My master studies in Innovation Management have been a constant adventure. Making friends with so many people from so many different countries, both teachers and students, has been very valuable for me personally. The huge number of ideas, thoughts and believes bouncing back and forth between us have widened my horizons, increased my empathy and sharpened my mind. Recently we have been in a course called Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Context with entrepreneur Bala Kamallakharan. He is the founder of Startup Iceland and a pioneer in entrepreneurship and innovation in Iceland.
The reading material for the course was a bit daunting with about fifteen books on the recommended reading list additional to the required readings. I fortunately started early and managed to read all the suggested literature. I want to talk here about my favourites, from those I had not read before on this exciting reading list.
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is an interesting book about the outsized impact outlier events can have. He competently goes over science, philosophy, psychology, business with regards to black swan events and how we should tackle them. Taleb, like many popular authors, is a bit prone to hyperbole but still this book was enlightening and informative. Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder also by Taleb was also a fun and informative read. The main premise is that “Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty.” He calls this antifragility. As a scientist there is no doubt in mind this is a useful definition that has applications in many fields.
To summarize I had a great time reading the books on the recommended reading list for this course. Honourable mentions go to Good to Great by Jim Collins and Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh.