Category: books
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The Best Personal Library
I’ve seen many personal libraries: few that—like David—induce jealousy, fewer still that I truly covet, and none that compel me to blog. At least that was until I saw Jay Walker’s library. The photographs of the Internet entrepreneur’s library alone are awe inspiring. Then I started reading. via Kottke
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Lost and Found (The Red Queen and Tri-X)
On the 14th August I travelled from Cardiff to London on the first leg of my journey to Dijon. Once in London I mislaid a book of mine: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley – one of the most enthralling pieces of non-fiction I’ve read in a long…
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Books to Understand the Current Economic Climate
The Washington Post recently asked a host of ‘smart people’ for recommendations on what book will help us make sense of the current economic climate. Those asked include Peter Orszag (Director, Congressional Budget Office); Greg Mankiw (professor of economics at Harvard University); and John Allen Paulos (author and mathematics professor at Temple University). However, my…
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Best Book Ever Written for Entrepreneurs
Paul Allen (the lesser) initiates a discussion on the best book ever written for entrepreneurs. It starts by saying that Guy Kawasaki’s infamous The Art of the Start is a must-read, but goes on to extol the virtues of Richard White’s 1977 book The Entrepreneur’s Manual; an, unfortunately, out-of-print book with many unique ideas. The…
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On Business Books, Self-Education, and Mental Models
I mentioned the Personal MBA Book List last week, and today have come across this interview between Josh Kaufman and Ben Casnocha, author of My Start-Up Life. Josh runs the Personal MBA Recommended Reading List — a list of the best business books one would need to read for a comprehensive business education. It’s a…
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Global Catastrophic Risks
The University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute recently held a conference on Global Catastrophic Risks. There’s an upcoming book which might be worth a read but what I’m more excited about is that soon all of the conference’s lectures will be made available for free. Global catastrophes have occurred many times in history, even…
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The Personal MBA Book List
The Personal MBA is a site dedicated to helping people gain an MBA education without the expense of business school. It’s a self-study guide to advanced business topics and concepts. As Kevin Kelly—the founding executive director of Wired—says: No matter what they tell you, an MBA is not essential for landing or handling a good…
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Gödel, Escher, Bach
On a large number of ‘best of’ or ‘books that changed my life’ lists I always spot Gödel, Escher, Bach (GEB), the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter. When my copy arrived at my door recently I was taken aback by this tome and realised that it was going to be a dense read that…
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First Song Downloads. Now Organic Chemistry
The rise of university textbook piracy: the scourge of the textbook publisher, a blessing for students. All forms of print publishing must contend with the digital transition, but college textbook publishing has a particularly nasty problem on its hands. College students may be the angriest group of captive customers to be found anywhere. Compared with…