Non-fictions of 2010s, for your 2020s resolutions

This article was originally published on my LinkedIn pulse page on Jan 2020

Happy 2020 ! One major objective I’ve leveled consistently for the last five years was: to read more books every year. I ended-up averaging 21 books annually for the last 3 years. How I achieved the goal is going to be a different story altogether.

I definitely need more titles to add to my reading plate, so I encourage you to post the titles that have changed your life and tag me ! In the style of ‘medium’, this post is a response to Victor Augusteo’s post.

Inspired by my buddy, Victor (he averages 50 books per year) of his list of influential reads of the last decade , here’s my list of non-fictions:

Biography

Shoedog is a page-turner I’ve always recommended anyone that wants to start reading non-fictions; and so far everyone has come back totally hooked. I vividly remember that I had to stop reading just to let go uncontrollable laughter thanks to how candid the humors were delivered.

Philosophy

Justice: What’s the right thing to do is one loaded book about many theories of what is just; to the extend you may reorient your moral compass / principles. This is an area that may require re-examination, in the advent of fourth industrial revolution, given how we talked about taxing machines, giving people basic income, or who should be killed by self-driving car in an accident.

Think-tanks

Maybe you believe that 21st century is the Asian century. Maybe you don’t buy the idea, yet still think in the importance of tapping to Asian and Chinese market. I can’t recommend any other way to learn not just about China’s astronomical rise yet also what’s the thinking process in the culture like, but to start with Deng Xiaoping’s story.

After you’re done with China’s transformation story, how about taking a step back and read about one of the most brilliant politician of the last century; the founding father of Singapore. Many economists and scholars even argue that China’s current model to quite a significant extent is derived from Singapore model. You may find a lot of Lee Kuan Yew’s thoughts are pushing the boundaries of your conventional wisdom but still end up inspired.

Self-improvement

Obviously if you haven’t read all the usual suspects of self-improvement books, they are good start to your reading goals. One classic I strongly recommend is Peter Drucker (The effective executive). But not a lot of people know that Ted Talks also has a book about its obviously topic du quotidien: public speaking. I strongly believe, regardless what industry you are in, effective communication is a skill you must possess; yet also hard to attain, especially for crowds of engineering background like myself.

Social Issues

People who know me knows that Bill Gates was my childhood idol. Well, looks like I’m a fan of Melinda too now. Feminist or not, The Moment of Lift will convince you of what sounds like a no-brainer: empowering >50% of world demographics is the best thing we could do to improve our quality of life.

(Fake) news media (or not) love to tell you how bad our world has gotten, and humanity is about to hit ELE… and I was getting ready to believe that; until I read this legacy that Hans Rosling left for us just before he passed away. Not buying the Factfulness? Watch Hans’ super famous TedX video that will make you fall in love again with statistics.

Suspense / Conspiracy

You think all the news about We (Work) the company was crazy. Well if you haven’t heard of Theranos, you definitely want to start reading the story of the company and its charismatic CEO (often dubbed as the female Steve Jobs ). If you have and you’re still waiting for that supposedly coming-soon movie adaptation starring Jennifer Lawrence, then start with the Bad Blood book first. I promise, you will forget about your 3-times-a-day-meal and maybe the shower time, just to keep the page turned.

Technology

There are so many tittles out there about the big tech stories that they require no introduction. But the LaunchPad: Inside Y combinator is taking you through a journey about the ecosystem that is making it all possible.