Top Books A Tech Enthusiast Must Read
If there is anything that a tech enthusiast likes almost as much as new technology, it is to read books. Books allows a reader’s imagination to run free and most people interested in tech have free thinking and a great power of imagination. There are books related to the tech industry, tech business and general science and the future, that might interest techies. In this article we list a few books that one must read if they have an inclination towards technology and the future.
Steve Jobs
By Walter Isaacson
Considered to be like the Bible for some tech enthusiasts, this book by Walter Isaacson is extremely in-depth and takes an honest look at the eccentric CEO of Apple and later the CEO of Pixar Animation. The book tells us how this creative genius managed to transform the fate of six big industries, such as personal computers, music, animated movies, phones, digital publishing and tablet computing. The birth of Apple, the growth and then eventual downfall, the fights with co-founder Steve Wozniak, the comeback of Jobs into Apple and the birth of the Lisa, Macbook and eventually the iPhone.
This book is specially interesting because Steve Jobs insisted that Walter Isaacson write his autobiography and promised to not interfere in it. Thus, this book has a neutral perspective and goes through the ups and downs of Steve Jobs’ life and the lives of people around him. It is definitely a must read even- if you are an Android fan!
Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of Spacex and Tesla is Shaping Our Future
By Ashlee Vance
Considered to be the real life Iron Man, Elon Musk is an entrepreneur, forward thinker and a genius. He founded the online payment website PayPal which was later aquired by Ebay. Musk then moved on to think about the future of humanity and wanted to use his newfound money to advance tech, to push technology into the future. He bought two companies – SpaceX and Tesla Motors. This books talks about how he is slowly shaping the future of technology and about Musk’s ‘deconstructed obsession with technology’.
Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone
By Satya Nadella
This book is about the changes that are happening inside Microsoft and covers topics such as artificial intelligence, mixed reality, and quantum computing. Satya Nadella talks about his childhoot in India and how he grew to become the CEO of one of the biggest tech companies in the world – working on Artificial Inelligence and other futuristic technology. He, through this book, tells the inside story of how a company rediscovered its soul—transforming everything from culture to their fiercely competitive landscape and industry partnerships. This is a must read book for any tech enthusiast for sure.
Live Work Work Work Die: a journey into the savage heart of Silicon Valley
By Corey Pein
The author of this book set out to learn how an overhyped industry like the tech startup industry could possibly sustain itself as long as it has.But in order to understand it thoroughly he had to become one of them. He soon started to skulk through gimmicky tech conferences, pitching his over-the-top business ideas to investors, and rooming with a succession of naive upstart programmers whose entire lives are managed by their employers-who work endlessly and obediently, never thinking to question their place in the system.
The book explores and ‘challenges the positive, feel-good self-image that the tech tycoons have crafted-as nerdy and benevolent creators of wealth and opportunity-revealing their self-justifying views and their insidious visions for the future’. It is a great read to understand how the silicon valley works. And how the people who are running the industry functions. It is an inside look into one of the most cut-throat industries in the world, from a neutral perspective.
Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies
By Calestous Juma
Drawing from nearly 600 years of technology history, Innovation and Its Enemies identifies the tension between the need for innovation and the pressure to maintain continuity, social order, and stability. Everything from computers to mobile phones to the more recent artificial intelligence can be a cause for concern for many. The author uses detailed case studies of coffee, the printing press, margarine, farm mechanization, electricity, transgenic animals and more. The book tries to show how technologies emerge and end up favouring their establishment in the marketplace. It draws from the lessons history has taught us regarding the ever evolving tech industry. It also debates tech such as artificial intelligence, online learning, 3D printing, gene editing, robotics, and drones.
Soonish
By Kelly Weinersmith
This comic take on science and technology feels like vegetables if they tasted like meat. It is science and technology made interesting by giving it a comic turn with graphics that are quirky and witty. It talks about the future of technology – from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters and how they will impact our future. The book, although extremely funny to read, teaches us a lot about the future of tech. It makes serious topics fun to read. What will the world of tomorrow be like? How does progress happen? And why don’t we have a lunar colony yet? These are some of the questions that this book asks and answers. And it does so through a series of interviews of professors and scientists and such.
A Brief History of Time: From Big Bang to Black Holes
By Stephen Hawking
Now that we have covered the witty and funny, this book is for serious science and technology lovers. One cannot fully understand or imagine how the future will look like, unless one understands the past. A Brief History Of Time is a book that is timeless itself. It asks some questions that are unanswered. The book tries to best explain by drawing theories of the entire cosmos from Albert Einstein to Newton. Stephen Hawking, who died just this year, was one of the greatest minds of our time. The author takes the readers on a journey into the depth of cosmos right from the big bang theory, through the nature of forces and the world of string theory in physics, to the different forces that constitute the universe itself as he tries to answer questions about life, the universe and everything else. And no! The answer isn’t 42.
