nonlinear

In ‘War Made New,’ noted defense historian Max Boot runs through 500 years of battle to show that victory goes to the combatant who had digested and incorporated not just the latest weapon technology, but also the culture and bureaucracy most adept at exploiting this technology.
In other words, it’s not just the latest, greatest military [...]

Everything is Miscellaneous and The Cluetrain Mainfesto, both in whole (Miscellaneous) and in part (Cluetrain) by David Weinberger, tell the story of what the internet is: A digital conversation.
Cluetrain is a quick and compelling read, and, it can be read online here.
Everything is Miscellaneous dives into what the digital nature of our online information means.
We’re [...]

Agreed.
More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics by Steven E. Landsburg is a better read than Freakonomics, but not quite as good as The Undercover Economist.
A tasty morsel:
Though Dickens might not have recognized it, the primary moral of A Christmas Carol is that there should be no limit on IRA contributions.

One bone [...]

Read Missile Gap by Charles Stross online here Quick, smart sci fi novella.
I’m reading more books that are available online, and Stross’ experiments with online publishing are refreshing. Here’s a novel of his you can read online: Accelerando.

Now don’t be sad / cause two out of three aint badMeat Loaf, Two out of three ain’t bad
From outta the library to this blog:
Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist should be required reading for humans. I would have majored in econ if I read this 10 years ago.
In contrast, An Army of Davids: [...]

Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan team up in a terrific duo of business books: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done and Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right are like an MBA overview of current CEO best practices.
Then again, I’m not a CEO nor have I earned an MBA.
Execution is [...]

Jeff Goodell mines the rich history of coal in the United States to unearth the good it has brought and the destruction it has wrought in Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future
Much like the authors of The End of Oil and Field Notes from a Catastrophe, Goodell paints an alarming picture of [...]

Most books that I really enjoy reading affect me in two ways:

Keep me up late night — can’t put ‘em down

Fire up a web of ideas that my brain spins off of the main narrative

The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer by Dean Baker fits the [...]

don’t think of an elephant!Know your values and frame the debate by George Lakoff
A blazingly quick read on how progressives (they used to be called liberals until right-wingers made “liberal” seem a dirty word) are being out foxed through the conservative movement’s mastery of language and thought.
Lakoff’s strict father (Right wing) / caring family [...]

In Field Notes from a Catastrophe, Elizabeth Kolbert connects the dots on global warming and outlines the latest thoughts on the current state of Earth.
It’s a frighteningly good read.
The breadth of Kolbert’s work plainly points to the rapid approach of the end of human civilization thanks to unchecked pollution.
Climatologists speak of “DAI” or [...]