Change Function: Why Some Technologies Take Off and Others Crash and Burn
Pip Coburn
Call and I will walk you through the book's premise fairly expediently. For us The Change Function is less a model and far more a tautology - the trick is in application.
E=mc2
David Bodanis
Ever wonder what this equation really means and where it came from.
The Clock of the Long Now
Stewart Brand
How long is the period "now"? Some cultures think of "now" as 150 years and make decisions as such ours doesn't
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
A pleasant ride thru several stories but without a specific abstract to apply broadly. The stories are surprising and hence make a good pop book. There is no particular takeaway to apply to other situations outside of "think thru issues" and not fall prey to "conventional thinking". Seems confused at times between attempting holistical thinking and determining direct causality thru use of correlated statistics.
Faster
James Gleick
Why has decision making condensed and will the pace ever reverse? Has strategy been replaced forever by tactics?
The Tipping Point
Malcom Gladwell
Popular recant about why mass markets take off and the phrase "tipping point" has stuck
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn
My favorite book on change... published way back in 1962...
The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
Ori Brafman
Superb piece on issues of centralization and decentralization. In some cases the authors direct speak to the idea we talk of in "uncentralization". I suspect many - like me - will be able to more clearly recognize the current environment having read this book and with the language that the authors provide.
the Opposable Mind: Winning Through Integrative Thinking
Roger L. Martin
What a simple and useful book! The author discusses what he terms the knowledege system of the integrated thinker. The recognition that mental models of how the world works do not equal reality and that those ever questing for better and better models will avoid getting caught in a defensive non-learning non-growth status. Integrated thinkers use deductive and inductive reasoning as well as abductive reasoning which points forward looking. Integrated thinkers do not get stuck in either/or circumstances but rather seek both deepening of mastery and the nurturing of originality -- possessing only one of these two is not sufficient.
Democratizing Innovation
Eric Von Hippel
It is pretty darn hard for me not to like this book a lot... The main message is that users indirectly generate the product innovations that are largely adopted thought manufacturers seem to willingly overlook studies supporting this idea perhaps in order to absorb the credit for themselves. If manufacturers incorporated the reality of user innovation into their acknowledged processes far better results would occur....Chaos and complexity -- Brian Arthur plays the central role
Complexity
M. Mitchell Waldrop
Chaos and complexity -- Brian Arthur plays the central role
Chaos
James Gleick
Great survey of the history of chaos theory development