What We Read in 2023

I enjoy my yearly tradition of sharing book recommendations from friends and me, gathered throughout the year. My earlier lists: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Here are my highlights of 2023 (plan to read more fiction in 2024!):

The Coming Wave is a timely book by Mustafa Suleyman , co-founder of Google DeepMind . While he acknowledges the immense benefits of AI and synthetic biology, he argues for immediate containment strategies to prevent catastrophic outcomes. You may not agree with his proposed solutions but there are many thought-provoking insights.?

I initially approached Power and Progress with skepticism regarding its claim that technology does not always lead to societal progress. However, the authors did a great job of highlighting how, historically, technological advances have often disproportionately benefited a small elite rather than the broader population. The book strongly advocates for policies that ensure technology serves both the public good and private interests. Similar to Coming Wave, you may not agree with some of the suggestions, but you will learn a lot.

I can't believe I hadn't read this book earlier. The Lessons of History explores recurring patterns of human?behavior in the rise and fall of civilizations. Surprisingly the notion of how technological and societal?advances often disproportionately benefit elites comes up here too. A good read, especially relevant in the current wave of AI advancements.

Are you ready to cut through the BS and live authentically? I highly recommend The Drama of the Gifted Child. This insightful book delves into the profound impact of childhood trauma and the true concept of narcissism. It emphasizes the critical importance of acknowledging and healing from these traumas to achieve authentic selfhood and emotional well-being.

An unexpected find: The Science of Storytelling. It merges neuroscience with psychology to explain novel writing. The book shows how authors use neural models to engage readers. It's a valuable resource for anyone interested in the art of storytelling.

Similar to last year,?I included book recommendations from the smartest people I know. I will certainly read a number of these books. Take a look below ??

?? Bel Lepe (Founder of Cerby - First and only comprehensive identity access management platform for all enterprise applications)

• The Qualified Sales Leader: Proven Lessons from a Five-Time CRO
• The Effective Executive

?? Marty Kagan (Founder of Hydrolix - Only cloud-native data platform purpose-built for terabyte-scale workloads)

• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
• The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
• Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

?? Eric Futoran (Founder of Embrace - Only mobile-first data & observability platform)

• Ikigai
• Red Notice

?? Yuriy Bulygin (Founder of Eclypsium, Inc. - Only full-stack (HW/SW) supply chain security)

• A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell
• The Innovators by Walter Isaacson
• Chip War by Chris Miller
• Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich
• A Thousand Brains by Jeff Hawkins
• Zero to One by Peter Thiel
• High Output Management by Andy Grove
• Play Bigger by Dave Peterson
• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

?? Jack Vines (Founder of Measured Insurance - AI-powered national security-grade level cyber insurance)

• How to Know a Person by David Brooks
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
• Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
• Underland by Robert McFarlane
• Hidden Potential by Adam Grant
• Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

?? Gil Arditi (Founder of Morph.ai - LLM-powered enterprise workload automation)

• The ride of a lifetime by Bob Iger
• High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
• High Output Management by Andy Grove
• Zero to IPO by Frederic?Kerrest

?? Matthew Wyman & Boris Selitser (Founders of Okareo - AI/LLM-baed enterprise workload safety & testing)

• Thinking, Fast and Slow Paperback by Daniel Kahneman
• The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA Paperback by Joby Warrick
• Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs Paperback by Buddy Levy
• The End of the World Is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan
• Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang

?? Lazhar Sellami & Sébastien (Seb) Thomas (Founders of DataGalaxy - unified data management and governance platform)

• Discovery Discipline: The Radical Method to Master Product Discovery
• Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
• Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value
• Effective Data Storytelling
• Data Model Storytelling

?? Shane Riedel & Filipe Garcia (Founders of Elucidate - AI-powered financial crime risk analysis)

• Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick
• Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
• What We Owe the Future by Willian MacAskill
• The Alignment Problem: How Can Machines Learn Human Values by Brian Christian (Really interesting and helpful as one is forced to articulate the human impacts of technology and AI)

?? Igor Liskovets (One of the best executive coaches - check here)

• Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
• Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv (One of the most thought-provoking new books)
• Stay True by Hua Hsu (Great but sad memoir)
• From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks (Great read for people contemplating how to build and prepare for the second act in their career)
• High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley (A really important book to read in the election year)
• The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self by Michael Easter (All about embracing the discomfort and pushing yourself to the physical and mental limits for better well-being)

Please share your recommendations in the comments below.