Book recommendations

Meta

• 10 Days to Faster Reading by The Princeton Language Institute Read this first, you’ll be faster so you’ll have time to read the rest of these faster.

• How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler Then read this, and you’ll understand how to read a book.

Life

• Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff How do you finish a project? By finishing it.

• Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink Wake up, get after it and GET SOME at 4:30AM.

History

Tech History

Read this section in order - Dream Machine, Hacker Crackdown, Soul of a New Machine, and finally Cuckoo’s Egg.

Historically Accurate

• The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal by M. Mitchell Waldrop Allegedly a biography of J.C.R Licklider, is really a study of those who were around him and the work that they did in computing. Excellent read.
• The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling Secret Service raids, phone phreaks, politics, you name it.

Romanticized Tech

• The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder The computer revolution from the 1970s, we follow the adventures of a team building one of the first 32-bit minicomputers in just one year.
• The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Clifford Stoll A really interesting (allegedly true!) read about tracking a spy through a time sharing system (and the early internet).

Military History

• Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram

General Interest/Career

• INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan Dives into product management at tech companies and what it looks like. Is heavily software oriented, but can apply to hardware.
• The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career by Reid Hoffman You are the CEO of your life. Act like it.
• The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
• The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit by Seth Godin
• Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin I reject elements of the Linchpin philosophy, but it ties in well with the next 3 books
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
• The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

Fiction

All of these are series (or should be). With the exception of Stranger in a Strange Land, all are good audiobooks.

• Galaxy’s Edge Series by Jason Anspach Start with Legionnaire. If you aren’t interested in KTF-ing by the end, the rest of the series won’t click.

• Spells, Swords, & Stealth Series by Drew Hayes What happens when D&D non-player characters become sentient and go on quests?

• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein A very enjoyable read, one that approaches science fiction from another angle - namely, what if there is another civilization, and they perceive time, space and matter so differently from us that we must have a bridge?

Also the origin of “grok” is in this book, and it means far more than anything I ever expected.

• We Are Legion - We Are Bob (Bobiverse, #1) by Dennis E. Taylor What happens when you freeze a software developer and then turn him loose on the galaxy as an AI? Well, if you’re lucky, you get Bob. Sarcastic, fluff, great stuff.

• The Expanse Series by James S.A. Corey Gritty scifi. Star Trek says “We solved all of humanities problems with technology!”, Star Wars is “love story with a rebellion in space!” and The Expanse is “It’s the future. We have space ships. But everything still sucks because, well, humans. LOL”

• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein What happens if 1776 happens on the moon? What about if it has a sentient computer as a critical ally? You get this. Also you’ll understand why some jokes are funny once.

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