Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly is the Senior Maverick at WIRED magazine as well as its founding executive editor. He is also a podcaster, newsletter writer, cool tool maven and the author of several books on the culture of technology. He has spent over 40 years photographing the disappearing traditions of Asia, and has most recently published them in a 3-book collection called Vanishing Asia.

Kevin was introduced by Peter Schwartz.

If you could recommend 3 books to anyone, what would they be?

Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse

This small book by a religion scholar shaped my adult life by giving me a powerful framework to view the world. The author outlines two kinds of games: finite games played to win, and infinite games played to keep the game going. Turns out all the best things in life are infinite games and now my game is to seek them out. It is most useful in deciding where to put your energy. You can probably get the gist of the book just reading the first and last chapters.

How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand

This is a book that reports on a novel way of viewing buildings, as if each one is a prediction — a prediction of how they will be used. Brand says all predictions are wrong, and that therefore the buildings that are loved most and survive longest are those which can be adapted to "learn" over time. He gives a couple of different approaches to designing buildings to be better learners. There are a ton of pictures and examples of how buildings learn. But the beauty of the book is that it is not just about architecture; these same principle can be applied to any complex thing made, including software. So the book is popular among programmers and inventors.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

From its legendary opening paragraph, this journal of a year living alongside a creek knocked me off my feet and rang my bell. I am still vibrating. I re-read passages from it whenever I can simply for their beauty. Each paragraph is prose, but reported. Sort of like poetic journalism. I'd call this book (which won a Pulitzer Prize) a modern masterpiece of transcendentalism. It's about moths flying into candles wicks, the sound of stars, and God. If you are not fascinated by armies of ants waring over territory in the grasses and the cosmic meaning of light on pond ripples, then skip this book.

What are you reading now?

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes

I'm finishing up Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes. Trying to figure out why we are the only conscious species on this planet at the moment.

Whose reading list are you most curious about?

“The artist Andy Goldsworthy.”

— Kevin Kelly