David Gibbins – A history of the world in twelve shipwrecks
In particular, the retracing connections and trade routes in prehistoric times through chemical analysis is impressive.
Recent posts
The combined innovations in politics, warfare, religion, and finance around the turn of the 16th century laid the foundation for developments that would shape Europe for centuries to come.
The personal stories of individual actors are a bit over-done, but fascinating references to original sources ensure the whole is sufficiently balanced.
The phone-based childhood lies at the basis of many societal issues
Jonathan Haidt – The anxious generation
Refreshingly opinionated.
Only preciously few companies have achieved the holy grail of continual learning… yet
Chip Huyen – Designing Machine Learning Systems
The book touches upon a refreshingly broad range of relatable challenges that are illustrated with practical examples.
The CDO should be the Switzerland between Business and IT
Martin Treder – The Chief Data Officer Manaegment Handbook
A solid run through the basic that manages to touch on a surprisingly high number of recognizable concrete examples.
Set your own standards and use the power of commitments to raise the bar
Jason Jaggard – Beyong high performance
The shameless pursuit of excellence is inspiring.
“It is essential to understand the underpinnings of the technology so you have an intuition for how the industry is going to change” – Jensen Huang
A juicy founder story if there ever was one.
The failure to recognize the implicit philosophical hypotheses underlying a naive scientific triumphalism can be harmful for humanity and the planet
Adam Frank – The blind spot
Delightfully broad perspective, although with a far too anthropocentric perspective on intelligence and consciousness.
Make sure to start with many ideas, and to test them early.
Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn – Ideaflow
A rather traditional book on the innovation process, but with the merit of a Stanford stamp of approval.
If you want to start a $1M business: be sure to get over your fear for starting and your fear for asking
Noah Kagan – Million Dollar Weekend
Surprisingly simple, indeed – just like it said on the cover.
The flaws of Cartesian dualism become apparent when people have to make decisions in high-stakes environments
John Coates – The hour between dog and wolf
The perspective with a trading desk during the credit crisis provides a nice backdrop for the argument.
You should relentlessly apply the Pareto principle to how you spend your time!
Dan Sulivan and Benjamin Hardy – 10x is easier than 2x
Motivational books are typically easy to misinterpret.
The only way to control the power of tech power houses and defend the rights of ordinary citizens is stricter regulation
Marietje Schaake – The tech coup
Although the book makes valuable points, the full focus on legislation risks overlooking the importance of thriving innovation for defending long term competitiveness in geopolitical context.
Capitalism has fallen: not due to a communist revolution, but by the hand of a new elite of rent-extracting technology companies that has grabbed power
Yanis Varoufakis – Technofeudalism
A surprising blend of philosophical reflections, personal dialogues, the retelling of a Netflix series, and a Marxist polemic pamphlet.
Effective networking needs a system
Judy Robinett – How to be a power connector
A pragmatic and actionable apprach.
The coupling of personal and economic freedom increasingly appears to be a thing of the past
Martin Wolf – The crisis of Democratic Capitalism
After a slow start, the book provides interesting analyses, which after the 2024 US elections is more relevant than ever.
There are a lot of ways in which venture capitalists put their thumb on the scale when funding start-ups
Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson – Venture Deals
Helpful guide to demystifying terminology, but more of a reference work than a book to read end-to-end.
Capitalism is the best economic system, as long as you assume that the marginal utility if incremental individual wealth is not diminishing
Johan Norberg – The capitalist manifesto
Some interesting fact and figures around happiness in different countries support the thesis, but the question of redistribution is treated in a shallow way.
It is great if you can set your own success criteria, achieve them, become financially independent, and have fun in the process
Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith – iWoz
It is amazing how passionate this guy can be about a universal remote control.
The ability to quantify and appreciate risks provides a competitive edge, but in the face of existential risks many models break down
Entertaining, but in-all, the book reads as a manifesto written for those who already agree.