Welcome to the long, hot summer of 2022. Hopefully workloads lighten up a bit, COVID-19 case counts start to drop, and you get some beach time (or beach time). the couch) to catch up on your reading. If you love tech, there’s a wide selection of new titles to choose from, including new books on the Metaverse, the future of mobility, and Silicon Valley’s role in bridging the digital divide.
Here is fast businessThe 2022 tech title picks that are perfect for your reading pleasure this summer.
Building: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worthwhile
By Tony Fadell, published on May 3, 2022
Tony Fadell was part of the team at General Magic that imagined and built the precursor to 90s smartphones. He later led the teams at Apple that created the iPod and iPhone, both of which ushered in major changes in the way we entertain ourselves and organize our information. To build is a container for many of the lessons Fadell has learned about leadership, design, startups, decision-making, mentoring, failure and success in his 30+ years of experience in Silicon Valley . He imparts this knowledge through real-life stories of being in the room when some of technology’s most important products were created. Perhaps Fadell’s great insight is that you don’t have to reinvent everything from scratch to create something great. Some old-school, time-tested principles of collaboration and management can pave the way for the greatest breakthroughs in technology. —Mark Sullivan, Senior Writer
Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence
By Amy B. Zegart, published February 1, 2022
Covering a history from George Washington and the Revolutionary War to space satellites, Amy Zegart explores how the development of American espionage now faces a digital revolution capable of transforming everything we think we know about espionage. According to Zegart, it is private citizens, those who can track nuclear threats using only Google Earth, who can show us how technology has created vast discoveries and many new enemies. For anyone ready to experience the dark and rapidly changing state of espionage, Spies, lies and algorithms is for you. —Grace Buono, editorial intern
After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul
By Tripp Mickle, published on June 3, 2022
Author Tripp Mickle, a veteran Apple journalist who has published numerous stories about the company, took a close look at the drastic changes that have taken place at America’s favorite tech company since the death of its co-founder and chief. witty Steve Jobs in 2011. After Steve tells the untold story of the rise of the company’s chief operating officer turned CEO, Tim Cook, and the waning influence of design chief Jony Ive, whom Jobs considered his spiritual parent. Mickle interviewed hundreds of people in and around the company to describe major events in the Cook era, as well as answer big questions about how Apple could develop groundbreaking new products as its profits swerve. from the iPhone. —Mark Sullivan, Senior Writer
Road to Nowhere: Silicon Valley and the future of mobility
By Paris Marx, released on July 5, 2022
Writer Paris Marx takes a critical look at Silicon Valley’s utopian proposals for the future of transportation. By examining the history of mass mobility in the United States and the various contracts and subsidies awarded to the transportation industry by the federal government, Marx paints a picture of a sector gone crazy, which offers high-quality solutions (otherwise unlikely) that conveniently ignore the issue of accessibility. But more than a ride-hailing service or an underground tunnel, Marx argues, we need to put our energy into improving public transit and better prioritizing the needs of pedestrians and cyclists. It’s a scathing read, and one might want to buy a bike before a Tesla. —Max Ufberg, Editor-in-Chief
Building a Second Brain: A Proven Way to Organize Your Digital Life and Unleash Your Creative Potential
By Tiago Forte, published on June 14, 2022
Research has shown that many of us have become lax about remembering information that we might need later, because we know deep down that Google is still around. Productivity expert author Tiago Forte argues that we need a new way of thinking about information and technology to effectively “manage and streamline” our information. In second brain, Forte features a four-step process called CODE (an acronym for Capture, Organize, Distill and Express) that leverages existing technology to help you store your most important ideas and memories in your phone where they can be recalled at any time. . Until memory implants become a thing, harnessing the “second brain” in your hip pocket might be our best move. —Mark Sullivan, Senior Writer
Thriving on Overload: The 5 Powers of Success in a World of Exponential Information
By Ross Dawson, released September 6, 2022
Australian entrepreneur, futurist and author Ross Dawson offers readers concrete steps on how, given today’s information overload and 24-hour news cycle, we can continue to thrive. According to Dawson, knowing how to survive and navigate this access to unlimited information is the key not only to success, but also to improving personal well-being. Featuring lessons from top “information masters,” including Dawson’s clients at Citibank, Google, and Microsoft, Thrive on Overload offers the five best ways to manage our information-laden world. —Grace Buono, editorial intern
Dignity in the digital age: making technology work for all
By Ro Khanna, published on February 1
Congressman Ro Khanna, whose district encompasses much of Silicon Valley, has a unique challenge as a politician. Most members of Congress spend a lot of time working to get the appropriations (“hog”) back to their home districts. Khanna is on a mission to help more people outside of his district benefit from the wealth generating power of the tech sector. “[J]Just as people can transition to technology, technology can transition to people,” states the foreword to the book. Dignity offers practical ways to address lingering symptoms of the digital divide, such as poor rural broadband, job automation and unequal access to technology. MAGA America believes that the “coastal elite” have benefited from the growing wealth of technology, while everyone else has suffered its bad side effects, such as the automation of tasks. Khanna’s ideas could spread the wealth of technology more evenly and, in doing so, begin to ease simmering political tensions in the country. —Mark Sullivan, Senior Writer
All I Need I Get From You: How Fangirls Created The Internet As We Know It
By Kaitlyn Tiffany, published on June 14, 2022
In her first book, journalist Kaitlyn Tiffany, a self-identified One Direction fangirl, explores how fandoms on Twitter, Tumblr, and other internet platforms have shaped what we know about online social interactions. Tiffany traces the stereotypes and limitations so often attributed to these music fanatics – from Beatles fangirls to One Direction – ultimately arguing that we’ve underestimated them for too long. Stepping back from her role as a participant in the fandom subculture, Tiffany asks why fangirls turned to the internet and how our digital lives have since changed. —Grace Buono, editorial intern
Binge Times: Inside Hollywood’s furious billion-dollar battle to bring down Netflix
By Dade Hayes and Dawn Chmielewski, published April 19, 2022
The television industry has undergone a massive transition from broadcast and cable television to streaming video. Old-guard media companies (including Disney) have had to play a tough game of catching up against companies like streaming pioneer Netflix and deep-pocketed Amazon Prime Video, both of which have gone a decade ahead. Frenzy Time tells the inside story of how Apple, AT&T/WarnerMedia, Comcast/NBCUniversal, and well-funded startup Quibi rushed to create and launch streaming products to compete with Netflix. Hayes and Chmielewski describe how these companies have been forced to repeatedly rethink their streaming products, as well as their organizational charts and strategic plans to capture their share of the future of streaming. —Mark Sullivan, Senior Writer
The law of power: venture capital and the creation of the new future
By Sebastian Mallaby, published February 1, 2022
Author Sebastian Mallaby has made a career of chronicling various aspects of how finance works and, in The power law, he turns his attention to what he believes to be the underappreciated role venture capitalists have played in the innovation economy. Mallaby’s book is most compelling – even to the most ardent supporters of venture capital funding – when it describes the history of financial innovations now taken for granted in fundraising for startups: call options employee equity, funding rounds, growth capital, founder control, etc. . For those less familiar with Silicon Valley history, VC’s view of the early days of Atari, Cisco, Apple, Google and other iconic names adds sparkle and surprise. Mallaby can be blunt in presenting his thesis, treading ground that would suggest the money men deserve more credit than the creatives who came up with the company’s ideas in the first place. In the process, however, he may be revealing more than he realizes about the ruthless nature of venture capital. In these times when every “capital allocator” has issued dire warnings to their portfolio companies and potential suitors for their dry powder, the fact that VCs will ultimately do whatever they need to do to salvage their investment is that which adds a little extra spice to this otherwise triumphant adventure through Silicon Valley history. —David Lidsky, Associate Editor
The metaverse and how it will revolutionize everything
By Matthew Ball, released July 19, 2022
Theorist and venture capitalist Matthew Ball was all about the “metaverse” long before the concept suddenly, in 2021, became the subject of endless tech news articles and before Facebook co-opted the term, even going as far as to rename the company after him. Ball defined what the Metaverse could be, from technical implications to human consequences, in a series of influential essays dating back years. He collects all his thoughts on the subject in The Metaverse, exploring the technologies involved – including the breakthroughs that will be needed to fully achieve this – governance challenges, as well as the roles of Web3, blockchains and NFTs. Ball predicts that the metaverse will eventually overwhelm the internet, in which case things like social media and content search will no longer happen on small screens but surround us through the magic of AR and VR. —Mark Sullivan, Senior Writer