Here are 49 books that Extra Life fans have personally recommended if you like
Extra Life.
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Everyone uses technology, but few stop to think about where these technologies come from and what this trajectory means to humanity. During my professional career, I have dedicated myself to public service focused on security and defense as a U.S. Army officer, senior government civilian, and in think tanks, industry, and academia. My journey has taken me to over 60 countries where I have witnessed humankind's best and worst. The difference is often in how our technologies are used—to build cities, feed populations, and develop life-saving vaccines or to oppress peoples or as tools of war.
I had never thought much about what technology was and where it came from before reading this book. This book opened my eyes and made me understand the history of humanity and the history of technology are one and the same.
The book vividly describes the theory of technology’s origin and evolution. In doing so, the author reminds us that technology creates our world, which in turn creates our wealth, our economy, and our way of being.
“More than anything else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being,” says W. Brian Arthur. Yet despite technology’s irrefutable importance in our daily lives, until now its major questions have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur answers these questions and more, setting forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology.
The Nature of Technology is an elegant and powerful theory of technology’s origins…
The Smart Mission brings together NASA’s most important lessons on how people, knowledge, and systems shape complex projects.
Drawing on decades of experience at NASA—including my time as the agency’s first Chief Knowledge Officer—this book explains why mission success depends less on process and more on culture, learning, and collaboration.…
Everyone uses technology, but few stop to think about where these technologies come from and what this trajectory means to humanity. During my professional career, I have dedicated myself to public service focused on security and defense as a U.S. Army officer, senior government civilian, and in think tanks, industry, and academia. My journey has taken me to over 60 countries where I have witnessed humankind's best and worst. The difference is often in how our technologies are used—to build cities, feed populations, and develop life-saving vaccines or to oppress peoples or as tools of war.
Extraordinary book that has tapped into the most important hardware of the AI revolution and will be foundational in the emerging Age of Augmented Humanity. This book provides the detail that allows the reader to understand the history and current state of global semiconductor design and the manufacturing community.
It also lays out in exquisite detail the importance of the technology in the future and how it needs to be protected. In no small measure, the book was instrumental in highlighting the importance of semiconductors in todays’ digital world.
***Winner of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year award***
'Pulse quickening. A nonfiction thriller - equal parts The China Syndrome and Mission Impossible' New York Times
An epic account of the decades-long battle to control the world's most critical resource-microchip technology
Power in the modern world - military, economic, geopolitical - is built on a foundation of computer chips. America has maintained its lead as a superpower because it has dominated advances in computer chips and all the technology that chips have enabled. (Virtually everything runs on chips: cars, phones, the stock market, even the electric grid.) Now…
I’ve been fascinated by the power of technology to make the world a better place since I read Robert A. Heinlein’s Rocket Ship Galileo at the age of six. I was born in 1969, the year of the first crewed moon landing and the first connection on ARPANET, the network that started the internet. Space, technology, and the future have always been central to my career as a writer. I began investigating DARPA while writing a book on commercial spaceflight, was amazed by the breadth of technologies the agency helped launch and made it the topic of my next book.
Somewhere between wide-eyed optimism about the potential of human ingenuity and skepticism about technology’s ability to save us from ourselves lies Annie Jacobsen’s book. It covers DARPA’s founding and the first fifty years before reporting on projects active at the time of the book’s writing (it came out in 2015).
The result is a balanced mix of history, analysis, and you-are-there reporting in a highly readable narrative. The book contains the best explanation I’ve seen of DARPA’s controversial, post-911 Total Information Awareness program and raises important questions about when, how, and why governments should conduct research and development in secret.
No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history of the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present.
This is the book on DARPA - a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.
The Smart Mission brings together NASA’s most important lessons on how people, knowledge, and systems shape complex projects.
Drawing on decades of experience at NASA—including my time as the agency’s first Chief Knowledge Officer—this book explains why mission success depends less on process and more on culture, learning, and collaboration.…
Everyone uses technology, but few stop to think about where these technologies come from and what this trajectory means to humanity. During my professional career, I have dedicated myself to public service focused on security and defense as a U.S. Army officer, senior government civilian, and in think tanks, industry, and academia. My journey has taken me to over 60 countries where I have witnessed humankind's best and worst. The difference is often in how our technologies are used—to build cities, feed populations, and develop life-saving vaccines or to oppress peoples or as tools of war.
This book speaks to the opportunities and challenges for the participants in today’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) competition. It highlights the barriers to entry in this tech war—high costs, advanced hardware such as semiconductors and high-performance computing, and perhaps most importantly, access to human capital.
This book provides a roadmap for thinking about the current AI tech competition. It also highlights what is at stake if the United States does not lead in this space. The idea of AI development led by an authoritarian regime or a nation that does not place humanity first could arrive at solutions that are unfriendly and perhaps even hostile to humanity.
We like to think that we are in control of the future of "artificial" intelligence. The reality, though, is that we--the everyday people whose data powers AI--aren't actually in control of anything. When, for example, we speak with Alexa, we contribute that data to a system we can't see and have no input into--one largely free from regulation or oversight. The big nine corporations--Amazon, Google, Facebook, Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, Microsoft, IBM and Apple--are the new gods of AI and are short-changing our futures to reap immediate financial gain.
In this book, Amy Webb reveals the pervasive, invisible ways in which…
What makes some people, communities and countries happier and healthier than others? I’m a personal growth author, speaker, and therapist with an A.B. in Biology from Harvard, M.D. from UCSD, and M.Phil. from Cambridge. For the past 12 years of calling myself a Happiness Engineer, I’ve traveled to 30+ countries and read 150 books a year to answer that question. The result: “The 5 Pillars of Human Thriving”, the irreducible requirements for health and happiness, namely Robust Relationships, Meaningful Work, Sound Sleep, Mental Fitness, and Physical Fitness. These books, drawn from a pool of thousands, represent the best works I’ve found for each Pillar. May you find them transformational!
I initially avoided this book, skeptical both of its author and its daunting thickness. Glad I got over my skepticism, because it is an absolute game-changer for long-term health. It’s by far the most comprehensive, scientific, and sensible book I’ve read on “healthspan”—how to live healthier longer.
As a fellow M.D., I resonate with Attia’s quantitative, science-based rigor. His “Medicine 3.0” approach cuts through all the fads and nonsense: to be healthy till 90, we’ll want to forestall heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and metabolic dysfunction (e.g., diabetes). And do it via early detection and prevention starting today.
His generosity in sharing his own struggles made the book even more approachable. I’ve already incorporated many of his spot-on recommendations into my life.
For all its successes, mainstream medicine has failed to make much progress against the diseases of ageing that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and type 2 diabetes. Too often, it intervenes with treatments too late, prolonging lifespan at the expense of quality of life. Dr Peter Attia, the world's top longevity expert, believes we must replace this outdated framework with a personalised, proactive strategy for longevity.
This isn't 'biohacking,' it's science: a well-founded strategic approach to extending lifespan while improving our physical, cognitive and emotional health, making each decade better…
I’m Tara Button, founder of Buy Me Once, a company dedicated to finding the longest-lasting, most sustainable products in every category. My obsession with durability started when I was given a cast iron frying pan that outlasted every cheap alternative I’d ever owned. Since then, I’ve been on a mission to help people escape the buy-throw-buy cycle and embrace mindful consumption. My book shares how to resist disposable culture and choose well-made, meaningful things that truly last. This list brings together the books that have shaped my philosophy and inspired my work in sustainable living.
Wallman’s concept of ‘stuffocation’—being suffocated by too much stuff—deeply resonated with me. This book explores how consumer culture has left us overwhelmed, unhappy, and craving more meaningful experiences.
It offers an insightful, research-backed case for prioritizing experiences over material possessions. If you’re looking for a compelling argument to help you shift away from material excess and towards a richer life, this book will help you get there.
Stuffocation is a movement manifesto for “experiential” living, a call to arms to stop accumulating stuff and start accumulating experiences, and a road map for a new way forward with the potential to transform our lives.
Reject materialism. Embrace experientialism. Live more with less.
Stuffocationis one of the most pressing problems of the twenty-first century. We have more stuff than we could ever need, and it isn’t making us happier. It’s bad for the planet. It’s cluttering up our homes. It’s making us stressed—and it might even be killing us.
A rising number of us are already turning our backs…
I am the former Enterprise Editor of The Sunday Times and author of eight books about entrepreneurship, personal development and smart thinking. I first became interested in the idea of people taking control of their own destiny when I was a foreign correspondent and met many people who had decided to turn their back on the traditional 9-to-5 and seek a life of adventure and excitement instead, even though they didn’t have much money. I discovered people earning a living by making wine and running cafes and realised that we all have the ability to take control of our own destiny if we really want to.
I love this book partly because my publisher decided to take on one of my other books because he missed out on this one. If you compare the original cover of my book to Tim’s book you will see they have a very similar palm tree vibe!
But more than that, this book shows clearly how technology has made it possible to totally rethink the way we work and live, and free us up to have much greater control over both–and that’s very exciting.
A new, updated and expanded edition of this New York Times bestseller on how to reconstruct your life so it's not all about work
Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan - there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.
This step-by step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:
I’m reading books that are centered on science and behavior and health. After decades of research on the interplay between genes and the environment, I had a strong foothold on the genetic part, but I needed to understand the environment part to make any sense of it all. This research has broadened my horizons exponentially. We know that genes are immutable, for the most part… but parts of the genome are mutable—and we can shape our lifestyle/behavior to improve our health.
The stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying, and healthier lives. In fact, research reveals that the strength of our social connections can predict our health throughout the life span. Insights in this book are drawn from the personal lives of participants in the Harvard Study of Adult Development, as they were followed for each year of their adult lives, and supported by research data from this and similar studies.
Relationships of all kinds—friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers—contribute to a happier, healthier life. According to The Good Life, it’s never too late to strengthen the relationships you have—and never too late to build new ones.
'This captivating, powerful book shows us scientifically and practically how to define, create and most importantly live the good life' Jay Shetty
What is the key to a good life?
It is a question that preoccupies us all and one that the longest and most successful study of happiness ever conducted strives to answer. In this groundbreaking book, directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, bring together over 80 years of research to reveal the true components of a happy, fulfilled life.
I’m deeply passionate about us all being happy and healthy at work. I’ve been this way ever since I was old enough to realise just how much time we would spend there! I grew up in a time filled with images of stressed out, chain-smoking professionals, where the word ‘executive’ was synonymous with ‘burnout’. I knew there had to be a better way. I’ve worked in mental health for twenty years and corporate wellbeing for over a decade and I love to combine those experiences to help people have their best day at work every day.
This may seem a ‘wild card’ recommendation as this book has nothing to do with work.
However, Beth Kempton uses the Japanese concept of ‘Wabi Sabi’ to help us come to terms with being imperfectly perfect. Life may not always go to plan and we can face disappointments. Perhaps your project fell through, or your pitch failed, or you realised you are on the wrong path or on a pathway that no longer serves you.
This book offers very gentle wisdom to overcome and accept these challenges in life, and therefore in work, providing the reader with comfort and knowledge to embrace their perfectly imperfect life.
The definitive guide that teaches you how to use the Japanese concept of wabi sabi to reshape every area of your life and find happiness right where you are.
Fed up with the exhausting challenges of our fast-paced, consumption-driven existence, millions of people around the world are turning to timeless cultural traditions to find true meaning. In this transformative handbook, Beth Kempton introduces you to wabi sabi (”wah-bi sah-bi”), a captivating concept from Japanese aesthetics that offers a whole new way of looking at the world.
With roots in Zen and the Way of Tea, wabi sabi teaches you to…
On reaching my late 40’s, the topic of ageing and dying raised its head with a clarion call. This wake up call led me to draw upon my 25 years’ experience as a scientist to research why we age, how we die, and what (if anything) we can do about it all. I also looked beyond the physical into the social and emotional aspects. These book recommendations reflect my journey to understanding that a life well lived is about doing things you like with people you love, rather than swallowing vitamin pills.
This book completely changed the way I thought about aging and death. I listened to this book whilst walking along the Cornish Coastal Path in January. I was in the process of writing my own book about aging and had been focusing on biology but not humanity.
The warmth of the writing, the emotional journey that Gawande undergoes, the brilliant advice, and the wisdom from an expert all combine to make a wonderful life (and death) changing book.
'GAWANDE'S MOST POWERFUL, AND MOVING, BOOK' MALCOLM GLADWELL
'BEING MORTAL IS NOT ONLY WISE AND DEEPLY MOVING; IT IS AN ESSENTIAL AND INSIGHTFUL BOOK FOR OUR TIMES' OLIVER SACKS
For most of human history, death was a common, ever-present possibility. It didn't matter whether you were five or fifty - every day was a roll of the dice. But now, as medical advances push the boundaries of survival further each year, we have become increasingly detached from the reality of being mortal. So here is a book about the modern experience of mortality - about what it's…
