Meridith Broussard – Artificial Unintelligence
Great effort to democratize AI and peel off some layers of mistique that harm public debate (althought the case against technochauvinism seems at times a bit too shallow).
As an incumbent, organize disruptive innovation away from your core business
Clayton Christensen – The innovator’s dilemma
The history of disc drives and mechanical excavators showcases how difficult it is for incumbents to come out on top when technological innovation hits your market.
Make sure you create value, and maintain power over transactions on your platform
Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Olstyne, Sangeet Choudary – Platform revolution
Remember: there are many ways in which platforms can fail!
Attract the right team, set a market-driven strategy, prioritize wisely in execution and… don’t run out of cash
Densely written ‘how-to guide’ for executives who want to build a sustainable growth company.
Anticipate change in products, processes and requirements; and organize for that
Despite the unavoidable buzzwords that come with the genre, Lean and Agile are actually sane and useful management principles.
Making a great painting is in large part a scientific achievement
Walter Isaacson – Leonardo da Vinci
Isaacson’s narrative falacy (‘Leonardo never finishing what he starts’) is at odds with the public recognition he received in his own day and age.
Compared to the Chinese tech scene, Silicon Valley is slow and complacent
Former Google China Chief explains why China will win the AI race when it comes to applications of deep learning in the physical world.
Theranos’ downfall shows a reality distortion field gone wrong
What seems to have started as entrepreneurial over-confidence ended in a web of fraud and lies.
Our democratic system is not ready to deal with technological innovation
Jamie Bartlett – The people vs Tech
Summary of how tech firms form a risk for democracy, but without a thorough assessment of how technology itself can be applied to improve the democratic process.
To make the difference you have to do something truly different and definitive
Rich repository of one-liners for those who seek to make bold moves.
The principles of the enlightment are still the main driver for human progress
Steven Pinker – Enlightnent now
Considering his plea for scientific thinking, Pinker is remarkably confident on (1) hard to assess long term risks and (2) strong realism (in the epistomological sense).
The success of Uber and AirBnB is (partly) due to structural exploration of legal limits
Most illustrative are the descriptions of failed competitors, which show importance of both luck and ruthlessness.
There are 100s of underappreciated scientific concepts that deserve to be widely known
John Brockman – This idea is brilliant
A rollercoaster ride through a laundry list of hot topics in science today.
Digitization, network effects, and participation will continue to disrupt many markets
Machine, Platform, Crowd – Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson
Decent summary of developments with some nice examples, but not sufficiently new or surprising to classify as ‘essential reading’.
Developing nuclear physics required a lot tinkering and failing
Atomic Adventures – James Mahaffey
Refreshing view on history of nuclear physics with emphasis on ‘failures’ like cold fusion and nuclear rocket engines in this often counter-intuitive branche of science.
There is a myriad of ways in which AGI can be scary, but also a whole array of options humanity can pursue to stay on the top of the food chain
Mike Bostrom – Superintelligence
More thorough and nuanced than most scary-AI-will-take-over-the-world-books, but it still suffers from the same pitfall: over-estimating the importance of superintelligence for evolutionary success (two random examples: cockroaches and Donald Trump).
Only bet (in the casino or on Wallstreet) when you have an edge.
Edward Thorp – A man for all markets
Sage advise from the man who beat the dealer at blackjack and outperformed the market as one of the world’s first quants (but feel free to skip the chapters about Edward’s youth as a prodigy).
Geoffrey Moore – Crossing the chasm
Written in an entertaining laid-back style that more business books could use and – above all – surprisingly relevant over 25 years after first publication in 1991.
Kevin Kelly – The inevitable
Enjoyable, yet somewhat theoretical, meandering between fundamental truisms and gross simplicications, leaving the reader with one key question: ‘Where does it pay off to act contrarian?’
Yuval Noah Harari – Homo Deus
Strongly opiniated view on the future of humanity, mostly valuable due to the emphasis on the role of humans in steering development of technology and AI.