6 Books on AI, Power, History, Excellence and Finance

This year in the first four months I have read more than any other year and it is inspiring. The following are the books I dived deep into recently.
Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark – The premise of the book is simple AI is here to stay. The book offers a primer on AGI and different ways AI will rule the world. This is very important knowledge if we want to help our kid’s future as well.
New Power by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms – Well-written book overall the new power structure is explained in detail. The old power structure was based on centralization and hierarchy. The new power structure is based on community, crowds, decentralization and self-organized teams. Examples are plenty here and the point is there are more avenues for us to stand out in this new media frenzied world.
Darkest hour by Anthony McCarten – I thoroughly enjoyed this book which read more like a novel only thing this is real. Churchill’s bull dog tenacity and courage is very much evident. His 3 major speeches during the May 1940 upheaval is well chronicled and dissected. This is my favorite quote of Churchill ““We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
The Truth about your Future by Ric Edelman – This is an informative book on how to navigate the latest trends in technology. It is a tour de force on exponential technologies, big data and AI. It also provides solid financial advice. If you are interested in how the future could turn out this is the book to read.
Skin in the game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – It is difficult to classify this book into any category. I liked his earlier book Black Swan. This follows in that series. Thought I don’t agree with everything he has mentioned it is still great food for thought. The main thesis is anyone who gives advice should face the consequences if they don’t turn out to be right. In other words, listen to people only those who have some skin in the game.
The Excellence Dividend by Tom Peters – Tom Peters is one of my favorite business authors of all time. His material is so refreshing and he is straight shooter. Excellence is cool and it is the next five minutes. His main thesis is treat people well and it is the little things that make a huge difference. Hard is soft and soft is hard. The person who tries the most stuff wins.
Check out these books and they are pretty good for you to have a great 2018.
The views expressed here are my own and do not represent my organization.

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