For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (50th Anniversary Edition) – Ayn Rand This is Ayn Rand’s challenge to the prevalent philosophical doctrines of our time and the “atmosphere of guilt, of panic, of despair, of boredom, and of all-pervasive evasion” that they create. One of the most controversial figures on the intellectual scene, Ayn Rand was the proponent of a moral philosophy–and ethic of rational self-interest–that stands in sharp opposition to the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice.

Marvin Minksy’s – The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind Minsky argues that emotions are different ways to think that our mind uses to increase our intelligence. He challenges the distinction between emotions and other kinds of thinking. His main argument is that emotions are “ways to think” for different “problem types” that exist in the world. The brain has rule-based mechanism (selectors) that turns on emotions to deal with various problems.

Sonoluminescence: A Galaxy of Nanostars Created in a Beaker (NASA) The Idea Factory – Learning to Think at MIT, Pepper White : “This is a personal story of the educational process at one of the world’s great technological universities. Pepper White entered MIT in 1981 and received his master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1984. His account of his experiences, written in diary form, offers insight into graduate school life in general—including the loneliness and even desperation that can result from the intense pressure to succeed—and the purposes of engineering education in particular.

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley : Re-reading but not from any paradise-engineering paranoia perspective. Simply insightful, focused and a great style. First covered this in high school decades ago. It’s ironic and deviously cool that this was actually course mandated at my high school ! (Have yet to finish Island.) Pugetopolis – Knute Berger : The Seattle analog of Palahniuk’s A Walk in Portland, Oregon. Useful because apparently Seattle is one of America’s most difficult cities to grok.

Reading Robert Cialdini’s “Influence” – Plenty of social psychology observations that should be common sense if you’re paying attention to the world around you. Read it on recommendation thanks to Scott Adams. Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” – Yea yea, it’s nothing new but got through it last year and realize why his books morph fairly quickly into Hollywood scripts. Not much else to say about it. “The True Believer” by Eric Hoffer – Although written half a century ago it’s incredibly contemporary in many ways.