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Books I read this year
- agentbond007 9y agoTechnology is integral to the innovation story. Gates wrote. "Smil shows that it has even more to do with energy innovation."
- bob_theslob646 9y ago>The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui. This gorgeous graphic novel is a deeply personal memoir that explores what it means to be a parent and a refugee. The author’s family fled Vietnam in 1978. After giving birth to her own child, she decides to learn more about her parents’ experiences growing up in a country torn apart by foreign occupiers. >Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond. If you want a good understanding of how the issues that cause poverty are intertwined, you should read this book about the eviction crisis in Milwaukee. Desmond has written a brilliant portrait of Americans living in poverty. He gave me a better sense of what it is like to be poor in this country than anything else I have read. >Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens, by Eddie Izzard. Izzard’s personal story is fascinating: he survived a difficult childhood and worked relentlessly to overcome his lack of natural talent and become an international star. If you’re a huge fan of him like I am, you’ll love this book. His written voice is very similar to his stage voice, and I found myself laughing out loud several times while reading it. >The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Most of the books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen about the Vietnam War focused on the American perspective. Nguyen’s award-winning novel offers much-needed insight into what it was like to be Vietnamese and caught between both sides. Despite how dark it is, The Sympathizer is a gripping story about a double agent and the trouble he gets himself into. >Energy and Civilization: A History, by Vaclav Smil. Smil is one of my favorite authors, and this is his masterpiece. He lays out how our need for energy has shaped human history—from the era of donkey-powered mills to today’s quest for renewable energy. It’s not the easiest book to read, but at the end you’ll feel smarter and better informed about how energy innovation alters the course of civilizations. Source: (https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Best-Books-2017 https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Best-Books-2017)
- catalinbraescu 9y ago"a country torn apart by foreign occupiers" Actually Vietnam was torn apart by Vietnamese Communists bent. No reason to blame the firefighters for the crimes of the arsonists.
- wnevets 9y agowas Vietnamese Communists really a thing prior to the french?
- bob_theslob646 9y ago>The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui. This gorgeous graphic novel is a deeply personal memoir that explores what it means to be a parent and a refugee. The author’s family fled Vietnam in 1978. After giving birth to her own child, she decides to learn more about her parents’ experiences growing up in a country torn apart by foreign occupiers. >Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond. If you want a good understanding of how the issues that cause poverty are intertwined, you should read this book about the eviction crisis in Milwaukee. Desmond has written a brilliant portrait of Americans living in poverty. He gave me a better sense of what it is like to be poor in this country than anything else I have read. >Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens, by Eddie Izzard. Izzard’s personal story is fascinating: he survived a difficult childhood and worked relentlessly to overcome his lack of natural talent and become an international star. If you’re a huge fan of him like I am, you’ll love this book. His written voice is very similar to his stage voice, and I found myself laughing out loud several times while reading it. >The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Most of the books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen about the Vietnam War focused on the American perspective. Nguyen’s award-winning novel offers much-needed insight into what it was like to be Vietnamese and caught between both sides. Despite how dark it is, The Sympathizer is a gripping story about a double agent and the trouble he gets himself into. >Energy and Civilization: A History, by Vaclav Smil. Smil is one of my favorite authors, and this is his masterpiece. He lays out how our need for energy has shaped human history—from the era of donkey-powered mills to today’s quest for renewable energy. It’s not the easiest book to read, but at the end you’ll feel smarter and better informed about how energy innovation alters the course of civilizations.
- Shivetya 9y agoJust an FYI, I checked and all of these are all available on Amazon and in Kindle format.
- kirk211 9y agoHere are my 5 favorite books of this year: - The investment checklist http://amzn.to/2zlAvj9 http://amzn.to/2zlAvj9 - Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable http://amzn.to/2znnhTb http://amzn.to/2znnhTb - Grinding it out: The Making of McDonald's http://amzn.to/2A3VTwF http://amzn.to/2A3VTwF - Difficult conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most http://amzn.to/2znr8iV http://amzn.to/2znr8iV - Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups http://amzn.to/2A7Jng0 http://amzn.to/2A7Jng0 What are yours?
- cleansy 9y agoI don't mind affiliate links, but disclosing that would be nice.
- che_shirecat 9y agoLook through his comment history, pretty blatant affiliate link farming...
- kelukelugames 9y agoI assume all amzn.to links are affiliate. Don't most people?
- adventured 9y agoNo, it depends on the context. Bill Gates has his own shortened links on Twitter for example, that look like this: b-gat.es/2nmg2cp I don't expect him to roll me through affiliate schemes.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Kluny 9y agoNegotiating the Non-Negotiable, Dan Shapiro Works Well With Others, Ross McCammon The Art of Asking, Amanda Palmer The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman Boss Life: Surviving My Own Small Business, Paul Downs I've been working on my "soft skills".
- rat_1234 9y agoUnlike Ray Dalio, when Bill Gates talks about something like books it never feels like he's trying to impress anyone. It's "here are some books I really like and maybe you would too" versus "I am a genius, if you enjoy these books you might be a genius too."
- lamby 9y ago… with no Amazon affiliate link too. :)
- savanaly 9y agoOne has to admit it would feel a tad greedy for Bill Gates to be using Amazon affiliate links in his blog.
- jakamau 9y agoIf anything, it would be nice if a "library affiliate link" could exist and the Gates foundation would donate to the library if you ended up borrowing the book in physical or electronic formats.
- cheez 9y agoThere is an element of that, but Ray Dalio didn't come from wealth like Bill Gates. I'd like to hear more about what you think regarding Dalio's books.
- Hasz 9y ago
- joekrill 9y agoI look forward to this list every year -- I'm never disappointed with the recommendations! Can't wait to get started on these.
- poutrathor 9y ago>Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens, by Eddie Izzard. Izzard’s personal story is fascinating: he survived a difficult childhood and worked relentlessly to overcome his lack of natural talent and become an international star. If you’re a huge fan of him like I am, you’ll love this book. His written voice is very similar to his stage voice, and I found myself laughing out loud several times while reading it. International star is technically correct since he is known both in the USA and Great-Britain. But that's the first time ever I heard of him.
- pitt1980 9y agoIf you're not familiar (that's ok, lots of people are stars in some circles and unknown in other circles), you should check his work out
- ggg9990 9y ago"International star" has never meant that every single person has heard of them.
- onesun 9y agoAh, the old "if I've never heard of him he must not be famous" logic.
- magpi3 9y agoI think the point is that he is not famous outside of english speaking countries
- oculusthrift 9y agohe’s done shows in french german and spanish across the world...
- plandis 9y agoWhat is your point?
- hodgesrm 9y agoThese sound like good books to read. If you poke around gatesnotes.com you'll also find a video of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet testing mattresses. Looks like fun! https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Testing-Mattresses-with-Warren-Buffett https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Testing-Mattress...
- jimmies 9y agoIt really surprised me that two of the books he mentioned were about the Vietnam war. I am a Vietnamese millennial who have never experienced a day of the war and moved to the US as a college student. While most people have come to the agreement that the war is over, I have seen myself many ugly scars it left in people's minds. My friend and I would go to a Vietnamese supermarket, and after hearing that my friend was not speaking "hello, how are you" with the South Vietnamese accent (like a refugee), the cashier refused to look at or speak to her. We checked out in silence. We, as millennials, have never decided to invade the South. Our parents didn't either. We didn't fight that war, we didn't endorse that war. We don't have shit to do with it. The war has ended 40 years yet we felt the pain every once in a while.
- noobhacker 9y agoWhich city were you in when the South Vietnamese cashier refused to talk and look at you? I've been to various Vietnamese community (New York, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, admittedly NOT California yet), and it has never been an issue. Just curious how our experiences differ. I very much think that the Vietnam War isn't as big a factor in people's daily, commercial life anymore.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jimmies 9y agoIt was in St Louis. I would say that was extreme. But I understand that -- if my family was killed in the war or on the way fleeing, I might never get over it.
- sangd 9y agoI think your case is rare and such person would hold an extreme political view which exists in any culture. I live in Anaheim, Orange County, the biggest Vietnamese community here in the US for 15+ years, and I haven't experienced that. I've been through other Vietnamese communities also and I haven't seen such attitude either. Vietnam War has been a wound to the Vietnamese that would never heal. The new Vietnamese generation after the war rarely think about it except the Vietnamese outside of Vietnam including myself.
- cholantesh 9y agoDid anyone else using Ublock Plus have trouble viewing this page before disabling the extension?
- cJ0th 9y agoyes. i (using uBlock origin) could only see a picture of Mr Gates holding the books. no text.
- phillc73 9y agoGhostery the same.
- johnnydoe9 9y agoI'm running uBlock Origin (that's blocking 30 items) and Privacy Badger (that's blocking 8) on Chrome 62.0.3202.94 Had no trouble with the site.
- cJ0th 9y agocould be that you subscribe to different filter lists.
- andrepd 9y agoUsing uBlock origin. No problems.
- cholantesh 9y agoI ought to have been more specific: I'm using Firefox 57.
- scaryclam 9y agoFirefox 57 here, ublock enabled and no problems.
- 9y ago
- byproxy 9y ago"Evicted" is one of the most crushing books I've read. Desmond does a good job of showing how the feedback loop of poverty works.
- misiti3780 9y agoIm reading it now and feel the same way. Extremely depressing.
- marnett 9y agocommonwealth club had him in SF last week. It was nice hearing from him.
- milofeynman 9y agoIs the Gates foundation currently working to tackle the issue of poverty in America?
- burkaman 9y agoYes: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/US-Program/Washington-State https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/US-Program/Washin...
- carlob 9y agoBut it's also one of the best non-fiction books I've read in my whole life: incredibly humane and well researched!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- icodemuch 9y agoI really appreciate the fact that he continues to put out reading lists. I believe that people are more motivated to read after finding out out Bill Gates reads a lot bc people want to emulate him (and his success). More people reading is obviously only a good thing if you believe that reading is a good habit for people to have bc it exposes you to different arguments, opinions and ideas. I do think that reading is a net good. If you don't I'm interested to hear why.
- jondubois 9y agoI like the image that Bill Gates projects but my cynical side thinks that this reading list is just a medium for him to maintain his public image of being that sympathetic, altruistic billionaire. 20 years ago Bill Gates was a universally disliked individual... He wasn't yet well versed when it came to managing his image. Being universally disliked comes with problems like lawsuits and other personal threats. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a whole team of people constantly working to manage his public persona. Makes it hard to believe anything that any celebrity says or does these days. If this year has shown us anything, it's that reputations can be turned inside out really quickly.
- iamthirsty 9y agoI think that’s a bit of a stretch for Gates, though. He stepped down from CEO almost 20 years ago and basically has spent that time giving away his and other people’s money for truly good causes. That’ll turn anyone’s perception.
- scaryclam 9y agoI think people being able to see him as a human instead of the cutthroat business man has helped. I have to admit having some hate for the guy while he was still in charge of Microsoft. Now I can look at him in a different light...or maybe that's just because Ballmer took over...
- zild3d 9y agoWell if he's trying to end malaria just to look like a nice guy, it's working. More disliked celebrities should follow suit
- x43b 9y agoThis is tangential, but I wonder what was meant by Eddie Izzard lacking natural talent. Outside of rare provable conditions (learning disabilities, height, etc.) I wonder if natural talent exists or if it was a matter of determination plus deliberate practice before people noticed and thus declared someone "naturally talented".
- flanbiscuit 9y agoThere was a Freakonomics Radio podcast ep about this very thing http://freakonomics.com/podcast/peak/ http://freakonomics.com/podcast/peak/
- robbyking 9y agoDon't forget opportunity.
- burkaman 9y agoI think it makes sense for entertainers and comedians, although "talent" might not be the right word. Some people have a personality and voice that's very well suited for comedy, so they don't have to train themselves as much to play a character on stage. Your personality and thought patterns might be shaped more by upbringing than genetics, but I would still call that "natural talent", because it's not something you consciously work for.
- iooi 9y agoTwo of the books he mentions won the Pulitzer prize for non-fiction: "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" and "Evicted". They are both excellent.
- AdamFernandez 9y agoI really appreciate that one of the richest (sometimes the richest) humans on the planet takes the time to read about the experience of poverty in depth. Hopefully that continues to influence his philanthropy, and his influence on what other wealthy individuals and other policy makers do.
- guywaffle 9y agoIt’s easy to be nice after a person has made big bucks by cheating everyone. Watch “Pirates of Silicon Valley”
- kmnc 9y agoWhy should we condemn a person for good acts based on previous poor actions? Or are you just so cynical that you can't take his good actions in good faith?
- greglindahl 9y agoI suspect that the condemnation is for previous poor actions, not for the current good acts.
- majani 9y agoBut what better atonement for previous sins than giving away 99% of your wealth to charity?
- greglindahl 9y agoAnd you might not be surprised to learn that many people don't think that's good enough. This is not a new issue, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist)
- randcraw 9y agoThe phrase "good faith" implies you can see into the mind of someone else. Whenever it appears, someone is trying to bias the jury. The Gates Foundation is dedicated to "tactical philanthropy" which maximizes investment "leverage" by allying with existing commercial/political interests whenever possible, often with strings attached. Gates has stated clearly that he prioritizes programs that are revenue neutral -- that generate enough income to sustain themselves. While that's better than a stick in the eye, that's not exactly "giving your money away". And in terms of atonement, exactly what remedial actions are sufficient to turn a gangster into a saint? Martin Shkreli and Al Capone would like to know.
- otakucode 9y ago>I’ve been trying to learn more about the forces preventing economic mobility in the U.S., and it helped me understand the role federal policies have played in creating racial segregation in American cities. Perhaps consider the large-scale consequences of wage-fixing by the tech giants including Microsoft in the early computer industry? Maybe divorcing the compensation workers received totally from the value of the work they were doing (the actual value to the company) and letting annual increases fall so far behind annual efficiency increases had something to do with it? Around 1980, wages died. Around 1980, computers were introduced to the workplace. Around 1980, average worker productivity stopped going up by 1 or 2% per year but jumped to 10% or 20% a year thanks to those computers. These things are not mere coincidence. To me, they smell a lot like exactly what happened with the rise of industrialized factories that reduced entire families to working 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, children included, just to feed themselves. Everyone said 'the machines do the work, they don't deserve any more money.' And they were reduced to starving. And according to any statistic you care to look at, we are headed directly back to that situation. Interestingly, social mores around sex originally became extremely restrictive during the Industrial Era due to a need to suppress the birth rate of the lower class.... and we are seeing sexual mores become more restrictive by the day now too, though families literally starving as a result of adolescent workers having babies they couldn't afford to feed is thankfully rare.
- BeetleB 9y agoYour comment would be more meaningful if it were as well thought out as the book Bill Gates read. A Hacker News comment will have difficulty competing with a well researched piece of work.
- ScottBurson 9y agoA book I just read that I highly recommend: Red Notice by Bill Browder. The true story about how a grandson of the American Communist Party's 1940 presidential candidate made millions of dollars investing in Russia in the 1990s, and became one of Putin's most hated enemies.
- koyote 9y agoVery interesting book indeed although the author sometimes comes off a bit self-righteous in my opinion.
- ImSkeptical 9y agoI also felt a bit of antipathy for the author. Something about a capitalist traveling to the former USSR, in it's vulnerable time of rebirth, and exploiting poor uneducated people to make a profit rubbed me the wrong way.
- bastijn 9y agoReading many of the books often shared by on these kinds of lists by ‘famous’ people I recently started to wonder: “how does one come up with these titles?”. They are not on the top 10 of your average book shop.
- therealdrag0 9y agoDo you mean how does the reader come across these books or how does the publisher come up with the book title?
- bastijn 9y agoThe first. How does the reader discover these titles.
- zbentley 9y agoHaving read a few bios of famous people who are prolific readers, the answer seems to be usually a) read an unbelievable amount about everything, b) when you read something good, see what books other people think are similar to it in the ways you liked, and c) word of mouth.
- hello_friend 9y agoProbably has a very extensive method to discover these books. He's no ordinary man, he's smart and experienced enough he can research which books to read himself, he can't read everything, so he has to be very selective. He probably also has staff whose job is to find interesting books for him to read. Then add recommendations from friends and other people.
- criddell 9y agoI really like the animation embedded in the article. If that person happens to read this and has other videos, I'd love it if you would share some links and details on how you made the video.
- nuna 9y agoI cant see the list, just a banner with his picture. I am on Chrome
- jrcii 9y agoHe has money therefore let's worship his every word. /s
- zw123456 9y agoI agree with all the positive comments about BG. Also, interesting he sited two books about Vietnam. If you haven't caught the Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam (http://kenburns.com/films/vietnam/ http://kenburns.com/films/vietnam/) you should try to catch it if it repeats on your PBS station or order them from pbs.org and help support them. KB always does great work and if you don't have time to read a book about it, it is a really great documentary series IMHO.
- brudgers 9y agoI admire Bill Gates. I wish he read more poetry. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/
- egonschiele 9y agoEvicted is incredible. Totally worth reading if you haven't lived in crushing poverty in America.
- mikkqu 9y agoMaybe not the best place to ask, but is it known what engine is used behind his website? I can assume it's probably something custom made? I like the way topics are structured, the navigation is clear, nice comment section. Are there any known tools or service capable of building a full-featured website like this? Any good open source projects? (please no jokes about Wordpress)
- sfotm 9y agoYou could do something like this with Jekyll, which is supported on GitHub pages. You'd need to put some work into it to get the same features Gatesnotes has, but the framework is there.
- pacuna 9y agoProbably something custom made with .NET Framework. Try the builtlwith extension.
- gitgud 9y agoYes, it looks like a Zurb site? (what ever that is) https://foundation.zurb.com/ https://foundation.zurb.com/ If you're interested in the tech behind websites, then I recommend getting the Wappalyzer extension for your browser, It tells you what software is most-likely running on a specific website you're looking at.
- aptwebapps 9y agoZurb Foundation is the inspiration for Bootstrap (some people would say it's a bit more than just the inspiration).
- zipperhead 9y agoI don't know but it seems to break Vimium-FF navigation. None of the keyboard mappings work.
- vicpara 9y agoor find out yourself here: https://builtwith.com/?https%3a%2f%2fwww.gatesnotes.com%2f https://builtwith.com/?https%3a%2f%2fwww.gatesnotes.com%2f