Doug’s Book Recommendations
Life After Google – George Gilder
Fantastic descriptions of how today’s internet is fundamentally broken, and information is no longer reliable.
This book discusses why the future will be dominated by “the cryptocosm” – the architecture of blockchain and its derivatives.
The Bitcoin Standard – Saifedean Ammous
This is more than just a book about Bitcoin. It goes deep into economics, human behavior, and the history and future of money. It discusses concepts such as “sound” and “unsound” money. Sound money is what allows trade and effective movement of value across time and space. It discusses how Britain adopted the gold standard beginning in 1717 in order to advance trade across the British empires throughout the world. But gold had to be centralized, thereby falling prey to government controls, and therefore a lack of individual sovereignty.
This book posits that Bitcoin will be the future standard on which other currencies are based. Just as gold was used for centuries, the author believes that Bitcoin has the best chance of providing the sound, stable, reliable base on which all other forms of money will be based. The key reason behind this is that all Fiat currencies are controlled by governments and therefore manipulated by those governments to greater or lesser extent.
The Blockchain Revolution – Donald and Alex Tapscott
A comprehensive description of blockchain technology, crypto currency, Bitcoin, and how these technologies will fundamentally change the internet and global commerce.
Wikinomics – Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams
Wikinomics is based on four powerful new ideas: openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally.
• New age in which people participate in the economy like never before.
• Peering. Open sourcing. Global outsourcing. Co-creation. Peer production.
• Power shift. New business rule: Harness the new collaboration or parish.
• Wiki – Hawaiian for quick. More than just software for enabling multiple people to edit websites. It’s a metaphor for a new era of collaboration and participation. New promise of collaboration: with peer production, we will harness human skill, ingenuity and intelligence more efficiently and effectively than anything we’ve witnessed previously.
The New Age of Innovation – C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan
Driving co-created value through global networks
N=1and R=G
Interaction with customers as individuals –>N=1
Resources are global networks of uniquely-skilled individuals –>R=G
Value is Based on unique personalized experiences of consumers.
Focus is on centrality of the individual. Access to resources, not ownership of resources. R(resources)=G(global)
Resources come from multiple vendors and often from around the globe.
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future – Kevin Kelly
Much of what will happen in the next 30 years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, showing how the coming changes in our lives – from virtual reality in the home to an on-demand economy to artificial intelligence embedded in everything we manufacture – can be understood as the result of a few long-term accelerating forces.
Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holliday
The Go Giver – Bob Burg and John David Mann
The Trusted Advisor – David H. Maister
The Future of the Professions
Technology is driving fundamental shifts in the business model for all of the professions. This book may scare you, or it may motivate you to leverage technology to modify your business model in whichever profession you practice. From medicine, to architecture, to legal, and accounting, the concepts here discuss changing business models for every profession.
The Cuban Affair – Nelson Demille
Beneath the Scarlet Sky – Mark Sullivan
Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.