Much like last year , I’m going to keep a list of all the technical books I read.
- “Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology” , by Chris Miller: 4/5, impressive book on the history of the chip industry, from TSMC and Intel towards the conflict between China and Taiwan. Gives a really interesting view on the near future by putting things into perspective.
- “Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives” , by Siddharth Kara: 5/5, scary how cobalt is mined in Congo, and often child labor is involved.
- “Chasing Shadows” , by Prof. Ron Deibert: 5/5, as a long-time follower of the work of CitizenLab I really appreciated the book. Summarizing all the important relevations they did since it was founded it, including the amazing work of John Scott-Railton and Bill Marczak. I hope they continue their work, and show the world what happens in the not-so-brightly-lit places of the public Internet!
- " The Palestine Laboratory: how Israel exports the Technology of Occupation around the World" , by Anthony Loewenstein: 4/5, about Israels massive arms industry, i.e. almost unregulated export of digital tools as well as people control, putting it in an interesting context. Puts the successes of Intellexa, Paragon, Candiru, Cellebrite and NSO Group in the bigger picture of Israels history.
- “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism” , by Sarah Wynn-Williams: 4/5, not surprising that the lead people of Meta were interested in anything but growth, and the details on how the author and Meta management tried to influence oncoming regulations was insightful. The clique of leaders who already knew each other well before Facebook, and drove the company to somewhat success. No surprise that Facebook was used for political influence, will be interesting how this general topic will play out in the long run with Australia already banning social media apps for <16 years old, and many more countries considering tighter regulation.
Last update on 2025-08-21, thanks for listening!
