Technology – Page 2

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

Jimmy Soni – The Founders

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

Matt Alt – Pure invention

Highly entertaining book, providing entertaining facts and refreshing perspectives.

A start-up in retail should resolve significant friction in the value chain and/or the consumers’ lives

Christiane Lemieux and Duff McDonald – Frictionless

Story on repeat: X had a frustration, X is so privileged that she can raise at least a couple of $100k from friends and family, and X starts an amazing company to solve the problem – at least in theory – for herself and the rest of the world.

It is a miracle that databases actually work, considering all the things that can go wrong

Martin Kleppmann – Designing Data-intensive applications

Surprisingly readable for a text of this sort of technical depth

The Silicon Valley philosophy of innovation and disruption undervalues the importance of maintenance and durability

Lee Vinsel, Andrew Russel – The innovation delusion

Funny enough, the polemic narrative applies all the trick of typical innovation literature to promote a maintenance mindset.

To become successful as a startup founder: copy everything you can and only invent what you must

JimMcKelvey – The innovation stack

The book is exactly what it tries to avoid: being just another entertaining founder story (in this case about Square).

The US is losing out in AI, due to a lack of long-term vision and direction

Amy Webb – The big nine

The book’s set-up with multiple scenarios for the future works surprisingly well and is especiall concerning for European readers: Europe is almost completely irrelevant in all of Webb’s scenarios.

To unlock creativity, make sure you get the culture right

Ed Catmull – Creativity, Inc.

The best quote is not from the author: “Quality is the best business plan” (John Lasseter, director of Toy Story).

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.

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.

Even at tech companies where intentions are good, women fight an uphill battle

Emily Chang – Brotopia

The book fits neatly in the trend to call out gender inequality, but unfortunately it has limited practical solutions to offer.

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.

Facebook’s content strategy leads to filter bubbles, thereby destroying the cohesion in society

Roger McNamee – Zucked

When a a big tech investor like McNamee argues for stricter regulation it makes the argument more convincing.

You are the raw material of capitalists trading in futures on human behavior

Shoshana Zuboff – Surveillance capitalism

There is a tendency in critiques of ‘big tech’ to underestimate the long-term resilliance of mankind; although that does not render the argument invalid.

AI outcomes reflect the thinking of the technochauvinists that built it – which may not be desirable for society

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.