Credit: Stephen Sauer
This year MIT Sloan authors covered the whole work experience, from entrepreneurial thinking to working with robots and artificial intelligence, all the way through to retirement. Here are seven new books for people on your holiday gift list — or yourself.
Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup, Expanded & Updated
MIT Sloan professor of the practice Bill Aulet
Disciplined Entrepreneurship Startup Tactics
MIT Sloan senior lecturer Paul Cheek
A decade ago, entrepreneur and MIT Sloan educator introduced the concept of disciplined entrepreneurship in his book of the same name. Aulet assured readers that entrepreneurship could be taught, and his 24-step framework could help them learn it.
“Some people tell me that entrepreneurship should not be disciplined, but chaotic and unpredictable — and it is,” Aulet wrote. “But it is just in such situations where a framework to attack the problem in a systematic manner will be the most valuable.”
This year Aulet released an expanded and updated version of the book. Accompanying it was “Disciplined Entrepreneurship Startup Tactics,” by which addresses challenges like how and when to hire technical talent. Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Cheek is the center’s executive director.
Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You
MIT Sloan professor emerita Lotte Bailyn, Teresa M. Amabile, Marcy Crary, Douglas T. Hall, and Kathy E. Kram
Whether they’re one of the 73 million baby boomers reaching their full retirement benefit age or zoomers just entering the workforce, at some point most working Americans will retire. The optimal approach to retirement is unique to each person, but this book, co-authored by MIT Sloan professor emerita offers wisdom and anecdotes from more than 120 people and detailed interviews with 14 “Stars” regarding their retirement transitions. It centers around the concept of “life structure,” which encompasses “the places you spend your time, the activities you undertake, and the people in whom you invest your energies.”
The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines
MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy digital fellow Matt Beane
From ancient Greece to modern warehouses and operating rooms, skill-building has relied on a relationship between experts and novices: Novices need to learn, and experts often need help.
Intelligent technologies threaten this vital skill-building bond between experts and novices, according to Matt Beane, SM ’14, PhD ’17, an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a digital fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. Beane’s research, which focuses on how humans work with machines, includes field studies on robotic surgery and on robotic telepresence in health care and knowledge work.
In the book, Beane looks at how technologies such as robots and AI can interfere with old ways of learning with potentially devastating consequences — and how people can build skills today and include intelligent technologies as part of the solution.
From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
MIT Sloan lecturer Malia C. Lazu
No matter how strong an organization’s pledge to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion is, until leadership identifies and addresses the attitudes, practices, and beliefs that underlie the company culture, there won’t be any real progress.
That’s where a culture audit can help. It “allows organizations and their departments to identify what I call the ‘stuck places’ — those elements of business culture that pose barriers to DEI goals,” writes MIT Sloan lecturer In her work at MIT Sloan, Lazu focuses on inclusion in the innovation economy. “From Intention to Impact” offers a seven-stage guide to creating a more inclusive workplace environment.
Failure by Design: The California Energy Crisis and the Limits of Market Planning
MIT Sloan assistant professor Georg Rilinger
The California electricity crisis in 2000 caused billions in losses and led to bankruptcy for one of the state’s largest utilities. More than 20 years later, the question remains: Why did the newly created electricity markets fail? In “Failure by Design,” MIT Sloan assistant professor explores practical obstacles to market design to offer a new explanation for the crisis — one that moves beyond previous interpretations that have primarily blamed incompetent politicians or corrupt energy sellers.
The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future With Robots
MIT professor Daniela Rus and science writer Gregory Mone
There is a robotics revolution underway, according to MIT professor Daniela Rus, a prominent roboticist and director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. There are now 3.1 million robots working in factories — packing goods, assembling products, monitoring air quality, and more.
“The Heart and the Chip” presents a vision of how humans (“hearts”) and robots (“chips”) can work together for powerful new applications and capabilities. “If this revolution is correctly and intelligently steered, smart machines have the potential to improve the quality of human life as dramatically as the plow,” Rus and Mone write.
Read next — MIT Sloan reading list: 8 books from 2023
