Paul Collier – The future of capitalism
The author’s recommended retun to a local solidarity may address the issue at hand, but will also pose significant threats for ‘diversity and inclusion’.
Thanks to the US phone monopoly, Bell labs could produce breakthrough technologies
Jon Gertner – The idea factory
The fascinating history of Bell labs illustrates how a long-term view is essential for technological progress.
There is magic in the chemistry of every day materials
Mark Miodownik – Stuff Matters
Skillfully composed , mind-blowing narrative at different scales.
Run your IT department like it is a factory
Gene Kim et. al. – The Phoenix project
The well-established template of ‘The Goal‘ applied to IT.
Thanks to technology, it becomes ever easier for fringe movements to topple the establishment
Moises Naim – The end of power
the book, written pre-Trump, pre-Brexit and pre-Cambridge Analytics, underemphasizes the risk of large-scale orchestration of fringe groups to undermine nation states; thereby making the author’s call for stronger institutions feels a bit besides the point.
The MBTI type indicator helps corporates to contain the impact of individuality in the workplace
Merve Emre-The personality brokers
MBTI is more fascinating than expected, from its amateurish origins and its lack of scientific underpinning to its unlikely longevity and commercial success.
Nine out of ten times, what seems to be a human error is actually caused by a faulty design
Don Norman – The design of everyday things
Elegant book full of fascinating examples of design thinking.
It requires concentration to complete complex, intelligent tasks
The need for concentration for though-intensive tasks is not disputed, but somehow the author (a university professor himself) structurally over-values academic work versus non-academic endeavours.
To disprove ‘Intelligent Design’, just note that one can very well exhibit intelligent behavior without actual intelligence
Daniel Dennett – From bacteria to Bach and back
Caleidoscopic overview of Dennett’s ideas, but it would benefit from an more thorough justification of its antropocentric perspective (compare: Frans de Waal).
Recognize Resistance, and fight it like a pro
Steven Pressfield – The war of art
Well written plea for taking ownership – and action.
Even at tech companies where intentions are good, women fight an uphill battle
The book fits neatly in the trend to call out gender inequality, but unfortunately it has limited practical solutions to offer.
Arguing by analogy, one has to conclude that animals have emotions
Frans de Waal – Mama’s last hug
Especially interesting are the behavioral experiments, reminiscent of the line of argument in Moral Tribes
Forget about stopping climate change, but don´t let that stop you fighting it
David Wallace-Wells – The uninhabitable earth
The book clearly illustrates that climate change is the prisoner’s dilemma ‘par excellence’
The combination of vested interests in theoretical physics and experimental energy limits leads to bad science
Sabine Hossenfelder – Lost in math
The author stresses that following negative results of experiments, theories are typically watered-down just to the extent that they are untestable – reminiscent of Bruno Latour’s “social constructionof scientific facts”
To succeed, do something that you like so much that you are willing to put in the required effort
The book starts as more-or-less scientific research into drivers of success, but ends as motivational self-help literature.
The rise of hard discounters has made grocers and CPG companies adjust their strategies
Jan-Benedict Steenkamp and Laurens Sloot – Retail disruptors
Generally solid overview of retail business economics using hard discounter in grocery as case examples, but the authors could not risist the urge to make overly general assertions.
Cyber crime is a cost-effective way for other nations to retalliate against the US, without risking all-out war
John Carlin – Dawn of the code war
Overly chauvinistic and politically correct story of how intelligence and cyber crime are convering, written boringly – I eagerly await the Michael Lewis version…
The concepts comfort and privacy were first introduced in Western society at the court of Louis XIV and Louis XV of France
Joan DeJean – The age of comfort
Contains fascinating details on the construction of early water closets.
Entropy (and thereby time) emerges out of our limited ability to distinguish different states of the universe
Carlo Rovelli – The order of time
Remarkably intuitive and enlightening expose of a deep and complex subject; in the audio version even more appealing due to the warm yet solemn reading by Benedict Cumberbatch.
Economically speaking, AI makes prediction a commodity – and nothing more
Ajay Argawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb – Prediction machines
The authors see AI as just a new option for the division of labor which, although it can have rather dramatic consequences, does not support apocalyptic GAI fearmongering.