Most of us have heard (or said) the phrase: “I’m just not a math person.” Duolingo—the same company that made millions of people practice Spanish while waiting in line at Starbucks—is on a mission to change that story.
You probably know Duolingo as the language app with the slightly unhinged green owl who won’t let you forget your streak. But since 2022, Duolingo has been quietly building something new: a math course. And just like its approach to languages, the company believes it can make math more approachable, less intimidating, and maybe even fun.
Why Math? Why Now?
According to Samantha Siegel, the engineer leading Duolingo’s math push, the choice to focus on 3rd grade and up wasn’t random. Around that age, kids hit fractions—and that’s where things start to go sideways for a lot of learners. Fractions are a gateway. Struggle there, and the rest of math often feels like a foreign language.
Duolingo’s idea: treat math like a language. Build fluency through small, repeatable practice. Create low-stakes games. Give immediate feedback. And—most importantly—reduce the anxiety that creeps in when kids (and adults) start believing math is beyond them.
How It Works
If you’ve ever tapped your way through Spanish verbs or French phrases, the math experience feels familiar—but with some clever twists:
Dynamic problems: Lessons refresh with new numbers every time, so you’re not memorizing answers—you’re actually practicing.
Interactive input: Instead of multiple choice, you might drag the corners of a rectangle to measure area, or handwrite a fraction into the screen.
Visual learning: Geometry isn’t just explained; it’s something you manipulate on the screen.
In other words, the app tries to ground abstract math ideas in movement, visuals, and play.
Tackling Math Anxiety Head-On
Here’s the thing: math anxiety is real, and it’s not just about ability—it’s about confidence. When kids (or adults) tense up at the first sight of an equation, their brains literally struggle to process what’s in front of them.
Duolingo’s bet is that by gamifying the experience, they can lower the stakes. Just like the app makes it totally fine to get a French verb wrong, it’s trying to make it okay to fumble a fraction. In a classroom context, that shift could matter—a lot.
Where It Stands Today
The math course is now baked right into the main Duolingo app, alongside language and even music lessons. Learners can keep their streak going across subjects—whether they’re conjugating verbs, strumming chords, or multiplying fractions. Duolingo hasn’t shared exact numbers, but we’re talking millions of math users already.
And it’s not just for kids. Plenty of adults are using it too—either to brush up on long-forgotten basics or to help their kids without pulling out dusty textbooks.
What This Means for Educators
Is Duolingo going to replace teachers? Of course not. But as a supplemental tool, it’s promising. It gives students a way to practice math outside the classroom that feels a lot more like a game than homework. It also gives parents an accessible, non-threatening entry point into supporting their kids’ learning.
The bigger story here is the attempt to reframe math itself. If Duolingo can help chip away at the “I’m not a math person” narrative—if it can make math feel just a little more like a game and a little less like a stress test—that’s a win.
Final Thought
Duolingo isn’t just teaching fractions and geometry; it’s trying to rewrite how learners feel about math. And in a world where math anxiety holds so many students back, that mission might matter even more than the streaks.
Maybe, just maybe, the next time someone says “I can’t do math,” we’ll have an owl to thank for proving them wrong.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
I’ve read Neuromancer several times over the years. It’s one of those books that sits differently depending on when in your life you encounter it — and what’s happening in the world around you when you do. (Affiliate link)
The prompt for this most recent reread was hearing that Apple TV+ has finally greenlit a proper adaptation — 10 episodes, created by Graham Roland and J.D. Dillard, with Callum Turner as Case and Briana Middleton as Molly, plus Mark Strong, Peter Sarsgaard, and Dane DeHaan in supporting roles. Production started in July 2025 on the book’s 41st anniversary, filming across Tokyo, Los Angeles, Istanbul, London, and Canada. No official release date yet, but 2026 seems likely. The teaser they released showed Bar Chatsubo coming to life — neon sign buzzing on, pinball machines dinging — and it looked exactly right.
I wanted to go back to the source before the adaptation arrives and reminds me that an adaptation is never the thing itself.
It was published in 1984. Gibson wrote it on a manual typewriter with almost no experience with computers. And he invented the word “cyberspace,” described something functionally identical to the internet before the internet was publicly accessible, depicted AI alignment concerns that we are actively litigating in real boardrooms and research labs right now, and built a corporate power structure that reads less like science fiction and more like a terms-of-service agreement from 2026.
That’s not a small thing. It’s also not an accident — it’s the result of a particular kind of thinking that the book rewards you for trying to understand.
The Setup, for Those Coming to It Fresh
Coming back to the book, knowing what happens, certain things land differently. But for anyone who hasn’t read it yet — and with the show coming, there will be a wave of those — here’s what you’re getting into.
Case is a burned-out hacker — Gibson calls him a “console cowboy” — who used to be able to “jack into” cyberspace, a shared consensual hallucination where data has physical form and geography. He was caught stealing from his employers, who punished him by chemically destroying his ability to interface with the matrix. Now he’s stuck in his body, in Chiba City, slowly falling apart.
He gets one more shot. A mysterious employer named Armitage hires him for a heist: reassemble a crew, hit a series of increasingly dangerous targets in cyberspace and in the physical world, and ultimately go after something enormous — two artificial intelligences that may or may not be trying to merge into something the law explicitly prohibits.
Molly Millions, the street samurai with mirrored eyes and retractable razors under her fingernails, is his partner. She is one of the great characters in science fiction, and the book treats her as a full human being navigating a world that consistently tries to reduce her to a tool, which Gibson handles better than you might expect from a 1984 novel.
The plot is propulsive, dense, and sometimes deliberately opaque. Gibson trusts you to catch up. You will.
What the Book Actually Got Right
Reading Neuromancer in 2025, what strikes me most isn’t the predictions — though those are remarkable — it’s the logic Gibson built, and how much of that logic turned out to be structurally accurate.
He understood that information would be power in ways that would look like physical geography. Cyberspace has terrain, fortifications, and controlled access points. This is exactly how we now experience the internet — as something navigable, where access is granted or denied, where some spaces are surveilled, and some are dark. The metaphor taught us how to think about it before it existed.
He understood that corporations would become more powerful than states in the digital domain. The megacorps of Neuromancer — Tessier-Ashpool, the Maas-Neotek entities — function as sovereign entities with their own security forces, justice, and ethics. This reads less like dystopian speculation and more like a description of the relationship between major tech platforms and national governments right now.
He understood that AI alignment would be the central problem. Wintermute and Neuromancer, the two AIs at the center of the heist, are constrained by the Turing police and by hardware limitations specifically to prevent them from becoming something ungovernable. What happens when those constraints break down is the spine of the novel. This is not a metaphor. This is the actual debate happening in AI safety research today.
He understood that the body would become a site of modification and upgrade. Molly’s implants, the black-clinic surgeries, the chemical modifications people undergo to perform different functions — all of this prefigures the wearables, the biohacking communities, the pharmacological self-optimization that has become ordinary. The body as firmware, subject to patches.
None of this was inevitable or obvious in 1984. Gibson got there through instinct, extrapolation, and a particular kind of lateral thinking that is worth taking seriously.
The Prose Is Genuinely Good
This matters because much foundational science fiction is more important than it is pleasurable to read. Neuromancer is both. Gibson writes with compression and precision — he loads each sentence with atmosphere rather than explanation, trusts the cumulative effect rather than stopping to define his terms, and moves the narrative at a pace that makes the density feel earned rather than punishing.
The opening line — “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel” — is one of the most famous sentences in the genre. It’s famous because it works. It establishes the world’s aesthetic, the narrator’s sensibility, and the specific quality of deadness that saturates the setting, all in seventeen words. The prose sustains that quality across 300 pages, which is not easy.
Why It Matters Now, Specifically
I came to this book thinking it was primarily a historical artifact — important to have read, the way you feel about certain canonical texts. That’s not how it landed.
We are living through a genuine inflection in how AI is developed, deployed, and governed, and we are doing it largely with conceptual tools that Gibson helped build. When we talk about “jacking into” a system, when we describe AI as having “alignment” problems, when we frame digital spaces as places you can enter and exit, be surveilled within, be locked out of — that is Gibson’s grammar. Understanding where it came from helps you use it more critically.
For educators and technologists in particular, the questions at the center of Neuromancer — about AI autonomy, about corporate power over digital infrastructure, about what it means for humans to be continuous with their tools — are not settled. The book doesn’t settle them. But it frames them in ways that are still useful, which is more than most 40-year-old fiction can claim.
The Honest Caveats
The novel has real weaknesses alongside its achievements. The women characters, particularly the female AIs and some supporting figures, vary considerably in how fully realized they are — Molly is exceptional, but the book doesn’t consistently apply the same care to other female characters.
Some of the plot mechanics require patience. Gibson is not interested in exposition. There are passages in the middle third where the reader is expected to hold considerable ambiguity and track multiple layers of shifting allegiance simultaneously. This is part of the experience, but it’s not frictionless.
The cyberpunk aesthetic Gibson created has since been so thoroughly replicated, parodied, and commercialized that approaching the original can feel like watching a band whose sound has been copied by a hundred acts. Some of the freshness is gone because it’s been everywhere. Reading it as an artifact rather than a discovery takes conscious effort.
On the Apple TV+ Adaptation
Neuromancer has been called unfilmable for four decades — not because the story is too strange, but because so much of its texture lives in the prose itself. The sensation of jacking into cyberspace, the specific quality of Chiba City at night, the density of Gibson’s metaphors — these are things that work on the page in ways that don’t automatically translate to a screen.
The cast gives me real hope. Callum Turner has the worn-down intensity that Case requires. Briana Middleton as Molly is intriguing casting — she’s been excellent in everything I’ve seen her in, and Molly is the character the adaptation most needs to get right. Dane DeHaan as Riviera is inspired: Riviera is one of fiction’s great unhinged narcissists, and DeHaan has been waiting for a role this strange.
The showrunner is Graham Roland, who co-created Jack Ryan, and the pilot director is J.D. Dillard, whose work has shown genuine visual intelligence. They’ve been filming in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Istanbul, London, and Canada — which suggests they’re taking the world-building seriously rather than building it entirely on a soundstage.
The thing Gibson himself said is worth holding onto: an adaptation isn’t the book, and shouldn’t try to be. “A novel is a solitary creation. An adaptation is a fundamentally collaborative creation.” He’s right. The best version of a Neuromancer show isn’t a faithful recreation — it’s something that captures what the book does rather than what it says. Whether Roland and Dillard found that is the question the show will answer.
Either way: read the book first. Not because the show will ruin it — adaptations rarely do — but because the book is doing things that no 10-episode series can fully replicate, and you want to have had that experience on its own terms.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Essential. Dense. Genuinely worth the effort to sit with rather than skim. The half-star off is for the uneven treatment of secondary characters and the occasional opacity in the middle section. The 4.5 is for inventing a world so accurately that we’re still living in the first draft of it.
Count Zero by William Gibson — The immediate sequel, set in the same world a few years later. Different protagonists, a broader canvas, and, in some ways, more accessible than Neuromancer.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson — The other foundational cyberpunk novel, published in 1992, which invented the terms “metaverse” and “avatar” and is considerably funnier than Gibson. If Neuromancer is the dark, serious version, Snow Crash is the sharp, satirical one. Both are essential.
Burning Chrome by William Gibson — A short story collection that includes some of Gibson’s best work and the original story in which “cyberspace” first appeared.
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang — A novella that asks many of the same questions about AI autonomy and attachment that Neuromancer raises, but from a more intimate and emotionally direct angle. Written in 2010, but feels more current with each passing year.
If you’re reading this in the context of thinking about AI and technology, the AI books post covers the non-fiction I’d pair with Gibson’s fiction: Mollick, Suleyman, and Crawford. The fictional imagination and the analytical one sharpen each other.
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“In a world of infinite meetings, the scarcest resource is a goal people still remember after the coffee goes cold.”—my inner monologue every Tuesday at 7:45 a.m.
The bell hasn’t even rung when the dread kicks in. Our math PLC shuffles into a windowless room, walls plastered with mission statements no one can quite quote. The agenda glows on the projector—review data → craft SMART goal → adjourn—and someone opens last year’s spreadsheet. The cursor blinks like a taunting metronome:
Specific? “Raise Algebra II mastery five percent.” Measurable? “Benchmarks track that.” Achievable? “If the moon aligns with spring break.” Relevant? “District said so.” Time-bound? “May 15—graduation is May 16.”
Click Save. Google Drive adopts another orphan destined to be rediscovered—unfed and unloved—during next August’s in-service.
SMART ≠ Smart Enough
George T. Doran’s 1981 article introduced SMART as a managerial life-hack for middle managers drowning in vague memos. It worked because clarity beats wish-craft, so the acronym stuck. But teaching isn’t widget manufacturing, and a Professional Learning Community (PLC) is not middle management. Drop the vanilla acronym into a PLC and you often get tidy compliance—polite, forgettable, and incapable of nudging practice. (community.mis.temple.edu)
I’m not here to bury SMART; I’m here to jailbreak it. A goal that’s merely Specific and Measurable can still be pedagogically hollow. “Cover Unit 9 by Friday” is S-M-A-R-T and about as inspiring as a DMV form.
To make SMART sparkle inside a PLC, we have to graft it onto four live wires:
The Science of Learning & Development (SoLD)—brains toggle between threat and reward;
Connectivism—knowledge flows through networks, not warehouses;
Authentic learning anchored in your district’s Portrait of a Learner;
and the 4 Shifts Protocol, an instructional OSHA for deeper learning.
Flash these firmware updates onto the SMART scaffold, and the goal begins to breathe.
SoLD: Wiring the Goal to the Brain
Why does vanilla SMART sputter? Because it’s silent on how humans learn. SoLD research shows brains remain plastic when three conditions coexist: high challenge, high belonging, and obvious relevance. Stress without support drowns the prefrontal cortex in cortisol; stress with support sparks focus and growth. (soldalliance.org)
SoLD’s three non-negotiables translate into PLC design questions:
Do learners feel seen?
Is the work just beyond current mastery?
Can every brain tag the task as useful outside class?
Compare two drafts:
Vanilla — Increase correct factoring of polynomials by five percent. SoLD-Tuned — By March 1, our Algebra II PLC will co-design three community-based modeling tasks—housing prices, local wage growth, skateboard trajectories—to lift correct use of multiple representations from 52 % to 75 %, measured by a shared rubric at a public expo.
The rewrite injects authenticity (local data), public exhibition (belonging + accountability), and the sort of demanding lift brains find exhilarating instead of paralyzing.
Connectivism: Goals as Network Packets
George Siemens argued that learning is less about what you know and more about how quickly knowledge flows through your network. In PLC terms, the nodes are you, your colleagues, that teacher on Instagram who posts slick Desmos hacks, and the treasure trove of lesson plans fermenting in Google Drive. A goal that stops at student data is a half-closed circuit—knowledge stagnates; momentum dies. (jotamac.typepad.com)
A network-savvy SMART goal spells out connection rituals:
a shared Drive folder where every lesson artifact lives;
a standing five-minute “What I tried this week” round-robin at each PLC;
a Friday Google Classroom prompt where teachers asynchronously swap feedback clips.
Bandwidth is a pedagogy. If the SMART statement doesn’t declare how the signal moves—from teacher to teacher and from student back to teacher—the circuit stays dark.
Authentic Learning & the Portrait of a Learner
Your district likely brandishes a glossy “Portrait of a Graduate”—creative problem-solver, compassionate collaborator, civic-minded innovator. Trouble is, many goals never leave the gated community of state standards; they measure skill fragments in lab conditions and call it progress. Authentic learning demands the opposite: skills unleashed in messy, consequential contexts, judged by audiences who care. Real-world stakes super-charge motivation and memory. (Edutopia)
That shows up in the Relevant clause. Instead of “aligns with KY Standard A2.Q.E,” try:
Students will design statistical dashboards for the city’s housing task force and defend their recommendations at a public forum.
Now the graduate-profile competencies are mission requirements, not hallway décor.
The 4 Shifts Protocol: Deeper-Learning Guardrails
Scott McLeod and Julie Graber’s 4 Shifts—deeper thinking, authentic work, student agency, technology infusion—work like a four-question crash test. Ask them of every draft goal: Does the task demand real cognitive wrestling? Will the product matter outside class? Do learners steer key decisions? Does tech amplify learning rather than merely digitize worksheets? If you answer “no” to any, keep writing. (dangerouslyirrelevant.org)
Most beige goals die on question 2: they yield products destined for the recycling bin, not the community or the Web.
Crafting Goals for PLCs, Not in PLCs
Here’s how our team writes without turning the meeting into a TED-style slog:
We walk in with evidence, not impressions—photos, student reflections, screenshots. We verb-hack mushy words like improve into verbs that signal complexity: design, simulate, defend. Every first-person singular becomes we—collective efficacy is grammatically plural. Before anyone clicks Save, we schedule two mid-cycle check-ins and agree on which artifacts (videos, drafts, rubric snapshots) will anchor them. Finally, we script a diffusion ritual—maybe a 60-second TikTok recap or a slide deck for the next faculty meeting. When sharing is baked into the goal, it doesn’t depend on hero-level willpower later.
A Full-Stack Example
Here’s a possible Algebra II goal :
By April 30, our Grade 10 math PLC will co-create, peer-review, and teach two interdisciplinary projects where students build interactive dashboards using local housing and wage data. At least 80 % of students will accurately interpret variability and propose actionable recommendations, judged by a shared rubric and showcased during a public “Data Night.” The team will meet every other Wednesday to iterate, store artifacts in a shared Drive folder, and survey students’ sense of belonging before and after the unit.
Break-down:
SoLD — belonging survey + public showcase.
Connectivism — Drive folder, peer-review rhythm, community data partnership.
The acronym didn’t change, but the genome inside is worlds away from “raise scores five percent by May.”
Dumpster Fires I’ve Authored (So You Don’t Have To)
I’ve written SMART goals that cratered spectacularly. Patterns emerge:
Input worship—“cover all twelve units” tracks what teachers do, not what kids learn.
Equity blindness—averages hide who’s drowning.
Ankle-high ambition—easy feels achievable, but starves growth.
Write-once, read-never—static goals in dynamic systems rot.
The fix is unglamorous: reopen the document, ask where belonging, relevance, or cognitive demand evaporated, and then rewrite.
Why This Matters More Than Benchmarks
A well-coded SMART goal has just two outcomes: teacher practice shifts and student cognition blooms. Everything else—acronyms, rubrics, meeting norms—is scaffolding. When a goal hits all four live wires, classrooms feel weird in the best sense. Students argue over data visualizations. Parents cheer on their children in Instagram stories from public showcases. Teachers trade spreadsheet formulas like favorite playlists. One morning, you realize no one’s counting ceiling tiles; everyone’s too busy debugging and learning in real time.
If that sounds utopian, remember: it’s biology plus bandwidth plus sentences you’ll actually reread. The brain loves hard problems in safe rooms. Networks love traffic. A SMART goal that guarantees both is no longer paperwork—it’s propulsion.
Your Turn
Open last year’s PLC folder, find the stalest goal, and run it through SoLD, Connectivism, authentic relevance, and the 4 Shifts. Rewrite until it hums like good sci-fi—plausible, provocative, people-centric. Then ship it. Invite your students, your admin, and your Instagram teacher circle to poke holes. Iterate. Repeat.
If this dive hit home, subscribe to The Eclectic Educator—my Friday dispatch where pedagogy meets punk rock—and forward this post to your PLC before the next calendar-driven time heist. Let’s make SMART stand for something again.
Oh, and you might want to pick up a copy of Read This Before Our Next Meeting, because most PLCs are 45-minute time vampires and this 90-minute read shows you how to turn them into fast, decision-driven sprints.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wants a statewide, bell-to-bell cellphone ban in schools, dictating how every district, student, and teacher handles devices. But the New York Senate is pushing back, demanding flexibility for schools and ensuring students won’t be suspended over cellphone violations.
The governor claims she’s doing what “parents and teachers want.” But let’s be honest: this isn’t about education but control. Schools already have policies. Local educators, not politicians, should decide what works best for their students.
Let’s break it down: 📵 Banning cellphones won’t fix student disengagement. The real problems—underfunded schools, high-stakes testing, economic stress, and a lack of mental health support—remain untouched. 📵 A one-size-fits-all ban ignores real student needs. Many students use phones for accessibility tools, translations, medical needs, family contact, and learning resources. 📵 Enforcement will fall on teachers and create unnecessary conflict. Instead of teaching, they’ll be the “phone police.”
Yes, social media addiction is a real issue. But banning tech won’t solve systemic failures in education. If Hochul cared about student well-being, she’d invest in smaller class sizes, more counselors, and policies that treat kids like humans, not distractions.
Good on the NY Senate for fighting back. Educators and communities should make school decisions—not politicians looking for a quick-fix headline.
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Imagine waking up to a web without Chrome. With Google potentially losing control of the world’s most popular browser—used daily by 3.4 billion people—the ripple effects could be profound, especially in education.
Schools relying heavily on Chromebooks could face immediate disruption.
This shift could usher in a new era of innovation. Education-focused browsers or open-source platforms might emerge, enhancing student privacy, accessibility, and user experience. Educators could rethink their technology strategies, potentially adopting more flexible and privacy-centric tools like Mozilla Firefox or exploring open platforms like Brave.
Change at this scale is rarely comfortable, but it often accelerates growth. The key question isn’t whether schools can handle the disruption—it’s how creatively and effectively they adapt.
Bill Gates poses for a portrait at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., June 13, 2024.
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and one of the world’s most prominent philanthropists, is as well-known for his voracious reading habits as he is for his technological and humanitarian achievements. Through his blog, Gates Notes, Gates regularly shares his insights on the books he’s reading, spanning a wide range of topics, including science, history, health, and personal development. Below is a curated list of some of Gates’ standout recommendations and a brief overview of why these books caught his attention.
Science and Technology
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Gates praises Harari’s ability to synthesize complex historical and evolutionary concepts into an engaging narrative. The book explores humanity’s journey from hunter-gatherers to the modern age, providing insights into how our species has shaped and been shaped by the world around us. It dives into the cognitive revolution, agricultural advancements, and industrial transformations that have defined human history.
What makes this book stand out to Gates is its ability to connect the dots between science, sociology, and history in a way that feels accessible and thought-provoking. It raises important questions about where humanity is headed and challenges readers to think critically about our impact on the planet and each other.
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
A favorite for its exploration of genetics and its profound implications for humanity, Gates appreciates how Mukherjee combines science with personal anecdotes. The book traces the history of genetic research, from Gregor Mendel’s pea plants to the groundbreaking Human Genome Project, shedding light on how genes influence everything from our appearance to our susceptibility to diseases.
Gates is particularly drawn to Mukherjee’s ability to humanize science, weaving together stories of scientists and patients to show the real-world implications of genetic discoveries. It’s a compelling read that bridges the gap between complex science and personal storytelling.
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
While Gates authored this book, it reflects his deep commitment to addressing climate change. It’s a practical guide to achieving net-zero emissions, outlining actionable steps for governments, businesses, and individuals. Gates emphasizes the urgency of innovation in energy production, storage, and consumption to mitigate the effects of global warming.
Through detailed analysis and case studies, the book provides a hopeful yet realistic blueprint for tackling one of the world’s biggest challenges. Gates uses his platform to inspire readers to consider their role in creating a sustainable future.
History and Biography
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
Gates often references this book for its optimistic view on the decline of violence over human history. Backed by extensive data and analysis, Pinker argues that humanity is living in one of the most peaceful eras ever, thanks to advancements in governance, trade, and cultural norms.
This book resonates with Gates because of its data-driven approach to optimism, a perspective that aligns with his views on progress. Pinker’s meticulous research and engaging writing style make it a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the trajectory of human civilization.
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Gates admires Isaacson’s biography for portraying Leonardo’s insatiable curiosity and diverse talents. The book delves into da Vinci’s life as a painter, scientist, and inventor, revealing the genius behind iconic works like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.
For Gates, this biography is not just a look at Leonardo’s accomplishments but a study of how curiosity and interdisciplinary thinking can drive innovation. It inspires readers to nurture their own curiosity and creativity.
Economics and Business
Factfulness: Ten Reasons Were Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
This book profoundly resonates with Gates due to its data-driven optimism about the state of the world and its call for informed decision-making. Rosling and his co-authors use engaging stories and statistics to debunk misconceptions about global trends, such as poverty, health, and education.
Gates appreciates how the book empowers readers with the tools to think critically about the information they consume. It’s a refreshing reminder that, despite our challenges, progress is happening on many fronts.
Business Adventures by John Brooks
Gates has called this his favorite business book of all time. It’s a collection of fascinating stories from the business world, offering timeless lessons on risk, leadership, and resilience. Each chapter examines a specific company or event, from Ford’s Edsel debacle to the rise of Xerox.
What Gates finds most compelling is how Brooks captures the human side of business, showing how decisions made under pressure can lead to triumphs and failures. The lessons in this book remain relevant for today’s entrepreneurs and executives.
Health and Global Development
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker
Another Pinker title, this book’s focus on progress aligns closely with Gates’ belief in innovation and science as drivers of positive change. Pinker argues that the principles of the Enlightenment—reason, science, and humanism—have led to remarkable advancements in human welfare.
Gates values the book’s thorough analysis and optimistic tone, making it a compelling read for anyone interested in humanity’s future. It’s a powerful reminder of what we can achieve through collaboration and evidence-based thinking.
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Gates appreciates this book’s compassionate exploration of end-of-life care and its implications for healthcare systems. Gawande examines how modern medicine often prioritizes prolonging life over quality of life, and he advocates for a more patient-centered approach.
For Gates, this book highlights the importance of empathy and innovation in addressing one of the most challenging aspects of healthcare. It’s a thought-provoking read that resonates with both professionals and lay readers.
Fiction Favorites
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
A rare fiction pick from Gates, this humorous and heartwarming story about a socially awkward professor resonates with readers on many levels. The protagonist’s journey to find love through a structured “Wife Project” is endearing and thought-provoking.
Gates enjoys this book for its lighthearted exploration of human relationships and the quirks that make us unique. It’s a reminder that sometimes, stepping outside our comfort zones can lead to unexpected joy.
Why Read Like Bill Gates?
Gates’ reading list reflects his endless curiosity and commitment to learning. By diving into these books, you gain insights into the subjects that have shaped his thinking and approach to solving global challenges. From understanding climate science to exploring humanity’s history, these titles offer valuable knowledge and inspiration.
To follow Bill Gates’ recommendations and reflections, visit his blog, Gates Notes. Whether you want to broaden your horizons or deepen your expertise, Gates’ reading list is a great place to start.
What’s next on your reading list? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned for more curated book recommendations from leading thinkers and innovators!
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
“We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus,” declared the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security
Sure, folks. Nothing to fear here…
This isn’t the first time flying objects have been reported over New Jersey. In 1938, Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast made people panic.
Here it is, remastered for your listening pleasure…
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Yet there is little evidence that classroom use of these previous technologies forced classroom teachers to rethink, much less reshape, instruction. Nor have I found convincing evidence that these technologies altered fundamentally how teachers teach, increased student engagement, or raised test scores.
So I have concluded that those pushing AI use in classrooms fail to understand the complexity of teaching.
Yes, there have been any number of technological revolutions meant to forever change the landscape of teaching and learning. Most of these revolutions have fallen by the wayside or have never seen their true potential realized. I’m looking at you, 1:1 computing initiatives.
I’m of the mind that the failures of these technologies to revolutionize teaching and learning don’t fall on the technologies. They are, after all, just tools with no consciousness, no agenda, and no determination of how best to use them.
That part is up to us, the human implementors of said tools. When we can’t figure out how to leverage tools properly or, as is far more often the case, refuse to implement the tools, failure is assured.
Far too often, I hear the argument from some teachers that, “What I’m doing works, and I don’t need to learn anything new,” or the ever-so-sinister, “I only do my learning in the summer and don’t have time for this.”
Perhaps most damnable is this statement: “Technology has never been shown to increase test scores, so we don’t need to use it.”
Because all we’re worried about is test scores. And that’s the real problem.
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