It is hard to be truly ‘mobile first’.
P.W. Singer and Allan Friedman – Cybersecurity and Cyberwar
Refreshingly nuanced expose on a polarizing topic. Particularly useful if you happen to be a nation state.
Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler – Abundance
Exponentially growing advancements in technology will help us resolve major world problems
Contagiously optimistic view on the opportunities we have to shape our own future and that of humanity.
Thomas Piketty – Capital in the 21st century
The best part is the comparative historical analysis of sources of wealth in different countries, all the way back to the 1800s.
Robert Bryce – Smaller, faster, lighter, denser, cheaper
First and foremost, read the optimistic case studies on the evolution of technology, from the printing press to the vacuum tube.
Erin Meyer – The culture map
All too recognizable national archetypes dissected. Valuable guide to international collaboration.
Nassim Nicholas Thaleb – The black swan
Essential reading for everyone who uses statistics on a regular basis, for policy making or otherwise.
Mathew Dixon et. al. – The Effortless experience
A down-to-earth, data driven, perspective on customer service.
Nassim Nicholas Thaleb – Antifragile
It is better to play the system than to play within the system.
Entertaining rant on shortsightedness in many guises, backed-up by a statistical world-view.
Paul Carroll and Chunka Mui – Billion dollar lessons
Read it for the style more than the depth of insight: too few business books quote Shakespeare and Lord Tennyson.
Joshua Greene – Moral tribes
Ethics can be studied as an Empirical science and the evidence supports Utilitarianism.
Inventive and entertaining variations on the Trolley problem are used to identify what drives decision making on ethical dilemmas.
Marc Goodman – Future Crimes
Nice anecdotes, but a bit too much like…
for (threat = 1; threat <10e3; threat++ ){ window.alert( "Watch out for threat number " + threat ); }
Michael Pollan – The omnivore’s dilemma
The industrial food chain is not sustainable, nor are any of the available alternatives – at scale.
Highly likable narrative. Actionable outcome limited (apart from baking more sourdough).