Books in 2017

Gazettabyte has asked various industry executives to discuss the books they have read in 2017. Here two market researchers give their recommendations.

Andrew Schmitt, founder and lead analyst of Cignal AI

I didn’t have a good year with books. I bought more than these and either didn’t read them or I lost interest. Hopefully, 2018 will be better.

A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman was a big disappointment. It is a well-researched book and has tons of great history on Claude Shannon but there was something about the writing style that made it turgid. I struggled to finish it but learned a lot about Claude Shannon, including that his home in Boston wasn’t far from mine.

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Books of the year 2016 - Part 1

Each year Gazettabyte asks industry figures to comment on books that they recommend. Here are BT's Andrew Lord's and Cignal's Andrew Schmitt's recommendations to kick off this year's reviews.

Andrew Lord, Head of Optical Research at BT.

Quantum technologies are flavour of the month, with huge government investments from around the world. The title and cover of Bananaworld: Quantum Mechanics for Primates by Jeffrey Bub, suggest a book that will ‘unpeel’ a tough but increasingly important subject for general readers. 

The book itself is, however, far deeper than its cover suggests, going way beyond the basics, and attempting to forge a link between quantum mechanics and the structure of information. 

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Books in 2015 - Part 1

Gazettabyte is asking various industry figures to recommend key books they have read this year.

Andrew Schmitt, founder and CEO at Cignal AI

I didn’t read that much this year but I did read The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. That was outstanding.  McCullough is a great historical author and wrote a book that was both a biography of the Wrights as well as a narrative of their efforts to build the first powered airplane.

I didn't know of all of the other simultaneous, better-financed efforts that fell far short of the efforts of two brothers from Dayton, Ohio. I also was unaware of how the effort transfixed the world when they did complete it.

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