The Operator by
“A crazy American epic” –Newsweek Complex, contentious, and blessed with the perfect-pitch ability to find the next big talent, David Geffen has shaped American popular culture and transformed the way Hollywood does business. His dazzling career has included the roles of power agent, record-industry mogul, Broadway producer, and billionaire Hollywood studio founder–but from the beginning his accomplishments have been shadowed by the ruthlessness with which he has pursued fame, money, and power. With The Operator, Tom King–who interviewed Geffen for the book and had unimpeded access to his circle of intimates–presents a mesmerizing chronicle of Geffen’s meteoric rise from the mailroom at William Morris, as well as a captivating tour of thirty sizzling years of Hollywood history. Drawing on the recollections of celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Yoko Ono, Warren Beatty, Courtney Love, Paul Simon, and even Cher (whom Geffen nearly married), The Operator transports readers to a world that is as ruthless as it is dazzling, revealing a great American story about success and the bargains made for it. “A detailed portrait of Hollywood’s premier manipulator…The Operator is as much a composite portrait of the ‘New Hollywood’ as it is of the fifty-seven-year-old partner in DreamWorks SKG.” –San Francisco Chronicle “Illuminating...[The Operator] shows how raging ambition and chutzpah are as much valued as talent–or more so–in determining success.” –Philadelphia Inquirer
The Other Side of Innovation by
Companies can't survive without innovating. But most put far more emphasis on generating Big Ideas than on executing them--turning ideas into actual breakthrough products, services, and process improvements. That's because "ideating" is energizing and glamorous. By contrast, execution seems like humdrum, behind-the-scenes dirty work. But without execution, Big Ideas go nowhere. In The Other Side of Innovation, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble reveal how to execute an innovation initiative--whether a simple project or a grand, gutsy gamble.. Drawing on examples from innovators as diverse as Allstate, BMW, Timberland, and Nucor, the authors explain how to: * Build the Right Team: Determine who'll be on the team, where they'll come from, how they'll be organized, how much time they'll devote to the project, and how they'll navigate the delicate and conflict-rich partnership between innovation and ongoing operations. * Manage a Disciplined Experiment: Decide how team members can quickly test their assumptions , translate results into new knowledge, and measure progress. Give innovation leaders a tough but fair performance evaluation. Practical and provocative, this new book takes you step-by-step through the innovation execution process--so your Big Ideas deliver their full promise.
Gulp by
The irresistible, ever-curious, and always best-selling Mary Roach returns with a new adventure to the invisible realm we carry around inside. "America's funniest science writer" (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn't the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks of--or has the courage to ask. We go on location to a pet-food taste-test lab, a fecal transplant, and into a live stomach to observe the fate of a meal. With Roach at our side, we travel the world, meeting murderers and mad scientists, Eskimos and exorcists (who have occasionally administered holy water rectally), rabbis and terrorists--who, it turns out, for practical reasons do not conceal bombs in their digestive tracts. Like all of Roach's books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies.
Designing Your Life by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * At last, a book that shows you how to build--design--a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage * "Life has questions. They have answers." --The New York Times Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home--at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.
Nexus : a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI by 
Sails & winds : a cultural history of Valencia by 
Berklee Contemporary Music Theory Book with Online Audio and PDF by
(Berklee Guide). Learn to read, understand, and create music. This book will help musicians of all levels communicate more effectively, learn new music faster, and memorize repertoire more easily. This approach has been developed and refined at Berklee College of Music since the 1950s and has been used by many thousands of musicians worldwide currently as a textbook in Berklee's Aspire: Five-Week Music Performance Intensive program. Included here are the essential concepts and terminology of music, with hands-on exercises and many listening recommendations so that you can hear how these principles are used in real music to help you "see what you hear, and hear what you see." Online audio tracks illustrate every concept. Whether you are interested in rock, country, jazz, hip-hop, or any other contemporary musical style, this book will help you become a more capable, more expressive musician. You will learn to: * Understand and use the basics of music theory, such as how to read notes, rhythms, key and time signatures, and other essentials. * Play and use scales, such as major, minor, pentatonic, blues, and modes. * Construct chords, such as triads and seventh chords. * Identify and use the most common chord progressions, cadences, song forms, and arrangement techniques. * Develop more advanced chord voicings, as well as use modal harmony.
To Be an Artist: Musicians, Visual Artists, Writers, and Dancers Speak by Camille Colatosti with a Foreword by Pat Pattison by
(Berklee Guide). Learn what it means to be an artist today. Musicians, writers, visual artists, and creators from a variety of other disciplines discuss their lives and work how they perceive their craft and their world, and the role of art in society. These are citizen artists, who discuss their responsibility to communicate their vision, to help us better understand our world and live together in community. Through learning about these artistic journeys, you will see how creativity comes not only from the intense focus on craft, but alsofrom developing a wider vision and understanding of the world in which we live. Foreword by Pat Pattison! Explore how artists find inspiration, particularly onthe themes of: knowing yourself, examining interrelationships among the arts, sustaining culture and community, bringing joy, and telling the truth. Interviews include: William Banfield (Composer), Michael Bearden (Composer), Terri Lyne Carrington (Drummer), Henry Diltz (Photographer), Bruce George (Poet), Janis Ian (Singer-Songwriter), Lori Landay (Multimedia Artist), Doug Stanton (Author), Victor Wooten (Bassist), and more.
The Ai-Savvy Leader by
Leaders, don't let AI get the best of you. The AI transformation is underway, but where are the leaders who will ensure their companies implement AI successfully and responsibly? Up until now, leaders have largely ceded their role in the AI transformation, pushing strategy formulation out to tech teams and leaving investment decisions to groups that don't have a full view of the organization or its goals. Just when responsible leadership is more crucial than ever, leaders are abdicating their role in understanding and executing in the new world of human-machine collaboration. A generation of AI transformation failures awaits if leaders don't connect their use of AI to their strategies. This book helps leaders take control of the wildly rapid deployment of AI across organizations. Clearly and concisely, it focuses on the nine actions leaders need to take in order to successfully preside over the transition to a more AI-centric future that will lead to growth for all--companies and workers--and avoid the kinds of mistakes that author David De Cremer has seen many early adopters make. What may surprise you is that the nine actions De Cremer focuses on are based on skills that are second nature to successful leaders: creating a vision, communicating well, and executing a strategy. But here he shows you how to apply these skills in the context of AI. This is not a book about mastering machine learning or any of the latest developments in AI technology itself. Rather, it's a clarion call for leaders to take their rightful place at the front of the AI revolution and lead their organizations successfully into the new world.
Brave new words : how AI will revolutionize education (and why that's a good thing) by 
Co-intelligence : living and working with AI by 
Feel-good productivity : how to do more of what matters of you by 
