As technology continues to accelerate changes, asymmetry, complexity and uncertainty have become the underlying themes across the world. Using nine themes, Joi Ito and Jeff Howe provide both perspectives and food for thought on the kind of adaptive thinking that is required to survive the future.
Everybody lies, as the title suggests, to their colleagues, friends, spouse and most importantly, to themselves. What they search for, and what they click, are better indicators of their true nature. This is the premise of the book, and a major portion of it is dedicated to reasoning out how the troves of data we generate can lead to fundamental insights. But it also provides a counter balance towards the end – the limits of data, intangible measures and the ethics of mining data. The potential of data to create new understanding in social sciences and human behaviour – reason enough to read this!
The books I really enjoy are the ones that capture and articulate a fundamental insight. This is one such. Tim Wu studies the history of information and communication empires, and illustrates a predictable path they follow – he calls it The Cycle. The biggest game changer we have seen in modern times is the internet, and the question he seeks to answer through this book is “which is mightier : the radicalism of the Internet or the inevitability of the Cycle?” An absolutely fascinating read.
Martin Ford’s excellent take on the seemingly inevitable robocracy future that humanity is racing towards. He lays a lot of emphasis on explaining this inevitability and in the process, not only debunks popular schools of thought on how we can overcome it, but also calls out areas he is unsure of. It is definitely a bearer of bad news, but makes for an insightful read.
Melanie Swan As bitcoin and its ilk start becoming mainstream, I think the book would serve as a good primer for those who would like to learn about the underlying technology – blockchain. It also provides a catalog of existing projects across diverse domains. Without doing a lot of technical deep diving, it not only […]