I am working on a utopian novel that paints a picture of a world where we’ve made enough progress solving the most intractable problems facing humanity that there’s widespread optimism about the future. Better management and better management systems are a big part of the solution. I’m doing more reading than writing, and here are some of my favorite things:
Books I've been reading:
by David Gelles
Too many operating executives know the frustration of being owned by someone who thinks that they can build a great business by sitting in a chair changing numbers in a spreadsheet rather than actually getting shit done. Why did we let the spreadsheet weenies on Wall Street crush so many great companies? How can we make sure that our economy stops buying, stripping, and flipping until there’s nothing left?
by Rob Copeland
This book details story after story of how a megalomaniacal leader with unchecked power created one of the most dystopian company cultures in finance. An object lesson in how not to manage, and how not to create management systems.
by Kim Stanley Robinson
This book opens with a scene describing a heat wave resulting from climate change. A lone man survives a mass death event as the temperature rises and the electricity fails. It’s hard to imagine how humanity comes back from this brink, but this book describes how the work of bureaucrats, bankers, and environmental terrorists all come together and things somehow seem to be moving in the right direction.
by Robert Reid
Reid, the founder of Listen.com Inc., which created the Rhapsody digital music service, takes us through a hilarious romp through The Singularity.
by Cixin Liu
This is a book of short stories that explore the intersection of winner-takes-all capitalism and environmental/social degradation. My favorite of these stories is one about The Last Capitalist who finally owns everything…It doesn’t end well. 🙂
by Octavia Butler
Really, read anything by Octavia Butler. Like most of us, I first read Parable of the Sower. And then started reading everything she wrote. Dawn and the next two books in The Xenogenesis Trilogy are a fascinating way to explore how different kinds of management/governing systems might interact with human nature to create better or worse results.
Things I've listened to:
by Reid Hoffman
Specifically these episodes: Kim Stanley Robinson on narrative and civilization and Reid interviews Reid AI, his AI avatar. The news is depressing. This podcast offers a much-needed dose of optimism.
by Cory Doctorow
Doctorow offers a brilliant analysis of why capitalism as we practice it now is failing to bring the best content to the people who want to consume it.
Things I've watched:
Recommended to me by my daughter’s Spanish teacher, this was one of the best science fiction series I’ve watched—at least the first three seasons. It also happens to illustrate the dangers of Chokepoint Capitalism painfully well. After Amazon acquired the series it went steadily downhill.
Kim Scott is the author of Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity and Radical Respect: How to Work Together Better. She co-founded an executive education company that helps people put the ideas in her books into practice. Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter and other tech companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google. Earlier in her career she managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo and started a diamond-cutting factory in Moscow. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley.
