Author: Thomas L. Friedman

The World is Flat examines the flattening, or connecting, of the world over the last few years since 9-11 and the dot com bust. Thomas L. Friedman, author of the New York Times “Foreign Affairs” column, explains how the world is now flat, or connected, through the disappearance of trade and political barriers and the increase in technological breakthroughs.

According to Friedman, Globalizations 3.0 (his term) is led by freelancers and entrepreneurs who effectively compete in the new climate created by these changes. A good resource for anyone wanting to learn about new economy globalization and how to take advantage of a flat world.

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Author: Lawrence Lessig

Ok, this is two “non-business” books in a row. I apologize to those in need of the newest airport best-seller, we’ll be getting right on it next week. This one is good though. Free Culture is all about how the American tradition of mixing and remixing culture and ideas, building on those around us and that came before us, is being quashed by dramatic changes in the scope and intent of content protection, especially copyright.

Understanding the ideas regarding the nature of creativity in this book is sure to help any entrepreneur, especially any Internet entrepreneur. There is even a section on how the ideas in the book affect entrepreneurial innovation (called Constraining Innovators). The author is a Stanford Law professor that specializes in cyber-law and has amazing insight into how law affects the way society is shaped. You can get the book from Amazon or you can get a free E-book from Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture Web site.

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Author: Malcolm Gladwell

I really liked this book. It is all about rapid cognition or thin-slicing. Malcolm Gladwell goes into how we as people have the innate and effective ability to rapidly take in what is around us and make sense of it, understand it, and take action on it without consciously thinking about it.

This book isn’t about intuition though, what Gladwell calls thin-slicing is a skill that can be examined, understood, learned and our innate ability to use it can even grow through continual effort.

As with Gladwell’s other books, he has all sorts of pertinent stories and examples that drive his points home. Not directly a business book, but has all sorts of business applications.

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