I just finished another book. This one was called "Caste - the origins of our discontents". This was the third book I read this year to understand and relate to the race issues we are facing in the United States. Like many of you, I was deeply affected by the Trump election in 2016 and the ensuing four years. I still believe that all societal ills from the last century and prior are coming to an end, and I still feel that we are only at the cusp of a new awakening because of technology. I feel strongly that many technologies are going to become much more ubiquitous and cheap in future and that will bring people closer. Believing what I believe, when I felt and sensed 4 Trump years, I was shaken to the core. I could not make up my mind whether I was wrong and indeed, evil will dig roots in technology or that I was right and this was just the last hurrah for evil before it disappeared in an abyss where it belongs. I needed to understand and I did what I like to do most. I read 3 books. I must list these at the top of my most memorable books of 2020.
Early this year, I read a book by
Jill Lepore and was
enthralled and also challenged by her writing style and historical detail. Then, I stumbled upon a critique she had written early on about
Clayton Christensen (1952-2020). Clayton Christensen wrote about the relation between innovation and disruption (I cannot do justice in one sentence). His books such as
The Innovator's Dilemma are often read in business school and boardrooms around the world. Jill Lepore tore down that part of his legacy in a
scathing critique in the New Yorker magazine. That article was an explosion in my brain and I had to re-orient the contents of my skull. The reason that article came into my sights was that Jill Lepore's wrote another book this year about Data Science (history of). This book covered the life of a corporation named "Simulmatics" in 1960s. Simulmatics was the prototype data science company. A very interesting read.
I have recently had a few health issues. When I saw a recommendation for "Why We Sleep" on
gatesnotes.com, I immediately picked it up. This book is an eye opener. No wait. This book is a brain opener. All us humans seek so much in life including success, happiness, patience, stamina, longevity and whatever else humans may want. One of the easiest way to eventually arrive at your station is to sleep more and sleep better. It turns out sleep is a biological process that we still have not understood well at all. This book seems to be the first ever that normal humans like us can read without being misled. All in all, this book was amazing insight into what happens when we sleep. I did write about this
earlier this year. Similarly, I found Bill Bryson's book about the human body very interesting. He has covered each system of the body in vivid and interesting language over all chapters. The book does not waste time and is unputdownable.
The last book I will remember for long that I read this year is Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century. I must admit clearly that I did not understand 80% of the deep economic science that he as written. However, he has used examples of Aristocrats and Rentiers to explain how capital works and how it has fared over the last couple of centuries up until today. I am not sure whether he makes a case for one policy over the other - for that, I probably need to read his newest book called Capital and Ideology. However, to me it felt like he has clearly laid out how modernity has been impacted by capital and why we need different systems for humans to thrive in future (I am thinking about my children here). In my opinion, capital ownership and capital itself are going through seismic shifts. Too many angles to this to write in one or two sentences.
Note: I did not actually read all these. I listened to these on audible.
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