The sun rises at 6 PM: Our book journey for April, 2022

Staying relevant is a competitive advantage in a fast changing world. In the month of April, we made sure to keep ourselves abreast with the latest technologies and concepts, to drive growth among ourselves. We shared experiences and opinions. We tried to evolve and focus. Read on for latest insights from our book club collection in the month of April!

Ethereum: Blockchains, Digital Assets, Smart Contracts, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations

Henning Diedrich

Ethereum exposes readers to the world of blockchains, digital currencies, and smart contracts, with a focus on the Ethereum cryptocurrency. It gives a fascinating description of where this technology is going, outlining how blockchains may transform society and economy as well as why Ethereum is now the most sophisticated blockchain accessible.

• A blockchain is a powerful, secure and decentralized database that can track and manage transactions.
• Ethereum offers an alternative to Bitcoin blockchain and currency.

Meditations on First Philosophy

René Descartes

René Descartes' 1641 Meditations on First Philosophy is regarded as a seminal work in the history of Western thinking. It is not just one of the most significant philosophical writings ever written, but it is also a masterclass in the art of critical thinking, particularly in the areas of reasoning and interpretation. Descartes' goal was to provide a new framework for the quest of knowledge, whether philosophical, scientific, or religious. To that purpose, he devised a methodical programme that reinterpreted previous conceptions of knowledge and reasoned out a systematic method of acquiring, validating, and expanding on existing human knowledge.

• Our thinking proves that we exist. The book gave us the famous phrase. “I think, therefore I am”
• Our inherent ideas and abilities give us proof of god’s existence

Thinking Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Thinking Fast and Slow tells you how two systems in your brain are continuously competing for control of your behavior and actions, and how this leads to mistakes in memory, judgement, and decision-making, as well as what you can do about it. It teaches you when you can and cannot trust your instincts, as well as how to act more deliberately and make better judgments. If you're prone to making impulsive judgments that you later regret, or if you're too tired to spend a lot of time analyzing the pros and disadvantages of various options. 

• Your behavior is determined by 2 systems in your mind – one conscious and the other automatic.
• Your brain is lazy and thus keeps you from using the full power of your intelligence.

Digital Gold: The Untold Story of Bitcoin

Nathaniel Popper

Digital Gold chronicles the narrative of the many diverse individuals that contributed to the emergence of the world's most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, including cyberpunks, geeks, investors, gamblers, and visionaries. The book provides an outline of Bitcoin's development, demonstrating how its value grew from nothing to more than $1 billion and explaining the narrative of its tumultuous early days.

• Bitcoin embodies a new way of communally handling money.
• Argentina’s financial crises have shown how bitcoin can transfer power from governments to the poor.

Blockchain: The Next Everything 

Stephen P. Williams

Stephen P. Williams answers these questions in this deft, fascinating, and easy-to-digest introduction to one of the most important innovations of recent times, revealing how cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are just one example of dozens of transformative applications made possible by this relatively new technology. He distils the complexities of blockchain into digestible anecdotes, metaphors, and straightforward descriptions for non-tech readers, and explains all of its most important aspects: why this so-called digital ledger is unhackable and unchangeable; how its distributed nature may transfer power from central entities like banks, governments, and corporations to ordinary citizens around the world; and what its widespread use will mean for society as a whole.

• In theory and practice, distributed applications built on the blockchain have radical potential.
• Distributed technology signals a paradigm shift away from centralized hierarchies.

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs

Camilla Townsend

Fifth Sun presents the Aztecs' history in all its complexities for the first time, based only on documents recorded by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend depicts these indigenous Mexicans in a more approachable and humanized light, rather than as the exotic, bloodthirsty creatures of European clichés. In this piece, the conquest is neither a catastrophic event nor an origin narrative that brings Mexicans into being. The Mexica people had a history of their own long before the arrival of the Europeans, and they did not simply accept Spanish culture and colonialism. Instead, they shifted their political allegiances, adjusted to new commitments, embraced new technology, and persevered.

• After all, we've been taught that it was Europeans who wielded the pens. However, the Roman alphabet piqued the Native Americans' interest, and they employed it to create lengthy histories in their native language of Nahuatl, unbeknownst to the visitors. 
• Until recently, these materials were unknown, barely partially translated, and infrequently used by academics.

Against Creativity

Oli Mould

Oli Mould insists that we reconsider the tale we've been given in this fantastic, counter-intuitive assault. He demonstrates, behind the novelty, that innovation is a barely concealed form of neoliberal plunder. It is a government that values individual achievement over social welfare. It will not recognize anything job, location, or person that is not lucrative. And it has an affect on everything around us: where we work, how we are managed, and how we use our free time.

• After the financial crisis, creativity became the keyword for austerity.
• True creativity values radically different ways of being.

Pricing for Profit

Peter Hill

The most important factor influencing the profitability of any organization, profit centre, or department is price. When you are under pressure to perform or develop, your natural tendency may be to discount, undercut your competition, cut expenses, and promote via pricing. However, they are frequently the last things you should do. Pricing for Profit is the most realistic pricing guide on the market. This book demonstrates how, by getting your pricing structures right, you can make a significant impact to your bottom line by using a strong, profit-focused framework built while executing real projects for real organizations. It provides business owners, managers, and leaders with straightforward, attainable pricing methods that will result in long-term business success.

• Proper presentation of prices is essential to winning customers.
• Setting prices means understanding your products’ value to customers.

Pitch Like Hollywood

Peter Desberg and Jeffrey Davis

From unexpected elevator pitches to full-board presentations, sales and marketing professionals deal with a "audience" on a regular basis, often with life-or-death implications. As the one delivering the performance, you must be confident in your script and your ability to keep your cool throughout. There are no better teachers than clinical psychologist Peter Desberg and writer/producer Jeffrey Davis to help you master both your pitch and your performance. They understand the pitch process since they have expertise and perspectives from both the film business and the corporate sector.

• Employing persuasiveness techniques are key to effective pitch presentations.
• Pitching can be unpredictable, learn to embrace the unknown.

The Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital

Andrew Roman

The Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital is jam-packed with useful guidance on raising angel and venture capital investment, building value in a firm, and exiting a company with maximum value for both founders and investors. It walks entrepreneurs through every stage of the entrepreneurial process, from acquiring early financing to understanding when to change strategies. 

• The growth in technology start-ups has inspired a boom in venture capital investing.
• A cash infusion from an angel investor is often the first step to then securing more from a VC.

The Reputation Economy

Michael Fertik and David C.Thompson

The Reputation Economy discusses how to improve your digital footprint and develop a stellar online reputation. The writers highlight upcoming trends and explain how you might increase your chances of professional and financial success. Your reputation determines how others perceive you and what they are willing to do for you. It is becoming more powerful than ever in the upcoming Reputation Economy. Because, owing to fast improvements in digital technology, anybody may now access vast amounts of information about you, your purchasing habits, money, professional and personal networks, and even your physical location at any moment.

• Everything you do online is recorded, stored and analyzed to determine your reputation score.
• Digital reputation will have a huge impact on your career.

Remarkable

David Kronfeld

Remarkable is a game plan for professionals who want to grow in their jobs. But it's not about getting ahead in any way. It makes a persuasive case, covering subjects such as self-promotion, blunders, and conflicts, that the best way to move forward is to remain humble and work with and for your team. To improve your career, you must attract the attention of the appropriate individuals for the right reasons. However, this does not imply that you should aim to wow everyone with your intellect. Your best strategy is to remain modest and trust that your peers will recognize your abilities. You'll be well on your way to success if you're honest about your own faults, forgiving of others', and diplomatic about conflicts.

• Effective managers punish lies, not mistake.
• Your career can survives mistakes but not a loss of credibility.

Stoned

Aja Raden

Without a doubt, Stoned is a novel that may be consumed or enjoyed on a variety of levels. Aja Raden's work is loaded with sociology, psychology, gemology, geology, economics, anthropology, politics, gossip, and history, to mention a few methods. Stoned is a compilation of historical stories portrayed through the prism of human desire – and the lengths we will go to in order to satisfy that want. These blinks transport you throughout the world and through time, demonstrating how our need for beautiful goods can move mountains and how quickly our valuation of those objects may change.

• Marketing has a huge influence on how we perceive value.
• The value of something and our desire for it changes over time.

Discipline and Punish

Michele Foucault

Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish is a well-known work by the prominent French philosopher and sociologist. Foucault investigates the history of power, punishment, discipline, and surveillance from the French Ancient Régime to the present, viewing it as a mirror of a changing society. The central theme of the book is the working mechanism of control in modern society through punishment and discipline. Based on the origins of the jail process, this deep and profound discussion examines how power to change might be used as a kind of punishment. According to Foucault's view, punishment methods have shifted from direct destruction of body to controlling the soul's passage. At the same time, contemporary civilization, according to Foucault, is primarily a disciplined society. It has the ability to make people obey without really penalizing them. This has a lot of educational thoughts because of the philosophical insight in it.

• Criminality was increasingly viewed as an ill committed against society, while investigation sought the rationale behind it.
• Prisons were designed to deprive liberty and ready individuals for discipline in the industrial age.

The NFT handbook

Matt Fortnow and QuHarrison Terry

The NFT Handbook is a complete reference that explains how to manufacture, trade, and buy non-fungible tokens without requiring any technical knowledge. Discover what NFTs are, how they arose, and why they are valuable. We'll look at the many sorts and elements of NFTs, as well as the various NFT markets and their benefits and drawbacks. 

• Create Your Own NFTs- Step-by-step guidance on all parts of NFT production, such as what sorts of content to use, where to acquire content, adding creative design, writing the NFT's description, inserting optional unlocking content, and establishing an optional recurring royalty.
• Mint Your NFTs - You'll learn how to get your NFTs into the blockchain.

Modern Romance

Aziz Ansari and Erik Klinenberg

The internet and contemporary technologies have transformed how we interact, study, work, and live. They've even altered our perception of love. Modern Romance illustrates how our concept of "love" has evolved through time, and how you may use today's technology to your advantage in your search for it. 

• Marriage used to be about raising a family. Today it’s about finding true love.
• We now put more romantic pressure on our partners than people did in the past.

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations is a voyage into the thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman emperor. These blinks contain philosophical musings about the nature of death and justice, the nature of the world, and why things happen the way they do. Meditations may be the sole record of its sort ever created. It is the private thoughts of the world's most powerful man offering himself guidance on how to carry out the responsibilities and obligations of his positions. Marcus Aurelius, who was trained in Stoic philosophy, paused virtually every night to conduct a set of spiritual exercises meant to make him humble, patient, compassionate, giving, and powerful in the face of whatever he was dealing with.

• Logic is essential, emotions can kill our reasoning and cause us unnecessary harm.
• The only pain you can truly suffer is the pain you inflict upon yourself.

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