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Christopher Mims

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Christopher Mims is a technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal, which he joined in 2014. Previously, he was a science and technology correspondent and editor for Quartz. He has been an editor at Scientific American, Technology Review, Smithsonian and Grist.
14 books on the list
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How to Do Nothing book cover
How to Do Nothing
Resisting the Attention Economy
Jenny Odell - 2019-04-09
Goodreads Rating
This thrilling critique of the forces vying for our attention re-defines what we think of as productivity, shows us a new way to connect with our environment and reveals all that we’ve been too distracted to see about our selves and our world.When the technologies we use every day collapse our experiences into 24/7 availability, platforms for perso...
Christopher Mims
2022-05-10T10:50:31.000Z
the core insight of both Cal Newport's "Digital Minimalism" and @the_jennitaur's excellent book is that it's possible to use tools rather than be used by them (but first, you have to detox so you can do it with a clear head)      source
On the Clock book cover
On the Clock
Emily Guendelsberger - 2020-07-14 (first published in 2019)
Goodreads Rating
"Nickel and Dimed for the Amazon age," (Salon) the bitingly funny, eye-opening story of finding work in the automated and time-starved world of hourly low-wage laborAfter the local newspaper where she worked as a reporter closed, Emily Guendelsberger took a pre-Christmas job at an Amazon fulfillment center outside Louisville, Kentucky. There, the v...
Christopher Mims
2021-04-10T11:21:49.000Z
@GalenBrown18 if you're asking in good faith, here's a book that will help explian the larger issue -- if every place is essentially the same working conditions, the answer to your question is essentially "yes"      source
Midnight Riot book cover
Midnight Riot
Ben Aaronovitch - 2011-02-01
Goodreads Rating
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happ...
Christopher Mims
2021-04-08T17:32:41.000Z
@SunnySeaGold that definitely was not me, but if you're looking for some pure goodtimes escapism, I am currently LOVING this book:      source
Also recommended by
Brandy Jensen
Metropolis book cover
Metropolis
A History of the City, Humankind's Greatest Invention
Ben Wilson - 2020-11-10
Goodreads Rating
From a brilliant young historian, a colorful journey through 7,000 years and twenty-six world cities that shows how urban living has been the spur and incubator to humankind's greatest innovations.In the two hundred millennia of our existence, nothing has shaped us more profoundly than the city. Historian Ben Wilson, author of bestselling and award...
Christopher Mims
2021-03-26T15:31:21.000Z
@DavidLarter thank you. Meanwhile, I feel like you might enjoy this book, which is ostensibly about cities but actually is about trade, because what else is a city for?      source
The Aftermath book cover
The Aftermath
The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America
Philip Bump - 2023-01-17
Goodreads Rating
A widely-read Washington Post columnist takes a deep dive into what the end of the baby boom means for American politics and economics.Philip Bump, a reporter as adept with a graph as with a paragraph, is popular for his ability to distill vast amounts of data into accessible stories. THE AFTERMATH is a sweeping assessment of how the baby boom crea...
Also recommended by
Rachel Sklar
Stolen Focus book cover
Stolen Focus
Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again
Johann Hari - 2022-01-25
Goodreads Rating
Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening--and how to get our attention back. In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only...
Also recommended by
Fatima BhuttoHarini Calamur
The Cult of We book cover
The Cult of We
WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion
Eliot Brown, Maureen Farrell - 2021-07-20
Goodreads Rating
The definitive inside story of WeWork, its audacious founder, and what the company's epic unraveling exposes about Silicon Valley's delusions and the financial system's desperate hunger to cash in--from the Wall Street Journal reporters whose scoops hastened the company's downfall.In 2001, Adam Neumann arrived in New York after five years as a cons...
Also recommended by
Josh DawseyScott Galloway
The Great Indoors book cover
The Great Indoors
The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness
Emily Anthes - 2021-06-01 (first published in 2020)
Goodreads Rating
An Architectural Record Notable BookA fascinating, thought-provoking journey into our built environmentModern humans are an indoor species. We spend 90 percent of our time inside, shuttling between homes and offices, schools and stores, restaurants and gyms. And yet, in many ways, the indoor world remains unexplored territory. For all the time we s...
Nomadland book cover
Nomadland
Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
Jessica Bruder - 2018-09-04 (first published in 2017)
Goodreads Rating
From the beet fields of North Dakota to the campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older adults. These invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in RVs and modified vans, forming a growing...
Elon Musk book cover
Elon Musk
Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Ashlee Vance - 2015-05-19
Goodreads Rating
In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs—a real-life Tony Stark—and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new “makers.”Elon Musk spotlights the techno...
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