The post was originally published in Polish on Artur’s LinkedIn profile. Artur kindly agreed that we repost what we think is of great value to our readers.
9 books about technology and business you absolutely must read:
1. “The Chinese Hold Us Tight” by Sylwia Czubkowska
Artur Kurasiński, Serial Enrepreneur, Author, Creator
The book (unfortunately, quite sad) shows how Chinese, authoritarian, communist propaganda is driving us apart, and how we are fighting in the EU with a provider of various types of services, from 5G through TikTok to electric cars.
2. “China 5.0” by Kai Strittmatter
Strittmatter shows what the danger of choking on technology looks like and how an ill-intended government can use this technology to cause enormous social destruction and torture people.
3. “Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology” by Chris Miller
In my opinion, this is one of the most important books of the last year, illustrating how America became an important player in the field of chip development. It also explains why the Chinese and Russians will have trouble catching up with America and Europe. Because let’s remember that there is a very important player in Europe, a small company in the Netherlands – actually, no one knows about it – ASML, which is a very important player on the market.
4. “The Literal – and Figurative – Atlas of Artificial Intelligence” by Kate Crawford
The book provides a structured outlook on how artificial intelligence is built in terms of resources, what kind of problems there are with training language models, and what environmental, social, and sociological changes the development of AI will cause.
5. “The Coming Wave” by Mustafa Suleyman
In my opinion, this is one of the most important books of this year. Suleyman is the creator of DeepMind and is currently creating Reflection, which is one of the most important AI startups. He has an incredible gift for translation. It’s like a TEDx lecture. The content is like a puzzle that smoothly comes together into one whole.
6. “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” by Nick Bostrom
Bostrom introduces the reader to the issue of artificial intelligence, focusing on considerations about what form AI can take along with the effects of the invention of superintelligence on all humanity. Although the book is not new, the things it describes are very up-to-date.
7. “Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This book is about how unforeseen phenomena become attitudes. The pandemic was such a black swan, but you will find other examples, including ones from the business world.
8. “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” by Shoshana Zuboff
In other words, how Big Techs monetize our curiosity and our attention. An incredible book that shows very strongly how we are exploited and what bad stuff is happening, how we stop watching Big Tech’s hands and what the consequences can be.
9. “Fixing the Future” by Marcin Napiórkowski
This is bout how to tell stories, also, or perhaps above all, the good ones. What we publish on social media, what we believe in, what we should, how we should talk about this world so that we want to save it, and not just look through the prism of disaster and negative feelings. A thick but fascinating read, it is really very quick to read.
I would add one more book to this list – not so new, but in my opinion still relevant: “Factfulness” – Hans Rosling. In a world of so much data, including many false ones, it is worth making sure you can look at it from the right perspective, and it is also worth verifying your beliefs and thinking about their origins.
– Marcin Żak, Project Manager and Innovation Expert at PZU
Creator, entrepreneur and investor – I write about my experiences with startups, technology and business.
