On a Tuesday afternoon in Mumbai, I tell a class of management students that reading science fiction will make them better leaders.
You respond to this thesis with polite skepticism, and at this point I put my PowerPoint presentation aside. I have an article by Harvard Business Review with Eliot Peper about why business leaders should read more science fiction, and Gary Wolfe’s book How great science fiction worksbut I’ll leave both as they are.
Instead, I choose the class forms its own opinion.
“All the rows to my right are in favor of science fiction taking the lead. And the rows to my left are against that claim,” I said.
The students quickly accept the challenge.
“It is better for managers to focus on scientific knowledge,” emphasizes a young man on the left. The students around him nod in agreement.
“And there is so much to read and so little time that managers have to be selective,” says a young lady with curly hair sitting next to him. Other people nod.
The right side of the class is silent. Then suddenly a bearded backbencher, a student who has never spoken in class before, starts speaking, in a rush, almost as if he can no longer remain silent.
“If you read Asimov, you find so many inventions he talks about, things like video conferencing and space travel, that were just pipe dreams at the time. As leaders, we need to read this to go beyond the science we know and dream about the science we don’t yet know,” he says.
The people in front of him now become alert and tilt their heads towards the backbencher.
“How cryptocurrency in Neal Stephenson’s novels, communication and conflict in The three-body problem“, he adds.
A student in the front row raises his hand to speak: “And when you think about it, what qualities are people looking for in a leader? We need more than technical knowledge – we need courage, vision and imagination.”
People talk about Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and their favorite science fiction novels. We are all leaders in our own small way – whether it is leading a marketing club or a study group, they say.
The mood in the class has changed – skepticism has given way to openness to science fiction. From there it is not far to a book list of these three books for beginners.
Book 1 of 3: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: In this thrilling novel, three siblings compete with each other: Peter wants to be ruler, Valentine wants to influence people’s belief systems with her works, and Ender, the youngest, has been training to be a general since he was six years old. This is crucial because Earth is at war with the Buggers, an alien race that lives in space. Read this book to better understand the types of power and conflict.
Book 2 of 3: The Chaos Agent by Mark Greaney: Fans of the Gray Man Thrillers will see Court Gentry fighting terrorists and rogue intelligence agencies in Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, and even India. In this one, he becomes embroiled in a conspiracy where someone is killing the world’s leading experts in robotics. Is it a tech company eliminating the competition, a country bent on military superiority, or something else? Read this book to understand the world’s military landscape, with a look at how weapons manufacturers and their buyers interact, and how AI provides anonymity and terrifying efficiency.
Book 3 of 3: The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu: If I were stranded on a desert island, I would take anything Ken Liu wrote, he is so captivating. I love the amazing way Liu brings the specifics of Chinese history, culture, and art into a Western context, and how he presents everything on a galactic scale too. Many of his protagonists are young people – he shows how subtle racism affects them, and he weaves this into the larger stories of human consciousness and identity. My favorite stories in this book are Singularity and Staying Behind, both of which are about the human mind becoming digitized and no longer needing a physical body. Read these stories to understand advances in life sciences and how they might affect our psyche, our emotions, and our world.
I’ve also been reading a lot of science fiction this year. It’s helped me understand the science of communication, learn about the human body and brain, and look at social systems and structures in a new way. And also move into the fourth dimension of time. But that’s a whole other story that I’ll save for another day.
See you next week and happy reading.
Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Every week she brings you specially curated books that give you a comprehensive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at [email protected]
The views expressed are personal
Books mentioned in this issue of Book Box
How great science fiction works by Gary K. Wolfe
The three-body problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
The Chaos Agent by Mark Greaney
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu
