Two essay with opposite views on the relationship between innovation, employment and prosperity, Race Against The Machine [1], and The Great Stagnation [2].
[1] Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy
In "Race Against the Machine", economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee ask the question: Could technology be destroying jobs? They then expand on that to explore whether advancing information technology might be an important contributor to the current unemployment disaster. The authors argue very convincingly that the answer to both questions is YES.
[2] The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better.
Cowen's central idea is that the pace of innovation has slowed, and that we are now on a "technological plateau" that makes further growth challenging. If you consider technology in the broad sense (energy, transportation, home, etc), this makes sense as things have not changed a lot in recent decades. However, I think it is also true that progress has been highly concentrated in information technology and communications, and that things continue to advance rapidly in this area. Cowen notes this but seems to feel that the Internet is the only really major innovation.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Stagnation-Low-Hanging-ebook...
Not too much, tbh. It's less Jonah Lehrer, "why smart people are dumb" stuff and more of a historical look at the transmission of information throughout history.
Chapters discuss, among other things, English dictionaries, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, the telegraph, and memes. Great read.
EDIT: saw that you're bored of reading business and tech books. This is definitely a breath of fresh air--it unquestionably falls in a different category than "Switch" or "Rework."
The Smashing Book 3+3(1/2) is a great read if you are in the Web Dev (especially front-end) field. Not science or high-tech, but well put and designed content for the people working for the web.
Also, I read alot of medical thrillers which are fiction by the author Robin Cook. There are many true facts about science mixed in so you might want to consider that.
I'm actually kind of bored of reading business and tech books. A couple that I've read lately that I've enjoyed are listed below. I'd love to read about what other people have been reading that's sort of "off the beaten path", but interesting to someone who is not an expert in the subject.
The New Geography of Jobs:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008035HQQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... - a lot of it won't be all that surprising to readers of this site, though. Basically he says that innovation industries are highly concentrated geographically. This is probably not new territory for those who read a lot of economics type of stuff.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser (http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-Edition/...) is fantastic. It's not specifically about ad copy, having passion about what you're writing, as well as the fundamentals in this book, will help a ton.
Why must it be non-fiction? I'll stick to non-fiction since you asked, but I think its an odd limit to put in place in this discussion.
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In my opinion the essential book for anyone interested in science and technology would be How To Win Friends and Influence People. By far the most important book. By far. I really can't overstate the importance of learning to interact with other people in polite, persuasive and friendly ways.
In my four years at an engineering university (RPI) the amount of people I ran in to that couldn't relate to others in a meaningful way and carry a normal conversation blew my mind. It was surreal. And I don't know what percent of them were aware of this but I would guess it can't be too high.
The number one thing I wish I saw more of in engineers isn't an understanding of other sciences or deep domain knowledge. It's consideration. Plain, pure consideration for other people and how they might feel about things.
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The Selfish Gene would perhaps be a close second.
Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond is also a good read for people in STEM fields.
The Emperor of All Maladies, a book about the history of cancer. Extremely fascinating read, and accessible regardless of your level of biology knowledge.
If you're interested in fitness and exercise, read "The First 20 Minutes" by Gretchen Reynolds (http://www.amazon.com/The-First-20-Minutes-Surprising/dp/159...). It's somewhat a review of the current state of scientific thought in exercise (tons of studies are cited throughout the book)
I've enjoyed Abundance by Peter Diamandis, CEO of the X-Prize foundation. It's by no means laden down with details, but it is an entertaining overview of emerging technologies and how they might be put to use.
If you'd like a great non-technical tour of how computers really work conceptually, starting from simple morse-code switches through to assembler, Charles Petzold's "Code" is awesome:
Even having understood for years how computers work in principal, nothing quite put it together for me like this book.
There's a similarly great book on the history/methods of cryptography called "The Code Book" by Simon Singh that I recommend too - http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/...
It's great because it traces the history but also walks you through how the cyphers actually worked, and provides the best intros I've ever seen to public key and quantum cryptography.
Simon Singh's book was my introduction to crypto and the wonderful Mathematics and mathematicians behind its vivid history. I had it with me all the time while doing the crypto-class.com online course a couple of months ago for a good historic perspective supporting Prof. Boneh's hardcore crypto topics. Highly recommended. Actually, his Fermat's Last Theorem book is also fascinating if you are interested in Math history.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 90.9 ms ] threadIt was surprisingly in-depth, both technically and historically.
[1] Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy
In "Race Against the Machine", economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee ask the question: Could technology be destroying jobs? They then expand on that to explore whether advancing information technology might be an important contributor to the current unemployment disaster. The authors argue very convincingly that the answer to both questions is YES.
http://www.amazon.com/Race-Against-The-Machine-ebook/dp/B005...
[2] The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better.
Cowen's central idea is that the pace of innovation has slowed, and that we are now on a "technological plateau" that makes further growth challenging. If you consider technology in the broad sense (energy, transportation, home, etc), this makes sense as things have not changed a lot in recent decades. However, I think it is also true that progress has been highly concentrated in information technology and communications, and that things continue to advance rapidly in this area. Cowen notes this but seems to feel that the Internet is the only really major innovation. http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Stagnation-Low-Hanging-ebook...
Chapters discuss, among other things, English dictionaries, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, the telegraph, and memes. Great read.
EDIT: saw that you're bored of reading business and tech books. This is definitely a breath of fresh air--it unquestionably falls in a different category than "Switch" or "Rework."
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Epic-History-Medicine-Commerce/d...
Do you want a first-hand account?
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Char...
http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Naked-Mind-Field-Mullis/dp/067...
Any particular area of science that interests you?
Also, if you want something non-fictional and thrilling, look into accounts of epidemology.
http://www.amazon.com/Virus-Hunter-Thirty-Battling-Viruses/d...
Also, I read alot of medical thrillers which are fiction by the author Robin Cook. There are many true facts about science mixed in so you might want to consider that.
The New Geography of Jobs: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008035HQQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... - a lot of it won't be all that surprising to readers of this site, though. Basically he says that innovation industries are highly concentrated geographically. This is probably not new territory for those who read a lot of economics type of stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UG9JFQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... - a book about copy writing. Not great so far, but something I could stand to learn more about. Other recommendations in this vein would be welcome!
Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W5MINK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... - in time for the 200th anniversary of the war of 1812. Very interesting, and lots of things I didn't know.
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LW5JL2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... - same author as the above book.
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
I also liked Jonah Lehrer's Imagine, a book about creativity.
If you're into programming, I recommend The Joy of Clojure.
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In my opinion the essential book for anyone interested in science and technology would be How To Win Friends and Influence People. By far the most important book. By far. I really can't overstate the importance of learning to interact with other people in polite, persuasive and friendly ways.
In my four years at an engineering university (RPI) the amount of people I ran in to that couldn't relate to others in a meaningful way and carry a normal conversation blew my mind. It was surreal. And I don't know what percent of them were aware of this but I would guess it can't be too high.
The number one thing I wish I saw more of in engineers isn't an understanding of other sciences or deep domain knowledge. It's consideration. Plain, pure consideration for other people and how they might feel about things.
--------
The Selfish Gene would perhaps be a close second.
Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond is also a good read for people in STEM fields.
The Emperor of All Maladies, a book about the history of cancer. Extremely fascinating read, and accessible regardless of your level of biology knowledge.
In all seriousness, in my opinion, there's not such thing as normal conversation, people are different, conversations too.
Sorry. I couldn't resist
http://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Future-Better-Than-Think/dp/...
Very interesting and gives you a lot to think about. Highly recommended.
http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...
Even having understood for years how computers work in principal, nothing quite put it together for me like this book.
There's a similarly great book on the history/methods of cryptography called "The Code Book" by Simon Singh that I recommend too - http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/... It's great because it traces the history but also walks you through how the cyphers actually worked, and provides the best intros I've ever seen to public key and quantum cryptography.