Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith – iWoz
It is amazing how passionate this guy can be about a universal remote control.
AI will not take our jobs, but creep into our workflows and contribute as intern, coach, and idiot savant
Ethan Mollick – Cointelligence
Not wrong, but misses true depth and is overly-reliant on the author’s conversations with Chat-GPT.
If, as a financial journalist, you want to bring down a fraudulent fintech startup, you need to be very, very careful
The Netflix documentary is better, because it has less extensive digressions into the author’s personal life.
To understand the full potential power of blockchain technologies, think of a computer rather than a ledger
Chris Dixon – Read, write, own
A passionate plea for proper use of blockchain to revolutionize the economics of the digital world, which is still far from materializing.
Military theory always seems to be focused on solving the challenges from the previous war
David Patraeus and Andrew Roberts – Conflict
Somehow, in the world of Mr. Patraeus, all people who agree with the general are the most capable, intelligent and respected leaders to ever walk the earth while the French are never any good.
To disagree with Kara Swisher is not for the faint hearted
Entertaining rather than enriching, with strong emphasis on the ways in which Kara lets other people know that she is right
It is easy to fall under the spell of a charismatic and brilliant maniac who is convinced he has mankind’s best interests in mind
Even if multiple views are presented, Elon’s perspective gets most airtime and the final word; which makes the book read like a hagiography.
Gothic architecture brought major innovations in the construction of cathedrals, using the frame (rather than the walls) to support the weight
Malcolm Hislop – How to build a cathedral
Fascinating in the thorough treatment of technical details of architecture and construction.
There are no less than 12 primary imperatives that explain how the evolution of technology creates economical, cultural, and social value
A brave attempt to put up a framework for assessing technological innovations, that is rich of ideas, which are in many cases [in 2023] still relevant (e.g. Cognifying in the light of GenAI), but sometimes feel out-dated (e.g. Sharing is a post-truth world).
To counter the Big Evil of the New York Times you should put the truth on the blockchain ledger and solve world politics through technology
Balaji Srinivasan – The Network state
Some fair nuggets of socio-economical diagnosis mixed with personal pet-peeves and drained in a techno-utopian rant.
Classical strategy consulting ploys translate seamlessly to the language of IT architecture
Eben Hewitt – Technology Strategy Patterns
The ‘cookbook’ approach does a lot to demystify Strategy and Architecture, while the digressions into philosophy make the relatively basic content also palatable for the advanced reader.
There are a huge number of ways in which Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) can take over the world, rendering humanity essentially useless
Nov. 2017: Interesting exploration of the implications of AGI, faulted by the typical preference of Analytical Philosophy for construction of intricate, highly theoretical scenario’s, under-emphasizing basic challenges (in the case of AGI: lack of robustness / antifragility).
Jun. 2023: The writer has leveraged the recent rise of LLMs like ChatGPT to further fuel fear about an AGI break-out – even though other AI-related risks require more imminent attention.
If you update the brain-in-a-vat argument to the current state of technology, it reads: ‘We cannot prove that we are not in a simulation.’
The vocabulary of ‘sims’, and ‘VR’ makes for entertaining examples of traditional philosophical concepts; but the author’s core arguments about simulation and physical reality seem to implicitly assume a suspicious form of Cartesian dualism.
Since the invention of the micro processor, chip production has become of imminent strategic importance for both the USA and other geopolitical power blocks
Nice historical overview, very topical in an era where technology significantly affects the Ukraine war and the power play between the USA and China around Taiwan.
To bring a socio-techincal concept to life, you need a lot of technology
In capable hands, data governance can actually be made into a sexy topic.
If you want to learn how to build good products or start yur own company, Tony Fadell recommends listening to Tony Fadell
Tony Fadell – Build
Shamelessly self-aggrandizing autobiography dressed-up as self-help book for entrepreneurs.
To benefit the most from network effects: build local scale, fiercely fight for each new value pocket, and remember that every hockey stick will become an S-curve
The book proves that those A16Z folks are very good at marketing sauce on not-so-ground-breaking ideas (as described by Sebastian Mallaby)
When structuring your tech-heavy organization it helps to think in archetypes of team roles and interaction modes
Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais – Team Topologies
An elegant little book that provides a refreshingly clear view on how to make Conway’s law an effective principle for organizing products and platforms.
PayPal has been successful first and foremost because of ruthless competitiveness and a maniacal work ethic
In hindsight, the early internet was shockingly primitive.
From Anime to the Karaoke machine and the Gameboy, Japanese design has had an outsized influence on pop culture
Highly entertaining book, providing entertaining facts and refreshing perspectives.