1. What If?

Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical

Questions

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This book by Randall Munroe (which is actually a compilation of posts from his
wickedly popular blog xkcd) is equally whimsical and informative. He explores
questions like from what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked
when it hit the ground? and what would happen if you made a periodic table out
of cube-shaped bricks, where each brick was made of the corresponding element?
and he provides explanations that are well-researched, sourced and scientifically
valid, while still using a giraffe as a measurement for height. Youll be entertained,
and Mr. Gates says, youll also learn about a lot of other things like ballistics, DNA,
the oceans, the atmosphere and lightning.
2. Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering
Everything

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In general, were particularly great at remembering things in our domains of
expertise but pretty terrible at remembering things that are new or unimportant to
us. But is there a way to learn more by improving memory across other domains?
Author and science writer Joshua Foer put some ancient memory techniques to the
test, and after only a year of training, went on to not only win the U.S. Memory
Championship, but actually break the U.S. speed record for memorizing a deck of
cards. When Mr. Gates reviewed this book by after its release in 2012, he called it,
absolutely phenomenal, one of the most interesting books Ive read this summer.
3. The Magic of Reality

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In this Richard Dawkins book, he poses a question at the beginning of each chapter,
offers colorful myths from different places around the world and finally reveals an
elegant scientific answer. Its an engaging, well-illustrated science textbook
offering compelling answers to big questions, from how the universe formed to
what causes earthquakes, Mr. Gates writes in his review. Its also a plea for
readers of all ages to approach mysteries with rigor and curiosity, rather than
buying into the supernatural myths at the core of most faith traditions.
4. SuperFreakonomics

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I really liked Freakonomics, and I think SuperFreakonomics is even better, writes
Mr. Gates in his review for this sequel, adding that he recommends it to anyone
who reads nonfiction. This book will tell you a little information about a lot of
different things from hurricanes and climate change to U.S. healthcare and the
ways people underestimate how much quality of life has improved.
5. Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

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Mr. Gates says that when he picked up this book by Steve Johnson, he was
skeptical. Lots of books have been written about innovationwhat it is, the most
innovative companies, how you measure it. The subject can seem a little faddish,
he writes. But Johnsons book is quite good at giving examples of how you create
environments that can encourage good ideas. In discussing how to create
institutional structures that facilitate innovation instead of focussing on people who
had good ideas and their eureka moments, the book examines patterns and puts
forth ways we as individuals and a society can be more innovative.
6. Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words

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In his latest book published in late November 2015, Mr. Munroe sets out to explain
various subjectsfrom how smartphones work to what the U.S. Constitution says
without the complicated jargon. To accomplish this, he uses diagrams annotated
using only the 1,000 most common words in the English languagea nuclear
reactor is a heavy metal power building and a dishwasher is a box that cleans
food holders, for example. In hisreview, Mr. Gates calls is a brilliant concept and
says, Thing Explainer is filled with cool basic knowledge about how the world
worksHe has written a wonderful guide for curious minds.
7. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

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In his review, Mr. Gates wrote he first discovered the research of author and
Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck years ago at an invention session on education,
and that her research had a big impact on my thinking[and has] helped my
foundation, colleagues and me understand more about the attitudes and habits that
allow some students to persevere in school despite big challenges. The thesis of
this book is that our genes influence our intelligence and talents, but these qualities
are not fixed at birth. From reading about Ms. Dwecks experiments, you can learn
to have what she calls a growth mindset, with which you can learn and do more.
8. For the Love of Physics

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A little bit of physics goes a long way in helping you understand a huge number of
things, Mr. Gates writes in his review for this book, penned by the renowned
former MIT professor Walter Lewin who is known for his thought-provoking and
entertaining demonstration-based lectures. The book pushes the idea that as long
as you understand concepts as basic as gravity and electromagnetism, you can use
simple physics to understand a lotfrom how GPS works and how a DVD can store
a movie. Everyday mysteries like these find answers in For the Love of Physics.
9. Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall
Street

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Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet thinks theres a lot to learn from this book by
John Brooks: Mr. Buffet says its his favorite book about business and, in
his review, Mr. Gates refers to it as the best book about business hes ever read,
saying it holds true even though its decades old (a collection of New Yorker articles
from the 1960s, to be exact). Its certainly true that many of the particulars of
business have changed. But the fundamentals have not, he says.
10. Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients

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In the early 2000s, medical doctor and economist Chris Murray set out on one of
the greatest scientific quests of our time. He sought to create a comprehensive
database that would explain the biggest causes of death and disability, how they
compare and how it all changes over time and in different countries. He ended up
making what is now known as the Global Burden of Disease (GBD)its free and
available to everyone (as he always intended it to be), and its now the world
standard go-to resource for health data. This book by Jeremy N. Smith chronicles
Mr. Murrays journey to create this database as well as the information in it. Epic
Measures gives you a good sense of why all this is so important, Mr. Gates writes
in his review

'The Innovator's Dilemma' by Clayton M.

Christensen

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Apple made a habit of disrupting itself. The iPhone, for instance,

had lots of the features of the iconic iPod, thus rendering the
music device obsolete.
Jobs was able to see that that cannibalism was a necessary part of
growth, thanks to the "Innovator's Dilemma" by legendary
Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen.
The book posits that companies get ruined by their own success,
staying committed to a product even after technology (and
customers) move on, like Blockbuster did with physical movie
rentals.
Jobs made it clear that the same thing wouldn't happen to
Apple, as he said in his explanation of why it needed to embrace
cloud computing:
It's important that we make this transformation, because of what
Clayton Christensen calls "the innovator's dilemma," where
people who invent something are usually the last ones to see past
it, and we certainly don't want to be left behind.
Read more on Christensen.
Buy it here

'Cosmic Consciousness' by Richard Maurice Burke

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Kottke recently shared a list of the books he and Jobs read around
their time at Reed ones that inspired Jobs's travels across the
globe as well as his professional pursuits.
One of the most influential works on that list is "Cosmic
Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind,"
originally published by a Canadian psychiatrist in 1901.
Based on his own supposed experiences with enlightenment,
Burke makes the case for a higher form of consciousness than the
normal person possesses. He outlines three forms of
consciousness: the simple consciousness of animals and humans;
the self-consciousness of humans, which includes reason and
imagination; and cosmic consciousness, which transcends factual
understanding