This week’s recommended reading explores renegade economist Brian Arthur’s work. In order of priority:

Very few books have shaped my understanding of the world quite like The Nature of Technology. I almost pity anyone in business who hasn’t read it. His profound insights about how technologies combine and evolve are absolutely fascinating. They offer a fresh set of lenses through which to view (and perhaps anticipate) the changing technologies that shape our world. Highly recommended!

Complexity and the Economy is an accessible collection of articles exploring the fact that the economy is not a well-oiled machine, it's a complex adaptive system. If you're into macroeconomics and system dynamics — and let's face it, who isn't — you'll be pleased as punch with this slim volume.

Last up - Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy. Yes, I should probably get out more, but I find subjects like path dependence (the idea that our previous set of decisions constrains our next) and increasing returns (as opposed to diminishing) strangely titillating.

Dense, impenetrable, and way beyond my comfort zone, I still found this strangely rewarding. Only pick this up if you think “Godel, Escher, Bach” is lightweight beach reading.

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