Bill Gates is a man that has affected this world positively in very many ways. One sometimes ponders on the reason for his being, his thought process and how he sees the world.
I guess one of the ways you can understand him is to think like him, read like him. In his blog, he shares with us some of the best books that he read in 2015. One is inclined to think he reads widely and reads to acquire knowledge.
However wide the subject matters might be, he says there is a pattern. Some explain something about the physical world, like how steel and glass are used, or what it takes to get rid of deadly diseases. Others offer deep insights into human beings: our strengths and flaws, our capacity for lifelong growth, or the things we value.
The pattern is that they touch on a theme that he would like to call “how things work.”
Here is a video about the books:
The Road to Character, by David Brooks. The insightful New York Times columnist examines the contrasting values that motivate all of us.
Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words, by Randall Munroe. The brain behind XKCD explains various subjects—from how smartphones work to what the U.S. Constitution says—using only the 1,000 most common words in the English language and blueprint-style diagrams.
Being Nixon: A Man Divided, by Evan Thomas. Former U.S. president Richard Nixon is often portrayed as little more than a crook and a war monger. So it was refreshing to see a more balanced account in Being Nixon, by author and journalist Evan Thomas.
Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open, by Julian M. Allwood, Jonathan M. Cullen, et al. How much can we reduce carbon emissions that come from making and using stuff? Quite a bit, according to the University of Cambridge team behind this book. (You can download it free on the authors’ site.)
Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever?, by Nancy Leys Stepan. Stepan’s history of eradication efforts gives you a good sense of how involved the work can get, how many different kinds of approaches have been tried without success, and how much we’ve learned from our failures.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck. This book first came to my attention a few years ago during an invention session on education with my friend Nathan Myrhvold. It’s been an important influence on the foundation’s education work.
So tell us; how many books did you read in 2015 and share with us.
