper.” Michael Eric Dyson: “Cooper may be the boldest young feminist writing today...and she will make you laugh out loud.” So what if it’s true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting. Far too often, Black women’s anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. Black women’s eloquent rage is what makes Serena Williams such a powerful tennis player. It’s what makes Beyoncé’s girl power anthems resonate so hard. It’s what makes Michelle Obama an icon. Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother's eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. And it took another intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn Brittney into the fierce feminist she is today. In Brittney Cooper’s world, neither mean girls nor fuckboys ever win. But homegirls emerge as heroes. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one's own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again. A BEST/MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2018 BY: Glamour • Chicago Reader • Bustle • Autostraddle1/ For more passion and wisdom on this topic, see @ProfessorCrunk's book Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower https://t.co/7uBSQPBKVR #AspenIdeas
Blood Moon
John Sedgwick
An astonishing untold story from the nineteenth century—a “riveting…engrossing…‘American Epic’” (The Wall Street Journal) and necessary work of history that reads like Gone with the Wind for the Cherokee. “A vigorous, well-written book that distills a complex history to a clash between two men without oversimplifying” (Kirkus Reviews), Blood Moon is the story of the feud between two rival Cherokee chiefs from the early years of the United States through the infamous Trail of Tears and into the Civil War. Their enmity would lead to war, forced removal from their homeland, and the devastation of a once-proud nation. One of the men, known as The Ridge—short for He Who Walks on Mountaintops—is a fearsome warrior who speaks no English, but whose exploits on the battlefield are legendary. The other, John Ross, is descended from Scottish traders and looks like one: a pale, unimposing half-pint who wears modern clothes and speaks not a word of Cherokee. At first, the two men are friends and allies who negotiate with almost every American president from George Washington through Abraham Lincoln. But as the threat to their land and their people grows more dire, they break with each other on the subject of removal. In Blood Moon, John Sedgwick restores the Cherokee to their rightful place in American history in a dramatic saga that informs much of the country’s mythic past today. Fueled by meticulous research in contemporary diaries and journals, newspaper reports, and eyewitness accounts—and Sedgwick’s own extensive travels within Cherokee lands from the Southeast to Oklahoma—it is “a wild ride of a book—fascinating, chilling, and enlightening—that explains the removal of the Cherokee as one of the central dramas of our country” (Ian Frazier). Populated with heroes and scoundrels of all varieties, this is a richly evocative portrait of the Cherokee that is destined to become the defining book on this extraordinary people.It seems to be a good book. Strange that the white people are not better after having it so long." Cherokee chief Drowning Bear on The Book of Matthew, not long before the Trail of Tears. From the wonderful Blood Moon, by John Sedgewick. https://t.co/QNI9UnUDPm
Islandia
Austin Tappan Wright
Austin Tappan Wright left the world a wholly unsuspected legacy. After he died in a tragic accident, among this distinguished legal scholar's papers were found thousands of pages devoted to a staggering feat of literary creation-a detailed history of an imagined country complete with geography, genealogy, literature, language and culture. As detailed as J.R.R. Tolkien's middle-earth novels, Islandia has similarly become a classic touchstone for those concerned with the creation of imaginary world.@librarythingtim Books that are in that category for me were Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright, Dunnet's Lymond Chronicles, Pargeter's Heaven Tree trilogy. In nonfiction, Tao Te Ching, translated by Witter Bynner, Wallace Stevens The Palm at the End of the Mind, and Powys The Meaning of Culture
Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles
Scott Richardson
Since the first installment of Dunnett's series was published in 1961, Francis Crawford of Lymond, the swashbuckling protagonist of the stories, has been captivating his fellow characters and readers alike. Instead of approaching the books primarily as historical fiction, Richardson, an enthusiastic admirer of the series, unravels the complexities of the main character by exploring his psychology, positioning the books within the genre of espionage, and examining Dunnett's strategy of using games in her writing. Richardson's insight and passion for his subject will inspire fans to revisit Dunnett's series.@librarythingtim Books that are in that category for me were Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright, Dunnet's Lymond Chronicles, Pargeter's Heaven Tree trilogy. In nonfiction, Tao Te Ching, translated by Witter Bynner, Wallace Stevens The Palm at the End of the Mind, and Powys The Meaning of Culture
The Heaven Tree Trilogy
Edith Pargeter
@librarythingtim Books that are in that category for me were Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright, Dunnet's Lymond Chronicles, Pargeter's Heaven Tree trilogy. In nonfiction, Tao Te Ching, translated by Witter Bynner, Wallace Stevens The Palm at the End of the Mind, and Powys The Meaning of Culture
@librarythingtim Books that are in that category for me were Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright, Dunnet's Lymond Chronicles, Pargeter's Heaven Tree trilogy. In nonfiction, Tao Te Ching, translated by Witter Bynner, Wallace Stevens The Palm at the End of the Mind, and Powys The Meaning of Culture
The Palm at the End of the Mind
Wallace Stevens
This selection of works by Wallace Stevens--the man Harold Bloom has called "the best and most representative American poet"--was first published in 1967. Edited by the poet's daughter Holly Stevens, it contains all the major long poems and sequences, and every shorter poem of lasting value in Stevens' career, including some not printed in his earlier Collected Works. Included also is a short play by Stevens, "Bowl, Cat and Broomstick."@librarythingtim Books that are in that category for me were Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright, Dunnet's Lymond Chronicles, Pargeter's Heaven Tree trilogy. In nonfiction, Tao Te Ching, translated by Witter Bynner, Wallace Stevens The Palm at the End of the Mind, and Powys The Meaning of Culture
The Meaning of Culture
John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys could never be straightforward or orthodox but here he sets off with a useful purpose. ‘The aim of this book,’ he declares, ‘is to narrow down a vague and somewhat evasive conception, which hitherto, like ‘’aristocracy’’ or ‘’liberty’’, has come to imply a number of contradictory and even paradoxical elements, and to give it, not, of course, a purely logical form, but a concrete, particular, recognizable form, malleable and yielding enough and relative enough, but with a definite and quite unambiguous temper, tone, quality, atmosphere, of its own.’ The book is in two parts: Analysis of Culture which deals with, in separate chapters, Philosophy, Literature, Poetry, Painting and Religion: Application of Culture which covers Happiness, Love, Nature, The Art of Reading, Human Relations, Destiny and Obstacles to Culture.John Cowper Powys hoped ‘that the fine word ‘’culture’’ . . . might lend itself to an easy, humane and liberal discussion – a sort of one-man Platonic symposium – and even turn out to contain, among its various implications, no unworthy clue to the narrow path of the wise upon earth.’ He succeeds completely, in his own idiosyncratic way, in achieving that.‘Mr Powys is to be congratulated on having written a book of the kind that most needs writing and most deserves to be read . . . Here in a dozen chapters of glowing and eloquent prose, Mr Powys describes for very reader that citadel which is himself, and explains to him how it may be strengthened and upheld and on what terms it is most worth upholding. . .’ Manchester Guardian@librarythingtim Books that are in that category for me were Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright, Dunnet's Lymond Chronicles, Pargeter's Heaven Tree trilogy. In nonfiction, Tao Te Ching, translated by Witter Bynner, Wallace Stevens The Palm at the End of the Mind, and Powys The Meaning of Culture
Doughnut Economics
Kate Raworth
Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times. Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike. That's why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth, to revise our economic thinking for the 21st century. In Doughnut Economics, she sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design. Named after the now-iconic "doughnut" image that Raworth first drew to depict a sweet spot of human prosperity (an image that appealed to the Occupy Movement, the United Nations, eco-activists, and business leaders alike), Doughnut Economics offers a radically new compass for guiding global development, government policy, and corporate strategy, and sets new standards for what economic success looks like. Raworth handpicks the best emergent ideas--from ecological, behavioral, feminist, and institutional economics to complexity thinking and Earth-systems science--to address this question: How can we turn economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive, into economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow? Simple, playful, and eloquent, Doughnut Economics offers game-changing analysis and inspiration for a new generation of economic thinkers.I am loving @KateRaworth’s book Doughnut Economics. It puts #inequality in a far broader context, connecting a great many 21st century problems with a single vision. Every business leader and every policy maker should read it. For a quick summary, see https://t.co/harwQvlLlC
Automating Inequality
Virginia Eubanks
WINNER: The 2018 McGannon Center Book Prize and shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice The New York Times Book Review: "Riveting." Naomi Klein: "This book is downright scary." Ethan Zuckerman, MIT: "Should be required reading." Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body: "A must-read." Astra Taylor, author of The People's Platform: "The single most important book about technology you will read this year." Cory Doctorow: "Indispensable." A powerful investigative look at data-based discrimination—and how technology affects civil and human rights and economic equity The State of Indiana denies one million applications for healthcare, foodstamps and cash benefits in three years—because a new computer system interprets any mistake as “failure to cooperate.” In Los Angeles, an algorithm calculates the comparative vulnerability of tens of thousands of homeless people in order to prioritize them for an inadequate pool of housing resources. In Pittsburgh, a child welfare agency uses a statistical model to try to predict which children might be future victims of abuse or neglect. Since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, employment, politics, health and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systems—rather than humans—control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. The book is full of heart-wrenching and eye-opening stories, from a woman in Indiana whose benefits are literally cut off as she lays dying to a family in Pennsylvania in daily fear of losing their daughter because they fit a certain statistical profile. The U.S. has always used its most cutting-edge science and technology to contain, investigate, discipline and punish the destitute. Like the county poorhouse and scientific charity before them, digital tracking and automated decision-making hide poverty from the middle-class public and give the nation the ethical distance it needs to make inhumane choices: which families get food and which starve, who has housing and who remains homeless, and which families are broken up by the state. In the process, they weaken democracy and betray our most cherished national values. This deeply researched and passionate book could not be more timely.From the book Automating Inequality. A terrible reminder of the power of the digital systems we build and the urgency of infusing them with the right moral values. https://t.co/Zl0awqe83b
The Gardens of Democracy
Eric Liu
@jc1000000 That’s a quote from @NickHanauer and @ericpliu’s wonderful book The Garden of Democracy.
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life
Russ Roberts
"How the insights of an 18th century economist can help us live better in the 21st century. Adam Smith became famous for The Wealth of Nations, but the Scottish economist also cared deeply about our moral choices and behavior--the subjects of his other brilliant book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). Now, economist Russ Roberts shows why Smith's neglected work might be the greatest self-help book you've never read. Roberts explores Smith's unique and fascinating approach to fundamental questions such as: - What is the deepest source of human satisfaction? - Why do we sometimes swing between selfishness and altruism? - What's the connection between morality and happiness? Drawing on current events, literature, history, and pop culture, Roberts offers an accessible and thought-provoking view of human behavior through the lenses of behavioral economics and philosophy"--"What sustains civilization is the stream of approval and disapproval we all provide as we respond to the conduct of those around us." @EconTalker summarizes the argument of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments. Lovely! https://t.co/tjxz6t30Go