Leadership & Management

What Does the Word “Intelligence” Really Mean?

Stanford GSB professors suggest a reading list of articles and books related to the concept.

August 21, 2017

| by Steve Hawk
Image
An abstract photo illustration communicating the concept of “intelligence” | Mike McQuade

What does “intelligence” mean to you? | Illustration by Mike McQuade

The Summer 2017 issue of Stanford Business magazine explored the various meanings of “intelligence” in social, corporate, and transnational contexts. As part of that exploration, we asked several Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty members to suggest their favorite books, articles, videos, and podcasts on the subject. Here are their recommendations.

Jennifer Aaker

The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, by William Strunk and E.B. White, 2000

Syntax & Sage: Reflections on Software and Nature, by Sep Kamvar, 2016

Bossypants, by Tina Fey, 2013

Lovett or Leave It, with Jon Lovett (podcast)

Matt Abrahams

Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, 2013

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, by John Medina, 2008

Federico Antoni

The Master Algorithm, How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World, by Pedro Domingos, 2015

Artificial Intelligence Playbook, aiplaybook.a16z.com (Andreessen Horowitz),2015

Einstein, His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson, 2017

Naomi Bagdonas

Moments of Impact, By Chris Ertel and Lisa Kay Solomon, 2014

Orbiting the Giant Hairball, by Gordon MacKenzie, 1998

Yes Please, by Amy Poehler, 2014

Christopher Krubert

Paging HAL: What Will Happen When Artificial Intelligence Comes to Radiology?” by Dave Yeager, Radiology Today, May 2016

Artificial Intelligence Framework for Simulating Clinical Decision-Making: A Markov Decision Process Approach,” by Casey C. Bennett and Kris Hauser, Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, January 2013

Jeffrey Pfeffer

Fast Food and Financial Impatience: A Socioecological Approach,” by Sanford DeVoe, Julian House, and Chen-Bo Zhong, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, September 2013

Time, Money, and Happiness: How Does Putting a Price on Time Affect Our Ability to Smell the Roses?” by Sanford E. DeVoe and Julian House, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, March 2012

Thinking About Time as Money Decreases Environmental Behavior,” by Ashley V. Whillans and Elizabeth W. Dunn, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, March 2015

Andrzej Skrzypacz

The Economist as Engineer: Game Theory, Experimentation, and Computation as Tools for Design Economics,” by Alvin E. Roth, Econometrica, July 2002

Alvin E. Roth, Market Design: The Economist as Engineer,” National Academy of Sciences Research Briefings (video), August 14, 2014

Stanford economists Robert Wilson and Paul Milgrom awarded for their work in auction design, Golden Goose Awards, 2014

Adina Sterling

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner, 2015

How Innovation Really Works, by Anne Marie Knott, 2017

“Easier, Faster: The Next Steps for Deep Learning,” by Serdar Yegulalp, InfoWorld, June 7, 2017

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