I like to read, and present synopses of, books dealing with the future. Give me a choice, and I prefer optimism over pessimism. But, I simply like pondering the “what will tomorrow really be like?” question.

I’ve always liked to read these books. I remember being intrigued and energized by Future Shock decades ago, and have loved forward-thinking, future-looking books ever since.

In fact, in an earlier chapter of my life, I was good friends with a historian who said, “Randy, you live in the next century, and I live in the last century.” I’m not sure it was entirely true, but it got close to the truth.

So, I love to read about self-driving cars, and pod-based transportation systems, and solar power, and…, and the magic day when I can pick up my new Apple TV Remote and speak into it, saying “show me that Sports Night episode about the Confederate Flag” and the episode simply starts on my TV screen.

And I’m really looking forward to the day when I can eat all the Blue Bell Ice Cream I want, and there is some magic pill that somehow counteracts the effects of the calorie count. (Let’s put our research dollars into this, please!).

Anyway… I have presented a number of books about the coming future at the First Friday Book Synopsis. Each of these presentations are recorded, and are available at our companion site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.

Lately, there have been quite a few orders for my synopsis of Exponential Organizations, a genuinely important and terrific book. But I think there are a few other books that should be read along with this one.

So, I have a suggestion for you. Create your own quick and easy “Seminar on What’s Coming Next.” Order three of my synopsis, carve out a quiet hour to hour and a half, invite two or three to join you, listen to the recordings as you follow along with my handouts, and then discuss what you’ve learned. You really could do this in just over an hour – three books, some conversation, lots of insight and fodder for thought.

Here’s the order I would follow:

#1 – The Second Machine Age. Written by two MIT professors, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, this book describes why we have truly entered the next, the “second,” machine age…

#2 – Exponential Organizations. This was written by Salim Ismail with Michael S. Malone and Yuri van Geest. Peter Diamindis wrote the foreward. This book describes how organizations will have to change.

#3 – Bold. This one is written by Mr. Optimism, Peter Diamandis, and Steven Kotler. It might make you feel better about the future.

(And, #4 – bonus selection, Abundance, also by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. It’s his earlier super-optimistic look at the future).

The authors of Exponential Organizations and Bold and Abundance are all connected to Singularity University, a remarkable and different university, prompted by the bold visions of Ray Kurzweil.

And, you will find Moore’s Law prominent in most of these books…

Here are my blog posts with my takeaways from each of these:

• Here are My Five Takeaways from The Second Machine Age – and Wait, There’s More…
• Exponential Organizations – My Lessons and Takeaways
• Go Big; Go Bold – Here are my Five Lessons and Takeaways from Bold by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler
• My Six Takeaways from the book Abundance: The Future is Better than you Think

So, click on over to 15minutebusinessbooks.com, order the synopses (each comes with the audio recording of my presentation, plus the comprehensive, multi-page handout), and put on your own mini-seminar. I think it would be a valuable use of your time.