Keeping with my year-end traditions, here is this year's "Leadership Reverie" Reading List. Similar to last year, I will list five books that I've previously read (and highly recommend), as well as five books that others have recommended to me (that I haven't read, but I am planning to do so this coming year).
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Great Things by Adam Grant
I've read all of Adam Grant's books in the past, and I've commented on several of them in previous posts (see, for example, "Givers and Takers: One Last Time", "The July Effect and the Beginner's Bubble Hypothesis", and "Tell them about the dream, Martin" which each highlight points made in his last three books). I just finished his latest offering a couple of weeks ago (thanks to the Highland Park Public Library). Even though it's not his best book (at least in my opinion), I did really enjoy it and found it to be a quick read. We live in a world that is obsessed with talent - the gifted student in school, the child prodigy in music, the natural athlete in sports. Grant suggests that perhaps this obsession leads us to underestimate or underappreciate the "hidden talent" in individuals who can be just as successful. Look for more posts on these studies in 2024.
A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
Our family spent some time in Tokyo this past summer, and since coming back I've started reading and learning more about the fascinating history of Japan and Japanese culture. Miyamoto Musashi was a great warrior and philosopher from the 17th century. The five "books" refer to the idea that there are different elements of battle, just as there are different physical elements in life, as described by Buddhism, Shinto, and other Eastern religions. I've heard that this is a book about strategy, so I am looking forward to learning more about it this next year.
The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality by William Egginton
I've always been told that you should step out of your comfort zone every once in a while. This book was WAY out of my comfort zone! I do enjoy reading philosophy, but I've never read too much about the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. I've read a few short stories by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (check out "The Garden of Forking Paths" if you want a small taste of this talented writer), and lately I've been reading more about quantum physics, which introduced me to the German physicist Werner Heisenberg who is perhaps most famous for the uncertainty principle. Borges, Heisenberg, and Kant all had similar ideas, which Egginton ties together nicely in this book that is part biography and part philosophy. Some of the concepts went over my head at times, so it's not a light read. But it is a good read, which is why I am recommending it here.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
So, if you are going to spend time reading a book about three different individuals from different time periods who had similar ideas (see the book above), it makes sense to pick up this one too. GEB, as it is apparently known (it's a classic from 1979) talks about common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The book has been mentioned several times in some recent books I've read on complexity and chaos theory, so I will give it a try this year.
Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by James H. Fowler and Nicholas A. Christakis
If you enjoyed my posts "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" and "It's a small world after all...", you're really going to enjoy this book. According to Fowler and Christakis, your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you've never met her. They call it "three degrees of influence" and they've been able to show that what we say and do influences our friends’ thoughts and behaviors (first degree), our friends’ friends (second degree) thoughts and behaviors, and the thoughts and behaviors of our friends’ friends’ friends (third degree). I've posted about their research in the past (see "Peer Pressure" and "Happy is contagious"), and I really enjoyed this book-length discussion of their research findings.
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
I read Desmond's Pulitzer Prize winning book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City a few years ago - it's not an entertaining read, but it's an important read. When I saw that he had released a second book on a similarly important subject, I put it on my list.
Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies by Geoffrey West
There is a short list of books that I would consider to have changed how I view the world, and this book by Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist and former President of the Sante Fe Institute is definitely on it! I posted about the concepts West describes earlier this year (see "Scale"). It's a fascinating book that has become one of my all-time favorites.
The Political Determinants of Health by Daniel E. Dawes
Daniel Dawes wrote another book that is sitting on my book shelf (150 Years of Obamacare), which I've unfortunately not read yet. His most recent book was highly recommended to me by one of our health policy experts here in Chicago, so I am going to try to read both books this year. Dawes argues that the political determinants of health create the social drivers of health, including poor environmental conditions, inadequate transportation, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of healthy food options which go on to impact all other aspects of health.
The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow
Leonard Mlodinow is another theoretical physicist who co-wrote A Briefer History of Time with Stephen Hawking, which was an update and rewrite of Hawking's earlier and more famous book, A Brief History of Time. I've also posted about this book in the past year (see "Drunkard's Walk"), and I really enjoyed it. Mlodinow talks about the role of randomness in our everyday lives and the cognitive biases that lead us to misinterpret them. The laws of probability may seem simple on their surface, but in a world that is characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and turbulence (VUCAT), it's often difficult and at times impossible to distinguish between random and non-random events.
How Ike Led: The Principle's Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions by Susan Eisenhower
I'm not sure where I first saw this book, but as I read through a biography of each U.S. President (in order), I've often picked up another book or two on each President. Susan Eisenhower is President Eisenhower's granddaughter, but she is also a security expert and Washington, D.C. analyst. I am looking forward to reading more about Eisenhower through the eyes of someone who perhaps knew him in a different light.
No comments:
Post a Comment