Great Books

AI & Leadership

AI-Driven Leader

Harnessing AI to make faster, smarter decisions - Geoff Woods

The difference between growing your business and going out of business is your ability to think strategically. The problem is, most leaders are stuck in the operational weeds, struggling to find the time to make better strategic decisions. This challenge is only heightened by the rise of AI. While you know AI is the future, current demands leave you with no time to explore its benefits. Meanwhile, your competition is gaining an edge by integrating AI. The time to act is now.

In The AI-Driven Leader, you'll learn how to:

Escape operational overwhelm and lead with strategic clarity (Chapter 3)
Collapse the time it takes to turn data into decisions (Chapter 7)
Transform your decision-making with AI for strategic advantage (Chapter 9)
10x the impact of every employee (Chapter 12)
Apply real-world examples and prompts to get immediate results (every chapter)

Your company can adopt AI now and see immediate returns. The AI-Driven Leader provides clear guidance on where to begin, helping you achieve rapid results. With this book, you'll learn how to harness AI as your strategic Thought Partner, enabling you to grow your business, outpace the competition, and get more done in less time.

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AI & Philosophy

Life 3.0

Being Human in the Age of AI - Max Tegmark

If you're looking for a book about AI that's not like the run of the mill AI book, this is it. It's a great read that will make you think about life and how AI fits, and will fit into life in the future.

To start with, Max Tegmark gives you a lot to think about the future of life, what is life, and the philosophical and ethical issues around Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Max talks about life 1.0 (purely biological life with hardcoded evolution and responses), life 2.0 (the software/behaviors can change, but the hardware/DNA has to evolve), and life 3.0 (both software/habits are changeable as well as hardware/DNA is changeable, i.e. Artificial General Intelligence with no human equivalent)

Then it launches into not one really knows what AGI will act like or what will happen when it gets here.

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Psychology

Influence

The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini

Over my lifetime, I've been unduly influenced by many manipulators, people who influence and manipulate others for their own gain. This book helped me see when others are trying to use influence techniques for their gain and how to fight back.

Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book.

You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.

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Science Fiction

Foundation Series

Isaac Asimov

This is, of course, a science fiction classic and should be read by anyone who reads sci-fi. The Foundation books are Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. Later, Asimov wrote 2 books to extend the original trilogy, Foundation's Edge, and Foundation and Earth. And then there were two Foundation prequel books written, Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation.

Isaac Asimov is one of my favorite authors of all time! His writing style makes books easy to read and easy to follow the story lines, while still having a sophistication about them. That's for all his books, not just the Foundation Trilogy.

These three books are the original trilogy written by Isaac Asimov. Later two sequels:

Along with two prequels were added to complete the foundation series:

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Science & Philosophy

This Idea is Brilliant / This Will Make You Smarter

John Brockman

These books are compilations by John Brockman. He established the Edge Foundation, edge.org, an organization that brings together leading edge thinkers across a broad range of scientific and technical fields.

This Idea is Brilliant

The latest volume in the bestselling series from Edge.org—dubbed "the world's smartest website" by The Guardian—brings together 206 of the world's most innovative thinkers to discuss the scientific concepts that everyone should know.

As science informs public policy, decision making, and so many aspects of our everyday lives, a scientifically literate society is crucial. In that spirit, Edge.org publisher and author of Know This, John Brockman, asks 206 of the world's most brilliant minds the 2017 Edge Question: What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?

Contributors include: author of The God Delusion RICHARD DAWKINS on using animals' "Genetic Book of the Dead" to reconstruct ecological history; MacArthur Fellow REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN on "scientific realism," the idea that scientific theories explain phenomena beyond what we can see and touch; author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics CARLO ROVELLI on "relative information," which governs the physical world around us; theoretical physicist LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS on the hidden blessings of "uncertainty"; cognitive scientist and author of The Language Instinct STEVEN PINKER on "The Second Law of Thermodynamics"; biogerontologist AUBREY DE GREY on why "maladaptive traits" have been conserved evolutionarily; musician BRIAN ENO on "confirmation bias" in the internet age; Man Booker-winning author of Atonement IAN MCEWAN on the "Navier-Stokes Equations," which govern everything from weather prediction to aircraft design and blood flow; plus pieces from RICHARD THALER, JARED DIAMOND, NICHOLAS CARR, JANNA LEVIN, LISA RANDALL, KEVIN KELLY, DANIEL COLEMAN, FRANK WILCZEK, RORY SUTHERLAND, NINA JABLONSKI, MARTIN REES, ALISON GOPNIK, and many, many others.

This Will Make You Smarter

Featuring a foreword by David Brooks, This Will Make You Smarter presents brilliant—but accessible—ideas to expand every mind. What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit? This is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, posed to the world's most influential thinkers. Their visionary answers flow from the frontiers of psychology, philosophy, economics, physics, sociology, and more. Surprising and enlightening, these insights will revolutionize the way you think about yourself and the world.

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