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Reading List 2012
I am trying my damndest to get a tenuous grip on the extraordinary-revolutionary-earthflipping change that surrounds us and which is accelerating madly. Below is an idiosyncratic reading list I've pulled together. In addition to nonfiction, there are a handful of well-researched ultra-sane sci-fi novels by the likes of David Wilson and Neal Stephenson. Also you'll find a couple of my favorites on the financial crisis; and a Cold War collection that is here because it is the ultimate study of leadership with consequences amidst uncertainty and ambiguity. A few others touch on decision-making and the typically faulty interpretation of cause and effect—and the power of being wrong. (And, of course, there's a duo on the eclipse of men!)
Etc.
Herewith, 55 books with my "14 Musts" in boldface:
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology—Ray Kurzweil
How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed—Ray Kurzweil
Redesigning Humans: Choosing Our Genes, Changing Our Future—Gregory Stock
Wetware: A Computer in Every Living Cell—Dennis Bray
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life—Nick Lane
Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century—P.W. Singer
America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare—Joel Brenner
Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It—Richard Clarke & Robert Knake
Worm: The First Digital World War—Mark Bowden
Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop—From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication—Neil Gershenfeld
Makers: The New Industrial Revolution—Chris Anderson
The New Industrial Revolution: Consumers, Globalization and the End of Mass Production—Peter Marsh
The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs—Michael Belfiore
Makers—Cory Doctorow
Amped—Daniel Wilson
Robopocalypse—Daniel Wilson
Freedom—Daniel Suarez
Kill Decision—Daniel Suarez
REAMDE—Neal Stephenson
Cryptonomicon—Neal Stephenson
Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution Is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy—Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee
The Coming Jobs War—Jim Clifton
Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age—Steven Johnson
Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Era—Henry Chesbrough
The Power of Co-Creation: Build It With Them to Boost Growth, Productivity, and Profits—Venkat Ramaswamy & Francis Gouillart
Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World—Tony Wagner
Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter—Steven Johnson
Women and Gaming: The Sims and 21st Century Learning—James Paul Gee & Elisabeth Hayes
Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World—Jane McGonigal
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter—Tom Bissell
The Social Conquest of Earth—E.O. Wilson
Games Primates Play: An Undercover Investigation of the Evolution and Economics of Human Relationships—Dario Maestripieri
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined—Steven Pinker
The End of Men and the Rise of Women—Hanna Rosin
The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family—Liza Mundy
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't—Nate Silver
Ubiquity: The Science of History ... Or Why the World Is Simpler Than We Think—Mark Buchanan
The Ambiguities of Experience—James March
The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public—Lynn Stout
Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present—Jeff Madrick
Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk—Satyajit Das
Enough. True Measures of Money, Business, and Life—John Bogle
Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities—Martha Nussbaum
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder—Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better—Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway & Katie Yezzi
The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills—Daniel Coyle
Better By Mistake: The Unexpected Benefits of Being Wrong—Alina Tugend
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error—Kathryn Schulz
Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas—Natasha Schüll
Redesigning Leadership (Design, Technology, Business, Life)—John Maeda
The Plentitude: Creativity, Innovation, and Making Stuff—Rich Gold
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate—Robert Caro
Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth—Frederick Kempe
Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World—Evan Thomas
Eisenhower 1956: The President's Year of Crisis—Suez and the Brink of War—David Nichols
Bonus:
Choosing Civility: The 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct—P.M. Forni
[The list is also available as a PDF.]
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