A Selection of Reading or Online Content that Influenced My Thinking and Moved Me to Action
Last updated January 31, 2021
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/MACHINE LEARNING (AI/ML)
T-Minus AI: Humanity’s Countdown to Artificial Intelligence and the New Pursuit of Global Power
by Michael Kanaan
This is a very insightful book. Michael Kanaan glued several disaggregated pieces of AI history into one narrative. This alone is of sufficient value to stand alone as a single piece of writing. He did not stop there though….the points the author made in the section on geopolitical concerns are salient for the times. Definitely relevant and value added. I highly recommend reading this book!
BUSINESS
Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers
by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pegneur
The Mom Test
by Rob Fitzpatrick
“How to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you.”
Testing Business Ideas
by David J. Bland & Alex Osterwalder
CREATIVITY & INNOVATION
A More Beautiful Question
by Warren Berger
“The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas.” As a person who likes to talk, I aspire to ask more questions. This book helped me to ask more questions.
inGenius
by Tina Seelig
“A crash course on creativity.”
Ten Types of Innovation
by Larry Keeley, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters
“The discipline of building breakthroughs”
CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES
Building Secure & Reliable Systems
by Heather Adkins, Betsy Beyer, Paul Blankinship, Piotr Lewandowski, Ana Oprea, & Adam Stubblefield
“Best Practices for Designing, Implementing & Maintaining Systems
Data Science on the Google Cloud Platform
by Valliappa Lakshmanan
“Implementing Real-time Data Pipelines: From Ingest to Machine Learning”
Google BigQuery The Definitive Guide
by Valliappa Lakshamanan & Jordan Tigani
“Data Warehousing, Analytics, and Machine Learning at Scale”
Site Reliability Engineering
Edited by Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer petoff & Niall Richard Murphy
“How Google runs production systems”
COMMUNICATION
Crucial Conversations
by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
Data Story
by Nancy Duarte
“Explain data and inspire action through story”
Illuminate
by Nancy Duarte & Patti Sanchez
“Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols.” The authors reveal to readers the “formula” or pattern many leaders use to achieve change.
Negotiating the Impossible
by Deepak Malhotra
“How to break deadlocks and resolve ugly conflicts (without money or muscle).”
Resonate
by Nancy Duarte
“Present visual stories that transform audiences.” This book transformed my presentation style and sent me on a journey to better understand how to move people to action through story.
Slide:ology
by Nancy Duarte
“The art and science of creating great presentations.” An actionable book illustrating the best ways to visually present to audiences.
CHRISTIAN
The Bible
https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/
God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs
by Timothy Keller and Kathy Keller
This devotional exceeds the standards, in my opinion. The daily devotions are in the Book of Proverbs and are focused on expounding God’s Word and sharing the truth of scripture.
DATA, SCIENCE, AND ENGINEERING
Data Science from Scratch: First Principles with Python
by Joel Grus
Python Data Science Handbook
by Jake VanderPlas
“Essential tools for working with data”
Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide
by Richard M. Felder & Rebecca Brent
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman
by Ed Cray
The Pinball Effect
by James Burke
“How renaissance water gardens made the carburetor possible.”
LEADERSHIP, DECISION-MAKING, AND TEAM BUILDING
Build an A Team
by Whitney Johnson
The Coaching Habit
by Michael Bungay Stanier
“Say less, ask more & and change the way you lead forever.”
On Leadership
by John Wooden and Steve Jamison
I think this book had the most impact on my leadership style during command of 16th Weather Squadron. The book inspired me to articulate my #1 command objective as field a high performing team.
Lead Inside the Box
by Victor Prince and Mike Figliuolo
Principles: Life and Work
by Ray Dalio
Team Topologies
by Matthew Skelton & Matthew Pais
“Organizing business & technology teams for fast flow”
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, ENGINEERING, AND OPERATIONS
Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations
by Nicole Forsgren PhD , Jez Humble , et al.
The DevOps Handbook
by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, and John Willis
The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
by Gene Kim , Kevin Behr , et al.
TECHNOLOGY AND CHANGE
Human + Machine
by Paul R. Daugherty & H. James Wilson
“Reimagining work in the age of AI.” This book presents the premise that human versus AI is a false dichotomy. There exists a middle ground where humans complement machines and AI gives humans superpowers.
Modern Monopolies
by Alex Moazed & Nicholas L. Johnson
“What it takes to dominate the 21st-Century Economy.”
Platform Revolution
by Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, & Sangeet Paul Choudary
“How networked markets are transforming the economy and how to make them work for you.”