Reading

This is an incomplete selection of some of my favorite books.

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.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, “The Sabbath” (1951). Build architectures in time, celebrate time rather than space.

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.

Katherine Rundell, “Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne” (2022). Captivating portrait of John Donne, the poet.

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 necessarily terrifying nature of coercive state power.

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