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Book on the beach
Apologies to those yearning for escapism, but it is hard to escape turmoil — in financial services, in the economy and in civilization — in this year’s reading list. That said, these weighty topics promise to stimulate the mind: How AI will disrupt employment; dystopian imaginings and real-life histories of societal shifts; the necessity of collaboration; bitcoin’s path from obscurity to relevance; the need for leaders to make sacrifices; and more. Recommendations are courtesy of American Banker readers, editorial staff and BankThink contributors.
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Homo-Deus-Brief-History-Tomorrow/dp/0062464310" target="_blank">Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow</a>

Author: Yuval Noah Harari

“In a follow-up to his critically acclaimed book ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,’ Yuval Harari takes a disturbing look at the future of humankind — which makes pondering banking’s future a walk around the block. He paints a grim picture of two populations: the super-rich and the ‘useless class’ — workers who serve no economic purpose since AI took over their jobs. And that fate may not be too far away. Harari thinks that in the next 10 to 20 years, 47% of U.S. jobs could be at risk. Cashiers, chefs, waiters, paralegals, truck and bus drivers — all gone. Personal bankers may go, too. So who’s going to provide a ‘guaranteed basic income’ for the masses who won’t be able to find work? Corporations. May not be a beach favorite, but it goes well with cocktails.”

— Kevin Tynan, senior vice president of marketing at Liberty Bank for Savings in Chicago

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Goes-Last-Novel/dp/1101912367" target="_blank">The Heart Goes Last</a>

Author: Margaret Atwood

"Atwood serves up a frighteningly realistic vision of a country laid bare by mass unemployment and the lack of a social welfare net to catch those who have fallen from grace. Life is rough for the chief protagonists, recently laid off from jobs in nursing homes and IT, but they are attracted to a startup's vision of a community that offers the promise of an easier and more comfortable life with guaranteed employment. They join its ranks even as they are warned against it, and soon learn that they have made a Faustian pact with an entrepreneurial devil under whose gaze their every move can be monitored and controlled. I work in the area of trade and communications surveillance in banking; this book is a richly imagined picture of how such tools, useful as they are, can be misused in a free society that is in decline."

— Andrew Waxman, risk and compliance consultant at IBM

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-We-Got-Now-Innovations/dp/1594633932" target="_blank">How We Got to Now — Six Innovations that Made the Modern World</a>

Author: Steven Johnson

“A must-read for innovators everywhere, especially inside the walls of financial institutions. Johnson tells us the story of historic innovations that we take for granted today (glass, sound, light, refrigeration, etc.). He outlines the common thread for paradigm earth-shakers, accidental discoveries, and monumental mistakes and failures, all of which led to the modern world full of technology that is ubiquitous and invisible to most of the human race. Plenty of lessons and applications for those of us attempting to reinvent banking.”

— Sam Maule, head of digital/fintech at NTT Data Americas

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Illusion-Never-Think-Alone/dp/039918435X" target="_blank">The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone</a>

Authors: Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach

“In banks, just like any large business entity, individual achievement often competes with the need for collaboration. Two eminent cognitive scientists argue convincingly that we never think alone; we all rely on a ‘hive mind’ in order to complete complex tasks. Airline pilots, for example, rely on designers of instruments, co-pilots and flight system designers in order to fill the gaps in their ‘understanding’ of flight. And while it’s always comforting to think that being smart is what counts, the authors point out that ‘the contributions we make as individuals depend more on our ability to work with others than on our individual mental horsepower.’ ”

— Todd Baker, consultant and a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Money-Got-Free-Bitcoin/dp/178074658X" target="_blank">How Money Got Free: Bitcoin and the Fight for the Future of Finance</a>

Author: Brian Patrick Eha

“How did an invention that a few years ago was taken seriously by practically nobody capture the attention of big banks and billionaires like Richard Branson? How large an effect on the global economy and the financial industry will bitcoin and blockchain technology ultimately have? Brian Patrick Eha has been covering bitcoin since 2012, when his editor at CNNMoney cautioned him “not to treat it as anything more than a curiosity, at best a passing fad.” For his book, 'How Money Got Free: Bitcoin and the Fight for the Future of Finance,' he draws on years of reporting and access to major figures to take readers inside the heads of pioneers who staked their livelihoods and reputations on the cryptocurrency. The result is an engaging look at the origins of bitcoin and what smart minds think it will ultimately end up being.”

— Penny Crosman, editor at large, American Banker

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0060589469" target="_blank">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</a>

Author: Robert Pirsig

“This cult classic exploring values is a master class in understanding the qualitative differences between, and the importance of balancing, inductive and deductive reasoning in problem-solving. Why does this matter for the banking industry? We can take inspiration from Pirsig's own cross-country motorcycle journey with his young son and friends as a way to think about how we tackle our own industry maintenance. From a purely technological view, it sheds insight on how we think about technology structure and process. From a creative, nonlinear approach, it can help us identify where intuition can play a critical role in identifying "Quality" in new business models, processes and customer journeys. And for those of us who have remarked that the schizophrenic nature of how the legacy system and model of banking bumps up against the challenge gauntlets fintech has thrown down, this book can provide some context about why, while we might feel we are all going a bit mad, sanity is relative, especially when creating a fundamentally new banking paradigm."

— Ghela Boskovich, founder of FemTechGlobal and head of fintech and regtech partnerships for Rainmaking, home of Startupbootcamp

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Leaders-Eat-Last-Together-Others/dp/1511321083" target="_blank">Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't</a>

Author: Simon Sinek

“It seems that in today's world many leaders are more interested in the perks of office and their own comforts than in those they lead. This book explains why the needs and comforts of those you lead should always come before the leader's. That is what makes great organizations.”

— Camden R. Fine, president and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of America

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Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, speaks during a Studio 1.0 interview on Bloomberg Television in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, July 23, 2014. Y Combinator provides investment services offering financial assistance, analysis and advice to startup companies. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Paul Graham

Paul Graham's essays

“From tribal idiocy (‘Keep your identity small’) to political correctness (‘What you can’t say’), Graham, a venture capitalist and computer scientist, offers keen insights on a variety of topics. ‘How to disagree’ should be required reading for every citizen before they post any comments on internet forums. These and other gems are available online, for free. If you like to take a Kindle to the beach, zap ‘em to your device using a Chrome add-on. Audiobook lovers can download this odd duck’s readings of the first two essays I mentioned (also free). Or just print them out at work and tell the boss it’s for professional development. Not a huge stretch.”

— Marc Hochstein, editor in chief, American Banker

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Among-Strange-Victims-Daniel-Salda%C3%B1a/dp/1566894301" target="_blank">Among Strange Victims</a>

Author: Daniel Saldaña París

“I just started París' book and am hooked. It gives a damning and hysterical look at the bored employee who’s too into himself. It will make you laugh (Exhibit A: ‘I went into the café and sat at the counter, next to a man who looked like part of the furniture’) as París reminds you again and again that your employees probably don’t care about your business goals in this very pleasurable read. It’s a fresh take on a universal challenge for corporations providing tedious jobs: Be good to your staff so they don’t waste their days feigning work, or alternatively, find a replacement who does more than appoint himself sham titles like ‘knowledge administrator.’ ”

— Mary Wisniewski, deputy editor of BankThink, fintech reporter for American Banker

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street/dp/1497644895" target="_blank">Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street</a>

Author: John Brooks

"John Brooks’ 12 essays prove that no matter how hard we think the problems we face today are, previous generations have been through the same, if not harder. In our fast-paced startup life cycle, we assume that reinventing the wheel always wins — however, these works show that there is an immense amount we can learn from booms and busts of early-20th-century corporate life."

— William Hockey, co-founder and chief technology officer of Plaid

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225" target="_blank">SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome</a>

Author: Mary Beard

“Financial executives looking for insights into today’s tumultuous banking and business world can do themselves a great favor by studying up on the genesis of the Roman Empire — how it morphed from a supposed royal period, with kings, to a republic, to a string of Emperors, and eventually to its winding down. I have no doubt that Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are familiar with how the Romans went from an insignificant little settlement on the Tiber to ruling most of the modern western world. Annexing swaths of a neighboring kingdom and putting in an administrative structure, which balances centralization with autonomy, is no different than Amazon buying Whole Foods. The Egyptian monarchy’s ability to curry favor with Rome in a very astute fashion is no different than fintech firms trying to cozy up to banking.”

— Loren Picard, financial services consultant and CEO of The 42nd Group, Inc., a real estate development firm

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jacket illustration: © Disney • Pixar

<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Overcoming-Unseen-Inspiration-ebook/dp/B00FUZQYBO" target="_blank">Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration</a>

Author: Ed Catmull

“Bankers can take a page from creative industries for approaching their work with a fresh perspective. The organizational principles outlined by Disney and Pixar Animation provide a practical framework for how I think about my role as a manager, and can be broadly applied to finance professionals across the board. The leadership advice in this book presents thoughtful approaches for building productive and creative teams, and how to sustain these qualities over major changes, failures, and growth within an organization.”

Kat Li, head of product at Digit

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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Poverty-Profit-American-City/dp/0553447432" target="_blank">Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City</a>

Author: Matthew Desmond

“Pulitzer Prize winner Matt Desmond is a storyteller who writes to be read. Readers are drawn into the lives of the families and the communities, and it’s sometimes hard to recall that they are all real. Stable communities and stable families go together. Desmond's challenge to us is to figure out how to make that stability happen.”

— Jeanne Hogarth, vice president at the Center for Financial Services Innovation

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