Author Sebastian Junger (of A Perfect Storm) lays out his personal experiences with PTSD and his efforts to overcome it but while in so doing learning a great deal about war, psychology, belonging to a group and society, and political viewpoints in our country. This book was an eye opening example of the usefulness of evolutionary psychology, transitions theory, and applied journalism to a VERY important challenge our country faces with 2 lengthy and on-going wars and many of our war fighters returning home with inadequate supports and systems to get them transitioned back into society in a healthy way. This book was informative for me and some of my own personal experiences and I have shared it as a resource for fire fighters, police officers, as well as leaders in organizations seeking to understand how individuals operate and don’t operate in a larger organization, especially during and after largescale disruptions and adversity like wars and natural disasters. I recommend this book for leaders and managers, change agents, and people interested in evolutionary psychology and how to cultivate and maintain a strong, tightly knit group or organization for an improved sense of belonging.
The Fortunes of Africa: A 5000-Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavor
This book is a lengthy, deep, and rich in detail. It spans 5000 years of history on this continent and explores the true breadth and interrelationships of the varied regions of Africa. I found it quite eye opening to get a deep sense of the wealth, diversity, challenges, peoples, currents of history, oppression, and growth in this ancient place. I read this in preparation for my trip to Malawi to do business training and development and found it quite helpful to understand the history at a regional as well as cultural level. This continent and it’s peoples have so much opportunity to collectively grow out of its very low level of economic development but I believe for others to help (non-African’s) they much first have a deep understanding of the varied and sordid history of the continent as an essential first step in approaching helping others there. Without the sense of history and context people will be lost in all the currents of influence and historical precedent that are still apparent there. I recommend this book to anyone interested in African history but also colonialism and the globalisation of the world during the 1600-1900’s periods in particular.
At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity
This book is considered the go to reference for Stuart Kauffmans exploration of complexity and systems theory as it applies to the origins of life and evolutionary development. He lays the foundation of a future of cross disciplinary exploration of network science and complexity theory to understand, analysis, design, and develop the myriad of complex systems we humans take part in. It’s a dense read, I’ll admit, with mathematics and diagrams to back up the framework he is putting together. I read this as a part of deeper research into complexity science and network theory and I’ve found it a valuable exploration and reference guide for applying the science to complex problems in aerospace and in my thinking about other challenges facing other industries. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the science of complexity but also evolutionary development and design principles and for engineers looking to broaden their understanding if this unfolding field.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman lays out a significant body of research, application, and experimentation concerning cognitive biases, neurology, and evolutionary psychology. While the book is lengthy and can be dry at times, it is organized around specific biases, how they were identified, what the latest research suggests, and how one can work to overcome there ill effects in work and life. I love the “System 1” and “System 2” model, while he openly states is VERY imperfect, it does help the reader to differentiate the conscious, aware, slow and “thinking” brain from the unconscious, fast, and unaware parts of our brains. This book and associated research is cited extensively in many other books I’ve read across marketing, psychology, business, management, network theory, innovation, and much more. This is a centerpiece of cognitive theory and principles and I recommend this book widely to friends and colleagues.
On Grand Strategy
Gaddis lays out a comprehensive examination of Strategy that has been employed by the human race. While it’s described through historical examinations of military and political history, the lessons learned are applicable to any circumstance where you’re employing human effort and systems to increasingly large quantities of time, space, and scale (the books description). I found the “time, space, and scale” description THE most clear and concise description of what Strategies purpose and fundamental benefit is for business, politics, or even your personal life. I recommend this book for all leadership, strategy consultants, military professionals, and even Industrial & Systems Engineers to get a clear grasp of a systems tactical/tangible characteristics as well as it’s higher order structures. This book is in my Top 5 strategy books and a must read.