Books I read recently
Tiny summary but detailed notes for each.
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So Good They Can't Ignore You - by Cal Newport
ISBN: 1455509124 READ: 2012-10-07 RATING: 10/10
Shockingly smart thoughts about your career. A MUST-READ for anyone who is not loving their work, wanting to quit job
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think - by Peter H Diamandis & Steven Kotler
ISBN: 9781451614213 READ: 2013-12-30 RATING: 10/10
Have you wondered if humanity would ever make it out of the current crisis’s like global warming, ever increasing population, corruption diseases like cancer, etc. – and a host of other local and global issues?
Authors start off with a very basic list of issues surrounding humanity for ages (lack of sufficient food, lack of clean water, infant deaths etc.). While picking each of those topics, authors put up hard-hitting facts that we have come quite far from the previous centuries and all the improvements done in handling the basic issues lead to much better and healthier lives and in-turn contributing to the overall productivity of the human race.
Discussions about renewable energy, de-materialization, lesser usage of electricity compared to the past (because of advances in technology) are quite interesting and give a positive perspective –against the backdrop of doomsayers who consider that the world has limited resources (fossil fuel , elements/metals available in nature) and that the ever increasing population cannot survive due to the rapid decrease of them.
Authors go into more modern trends like DIY, Genetics, Aero-space to prove their point conclusively that the future is bright. All credit to the work they have done and to the genuine
Whine: Towards the end there is a discussion on X-prize foundation and the need for it. Authors discuss that X-prize foundation / Singularity university is acting as a catalyst for innovation and for stretching the human imagination while solving some of the important issues human race is facing. This part of the book could have been more compact and concise – as it goes a lot into the details of X-prize foundation – which is slightly out of place in the overall context of the book.
On the whole the authors do a fantastic job of convincing you that the world is going to be a better place in most aspects and that it will be an era of abundance in many different dimensions.
Look no further, pick up this book and you will see yourselves doing a deep dive into how future will look like from many different angles/perspectives.
For me, it is extremely satisfying to hear a positive tone – as I am one of the staunch believers that humans have the unique capability of solving _any_ kind of problem (else, the race wouldn’t have survived thousands of years) and that we are indeed in a world of accelerating change with technology being the saviour in many aspects.
Highly recommended!