DAN LYNCH
founder and chair of CyberCash Inc. In the 1980s he led the Arpanet team's transition from NCP protocols to the current TCP/IP.
Quiet Desperation: The Truth About Successful Men, by Jan Halper. "This book is about being lonely at the top. When you get to be a big shot in a company, no one will talk to you or tell you the truth. That's the isolation. I liked this title because it lets you know that you're not alone. We're all a little fucked up."
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, by Peter L. Bernstein. "Unlike what you might think, Bernstein isn't writing about religion. He's talking about mathematics and the history of the theory of statistics. In London 200 years ago you couldn't get life insurance. People just didn't understand the concepts of statistics and proportions. Once they figured it out, they developed a life insurance plan. Having the ability to make accurate predictions lets you take risks."
Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, by Neale Donald Walsch. "I don't like formal religion, but I'm not an atheist, so reading this book was a comfortable way for me to think about the really hard questions in life. The author is talking to God in straightforward English - they even swear at each other. I think that if God exists, he/she is normal like that."
DANYEL SMITH
editor in chief of Vibe magazine, where she has the last word in the multiethnic worlds of music and culture. Her work also appears in Time and The New Yorker.
The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, by Julia Cameron. "I really resisted reading this, but so many people told me to. It's a total self-help-guide-to-your-inner-child book. It can be enlightening - if you're in the mood for it. I often go back to the chapters about maintaining a sense of abundance and integrity. Believe me, after being at work for so many hours I need to remember what it's like to have personal abundance."
Love Warps the Mind a Little, by John Dufresne. "The plot follows a guy who leaves his wife after 15 years to write. But the novel is really about making the decision to do something that everyone tells you not to. Maybe it turns out to be a bad decision, but you still know it was the right thing for you to do at that time. I can identify with that."
Monk, by Laurent De Wilde. "For me, this book was like reading a trade. I have always felt I know pop music like the back of my hand, but jazz is the backdrop, and I have to stay up on it. It isn't a straight biography of Thelonious Monk; the author includes jazz history, plus social and cultural criticism. He also does a great job evoking the 1940s scene."
DON TAPSCOTT chair of the Alliance for Converging Technologies and author of six books, most recently Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation.
A Fly in a Pail of Milk: The Herb Carnegie Story, by Herb Carnegie and Robert Payne. "Herb Carnegie could have been the Jackie Robinson of hockey, but the racial attitude of the NHL in the 1950s prevented him from playing. I'm interested in hockey, but I'm also interested in how we create a just society in the networked world. This book shows how long it takes for institutions to change."
The Ethical Imperative: Why Moral Leadership Is Good Business, by John Dalla Costa. "Ethical behavior is increasingly becoming a requirement for success. Business leaders often say, 'My only responsibility is to my shareholders and my customers.' That attitude isn't going to cut it, as we have much broader responsibilities in the marketplace. Dalla Costa is very optimistic."
The Learning Highway: Smart Students and the Net, by Trevor Owen, Ron Owston, and Cheryl Dickie. "This is the first time teenagers have been in authority on a central innovation. I see school boards hiring students to train the teachers on how to use the technology. This book is a great resource for helping students effectively use new media."
STREET CRED
Make Money Fast Talk Is (Finally) Cheap
Song of the Spheres: Code of the Cosmos
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