Contents
In 1979, Sergey Brin moved from the USSR to the United States, in the 1990s he became a co-founder of Google, and in 2021 he took 9th place in the list of the richest people according to Forbes. What books inspired him, read in the selection of Trends
Previously, we have already made a similar selection – favorite books of another Google co-founder Larry Page. There are notable overlaps between the two lists, as well as equally interesting differences.
Richard F. Feynman “Of course you’re joking, Mr. Feynman!”
In 1985, the autobiography of Nobel laureate Richard Phillips Feynman became a bestseller in the United States. The creator of quantum electrodynamics and the developer of the atomic bomb never fit into the usual ideas about a scientist. In the book, the life of an American physicist is presented in all its diversity – from an addiction to practical jokes and jokes, picking locks and playing the banjo to an exchange of ideas with Einstein.
In an interview with the American Academy of Achievement, Brin explained how he was hooked by the author’s personality: “I really liked Feynman’s autobiographical stories. He seemed to have a wonderful life. In addition to the huge contribution to his field, he had a wide range of interests. In one of the passages, he explained how he really wanted to be like Leonardo da Vinci, to be an artist and a scientist at the same time. It inspires me a lot. I think that’s what a fulfilling life is.”
Neil Stevenson Avalanche
In 1992, the sci-fi novel Avalanche was a breakthrough for Stevenson and made the writer one of the leaders of the cyberpunk genre. Time included the book in the top 100 best English-language books during the magazine’s existence.
The action of the novel takes place in America of the future, whose inhabitants are torn between two worlds – reality and cyberspace. The protagonist Hiro, a freelance hacker and pizza delivery man, dives into the mystery of a new computer virus called Avalanche. In the virtual space, the virus infects computers, but in the real world it turns out to be a dangerous drug that kills programmers. The novel interweaves Sumerian mythology, sociological theories, and compelling descriptions of future technologies. Among the prophetic inventions in the book is what Stevenson called the metaverse, a virtual environment that Facebook and Microsoft are currently working on.
Stevenson’s cult classic is popular in Silicon Valley. Brin believes that history was ten years ahead of its time: “The book seems to predict what is about to happen. Very interesting”.
Mortimer Adler How to Read Books. Great Reading Guide”
It happens that you read a book, and after a week you can’t retell it to your friends, because you don’t remember the nuances. Or you return to the beginning of the text several times, because you do not immediately delve into what is written. According to Mortimer Adler, an American philosopher and educator, this happens because we do not know how to correctly perceive literary works: **** “… I am stating a fact that concerns everyone, since to a large extent it was the school that made us like that – people who cannot read and enjoy it.”
Adler’s book is considered a classic work on the psychology of reading. The author tells how to get away from the superficial perception of the text, keep the information in memory longer and understand all the shades of meaning inherent in words and phrases. This will help patience, discipline and the ability to think critically. Adler focuses on the study of classical masterpieces, such as Homer’s Iliad or Shakespeare’s plays, practical and scientific writings.
Adler offers three ways of perceiving text:
Mo Gavdat “Formula of Happiness”
From the first day on the job, Mo was successful: he started his career at IBM, then moved to Microsoft, and subsequently became the commercial director of Google X. But the more he earned, the more unhappy he became. Gavdat was constantly in a hurry to meetings, was nervous, criticized colleagues and demanded high results even from his children. By 2001, this lifestyle led him to depression, and then the entrepreneur set himself a new task – to become happy.
In the tradition of engineering education, Gavdat disassembled the problem into its smallest components and subjected each of them to a rigorous analysis, applying the skills of logic and solving mathematical problems. By 2010, he had developed an equation and model for achieving happiness.
Until 2014, the technique was used only among family and friends. Mo was inspired to write the book by the sudden death of his son Ali, who made a significant contribution to the development of the happiness formula. The entrepreneur himself considers this tragedy the final test of his model, without which he would not have coped with the loss. Brin describes the book as a powerful personal story, woven into a deep analysis of happiness and how to achieve it.