Episode · Big Technology Podcast · 2022-08-24
Alex Kantrowitz & Kevin Kelly: books mentioned on Big Technology Podcast
Kevin Kelly's Life Lessons — With Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine and a longtime tech writer who's covered technology for decades. Kelly joins Big Technology Podcast for a fun episode, unpacking a series of lists of advice that he’s written.
Kevin Kelly discussed Pronoia by Edwina Simmons, Humankind by Rutger Bregman, Die with Zero by Bill Perkins, Die Broke by Stephen Pollan and others, Time off by Stephen Shapiro, and Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and others.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Pronoia
Discussed“There's a book written by a guy who popularized the term, it's not my term, called pro-noia, which is kind of about, you know, it's sort of woo-woo, new age-ish, but he kind of touts out all the ways in which the universe is trying to help you.”
Where to get it
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Humankind
Humankind by Rutger Bregman is a popular science book that argues humans are naturally cooperative and altruistic rather than inherently selfish.
Discussed“One of my favorite recent books that I read is called Humankind, and forgive me, I don't remember the author. But it was one of those books that really kind of changed my mind in many ways. And the basic argument of the book is that, by nature, humans are helpful and not selfish, which is contrary to what we're”
Where to get it
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Die with Zero
Die with Zero by Bill Perkins is a counterintuitive personal finance guide that argues against accumulating wealth for a distant future, encouraging people instead to optimize their life experiences and distribute inheritances to their children while they are still alive.
Discussed“There are a couple of books where I kind of made, uh, was given those realizations. One was called, um, die broke. The other one was called, um, die with zero, I think. And they both really changed my mind, um, about this, this, this aspect of, um, trying to be generous while you're alive.”
Where to get it
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Die Broke
Discussed“There are a couple of books where I kind of made, uh, was given those realizations. One was called, um, die broke. The other one was called, um, die with zero, I think. And they both really changed my mind, um, about this, this, this aspect of, um, trying to be generous while you're alive.”
Where to get it
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Time off
Discussed“So rest ethic is a term I picked up from a book called, I think, time off that was making some of these same arguments. There's another, I don't know if it's included in this batch or not, but there's another piece, which is that taking a break is not a sign of weakness.”
Where to get it
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Peopleware
Discussed“There was, there was exactly, but there was a great book. I think it was called people where I think, but they were making, they were making this case in terms of teams in the corporate world that in fact, someone done the study of the most effective teams.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“I just signed a book deal because I have another bunch. And so we're going to do a book with Penguin. Amazing. Breaking news. It is. I just signed it yesterday. It'll be coming out in next spring. And it's called, right now, it's called Excellent Advice for Living.”