Giving 2.0 – Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

Giving 2.0 is the ultimate resource for anyone navigating the seemingly infinite ways one can give. The future of philanthropy is far more than just writing a check, and Giving 2.0 shows how individuals of every age and income level can harness the power of technology, collaboration, innovation, advocacy, and social entrepreneurship to take their giving to the next level and beyond.

The Rational Optimist – Matt Ridley

I almost didn’t put this book on our current reading list‚ but we keep talking about it here at our office, so I know for sure it is at least naggingly thought provoking. It is a supportive case for capitalism; how specialization and markets have moved mankind forward. It’s more interesting than it sounds. The “optimism” stems from the reason to believe that humans will continually be interested in making money by inventing solutions that will positively affect health, energy, food, transportation, etc. So be positive about the future of the planet.

The Talent Code – Daniel Coyle

This book gave me some practical ideas on how to develop a high-level of talent here at my company. There are parts of the book that are not 100% great, but the simplicity of the author’s recap of the huge body of research into human performance and simple practical tips to implement programs make it a worth the time. Do you want ‘greatness’ on your team? Here is a place to start.

The Collaborative Habit – Twyla Tharp

There are many more things we can accomplish together than we can do alone. But collaboration is fraught with personal and practical snags. Like her 2003 book, The Creative Habit, here is a 2009 book on practical collaboration that I return to frequently for its useful tips and techniques.

The Creative Habit – Twyla Tharp

How do you spend a lifetime growing and evolving creatively? Choreographer Twyla Tharp has ideas how to make creative growth a habitual part of your life. This book was written in 2003 but I find myself returning to it over and over again and implementing the practical tips like the questionnaire titled Your Creative Autobiography, 33 questions that are useful and easy to apply.

The Pomodoro Technique Illustrated – Staffan Noteberg

This fun book is the best guide for the Pomodoro Technique. What is the Pomodoro Technique? It is a very simple time-boxed productivity program. Originally developed by Francesco Cirillo, a software developer in Rome, Italy, (here is a free pdf of his original book ) he threw the idea on the internet in an open source way and it has spread like a hot new religion among techie and corporate types. The Pomodoro Technique has been a life changer to many people, and company changer to many businesses. That is not hyperbole. Personal and corporate productivity can change easily and dramatically.

The Future of Management – Gary Hamel

The world and the business world are changing at unprecedented speed. If you continue to manage the same way you were a year ago, you are becoming more and more irrelevant to your employees and customers. This book has some nuggets of genius about evolving the way we manage. It can be dry, and it is not a ‘how to’, but, it is a good tool to spur your thinking about new ways to make your company great.

Wolfram Alpha

What happens when you jam a bunch of math geeks into a small room for an extended period of time? This website. Their stated goal: ‘We aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything.’ So check it out. It works as a calculator, a calendar or an encyclopedia. Enter anything you can think of in the search box and see what it does! And the scary thing, the more people use it, the smarter it gets.

The Future of Reputation

People are writing about you and your company and your products, and probably your family. Blogs, social media, tweets and who-knows-what are proliferating on the Internet with user-generated content. This is a very important topic, and this book will give you insights on how to manage risk and turn this dangerous situation into a positive outcome.

TEDTalks

TED is a small non-profit devoted to ‘Ideas worth spreading’. TED talks are 5-19 minute deliveries by a stunning array of guest speakers from the Technology, Education, or Design communities (thus the name ‘TED’). You could spend days learning, being challenged and/or being infuriated by these filmed talks given at the annual TED Conference. An incredibly valuable resource of thought-provoking ideas.

Brain Rules

A fast and engaging read filled with practical tips on how to maximize the use of your brain. Ever wish you were smarter and more productive? Read this book and you will immediately be both.

What the Dog Saw: and Other Adventures

Some of Malcolm Gladwell’s stuff (Outliers, 2008 and The Tipping Point, 2000) is pure genius and some of it is crap, but it is always interesting. This is a fast, sometimes infuriating and thought-provoking read.

Visible Measures

Here are a series of viral campaign measurement tools and a blog from AdAge that provides great real-time information about what is hot in marketing and communications. Very interesting and informative. Lots of ideas here. I also like a feature called, ‘The 100 Million Views Club’, which keeps track of the ‘most-watched viral videos of all time’ list.