There have been many biographies written of Albert Einstein. This one by Walter Isaacson is notably great for the incorporation of science, emotion, storytelling, and details. It describes Einstein’s theories, his thought experiments, and his process. It also chronicles his personal life - including his first marriage, his second marriage, his infidelity, and his relationship with his children. (View on Amazon)
The inventor of the cotton gin won a contract to manufacture 5,000 muskets per year for the U.S. in 1798. He had no gunmaking knowledge, and the best armories at the time could barely produce that much volume. What happened next? |learn more
“All things being equal, speed will determine whether your company succeeds or not. Here’s how to make it core to your culture.” | learn more
Bloomberg takes up the question, discussing the search for a sustainable model for modern food delivery. | learn more
David Rabie, founder of the cool new high-tech oven company Tovala, explains why he brought his company back to Chicago after completing their stint at Y Combinator in Silicon Valley. | learn more
Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic, writes a very interesting post explaining how to convince skeptics that climate change is a problem. While he believes in climate change, he makes a bunch of valid points about how scientists have done a poor job of making their case. | learn more
Yival Noah Harari, author of Sapiens (which I recommended a few weeks ago), wrote a new book called Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow. This is an excerpt discussing how he believes AI will create a new class of society (the useless class) much like industrialization created the working class. It’s a polarizing idea, but one that’s worth seriously considering. | learn more
Amy Webb makes an argument calling for the US to develop a “Biology Strategy” to address the rise of CRISPR gene editing. This is coincidentally the topic addressed in all-too-real science fiction author Daniel Suarez’s new book Change Agent, which I read recently. | learn more
Finally, research settles the dispute of how many autonomous vehicles it takes to alleviate traffic. One. | learn more
Wired magazine profiles Improbable, the UK company that’s building virtual worlds with its SpatialOS platform. | learn more