7 Essential Technology Books For Starting A Business

Seyi Fabode, a writer, explains which books can help you understand the trends that you are following and what models and trends you will be facing.

We have heard some information about Mark Zuckerberg’s desire to run for President of the United States. Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest men in the world. Every college student dreams of becoming a tech billionaire. Entrepreneurship is becoming Hollywoodized.

It’s also easier to start your own business. You can launch a website using any of the available templates, host it on Amazon Web Services, or GoDaddy, and then find a problem you believe everyone has, and attempt to solve it.

Sometimes, people try to raise money before they fully develop their idea. It seems like everything is easy. People believe starting a business can be very simple, but the truth is quite different.

Although it is the easiest time to start a business in the world, building one is more difficult than ever.

While it is true that failure is better than success in business, I share the elephant and blind story. A group of men with blindness touch an elephant to discover its characteristics. Each person plays a different role and thinks that the elephant is another animal.

You can’t see the whole. Many entrepreneurs attempt to solve a problem by solving only a part of it.

We recommend some books that will help founders understand technology. These seven books will give you the essential knowledge you need to be able to open your own business and understand the trends and which part of the business cycle are you following.

1. Kevin Kelly, “What Technology Wants”

Kevin Kelly could be compared to Neil Postman (below), since he is one the most vocal advocates for the benefits of technological advances in our lives.

Your new book, “The Inevitable”, will allow you to share more information about technological changes that are happening around us. Already we are seeing the power of the HOLOS = Technology / 7 billion souls.

2. “Thinking In Systems: A Primer”, by Donella Meadow

This book discusses the importance of understanding systems in their entirety. Before any changes can be made, it is essential to have a holistic understanding of all the models and systems that make up these systems. He says that “to change something, it is necessary to fully understand it.”

3. “The Second Machine Age”, Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee

This is not a new phenomenon. This book examines the effects of combinatorial and exponential technological changes on human work.

This book is highly recommended for its message (we must reverse the increasing inequality of income due to technology) as well as for its study of the systems affected by technological advances in the field, such AI and machine-learning.

4. Tim Wu, “The Main Switch: Rise and Fall of Communication Empires”,

Tim Wu is a great friend of mine. He discusses in this book the effects of technology on television, film and the Internet.

This book takes you on a journey through these industries as well as a description the cycles technology experiences as it becomes more commonplace. All useful technology is innovating until it is standard. To learn more about the evolution of the Internet, read this book and his book “The Attention Merchants”.

5. Alvin Toffler, “The shock of tomorrow”,

This book is still on my shelf. I’m currently reading it again.

“… But in nearly all media, we can see a decrease in dependence on mass audiences. The process of market segmentation is effective everywhere.

A second quote is also closely related to “The Second Age of Machines” above in the age of AI:

“There are limits to how much change humans can absorb. We can accelerate change without first determining those limits. This can lead to demands on the human population that they cannot bear.”

While some contexts may not be current, as the book was originally written in 1970, many of the general observations – the accelerating pace and information overload – are still relevant today. It is possible that there are even more.

6. Neil Postman, “Technopolis: Technology’s Surrender to Culture”,

This book is actually my wife’s copy from college. He had to read the book as part of his Stanford degree and then share his thoughts on the points made by Neil Postman. This book is the best-scoring one I have ever read (it’s so studious). However, it’s a wonderful read for a book that focuses heavily on the inequalities technology brings to society.

7. “La vida de Pi”, by Yann Martel

It may seem odd until you see the reasons. I had a conversation about this article with Jeremy Adelman and he explained it more eloquently that I could. (hint: It helps us understand our biases and we all know that these biases seep in to the products we create)

“No books force you to face who you really are and how you perceive situations and trends. Each of us has our own lenses and filters that we use to see the world. This is how we interpret our future and present. If you want to spot trends in technology and create products that are both trendy but also able to solve human problems, it is important to have a critical understanding. These lenses and prejudices are what Pi uses to illustrate the importance of our lives.