First Friday Book Synopsis

BOOK LOVERS UNITE — BOOK SYNOPSES FOR THE LIFELONG LEARNER IN ALL OF US!

Come to learn; AND make some great connections!

MAKE 2023 A YEAR OF LEARNING!

October 6 – IN OUR 26th Year!

Click here to register for the in-person gathering at the wonderful Park City Club in Dallas.

Scroll down for Zoom info.

What:  the October 6 First Friday Book Synopsis, 7:00 am (7:25 am for synopses start time)

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Every month since April 1998, we have presented synopses of two good business books at the First Friday Book Synopsis, in Dallas.  Now a hybrid event (both in-person at the Park City Club, and on Zoom), it is a true learning event.

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The two books for the October 6 session are:

1. The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemmaby Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar

and

2. Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Wellby Amy C. Edmondson

Both of these books are long-listed for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year!

The Financial Times has awarded a prize for the Business Book of the Year for a number of years.  (Click here for the complete list of winners, by year).  In earlier years, I have presented a few of the winning books at our monthly First Friday Book Synopsis, including:

The World is Flat:  The Globalized World in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman,

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone,

The Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of Mass Unemployment by Martin Ford,

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez, and

Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller.

(Note:  I also presented one other winner, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty for the Urban Engagement Book Club, sponsored by CitySquare — the other book club for which I speak regularly).

The two books I have selected for the October 6 session of the First Friday Book Synopsis are on the longlist for this year’s prize.  (I have already presented one other book on this year’s longlist: How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between by Bent Flyvbjerg).

Here is how the Financial Times describes these two books:

The Coming Wave: AI, Power and the Twenty-First Century’s Greatest Dilemma, by Mustafa Suleyman, published next month, picks up a similar theme, but presents an insider’s take on generative AI, synthetic biology and quantum computing. Working with Michael Bhaskar, Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, now part of Google, warns of the dangers of sleepwalking into catastrophe. The coming wave of change must be contained, the authors argue, and they lay out the tools necessary to navigate “the tortuous route forward”.

Amy Edmondson also looks at the importance of turning failure to good account in the Right Kind of Wrong: Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive (an earlier subtitle), to be published next month. The Harvard professor and advocate of the need for “psychological safety” and speak-up work cultures draws on her and others’ research to lay out how to learn to fail better and take smarter risks. “Most of us go out of our way to avoid experiencing failure,” she writes, “robbing ourselves of adventure, accomplishment, and even love.” 

The October First Friday Book Synopsis will provide valuable information, with useful and usable teachings to help with our business endeavors.

October 6, 2023– Park City Club (and Zoom) — 7:00 am Central Time — (program begins at 7:25 am)

At the First Friday Book Synopsis, we make each month’s session a genuine learning event.  You learn from the best business books, and then it is up to you to put into practice the things you learn.

For the October 6, 2023, session, I will present my synopses of both of these useful books.  Click here to register for the in-person session.  (Zoom info is below).

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In our 26th YEAR of the First Friday Book Synopsis

Randy Mayeux provides thorough synopses of the content of useful, best-selling business books. He provides a comprehensive, multi-page synopsis handout, that concludes with his own lessons and takeaways from each book he presents.

“I love good books; and I read books
And share their core concepts
To help people become more literate
And know what to work on
To do a better job
To build a better company
And, ultimately, to build a better life.”
Randy Mayeux
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October 6, 2023 – Park City Club; and on Zoom 

What to expect:

Two fast-paced synopsis presentations.

For In-person participants, you will be given copies of the two synopsis handouts.  For those attending remotely, you will receive a synopsis handout to download for each of the two books, delivered the day before the event, via e-mail (and, available on this blog).

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO READ THE BOOKS IN ADVANCE! – No pre-reading of the books required!

If you are like many, you do not have time to read all of the books you would like to read. The First Friday Book Synopsis is designed for you.

Our synopses are comprehensive, thorough, and they will give you plenty of the key content from each book. You will learn, and be able to ponder the ideas in a useful way. And, even if you have read the book, my synopsis will help you remember more of what you read.

I hope you can join us.

For in-person participants: click here to register for in-person attendance.

For remote participants:
The cost of this remote meeting is “free.”
But, if you would like to contribute to participate, Randy would welcome you to send $12.00 directly to him through PayPal. Click here for a direct link to “donate” through PayPal.

For remote participants, here is the Zoom info.  The Zoom meeting requires no registration.

Randy Mayeux is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: First Friday Book Synopsis, 2023
Time: October 6, 2023 07:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88546338687?pwd=NC9hRVhoaW8waUlnZGllU1UvOEJWZz09

Meeting ID: 885 4633 8687
Passcode: 208376

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Visit our web site where you can purchase past synopses, with audio recordings + synopsis handouts, at: 15minutebusinessbooks.com

For our most recent synopses, click here.

Purchase past synopses bundled in categories, each with audio recordings and synopsis handouts, at our other site; academyoflifelonglearning.com.