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Bill Gates

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Bill Gates is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known as the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. He is one of the best-known entrepreneurs and pioneers of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.
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How the World Really Works book cover
How the World Really Works
The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
Vaclav Smil - 2022-01-22
Goodreads Rating
Explore the fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity in How the World Really Works. Written by a scientist, this book delves into the modern science and technology that make our lives possible, and what they really accomplish. Learn about energy and food production, our material world and its globalization, risks, our environment, and its future. With a thought-provoking and interdisciplinary approach, this book provides a reality check on the world around us, revealing hidden truths that will change the way you see our uncertain future.
Bill Gates
2022-08-28T21:16:47.000Z
Summer’s almost over. If you have time to sneak in another book or two – here are a few I recommend.      source
The Lincoln Highway book cover
The Lincoln Highway
A Novel
Amor Towles - 2021-10-05
Goodreads Rating
This captivating novel is set in the 1950s and follows the journey of 18-year-old Emmett Watson. After serving time at a work farm, he plans to take his younger brother and head west to start fresh. But when he discovers two friends in the trunk of the warden's car, their plans change. From the bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility, this stylish and propulsive read is sure to leave you absorbed.
Bill Gates
2022-08-28T21:16:47.000Z
Summer’s almost over. If you have time to sneak in another book or two – here are a few I recommend.      source
The Ministry for the Future book cover
The Ministry for the Future
A Novel
Kim Stanley Robinson - 2020-10-06
Goodreads Rating
This near-future novel explores the impacts of climate change, technology, politics, and human behavior. The Ministry for the Future was established to advocate for future generations and protect all living creatures. Through fictional eyewitness accounts, Kim Stanley Robinson weaves a visionary and powerful story of a future that is almost upon us. This impactful and original book presents both hope and despair in equal measure, making it one of the most powerful novels on climate change ever written.
Bill Gates
2022-08-28T21:16:47.000Z
Summer’s almost over. If you have time to sneak in another book or two – here are a few I recommend.      source
Why We're Polarized book cover
Why We're Polarized
Ezra Klein - 2020-01-28
Goodreads Rating
Explore how American politics became polarized and toxic, and what it means for our future in this groundbreaking book by journalist and political commentator Ezra Klein. Discover how our partisan identities have merged with our racial, religious, geographic, ideological, and cultural identities, and how this has led to the breakdown of our political system. Through clear frameworks and feedback loops, Klein offers insight into everything from Trump's rise to the Democrat's shift leftward, and he provides a new perspective for understanding the politicization of everyday culture. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the current state of American politics.
Bill Gates
2022-08-28T21:16:47.000Z
Summer’s almost over. If you have time to sneak in another book or two – here are a few I recommend.      source
Recommended by
Andrew YangSteve Kerr
The Power book cover
The Power
Naomi Alderman - 2017-10-27 (first published in 2016)
Goodreads Rating
The Power is a thought-provoking novel that explores how the world can change with just one small shift in power dynamics. Teenage girls suddenly have immense physical power, causing devastating consequences for those around them. Follow the paths of various characters as their lives converge and adapt to this new reality.
Bill Gates
2022-08-28T21:16:47.000Z
Summer’s almost over. If you have time to sneak in another book or two – here are a few I recommend.      source
Project Hail Mary book cover
Project Hail Mary
A Novel
Andy Weir - 2021-05-04
Goodreads Rating
A lone survivor is awakened on a desperate mission to save humanity and the earth from extinction. But there's a catch: he can't remember his name, his assignment, or even how to complete it. Armed with only his wits and an unexpected ally, he embarks on an interstellar journey to conquer an impossible task. Part scientific mystery, part dazzling adventure, Project Hail Mary is a survival tale that rivals The Martian while exploring uncharted territories of space.
Bill Gates
2021-11-22T00:00:00.000Z
Like most people, I was first introduced to Weir’s writing through The Martian. His latest novel is a wild tale about a high school science teacher who wakes up in a different star system with no memory of how he got there. The rest of the story is all about how he uses science and engineering to save the day. It’s a fun read, and I finished the whole thing in one weekend.      source
The Code Breaker book cover
The Code Breaker
Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Walter Isaacson - 2021-03-09
Goodreads Rating
This book is a thrilling account of Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues' revolutionary invention that will allow us to cure diseases and have healthier babies. They created a tool called CRISPR that can edit DNA, opening up a world of medical miracles and moral questions. This book tells the story of Doudna's journey from a girl who loved detective novels to a leading scientist and the ethical considerations and possibilities of this groundbreaking technology.
Bill Gates
2021-11-22T00:00:00.000Z
The CRISPR gene editing system is one of the coolest and perhaps most consequential scientific breakthroughs of the last decade. I’m familiar with it because of my work at the foundation—we’re funding a number of projects that use the technology—but I still learned a lot from this comprehensive and accessible book about its discovery by Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues. Isaacson does a good job highlighting the most important ethical questions around gene editing.      source
Klara and the Sun book cover
Klara and the Sun
A novel
Kazuo Ishiguro - 2021-03-02
Goodreads Rating
This intriguing novel follows the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with exceptional observation skills. From her perch in a storefront, Klara watches the behavior of customers and passersby, hopeful that someone will choose her. Written by a Nobel Prize-winning author, Klara and the Sun offers a thrilling perspective on our changing world and begs the question: What does it mean to love?
Bill Gates
2021-11-22T00:00:00.000Z
I love a good robot story, and Ishiguro’s novel about an “artificial friend” to a sick young girl is no exception. Although it takes place in a dystopian future, the robots aren’t a force for evil. Instead, they serve as companions to keep people company. This book made me think about what life with super intelligent robots might look like—and whether we’ll treat these kinds of machines as pieces of technology or as something more.      source
A Thousand Brains book cover
A Thousand Brains
A New Theory of Intelligence
Jeff Hawkins - 2021-03-02
Goodreads Rating
Discover the groundbreaking theory of intelligence in "A Thousand Brains" by an author, neuroscientist, and computer engineer. Jeff Hawkins and his team uncovered how the brain creates intelligence using maplike structures to build thousands of models of everything we know. This book answers important questions about perception, self-awareness, and high-level thought, and delves into the future of AI.
Bill Gates
2021-11-22T00:00:00.000Z
Few subjects have captured the imaginations of science fiction writers like artificial intelligence. If you’re interested in learning more about what it might take to create a true AI, this book offers a fascinating theory. Hawkins may be best known as the co-inventor of the PalmPilot, but he’s spent decades thinking about the connections between neuroscience and machine learning, and there’s no better introduction to his thinking than this book.      source
Hamnet book cover
Hamnet
Maggie O'Farrell - 2020-03-31
Goodreads Rating
This historical fiction novel explores the heartbreaking loss of a beloved child in Shakespeare's family, and how it may have inspired his famous play, Hamlet. Set in 1580s Warwickshire, the story follows Agnes, a woman with unique gifts who settles with her husband and their children. When their son Hamnet dies at age eleven, the husband writes a play called Hamlet years later. Author Maggie O'Farrell brings Agnes's story to life with beautiful prose and offers a powerful tribute to a woman who was often overlooked by history.
Bill Gates
2021-11-22T00:00:00.000Z
If you’re a Shakespeare fan, you’ll love this moving novel about how his personal life might’ve influenced the writing of one of his most famous plays. O’Farrell has built her story on two facts we know to be true about “The Bard”: his son Hamnet died at the age of 11, and a couple years later, Shakespeare wrote a tragedy called Hamlet. I especially enjoyed reading about his wife, Anne, who is imagined here as an almost supernatural figure.      source
Numbers Don't Lie by Vaclav Smil
Breath from Salt by Bijal P. Trivedi
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit V. Banerjee
These Truths by Jill Lepore
Growth by Vaclav Smil
The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger
Prepared by Diane Tavenner
Tools and Weapons by Brad Smith
Range by David Epstein
Upheaval by Jared Diamond
The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Blueprint by Nicholas A. Christakis
Elegant Defense, An by Matt Richtel
Army of None by Paul Scharre
The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion
The Future of Capitalism by Paul Collier
Nine Pints by Rose George
Presidents of War by Michael Beschloss
Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman
The Spy and the Traitor by Ben MacIntyre
Billion Dollar Whale by Bradley Hope
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Origin Story by David Christian
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Measure What Matters by John Doerr
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
Educated by Tara Westover
Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Everything Happens for a Reason by Kate Bowler
Capitalism without Capital by Jonathan Haskel
Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
Principles by Ray Dalio
The Choice by Edith Eva Eger
Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark
Believe Me by Eddie Izzard
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Energy and Civilization by Vaclav Smil
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Get Some Headspace by Andy Puddicombe
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
The Grid by Gretchen Bakke
Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance
The Vital Question by Nick Lane
The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee
String Theory by David Foster Wallace
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Heart by Maylis de Kerangal
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert J. Gordon
Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe
Sustainable Materials Without the Hot Air by Julian M. Allwood
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
A Full Life by Jimmy Carter
Being Nixon by Evan Thomas
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Stress Test by Timothy F. Geithner
The Road to Character by David Brooks
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Epic Measures by Jeremy N. Smith
Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
The Power to Compete by Hiroshi Mikitani
On Immunity by Eula Biss
What If? by Randall Munroe
How Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg
Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik
The Myth of the Strong Leader by Archie Brown
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
Reinventing American Health Care by Ezekiel J. Emanuel
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Making the Modern World by Vaclav Smil
The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The Great Escape by Angus Deaton
The Idealist by Nina Munk
The Bet by Paul Sabin
How Asia Works by Joe Studwell
Should We Eat Meat? by Vaclav Smil
Poor Numbers by Morten Jerven
The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond
Harvesting the Biosphere by Vaclav Smil
Tap Dancing to Work by Carol J. Loomis
One Billion Hungry by Gordon Conway, Rajiv Shah
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
Interventions by Kofi Annan
The Cost of Hope by Amanda Bennett
The Art of Being Unreasonable by Eli Broad
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
A World-Class Education by Vivien Stewart
The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
Change.edu by Andrew S Rosen
The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins
Eradication by Nancy Leys Stepan
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F. Vogel
The Quest by Daniel Yergin
That Used to Be Us by Thomas L. Friedman
House on Fire by William H. Foege
For the Love of Physics by Walter Lewin
Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
Getting Better by Charles Kenny
Academically Adrift by Richard Arum
Value-Added Measures in Education by Douglas N. Harris
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson
Stretching the School Dollar by Frederick M. Hess
xkcd by Randall Munroe
Energy Myths and Realities by Vaclav Smil
Fever by Sonia Shah
The Most Powerful Idea in the World by William Rosen
Energy Transitions by Vaclav Smil
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
Life Is What You Make It by Peter Buffett
Educational Economics by Marguerite Roza
Awakening Joy by James Baraz
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Prime Movers of Globalization by Vaclav Smil
Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt
In FED We Trust by David Wessel
Liberating Learning by Terry M. Moe
Work Hard. Be Nice. by Jay Mathews
Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air by David JC MacKay
Tomorrow's Table by Pamela C. Ronald
The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Polio by David M. Oshinsky
The Man Who Fed the World by Leon Hesser
Energy by Vaclav Smil
The Box by Marc Levinson
Mindset by Carol S. Dweck
The New Science of Strong Materials by James Edward Gordon
The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard P. Feynman
The Great Influenza by John M. Barry
Creating the Twentieth Century by Vaclav Smil
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Jim Grant by United Nations
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
Class Warfare by Steven Brill
Business Adventures by John Brooks
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald