Here Are The 10 Books You Should Read This Year
Motivational speaker Charlie Jones once said “you will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read” and I can’t agree more. Of all of the activities or resolutions that we will partake in this year, very few will have the short and long term impact that reading will.
The reason for this is simple. Our perception is a critical part of how we treat people or analyze new ideas. By reading a good book we are able to shift our perception.
The world has become more noisy lately, so having the right lens to see things through is more critical than ever. Here are ten books that I challenge you to read this year.
The Predictioneer’s Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future by Bruce Bueno De Mesquita
Bruce Bueno De Mesquita is one of the world’s leading policy forecasters. In this book he explains how Game Theory can be used as a good model to simplify complex situations. If you are looking for a way to think more intelligently about the implications of the recent changes in the political climate, this book should be at the top of your list.
Physics for Future Presidents by Richard Muller
In this book Muller does an amazing job applying physics to our world very practically. This book covers things like climate change, energy, and what it really takes for a country (or small group) to develop and deploy a nuclear weapon. This book touches on so many hot political topics that I think it should be required reading for any member of the voting public.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler
If you’ve seen the movie “The Big Short” you may remember Richard Thaler who, along side of Selena Gomez, explained the synthetic CDO. In this book Thaler talks about how modifying small things, like requiring people to “opt out” instead of “opt in” of organ donation on their drivers license, can have drastic positive impacts on the world. Most consider Thaler as one of the founders of the field of “behavioral economics” and this book doesn't disappoint.
Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
In this book Taleb deeply explores the question: “what is the opposite of fragile”. You may think that it is “robust” but Taleb has a different idea entirely. When I read this book it changed the way that I saw many things and the ideas explored have become tools that I use every day.
Team of Teams: The Power of Small Groups in a Fragmented World by Stanley McChrystal
When McChrystal took over JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) in the mid 2000’s the organization acted slowly and missed out on many opportunities to capture or kill high ranking members of Al-Quaeda. This book explores what he learned reorganizing JSOC to become more effective. Read this one if you are running a team.
Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread by Alex Pentland
Pentland is a computer science professor out of MIT who researches the mathematics behind of how information flows through social networks. This book walks through some of his findings and is a must read for anyone who leads an organization or wishes to spread their ideas.
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
The story of Warren Buffett is inspiring. He was a kid who hustled his way onto a paper route and was able to save something like today’s equivalent of $50k before he went away to college. You can take so many things from this book but it made me realize that if you start small and have time on your hand, like a snowball, the small thing can compound to make something massive. But don’t take my word for it, learn from the master himself.
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom
What happens if we create an intelligent machine who’s soul purpose is to make a million paperclips? Will it destroy humanity? Will it turn the entire universe into a computer? Bostrom does a deep dive into these thoughts and more in this amazing book.
On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
Jeff Hawkins, who founded of Palm Computers, explores how the human brain works and how it may unlock machine intelligence. This is a perfect read for anyone who has ever thought about what it means to be intelligent.
Zag: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands by Marty Neumeier
This is less of a book and more of an extended pamphlet about branding that can easily be digested on a flight. Neumeier walks us through how the most critical thing to do in our hyper competitive world is to be different — “when the competition zigs, you should zag”. If you are looking for a way to increase your profile in 2017 read this one first.
