by Cory Stieg from CNBC
Bill Gates is passionate about reading and recommending books he finds particularly thought-provoking… Support our news coverage by subscribing to our Kindle Nation Daily Digest. Joining is free right now!

During an Oct. 2 speech at his alma mater Lakeside School, the Seattle high school where he met Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Gates pointed to two books he thinks are “pretty fundamental” to read for the people he hires to work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Microsoft: “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling and Steven Pinker’s “Better Angels of Our Nature.”

Gates fans won’t be surprised that “Factfulness” is about “how life is getting better, and where the world still needs to improve,” according a Gates blog post from 2018, topics that are central to the work his foundation does — helping to improve the health and welfare of people in developing countries.

It’s one of Gates’ favorite books, and in 2018, he gave away a downloadable copy to anyone who graduated from college. “Although I think everyone should read it, it has especially useful insights for anyone who’s making the leap out of college and into the next phase of life,” Gates wrote on his blog, Gates Notes.

Similarly, “The Better Angels of Our Nature” “offers a really fresh perspective on how to achieve positive outcomes in the world,” Gates wrote in another blog post. The 700-page book is about violence, which Gates says is important to understand in order to “build more peaceful societies.”

“Steven Pinker shows us ways we can make those positive trajectories a little more likely,” Gates wrote. “That’s a contribution, not just to historical scholarship, but to the world.”

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