{"id":809791,"date":"2024-12-03T22:13:31","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T04:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/03\/the-4-books-bill-gates-read-this-year-to-make-sense-of-the-world\/"},"modified":"2024-12-03T22:13:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T04:13:31","slug":"the-4-books-bill-gates-read-this-year-to-make-sense-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/03\/the-4-books-bill-gates-read-this-year-to-make-sense-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The 4 books Bill Gates read this year to make ‘sense of the world’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Bill<\/picture><\/div>\n

Bill Gates<\/figcaption>
Photo: Gates Ventures<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bill Gates shared a list of the four books he \u201cenjoyed\u201d reading this year, including ones focused on artificial intelligence and love.<\/p>\n

Although Gates said it was not intentional, the four books shared the common theme of \u201cmaking sense of the world around you,\u201d the billionaire said on his personal blog, Gates Notes<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t surprised to see it emerge: It\u2019s natural to try and wrap your head around things during times of rapid change, like we\u2019re living through now,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the four books, Gates listed Federer <\/em>by Doris Henkel about tennis player Roger Federer as a \u201cbonus\u201d for tennis fans.<\/p>\n

See the four books Gates is recommending from this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An Unfinished Love Story<\/em> by Doris Kearns Goodwin<\/figcaption>
Screenshot: Simon & Schuster<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gates called himself a \u201chuge fan\u201d of books by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and said he was in the midst of writing his first autobiography when he read hers. The author\u2019s memoir focuses on her life with her late husband, Richard \u201cDick\u201d Goodwin, who was a policy expert and speechwriter in the 1960s for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. <\/p>\n

Before her husband\u2019s death in 2018, the couple started a project going through 300 boxes of collected papers and memorabilia that led to debates between Goodwin and her husband over the accomplishments of both presidents, Gates noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one hand, reading a book as thoughtful and well written as An Unfinished Love Story<\/em><\/a><\/span> <\/em>inspired me to push myself even more as an author,\u201d Gates said. \u201cOn the other hand, Goodwin sets a daunting example. Trying to write as well as she does is like trying to singalong with Lady Gaga.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Anxious Generation<\/em> by Jonathan Haidt<\/figcaption>
Screenshot: Penguin Random House<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jonathan Haidt\u2019s book made Gates wonder if he would\u2019ve developed his habit of turning \u201cidle time into deep thinking and learning\u201d growing up with today\u2019s technology, he said.<\/p>\n

The Anxious Generation<\/em><\/a><\/span>, which focuses on how modern day childhood and adolescence have been shaped by smart phones and social media, \u201cis scary but convincing,\u201d Gates said. He noted that his eldest daughter, Jennifer Gates, a pediatrician, recommended the book to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes The Anxious Generation<\/em> different from other books on similar topics is Haidt\u2019s insight that we\u2019re actually facing two distinct crises: digital under-parenting (giving kids unlimited and unsupervised access to devices and social media) and real-world over-parenting (protecting kids from every possible harm in the real world),\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Engineering in Plain Sight<\/em> by Grady Hillhouse<\/figcaption>
Screenshot: Penguin Random House<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Before becoming a software engineer, Gates said he \u201cthought like a civil engineer,\u201d looking around his neighborhood as a child and wondering how things such as power lines and water pipes worked.<\/p>\n

Gates said he wishes he\u2019d had Engineering in Plain Sight<\/em><\/a><\/span> <\/em>by civil engineer-turned-YouTuber Grady Hillhouse to explain those structures to him. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the coolest aspects of Engineering in Plain Sight<\/em> is how it ties everyday observations to larger engineering principles,\u201d Gates said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"book<\/picture><\/div>\n

The Coming Wave<\/em> by Mustafa Suleyman<\/figcaption>
Screenshot: Penguin Random House<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gates said he recommends Microsoft (MSFT<\/a><\/span>) AI chief executive Mustafa Suleyman\u2019s book \u201cmore than any other on AI\u201d when people, including heads of state and business leaders, ask him about AI.<\/p>\n

Suleyman\u2019s roles at DeepMind (GOOGL<\/a><\/span>) (which was acquired by Google), Inflection, and Microsoft don\u2019t only make the book \u201cspecial,\u201d Gates said, \u201cit\u2019s his deep understanding of scientific history and how technological revolutions unfold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been an optimist, and reading The Coming Wave<\/em><\/a><\/span> <\/em>hasn\u2019t changed that,\u201d Gates said. \u201cI firmly believe that advances in AI and biotech could help make breakthrough treatments for deadly diseases, innovative solutions for climate change, and high-quality education for everyone a reality. But true optimism isn\u2019t about blind faith. It\u2019s about seeing both the upsides and the risks, then working to shape the outcomes for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Britney Nguyen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Gates Photo: Gates Ventures Bill Gates shared a list of the four books he \u201cenjoyed\u201d reading this year, including ones focused on artificial intelligence and love. Although Gates said it was not intentional, the four books shared the common theme of \u201cmaking sense of the world around you,\u201d the billionaire said on his personal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":809792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[349,367],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-809791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"category-gates"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}