Events
December 7, 2023
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Good books are meant to inspire, educate and can even impact how you view the world.
Great books have the power to change your life and your business.
Digital Velocity San Francisco is just a month away and as our incredible customer speakers prepare sessions that will captivate the room, we sat down with them to discuss some of their favorite books. Our presenters have made some fantastic recommendations and we hope you enjoy these reads as much as we have. Below are their recommended books along with summary excerpts from each author.
BONUS: We’re excited to announce a new DVSF promotion, giving you an opportunity to select how you want to spend $50.
STEP 1: Register here by Friday, September 14 with discount code ‘50FOR50’ to save 50% on your registration.
STEP 2: Attend Digital Velocity San Francisco, October 9th – 10th at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco.
STEP 3: We’ll send you a note after the show with an invite to make your selection:
Top 15 Recommended Books by DVSF Speakers:
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True Inspiration, by Ed Catmull
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Sav Khetan, VP Technical Strategy, POSSIBLE
“From Ed Catmull, co-founder (with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter) of Pixar Animation Studios, comes an incisive book about creativity in business. Creativity is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation – into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture.”
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Adam Corey, CMO, Tealium
“By the end of an average day in the early twenty-first century, human beings searching the internet will amass eight trillion gigabytes of data. This staggering amount of information—unprecedented in history—can tell us a great deal about who we are—the fears, desires, and behaviors that drive us, and the conscious and unconscious decisions we make. Everybody Lies offers fascinating, surprising, and sometimes laugh-out-loud insights into everything from economics to ethics to sports to race to gender and more, all drawn from the world of big data.”
How to Win Friends & Influence People in the Digital Age, by Dale Carnegie
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Rohin Sharma, Assistant Vice President Product Management, Wells Fargo
“Dale Carnegie’s time-tested advice has carried millions upon millions of readers for more than seventy-five years up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. Now the first and best book of its kind has been rebooted to tame the complexities of modern times and will teach you how to communicate with diplomacy and tact, capitalize on a solid network, make people like you, project your message widely and clearly, be a more effective leader, increase your ability to get things done, and optimize the power of digital tools.”
How Will You Measure Your Life?, by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Sav Khetan, VP Technical Strategy, POSSIBLE
“Christensen’s How Will You Measure Your Life is a book of lucid observations and penetrating insights designed to help any reader—student or teacher, mid-career professional or retiree, parent or child—forge their own paths to fulfillment.”
Knowledge is Beautiful, by David McCandless
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Scott Sturcke, Director, Online Marketing, Epson America
“Knowledge is Beautiful is a fascinating spin through the world of visualized data, all of it bearing the hallmark of David McCandless’s boundary-breaking, signature style. The captivating follow-up to the bestseller The Visual Miscellaneum, Knowledge is Beautiful offers a deeper, more ranging look at the world and its history, with more connectivity between the pages, a greater exploration of causes and consequences, and a more inclusive global outlook.”
Leaders Eat Last, by Simon Sinek
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Robert Harris, Director, Market & Consumer Insights, Cambia Health Solutions
“In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to fighting, fragmentation and failure. Why? Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a “Circle of Safety” that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside. Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories that range from the military to big business, from government to investment banking.”
Leadership and Self-Deception, by the Arbinger Institute
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Jared Geurts, Senior Director, Analytics, Utah Jazz
“This introduction to the self-deception problem and solution will give people new leverage in their professional and personal lives—leverage to see themselves and others differently and therefore leverage to solve what has resisted solution and to improve what can yet be improved. In organizations as varied as commercial ventures, neighborhoods, and families, what is needed most is people not just with influence but with influence for good.”
Mindset, by Carol Dweck
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Robert Harris, Director, Market & Consumer Insights, Cambia Health Solutions
“Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success—a simple idea that makes all the difference. Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports.”
Principles, by Ray Dalio
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Nick Huang, Senior Web Analyst, Epson America
“Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that helped him create unique results in life and business—and which any person or organization can adopt to better achieve their goals.”
Resonate, by Nancy Duarte
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Dave Lucas, Data Scientist and Head of Analytics, Fracture
“Some presentations touch hearts and change minds, but if you’ve ever sat through a snooze-worthy presentation, you probably realize that there’s art to this type of communication. In Resonate you’ll learn how to leverage techniques normally reserved for cinema and literature to transform any presentation into an engaging journey. You will discover how to understand your audience, create persuasive content, and elicit a groundswell response.”
The 80/20 Manager, by Richard Koch
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Dave Lucas, Data Scientist and Head of Analytics, Fracture
“The 80/20 Manager offers managers 10 ways that they can enjoy becoming great managers. Here are the book’s closing words: The secret of being an 80/20 Manager is to realize sky-high aspirations through intelligence and acute observation instead of through toil and trouble. Like angels, we can soar and lift humanity while scarcely flapping our wings. But unless we care deeply about specific results, and unless our ambition is boundless, we will never even take off.”
The Art of Data Science, by Roger Peng and Elizabeth Matsui
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Dave Lucas, Data Scientist and Head of Analytics, Fracture
“This book describes the process of analyzing data. The authors have extensive experience both managing data analysts and conducting their own data analyses, and this book is a distillation of their experience in a format that is applicable to both practitioners and managers in data science.”
The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Scott Sturcke, Director, Online Marketing, Epson America
“Management books usually deal with managing other people. The subject of this book is managing oneself for effectiveness. That one can truly manage other people is by no means adequately proven. But one can always manage oneself. Indeed, executives who do not manage themselves for effectiveness cannot possibly expect to manage their associates and subordinates. Management is largely by example. Executives who do not know how to make themselves effective in their own job and work set the wrong example.”
The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, by Scott Galloway
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Sav Khetan, VP Technical Strategy, POSSIBLE
“For all that’s been written about the four over the last two decades, no one has captured their power and staggering success as insightfully as Scott Galloway. Instead of buying the myths these companies broadcast, Galloway asks fundamental questions. How did the four infiltrate our lives so completely that they’re almost impossible to avoid (or boycott)? Why does the stock market forgive them for sins that would destroy other firms? And as they race to become the world’s first trillion-dollar company, can anyone challenge them?”
Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World, by Timothy Ferriss
Recommended by DVSF speaker: Adam Corey, CMO, Tealium
“This book contains the answers from Tim Ferriss reaching out to the most impressive world-class performers in the world, ranging from wunderkinds in their 20s to icons in their 70s and 80s. No stone was left unturned. This book is practical and tactical advice from mentors who have found solutions. Whether you want to 10x your results, get unstuck, or reinvent yourself, someone else has traveled a similar path and taken notes.”
Register for Digital Velocity San Francisco today and see all of these rockstar speakers live!
