Book picks similar to
Closing the Gap: The Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa by Tshilidzi Marwala
business
business-in-africa
political-science
tech
Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
Adam M. Grant - 2021
Evidence has shown that creative geniuses are not attached to one identity, but constantly willing to rethink their stances and that leaders who admit they don't know something and seek critical feedback lead more productive and innovative teams.New evidence shows us that as a mindset and a skilllset, rethinking can be taught and Grant explains how to develop the necessary qualities to do it. Section 1 explores why we struggle to think again and how we can learn to do it as individuals, arguing that 'grit' alone can actually be counterproductive. Section 2 discusses how we can help others think again through learning about 'argument literacy'. And the final section 3 looks at how schools, businesses and governments fall short in building cultures that encourage rethinking.In the end, learning to rethink may be the secret skill to give you the edge in a world changing faster than ever.
Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal
Nick Bilton - 2013
In barely six years, a small group of young, ambitious programmers in Silicon Valley built an $11.5 billion business out of the ashes of a failed podcasting company. Today Twitter boasts more than 200 million active users and has affected business, politics, media, and other fields in innumerable ways. Now Nick Bilton of the New York Times takes readers behind the scenes with a narrative that shows what happened inside Twitter as it grew at exponential speeds. This is a tale of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles as the four founders—Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, and Noah Glass—went from everyday engineers to wealthy celebrities, featured on magazine covers, Oprah, The Daily Show, and Time’s list of the world’s most influential people. Bilton’s exclusive access and exhaustive investigative reporting—drawing on hundreds of sources, documents, and internal e-mails—have enabled him to write an intimate portrait of fame, influence, and power. He also captures the zeitgeist and global influence of Twitter, which has been used to help overthrow governments in the Middle East and disrupt the very fabric of the way people communicate.
Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX
Eric Berger - 2021
Less than 20 years after its founding, it boasts the largest constellation of commercial satellites in orbit, has pioneered reusable rockets, and in 2020 became the first private company to launch human beings into orbit. Half a century after the space race it is private companies, led by SpaceX, standing alongside NASA pushing forward into the cosmos, and laying the foundation for our exploration of other worlds.But before it became one of the most powerful players in the aerospace industry, SpaceX was a fledgling startup, scrambling to develop a single workable rocket before the money ran dry. The engineering challenge was immense; numerous other private companies had failed similar attempts. And even if SpaceX succeeded, they would then have to compete for government contracts with titans such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, who had tens of thousands of employees and tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue. SpaceX had fewer than 200 employees and the relative pittance of $100 million in the bank.In Liftoff, Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, takes readers inside the wild early days that made SpaceX. Focusing on the company’s first four launches of the Falcon 1 rocket, he charts the bumpy journey from scrappy underdog to aerospace pioneer. We travel from company headquarters in El Segundo, to the isolated Texas ranchland where they performed engine tests, to Kwajalein, the tiny atoll in the Pacific where SpaceX launched the Falcon 1. Berger has reported on SpaceX for more than a decade, enjoying unparalleled journalistic access to the company’s inner workings. Liftoff is the culmination of these efforts, drawing upon exclusive interviews with dozens of former and current engineers, designers, mechanics, and executives, including Elon Musk. The enigmatic Musk, who founded the company with the dream of one day settling Mars, is the fuel that propels the book, with his daring vision for the future of space.Filled with never-before-told stories of SpaceX’s turbulent beginning, Liftoff is a saga of cosmic proportions.
Practical Statistics for Data Scientists: 50 Essential Concepts
Peter Bruce - 2017
Courses and books on basic statistics rarely cover the topic from a data science perspective. This practical guide explains how to apply various statistical methods to data science, tells you how to avoid their misuse, and gives you advice on what's important and what's not.Many data science resources incorporate statistical methods but lack a deeper statistical perspective. If you're familiar with the R programming language, and have some exposure to statistics, this quick reference bridges the gap in an accessible, readable format.With this book, you'll learn:Why exploratory data analysis is a key preliminary step in data scienceHow random sampling can reduce bias and yield a higher quality dataset, even with big dataHow the principles of experimental design yield definitive answers to questionsHow to use regression to estimate outcomes and detect anomaliesKey classification techniques for predicting which categories a record belongs toStatistical machine learning methods that "learn" from dataUnsupervised learning methods for extracting meaning from unlabeled data
Requirements Engineering Fundamentals: A Study Guide for the Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering Exam - Foundation Level - IREB compliant
Klaus Pohl - 2009
In order to ensure a high level of knowledge and training, the International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB) worked out the training concept “Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering”, which defines a requirements engineer’s practical skills on different training levels. The book covers the different subjects of the curriculum for the “Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering” (CPRE) defined by the International Requirements Engineering Board (IREB). It supports its readers in preparing for the test to achieve the “Foundation Level” of the CPRE.
Leadership [with Introduction to Leadership]
Peter G. Northouse - 2018
Northouse's Leadership 8e and Peter G. Northouse's Introduction to Leadership 4e
Who Will Do What by When?: How to Improve Performance, Accountability and Trust with Integrity
Tom Hanson - 2005
Join him as he races to learn the fundamentals of team and personal effectiveness before he loses his job - and the woman he loves.Along the way you'll arm yourself with the tools you need to cut through the daily tangled web of organizational politics and interpersonal issues that hinder performance. You'll learn to: Use the "Integrity Tools" to boost performance, trust and personal power Hold others accountable without being overbearing Evoke sustainable, outstanding performance in teams
The Starbucks Story
John Simmons - 2005
You can get a cup at any caf, sandwich bar or restaurant anywhere. So how did Starbucks manage to reinvent coffee as a whole new experience, and create a hugely successful brand in the process? The Starbucks Story tells the brand's story from its origins in a Seattle fish market to its growing global presence today. This is a story that has unfolded quickly - at least in terms of conventional business development. Starbucks is a phenomenon. Unknown 15 years ago, it now ranks among the 100 most valuable brands in the world. It has become the quintessential brand of the modern age, built around the creation of an experience that can be consistently reproduced across the world. Originally published in 2004 as 'My Sister's A Barista: How they made Starbucks a home away from home', this new 2012 edition has been updated to bring the brand up to date.
The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company
David A. Price - 2008
With the help of visionary businessman Steve Jobs and animating genius John Lasseter, Pixar has become the gold standard of animated filmmaking, beginning with a short special effects shot made at Lucasfilm in 1982 all the way up through the landmark films Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and others. David A. Price goes behind the scenes of the corporate feuds between Lasseter and his former champion, Jeffrey Katzenberg, as well as between Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner. And finally he explores Pixar's complex relationship with the Walt Disney Company as it transformed itself into the $7.4 billion jewel in the Disney crown.
Big Al's MLM Sponsoring Magic: How to Build a Network Marketing Team Quickly
Tom Schreiter - 2013
MLM is different than a regular job. Every new person in your business should have a copy of this book to guide them in the early days of their network marketing career. This book shows the beginner exactly what to do, exactly what to say, and does it through the eyes of brand-new Distributor Joe. "Big Al" teaches Distributor Joe a very basic system to get to 100 distributors fast. Using just a few contacts and a very simple, rejection-free appointment and presentation system, Distributor Joe learns by observing, and thus builds leadership skills instantly. The magic script to help every new distributor get his first network marketing distributor makes it easy to build deep. In a few words or examples "Big Al" brings to light the real answers to network marketing leadership challenges. You’ll find the same humor and directness that has endeared "Big Al" to his workshop audiences throughout the world. Published as Big Al Tells All (Sponsoring Magic) in 1979, and revised in 1985 and 1999, this latest revision includes updates to match the changes in the network marketing industry. It still retains the classic techniques that are essential to successful network marketing. Every new person deserves instant success in MLM, so why not use this easy system to get them started fast? Motivation, attitude, positive attitude and philosophy are great, but at some point, every new MLM distributor has to learn the skills of what to say and do. This is the book they need. Big Al’s MLM Sponsoring Magic How To Build A Network Marketing Team Quickly is a fun and fascinating network marketing system that every new distributor enjoys. What a great way to start off a new distributor's career, with this easy-to-read book. Order your copy now!
Machine Learning: A Visual Starter Course For Beginner's
Oliver Theobald - 2017
If you have ever found yourself lost halfway through other introductory materials on this topic, this is the book for you. If you don't understand set terminology such as vectors, hyperplanes, and centroids, then this is also the book for you. This starter course isn't a picture story book but does include many visual examples that break algorithms down into a digestible and practical format. As a starter course, this book connects the dots and offers the crash course I wish I had when I first started. The kind of guide I wish had before I started taking on introductory courses that presume you’re two days away from an advanced mathematics exam. That’s why this introductory course doesn’t go further on the subject than other introductory books, but rather, goes a step back. A half-step back in order to help everyone make his or her first strides in machine learning and is an ideal study companion for the visual learner. In this step-by-step guide you will learn: - How to download free datasets - What tools and software packages you need - Data scrubbing techniques, including one-hot encoding, binning and dealing with missing data - Preparing data for analysis, including k-fold Validation - Regression analysis to create trend lines - Clustering, including k-means and k-nearest Neighbors - Naive Bayes Classifier to predict new classes - Anomaly detection and SVM algorithms to combat anomalies and outliers - The basics of Neural Networks - Bias/Variance to improve your machine learning model - Decision Trees to decode classification
Please feel welcome to join this starter course by buying a copy, or sending a free sample to your preferred device.
Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy
Bill Gates - 1999
Gates stresses the need for managers to view technology not as overhead but as a strategic asset, and offers detailed examples from Microsoft, GM, Dell, and many other successful companies. Companion Web site.
Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future
Joichi Ito - 2016
The world is more complex and volatile today than at any other time in our history. The tools of our modern existence are getting faster, cheaper, and smaller at an exponential rate, transforming every aspect of society, from business to culture and from the public sphere to our most private moments. The people who succeed will be the ones who learn to think differently. In Whiplash, Joi Ito and Jeff Howe distill that logic into nine organizing principles for navigating and surviving this tumultuous period: Emergence over AuthorityPull over PushCompasses over MapsRisk over SafetyDisobedience over CompliancePractice over TheoryDiversity over AbilityResilience over StrengthSystems over Objects Filled with incredible case studies and cutting-edge research and philosophies from the MIT Media Lab and beyond, Whiplash will help you adapt and succeed in this unpredictable world.
Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations
Thomas L. Friedman - 2016
Friedman shows that we have entered an age of dizzying acceleration--and explains how to live in it. Due to an exponential increase in computing power, climbers atop Mount Everest enjoy excellent cell-phone service and self-driving cars are taking to the roads. A parallel explosion of economic interdependency has created new riches as well as spiraling debt burdens. Meanwhile, Mother Nature is also seeing dramatic changes as carbon levels rise and species go extinct, with compounding results.How do these changes interact, and how can we cope with them? To get a better purchase on the present, Friedman returns to his Minnesota childhood and sketches a world where politics worked and joining the middle class was an achievable goal. Today, by contrast, it is easier than ever to be a maker (try 3-D printing) or a breaker (the Islamic State excels at using Twitter), but harder than ever to be a leader or merely "average." Friedman concludes that nations and individuals must learn to be fast (innovative and quick to adapt), fair (prepared to help the casualties of change), and slow (adept at shutting out the noise and accessing their deepest values). With vision, authority, and wit, Thank You for Being Late establishes a blueprint for how to think about our times.