As part of my #Sabbatical #Growth goals I am sharing some of the learning-focused reading I’ve done. My Q4 2023 list is here.
This list is in no particular order it’s just a list. I made an attempt to clarify what I found helpful from each of these books in case you are interested and/or are looking for new things to explore. I have no idea why the image sizes are so very different and I’m not curious enough to fix them this is about content not design…
As of March 31 2024.
Wow what a great retrospective of the tech industry. Kara isn’t pulling any punches and while she has her own agenda of course, I found it super interesting. The one thing she said in passing that stuck with me was her reflection on the lack of diversity. Her point was the huge blind spot of lived experience of safety. In other words, the reason safety is at best an afterthought is that the people building tech don’t feel the lack of safety, it then becomes an intellectual topic vs. an emotional one. I will be pondering this for a long time. This all comes back to my grandmother’s catchphrase “it’s not an emergency unless it’s happening to you”.
This is a bit of a reflection of the best of TED. So many great ideas and examples of how and why giving back can have outsized impact. For me this was a bit like looking over an old yearbook – a fun opportunity to be reminded of stories and people that I have admired over the years.
I’m not going to lie – this one was a heavier read, especially for me with personal experience of poverty. I did find myself interested in thinking about policy changes that could be helpful and a renewed appreciation for how impossibly frustrating our current system of both philanthropy and social safety nets are. I also was reminded just how expensive and stressful it is to be poor. Important reminders and insightful context. In the end I agree with the thesis – this is one of many systems problems we have in our society and we should look to address poverty structurally vs. haphazardly.
This was recommended to me in one of my many great discussions and I knew right away this was going to be a helpful read. It aligns with one of the big things I’m pondering in the era of AI – that we are going to get a lot of practice being wrong. I think having both a framework and an understanding of how to benefit from being wrong is going to be useful.
I had started this some time back but never completed it so I came back to it recently. I agree with Amy Wilson that this is a nice compliment to Kara’s book. This book is not just great for understanding gender equity needs, it’s worth it for the understanding how insular (hey Paypal mafia) and wacky Silicon Valley really is.
I was fortunate to have met Helene Cahen at TED a few years ago. A thoughtful and insightful innovator, I knew this was going to be a great read. What I didn’t expect was how much substance she managed to pack into such a small package. It’s like an uber-cliff notes of all the innovation TED-talks you could watch. Substance dense and yet readily consumable. What a gift.
I’ve been stalking Joanna Bloor since I happened to catch the very end of her TED workshop years ago. I was sitting in the lobby at TED and they were livestreaming a few of the pre-sessions and she caught my eye. I have since watched her help many people re-work their personal value proposition in real time. Joanna has both unique point of view and great ability to help you think differently. This book is a gift for everyone, but especially useful those who feel stuck or just need a way to re-imagine potential (in ourselves or in others).
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