The 5 Books Bill Gates Found Helpful and galvanizing
This year, Bill Gates’ recommended reading list covers a good range of subjects. He shares his anticipated annual selections on Gates Notes, where he remarks that the act of exploring diverse material helped him get through a difficult year. “In tough times—and there’s little question that 2020 qualifies as tough times—those folks who like to read address all types of various books,” he writes.
The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder explains that he wanted to interact with both heavy topics like systemic racism and lighter ones, for a change of pace. And he hopes that his recommendations will help readers end 2020 “on an honest note.” Here, the five books that Gates found helpful and galvanizing this year.
1.The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration within the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander
When it had been published in 2010, The New Jim Crow, by civil rights lawyer and legal scholar Michelle Alexander, illuminated the realities of the U.S. mass incarceration crisis and sparked national debate over the country’s prison system. within the years that followed, the book inspired organizing around racial justice issues and spent nearly 250 weeks on the ny Times bestseller list. “Like many White race , I’ve committed to reading more about and deepening my understanding of systemic racism,” Gates writes. one among the books he turned to was Alexander’s, which he found to be particularly “eye-opening” in its examination of the connection between communities of color and therefore the American criminal justice system.
2.Range: Why Generalists Triumph during a Specialized World, David Epstein
What’s the key to becoming the simplest of the best? David Epstein looks at people that are considered to be the foremost successful in their fields, from scientists to athletes to musicians, to ascertain what they need in common. And he observes a pattern: in most cases, they each have a spread of interests, instead of just one—in other words, they’re generalists. Epstein’s framework for understanding why certain people excel resonated with Gates; in reflecting on his own career, he believes he fits this generalist model. Gates also writes that he can attribute a number of Microsoft’s achievements to its leaders thinking broadly about talent. “We hired not just brilliant coders but people that had real breadth within their field and across domains,” he adds ow:
3.The Splendid and therefore the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, Erik Larson
This masterful account of Winston Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister of the uk reads like an engrossing thriller. Erik Larson, author of The Devil within the White City, details the brutalities of war within the midst of Hitler’s bombing campaign, which killed over 40,000 people within the U.K. Larson constructs an urgent portrait of Churchill’s leadership amid worsening crises. Gates writes: “Larson gives the reader a ‘you are there’ sense of the intensity of Churchill’s work together with his team on life-and-death challenges—and solving them at a pace I found to be mind-blowing.”
4.The Spy and therefore the Traitor: the best Espionage Story of the conflict , Ben Macintyre
Another true story of political crisis, at the middle of Ben Macintyre’s absorbing tale of espionage and betrayal is Oleg Gordievsky, the KGB officer who worked as a spy for British during the conflict . Macintyre follows Gordievsky’s journey and captures his eventual shake Moscow in pages that feel like a suspenseful spy novel. “Macintrye, who features a keen eye for detail, does an excellent job narrating the escape scene and every one the ways it almost fails,” Gates writes, teasing, “I won’t divulge any of these details here.”
5.Breath From Salt: A Deadly genetic disorder , a replacement Era in Science, and therefore the Patients and Families Who Changed Medicine Forever, Bijal P. Trivedi
In 1999, Gates’ colleague at Microsoft asked if he would be willing to assist financially support the event of latest drugs for CF . it had been a private plea—both of the colleague’s children had the disease. along side his wife Melinda Gates, the philanthropist ended up providing $20 million to fund a replacement scientific research , which led to groundbreaking add creating CF medicines. For this reason, Bijal P. Trivedi’s book was one Gates couldn’t put down. Breath From Salt may be a deep dive into CF , moving from the origins of the deadly disease to the discoveries about it made by the people that refused to offer abreast of finding a cure. Gates found the book inspiring: “It’s a testament to what’s possible when passionate leaders help to harness the unique strengths of philanthropy, nonprofits, government, academia, biotechs, big pharma and medical providers.”