Book Recommendations & Top Reads of 2022 🤓
Dune. The movie was incredible and is one of my all time favourites. The book is even better. Dune is an extremely unique piece of sci-fi. It’s got technology, space travel, war, deception, politics and religion all intertwined into one complex narrative that describes the battle between House Atreides and Harkonnen for the spice.
Monetizing Innovation. This book was enlightening. Two big takeaways → put the price before the design and the product development. As builders of digital products, we often think of price last. And ‘how you price’ matters far more than what the price is.
Modern Monopolies. Platforms over Products. The most valuable businesses today are those that can build and orchestrate large networks, not those with large resources under one roof.
The Robot Series. A set of short, fantastic and gripping sci-fi stories by Isaac Asimov. What an incredible mind Asimov must have had to articulate such simple laws of robotics (and that too a century ago).
Rendevouz with Rama. Set in 2100s where Earth detects an anomaly which turns out to be an alien spaceship and how the planets in the solar system work together to solve the mystery. Suspenseful and I wish there was a Part 2. The movie is coming out soon with Dune director Denis Villeneuve taking charge.
Bhagavad Gita. A manual for what it means to be human. This version is a translation and a commentary and by far the best one I’ve read till date. A re-read in 2022.
Changing World Order. A concise explanation of the last 500 years of the rise and fall of world’s major superpowers, changes in reserve currencies and it’s impact on the world economy. A simple cycle that repeats itself →
A country gains power when it gathers favorable economic and social conditions. This country sets the course for the world order once it becomes the most powerful. Once it peaks, the population gets lazy and starts borrowing money (instead of hard work). The country loses its economic and military edge and gets distracted by trivial issues and becomes self indulgent. A new rising economic power emerges and a shift begins from the old to the new. The cycle repeats.
How the Mighty Fall. I love Jim Collins’ work. A re-read in 2022, this book is a favourite and explores the reasons why successful companies decline and ultimately fail. Choices made by the leaders that takes them down the path of 1/ Hubris Born of Success → 2/ Undisciplined Pursuit of More → 3/ Denial of Risk and Peril → 4/ Grasping for Salvation → 5/ Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death. And the tools to reverse all of the above.
The Infinite Game. Life is an infinite game not a finite one. An infinite game is one where the terrain is often unknown, the players are unknown and the rules are constantly changing and there is no fixed point in time where the game ends. A brilliant perspective on both life and business. It changes the approach to focusing on yourself and constantly improving and compounding every single day.
Poor Charlie’s Almanack. This book collects the speeches, essays, and writings of Charlie Munger and provides such an incredible insight into his investment philosophy, approach to decision-making and particularly his a multidisciplinary understanding and approach to the world. A late finish (Jan’23) but made the list.
Bonus
The Great CEO Within. It’s easy to be a Founder but what about a CEO? That’s a whole different game. I first posted about this book in 2019 and had a quick glance again last year. It’s incredible for new CEOs (or COOs, Chief of Staffs) who are looking to bring more structure and discipline into their companies.
