- In today’s CEO Daily: 3 business books that are worthy of the beach.
- The big leadership story: Stanford’s Nicholas Bloom on why work-from-home is here to stay.
- The markets:
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. About 40 percent of Americans didn’t read a single book last year, despite Oprah’s Book Club, Bill Gates’ reading list and ominous missivesabout declining literacy. Many of us own books we’ve never read or, at best, skimmed. When Chris Matthews asked me during a Hardball interview about my book Fraternity, having apparently not read it, I turned it over to show him he’d written a blurb to praise it on the back.
My summer reading list includes speculative fiction, true crime and a divisive book about trad wife time travel. But let’s talk about the value of a good business book. Many are written by people seeking fame on the speaker circuit or a chance to rewrite their own history. But I speak to many leaders who were deeply influenced by a good book that shifted their thinking. Here are three recent reads I think are worth a look this summer.
My former colleague Josh Tyrangiel has written a book called AI For Good: How Real People are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things that Matter. Tyrangiel’s book is a deeply reported and nuanced look at the real potential of AI. As he told me recently, the goal was to cut past the euphoria and existential panic around AI to find promising examples of how people are using it to create solutions for challenges like sepsis, vaccine distribution, and personalized tutoring at scale. If you want to learn about use cases for AI from entrepreneurs who don’t aspire to live on Mars or eliminate 80% of jobs, read his book.
I also like Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great by Eric Ries. Honestly, I got it because Ries held a book party in The Dakota, a building I’ve always wanted to see, and I liked what he had to say so I started reading it on the way home. I expected analysis of business gone bad—and there’s some of that—but he also looks at corruption as a failure of structure, not morals, and essentially offers an interesting playbook for how companies can build trust and maintain their mission without being virtuous.
And when you find yourself yearning for a good memoir, reach for Trash: A Garbageman’s Storyby Simon Paré-Poupart. It’s been compared to Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential for good reason. I prefer to think of Paré-Poupart as modern-day Margaret Mead (with French-Canadian swear words) observing the absurdity of our consumption. He’s a sociologist who celebrates physical labor. A philosopher-king hauling our garbage and analyzing our waste. It’s a voice from the trenches. It’s funny. It’s honest. And it’s short. Where’s the beach? Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]
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