90+ Book Recommendations by Balaji S. Srinivasan
How the World Really Works
Vaclav Smil
"Vaclav Smil is my favorite author."--Bill Gates An essential analysis of the modern science and technology that makes our twenty-first century lives possible--a scientist's investigation into what science really does, and does not, accomplish. We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check--because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts. In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn’t inevitable--the foolishness of allowing 70 per cent of the world’s rubber gloves to be made in just one factory became glaringly obvious in 2020--and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, such that any promises of decarbonization by 2050 are a fairy tale. For example, each greenhouse-grown supermarket-bought tomato has the equivalent of five tablespoons of diesel embedded in its production, and we have no way of producing steel, cement or plastics at required scales without huge carbon emissions. Ultimately, Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead? Compelling, data-rich and revisionist, this wonderfully broad, interdisciplinary guide finds faults with both extremes. Looking at the world through this quantitative lens reveals hidden truths that change the way we see our past, present and uncertain future.WTF happened in the early 1970s? Vaclav Smil argues that it was the oil crisis. https://t.co/J6GZvqNCXe https://t.co/NGZQ9SZOHy
Three Felonies A Day
Harvey Silverglate
As the saying goes, a federal prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. A tangle of laws allows them to target even innocents, so a truly guilty party should be easy. And they're normally driven by headlines. But some force is holding them back. https://t.co/utZStVihIS
The Gray Lady Winked
Ashley Rindsberg
As we entered the 20th century, mass media centralized, so a few liars at the "paper of record" could fool millions. Our saving grace is that we're in the age of decentralization now. Social media lets us piece together a true history. This is part of it: https://t.co/ytIwTzXKSm
Bowling Alone
Robert D. Putnam
Shows how changes in work, family structure, women's roles, and other factors have caused people to become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and democratic structures--and how they may reconnect.I know it sounds kind of corny to talk about a "serious relationship" with a community. But Putnam and others have documented how important this concept is to people's well being. And how a sense of belonging has been vanishing. https://t.co/E3ZVYXxos9
The Jewish State
Theodor Herzl
Originally published in 1896 as Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State has taken its place among the likes of The Communist Manifesto and Common Sense as polemic writings which have changed modern history. Theodor Herzl’s advocacy for a separate, independent Jewish state as a remedy for centuries of hostility and persecution served as the basis for modern Zionism. And though his vision would not be realized in his lifetime, it did set the course for the creation of the Israel we know today. This edition, based on the original translation to English by Sylvie D’Avigdor, includes an introduction by Alan Dershowitz, who is among Israel’s most prominent and most vocal scholars defenders. The Harvard law professor, who has been calledIsrael’s lead lawyer in the court of public opinion, discusses The Jewish State’s place in history and its impact today.Nothing against Stephenson, he’s amazing. But the inspiration for the Network State is not really the fictional Snow Crash, it’s the very real state of Israel. That country was started by a book. And Herzl’s original is worth rereading today. https://t.co/nXeNTPMkCy https://t.co/6KW8qVmiwV https://t.co/rhj87o26qG
Graphs, Maps, Trees
Franco Moretti
In this groundbreaking book, Franco Moretti argues that literature scholars should stop reading books and start counting, graphing, and mapping them instead. In place of the traditionally selective literary canon of a few hundred texts, Moretti offers charts, maps and time lines, developing the idea of “distant reading” into a full-blown experiment in literary historiography, in which the canon disappears into the larger literary system. Charting entire genres—the epistolary, the gothic, and the historical novel—as well as the literary output of countries such as Japan, Italy, Spain, and Nigeria, he shows how literary history looks significantly different from what is commonly supposed and how the concept of aesthetic form can be radically redefined.What I like about Turchin & Dalio is that they're at least *trying* to be numerical in a field (history) that has resisted this. Soft sciences may get harder now that we have decades of data from billions of people. Moretti's lit history is also relevant. https://t.co/GAJoZtnLqv https://t.co/S9q4L0Kzri
The main knock on Turchin & Dalio is that their quantification is imprecise. What's the y-axis here? Seems like a weighted sum of many variables. I couldn't find the raw data. Still, I think it's directionally interesting… [1] https://t.co/X5J0JKBLz0 [2] https://t.co/JYGkDx5BHg https://t.co/zXCB3QaxfA
Mao
Jon Halliday; Jung Chang
Jung Chang'S Wild Swans Was An Extraordinary Bestseller Throughout The World, Selling More Than 10 Million Copies And Reaching A Wider Readership Than Any Other Book About China. Now She And Her Husband Jon Halliday Have Written A Groundbreaking Biography Of Mao Tse-Tung. Based On A Decade Of Research, And On Interviews With Many Of Mao'S Close Circle In China Who Have Never Talked Before - And With Virtually Everyone Outside China Who Had Significant Dealings With Him - This Is The Most Authoritative Life Of Mao Ever Written. It Is Full Of Startling Revelations, Exploding The Myth Of The Long March, And Showing A Completely Unknown Mao: He Was Not Driven By Idealism Or Ideology; His Intimate And Intricate Relationship With Stalin Went Back To The 1920S, Ultimately Bringing Him To Power; He Welcomed Japanese Occupation Of Much Of China; And He Schemed, Poisoned And Blackmailed To Get His Way. After Mao Conquered China In 1949, His Secret Goal Was To Dominate The World. In Chasing This Dream He Caused The Deaths Of 38 Million People In The Greatest Famine In History. Combining Meticulous History With The Story-Telling Style Of Wild Swans, This Biography Makes Immediate Mao'S Roller-Coaster Life, As He Intrigued And Fought Every Step Of The Way To Force Through His Unpopular Decisions. The Reader Enters The Shadowy Chambers Of Mao'S Court, And Eavesdrops On The Drama In Its Hidden Recesses. Mao'S Character And The Enormity Of His Behaviour Towards His Wives, Mistresses And Children Are Unveiled For The First Time. This Is An Entirely Fresh Look At Mao In Both Content And Approach. It Will Astonish Historians And The General Reader Alike.“The authors present evidence that refutes almost every aspect of the Chinese Communist Party’s account, from the claim that the Party fought the Japanese to Mao’s role in the Long March.” https://t.co/JjBTrCRr33 https://t.co/M1a98OQo0K https://t.co/KuObvypJRs
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital
Carlota Perez
In this pod, I reference Carlota Perez. She documents a common pattern across multiple tech revolutions, going back to the age of steam, steel, & oil. A financial crash happens midway, followed by adoption. This may just be how humans install new tech. https://t.co/AqeBUAPiMU https://t.co/oV9UdnxARM https://t.co/CNfEQuhhpg
The Lessons of History
Will Durant
Billions of human lifetimes have passed. You have only one. You can try to figure it out all for yourself in your limited time. Or you can gain some leverage from the lessons of history. https://t.co/PgtQiU2Gkt
The Star Machine
Jeanine Basinger
An entertaining compilation of Hollywood lore, trivia, and analysis provides a close-up look at the golden era of filmmaking and the creation of stars at the height of the studio system, from the 1930s to the 1950s, explaining how the star machine worked, the grooming of actors, and the careers of such actors as Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, Lana Turner, and others. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.@SarahTheHaider Beyond a small social circle, you need some distribution to be “cool” on a mass scale. That means elite support. Good book on how the studios worked to manufacture stars. https://t.co/ArWmhJnY4g
The Jewish State
Theodor Herzl
Originally published in 1896 as Der Judenstaat, The Jewish State has taken its place among the likes of The Communist Manifesto and Common Sense as polemic writings which have changed modern history. Theodor Herzl’s advocacy for a separate, independent Jewish state as a remedy for centuries of hostility and persecution served as the basis for modern Zionism. And though his vision would not be realized in his lifetime, it did set the course for the creation of the Israel we know today. This edition, based on the original translation to English by Sylvie D’Avigdor, includes an introduction by Alan Dershowitz, who is among Israel’s most prominent and most vocal scholars defenders. The Harvard law professor, who has been calledIsrael’s lead lawyer in the court of public opinion, discusses The Jewish State’s place in history and its impact today.@aeyakovenko 🙂I like cartoons too, but here are some real-life references: 1) Der Judenstaat: https://t.co/nXeNTPuJdY 2) Imagined Communities: https://t.co/tJPvXlCutF 3) Invisible Countries: https://t.co/Za1Ty2DUQZ 4) Communistic Societies of the United States: https://t.co/n0IwY2djGn https://t.co/U2IvqSIZY0
Imagined Communities
Benedict Anderson
The defining, best-selling book on the history, origins and development of nationalism What are the imagined communities that compel men to kill or to die for an idea of a nation? This notion of nationhood had its origins in the founding of the Americas, but was then adopted and transformed by populist movements in nineteenth-century Europe. It became the rallying cry for anti-Imperialism as well as the abiding explanation for colonialism. In this scintillating, groundbreaking work of intellectual history Anderson explores how ideas are formed and reformulated at every level, from high politics to popular culture, and the way that they can make people do extraordinary things. In the twenty-first century, these debates on the nature of the nation state are even more urgent. As new nations rise, vying for influence, and old empires decline, we must understand who we are as a community in the face of history, and change.@aeyakovenko 🙂I like cartoons too, but here are some real-life references: 1) Der Judenstaat: https://t.co/nXeNTPuJdY 2) Imagined Communities: https://t.co/tJPvXlCutF 3) Invisible Countries: https://t.co/Za1Ty2DUQZ 4) Communistic Societies of the United States: https://t.co/n0IwY2djGn https://t.co/U2IvqSIZY0
Invisible Countries
Joshua Keating
A thoughtful analysis of how our world's borders came to be and why we may be emerging from a lengthy period of "cartographical stasis" What is a country? While certain basic criteria--borders, a government, and recognition from other countries--seem obvious, journalist Joshua Keating's book explores exceptions to these rules, including self-proclaimed countries such as Abkhazia, Kurdistan, and Somaliland, a Mohawk reservation straddling the U.S.-Canada border, and an island nation whose very existence is threatened by climate change. Through stories about these would-be countries' efforts at self-determination, as well as their respective challenges, Keating shows that there is no universal legal authority determining what a country is. He argues that although our current world map appears fairly static, economic, cultural, and environmental forces in the places he describes may spark change. Keating ably ties history to incisive and sympathetic observations drawn from his travels and personal interviews with residents, political leaders, and scholars in each of these "invisible countries."@aeyakovenko 🙂I like cartoons too, but here are some real-life references: 1) Der Judenstaat: https://t.co/nXeNTPuJdY 2) Imagined Communities: https://t.co/tJPvXlCutF 3) Invisible Countries: https://t.co/Za1Ty2DUQZ 4) Communistic Societies of the United States: https://t.co/n0IwY2djGn https://t.co/U2IvqSIZY0
Fateful Triangle
Tanvi Madan
By the way, @tanvi_madan, your book looks very interesting. Just bought it. The three-way relationship between the Western, Indian, and Chinese spheres is worth much more study. https://t.co/NECyYH7ftN https://t.co/qoWjJbhSdy
The Network State
Balaji Srinivasan
The Network State is available in three formats. Read it on your phone right now: https://t.co/zRNatsYSwR Download a PDF: https://t.co/6l86qzb3sS Or get it on Amazon if you want the full Kindle experience: https://t.co/i634koLXBo
The Network State
Balaji Srinivasan
I've been writing a book on how to start a new country. It's finally coming out. You can preorder it now. It arrives on July 4. https://t.co/i634koLXBo
The Soviet Biological Weapons Program
Milton Leitenberg
There's a book on this that does mention Soviet biological weapons facilities in Ukraine. The US apparently funded former biowarfare scientists in Ukraine to disincentivize them from emigrating to places like Iran. Part of nonproliferation strategy. https://t.co/rOriV2Onfr https://t.co/VxhOKJ4sxE https://t.co/clCr2EJrmp
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty
Albert O. Hirschman
An innovator in contemporary thought on economic and political development looks here at decline rather than growth. Albert O. Hirschman makes a basic distinction between alternative ways of reacting to deterioration in business firms and, in general, to dissatisfaction with organizations: one, “exit,” is for the member to quit the organization or for the customer to switch to the competing product, and the other, “voice,” is for members or customers to agitate and exert influence for change “from within.” The efficiency of the competitive mechanism, with its total reliance on exit, is questioned for certain important situations. As exit often undercuts voice while being unable to counteract decline, loyalty is seen in the function of retarding exit and of permitting voice to play its proper role. The interplay of the three concepts turns out to illuminate a wide range of economic, social, and political phenomena. As the author states in the preface, “having found my own unifying way of looking at issues as diverse as competition and the two-party system, divorce and the American character, black power and the failure of ‘unhappy’ top officials to resign over Vietnam, I decided to let myself go a little.”Exit isn’t just escape, it’s freedom. Voice isn’t just bureaucracy, it’s reform. Loyalty isn’t just jingoism, it’s faithfulness. It’s trivial to say it, but each has their place. Hirschman’s triad identifies different tools to try at different times. https://t.co/rM5U2SVfV4
2034
Elliot Ackerman
Last year, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe coauthored a fictional book. It was about a China/US skirmish that escalated quickly, culminating in cities getting nuked in tit-for-tat fashion. He's said it was meant as a warning. https://t.co/1oLpnCZist
San Fransicko
Michael Shellenberger
The author of the national bestseller Apocalypse Never examines the problems plaguing America's most liberal cities. San Francisco was once widely viewed as the prettiest city in America. Today it is best known as the epicenter of the homeless zombie apocalypse. What went wrong? Michael Shellenberger has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirty years. During that time he advocated for the decriminalization of drugs, affordable housing, and alternatives to jail and prison. But as massive, open-air drug markets spread across the state, overdose deaths rose to over 70,000 from 17,000 20 years ago, Shellenberger decided to take a deep dive into the roots of the crisis. What he discovered shocked him. Crime, poverty, inequality--all the things decades of Democratic rule were supposed to solve. The homelessness crisis is really an addiction and mental illness crisis. The City of San Francisco and other West Coast cities--Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle--not only tolerate hard drug use, including by severely mentally ill people, they subsidize it, directly and indirectly, attracting vagrants from across the United States. And instead of fighting crime, progressives cities enable it. Why is that? In San Fransicko, Shellenberger reveals that the underlying problem isn't a lack of housing, money for social programs, or political will. The real problem is a radical Left ideology that promotes lawlessness, defends addiction, and undermines the foundational values that make civilization possible.You laugh, but the SF model is being exported all over the US, from Seattle to LA. It's legalized graft, on an enormous scale, always in the name of the people, at the expense of the people. Read @ShellenbergerMD's book about this catastrophe of a city. https://t.co/aKaCXud0Qs
Eyewitness 1917
Mikhail Zygar
A dramatic account of a year of two revolutions in Russia, told through extracts from contemporary diaries, letters and memoirs and illustrated with many previously unpublished photographs. In the lead-up to the centenary of the Russian Revolution in 2017, a team of researchers led by writer Mikhail Zygar posed a question: how to make the story of one of the most extraordinary years in Russian and world history relevant to today? Their answer lay in going back to the source material - diaries, memoirs, letters, news reports - and presenting it as a digital project, a daily feed delivered through social media platforms. This was Project 1917: each day subscribers would receive posts not from twenty-first-century contemporaries but from those living through the events of a hundred years earlier. The reader was able to eavesdrop on intimate conversations, trenchant commentary and ferocious debates on all sides of the revolutionary struggle. The reaction was remarkable: posts were 'liked' and 'retweeted' by thousands, many of them prompting real-time responses, as if readers hoped to strike up a direct conversation with figures from the past. In the two years since 2017, Project 1917, in collaboration with Pushkin House and Fontanka publishers, have worked to bring this rich source material together as a book. Presented in 12 chapters and illustrated throughout with archive photography, the book charts the course of an extraordinary year encompassing two revolutions, the end of the Romanovs and the rise of the Bolsheviks. Eyewitness 1917 is almost entirely unmediated - it is an account of the year in the words of those who lived through it: not just powerbrokers like Nicholas II, Kerensky and Lenin, but many others whose voices are often not heard - private citizens, ordinary soldiers, child diarists. The result is a dramatic retelling of the revolutionary story, as the reader shares the excitement and confusion of those caught up in events beyond their control. Mikhail Zygar is a Russian journalist, writer and filmmaker, and founding editor-in-chief of the independent Russian news channel Dozhd (2010-15). His bestselling book All the Kremlin's Men is based on interviews with Vladimir Putin's inner circle; his most recent, The Empire Must Die (2018), documents the demise of Russian civil society from 1900 to 1918.The book version really does help understand what it means to "live through history", where the events of the future are not known to the characters of the present. And where things could have taken another turn. Thanks to @_lordmax_ for the reference. https://t.co/3ZkegB97VI https://t.co/7gIj9ykZrx
Stiff
Mary Roach
"In ancient China, Confucian doctrine considered dissection [of cadavers] a defilement of the human body and forbade its practice. This posed a problem for the Father of Chinese Medicine, Huang Ti..." https://t.co/PnHajCi3Z7
Exercises in Programming Style
Cristina Videira Lopes
This is a really fun book that does for programming what Queneau did for prose. It rewrites the same simple program over and over again in 40 different styles. The embedded version The imperative version The functional version The ML version And so on. https://t.co/SlQHX86kKx
How the Internet Happened
Brian McCullough
Even more recent history is forgotten. Tech wasn't culturally central in 2008! It was only after the iPhone and the financial crisis that the true rise of the internet happened. McCullough's book is good on the lead up to this. https://t.co/S8WKl2OQWf
The Nature of Mathematical Modeling
Neil Gershenfeld
This book first covers exact and approximate analytical techniques (ordinary differential and difference equations, partial differential equations, variational principles, stochastic processes); numerical methods (finite differences for ODE's and PDE's, finite elements, cellular automata); model inference based on observations (function fitting, data transforms, network architectures, search techniques, density estimation); as well as the special role of time in modeling (filtering and state estimation, hidden Markov processes, linear and nonlinear time series). Each of the topics in the book would be the worthy subject of a dedicated text, but only by presenting the material in this way is it possible to make so much material accessible to so many people. Each chapter presents a concise summary of the core results in an area, providing an orientation to what they can (and cannot) do, enough background to use them to solve typical problems, and pointers to access the literature for particular applications.@DylanRaithel This book is almost 25 years old (sheesh!) and there are now more modern methods for some of the topics discussed, but in terms of just packing a punch per page I really enjoyed this back in the day. https://t.co/8QMCd698Vd
Deep Learning
Andrew Glassner
"A practical, thorough introduction to deep learning, without the usage of advanced math or programming. Covers topics such as image classification, text generation, and the machine learning techniques that are the basis of modern AI"--I’d seen Anscombe’s quartet many times before, but was reminded of it when flipping through this fun new book on deep learning [1]. It intentionally eschews equations, but has nice visuals like this one on conditional probability. [1] https://t.co/3VzGxs4D2v https://t.co/t8RrbPdLLe
The Craft
John Dickie
Anyone working on NFT collections should understand the history of the Freemasons. Many of their rituals could be usefully updated for the digital era. With modern technology, could feel like real magic. https://t.co/SPbWmm2hY3
Visual Complex Functions
Elias Wegert
Fun book proposes plotting all complex functions as colored contour plots. Kind of an obvious idea, but it's carried through systematically here. See sin(z) and cos(z) as you've never seen them before... https://t.co/xWxoIfp0Ye https://t.co/TUMkj9AmTv
The Cold Start Problem
Andrew Chen
A venture capitalist draws on expertise developed at the premier venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, and as an executive at Uber to address how tech's most successful products have solved the dreaded "cold start problem"--by leveraging networks effects to launch and scale towards billions of users. Although software has become easier to build, launching and scaling new products and services remains difficult. Startups face daunting challenges entering the technology ecosystem, including stiff competition, copycats, and ineffective marketing channels. Teams launching new products must consider the advantages of "the network effect," where a product or service's value increases as more users engage with it. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants utilize network effects, and most tech products incorporate them, whether they're messaging apps, workplace collaboration tools, or marketplaces. Network effects provide a path for fledgling products to break through, attracting new users through viral growth and word of mouth. Yet most entrepreneurs lack the vocabulary and context to describe them--much less understand the fundamental principles that drive the effect. What exactly are network effects? How do teams create and build them into their products? How do products compete in a market where every player has them? Andrew Chen draws on his experience and on interviews with the CEOs and founding teams of LinkedIn, Twitch, Zoom, Dropbox, Tinder, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest -- to provide unique insights in answering these questions. Chen also provides practical frameworks and principles that can be applied across products and industries. The Cold Start Problem reveals what makes winning networks successful, why some startups fail to successfully scale, and most crucially, why products that create and compete using the network effect are vitally important today.New book by @andrewchen. Useful for anyone trying to bootstrap a new community or network, which is virtually every founder these days. https://t.co/1jlIRDLFZ1
Tools of Titans
Timothy Ferriss
"Fitness, money, and wisdom--here are the tools. Over the last two years ... Tim Ferriss has collected the routines and tools of world-class performers around the globe. Now, the distilled notebook of tips and tricks that helped him double his income, flexibility, happiness, and more is available as Tools of Titans"--Page 4 of cover.There’s a continuum between individual-level prescriptive & cohort-level descriptive analyses. Just knowing what actions correlated with life improvement for folks with similar starting conditions may be helpful. A personalized version of @tferriss’s book. https://t.co/a8jvTTC5dI
Genghis Khan and the Quest for God
Jack Weatherford
"Reveals how Genghis Khan harnessed the power of religion to rule the largest empire the world has ever known. By the New York Times best-selling author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, "--NoveList."He created the world's greatest trading network and drastically lowered taxes for merchants, but he knew that if his empire was going to last, he would need something stronger and more binding than trade. He needed religion." https://t.co/cBVfnjf23w
The Journalist and the Murderer
Janet Malcolm
Explores the relationship between journalists and their subjects, and the question of journalistic ethics, using the lawsuit of convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald against author Joe McGinniss, as a case study@davidnevue @bennjordan This scam is just an unusually explicit version of their usual practices. Read the Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm of the New Yorker. Rated one of the top 100 nonfiction books of the 20th century by the Modern Library. https://t.co/T5pJSum49a https://t.co/edpTwVococ
The Anti-Christ
Friedrich Nietzsche
Did Christianity take down the Roman Empire? Two canonical sources on this are Gibbon [1] and Nietzsche [2] (“Christianity…undid the tremendous deed of the Romans”). See also Nixey [3]. [1]: https://t.co/WaAugJwarq [2]: https://t.co/ftIBF4DEpm [3]: https://t.co/mlUzdDhtKg https://t.co/mqpvrTWBnD https://t.co/7ZBSW7A4ZI
The Darkening Age
Catherine Nixey
Did Christianity take down the Roman Empire? Two canonical sources on this are Gibbon [1] and Nietzsche [2] (“Christianity…undid the tremendous deed of the Romans”). See also Nixey [3]. [1]: https://t.co/WaAugJwarq [2]: https://t.co/ftIBF4DEpm [3]: https://t.co/mlUzdDhtKg https://t.co/mqpvrTWBnD https://t.co/7ZBSW7A4ZI
- This edition of Super Imperialism is the finalized version of the analysis that Michael Hudson first published in the wake of President Nixon severing the dollar's link to gold in August 1971. Closing the gold window had been imminent since the London Gold Pool was disbanded in 1968 in response to the U.S. overseas military spending that had pushed the balance of payments into steadily deepening deficit since the Korean War (1950-51).
@gladstein referred me to this interesting book called Super Imperialism by Michael Hudson. Here’s his bit on Japan vs China: https://t.co/zFeRhQOftA https://t.co/jkaKgVlLEU
The Manga Guide to Electricity
Kazuhiro Fujitaki
Rereko is just your average high-school girl from Electopia, the land of electricity, but she's totally failed her final electricity exam! Now she has to go to summer school on Earth. And this time, she has to pass. Luckily, her ever-patient tutor Hikaru is there to help. Join them in the pages of The Manga Guide to Electricity as Rereko examines everyday electrical devices like flashlights, heaters, and circuit breakers, and learns the meaning of abstract concepts like voltage, potential, current, resistance, conductivity, and electrostatic force. The real-world examples that you'll find in The Manga Guide to Electricity will teach you: –What electricity is, how it works, how it's created, and how it can be used –The relationship between voltage, current, and resistance (Ohm's law) –Key electrical concepts like inductance and capacitance –How complicated components like transformers, semiconductors, diodes, and transistors work –How electricity produces heat and the relationship between current and magnetic fields If thinking about how electricity works really fries your brain, let The Manga Guide to Electricity teach you all things electrical in a shockingly fun way.There is a set of Japanese comic books that explains many technical concepts at an undergraduate level, with illustrations. It’s called the “Manga Guide” series and it is surprisingly good. https://t.co/VD7PjG7vHN https://t.co/6N1lMHwT9Y
Catching Fire
Richard W. Wrangham
In this stunningly original book, renowned primatologist Richard Wrangham argues that "cooking" created the human race. At the heart of "Catching Fire" lies an explosive new idea: The habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labor.@isabelleboemeke @tferriss Wrangham makes the case for one form of techno-biological co-evolution. His thesis is that cooking made us human. By outsourcing some human metabolism to the fire pit, natural selection had more slack capacity to work with for brain development. https://t.co/x43Budfele
The Age of Spiritual Machines
Ray Kurzweil
The creator of the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the Kurzweil synthesizer, and the Windows 95 voicerecognition program offers logical and readable forecasts about twentyfirst century technology. Reprint.Bet on technological progress. https://t.co/279vKLGMBk https://t.co/QnzmFKeGZz
The Journalist and the Murderer
Janet Malcolm
Explores the relationship between journalists and their subjects, and the question of journalistic ethics, using the lawsuit of convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald against author Joe McGinniss, as a case studyFor a long form confession by someone in the profession, read the Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm of the New Yorker. Rated one of the top 100 nonfiction books of the 20th century by the Modern Library. https://t.co/T5pJSum49a https://t.co/VEHze3qVTx
Hate Inc.
Matt Taibbi
Part tirade, part confessional from the celebratedRolling Stone journalist,Hate Inc. reveals that what most people think of as "the news" is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business In this characteristically turbocharged new book, celebratedRolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi provides an insider's guide to the variety of ways today's mainstream media tells us lies. Part tirade, part confessional, it reveals that what most people think of as "the news" is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business. In the Internet age, the press have mastered the art of monetizing anger, paranoia, and distrust. Taibbi, who has spent much of his career covering elections in which this kind of manipulative activity is most egregious, provides a rich taxonomic survey of American political journalism's dirty tricks. Heading into a 2020 election season that promises to be a Great Giza Pyramid Complex of invective and digital ugliness,Hate Inc. will be an invaluable antidote to the hidden poisons dished up by those we rely on to tell us what is happening in the world.See also @arianapekary on cable news [tweet below], @mtaibbi’s book Hate Inc [1], @bungarsargon’s recent book Bad News [2], and how hate drives clicks [3]. [1]: https://t.co/BQu9pJSU1V [2]: https://t.co/TycPqFlze0 [3]: https://t.co/fcrTybTxJj https://t.co/sFkd0vdcJh https://t.co/HfzIuXMfqd
Bad News
Batya Ungar-Sargon
"Bad News is a response to Thomas Frank's 2004 book "What's the Matter with Kansas." I ask the same question he asked about the right, but about the left: Why is the media obsessed with racism, even though it's getting objectively better by every measure we have? I argue that the liberal media is mainstreaming a woke culture war based on ideas that were relegated to the academic fringe as recently as a decade ago because it's in their economic interests to do so. It explores how digital media and social media supplied journalists, now part of the American elite, with an alternative way to feel like heroes while further consolidating power and wealth in the hands of the few rather than the many. The book then explores the larger context of the great American class divide, and how journalism has been both a product and accelerator of inequality"--See also @arianapekary on cable news [tweet below], @mtaibbi’s book Hate Inc [1], @bungarsargon’s recent book Bad News [2], and how hate drives clicks [3]. [1]: https://t.co/BQu9pJSU1V [2]: https://t.co/TycPqFlze0 [3]: https://t.co/fcrTybTxJj https://t.co/sFkd0vdcJh https://t.co/HfzIuXMfqd
The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
Timothy Gowers
A comprehensive guide to mathematics with over 200 entries divided thematically.If you only had one book. https://t.co/O0q9pPAiK8
Operation Snow
John Koster
Americans have long debated the cause of the December 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many have argued that the attack was a brilliant Japanese military coup, or a failure of U.S. intelligence agencies, or even a conspiracy of the Roosevelt administration. But despite the attention historians have paid to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the truth about that fateful day has remained a mystery—until now. In Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR’s White House Triggered Pearl Harbor, author John Koster uses recently declassified evidence and never-before-translated documents to tell the real story of the day that FDR memorably declared would live in infamy, forever. Operation Snow shows how Joseph Stalin and the KGB used a vast network of double-agents and communist sympathizers—most notably, Harry Dexter White—to lead Japan into war against the United States, demonstrating incontestable Soviet involvement behind the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A thrilling tale of espionage, mystery and war, Operation Snow will forever change the way we think about Pearl Harbor and World War II.McMeekin's book links up with Koster's Operation Snow [1] which goes into detail on how[2] and why the Soviets managed to get their Japanese and American rivals to fight. Just an under-theorized aspect of the whole thing. [1] https://t.co/n83eg0iQnS [2] https://t.co/XGKJ8x3W4m https://t.co/EyCATGDxvR
Stalin's War
Sean McMeekin
A major new history of the Second World War by a prize-winning historian We remember World War II as a struggle between good and evil, with Hitler propelling events and the Allied powers saving the day. But Hitler's armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit the spoils of war. That role belonged to Joseph Stalin. Hitler's genocidal ambition may have unleashed Armageddon, but as celebrated historian Sean McMeekin shows, the conflicts that emerged were the result of Stalin's maneuverings, orchestrated to unleash a war between capitalist powers in Europe and between Japan and the Anglo-American forces in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the United States and Britain's self-defeating strategy of supporting Stalin and his armies at all costs allowed the Soviets to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism. A groundbreaking reassessment, Stalin's War is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the roots of the current world order.Sean McMeekin's latest tour-de-force makes a strong case that Stalin should be thought of as the main actor in WW2 — not Hitler or the US. https://t.co/tyhSD8jUaz https://t.co/8IQ2cPmGnq
Private Truths, Public Lies
Timur Kuran
Preface Living a Lie The Significance of Preference Falsification Private and Public Preferences Private Opinion, Public Opinion The Dynamics of Public Opinion Institutional Sources of Preference Falsification Inhibiting Change Collective Conservatism The Obstinacy of Communism The Ominous Perseverance of the Caste System The Unwanted Spread of Affirmative Action Distorting Knowledge Public Discourse and Private Knowledge The Unthinkable and the Unthought The Caste Ethic of Submission The Blind Spots of Communism The Unfading Specter of White Racism Generating Surprise Unforeseen Political Revolutions The Fall of Communism and Other Sudden Overturns The Hidden Complexities of Social Evolution From Slavery to Affirmative Action Preference Falsification and Social Analysis Notes Index.Actions are in general more costly than words, but not always. In communist countries, there were plenty of things you couldn't say without punishment, but that you could act on, kind of. Public lies, private truths. https://t.co/gRLWwZV5Ie
The Gray Lady Winked
Ashley Rindsberg
The Gray Lady Winked is an eye-opening, at times shocking look at the 10 instances the New York Times's misreporting, distortions and fabrications changed the course of history.Read this book. It will show you why we need to replace this nepotist’s corporate “truth” with decentralized truth. https://t.co/4Cq2Azs9MB https://t.co/VY83jhWtjR https://t.co/8aAanBGJBj
Tomorrow, the World
Stephen Wertheim
A new history explains how and why, as it prepared to enter World War II, the United States decided to lead the postwar world. For most of its history, the United States avoided making political and military commitments that would entangle it in European-style power politics. Then, suddenly, it conceived a new role for itself as the world’s armed superpower—and never looked back. In Tomorrow, the World, Stephen Wertheim traces America’s transformation to the crucible of World War II, especially in the months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. As the Nazis conquered France, the architects of the nation’s new foreign policy came to believe that the United States ought to achieve primacy in international affairs forevermore. Scholars have struggled to explain the decision to pursue global supremacy. Some deny that American elites made a willing choice, casting the United States as a reluctant power that sloughed off “isolationism” only after all potential competitors lay in ruins. Others contend that the United States had always coveted global dominance and realized its ambition at the first opportunity. Both views are wrong. As late as 1940, the small coterie of officials and experts who composed the U.S. foreign policy class either wanted British preeminence in global affairs to continue or hoped that no power would dominate. The war, however, swept away their assumptions, leading them to conclude that the United States should extend its form of law and order across the globe and back it at gunpoint. Wertheim argues that no one favored “isolationism”—a term introduced by advocates of armed supremacy in order to turn their own cause into the definition of a new “internationalism.” We now live, Wertheim warns, in the world that these men created. A sophisticated and impassioned narrative that questions the wisdom of U.S. supremacy, Tomorrow, the World reveals the intellectual path that brought us to today’s global entanglements and endless wars.@JackNaneek You don’t achieve world domination by accident. Nothing inexorable about it. Read this interesting account of the foreign policy hands who (successfully!) turned the US into a global empire. https://t.co/07ToIhIweB
Move
Parag Khanna
"In the 60,000 years since people began colonizing the continents, a continuous feature of human civilization has been mobility. History is replete with seismic global events-pandemics and plagues, wars and genocides. Each time, after a great catastrophe, our innate impulse toward physical security compels us to move. The map of humanity isn't settled-not now, not ever. The filled-with-crises 21st century promises to contain the most dangerous and extensive experiment humanity has ever run on itself: As climates change, pandemics arrive, and economies rise and fall, which places will people leave and where will they resettle? Which countries will accept or reject them? How will the billions alive today, and the billions coming, paint the next map of human geography? Until now, the study of human geography and migration has been like a weather forecast. Move delivers an authoritative look at the "climate" of migration, the deep trends that will shape the grand economic and security scenarios of the future. For readers, it will be a chance to identify their location on humanity's next map"--From @paragkhanna’s new book, Move. https://t.co/JsgqiywjNu
AI Superpowers
Kai-Fu Lee
Introduction -- China's Sputnik moment -- Copycats in the Coliseum -- China's alternate Internet universe -- A tale of two countries -- The four waves of AI -- Utopia, dystopia, and the real AI crisis -- The wisdom of cancer -- A blueprint for human co-existence with AI -- Our global AI story@kmele Yeah, but they intentionally swallowed their pride & started out making plastic stuff. Then they ascended the value chain. Now they are world leaders in areas like drones (DJI) & have leverage over physical manufacturing. They aren’t to be underestimated. https://t.co/KuCapdji1X
Who We Are and How We Got Here
David Reich
Read it in combination with David Reich's work from a few years prior, which focuses much more on prehistory than the present day. https://t.co/hdzz58l7ac https://t.co/u9tFjyGVB4
The Genetic Lottery
Kathryn Paige Harden
Excellent new book by @kph3k. Recommended reading for all biomedical founders. https://t.co/U6QLxQSVkN
AI Superpowers
Kai-Fu Lee
Introduction -- China's Sputnik moment -- Copycats in the Coliseum -- China's alternate Internet universe -- A tale of two countries -- The four waves of AI -- Utopia, dystopia, and the real AI crisis -- The wisdom of cancer -- A blueprint for human co-existence with AI -- Our global AI story@SchalkDormehl @pieteradejong @RichardHanania China was openly copying for a while. They still do, but now are arguably ahead in many areas; see eg AI Superpowers or Kill Chain. The US is now copying China, without admitting it, and on the worst features. Cargo cult lockdown, internet censorship. https://t.co/KuCapdji1X
History Has Begun
Bruno Macaes
The virtualization of reality is a thesis that @MacaesBruno has explored at length. But the degree to which every behavior these days (politician, media, social media) is optimized for consumption on a screen is perhaps still underestimated. https://t.co/6NTV0Bd6sL
2034
Elliot Ackerman
The book 2034 by @elliotackerman (fmr USMC) explores near-future cyberwar. It's good at illustrating a well-known fact: cyberwar defense is very poor. On-chain code is a paradigmatically different alternative, due to surviving constant economic attack. https://t.co/1oLpnCZist
AI Superpowers
Kai-Fu Lee
@FredCheHampton Read AI Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee. Written just before the pandemic broke out in 2019, it's an important time capsule that shows (in an IMO convincing way) that China was pulling ahead in certain areas of applied AI even then. https://t.co/lIwFbQufnU
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
@bhorowitz has written about this dynamic. Technology as a pro-social channel for revolutionary energies. https://t.co/Hw3oO4oyJV https://t.co/BsaqbOopzf
AI Superpowers
Kai-Fu Lee
Introduction -- China's Sputnik moment -- Copycats in the Coliseum -- China's alternate Internet universe -- A tale of two countries -- The four waves of AI -- Utopia, dystopia, and the real AI crisis -- The wisdom of cancer -- A blueprint for human co-existence with AI -- Our global AI story@ctitusbrown A tech way of rephrasing your point is that US companies tend to be "light touch", while Chinese companies are "heavy touch". Focus on core competencies vs vertical integration, basically. Can mean disalignment on large projects. KF Lee talks about this: https://t.co/KuCapdji1X
Factory Physics
Wallace J. Hopp
Hopp and Spearman's Factory Physics is also excellent on this general topic. It's much easier to push a button on an assembly line than to design an assembly line. And many digital processes can be understood in part as assembly lines. https://t.co/O0TRAN1Lzt
The Goal
Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Written in a fast-paced thriller style, 'The Goal' contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas which underline the Theory of Constraints developed by the author.Ok, here's one. For any sufficiently complex process (manufacturing, support queues, etc) you want at least one person with no assigned task, standing back and staying flexible like a free safety. Goldratt's book is excellent on this non-obvious concept: https://t.co/C4a1YTL28k https://t.co/NSCMi0JrSU
Darkness at Dawn
David Satter
"Anticipating a new dawn of freedom and democracy after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russians instead find themselves in a country desperately impoverished and controlled at every level by criminals." https://t.co/DDa36UEeaJ https://t.co/8JEQXjEdoB
The Gray Lady Winked
Ashley Rindsberg
The Gray Lady Winked is an eye-opening, at times shocking look at the 10 instances the New York Times's misreporting, distortions and fabrications changed the course of history.@APompliano I agree with this. The other part is that they are now being forced to fight for the microphone after a long period of monopolistic dominance, so have gotten much nastier in public. @AshleyRindsberg’s book on the history here is phenomenal. https://t.co/4Cq2Azayo1
The Truth Machine
Paul Vigna
The authors explain both the technical and business-relevant concepts that blockchain technology affords digital security.I recall someone once wrote a good book on this! @paulvigna @mikejcasey https://t.co/JWqKd68Ksh
The Gray Lady Winked
Ashley Rindsberg
Important new book by @AshleyRindsberg. Everyone in tech & crypto should read it. The issues go much deeper than any one story. The core problem is entrusting the determination of truth to some random inherited media corporation, rather than cryptography. https://t.co/ytIwTzFBEe
The Truth Machine
Paul Vigna
@mweswood @profgalloway It’s computer science. Here’s a layman’s explanation of what Nakamoto consensus and related algorithms enable. https://t.co/8cxleOpZ2H
Where Is My Flying Car?
J Storrs Hall
What’s the next step for the global freedom class, for all the people who called crypto early, for those deploying adventure capital? Read this after you read the Sovereign Individual. The future we will fund after correcting the fiat deviation of 1971. https://t.co/HQQVRZvTjV
Where Is My Flying Car?
J Storrs Hall
The book he's reviewing is "Where is My Flying Car?". Don't judge this self-published book by its cover, just read it. It's only pi ($3.14) dollars on Amazon. https://t.co/ui4a5OQQtn
Working in Public
Nadia Eghbal
This is now out on Kindle for $10. Nadia is very smart and it’s worth reading anything she writes on open source. https://t.co/OyNlLHwRGh https://t.co/E6ZkKMoe0Z
UFO Hunters Book Two
William J. Birnes
The 2nd is the Tinley Park Lights. Crucially, this wasn't just a mass sighting. Different people actually caught a UFO on camera from multiple angles. With three video clips, these guys tried triangulating & doing image processing. The results were odd. https://t.co/xFJGWLSY3T https://t.co/wOpWYfNnnF
My Brother Ron
Clayton E. Cramer
@firasd https://t.co/sZXbB5mKQx https://t.co/TL8dzG9vLo
Merchants of Truth
Jill Abramson
The definitive report on the disruption of the news media over the last decade. With the expert guidance of former Executive Editor of The New York Times Jill Abramson, we follow two legacy (The New York Times and The Washington Post) and two upstart (BuzzFeed and VICE) companies as they plow through a revolution in technology, economics, standards, commitment, and endurance that pits old vs. new media. Merchants of Truth is the groundbreaking and gripping story of the precarious state of the news business told by one of our most eminent journalists. Jill Abramson follows four companies: The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and VICE Media over a decade of disruption and radical adjustment. The new digital reality nearly kills two venerable newspapers with an aging readership while creating two media behemoths with a ballooning and fickle audience of millennials. We get to know the defenders of the legacy presses as well as the outsized characters who are creating the new speed-driven media competitors. The players include Jeff Bezos and Marty Baron (The Washington Post), Arthur Sulzberger and Dean Baquet (The New York Times), Jonah Peretti (BuzzFeed), and Shane Smith (VICE) as well as their reporters and anxious readers. Merchants of Truth raises crucial questions that concern the well-being of our society. We are facing a crisis in trust that threatens the free press. Abramson’s book points us to the future.@matthewhughes Jill Abramson, former editor of the New York Times, on how business imperatives and pageviews drove the editorial process. From her book Merchants of Truth. https://t.co/9vq9lsqxWP
Only the Paranoid Survive
Andrew S. Grove
We’ve all read Grove. Only the paranoid survive. https://t.co/LhdyZXFpUf https://t.co/gHFbImsKRW
AI Superpowers
Kai-Fu Lee
Dr. Kai-Fu Lee - one of the world's most respected experts on AI and China - reveals that China has suddenly caught up to the US at an astonishingly rapid and unexpected pace. In AI SUPERPOWERS, Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power. Most experts already say that AI will have a devastating impact on blue-collar jobs. But Lee predicts that Chinese and American AI will have a strong impact on white-collar jobs as well. Is universal basic income the solution? In Lee's opinion, probably not. But he provides a clear description of which jobs will be affected and how soon, which jobs can be enhanced with AI, and most importantly, how we can provide solutions to some of the most profound changes in human history that are coming soon. AUTHOR: Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is the Chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, which is a leading technology-savvy investment firm focusing on developing the next generation of Chinese high-tech companies. Prior to founding Sinovation in 2009, Dr. Lee was the President of Google China. Previously, he held executive positions at Microsoft, SGI, and Apple.Kai-Fu Lee's book AI Superpowers holds up very well today in key ways. I initially thought it'd be a pop overview of AI. But it's actually a history of the Chinese tech ecosystem. Many of his takes on speed of execution & innovation have now proven out. https://t.co/poFCoFUW3H
The Great Influenza
John M. Barry
Four books on the Spanish Flu. 1) The Great Influenza: https://t.co/Kg3brTYjsJ 2) Pale Rider: https://t.co/D8wXxEhSPr 3) Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918: https://t.co/gopi47nQMw 4) Pandemic 1918: https://t.co/fk5Y7IPB9J https://t.co/sGwbn3BktY
Pale Rider
Laura Spinney
Four books on the Spanish Flu. 1) The Great Influenza: https://t.co/Kg3brTYjsJ 2) Pale Rider: https://t.co/D8wXxEhSPr 3) Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918: https://t.co/gopi47nQMw 4) Pandemic 1918: https://t.co/fk5Y7IPB9J https://t.co/sGwbn3BktY
Flu
Gina Kolata
Four books on the Spanish Flu. 1) The Great Influenza: https://t.co/Kg3brTYjsJ 2) Pale Rider: https://t.co/D8wXxEhSPr 3) Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918: https://t.co/gopi47nQMw 4) Pandemic 1918: https://t.co/fk5Y7IPB9J https://t.co/sGwbn3BktY
Pandemic 1918
Catharine Arnold
Four books on the Spanish Flu. 1) The Great Influenza: https://t.co/Kg3brTYjsJ 2) Pale Rider: https://t.co/D8wXxEhSPr 3) Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918: https://t.co/gopi47nQMw 4) Pandemic 1918: https://t.co/fk5Y7IPB9J https://t.co/sGwbn3BktY
From Third World to First
Lee Kuan Yew
Few gave tiny Singapore much chance of survival when it was granted independence in 1965. How is it, then, that today the former British colonial trading post is a thriving Asian metropolis with not only the world's number one airline, best airport, and busiest port of trade, but also the world's fourth–highest per capita real income? The story of that transformation is told here by Singapore's charismatic, controversial founding father, Lee Kuan Yew. Rising from a legacy of divisive colonialism, the devastation of the Second World War, and general poverty and disorder following the withdrawal of foreign forces, Singapore now is hailed as a city of the future. This miraculous history is dramatically recounted by the man who not only lived through it all but who fearlessly forged ahead and brought about most of these changes. Delving deep into his own meticulous notes, as well as previously unpublished government papers and official records, Lee details the extraordinary efforts it took for an island city–state in Southeast Asia to survive at that time. Lee explains how he and his cabinet colleagues finished off the communist threat to the fledgling state's security and began the arduous process of nation building: forging basic infrastructural roads through a land that still consisted primarily of swamps, creating an army from a hitherto racially and ideologically divided population, stamping out the last vestiges of colonial–era corruption, providing mass public housing, and establishing a national airline and airport. In this illuminating account, Lee writes frankly about his trenchant approach to political opponents and his often unorthodox views on human rights, democracy, and inherited intelligence, aiming always "to be correct, not politically correct." Nothing in Singapore escaped his watchful eye: whether choosing shrubs for the greening of the country, restoring the romance of the historic Raffles Hotel, or openly, unabashedly persuading young men to marry women as well educated as themselves. Today's safe, tidy Singapore bears Lee's unmistakable stamp, for which he is unapologetic: "If this is a nanny state, I am proud to have fostered one." Though Lee's domestic canvas in Singapore was small, his vigor and talent assured him a larger place in world affairs. With inimitable style, he brings history to life with cogent analyses of some of the greatest strategic issues of recent times and reveals how, over the years, he navigated the shifting tides of relations among America, China, and Taiwan, acting as confidant, sounding board, and messenger for them. He also includes candid, sometimes acerbic pen portraits of his political peers, including the indomitable Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, the poetry–spouting Jiang Zemin, and ideologues George Bush and Deng Xiaoping. Lee also lifts the veil on his family life and writes tenderly of his wife and stalwart partner, Kwa Geok Choo, and of their pride in their three children –– particularly the eldest son, Hsien Loong, who is now Singapore's deputy prime minister. For more than three decades, Lee Kuan Yew has been praised and vilified in equal measure, and he has established himself as a force impossible to ignore in Asian and international politics. From Third World to First offers readers a compelling glimpse into this visionary's heart, soul, and mind.@ErikVoorhees @matthewstoller 🙂 https://t.co/tqoe7ksKct
The Knowledge
Lewis Dartnell
First published by Penguin Press in hardcover as The knowledge: how to rebuild our world from scratch, 2014.@rajatsuri I agree with you generally. I do think however that autarky-as-backup-plan may come into vogue. Not the same standard of living as free trade, but not zero either in a supply chain disruption situation. It’s not easy but may be easier than people think. https://t.co/rAMKK8d9go
Start-up Nation
Dan Senor
START-UP NATION addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel-- a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources-- produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada and the UK? With the savvy of foreign policy insiders, Senor and Singer examine the lessons of the country's adversity-driven culture, which flattens hierarchy and elevates informality-- all backed up by government policies focused on innovation. In a world where economies as diverse as Ireland, Singapore and Dubai have tried to re-create the "Israel effect", there are entrepreneurial lessons well worth noting. As America reboots its own economy and can-do spirit, there's never been a better time to look at this remarkable and resilient nation for some impressive, surprising clues.@lorakolodny I love @dansenor's book! But I think we are going to see this trend accelerate. Just like there were Palm Pilots in 2000, but iPhones were bigger in 2010 and huge in 2020. https://t.co/kXsm0jLjEN
Netflixed
Gina Keating
Traces Netflix's rise throughout a decade-long war against Blockbuster, analyzing the polarizing characters attributed to its founders while evaluating how the company has become subject to competition and marketing tactics by cable companies and telecoms.What actually happened: Blockbuster tried to buy Hollywood Video, but the FTC called this off on antitrust (!) grounds. By 2010 Blockbuster was bankrupt and Netflix was soaring. In retrospect, state action was completely rearward looking and unnecessary. https://t.co/LndbQ2EIjd
- Matt Mochary coaches the CEOs of many of the fastest-scaling technology companies in Silicon Valley. With The Great CEO Within, he shares his highly effective leadership and business-operating tools with any CEO or manager in the world. Learn how to efficiently scale your business from startup to corporation by implementing a system of accountability, effective problem-solving, and transparent feedback. Becoming a great CEO requires training. For a founding CEO, there is precious little time to complete that training, especially at the helm of a rapidly growing company. Now you have the guidance you need in one book.
New book by Matt Mochary came out today. Preprint went viral on Hacker News a while back. @brian_armstrong and I used parts of this at Coinbase and @naval has used this at several of his companies. We found it helpful! https://t.co/nYtYzjweTc
Merchants of Truth
Jill Abramson
The definitive report on the disruption of the news media over the last decade. With the expert guidance of former Executive Editor of The New York Times Jill Abramson, we follow two legacy (The New York Times and The Washington Post) and two upstart (BuzzFeed and VICE) companies as they plow through a revolution in technology, economics, standards, commitment, and endurance that pits old vs. new media. Merchants of Truth is the groundbreaking and gripping story of the precarious state of the news business told by one of our most eminent journalists. Jill Abramson follows four companies: The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and VICE Media over a decade of disruption and radical adjustment. The new digital reality nearly kills two venerable newspapers with an aging readership while creating two media behemoths with a ballooning and fickle audience of millennials. We get to know the defenders of the legacy presses as well as the outsized characters who are creating the new speed-driven media competitors. The players include Jeff Bezos and Marty Baron (The Washington Post), Arthur Sulzberger and Dean Baquet (The New York Times), Jonah Peretti (BuzzFeed), and Shane Smith (VICE) as well as their reporters and anxious readers. Merchants of Truth raises crucial questions that concern the well-being of our society. We are facing a crisis in trust that threatens the free press. Abramson’s book points us to the future.@Henderburn @ani_pai @jeffjarvis > Do you know how to change a specific story to get more revenue from it? https://t.co/r8w3zBK6vW https://t.co/g7r6P7UuNX
The Journalist and the Murderer
Janet Malcolm
Explores the relationship between journalists and their subjects, and the question of journalistic ethics, using the lawsuit of convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald against author Joe McGinniss, as a case studyFrom the Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm of the New Yorker. Rated one of the top 100 nonfiction books of the 20th century by the Modern Library. https://t.co/T5pJSuDFxK
- You've probably heard about Bitcoin on the news or heard it being discussed by your friends or colleagues. How come the price keeps changing? Is Bitcoin a good investment? How does it even have value? Why do people keep talking about it like it's going to change the world?The Little Bitcoin Book tells the story of what's wrong with money today, and why Bitcoin was invented to provide an alternative to the current system. It describes in simple terms what Bitcoin is, how it works, why it's valuable, and how it affects individual freedom and opportunities of people everywhere - from Nigeria to the Philippines to Venezuela to the United States. This book also includes a Q & A section with some of the most frequently asked questions about Bitcoin.If you want to learn more about this new form of money which continues to gain interest and adoption around the world, then this book is for you.
Hackathons are a good start. Maybe there’s more we can do in terms of harnessing all that brainpower in one place? As an example, the Little Bitcoin Book was written in a few days by N people, one chapter each, and then published on Amazon. @calilyliu @jimmysong What else?
The Truth Machine
Paul Vigna
The authors explain both the technical and business-relevant concepts that blockchain technology affords digital security.More and more frequently, I point people to @paulvigna and @mikejcasey’s book for an accessible explanation of how blockchains allow us to establish certain kinds of truths even in adversarial environments. https://t.co/8cxleO8ob9 https://t.co/a0zsXR0L6y
My Brother Ron
Clayton E. Cramer
America started a grand experiment in the 1960s: deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. The consequences were very destructive: homelessness; a degradation of urban life; increases in violent crime rates; increasing death rates for the mentally ill. My Brother Ron tells the story of deinstitutionalization from two points of view: what happened to the author's older brother, part of the first generation of those who became mentally ill after deinstitutionalization, and a detailed history of how and why America went down this path. My Brother Ron examines the multiple strands that came together to create the perfect storm that was deinstitutionalization: a well-meaning concern about the poor conditions of many state mental hospitals; a giddy optimism by the psychiatric profession in the ability of new drugs to cure the mentally ill; a rigid ideological approach to due process that ignored that the beneficiaries would end up starving to death or dying of exposure.@rezendi https://t.co/sZXbB5Emf7 https://t.co/tDr5Y6gK0Y
The Man Who Invented Fidel
Anthony DePalma
In 1957, Herbert L.Matthews of the New York Times, then considered one of the premiere foreign correspondents of his time, tracked down Fidel Castro in Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains and returned with what was considered the scoop of the century. His heroic portrayal of Castro, who was then believed dead, had a powerful effect on American perceptions of Cuba, both in and out of the government, and profoundly influenced the fall of the Batista regime. When Castro emerged as a Soviet-backed dictator, Matthews became a scapegoat; his paper turned on him, his career foundered, and he was accused of betraying his country. In this fascinating book, New York Times reporter DePalma investigates the Matthews case to reveal how it contains the story not just of one newspaperman but of an age, not just how Castro came to power but how America determines who its enemies are. He re-creates the atmosphere of revolutionary Cuba and Cold War America, and clarifies the facts of Castro's ascension and political evolution from the many myths that have sprung up around them. Through a dramatic, ironic, in ways tragic story, The Man Who Invented Fidel offers provocative insights into Cuban politics, the Cuban-American relationship, and the many difficult balancing acts of responsible journalism.“[NYT reporter Herbert Matthews’] heroic portrayal of Castro, who was then believed dead, had a powerful effect on American perceptions of Cuba, both in and out of the government, and profoundly influenced the fall of the Batista regime.” https://t.co/0tE8pe8FWL
Ron Paul was to Bitcoin what Andrew Yang is to startup societies. Mainstreams ideas, prepares the ideological battlefield. https://t.co/W26YG3ghA1
If only Jack London’s Frisco was still au courant as a term for SF, this would be slightly more catchy Costco vs Frisco! https://t.co/nfHx5yBKuZ
Physics from Finance: A Gentle Introduction to Gauge Theories, Fundamental Interactions and Fiber Bundles
Jakob Schwichtenberg
Understanding modern physics doesn't have to be confusing and hard What if there was an intuitive way to understand how nature fundamentally works? What if there was a book that allowed you to see the whole picture and not just tiny parts of it? Thoughts like this are the reason that Physics from Finance now exists. What will you learn from this book? Get to know all fundamental interactions -Grasp how we can describe electromagnetic interactions, weak interactions, strong interactions and gravity using the same key ideas. Learn how to describe modern physics mathematically - Understand the meaning and origin of the Einstein equation, Maxwell's equations, and the Schrödinger equation. Develop an intuitive understanding of key concepts - Read how we can understand abstract ideas like Gauge Symmetry, Internal Spaces, Gauge Fields, Connections and Curvature using a simple toy model of the financial market. Get an understanding you can be proud of - Learn why fiber bundles and group theory provide a unified framework for all modern theories of physics. Physics from Finance is the most reader-friendly book on the geometry of modern physics ever written. Here's why. First of all, it's is nothing like a formal university lecture. Instead, it's like a casual conservation with a more experienced student. This also means that nothing is assumed to be "obvious" or "easy to see." Each chapter, each section, and each page focusses solely on the goal to help you understand. Nothing is introduced without a thorough motivation and it is always clear where each formula comes from. The book contains no fluff since unnecessary content quickly leads to confusion. Instead, it ruthlessly focusses on the fundamentals and makes sure you'll understand them in detail. The primary focus on the readers' needs is also visible in dozens of small features that you won't find in any other textbook In total, the book contains more than 100 illustrations that help you understand the most important concepts visually. Whenever a concept is used which was already introduced previously, there is a short sidenote that reminds you where it was first introduced and often recites the main points. In addition, helpful diagrams make sure you won't get lost.@js_horne This author’s work is a lot of fun. Not exactly art, but novel approach with a lot of visual inspiration. https://t.co/nbLagXvbmL
The Forgotten Man
Amity Shlaes
It's difficult today to imagine how America survived the Great Depression. Only through the stories of the common people who struggled during that era can we really understand how the nation endured. These are the people at the heart of Amity Shlaes's insightful and inspiring history of one of the most crucial events of the twentieth century. In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes, one of the nation's most respected economic commentators, offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. Rejecting the old emphasis on the New Deal, she turns to the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how through brave leadership they helped establish the steadfast character we developed as a nation. Some of those figures were well known, at least in their day—Andrew Mellon, the Greenspan of the era; Sam Insull of Chicago, hounded as a scapegoat. But there were also unknowns: the Schechters, a family of butchers in Brooklyn who dealt a stunning blow to the New Deal; Bill W., who founded Alcoholics Anonymous in the name of showing that small communities could help themselves; and Father Divine, a black charismatic who steered his thousands of followers through the Depression by preaching a Gospel of Plenty. Shlaes also traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers themselves as they discovered their errors. She shows how both Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt failed to understand the prosperity of the 1920s and heaped massive burdens on the country that more than offset the benefit of New Deal programs. The real question about the Depression, she argues, is not whether Roosevelt ended it with World War II. It is why the Depression lasted so long. From 1929 to 1940, federal intervention helped to make the Depression great—in part by forgetting the men and women who sought to help one another. Authoritative, original, and utterly engrossing, The Forgotten Man offers an entirely new look at one of the most important periods in our history. Only when we know this history can we understand the strength of American character today.@fmbutt I agree that those pressures were present. I find books like this useful as an alternate perspective on the era: https://t.co/6ZW8w2HHsI
The Future Is Asian
Parag Khanna
In the 19th century, the world was Europeanized. In the 20th century, it was Americanized. Now, in the 21st century, the world is being Asianized. The “Asian Century” is even bigger than you think. Far greater than just China, the new Asian system taking shape is a multi-civilizational order spanning Saudi Arabia to Japan, Russia to Australia, Turkey to Indonesia—linking five billion people through trade, finance, infrastructure, and diplomatic networks that together represent 40 percent of global GDP. China has taken a lead in building the new Silk Roads across Asia, but it will not lead it alone. Rather, Asia is rapidly returning to the centuries-old patterns of commerce, conflict, and cultural exchange that thrived long before European colonialism and American dominance. Asians will determine their own future—and as they collectively assert their interests around the world, they will determine ours as well. There is no more important region of the world for us to better understand than Asia – and thus we cannot afford to keep getting Asia so wrong. Asia’s complexity has led to common misdiagnoses: Western thinking on Asia conflates the entire region with China, predicts imminent World War III around every corner, and regularly forecasts debt-driven collapse for the region’s major economies. But in reality, the region is experiencing a confident new wave of growth led by younger societies from India to the Philippines, nationalist leaders have put aside territorial disputes in favor of integration, and today’s infrastructure investments are the platform for the next generation of digital innovation. If the nineteenth century featured the Europeanization of the world, and the twentieth century its Americanization, then the twenty-first century is the time of Asianization. From investment portfolios and trade wars to Hollywood movies and university admissions, no aspect of life is immune from Asianization. With America’s tech sector dependent on Asian talent and politicians praising Asia’s glittering cities and efficient governments, Asia is permanently in our nation’s consciousness. We know this will be the Asian century. Now we finally have an accurate picture of what it will look like.The American century is ending. The Asian century is beginning. https://t.co/0waq25dx80
The Knowledge
Lewis Dartnell
First published by Penguin Press in hardcover as The knowledge: how to rebuild our world from scratch, 2014.You might productize this. The $100,000 containerized homestead. Like a meal kit++, except it’s a kit with which to make all your meals. The Knowledge by @lewis_dartnell is a great conceptual starting place if you’re interested in this kind of thing: https://t.co/rAMKK7VxRO