Page-turners
The Innovators By Walter Issacson After his biography on Steve Jobs, Issacson goes into the world of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be a standard for the history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail? In this book, Isaacson begins with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He explores the fascinating personalities that created our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee and Larry Page. This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so inventive. It’s also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and to master the art of teamwork made them even more creative.
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Digital Destiny: How the New Age of Data Will Change the Way We Live, Work, and Communicate By Shawn DuBravac In Digital Destiny, DuBravac, chief economist and senior director of research at the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), argues that the groundswell of digital ownership unfolding in our lives signals the beginning of a new era for humanity. Beyond just hardware acquisition, the next decade will be defined by an all-digital lifestyle and the “Internet of Everything” where everything, from the dishwasher to the wristwatch, is not only online, but acquiring, analysing and utilising the data that surrounds us. But what does this mean in practice? It means that some of mankind’s most pressing problems, such as hunger, disease, and security, will finally have a solution. It means that the rise of driverless cars could save thousands of American lives each year, and perhaps hundreds of thousands more around the planet. It means a departure from millennia-old practices, such as the need for urban centres. It means that massive inefficiencies, such as the supply chains in Africa allowing food to rot before it can be fed to the hungry, can be overcome. It means that individuals will have more freedom in action, work, health and pursuits than ever before.
International Finance Magazine Jan - Mar 2015