My esteemed colleague Espen Andersen posted today on The Technology Canon - “a list of books that you have to read to consider yourself knowledgeable – or, rather, educated in the classical sense – within a field.” His criteria include, “the book must have stood the test of time, to be relevant even though the technology has changed (and, consequently, a book that I will occasionally re-read)…” and “its lessons apply outside the technology it discusses, which is another way to say that it will be readable by non-technologists.”
Espen is a fascinating character – I have frequent opportunities to interact with him as we collaborate on multi-company research into IT topics, and I’ve learned much from his insights and broad knowledge. I’m quite excited with his ideas for this Technology Canon – as much for the debate and dialog it will create, as for finding books I should have read, but have not (so far!) For example, Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach is the first book he mentions. This is a book I pick up every year or so, thumb though, and place back on the bookshelf – intimidated by its girth and depth. Espen, I will try again, I promise!
The second on his list is Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a book I read when it first appeared in 1975, and now re-read every few years. It was one of the few books that not only changed my thinking on so many things, it changed my behaviors in ways which I believe have been to my great advantage.
Anyway, I repeat Espen’s “brief start, just off the top of my head” list below, then add a couple of my suggestions. I hope you will all chip in with additions, deletions, and perhaps some arguments as to why some belong in the Technology Canon, and why others don’t.
- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid by Douglas Hofstadter
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
- How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand
- A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
- Turing’s Man: Western Culture in the Computer Age by J. D. Bolter
- The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
- The Mythical Man-month by Frederic Brooks
- Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
- The Control Revolution by James Beniger
- Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation by James Utterback
- The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton M. Christensen
- Consciousness Explained by Daniel C. Dennett
- The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler
- The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World by Lawrence Lessig
My “top of head” additions:
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At Home in the Universe by Stuart Kauffman
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Enterprise Architecture as Strategy by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill and David C. Robertson
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Structure In Fives: Designing Effective Organizations by Henry Mintzberg
Suggestions?
Filed under: Reading Suggestions Tagged: | Espen Andersen, suggested readings
Very nice list.
I have to weigh in my support for the “Godel, Escher, Bach” book. For me, this is a book that I pick up from time to time, randomly turn to a page, and find immense food for thought that often finds its way into a project I’m working on for a Client or into a painting. ‘Immensely good stuff.
I’d like to comment also about the “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” book. This one is odd for me. On one hand, I found the book to be trite; “ok, I get the point about Quality already.” On the other hand, I find myself thinking about it quite often even though it’s been over a decade since I’ve read it.
Another one to add:
“Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine” by Norbert Wiener.
And one for you in particular, Vaughan:
“The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies & Possibilities”– Read it and you might think you have to work faster to effect all the changes you’d planned for 2017!
Bob