Stats and pundits suggest fewer of us are taking the time to read, absorb, and embody what we can take from real, printed books. Humbug! This is a short piece with nods to those Digest subscribers defiantly resisting that trend—and welcoming all others to embrace the mind-expanding opportunities a long read—replete with physical page turning—can yield. Fully safe for work. ~ Mark Skinner, President & CEO, SSTI
The World’s Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong, by David J. Lynch (2025)
A captivating walk through U.S. trade policy since the 1990s and our (U.S.) expectation that affluence would convince China and Russia to evolve into democracies. The well-read reader knows that it isn’t how democracy evolved in the U.S., and it hasn’t proven to be the outcome since the Berlin Wall fell and China joined the WTO. Essentially, we created the bed we now lie in, whether we are ready to sleep in it or not. But what do we do now…
Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World, by Dorian Lynskey (2024)
Lynskey takes the reader through how art and fiction have depicted end times ever since Mary Shelley created science fiction, through every imaginable way we might destroy the planet (war, nuclear blast, overpopulation, pestilence, etc.), to the current apocalyptic journey of a climate-induced future we have chosen not to avoid or properly prepare to handle.
Better futures can be created, but only if we both imagine them and strive in earnest to make them a reality. This memoir cum motivational book by the head of the Rockefeller Foundation weaves Shah’s inspiring career path—always in pursuit of positive change—with easy advice that all of us can embrace and use as our own guides, in our own more modest ways, to help make a better tomorrow become a reality.
And one from the deep archives.
Can We Survive Technology? by John von Neumann (1955)
For those of us unaware, the team of intellectuals working on the creation of the first atomic bombs might represent one of those very rare instances when tremendously good-minded brains are in the same room at once. (Many will say it also happened at the crafting of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution.) The work they engaged in to end World War II affected many of them tremendously afterwards. John von Neumann, along with Enrico Fermi, can be numbered among those who recognized through the experience that the unstoppable science and technological definition of progress our civilization had embarked upon would not lead to a long-term positive outcome for our species. Von Neumann wrote a much-cited, prescient piece in 1955 that touched on the negative outcomes humanity could expect from nuclear armament, automation, artificial intelligence, and even climate change. Like a good wine, bourbon, or properly cared for antique, this seventy-year-old article republished multiple times on the internet, holds wisdom and insight to consider respect, cherish, and embrace in our uncertain path ahead.
SSTI welcomes the opportunity to learn what books, papers, and articles you are reading that you think will influence your future approach to supporting regional innovation policy. Please send an email with your thoughts and recommendations to skinner@ssti.org .