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Peopleware asserts that most software development projects fail because of failures within the team running them. This strikingly clear, direct book is written for software development-team leaders and managers, but it's filled with enough commonsense wisdom to appeal to anyone working in technology. Authors Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister include p...
Kevin Kelly
Jul 28, 2020Also recommended by
Jeff AtwoodMohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century.In a new foreword, noted peace ex...
Kevin Kelly
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Cory Booker
The Sound of the One Hand
281 Zen Koans with Answers (New York Review Books Classics)
When The Sound of the One Hand came out in Japan in 1916 it caused a scandal. Zen was a secretive practice, its wisdom relayed from master to novice in strictest privacy. That a handbook existed recording not only the riddling koans that are central to Zen teaching but also detailing the answers to them seemed to mark Zen as rote, not revelatory. F...
Kevin Kelly
There are at least two kinds of games, states James P. Carse as he begins this extraordinary book. One could be called finite; the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life; they are played in order to be won, wh...

So Good They Can't Ignore You
Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
In an unorthodox approach, Georgetown University professor Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice, and sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving their careers.Not only are pre-existing passions rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work, but a fo...
Kevin Kelly
One of the most influential books in the history of literature, recognized as the greatest literary masterpiece in Arabic, the Qur'an is the supreme authority and living source of all Islamic teaching, the sacred text that sets out the creed, rituals, ethics, and laws of Islam. Yet despite the growing interest in Islamic teachings and culture, ther...
Whether it’s tidying up or tiny-house living, the decluttering revolution is taking America by storm. In It’s All Too Much organizational expert Peter Walsh reveals the tools for taking control of your physical—and emotional—clutter in order to reclaim your life.Are you surrounded by papers? Overstuffed closets? Are you stepping over toys or search...
Kevin Kelly

What the Dormouse Said
How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry
Most histories of the personal computer industry focus on technology or business. John Markoff's landmark book is about the culture and consciousness behind the first PCs--the culture being counter- and the consciousness expanded, sometimes chemically. It's a brilliant evocation of Stanford, California, in the 1960s and '70s, where a group of visio...
"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel by Gregory David Roberts, set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by ...
Kevin Kelly
The revolutionary literary vision that sowed the seeds of Objectivism, Ayn Rand's groundbreaking philosophy, and brought her immediate worldwide acclaim.This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark p...
Kevin Kelly
"I celebrate myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease....observing a spear of summer grass." So begins Leaves of Grass, the first great American poem and indeed, to this day, the greatest and most essentially American poem in all our na...
Kevin Kelly
The Essential Rumi by Jalal Al-Din Rumi
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Regional Advantage by Annalee Saxenian
Future Shock by Alvin Toffler
The Ultimate Resource by Julian Lincoln Simon