The Hidden Machinery (37 books)

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Book list by @deedydas
Quote "We teach kids things that have no connection to the world around them and wonder why they’re not engaged.

So I made this list of books covering 18 core pillars of “boring” infrastructure modern society is built on.

There are cathedrals everywhere for those with eyes to see."

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1	The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke 3.85 avg rating — 4,860 ratings score: 100, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
2	Power System Economics: Designing Markets for Electricity by Steven Stoft 3.96 avg rating — 25 ratings score: 99, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
3	The Pay Off by Gottfried Leibbrandt 4.18 avg rating — 283 ratings score: 98, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
4	Payments Systems in the U.S.: A Guide for the Payments Professional by Carol Coye Benson 4.13 avg rating — 488 ratings score: 97, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
5	Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate by Rose George (Goodreads Author) 3.79 avg rating — 4,536 ratings score: 96, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
6	Maritime Economics by Martin Stopford 4.34 avg rating — 141 ratings score: 95, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
7	The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler by Thomas Hager (Goodreads Author) 4.36 avg rating — 4,837 ratings score: 94, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
8	Feeding the World: A Challenge for the Twenty-First Century by Vaclav Smil 4.10 avg rating — 63 ratings score: 93, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
9	How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between by Bent Flyvbjerg 4.27 avg rating — 10,601 ratings score: 92, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
10	The Origins of Efficiency by Brian Potter 4.13 avg rating — 390 ratings score: 91, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
11	Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by Andrew Blum (Goodreads Author) 3.51 avg rating — 3,950 ratings score: 90, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
12	The Undersea Network by Nicole Starosielski 3.83 avg rating — 157 ratings score: 89, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
13	The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson (Goodreads Author) 3.89 avg rating — 57,630 ratings score: 88, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
14	Great Escape: Health, Wealth and Happiness in an Unequal World, The by Angus Deaton 3.81 avg rating — 2,493 ratings score: 87, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
15	Gideon's Trumpet by Anthony Lewis 3.91 avg rating — 3,181 ratings score: 86, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
16	How Judges Think by Richard A. Posner 3.83 avg rating — 388 ratings score: 85, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
17	Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner 4.28 avg rating — 12,231 ratings score: 84, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
18	Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World's Most Vital Resource by David Sedlak 4.02 avg rating — 488 ratings score: 83, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
19	Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller 4.38 avg rating — 46,459 ratings score: 82, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
20	Fabless: The Transformation of the Semiconductor Industry by Daniel Nenni 3.81 avg rating — 124 ratings score: 81, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
21	The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources by Javier Blas 4.32 avg rating — 14,402 ratings score: 80, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
22	Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway 4.50 avg rating — 10,165 ratings score: 79, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
23	The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power by Daniel Yergin 4.44 avg rating — 13,206 ratings score: 78, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
24	Oil 101 by Morgan Patrick Downey 4.16 avg rating — 819 ratings score: 77, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
25	Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It by Chris Clearfield (Goodreads Author) 4.05 avg rating — 1,408 ratings score: 76, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
26	Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies by Charles Perrow 4.04 avg rating — 711 ratings score: 75, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
27	Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein 3.95 avg rating — 14,836 ratings score: 74, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
28	The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters by Robert Muir-Wood 3.82 avg rating — 85 ratings score: 73, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
29	Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade by Adam Minter (Goodreads Author) 3.91 avg rating — 1,801 ratings score: 72, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
30	Rubbish!: The Archaeology of Garbage by William L. Rathje 3.97 avg rating — 490 ratings score: 71, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
31	The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester 4.15 avg rating — 6,979 ratings score: 70, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
32	Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants by James Vincent (Goodreads Author) 3.85 avg rating — 1,381 ratings score: 69, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
33	The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein 4.44 avg rating — 48,381 ratings score: 68, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
34	Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities by Alain Bertaud 4.38 avg rating — 605 ratings score: 67, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
35	The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug by Barry Werth 3.90 avg rating — 1,200 ratings score: 66, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
36	A Prescription for Change: The Looming Crisis in Drug Development (Luther H. Hodges Jr. and Luther H. Hodges Sr. Series on Business, Entrepreneurship, and Public Policy) by Michael Kinch (Goodreads Author) 3.55 avg rating — 20 ratings score: 65, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
37	Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott 4.21 avg rating — 7,381 ratings score: 64, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars