Bookshelf

There are a few books that have shaped how I think about the world. I’m sharing these here because you might find them worthwhile too.

W. Brian Arthur, “The Nature of Technology: What it Is and How it Evolves” (2009). Gave me a framework to think about the evolution of technology.

Keith Johnstone, “Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre” (1979). Ostensibly a book about theatrical improvisation but it’s much more than that. Rich with deep insights into presence, flow, and human interactions.

Donella H. Meadows, “Thinking in Systems: A Primer” (2008). Accessible and thoughtful introduction to ‘systems thinking’.

Karl Polanyi, “The Great Transformation - The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time” (1944). A fundamental argument about the intertwined nature of markets and the state.

James C. Scott, “Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed” (1998). Introduces the concept of “legibility”, an indispensable lens when thinking about states as well as the effects of technology.

Judith Shklar, “Liberalism of Fear” (1989). An essay-length meditation on the terrifying and necessary nature of coercive state power.

Simon Wardley, “Wardley Mapping” (2016). An excellent way of reasoning about strategy.