Summer Reading: 10 Books to Understand the Tech Revolution
In today’s world of quickly changing technology, it can be hard to stay current, especially when it comes to technologies relevant to staying afloat in the business world. Nonetheless, understanding tech and its evolution in business is imperative for staying competitive and effective.
Understanding both how technology has changed throughout history as well as its effects on the future are important to grasp how the tech revolution affects us today. This summer, take a break from the heat (or set up on the beach!) with 10 books that can help you understand the tech revolution.
10 Must-Read Books to Understand the Tech Revolution
1. The Cluetrain Manifesto
It may seem surprising that The Cluetrain Manifesto was published 15 years ago, considering how relevant its lessons remain. Using anecdotes, parodies, insights and predictions, authors Rick Levin, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger explore how the internet has forced a radical change in the business world and offers the tools necessary for companies to navigate through this shift.
2. Steve Jobs
There may be no better way to understand the tech revolution than getting to know one of its first revolutionaries. Based on interviews with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs himself as well as family, friends, competitors and adversaries, Walter Isaacson’s worldwide bestseller explores how one man’s innovative spirit revolutionized the tech industry.
3. The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
The third edition of Thomas L. Friedman’s #1 Bestseller, The World is Flat 3.0 takes a further look into Friedman’s overarching thesis: that the 21st century will be characterized by future generations as a new age of global “flattening”—an explosion of technology allowing for resources and knowledge to be pooled and connected in unprecedented ways.
4. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
Now more than thirty years old, Hackers has proved to be a timeless exploration of the computer revolution’s original hackers, dating back as early as the late 1950s. Steven Levy explores these revolutionaries and the humble origins of the tech takeover.
5. The Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
In The Physics of the Future, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku predicts the next century of technological advancements and how they will affect the world economy. Touching on everything from computer technology to artificial intelligence, Kaku’s forecasts can help prepare entrepreneurs for some of the potential changes in store.
6. Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company
In Only the Paranoid Survive, Andy Grove—who led Intel to its position as the world’s largest chip maker—shares his strategies for “nightmare” moments, when massive changes happen in the world or within a company, and how a leader can use these moments to adapt and grow within business.
7. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson is a New York Times bestseller that explores how the future of commerce may be found in those things that were once regarded as “misses”—the long tail end of a high-volume demand curve. According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, “Anderson’s insights…continue to influence Google’s strategic thinking in a profound way.”
8. The Clean Tech Revolution: Winning and Profiting from Clean Energy
The Clean Tech Revolution by authors Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder explores the massive gains to be found in developing clean technologies. Pernick and Wilder argue that investment in clean technology is quickly becoming the next profitable tech revolution that can also shape our world for the better.
9. Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World
In Blockchain Revolution, Don and Alex Tapscott explore the technology they believe will most likely impact the future: Blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin and other digital currencies. The father and son authors explore the ways that the blockchain technology could revolutionize the way business functions in the world.
10. The Inevitable
The Inevitable, a New York Times bestseller from Kevin Kelly, explores the inevitable technological changes over the next thirty years, which Kelly believes are already in motion. Kelly’s predictions of these inevitable changes shows an optimistic future revolutionized by technology.
About the Author
Alanna Shaffer
Staff Writer, covering MetroMBA's news beat for Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas.
