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).
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).
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.
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?’
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.
Treasure trove of slightly lugubrious annecdotes on crimes, accidents and government schemes.
Comfortingly desillusional perspective on entrepreneurship, with reassuring insights like: “No one cares.”
Recent move of Disney to boycot Netflixs proves that incumbents are starting to realize the new reality.
Refreshing evolutionary perspective, emphasizing the cognitive, agricultural, and industrial revolutions as turning points in human development.
The brave attempt to cover an inherently deep subject in a non-technical way.
Masterful balance between major developments and impact on human scale.
Do not read the Dutch translation: Henk Popken did a crappy job.
Good thought starter and a great tool to point out failures afterwards, but usually hard to get “the job” right before launch
Unfortunately, the book contains too many anecdotes that feature Woody Allen.
OK… exponential decrease of discomfort may imply decreasing marginal gains, but that does not imply that the future will not see consumer surplus stemming from future inventions.
Some well chosen case studies; but with too little explanation on ‘what’ they did and too many stories about how they did it.
The designer behind Steve Jobs has greatly contributed to Apple’s successful revival.
Still surprising how many Apple products were flawed (overpriced, transparent, with wheel navigation, monitorless, …)
If you want to change the world, apply creative, unconventional thinking in a strategic way.
Surprisingly practical advise on how to drive change (make it safe for others, build coalitions, pick the right moment, be courageous yet receptive).
Align your IT department with your corporate objectives.
It seems to be impossible to write a book about IT without referring to ‘frameworks’ (= a solution a little bit more specific than a thought, but far less concrete than a plan).
Essential concepts from computer sciences intuitively explained for non-techies.
