More Sci-Fi for Business
April 20, 2009
Michael Arrington's Grok This: Forget The Business Books, Go Sci-Fi To Stoke Your Imagination post from two weeks ago garnered alot of attention. I just wanted share the additional recommendations from the genre that popped up in various places. In the comment thread of Arrington's post itself: Seth Wagoner recommends Charlie Stross and Ken MacLeod, pointing to Marc Andreessen's post on top novelists from this decade.
Michael Arrington's Grok This: Forget The Business Books, Go Sci-Fi To Stoke Your Imagination post from two weeks ago garnered alot of attention. I just wanted share the additional recommendations from the genre that popped up in various places.
In the comment thread of Arrington's post itself:
- Seth Wagoner recommends Charlie Stross and Ken MacLeod, pointing to Marc Andreessen's post on top novelists from this decade.
- Ben says "I'd have to agree with everything on this list - although it's a bit of a 'beginners guide' to sci-fi. Add in Peter F. Hamilton, the Cormac novels of Neal Asher etc. and you're humming."
- Tom recommends:
- Richard K. Morgan – Altered Carbon (all his stuff is great but AC is a good introduction)
- Neal Asher – The Skinner
- Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space (Chasm city and the prefect are also awesome books)
- Charles Stross – Singularity Sky (Halting State is another stand out book)
- Mark suggests The Player of Games by Iain Banks
- And almost all the comments recommend the addition of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.
On our own post, Seth Godin commented that "[E]very employee I've hired in the last ten years has been required to read Snow Crash [by Neal Stephenson]." He also highly recommends Cory Doctorow. In his latest book Tribes, he starts the acknowledgements with one to Doctorow and his book Eastern Standard Tribe.
Finally, Michael Fitzgerald at BNET writes:
[H]ere are three science fiction authors he should have on there and doesn't: John Brunner ("Squares of the City" is the one I've read, though "Shockwave Rider" is probably more relevant), Vernor Vinge ("Rainbows End" is his most recent, and I posted on its vision for the Future of Business, but "True Names" would matter more to high-tech entrepreneurs), and William Gibson ("Neuromancer," natch...).
Anyone else want to chime in?