12 Technology Books Worth Reading
Books are an excellent way to immerse yourself in whatever you want to learn about and technology is no exception. Unfortunately, a lot of tech books are dull and poorly written, so here are some excellent technology books that are worth reading.
1. The Year in Tech 2021: Tools for Preparing Your Team for the Future
Staying on top of the latest changes in tech is essential if you’re in business and this book gives you some good tips. You’ll learn how to prep your company for the newest technology coming out and how to adapt to it. Created by the Harvard Business Review, you know the information you need is in this book.
This book is part of a three-book series, Exponential Technology, by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. Here, they explain how technology is rapidly changing every industry we know of and how companies can manage the changes and adapt. There will be hard times, but companies that have prepared ahead of time will be far better suited to actually managing the changes.
3. Lead From the Future: How to Turn Visionary Thinking into Breakthrough Growth
There are certain people who are made to lead the troops when it comes to the rapid changes we’re seeing in technology. Johnson and Suskewicz focus on how visionary leaders are the wave of the future and how they do what they do. You’ll learn to innovate instead of just following along behind the others, by learning from the best.
4. Reprogramming The American Dream: From Rural America to Silicon Valley-Making AI Serve Us All
Artificial intelligence has been played up as being a win-win for all those who have menial labor, but it’s also been shown as a big evil. Which option is true? Or is it something in between? Microsoft’s Chief technology officer explains how AI can truly work for us all if we’re willing to learn a little more about how to implement it correctly. This is his guide to embracing AI the right way.
5. User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play
Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant team up to create this book, a look at how the world is affected and has always been, by the user-experience design. In these pages, you’ll learn exactly what the hidden rules for UX are and why they’re so very important. Every business owner needs to read this book and then apply it to their own technology.
6. Reality Check: How Immersive Technologies Can Transform Your Business
If you thought VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) were just for games, you need to take a closer look at these technologies. They’re available for any business or even individual to use and they are insanely powerful. In Reality Check, Dalton explains how to start using these commonly misunderstood technologies to good use in your company, via training, and more.
7. No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
Netflix changed the way the world views entertainment, reinventing the entire concept and causing the entertainment industry to turn on its head. But long before that, the company was just a DVD rental service that happened to be online. Over the years, it has changed itself constantly and set new goals, and created new methods of delivering what people want most. This book explores just how that’s possible and what made Netflix so innovative.
8. The Science of Storytelling
This one may not sound like it has anything to do with technology, but it teaches the importance of storytelling and the impact it has on our society. This is something that can be applied to nearly every aspect of life, including technology and how we present it to others. It’s an essential read for business owners and marketers alike.
9. How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
Sometimes, you need to stop and look at where we came from to really understand where we are in the moment. With technology moving so very quickly and at an exponential rate, it makes sense to pause for a moment and look at how we developed so fast. Know where history took us and how it affects what we do now. You’ll also learn how big ideas can leave behind a legacy that rocks the future.
10. Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World
COVID-19 changed everything about the world and made it very clear that we depend greatly on technology. More specifically, artificial intelligence. Competing in the Age of AI looks at how fast AI had to change in order to keep up with the latest needs around the globe and how it is extremely scalable. We’ve learned a lot in the past year and this book gives you ways to increase your scope, build new AI learning opportunities, and essentially put your business into overdrive with this technology.
11. Post-Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity
Another look at the coronavirus pandemic and how it accelerated our use of technology, this book gives practical methods of expanding on the lessons we’ve learned. Trends that slowly built over the years were suddenly thrown into popular use during the pandemic and that showed us something big. Scott Galloway provides his insight on how to manage the difficult changes that are yet to come, and how to use technology to keep your business adaptable.
12. Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos
Big business is often considered to be ungainly and slow to change, but what if you could make fast changes? What if you could adapt to the speed of technology? That’s exactly what this book is about. Common myths are dispelled while clear guidelines are provided to show you how to become more agile in your business.
The more you read, the more you know. In fact, if you talk to any successful business owner, you’ll likely find that they spend a good amount of time reading and for good reason. You can learn a lot by doing so. Even if you don’t click with a book, you can pick up new ideas from it.