Our team’s top books from 2018
We are a curious bunch at Bright Pixel! From fiction to aspirational books, you can find here some of our favorite reads from last year!
Factfulness: Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world by Hans Rosling (Benny, MVP & Incubation)
This book can really scare you, but in a good way. It brings an optimistic but realistic view of today’s world. It swamps the day to day tabloid press and makes us see that we are much better than what we think. The best part? It is centered around real and widely available data. It’s such a mind-blower that Bill Gates set a campaign to give away free copies of it to all college graduates in the US. Totally worth it
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture (Fred, MVP & Incubation)
If you’re slightly into gaming you know ID software (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake). These guys (the two Johns) continuously pushed the video game industry and are the success story that every startup dreams about.
This book covers the story of Carmack & Romero, two geniuses that complemented each other and the book has it all: Team conflicts, disruptive business models, technology versus design and a love for Ferraris that I wish I could understand better.
Change Agent by Daniel Suarez (João Beltrão, Project Manager)
Daniel Suarez delivers an exhilarating sci-fi thriller exploring a potential future where CRISPR genetic editing allows the human species to control evolution itself.
In 2045 Kenneth Durand leads Interpol’s most effective team against genetic crime, hunting down black market labs that perform “vanity edits” on human embryos for a price. These illegal procedures augment embryos in ways that are rapidly accelerating human evolution — preying on human-trafficking victims to experiment and advance their technology.
Kill Process by William Hertling
By day, Angie, a twenty-year veteran of the tech industry, is a data analyst at Tomo, the world’s largest social networking company; by night, she exploits her database access to profile domestic abusers and kills the worst of them. She can’t change her own traumatic past, but she can save other women.
High output management by Andrew S.Grove (João Sil, CTO)
With this book, you’ll learn highly effective techniques that have been put into practice for decades by managers of all kinds and degrees of seniority, who later came to give their appraisal to Andy for the learnings they got from this great book. Written in a period when it was not so common talking about startups, it turns out that this might be one of the most valuable tools an entrepreneur may get in order to help him go through the hurdles of setting up and running his company, managing the team and focusing on the relevant outputs. It is a good insight into what your role as a manager is and what you can do to exponentiate your results and the results where you may have influence.
Immortality by Milan Kundera (Alex Santos, CIO)
I re-read this book last year. It was a book I read ages ago and helped me think at the time (a lot) about our presence in this world. The book starts with a simple gesture — a carefree, backward-looking wave of a young woman performed by an old woman. With that, the author starts to dwell on the relative uniqueness and longevity of gestures and people. People, he thinks, are the vessels of gestures. The book is a great mix of fiction and reality. About life and how wonderfully relative everything is in the grand scheme of things. It made me think of my role in the world and what immortality is really all about.
Do you have recommendations for the coming year? We would love to know what books are on your bed table in the comments below!
