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In 2011, 41 books taught, challenged and entertained me (down from 43 in 2010, a worrying trend). This was how it played out.
Philsophy
Straw dogs by John Gray
The Enchiridion by Epictetus
The Writings of Musonius Rufus translated by Cynthia King
Straw Dogs was recommended [...]
These are the books that kept me company and taught me in 2010:
Business
Four Steps to the Epiphany: Steve Blank The Checklist Manifesto: Atul Garawande The Innovators Dilemma: Clayton Christensen The Innovators Solution: Clayton Christensen Positioning: Al Ries Lean Thinking: James Womack/Daniel Jones Perfect Pitch: Jon Steel Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales Force Performance: [...]
The Blank Slate by Stephen Pinker is one of those books that you should never read before heading out to meet friends. Quite pleasant conversations about gardening or sports will be interrupted by a diatribe as you attempt to explain the mind-blowing chapter you have [...]
‘Every man is an impossibility, until he is born; everything impossible, until we see a success.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson rocks. I’d read about Emerson in Louis Menand’s The Metaphysical Club and made a note to find out more about this polymath of the 19th Century. Reading [...]
“A century from now, when historians write about our era, one question will dwarf all others, and it won’t be about finance or politics or even terrorism. The question will be, simply, how could our rich and civilised society allow a known and beatable enemy to kill millions of [...]
I was a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to philosophy. I think the first book that really got me thinking about the subject (if we don’t count Dawkin’s Selfish Gene, which got me thinking about everything) was A.C. Grayling’s What is Good?, [...]
A fantastic article by Josiah Ober on what we can learn from Classical Athens about the true strengths of democracy. (Via).
An event I was gutted to miss was the recent Selfish Gene: Thirty Years On at the LSE, which had such luminaries as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennet riffing on each other’s work. Luckily the transcripts and recording are now online. (Via).
Imagine a textile factory where the water comes out purer than when it went in, imagine an auto plant roofed with meadow grasses that is the home of nesting wild birds, imagine a home that produces more energy than it uses where the very concept of waste is unknown.
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