Thanks for a great year. Before you head out to the world, you might take this summer to pause and reflect on it. Here are a few important and enjoyable books that can help you do just that:
Just why are you so WEIRD? Joseph Henrich can tell you.
2034 by Elliot Ackerman and Adm. James Stavridis (Read this book for a preview of the next world war...Wait, aren't we in one?). They have a lot to say about America, too.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.Want to know what the most powerful person in the world is thinking and how he approaches life? Well, now you can.
The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness by Epictetus...Now you can learn directly from the enslaved person who went on to teach Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway (Feeling like the previous generation left you with high debt and dry climate? You are not crazy. This book just might give you a way forward)
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis (Read this book to find out all the great things your government does and never talks about...also, learn about its biggest challenges)
The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria (his hypothesis about where the US might be in the near future where it doesn't lead)
Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt (an assessment of the dangers facing the U.S. and the E.U. and reasons why young people need to become engaged citizens concerned about politics for the greater good. This is is what has been missing from your intellectual diet.) See also the documentary Inequality for All based on Aftershock:The Next Economy and America's Future by Robert Reich.
From Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart (if you want to read what a real "green" revolution would look like, read this. Your country needs to make things and in order to do that we need to "remake" things. "WASTE = FOOD")
Making Globalization Work by Joseph Stiglitz (what is wrong with the globalization and prescriptions to a more just and equitable world)
The World is Flat and Thank You for Being Late by Thomas Friedman (get a sense of the other job applicants you might not see in the waiting room)...Also check out Cyber War by Richard Clarke (it covers the unintended security risks created by globalization and computers; yes, it affects you on an individual level as well as a global one: viruses, scammers, WMD, and AI are all here)
Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes (Hitler returns and he's amusing...and dangerous) and it is a serious satire that has also been made into a movie now on Netflix (sorry about the subtitles)
The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Super Power by Bob Baer. Get to know the Iran of today; too often your government is fighting a war of the past. Iran is a state and strategic. Get to know what they want and how they operate from a CIA agent who spent a good part of his career there...also check out the film his work inspired: Syriana.
Mindset by Carol Dweck (a favorite of your superintendent that just might help you in college when the going gets tough)
The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt (Interested in how the world became modern? Perhaps it all has to do with one manuscript plucked from a thousand years of neglect by Poggio Bracciolini...read the book to learn about the poem that changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it)
From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun (After you know how we became modern, read about the last 500 years of Western Cultural Life and figure out where you fit)
A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink (lead a richer and fuller life and learn how to offer more in the business of life as well as in business)...Also check out his latest: Drive (It will give you some insight as to how to be self-directed, autonomous in work, and maybe a bit happier in life)
Why Him? Why Her? by Helen Fisher (wondering why some relationships last and other just never seem to get started? Why opposites attract as well as those who are birds of a feather? What did the Shakespeare and the ancients know that we are only now rediscovering through brain research? Find out and learn a bit about how you might make your own perfect match)
Lean in: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (for anyone woman who wants to lead and any man interested in knowing what is going on on the other side of the desk or the partnership)
The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe (Talking about your generation, the hero generation)
Good to Great by Jim Collins (why some people and companies are great and stay that way for a lifetime)
Amusing Ourselves to Death and Technopoly by Neil Postman (where all this technology is leading and how you might protect yourself from it)
The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman (indispensable economic history of the U.S. Why you live where you live, work where you work, and why your neighbor is your neighbor)
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (from the internationally renowned Japanese writer...if you believe in soul mates, this is for you)...Also check out The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
Moth Smoke, How to Get Filthy Rich in the Rising Asia, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Options by Dan Lyons (a LOL novel for anyone who loves Apple products or is fascinated by Steve Jobs)
Clockers, Lush Life, The Whites by Richard Price (the master)
Falling Man by Don DeLillo (a penetrating look at 9/11) (see also White Noise, Zero K and Underworld)
The Good Life by Jay McInerney (a popular novelist who worked tirelessly in the aftermath of 9/11 pens a love story with a perceptive, if unsettling, conclusion...that largely came true.)
Hygiene and the Assassin (the strangest interview you will ever read), The Character of Rain (coming of age...Nothomb style), Life Form (Nothomb's epistolary novel on Iraq) and Tokyo Fiancee (connects to Fear & Trembling) and you can always return to Fear and Trembling (first jobs) by Amelie Nothomb.
Also, here is a great place to feed your head and meet the thought leaders in our world today: TED Talks, The World Economic Forum, Talks at Google (Podcast version),
AI Talks:
Dr. Geoffrey Hinton on AI (Exited Google to Speak Out)
Ilya Sutskever: The key mind behind OpenAI
60 Minutes at Google on the AI Revolution
The Inside Story of ChatGPT’s Astonishing Potential | Greg Brockman
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and the $2 trillion company powering today's AI | 60 Minutes - YouTubeMusic leads the way in the digital space: Here are some predictions from Rick Beato (this is a good one)
Learn how to manage your knowledge:
Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte (Figure this out before you go to college)
How to Take Smart Notes (review of Sonke Ahrens)
Knowledge Management Software: Evernote, OneNote, Notion, Obsidian, Roam, and new ones are coming out all the time: Google NotebookLM will be particularly useful for you in college.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The First 20 Hours of Learning Something New
