Revelatory Reads

We all have books that are important to us. Books that hold a firm grip on our persona and frame our outlook. They open new worlds or teach us about life. They may grip our emotions, provide an escape, stir the imagination, or ground us to hard realities. Some are like comfort food, pleasures to revisit again and again. Others challenge and confront our assumptions at their core.

Today I am going to share some of my favorites, ones that have affected me deeply. They are important to me - but in quite a specific way.

These books changed the way I think. They did something to re-wire the circuitry in my brain and alter how I process information, problems, history, or work. They are not necessarily my ‘favorite’ books, they may not be the best written. But each has introduced me to large, new ideas - created frameworks for understanding the world, and revealed some aspect of truth residing underneath our daily grind.

Allow me to briefly present them to you and share some of why they will always resonate with me…

Guns, Germs, & Steel Jared Diamond, 1997.

As a lover of history, archaeology, and civilizational navel-gazing, this book was like candy for me. Diamond tackles a simple sounding but vastly consequential question - why the major discrepancy in technological advancement between the New World and the Old? In exploring this, he presents a compelling set of factors - geographic, environmental, climatic - that set up a sort of ‘first-mover’ advantage for some societies. In doing so, he also cuts through a tangle of racist claptrap about Europeans being inherently superior to all others.

• Smack My Head Concept: The idea that the orientation of continents (north/south vs east/west) played a major role in the development of societies, through trade, travel, and climatic uniformity.

Natural Capitalism Hawkins, Lovins, and Lovins, 1999.

Anyone working in an environmental field in the 2000’s encountered this book, which is one of the founding texts of what I call ‘post-modern’ environmentalism. We now might argue about the concept of using capitalism’s concepts to save us from capitalism, but at the time this book was revolutionary. It taught us to co-opt the language of business and launched a thousand initiatives to ‘bank’ natural resources, ‘price-in’ externalities, or balance environmental ‘debts.’

• Smack My Head Concept: Ecosystem services, obviously. The concept that our economy and society depends on the limited resources of the planet to function, and we ignore those limits at our peril. A lot of people still haven’t internalized this, unfortunately.

The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2007.

Taleb is a piece of work, immensely intelligent, combative, sarcastic, and unafraid of an argument. His popularization of the term ‘Black Swan’ has entered the vernacular of tech-bros and financial journalists in mostly the wrong ways. But once you understand the concept - as I think I do - it provides a powerful construct to think about risk, randomness, and resilience.

• Smack My Head Concept: The core thesis of the book - how we as a species suck at assessing the risks of the unknowable, unimaginable, or the unlikely - and the answer is not to try and improve our ability to predict these events, but rather improve our adaptability to them.

Thinking in Systems Donella H. Meadows, 2008.

This is perhaps the most academic book on the list and a bit of a dry read if memory serves. But the concepts presented in its pages coil into your brain and color your view of the world permanently. Another foundational text for the sustainability world, reading this book is like Alice going through the Looking Glass. Your world is forever recast in a new light.

• Smack My Head Concept: Everything. Moving your brain from a linear, cause and effect perspective to a systems view. Dynamics, feedback loops, leverage points, and what would later be called the ‘Butterfly Effect’. How systems seek stability, and how instability can generate unanticipated - and violent - outcomes.

Value Beyond Cost Savings Scott Muldavin, 2010.

I am fortunate to know Scott and ride along a bit as he wrote this text. Its publication helped crack the nut on the business case for green buildings, combing through the spreadsheets of investment real estate to locate where the REAL leverage points were. Although now it seems mostly obvious, this book unlocked a million discussions among real estate investors on stranded assets, rent premiums, ‘brown discounts’, reputational risk, and more. It truly moved the concept of green buildings from the margins of high-finance to the mainstream (mostly).

• Smack My Head Concept: Two lessons I took from this and knowing Scott. First, the concept of risk is equally - if not more - important than returns. Second, to get the attention of investors, look for second and third order impacts on value, which can scale up logarithmically. Why focus on saving a building owner thousands of dollars when you can make him millions?

Switch Chip and Dan Heath, 2010.

This was my first real introduction to the world of behavioral economics, and an absolute treat to read. The subtitle “How to change things when change is hard” almost disguises the real meat of this book, which is a deep dive into the human brain and how we make decisions. The metaphor of the “Rider and the Elephant” is a perfect model for the tension between our rational and emotional minds.

• Smack My Head Concept: Heuristics. The idea that our evolutionary and social DNA program us to utilize various mental shortcuts to navigate each day still resonates strongly with me. I have since read a number of deeper dives into behavioral economics, but this book lit the fire.

Where Good Ideas Come From Steven Johnson, 2010.

I love innovation and creativity, and must of picked this one up looking for some inspiration. Johnson takes apart the “Eureka” stereotype of innovation - think of the mad scientist who has an almost magical shock and an idea comes into his (or her) head fully formed. What he replaces it with is a model of innovation rooted in societal context, social interaction, cross-pollination, and technological stair-stepping.

• Smack My Head Concept: The “Adjacent Possible” - where breakthroughs require previous breakthroughs, and progress and advancement are more like a journey in a maze versus teleportation.

Good Strategy, Bad Strategy Richard Rumelt, 2011.

I don’t often pick up business books, reading maybe one every year or two. But grabbing this one proved fortuitous, as it helped frame the way I tackle problem solving (which certainly helps when you work in consulting). It gave me the language to analyze situations and distinguish between competing ideas for how to move a solution forward. I think it eventually inspired my all-time favorite question: “What problem are we trying to solve?”

• Smack My Head Concept: Rumelt’s ingredients of a strategy - that it is both a diagnosis and a treatment plan - has served me spectacularly over the years. Fun story, right after I read this I almost got into an argument with my boss when he said “Our strategy is to be the best!” I nearly blurted out “That’s not a strategy, that’s a hokey aspiration!” But I kept quiet. Probably for the best - that boss was a blowhard and probably would have fired me.

So there you go, eight books, each still influencing me today.

In looking over this list, I realize two things. First, 2010 was a good year and really formulated a lot of my brain. Second, that most of these are well over a decade old. Yikes! Either I am not reading very influential material these days, or no-one is writing anything good. Hmmm.

Let me know if you have books that have influenced you similarly.

Thanks!

Mundane Masterpieces

Everyday inventions that deserve more respect.

All hail the brown paper shopping bag, with handles. (The sinewy, ropey handles, not the crap you get at the grocery store).

While today a reusable tote bag is preferred, sometimes you just have to accept a temporary bag. But, please, no plastic!

Give me a classic, foldable beauty like this! Around since at least 1912, these little gems accumulate in my garage because they are just so damn useful. Recyclable. Compostable. Renewable. Practical.

So march on, little paper bag! The world needs more of your understated utility.

Parting Proclamation

Witticisms and Wisdom:

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Disclaimer:

All content and opinions are solely those of the author (Jack), and not representative of my employer, former employers, anyone in Congress, my family, former college roommates, Baptists, the good citizens of Oregon, or my dog Mabel.