Top 10 books to feed your techy mind
March 4, 2021•8 mins read
There’s a limited array of pleasures while staying at home – eventually, we all get bored of scrolling through our phones or run out of things to watch on Netflix. Well, in this blog post, we have just the thing to combat your boredom – the ultimate list of riveting reads to keep the mind entertained and your techy soul filled with delectable knowledge. Dig in!
1. Low-Tech Guy in a High-Tech World: Managing People, Sales, and Business in Today’s Corporate Environment
- Rating on Goodreads: 4.5
About. […] An obsession with data has allowed executives and managers to lose sight of the big picture – long-term customer success and loyalty – and focus on minute details that are easy to correct and control but might not impact overall sales and success. […] Low-Tech Guy in a High-Tech World: Managing People, Sales, and Business in Today’s Corporate Environment stresses the back-to-basics approach in management that enabled companies to grow in the past and emphasizes how badly we need it in today’s corporate climate. […]
Why read it. A must-read for all-level managers and executives in modern-day companies. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a corporation or a startup. This is a fresh look at why basing all your decisions on just data does more damage than good and how you can avoid related repercussions.
2. The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values
- Rating on Goodreads: 4.43
About. […] A jaw-dropping exploration of everything that goes wrong when we build AI systems and the movement to fix them. […]
Why read it. The Alignment Problem talks about the unapparent shortsightedness when creating machine learning technology. As AI is making data-based decisions, the results often turn out shockingly biased and even racist due to the data that it’s fed. The author explores the problems of human and machine alignment, digital ethics, and proactive action to fix it all. A really great wake-up call for everyone working or using AI in their daily lives.
3. Ask Your Developer: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century
- Rating on Goodreads: 4.33
About. […] Lawson shows how leaders who build industry changing software products consistently do three things well. First, they understand why software developers matter more than ever. Second, they understand developers and know how to motivate them. And third, they invest in their developers’ success. […]
Why read it. The book is written by a developer about the developers and basically is a target read for anyone who has a software-based business or manages devs in their team. The author highlights the problem of developers often being treated as coding machines instead of professionals in their own rights and why this is hurting everyone in the equation. Basically, he gives a full-on toolkit on managing dev teams better and harvesting their full potential for success.
4. The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health–And How We Must Adapt
- Rating on Goodreads: 4.32
About. […] Drawing on two decades of his own research and business experience, Aral goes under the hood of the biggest, most powerful social networks to tackle the critical question of just how much social media actually shapes our choices, for better or worse.
Why read it. [..]
Why read it. The perfect read for anyone who watched The Social Dilemma and let out at least a “Huh” at the end of it or those who want to understand the mechanics and impact of social media overall. Are the decisions you’re making truly yours or just the result of your daily scrolling?! The book deep dives into all the nagging questions and dangers of the modern plugged-in life to help reevaluate our behavior and learn how to use the technology for good.
5. Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization
- Rating on Goodreads: 4.29
About. In “Eat, Sleep, Innovate” innovation expert Scott Anthony and his impressive team of coauthors use groundbreaking research in behavioral science to provide a first-of-its-kind playbook for empowering individuals and teams to be their most curious and creative — every single day.
Why read it. Why are there companies with top talent that can’t develop innovative solutions, and those who have less creative people do? The book delves into the problem of innovation at a business level and teaches ways to create an innovation culture for your employees that truly gives results. It’s a must-read for every manager or executive who wants to stay afloat in the innovation-driven environment we live in.
6. Cyber Privacy: Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care
- Rating on Goodreads: 4.28
About. […] This book is for readers who want answers to three questions: Who has your data? Why should you care? And most important, what can you do about it? […]
Why read it. This is the read for everyone who cares about their safety online and for those who question the need for cybersecurity. It basically explains the magnitude of our data being managed and tracked by others in our daily lives (and not only on social media) and what to do about it to feel safer. It also raises questions about how much our privacy is worth and if the laws are truly written for data protection. An eye-opener for anyone who has an online presence.
7. Sex Robots and Vegan Meat: Adventures at the Frontier of Birth, Food, Sex and Death
- Rating on Goodreads: 4.0
About. […] Sex Robots & Vegan Meat is not science fiction. It’s not about what might happen one day – it’s about what is happening right now, and who is making it happen. In the end, it asks a simple question: are we about to change what it means to be human . . . forever? […]
Why read it. While some may find the title controversial, the author truly examines how technology has become woven into all the fundamental human life stages and changed it. The question asked here is whether it’s for better or for worse, and is it ethical to have so much power over life, death, love, and universal laws of nature. If so, can we still call ourselves human? The perfect match for anyone who works, lives, or even fears tech and still has questions about it.
8. Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World
- Rating on Goodreads: 3.83
About. From driverless cars to smart thermostats, the Internet now has direct effects on the physical world. Although this computerized future, often called the Internet of Things, carries enormous potential, best- selling author Bruce Schneier argues that catastrophe awaits in its new vulnerabilities and dangers. Forget data theft; cutting- edge digital attackers can now literally crash your car, pacemaker, and home security system, as well as everyone else’s.
Why read it. A great choice for anyone interested in IoT applications and cybersecurity. The author analyzes the problems of modern technology being used basically everywhere and gives suggestions on solving the problems that, if left alone, pose a danger to humanity itself.
9. Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking (2nd Edition)
- Rating on Goodreads: 3.82
About. […] In this book, renowned expert Christopher Hadnagy explains the most commonly-used techniques that fool even the most robust security personnel, and shows you how these techniques have been used in the past. […]
Why read it. Perfect for anyone who wants to train personnel in cybersecurity or protect themselves online. Human behavior is the weakest link in cybersecurity, and this book helps to put logic behind every decision to click those infected links. It also gives all the tools necessary to put these behaviors to rest for good.
10. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
- Rating on Goodreads: 3.79
About. […] Here, Jenny Odell sends up a flare from the heart of Silicon Valley, delivering an action plan to resist capitalist narratives of productivity and techno-determinism, and to become more meaningfully connected in the process. […]
Why read it. Basically, this book teaches you to be more mindful of your connectivity and interactions while explaining how your attention is used to earn money for others. And while that money is earned, you lose time, which is the ultimate currency of everyone’s life. After all, using anything in excess always has consequences.
Bonus read. Civilization in Overdrive: Conversations at the Edge of the Human Future
- No ratings yet.
About. Conversations at the Edge of the Human Future provides an astonishing tour of how the world’s future looks to those likely to know the most about it. Journalist Konrad Stachnio engages 17 experts, global opinion leaders in their respective fields, in discussions on artificial intelligence, finance, the economy, technology, world order, the military, cultural change and more.
Why read it. Because it’s about the world as we know it and what it may look like in the future if we keep ignoring today’s problems. A read for every human being who cares about tomorrow. And honestly, a shocking truth that the world we live in today may look drastically different in the upcoming century.
