books
The Singularity Is Near
When Humans Transcend Biology
The vision of a future human-machine civilization that transcends biology and extends life always made intuitive sense to me. This book made me feel less weird.
Transcend
Nine Steps to Living Well Forever
Finished reading this on Dec 31st 2011. It did more in one week to change my Noam’s views on junk-food than my preaching accomplished in years. Got us on a living forever regime and greatly inspired this video we made.
The Upside of Irrationality
The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic
I hate that it took all the fun out of some of my favorite irrational decisions. But I love that it unveils what it means to be human and that it can also be read as a guide to AI programming.
Your Brain at Work
Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long
It’s like the productivity junkie and the neuroscience fan in me and got together and decide to create a dream come true.
Business Model Generation
A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers
It asks all the important questions in defining a new business. Answer those well and that’s all the business plan you need.
Homo Evolutis
Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans, two of the world’s most eminent science authors,show in this very entertaining TED book how we directly and deliberately control our own evolution and that of many other species.
The Four Steps to the Epiphany
Successful Strategies for Products that Win
The best and most detailed guide I’ve read to effective venture validation. Mind-set to tools, this is a bullet proof approach to testing your hypothesis and making a product that sells.
Reworks
“Ignore This Book At Your Own Peril” – Seth Godin
Workaholics are no heros. This modern-day guide to life productivity, from the makers of 37Signals, tears apart the pillars of conventional corporate practices. Pure joy!
Getting Real
The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application
Is everything the sub-title says and more. Practicing what it preaches with every bite-size zero fluff applicable chapter.
Bargaining for Advantage
Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People
Simply the best on the subject. If you’re able to keep your ego on a tight leash, that is.
Evolve Your Brain
The Science of Changing Your Mind
Endless wisdom and applicability for Neuroplasticty fans. As highly recommended as possible for anyone willing to admit they lost it, and want to take back control of their control center.
The Brain That Changes Itself
Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
Amazing stories of the brain’s incredible ability to rewire and jaw dropping tales of miraculous cases of sensory-substitutions and post-stroke neural regeneration.
Emotions Revealed, Second Edition
Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life
Malcolm Gladwell was absolutely right when he said: “You’ll never look at other people in quite the same way again”. It’s the science behind ‘micro-expressions’ and the hit TV series Lie To Me.
Blue Ocean Strategy
How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
A classic business strategy read for any entrepreneur entering a dangerously competitive space, filled with inspring examples of differentiating value propositions.
Value-Based Fees
How to Charged and Get What You’re Worth
A solid guide on how to avoid the most common consulting pitfalls, specifically those relating to compensation. Some great insights on proposals writing too.
A Whole New Mind
Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age
The six fundamental human abilities essential for success in the ‘conceptual age’. Read this and you’ll never hire the same again.
Drive
The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Read this and you’ll never build incentive models the same again.
In the Line of Fire
How to Handle Tough Questions…When It Counts
The art and science of answering questions you wish you weren’t asked and shifting a toxic discussion to your advantage. Saved me more than once.
Brave New World
“The first questions to be asked and answered in every contingency of life being: How will this thought or action contribute to, or interfere with, the achievements, by me and the greatest possible number of other individuals, of man’s Final End?”, is why I like this one.
Linchpin
Are You Indispensable?
Inspiring thoughts about differentiation and a practical guide to making a living doing what you most enjoy.
Made to Stick
Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Note to self: must find book summery before launch of next venture.
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition
The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
New York Times review was dead on! Predictably Irrational is indeed a far more revolutionary book than its unthreatening manner lets on.
Practicing the Power of Now
Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from The Power of Now
A very convincing case for mindfulness and a never-too-aften reminder of the gift in the present.
slide:ology
The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
The most detailed presentation cook-book out there, for crafting slides that drive points home, and don’t drive your audience to suicidal thoughts.
The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated
Escape 9-5, work from Anywhere and Join the New Rich
You’ll be surprised what can be outsourced easily, to free your hands and time for the things you must do in-house. Taken with a grain of salt, this is a fun and provocative intro to outsourcing.
The Dip
A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit
This book is the cure for blindness to the signs that while your venture may not be dead, yet, it’s going no-where. Reading this earlier would have saved me 6 months of “full gaz in neural”.
movies, TV series and shows, everything videos
Waking Life
by Richard Linklater
Blows my mind every time. Overwhelmingly brilliant and thought provoking.
brands
Duarte
Al Gor’s truth wouldn’t be half as inconvenient without these guys. If you have to tell it in slides, they do it best.
TAI Group
Simply the best at public speaking coaching. They get what makes for effective communication and don’t shy away from unorthodox measures to kick you out of your comfort zone and unveil the performer in you.
TED
This once secret gathering, evolved over 25 years, from conference to the largest online archive of bite-size remarkable talks, to a rapidly growing global movement of evangelists of Ideas Worth Spreading.
37Signals
A text book example of bootstrapping success. These guys stay loyal to their values with every new product and celebrate what they preach in every feature.
Netflix
What I want, when I want it, with no ads, for a reasonable price and streamed. Add better variety make it live and social and that’s all I want my TV to do.
Dr. Hauschka Skin Care
A rare cosmetics company that’s powered by compassion, rather than driven by greed. Cruelty free, chemical free and I’m worth it. Plus, unlike other all-natural, my husband likes how I smell when I wear it.
MailChimp
It’s exquisite how the people behind MailChimp show their unique character in every aspect of the user experience. I don’t always get the quirky jokes but I love it that they add it anyway.
The Domino Project
Pledges to publish books that offer exceptionally high quality ideas, created with total disregard for what bookstores and middlemen want, packaged with urgency in mind and delivered tightly.
Larabar
The only bar with ingredients list that sound like a shopping list to the fresh fruit market rather than a test in chemistry. Simple, pure, delicious.
Amazon
Because I don’t need to do price comparison any more, they made shipping a no-barrier with Prime, and because subscriptions are 15% off and more importantly they make sure a busy mommy is never stuck without baby food and diapers.
Singularity University
“How will you improve the lives of a billion people?” – probably the only forum that starts every day with this question and supports game-changes in answering it.
X-Prize
Drives breakthroughs around the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in R&D worth far more than the prize itself. This to me is Behavioral Economics at it’s best.