I first learned of this book through an NPR interview and immediately connected with the central thesis in the book: our lives are more often than not ruled by randomness. As I reflected on my own personal journey and life, I began to realize how seemingly insignificant random effects dictated the trajectory of my life and led me to where I am today. This book resonated with me even more because this realization and gave me an appreciation of the role randomness plays in our lives.

Maturana's and Varela's Tree of Knowledge is a pioneering study of cognition and epistemology showing that any sentient being's sense of reality and its environment is the product of its own self-creation ("autopoiesis"). Their account of autopoiesis has long been an important part of the vocabularies of systems theory (biological and social) and cybernetics, but, largely through the influence of the black studies theorist Sylvia Wynter, it has more recently become an important addition to various other fields in the social sciences and humanities. In my own work on Wynter and religion, Maturana and Varela have become essential conversation partners who have taught me that there is no separation between what we do and the particular way in which the world appears to us. As they put it, "every act of knowing brings forth a world. ...All doing is knowing, and all knowing is doing."

In a culture where there is a constant pull to do more and be more productive, this book has helped me rethink how I spend my time and energy.

Nizzar Qabbani is my favorite Arab poet. His style is elegant and his poetry covers many themes, including love, politics, and Arab identity.

Reinforcement Learning by Sutton and Barto is the book that has had the most impact on my work and journey towards becoming a tenured professor.

This book helped me to better understand how different we are from one another. We do things differently and the results matter. It's okay to take care of yourself first, it's okay to scarify for your goals, and it's okay to take a break too.

This is one of the few books I recommend to my students. Those who have read it found it quite useful.

I chose this book because I feel that my mission as educator and researcher requires constant "flights of the mind" to grasp the ultimate sense of what I do and in what I believe. In order to be the best in what we do, we should recognize our talents and operate according to our beliefs and passions, as Leonardo Da Vinci did.

This book contains a chapter on minimal surfaces that Giuseppe Tinaglia (a great friend and collaborator of mine!) and I have written based on lectures on the subject we both gave in our respective institutions.

This book has inspired many conversations about the University's land grant mission at a time when many people think the weakening of our democracy is the country's biggest challenge.