Book updates
Ongoing reading list
This is a (mostly) chronological list of books I've read that I felt like writing little blurbs about. This page will be updated regularly and is not necessarily a list of recommendations but just what books I'm getting through and what I think of them.
Yearly lists can be found at the main book page
The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower Michael Pillsbury
This is a terrifying book The basic premise of the book is that China is waging an ongoing and covert competition against America, and we are more or less oblivious to it. The book describes in detail how the Chinese culture of warfare and deception are based around a complex language barrier, and how they are playing a 100 year game to accomplish their goals while here in America we change our strategy every four years. The Chinese have cultivated an image of weakness, and we have believed it. They are not investing into military strength as they know they can't compete with us but they also know we aren't likely to go into physical war so they are letting the US spend trillions in defense they are investing trillions into infrastructure and technology with the assumption that these will provide a better payoff in the long run. Reall scary book, but fascinating.
Too Big to Fail:How the Last Financial Crisis Informs Today Kerry Killinger, Linda Killinger
Studying the 2008 global financial collapse has been a fun hobby of mine for a few years now. What I have found most interesting are the narratives people tell about it and how different they are from reality. If you ask most people I think they will say the recession happened because homeowners bought houses they couldn't afford with adjustable rate mortgages, and while that didn't help the situation, that's not really what caused such a big problem. It's just a simple sounding narrative for a much more complex problem. Books written by the Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke, and Treasury Secretary Geithner would have you believe they are the ones who saved the economy with their decisions and without them it would have been far worse. This is the benefit of writing a book, the author gets to tell their story without rebuttal, but again, a good sounding narrative does not mean it's true. Then we have this book, written by the CEO of Washington Mutual about his version of what happened. His narrative is that he was the safest bank of them all, but the evil JP Morgan used their influence to have the government shut WAMU down and allow Morgan to buy them at a dirt cheap price during the downfall. Not that I have any interest in defending JP Morgan, but I can't help but to notice that no one in any of these books takes a lick of responsibility. Which is why I'm quite sure we are brewing another economic storm of greater proportions.
The Closing of the American Mind Allan Bloom
One of my 2021 favorites for sure and one of my all time favorite books on cultural philosophy. It's long, incredibly dense, and full of abstract ideas about the decay of American values. Written in 1987 the critiques it gives about the future of America have tracked well with our current reality. Like all great books, it's very hard to summarize this one. One of the themes is the ongoing problem of moral relativism. The idea is that when we all believe in our own values rather than a common shared values our demise will follow, which I think if you look at the news or social media is hard to disagree with. No one can agree on values or shared truth, and nothing is sacred, this makes unity impossible.
The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy William Strauss
This is a fantastic and terrifying book. What this book claims is that human culture is cyclical, and every ~20-25 years we go through a significant cultural reformation, but every ~100 years we go through an extremely drastic one. The authors claim the next cycle will end in the mid 2020's and no later than 2025. Looking at the fracturing in our culture this seems plausible, more interesting is the fact that it was written in 1997. This is not a scientifically driven book so it's all just a theory, but a very potent and fascinating one. Best of all, in 4 years we will know if it's correct!
Contagious: Why Things Catch On Jonah Berger
This one was ok. A mostly anecdotal opinion about why some things go viral and what makes thing sticky. If the author actually knew how to make viral content he would have done that instead of writing this book. It's an interesting read, but it's little more than a neat sounding narrative about a topic that's actually too complex to consistently and accurately manipulate.
The Righteous Mind Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion
This was an incredible book This book takes the teachings of behavioral economics that Daniel Kahneman discovered in "Thinking, Fast and Slow" and instead of applying them to financial markets it applies them to how people hold morals. It's been now proven that the brain has two systems, fast and slow. In this book Haidt calls them the elephant and the rider. The fast system (the elephant) is highly instinctual and works on emotion/efficiency/fear and produces the VAST majority of our decisions. The slow system (the rider) then rationalizes this decision to convince us we are right. It's really important to recognize that the slow system does not help us rationalize our opinion correctly with the world, it rationalizes whatever we think as being right and puts blinders on anything that disagrees with that initial emotional and instinctual position. This means that us humans are HIGHLY irrational, we all think we have correct and well thought out world views, and we are hard to convince otherwise. This is quite dangerous, it doesn't FEEL that way to anyone, and worst of all....it's been proven true over and over. The details of how they prove this are beyond the scope of this blog but they are fascinating and I suggest you read both books to find out for yourself In this book the idea is that you have a moral position about your political and religious beliefs and because this coms from your GUT it's extremely hard to change. This is also partly a biological construct meaning our differences in opinion are built into us, so arguing with people over politics might be as truly pointless as it sometimes feels I love this book because it explains the science behind our differences more than the people you disagree with can explain for themselves. This type of book is a perfect fit for why I read books in the first place: to better understand the people and world beyond what the average person even knows about themselves. HIGHLY RECOMMEND
Beyond Order Jordan Peterson
Jordan Peterson is non-stop brilliant as always. He's a very polarizing figure in the media but NOT because any of his ideas are particularly controversial, but we live in a world of HEADLINES and very little nuance and unfortunately Peterson is bad at catch phrases and great at nuance. The first book was much better, but this is still a close second. Some of my favorite rules from this book are: "Do not do what you hate." "Imagine who you could be and then aim single-mindedly at that." "Abandon ideology." "Be grateful in spite of your suffering." All of Peterson's rules have a great tendency of sounding new and unique while also being reinforced by ancient (often biblical) wisdom without sounding cliche or shallow. I HATE self help but I adore Jordan Peterson, and you should too.
Transcending the Levels of Consciousness: The Stairway to Enlightenment David Hawkins
This book is HOT GARBAGE written by a charlatan so full of shit that he has to self publish his own books. I was recommended this by someone I liked much more before they made me waste my time on this. This book contains no actual knowledge or fact whatsoever, not only is it pure fiction it's also poorly written and barely coherent. The author uses profound words for the sake of sounding profound but doesn't actually explain any of his claims and frequently rambles himself into perfect nonsense. This might be the most useless book I've ever picked up
The Coming of the Third Reich Richard Evans
This book is a great addition to another Nazi history book I recommend (and wrote extensively about below) "the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". This book covers the cultural and pollical forces that allowed the Nazi's to take power, all the way back to the late 1800's. It is not about the war, and it stops in 1933 when Hitler officially took power of Germany in a dictatorship. I personally prefer this type of book because I like learning about the abstract movements inside a society. Hitler didn't just take control of Germany one day, it was decades of German culture that allowed it to happen, it took a combination of forces such as a broken economy and specifically a period of hyperinflation, new media inventions such as radio and movies, public anger at the current politician regime, DEEP frustration from the Germany people with how the treaty of Versailles ended, and more. Additionally, Hitler tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the government violently in 1927 and failed but only encouraged him to try again with more legal means. This book is fantastic because it takes a period of history that everyone knows about and breaks out the nuance of cultural change over time that allowed it. People say "It can't happen here" and maybe that's true, but if you don't know specifically how it happened in Germany then you don't know what to look for. As I said in my review of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich": "If you're looking for concentration camps to be alarmed, you're 12 years too late".
Economic Facts and Fallacies Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell engages in many popular "commonly known facts" about economics and really dives into their validity. From the causes and implications of black/white inequality to very common;y repeated "fact" that "women get paid 70% of what a man does for the same job" and others. These are hard to approach topics and non-economists have all sorts of opinions about them but Sowell makes the nuance of these ideas so accessible without resorting to bias opinions. As with many things in the world the more simple the argument the less valid it likely is, this is a great book for anyone who wants to better understand complex economics without the dry tediousness that one would expect from this topic. highly recommend!
Animal Farm George Orwell
I just reread this book for the first time since high school and it’s still as important work as ever. George Orwell, one of the greatest writers of all time, tells a story about the animals on a farm that get sick of their tyrant human overlords and overthrow them to install a governing system for themselves. The story is a reference to the 1917 Russian socialist revolution, which started out with seemingly good intentions but was eventually hijacked by a powerful cynic and cult of personality named case Joseph Stalin. Many people see this book (and Orwell in whole) as a referendum against socialism, but that is not really what this book is about, which is why it’s so important to read this book without political dogma clouding your judgment. The russian revolution, and Animal Farm, show little of the downsides of the political movement of Socialism and everything to do with how authoritarian leaders use political dogma and social chaos as a means to install dictatorships and totalitarianism. Totalitarianism describes when a government has nearly total control of it’s populace, notable examples include Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, and current day North Korea, along with other instances. Totalitarianism transcends left or right politics and those who want power take it while the masses are bickering about day to day events. So what does Animal Farm teach us? The idea of the book was that the humans were bad and the animals were good, so when the animals took power they would use it for good when it came to the other animals, but this was not what happened. When the pigs took power, they used it to become tyrannical exactly like the humans did. They lied, manipulated, and oppressed the fellow animals so they could have total power for themselves. The point of the book, and the lesson to be learned is that no person is above corruption and anyone in power will do whatever they can to keep power at the expense of the populous. Do not trust altruistic or well well spoken leaders, falling in love with a politician is like falling in love with a stripper: only a sucker does it. The Bolshevik revolution in 1917 Russia was supposed to install Socialism: a government by the people, for the people, where resources are distributed more fairly. The IDEA of it is great but the problem is that people are inherently susceptible to corruption and none of them are above it. Animal Farm is a brilliant insight into the flaws of human nature and a reminder to always be suspicious of our leaders.
Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
This is a book like no other, and let me state with the utmost of clarity, that is an enticement and a warning. The book is about a committed pedophile and it's written from the first person perspective as if he's having a private conversation with the reader. The main character is not really a protagonist, but he's so compelling to listen to it's hard not to get sucked into his story. Sort of like driving slowly past a brutal car accident, you know nothing good is happening there but we feel urged to watch anyway. I never heard of this book until early in the year when I heard about it 2 or 3 times in a week, which I took to mean the universe is telling me to read it. Then I found out Jeremy Irons is the narrator, THEN I found out Stanley Kubrik had made a film about it. This book is not pro-pedophilia, but it's not really ant-pedophilia either, it's just a bizarre insight into the mind of this creepy dude. It was very intriguing to me that a book about such a taboo topic has been so popularized so heavily So I read it, and I can confirm that it's like nothing else I've ever read. It's bizarre and disgusting in the most straightforward ways: the main character chases around the 12 year old daughter of a woman he's dating. Through the book the character has one goal and a fixed mindset and everything he does revolves around this singular purpose: to have sex with Lolita.
The Paranoid Style in American Politics Richard Hoffstader
This is the second book by this author, the first "Anti-intellectualism in American Life" was a fantastic insight into the history of the education and intellectual culture of the United States. I loved that book so naturally I wanted to read another by the same guy, this entry was a similar history lesson but in politics timeliness matters. This book was written in the 1964 and while I generally prefer older books, this one just didn't hold up as well for me. Hoffstader describes some of the origins of our hyper-polarizing political culture from the 50's and 60's, how politicians create US versus THEM situations especially through emotion rather than policy, but politics has gone so insane over the last 60 years that I think this doesn't get a comprehensive enough insight to be as impactful as it was at the time of writing. A better entry for this type of content is the book below: The Blank Slate, or one I read more recently on this list: The Righteous Mind. I'll still read some more of Richard Hoffstader as he's a great writer and smart fella, this one just happens not to have gained much value with the passage of time.
The Blank Slate Steven Pinker
This was an incredible book and one of the most impactful I've ever read. This book deep dives the nuanced arguments and ideas of both political extremes all surrounding the main idea of "nature versus nurture". I love to discuss politics but I hate political theater, I prefer long deep nuance about a topic, thorough context, and most of all I like when someone is willing to put forth a socially taboo when they think they are right. This is not an easy book but there is a 100% chance this book discusses ideas you have opinions about and provides perspective about those ideas that you haven't considered. This book shows the world is never black and white and always grey. This will be one of my all time favorites.
Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen Steve Sims
An autobiography disguised as self help and good at neither. Barely entertaining. I'm sure the author made a bunch of money selling this book.
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Tim Marshall
Fantastic book describing the geopolitics that different nations have to deal with. Every country has it's unique neighbors, land, coastlines, and resources to make use of, the world is relentlessly unfair and this book talks about how countries have made decisions based on what resources they have available. Examples include China's giant land mass to manage with multiple neighbors, how a huge Russia has only water access to Europe through the a single Ukrainian port, and how America has 2 neighbors on good terms , ocean front on the east and west, and has a plethora of natural resources making us the luckiest country to ever exist. Fantastic book and not a super difficult read, highly recommend it.
Dune Frank Herbert
Dune is a classic sci-fi book that has inspired so much of our modern culture and with a new version of the movie coming out I just had to read it. I did not love it. It's got a very well written and created world that's thorough and interesting but I found it to be fairly unrelatable story, sci-fi for the sake of it. It's like Shakespeare in its' scope and theater, but without the relatable human archetypes. Worse still the book felt like an incomplete story, which led me to find out that there are something like ~30 books in the Dune series. If you want mindless fiction to poor yourself into endlessly for no benefit, Dune is your book!
The Untethered Soul Michael Singer
This book is not for everyone and I personally would have dismissed it as feel-good silliness 2 or 3 years ago. Luckily, I didn't read it 2 or 3 years ago, and so as with many books in life this was the right book at the right time. After a hard breakup in 2020 I was having a terrible time of dating, until I met this one incredible lady whom I had a single date with and then was very upset she didn't like me in return. She recommended my this book and I'm eternally grateful for, it's a book about finding internal spiritual peace and why we are so prone to depression and anxiety. How to find mindfulness and live in the moment.
I wrote a more in depth review of The Untethered Soul here.
The Assault on Intelligence Michael Hayden
This is a book about politics with a fairly one sided negative view of Donald Trump. I DO NOT consider it to be biased one sided propaganda intended to sell an agenda While many politicians and pundits write those sorts of books I generally avoid them like the plague (regardless of which side they are on). This however was reasonable critique from someone who is extremely well versed in the field. I don't think any politician is above reasonable critique. (I provide this comment up front because some people don't care to hear any potential negative comments about their god-king and I want to save them from this potentially scary book.) The Assualt on Intelligence covers the Trump presidency from the intelligence agency perspective, not his cultural or policy stances. I don't think it's any secret that Donald Trump was not a fan of American intelligence agencies, and that was made abundantly clear when in 2018 at the Helsinki summit he sided with Russia over his own FBI. There are always two sides to a story, this is just one of them, but it's interesting.
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race Thomas Ligotti
This book is some hardcore cynicism....which I kina love. It's written by a horror fiction writer and he expresses that it's written with a horror feel to it. The idea of the book is sort of Nihilistic (Nihilism is the cynical philosophy that nothing matters, so everything is permitted) but this book is actually far darker than your standard bleak nihilism. The main idea is that as humans we are all inevitably going to die, just like animals, but we are the only species who is self aware of this fact and to cope with this miserable fact our society has spent thousands of years creating stories, religions, and comforting lies to make us ok with this fact so that we can be productive members of society. This is the conspiracy against the human race. This book is a fun read with a unique idea and it's VERY well written but I don't consider it high level philosophy or psychology.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff
This was an incredible read and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone. There was an abridged version of this book combined with another book I loved called "The Coddling of the American Mind" made for Netflix called "The Social Dilemma" which was good but it only scratched the surface of the problem we are creating for ourselves. This book describes the power we are giving social media companies, the obscene amount of data we are giving them for free, and how they are using that data to manipulate our behavior towards their goals and worse than that, there is concrete evidence that it is working. We are being manipulated to the ends of corporate interests who are profiting from it and there is zero regulation or protection for users in place or on it's way. We are creating our own demise and it's worse than I had thought when I picked up this book. The author uses the term 'Inevitabalism' to describe our impending doom. Everyone sort of knows the dangers of social media but you're probably like me in that you only know the surface problems, this book will terrify you but hopefully like me, you prefer scary truth over blissful ignorance.
This Time is Different, Eight Centuries of Financial Folly Carmen Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff
Hint, this time is NOT different. Economies have been collapsing since the beginning of economies, and all for a variety of different small reasons and all for a few of the same very big reasons. the big reasons being inflation and excessive debt, which if you're not paying attention to current market macroeconomics, that is what's currently occurring.
Stress Test Timothy Geithner
On the Genealogy of Morals Friedrich Nietzche
I love Nietzche! I know it's old, obscure, and seems like a waste of time but what I've gained from reading his work is far and away more valuable than the cumulative self helps works I've ever read. No one writes with his conviction, and he doesn't lean into the delicate new age self help platitudes of "You can do it if you believe in yourself". Instead Nietzsche says there are weak people and there are strong people, and strong people have a responsibility to exercise their will upon the world. I've added 4-5 more books of his on to my wish list so expect more updates in the future.
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
I love dystopian fiction and I love understanding the dangers of censorship. This book explores a future where society burns all books to prevent the citizens from painful knowledge. Instead the population is stupid, docile, and happy. I identify with this because books often cause me struggle when I learn the world is far from perfect. Not reading books will certainly let you live in blissful ignorance, but is that what is really best for us as a culture? I say no. This book has encouraged me to read more than ever, I highly recommend this one.
The Color of Law Richard Rothstein
This book is about how systemic racism permeates through our culture legally and mostly through real estate. My background is in banking, so much of this wasn't super new information. Things like redlining, blockbusting, and steering are well documented and quite illegal already (though they still do happen). What might not be common knowledge are things like, the VA loan program was the largest generator of wealth for Americans coming out of world war 2, but it wasn't available to black veterans until decades later. This creates generational wealth disparity that is simply not possible to undue in any easy manner. I learned that after the 2008 the subprime mortgage crisis research found that the black community had a very higher rate of subprime mortgages than they deserved. Meaning, a population of people that qualified for low rate, low risk mortgages were not given them! They were instead given higher rate, higher risk mortgages at their detriment.
Benjamin Franklin, An American Life Walter Isaacson
Ben Franklin is one of the most impressive Americans to ever live. He was a prolific writer, a successful businessman, an inventor, and a immense political influence. This book is really good for anyone interested in the entrepreneurial spirit and American history. My favorite quote from this book: "“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
I don't read much fiction but Tolstoy is incredible and this book is often regarded as the greatest novel of all time, which means I had to read it! These Russian writers all have the same long drawn out and dreary style and I'm finally starting to understand why: it forces the reader really commit and get involved with the characters. I appreciate this now even though this is one very long book, because I deeply felt what this book was saying about humanity. This book is about many things, part of it is about the gap between morality and materialism, while the big story is about Anna and he struggle to seperate fleeting happiness versus impulsive pleasure. it's quite a tragic book but worth the read, HIGHLY recommend this one.
The Right Side of History Ben Shapiro
I'm not a big fan of Ben Shapiro but in my circles this book got good reviews so I checked it out. Ben's argument is that polarization and overly political correctness are worsening and causing us social harm. I agree with him 100% on this. However, his reasoning for how this happens is somewhere between weak and non-existent. Ben is a right wing propagandist and he's selling books, he can't seem to help himself simply blame the liberals for all problems since the dawn of humanity, which I find to be intellectually lazy. Ben takes account of our value system and how we got here, his understanding of history is thorough, accurate, and impressive. How he uses that knowledge though is lackluster and highly biased. I found this to be quite disappointing and he never really answers the questions he asked at the beginning of the book. I can't stress enough the deep historical accuracy this book contains, I just wish the author was more deliberate in his analysis of that history.
The Fifth Risk Michael Lewis
My criticism of Micheal Lewis is always the same: he tells a great narrative about large topics but approaches them through anecdotes. This is a great way to make readers relate to a story but a terrible way to interpret how the world really operates. This book is a scathing critique of the Trump administration and how they have handled running the government since the election. Donald Trump ran as an outsider with no political experiences, I'm not sure why anyone would expect him to have been doing a good job when he came in and it was clear from his campaign (and up until now, June 2020) that he wasn't going to put a lot of work in to be proficient in government operations. I will say, this book is well researched and very insightful into the nuance of how risks in government compound. If you like politics (not the team sport of politics) you will probably like this one.
World War Z Max Brooks
Despite the raving reviews of this book and particularly the audio version, I completed it unimpressed. I started this at the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic as it seemed really applicable. However, the book doesn't contain a plot or a purpose it's written as a journalist account of the zombie apocalypse after it's already happened. It displays the stupidity, shortsightedness, and panic that humans exude when in situations of mass havoc. There is nothing else to learn from this book other than humans are irrational and stupid in groups. I already knew that so I didn't find much else to excite me in this book.
Beyond Good and Evil Fredrich Nietzsche
I love Nietzche so much! This was the second time I read this book, the first time was difficult for me to understand and the book is largely a response to many philosophy of the day so I needed a bit more understanding of the base material before I really got it. The book dives deep into the question of what is good and what is evil. Nietzsche posits that all morality is relative and there no philosophers that find real morality but simply present their personal opinion of morality “There is no such thing as moral phenomena, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena” This is just a taste of an outright brilliant text on morality and individualism. Neitzche is a hardcore individualist which pings me in particular but he's also a Nihilist which I relate to as well so this may be my bias but I think most people would enjoy/find value in this book.
The Road to Wigan Pierbr George Orwell
Orwell isn't famous for this book and I hadn't really heard of it either but I went looking for his other works in hopes they would compare to 1984 and Animal Farm. The book is an analysis of the pragmatism of Socialism versus the reality of how people view and support/oppose it. Unfortunately I think the book was bit too time specific for me to find it very useful.
Magna Carta Dan Jones
This book is a bit dreary and not many would enjoy it, I barely enjoyed it. The history of the Magna Carta is interesting, but most people would not find much value here. The Magna Carta, signed in 1215 and was a political mess right from the start was a creation of some local governors airing grievances against the king and demanding concessions from him. This isn't a big deal now, but at the time it was the first time this had happened. Never before had a King had to acquiesce to his subjects, even powerful governors like the ones in questions, and then had the agreement to change with specific conditions written and signed by all parties. It represented a giant leap forward in the rights of the people and even the United States documents of freedom often cite the Magna Carta as a heavy influence.
Trust me, I'm Lying Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday always delivers and this book is no different, the content is exciting if not terrifying. It's pretty obvious that the media is driven by clicks, that's how they get paid, and nothing sells better than sensationalist and controversial content. Ryan tells his story of exploiting the user base for profit, he acknowledges that this makes him a pretty awful human being, and I want to make sure I say it too because admitting you're using your power against your fellow human does make you an awful human and admitting it only partially absolves you. With that said, the book is fascinating if not cynical and it's good for people to know just how corrupt the media is. I recommend this one!
Atomic Habits James Clear
I read this because a friend highly recommended it and I generally read everything people tell me to even when I don't have high expectations. This is a new age self help book, which if you don't know that I disdain, let me say it here clearly: I disdain new age self help. Life is a difficult journey that has difficult trials to overcome and reading lessons on how to navigate those difficulties is important. What this book and many like it do is create a very superficial vision of "success" and then formulate a strategic way to achieve that meaningless goal. Habits and structure are important, and the small things you do absolutely impact how your life turns out, but the hype around this book is more correlated to the marketing effort that has surrounded it rather than it's content. It won't be in print 10 years from now, it's a cash grab for young and impressionable people who need something to make themselves FEEL good about self development. If you're young and impressionable, you may enjoy it, but a wonder of the literary world it is not.
Propaganda Edward Bernays
I hoped I would like this book more but it was a bit unfulfilling. I love better understanding how propaganda is weaponized against people but with this book being written in 1928 I was hoping it would be a hidden gem of early insight into the idea of propaganda, instead I found it to be a bit outdated and underwhelming compared to other works on the subject.
Debt: The first 5000 years David Graeber
I absolutely love this book and HIGHLY recommend it. I'm reading it early in 2020 but it's likely to make my best of the year list. It combines all my favorite topics: History, Economics, Social Culture, and Government. It does have the flaw of being a bit anecdotal but no book is perfect and this is certainly an acceptable misgiving compared to the value I found in it.
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
I read this book because ~3 years ago I saw Bill Gates (who I'm a huge fan of) say that he's always wanted to read it but it was dauntingly long so he has refrained. Well to me, anything that Bill couldn't do was something I HAD to. Unfortunately it is dauntingly long so I put it off until just now. It's fiction, which I'm generally not a fan of at all and unfortunately this one didn't convert me however there I can say for sure that I've never read anything else like this. For starters, it comes at the tail end of Postmodernism and creates a brilliant critique of the era. The book is an incredible insight into individuality versus consumerism, addiction (of drugs and things), and it's character development is wildly thorough. I'm happy I never have to read it again, coming in at 55 hours on Audible this is the second longest book I've consumed and at this length you really have to commit to a book.
Modern Man in Search for a Soul Carl Jung
A fantastic insight from one of the fathers' of modern Psychology, Jung bridges new age scientific understanding of our consciousness and personalities with ancient religious morals. One of only a handful of books that I have found excellent in reconciling science and religion, this book is also partly the basis for the very popular Meyers-Briggs personality teletype. If you like psychology and/or philosophy this book is for you!
A Universe From Nothing Lawrence Krauss
I try to read a few science books a year. It's not the subject I'm best at but I've always found it useful to understand the biggest possible topics I can which makes the smaller topics much easier. Why is there something instead of nothing? Lawrence Krauss is a famous theoretical physicist and public science educator, a great mind to learn from AND if you listen to audible he narrates this book himself. What a time to be alive! I can sit in my car and learn the physics of the early formation of the universe by one of the smartest scientists in the field through his book and his own voice. This was not possible in any time before now and it's an advantage not to be dismissed.
A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn
Do you want to be a cynic?! This is a book crammed full of cynicism. This isn't a patriots account of how great our country is, it's a history of all the things that the US propaganda machine tries to make us forget. Mostly our constant oppression of lower class people here in the US, our imperialist foreign policy objectives, and all the lies that go along with them.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty
This incredible work of macroeconomics was well needed for me and I recommend it for anyone who wants a broad understanding of how inequality shaped our past (the most recent 150 years) and will shape our future. The premise of the book is that inequality rises when the R > G. That's the rate of return from wealth is greater than the rate of growth from production. This means when a countries total income increases more from interest accumulated in capital faster than the growth of labor production, inequality increases. Inequality is not a curable phenomenon and this book doesn't' advocate for such an approach. However, how much inequality and how it's spread throughout an economy does matter as rampant inequality is the source of nearly every political revolution in history. From the book: "“When the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of growth of output and income, as it did in the nineteenth century and seems quite likely to do again in the twenty-first, capitalism automatically generates arbitrary and unsustainable inequalities that radically undermine the meritocratic values on which democratic societies are based.”
The Revolution Betrayed Leon Trotsky
Socialism is a hot topic again these days, as it always is during election season. It's interesting for me to learn how much deep nuance there is in the history of Socialism. Leon Trotsky was a military leader in the red army who, along with Lenin, overthrew the Czarist government of Russia in 1917. On the back of 'The Communist Manifesto" they were going to install a temporary government to distribute resources until they could eventually eliminate the government and have a "dictatorship of the proletariat". Along the way Stalin found opportunity in this new government and hijacked it with his cult of personality. He then did the opposite of what the Bolsheviks wanted and created a massive government bureaucracy aimed at keeping himself in power and eliminating political enemies. Trotsky wrote this book while in exile from Russia against the Stalinist government as a betrayal of the true socialism they were trying to install. Trotsky was later assassinated for his dissent. Most people only know that "Socialism is bad" but have less context about how the history was really formed. If you really want to know the nuance, this is a great insight.
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky
I've been quite clear about my disdain for fiction, but occasionally I get one that pings me hard. This was one of them. Beautifully written, albeit long and sometimes tedious, this is a story of the internal struggle that comes with murder. I love reading moral philosophy and find it incredibly valuable. Highly recommend to anyone who knows there is more to understanding human life than can be found in the shallow writings of self-help.
The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins
Dawkin's 1976 work on our evolutionary biology is a must read for anyone who wants to better understand what our true relationship to nature is. We may have Starbucks and cell phones, but we are still animals. Not nearly as far removed from the habits and behaviors of the animal kingdom as it may seem. To deny this is to deny our natural biology. Man is not selfish as a holistic concept, but our genes are all very selfish on the micro level.
A People's History of the Supreme Court: The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped Our Constitution Peter Irons, Howard Zinn - foreword
The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism F. A. Hayek
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong James W. Loewen
Does it concern you that the government makes public school MANDATORY and then gets to dictate the curriculum as well? We learned in school what the government wanted us to learn. Funny how I got out of school and thought America was the worlds purveyor of piece and moral high ground. Most people know that Columbus didn't discover America, he showed up and committed genocide, and now we honor him. Seems weird. This book covers the Indians, black/white race relations, and other taboo topics like class structure and social mobility. Things that the government wants to tell you about but not actually learn about. Take some time to be a cynic like me ;)
Capitalism & Slavery Eric Williams
This book was quite eye opening in how early capitalism changed with the industrial revolution. The quotes from politicians in the days of slavery are astounding in today's context. It's clear that the only reason slavery ended was because the economics of it changed with the invention of machine work. There was very little moral argument to end it other than at the last of the timeline as a political way to leverage the slave owning holdouts. Another thing this book makes abundantly clear is that black chattel slavery was not born out of racism, racism was formed because of the slave trade we created. "God for- bid," said Lord Wynford, "that there should be anything like a forcing of the master to abandon his property in the slave! Once adopt that principle and there was an end to all property."
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman Richard Feynman
This autobiography was great. A Nobel prize winning physicist tells his story about how to think about the world differently through his entire life. It's hilarious, smart, and entertaining. Easy read!
Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker
This was a fantastic book. I found it on Bill Gate's reading list (where I find many of my choices). It's a bit of a dense book about the abstract idea of the 'the enlightenment' which like most people I had heard this term and had a vague understanding of what it meant but was quite under informed. Can the world be better in the future than it is today, and what will it take for that to happen? Things don't go well automatically, in fact quite the opposite, if we are apathetic or too cavalier about how we treat the future it absolutely can go worse.
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life Richard Hofstader
This book really deserves a full review from me. Maybe I'll add one later, but for now I will say this book is fantastic! It's written in 1961 but it's a history of American society so the older date doesn't negative impact the narrative much. In fact I often prefer slightly older books so I can avoid the politicization of current day books. The premise of this book is that Anti-intellectualism in America has a constant impact that fluctuates in intensity and it's born of our rebellious nature. This book reminds me greatly of another called "Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire". Both books are founded on the premise that Americans can find their own truth, and we says fuck you to authority. It's how we became independent and it's built into our culture. In many ways it's a beautiful and encouraging way to live, but it has flaws. The big one being that we can deny science, rationality, and intellect if we so choose and we can feel redeemed for this behavior for the same reason: it's built into our culture to be rebellious. The title is surely a bit pretentious but the content is top notch. Will likely be in my favorite books of the year.
Upheaval Jared Diamond
For some reason this author is extremely highly regarded, and I just don't get it. His last famous book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" I thought was inferior to my much preferred "Why the West Rules....for now" and this one didn't do it for me either. I read it because Bill Gates put it on his summer reading list and generally Bill provides great recommendations. This one though is long, tedious, and the motive of the book: understanding how countries adapt to large crisis did not pack much punch in my opinion. Meh
The Dictator's Handbook Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith
This was a fantastic read, albeit quite cynical. I started reading a history a few years back now and I found it incredibly useful to better understand how today's world works. This one in particular is neat because it discusses similarities in all political leadership, from dictatorship to democracy. One thing I've noticed as a never ending trend in human behavior is our propensity to be selfish. This book has only served to confirm that position.
The (Mis)behaviour of Markets Benoit Mandelbrot
Rarely will I get the opportunity to say this becuase I'm a cerebral stud but: This book was too smart for me I read this book because Nassim Taleb raves about it and Mandelbrot's work, both these guys are outside my level of intelligence though. I read the whole thing, I grasped some but far from all of it. I really need someone to read this book and create a summary for me. Please help!
The Creature from Jekyll Island G. Edward Griffin
Are you a conspiracy theorist, this book is FOR YOU. If you're a reasonable person who likes to understand nuance of a complicated topic and you HATE being sold heavily biased perspectives to push someone else's agenda then this book is NOT for you!
I've written a long form review here if you want details.
How Google Works Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
My brother recommended this book, it's definitely something he would love. I thought it was ok, but it was useful to hear what those in charge of such an influential company say are important factors in running a business. Consider the customer first and competition last Culture in a company is of utmost importance
The Kingdom of God is Within You Leo Tolstoy
I read this book because I wanted to learn more about the history of Christianity, I received so much more than I could have asked for. I am not a religious person, but I have spent my life learning about religion. This book is truly amazing. It discusses the gap between the teachings of the bible, and the actions of the church. It discusses how the government and church apparatus manipulate the poor to do it's bidding in the name of religion. Really loved this book
A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
Great book on our understanding of the world, and how we grew to understand it. It's mostly focused on scientific discoveries.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra; A Book for All and None Friedrich Nietzche
I absolutely adore this book. It's a 250 year old philosophy on ethics, virtue, and man's journey to reach his fullest potential. I grossly underestimated how much I would love this one
GRIT Angela Duckworth
Another self-help book backed by ZERO science and 100% anecdotes. I understand why people are obsessed with finding out why some people succeed and some don't. Instead of finding the answer though they just write book after book about what they think the answer is. This whole book contains no new information and reads more like a research paper rather than a teaching paper. This is super popular book among my peers and that's the only reason I include it on my list. To separate myself from anyone who thinks this is literary gold. Skip this one and read "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Taleb instead.
The Tipping Point Malcom Gladwell
Gladwell's other book, Outliers, is much better. This one is anecdotal and in my opinion very subjective. His writing sort of reminds me of Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Big Short, Flash Boys) in that he tells the narrative of a story to sound way more important or impactful than it really is. It's certainly entertaining and a smart read, but I found it a bit lacking.
The Ego is the Enemy Ryan Holiday
Have you ever heard me rant about self-help books? I do it all the time. Regardless, I do stumble across a good one on occasion and I'm happy to say this is one of them This book is hard to summarize, it's very introspective and well thought out picture of all the ways our ego get us into trouble.
The Coddling of the American Mind Greg Lukianoff Jonathan Haidt
This book is flat out awesome. This book explores the negative sides to safe spaces, micro-aggression, and social justice.
I wanted to write a small summary but it turned into a whole page of thoughts. Check them out here
Letters to a Young Contrarian Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens is maybe my favorite author (tied with Nassim Taleb). He's a journalist and author, but he's known to be argumentative, combative, and uncompromising for those who are delicate: Pretty much my dream bio. This book is from the point of young kid sending letters with the overarching question of how he can stand up to the world when it tells him something he thinks is wrong. This happens all the time, the world teaches us something that's not correct or something you don't agree with. It's much easier to go with the flow than to debate with people or create a social rift. Especially over the long term. This book will give you the courage to stand firm on your convictions and be unafraid to fight for them. Hitchens narrates the audiobook version and it's fantastic, he's snarky, charming, and inspirational. Certainly one of my favorites.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reigh William L. Shirer
This was a DENSE read but it was amazing from start to finish. What an incredibly useful piece of history to know.
I wrote a reasonably long review about what I learned HERE
Manufacturing Consent Noam Chomsky
I've heard of Noam Chomskey for years but never read any of his material until this year. This book is a critical account of today's mainstream media. The basic premise is that media is a capitalist construct in which companies do not profit from truth, but by clicks. CNN doesn't make money when they do a good job of reporting, they get paid when they keep your attention. Extrapolating this basic understanding the author gives specific examples and details of how the media gives a bias account of reality to the people and many times not explicitly intentional. The nature of this seeing this asymmetry will forever make me suspicious of media, but that's ok I prefer to be suspicious. Great read, albeit a bit dense.
Incerto Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I've already reviewed the main book of this series below, but once I was done I knew I had to write more. This guy Nassim pinged my brain in ways few other writers ever have.
I've made a full review of my favorite points from Incerto here. It certainly doesn't do the series justice, but my hope I can get some other people to find the same value as I did
A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking
My dad had this book laying when I was about 15 and I remember it distinctly. These were formative times too. Early in the book, as they are discussing previous understandings of how the earth was formed, and this really just stuck with me:
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
I love this story! The book is about high concept science but it's written for the laymen, it's not a hard read (I was 15 and understood most of it!). This particular bit is meaningful to me though because that lady really believed what she said, and she was going around the world educating people on that information....and she's dead wrong. In fact to hold the opinion that the world is resting on turtles is completely bananas, but so is the claim that the earth is flat and many others. In fact people will tell you lots of bananas stuff in your life, happens all the time, every single day. They tell you nonsense confidently, eagerly, and incorrectly, and it's been extremely useful for me to learn this fact early on in life. This is a book for everyone who wants to know how the universe works.
Antifragile Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim wrote 5 books in a group called "Incerto". I stumbled across #5, "Skin in the Game", a few months ago and LOVED it. So I picked up "Antifragile" and it's even better. The premise of all 5 books is to talk about behaviour and risk. The book is not the easiest read but it's not technical, it's just complex. Nassim is also flat out brilliant and has a way to blend technical analysis, poetry, and ancient wisdom in a way I've never seen. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite writers
The Gulag Arhipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I read this book because Jordan Peterson won't stop talking about it. Glad I did too. It's epic, long, and heart wrenching. The author was a political prisoner of the Soviet Union. This is his story of going to the gulag hard labor camp and the process of rampant oppression by the Soviet regime. I simply can't do this book justice by providing a lousy summary, I will say it's a definitive piece on morality, politics, and humanity.
Outliers: The story of success Malcom Gladwell
I've heard about this book for years and I'm glad I finally got to it. Outliers is about social and cultural outliers that we call "successful". The narrative in America is that success is determined by the individual effort and ability, but Gladwell shows that the environmental causes matter far more than we like to give credit for. Why are most professional hockey players all born in between January and March? Why does the global airline industry all agree to speak English? These are the types of questions Outliers covers, it's both educational and very entertaining.
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos Jordan Peterson
Jordan Peterson is often considered controversial, but really he's extremely rational and reasonable. He also narrates the audible version and it's excellent. Peterson has a way to explain complex cultural nuance in a simple and entertaining way. He talks about really complex and high level concepts, and he does so without polarizing. He doesn't take sides, he doesn't bait, judge, and he doesn't walk the fence either. He'll have you looking at the world with a much deeper and more meaningful perspective.
Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is a famous evolutionary biologist and author. He's always brilliant and I think this is my favorite book of his. The premise is that there is mutual ground for cogent hard scientific understanding and spirituality. Spirituality seems to come in many different forms, it seems to affect everyone and crosses all known belief systems. So can there be a rationalist approach to the spirit? Dawkins thinks there is.
How to change your mind Michael Pollen
This is not your typical non-fiction book about self-help, or self-improvement. Michael Pollen goes on a journey to explore psychedelic drug usage, culture, and history. Outside of rumors what do they do? How do thery work, and can they really change the way you think? Psilocybin is starting drug trials for medical use around the globe currently, is there really value in that? This is fantastic look into a very taboo topic and the author is fair, thorough, and intelligent.
1984 George Orwell
Everyone read this one in school right? I was invited to read it with someone recently which I love doing (just ask me!) and I gladly accepted. The book is about a future dystopian society where we are watched constantly by the government, called Big Brother. The thought police would punish us for even thinking of standing up to the totalitarian and invasive regime. Now that I'm older it feels a little more heavy handed than I remembered. That said I also notice a lot more scary similarities of today than I did as a child. Some good quotes: "Apparently she had not even noticed that the name of the enemy had changed. I thought we've always been at war with eurasia..." "Who cares, it's always one bloody war after another, and one knows the news is all lies anyway"
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It Chris Voss
This book is written from a 20 year veteran of the FBI hostage negotiation task force. The premise is that the fundamental rules for negotiating are universal, they apply the same for hostages as they do business transactions. We achieve best results through empathy, leading through open ended questions, and understanding the opposition's position. Negotiating is emotional, and people are generally bad at controlling their emotions, this leaves a wide margin of opportunity. This book is unfortunately not a uniquely profound negotiating book, but it is a very good one. If you’ve ever read “How to win friends and influence people” it’s quite similar and is good reinforcement. If this is your first book on negotiating, then it’s a must read.
Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Khaneman
Daniel writes pure gold from start to finish. It’s dense, technical and thorough, so it’s not something I would consider highly entertaining, but it’s insight is unquestionable. Our brains have 2 systems: fast and slow. The former works on intuition, instinct, and emotion. The latter is analytical and rational, but it’s LAZY and tends to believe what the first system says more often than not. The reason this is a problem is because while everyone thinks they are rational and reasonable humans, the fact is we are highly biased, emotional, and irrational. Our instincts are often wrong, and we are constant hypocrites, but our systems work together to convince us that our worldview is consistent. It’s a really scary thing to learn, that your brain is making lousy decisions for you, then convincing you they are correct and it does this so well it’s hard to see. The writer won a nobel prize for his research and it’s been widely accepted as current and correct science, it’s also very hard to refute once you read the book. If you like feeling like you’re in control of your brain, don’t read this book lest you may find your free will is not so free. That said, if you like to know how human brains work to their most basic decision making, then this is top notch learning.
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike Phil Knight
I didn’t know much about Nike, or Phil Knight, until I read this. The CEO isn’t a media famous guy so this book sort of caught me off guard, but it was so highly regarded I had to try it. Glad I did too, fantastic story about the company from its start until today. It’s quite a personal journey too, funny, exciting, and easy to identify with Lots of business books talk about theory of business, and those are great, but this one is a biography of the struggles one must face when building a new business. These days it’s the king of athletic wear, but for the first few decades it was a company constantly on the verge of collapse. Similar books: Autobiography of Lee Iacocca
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Carl Sagan
I read a lot of science because I think understanding the underlying systems of how the world works is important. What happens to those who do not read science is they may find themselves listening to what someone else tells them is the true way the world works. Without a solid base understanding of the facts, we are susceptible to charlatans and those who are just incorrect. Carl Sagan is one of only a few famous scientists who helped educate the masses, and what a valuable talent to provide. Sagan has a long list of culturally iconic work: cosmos, the book and movie “contact” and the famous picture “the pale blue dot”. In this book Sagan brilliantly explains how the uninformed and the disingenuous spread misinformation about the scientific world. He touches on Astology, acupuncture, flat earth, the earth being 6000 years old, and many more topics that are flat out nonsense, yet somehow gain credibility in today’s world. He talks about how this happens, and how to prevent it.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari
My favorite book of 2018? Maybe my favorite book of all time. Yuval Harari has a way of describing humanity from a very unbiased historical viewpoint. Almost written as an alien historian observing humanity objectively and from a distance. Yuval doesn’t inject bias or morals at any point, he writes as if humanity was one of many species and he’s just documenting what happened so far. This is why it’s so brilliant because it gives such an objective and thorough history not just about what humans have created, like many history books, but how our species has developed outside of culture. He doesn’t mention what is good or bad, or really what has worked or not worked, he just describes the events that shaped our world outside of common narratives we prefer to believe. This book is raw data and that’s a breath of fresh air compared to other similar books which usually try to assert and convince the reader of an overarching motive. I highly recommend this book, and he instills strong confidence to agree with this famous quote of his: “Never underestimate the stupidity of mankind”
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus and Sapiens go hand in hand. Sapiens is a history of mankind, and Homo Deus is the future of mankind. The instant I finished the first one I started on this one, and they are both brilliant. I think Sapiens is a bit better, and a bit more useful, but if you have the chance to read both there is no way you’ll be disappointed. Carl Sagan is one of only a few famous scientists who helped educate the masses, and what a valuable talent to provide. Sagan has a long list of culturally iconic work: cosmos, the book and movie “contact” and the famous picture “the pale blue dot”. In this book Sagan brilliantly explains how the uninformed and the disingenuous spread misinformation about the scientific world. He touches on astrology, acupuncture, flat earth, the earth being 6000 years old, and many more topics that are flat out nonsense, yet somehow gain credibility in today’s world. He talks about how this happens, and how to prevent it.
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Hans Rosling
Have you ever heard, or commented yourself about how bad the world is getting these days? It doesn’t take a long time watching the news to get this feeling. Violence is up, we are getting overpopulated, poor countries are still poor, and there is always some viral or environmental threat. Seems like we are always a short bit away from doomsday. The problem with this thinking is that it’s just not true. The world is better than it’s always been and continues to get MUCH better, so why the disconnect? Lots of reasons! Hans goes into detail about how the data we have is distorted from the data most people actually see. Everyone knows that despair sells far better than positivity. This book is for anyone who is pessimistic about the world, because they are likely to find out they are wrong, and that’s the point of learning right? That said, I’m an optimist and I loved this book as well. Regarding this book, Bill Gates says “Everyone on earth should read this book” and I agree. This is staple information to help form your worldview.
The Federalist Papers: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
I love understanding politics, but I hate arguing about politics. I read this in hopes to cut through some of the noise and really learn what the constitution was designed to do. Written as essays to the new in the late 1700's, this was essentially a sales pitch to the American people to agree with their platform. It explains exactly why the constitution was written as it is and what problems to expect defending it. It's admittedly a difficult read: long, written for a newspaper in 1787, and it's about political structure. It ain't got no MAD DRAMA neither, and that's refreshing.
The Closing of the American Mind Allan Bloom
One of my 2021 favorites for sure and one of my all time favorite books on cultural philosophy. It's long, incredibly dense, and full of abstract ideas about the decay of American values. Written in 1987 the critiques it gives about the future of America have tracked well with our current reality. Like all great books, it's very hard to summarize this one. One of the themes is the ongoing problem of moral relativism. The idea is that when we all believe in our own values rather than a common shared values our demise will follow, which I think if you look at the news or social media is hard to disagree with. No one can agree on values or shared truth, and nothing is sacred, this makes unity impossible.
The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy William Strauss
This is a fantastic and terrifying book. What this book claims is that human culture is cyclical, and every ~20-25 years we go through a significant cultural reformation, but every ~100 years we go through an extremely drastic one. The authors claim the next cycle will end in the mid 2020's and no later than 2025. Looking at the fracturing in our culture this seems plausible, more interesting is the fact that it was written in 1997. This is not a scientifically driven book so it's all just a theory, but a very potent and fascinating one. Best of all, in 4 years we will know if it's correct!
Contagious: Why Things Catch On Jonah Berger
This one was ok. A mostly anecdotal opinion about why some things go viral and what makes thing sticky. If the author actually knew how to make viral content he would have done that instead of writing this book. It's an interesting read, but it's little more than a neat sounding narrative about a topic that's actually too complex to consistently and accurately manipulate.
The Righteous Mind Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion
This was an incredible book This book takes the teachings of behavioral economics that Daniel Kahneman discovered in "Thinking, Fast and Slow" and instead of applying them to financial markets it applies them to how people hold morals. It's been now proven that the brain has two systems, fast and slow. In this book Haidt calls them the elephant and the rider. The fast system (the elephant) is highly instinctual and works on emotion/efficiency/fear and produces the VAST majority of our decisions. The slow system (the rider) then rationalizes this decision to convince us we are right. It's really important to recognize that the slow system does not help us rationalize our opinion correctly with the world, it rationalizes whatever we think as being right and puts blinders on anything that disagrees with that initial emotional and instinctual position. This means that us humans are HIGHLY irrational, we all think we have correct and well thought out world views, and we are hard to convince otherwise. This is quite dangerous, it doesn't FEEL that way to anyone, and worst of all....it's been proven true over and over. The details of how they prove this are beyond the scope of this blog but they are fascinating and I suggest you read both books to find out for yourself In this book the idea is that you have a moral position about your political and religious beliefs and because this coms from your GUT it's extremely hard to change. This is also partly a biological construct meaning our differences in opinion are built into us, so arguing with people over politics might be as truly pointless as it sometimes feels I love this book because it explains the science behind our differences more than the people you disagree with can explain for themselves. This type of book is a perfect fit for why I read books in the first place: to better understand the people and world beyond what the average person even knows about themselves. HIGHLY RECOMMEND
Beyond Order Jordan Peterson
Jordan Peterson is non-stop brilliant as always. He's a very polarizing figure in the media but NOT because any of his ideas are particularly controversial, but we live in a world of HEADLINES and very little nuance and unfortunately Peterson is bad at catch phrases and great at nuance. The first book was much better, but this is still a close second. Some of my favorite rules from this book are: "Do not do what you hate." "Imagine who you could be and then aim single-mindedly at that." "Abandon ideology." "Be grateful in spite of your suffering." All of Peterson's rules have a great tendency of sounding new and unique while also being reinforced by ancient (often biblical) wisdom without sounding cliche or shallow. I HATE self help but I adore Jordan Peterson, and you should too.
Transcending the Levels of Consciousness: The Stairway to Enlightenment David Hawkins
This book is HOT GARBAGE written by a charlatan so full of shit that he has to self publish his own books. I was recommended this by someone I liked much more before they made me waste my time on this. This book contains no actual knowledge or fact whatsoever, not only is it pure fiction it's also poorly written and barely coherent. The author uses profound words for the sake of sounding profound but doesn't actually explain any of his claims and frequently rambles himself into perfect nonsense. This might be the most useless book I've ever picked up
The Coming of the Third Reich Richard Evans
This book is a great addition to another Nazi history book I recommend (and wrote extensively about below) "the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". This book covers the cultural and pollical forces that allowed the Nazi's to take power, all the way back to the late 1800's. It is not about the war, and it stops in 1933 when Hitler officially took power of Germany in a dictatorship. I personally prefer this type of book because I like learning about the abstract movements inside a society. Hitler didn't just take control of Germany one day, it was decades of German culture that allowed it to happen, it took a combination of forces such as a broken economy and specifically a period of hyperinflation, new media inventions such as radio and movies, public anger at the current politician regime, DEEP frustration from the Germany people with how the treaty of Versailles ended, and more. Additionally, Hitler tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the government violently in 1927 and failed but only encouraged him to try again with more legal means. This book is fantastic because it takes a period of history that everyone knows about and breaks out the nuance of cultural change over time that allowed it. People say "It can't happen here" and maybe that's true, but if you don't know specifically how it happened in Germany then you don't know what to look for. As I said in my review of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich": "If you're looking for concentration camps to be alarmed, you're 12 years too late".
Economic Facts and Fallacies Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell engages in many popular "commonly known facts" about economics and really dives into their validity. From the causes and implications of black/white inequality to very common;y repeated "fact" that "women get paid 70% of what a man does for the same job" and others. These are hard to approach topics and non-economists have all sorts of opinions about them but Sowell makes the nuance of these ideas so accessible without resorting to bias opinions. As with many things in the world the more simple the argument the less valid it likely is, this is a great book for anyone who wants to better understand complex economics without the dry tediousness that one would expect from this topic. highly recommend!
Animal Farm George Orwell
I just reread this book for the first time since high school and it’s still as important work as ever. George Orwell, one of the greatest writers of all time, tells a story about the animals on a farm that get sick of their tyrant human overlords and overthrow them to install a governing system for themselves. The story is a reference to the 1917 Russian socialist revolution, which started out with seemingly good intentions but was eventually hijacked by a powerful cynic and cult of personality named case Joseph Stalin. Many people see this book (and Orwell in whole) as a referendum against socialism, but that is not really what this book is about, which is why it’s so important to read this book without political dogma clouding your judgment. The russian revolution, and Animal Farm, show little of the downsides of the political movement of Socialism and everything to do with how authoritarian leaders use political dogma and social chaos as a means to install dictatorships and totalitarianism. Totalitarianism describes when a government has nearly total control of it’s populace, notable examples include Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, and current day North Korea, along with other instances. Totalitarianism transcends left or right politics and those who want power take it while the masses are bickering about day to day events. So what does Animal Farm teach us? The idea of the book was that the humans were bad and the animals were good, so when the animals took power they would use it for good when it came to the other animals, but this was not what happened. When the pigs took power, they used it to become tyrannical exactly like the humans did. They lied, manipulated, and oppressed the fellow animals so they could have total power for themselves. The point of the book, and the lesson to be learned is that no person is above corruption and anyone in power will do whatever they can to keep power at the expense of the populous. Do not trust altruistic or well well spoken leaders, falling in love with a politician is like falling in love with a stripper: only a sucker does it. The Bolshevik revolution in 1917 Russia was supposed to install Socialism: a government by the people, for the people, where resources are distributed more fairly. The IDEA of it is great but the problem is that people are inherently susceptible to corruption and none of them are above it. Animal Farm is a brilliant insight into the flaws of human nature and a reminder to always be suspicious of our leaders.
Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
This is a book like no other, and let me state with the utmost of clarity, that is an enticement and a warning. The book is about a committed pedophile and it's written from the first person perspective as if he's having a private conversation with the reader. The main character is not really a protagonist, but he's so compelling to listen to it's hard not to get sucked into his story. Sort of like driving slowly past a brutal car accident, you know nothing good is happening there but we feel urged to watch anyway. I never heard of this book until early in the year when I heard about it 2 or 3 times in a week, which I took to mean the universe is telling me to read it. Then I found out Jeremy Irons is the narrator, THEN I found out Stanley Kubrik had made a film about it. This book is not pro-pedophilia, but it's not really ant-pedophilia either, it's just a bizarre insight into the mind of this creepy dude. It was very intriguing to me that a book about such a taboo topic has been so popularized so heavily So I read it, and I can confirm that it's like nothing else I've ever read. It's bizarre and disgusting in the most straightforward ways: the main character chases around the 12 year old daughter of a woman he's dating. Through the book the character has one goal and a fixed mindset and everything he does revolves around this singular purpose: to have sex with Lolita.
The Paranoid Style in American Politics Richard Hoffstader
This is the second book by this author, the first "Anti-intellectualism in American Life" was a fantastic insight into the history of the education and intellectual culture of the United States. I loved that book so naturally I wanted to read another by the same guy, this entry was a similar history lesson but in politics timeliness matters. This book was written in the 1964 and while I generally prefer older books, this one just didn't hold up as well for me. Hoffstader describes some of the origins of our hyper-polarizing political culture from the 50's and 60's, how politicians create US versus THEM situations especially through emotion rather than policy, but politics has gone so insane over the last 60 years that I think this doesn't get a comprehensive enough insight to be as impactful as it was at the time of writing. A better entry for this type of content is the book below: The Blank Slate, or one I read more recently on this list: The Righteous Mind. I'll still read some more of Richard Hoffstader as he's a great writer and smart fella, this one just happens not to have gained much value with the passage of time.
The Blank Slate Steven Pinker
This was an incredible book and one of the most impactful I've ever read. This book deep dives the nuanced arguments and ideas of both political extremes all surrounding the main idea of "nature versus nurture". I love to discuss politics but I hate political theater, I prefer long deep nuance about a topic, thorough context, and most of all I like when someone is willing to put forth a socially taboo when they think they are right. This is not an easy book but there is a 100% chance this book discusses ideas you have opinions about and provides perspective about those ideas that you haven't considered. This book shows the world is never black and white and always grey. This will be one of my all time favorites.
Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen Steve Sims
An autobiography disguised as self help and good at neither. Barely entertaining. I'm sure the author made a bunch of money selling this book.
Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Tim Marshall
Fantastic book describing the geopolitics that different nations have to deal with. Every country has it's unique neighbors, land, coastlines, and resources to make use of, the world is relentlessly unfair and this book talks about how countries have made decisions based on what resources they have available. Examples include China's giant land mass to manage with multiple neighbors, how a huge Russia has only water access to Europe through the a single Ukrainian port, and how America has 2 neighbors on good terms , ocean front on the east and west, and has a plethora of natural resources making us the luckiest country to ever exist. Fantastic book and not a super difficult read, highly recommend it.
Dune Frank Herbert
Dune is a classic sci-fi book that has inspired so much of our modern culture and with a new version of the movie coming out I just had to read it. I did not love it. It's got a very well written and created world that's thorough and interesting but I found it to be fairly unrelatable story, sci-fi for the sake of it. It's like Shakespeare in its' scope and theater, but without the relatable human archetypes. Worse still the book felt like an incomplete story, which led me to find out that there are something like ~30 books in the Dune series. If you want mindless fiction to poor yourself into endlessly for no benefit, Dune is your book!
The Untethered Soul Michael Singer
This book is not for everyone and I personally would have dismissed it as feel-good silliness 2 or 3 years ago. Luckily, I didn't read it 2 or 3 years ago, and so as with many books in life this was the right book at the right time. After a hard breakup in 2020 I was having a terrible time of dating, until I met this one incredible lady whom I had a single date with and then was very upset she didn't like me in return. She recommended my this book and I'm eternally grateful for, it's a book about finding internal spiritual peace and why we are so prone to depression and anxiety. How to find mindfulness and live in the moment.
I wrote a more in depth review of The Untethered Soul here.
The Assault on Intelligence Michael Hayden
This is a book about politics with a fairly one sided negative view of Donald Trump. I DO NOT consider it to be biased one sided propaganda intended to sell an agenda While many politicians and pundits write those sorts of books I generally avoid them like the plague (regardless of which side they are on). This however was reasonable critique from someone who is extremely well versed in the field. I don't think any politician is above reasonable critique. (I provide this comment up front because some people don't care to hear any potential negative comments about their god-king and I want to save them from this potentially scary book.) The Assualt on Intelligence covers the Trump presidency from the intelligence agency perspective, not his cultural or policy stances. I don't think it's any secret that Donald Trump was not a fan of American intelligence agencies, and that was made abundantly clear when in 2018 at the Helsinki summit he sided with Russia over his own FBI. There are always two sides to a story, this is just one of them, but it's interesting.
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race Thomas Ligotti
This book is some hardcore cynicism....which I kina love. It's written by a horror fiction writer and he expresses that it's written with a horror feel to it. The idea of the book is sort of Nihilistic (Nihilism is the cynical philosophy that nothing matters, so everything is permitted) but this book is actually far darker than your standard bleak nihilism. The main idea is that as humans we are all inevitably going to die, just like animals, but we are the only species who is self aware of this fact and to cope with this miserable fact our society has spent thousands of years creating stories, religions, and comforting lies to make us ok with this fact so that we can be productive members of society. This is the conspiracy against the human race. This book is a fun read with a unique idea and it's VERY well written but I don't consider it high level philosophy or psychology.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff
This was an incredible read and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone. There was an abridged version of this book combined with another book I loved called "The Coddling of the American Mind" made for Netflix called "The Social Dilemma" which was good but it only scratched the surface of the problem we are creating for ourselves. This book describes the power we are giving social media companies, the obscene amount of data we are giving them for free, and how they are using that data to manipulate our behavior towards their goals and worse than that, there is concrete evidence that it is working. We are being manipulated to the ends of corporate interests who are profiting from it and there is zero regulation or protection for users in place or on it's way. We are creating our own demise and it's worse than I had thought when I picked up this book. The author uses the term 'Inevitabalism' to describe our impending doom. Everyone sort of knows the dangers of social media but you're probably like me in that you only know the surface problems, this book will terrify you but hopefully like me, you prefer scary truth over blissful ignorance.
This Time is Different, Eight Centuries of Financial Folly Carmen Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff
Hint, this time is NOT different. Economies have been collapsing since the beginning of economies, and all for a variety of different small reasons and all for a few of the same very big reasons. the big reasons being inflation and excessive debt, which if you're not paying attention to current market macroeconomics, that is what's currently occurring.
Stress Test Timothy Geithner
On the Genealogy of Morals Friedrich Nietzche
I love Nietzche! I know it's old, obscure, and seems like a waste of time but what I've gained from reading his work is far and away more valuable than the cumulative self helps works I've ever read. No one writes with his conviction, and he doesn't lean into the delicate new age self help platitudes of "You can do it if you believe in yourself". Instead Nietzsche says there are weak people and there are strong people, and strong people have a responsibility to exercise their will upon the world. I've added 4-5 more books of his on to my wish list so expect more updates in the future.
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
I love dystopian fiction and I love understanding the dangers of censorship. This book explores a future where society burns all books to prevent the citizens from painful knowledge. Instead the population is stupid, docile, and happy. I identify with this because books often cause me struggle when I learn the world is far from perfect. Not reading books will certainly let you live in blissful ignorance, but is that what is really best for us as a culture? I say no. This book has encouraged me to read more than ever, I highly recommend this one.
The Color of Law Richard Rothstein
This book is about how systemic racism permeates through our culture legally and mostly through real estate. My background is in banking, so much of this wasn't super new information. Things like redlining, blockbusting, and steering are well documented and quite illegal already (though they still do happen). What might not be common knowledge are things like, the VA loan program was the largest generator of wealth for Americans coming out of world war 2, but it wasn't available to black veterans until decades later. This creates generational wealth disparity that is simply not possible to undue in any easy manner. I learned that after the 2008 the subprime mortgage crisis research found that the black community had a very higher rate of subprime mortgages than they deserved. Meaning, a population of people that qualified for low rate, low risk mortgages were not given them! They were instead given higher rate, higher risk mortgages at their detriment.
Benjamin Franklin, An American Life Walter Isaacson
Ben Franklin is one of the most impressive Americans to ever live. He was a prolific writer, a successful businessman, an inventor, and a immense political influence. This book is really good for anyone interested in the entrepreneurial spirit and American history. My favorite quote from this book: "“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
I don't read much fiction but Tolstoy is incredible and this book is often regarded as the greatest novel of all time, which means I had to read it! These Russian writers all have the same long drawn out and dreary style and I'm finally starting to understand why: it forces the reader really commit and get involved with the characters. I appreciate this now even though this is one very long book, because I deeply felt what this book was saying about humanity. This book is about many things, part of it is about the gap between morality and materialism, while the big story is about Anna and he struggle to seperate fleeting happiness versus impulsive pleasure. it's quite a tragic book but worth the read, HIGHLY recommend this one.
The Right Side of History Ben Shapiro
I'm not a big fan of Ben Shapiro but in my circles this book got good reviews so I checked it out. Ben's argument is that polarization and overly political correctness are worsening and causing us social harm. I agree with him 100% on this. However, his reasoning for how this happens is somewhere between weak and non-existent. Ben is a right wing propagandist and he's selling books, he can't seem to help himself simply blame the liberals for all problems since the dawn of humanity, which I find to be intellectually lazy. Ben takes account of our value system and how we got here, his understanding of history is thorough, accurate, and impressive. How he uses that knowledge though is lackluster and highly biased. I found this to be quite disappointing and he never really answers the questions he asked at the beginning of the book. I can't stress enough the deep historical accuracy this book contains, I just wish the author was more deliberate in his analysis of that history.
The Fifth Risk Michael Lewis
My criticism of Micheal Lewis is always the same: he tells a great narrative about large topics but approaches them through anecdotes. This is a great way to make readers relate to a story but a terrible way to interpret how the world really operates. This book is a scathing critique of the Trump administration and how they have handled running the government since the election. Donald Trump ran as an outsider with no political experiences, I'm not sure why anyone would expect him to have been doing a good job when he came in and it was clear from his campaign (and up until now, June 2020) that he wasn't going to put a lot of work in to be proficient in government operations. I will say, this book is well researched and very insightful into the nuance of how risks in government compound. If you like politics (not the team sport of politics) you will probably like this one.
World War Z Max Brooks
Despite the raving reviews of this book and particularly the audio version, I completed it unimpressed. I started this at the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic as it seemed really applicable. However, the book doesn't contain a plot or a purpose it's written as a journalist account of the zombie apocalypse after it's already happened. It displays the stupidity, shortsightedness, and panic that humans exude when in situations of mass havoc. There is nothing else to learn from this book other than humans are irrational and stupid in groups. I already knew that so I didn't find much else to excite me in this book.
Beyond Good and Evil Fredrich Nietzsche
I love Nietzche so much! This was the second time I read this book, the first time was difficult for me to understand and the book is largely a response to many philosophy of the day so I needed a bit more understanding of the base material before I really got it. The book dives deep into the question of what is good and what is evil. Nietzsche posits that all morality is relative and there no philosophers that find real morality but simply present their personal opinion of morality “There is no such thing as moral phenomena, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena” This is just a taste of an outright brilliant text on morality and individualism. Neitzche is a hardcore individualist which pings me in particular but he's also a Nihilist which I relate to as well so this may be my bias but I think most people would enjoy/find value in this book.
The Road to Wigan Pierbr George Orwell
Orwell isn't famous for this book and I hadn't really heard of it either but I went looking for his other works in hopes they would compare to 1984 and Animal Farm. The book is an analysis of the pragmatism of Socialism versus the reality of how people view and support/oppose it. Unfortunately I think the book was bit too time specific for me to find it very useful.
Magna Carta Dan Jones
This book is a bit dreary and not many would enjoy it, I barely enjoyed it. The history of the Magna Carta is interesting, but most people would not find much value here. The Magna Carta, signed in 1215 and was a political mess right from the start was a creation of some local governors airing grievances against the king and demanding concessions from him. This isn't a big deal now, but at the time it was the first time this had happened. Never before had a King had to acquiesce to his subjects, even powerful governors like the ones in questions, and then had the agreement to change with specific conditions written and signed by all parties. It represented a giant leap forward in the rights of the people and even the United States documents of freedom often cite the Magna Carta as a heavy influence.
Trust me, I'm Lying Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday always delivers and this book is no different, the content is exciting if not terrifying. It's pretty obvious that the media is driven by clicks, that's how they get paid, and nothing sells better than sensationalist and controversial content. Ryan tells his story of exploiting the user base for profit, he acknowledges that this makes him a pretty awful human being, and I want to make sure I say it too because admitting you're using your power against your fellow human does make you an awful human and admitting it only partially absolves you. With that said, the book is fascinating if not cynical and it's good for people to know just how corrupt the media is. I recommend this one!
Atomic Habits James Clear
I read this because a friend highly recommended it and I generally read everything people tell me to even when I don't have high expectations. This is a new age self help book, which if you don't know that I disdain, let me say it here clearly: I disdain new age self help. Life is a difficult journey that has difficult trials to overcome and reading lessons on how to navigate those difficulties is important. What this book and many like it do is create a very superficial vision of "success" and then formulate a strategic way to achieve that meaningless goal. Habits and structure are important, and the small things you do absolutely impact how your life turns out, but the hype around this book is more correlated to the marketing effort that has surrounded it rather than it's content. It won't be in print 10 years from now, it's a cash grab for young and impressionable people who need something to make themselves FEEL good about self development. If you're young and impressionable, you may enjoy it, but a wonder of the literary world it is not.
Propaganda Edward Bernays
I hoped I would like this book more but it was a bit unfulfilling. I love better understanding how propaganda is weaponized against people but with this book being written in 1928 I was hoping it would be a hidden gem of early insight into the idea of propaganda, instead I found it to be a bit outdated and underwhelming compared to other works on the subject.
Debt: The first 5000 years David Graeber
I absolutely love this book and HIGHLY recommend it. I'm reading it early in 2020 but it's likely to make my best of the year list. It combines all my favorite topics: History, Economics, Social Culture, and Government. It does have the flaw of being a bit anecdotal but no book is perfect and this is certainly an acceptable misgiving compared to the value I found in it.
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace
I read this book because ~3 years ago I saw Bill Gates (who I'm a huge fan of) say that he's always wanted to read it but it was dauntingly long so he has refrained. Well to me, anything that Bill couldn't do was something I HAD to. Unfortunately it is dauntingly long so I put it off until just now. It's fiction, which I'm generally not a fan of at all and unfortunately this one didn't convert me however there I can say for sure that I've never read anything else like this. For starters, it comes at the tail end of Postmodernism and creates a brilliant critique of the era. The book is an incredible insight into individuality versus consumerism, addiction (of drugs and things), and it's character development is wildly thorough. I'm happy I never have to read it again, coming in at 55 hours on Audible this is the second longest book I've consumed and at this length you really have to commit to a book.
Modern Man in Search for a Soul Carl Jung
A fantastic insight from one of the fathers' of modern Psychology, Jung bridges new age scientific understanding of our consciousness and personalities with ancient religious morals. One of only a handful of books that I have found excellent in reconciling science and religion, this book is also partly the basis for the very popular Meyers-Briggs personality teletype. If you like psychology and/or philosophy this book is for you!
A Universe From Nothing Lawrence Krauss
I try to read a few science books a year. It's not the subject I'm best at but I've always found it useful to understand the biggest possible topics I can which makes the smaller topics much easier. Why is there something instead of nothing? Lawrence Krauss is a famous theoretical physicist and public science educator, a great mind to learn from AND if you listen to audible he narrates this book himself. What a time to be alive! I can sit in my car and learn the physics of the early formation of the universe by one of the smartest scientists in the field through his book and his own voice. This was not possible in any time before now and it's an advantage not to be dismissed.
A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn
Do you want to be a cynic?! This is a book crammed full of cynicism. This isn't a patriots account of how great our country is, it's a history of all the things that the US propaganda machine tries to make us forget. Mostly our constant oppression of lower class people here in the US, our imperialist foreign policy objectives, and all the lies that go along with them.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty
This incredible work of macroeconomics was well needed for me and I recommend it for anyone who wants a broad understanding of how inequality shaped our past (the most recent 150 years) and will shape our future. The premise of the book is that inequality rises when the R > G. That's the rate of return from wealth is greater than the rate of growth from production. This means when a countries total income increases more from interest accumulated in capital faster than the growth of labor production, inequality increases. Inequality is not a curable phenomenon and this book doesn't' advocate for such an approach. However, how much inequality and how it's spread throughout an economy does matter as rampant inequality is the source of nearly every political revolution in history. From the book: "“When the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of growth of output and income, as it did in the nineteenth century and seems quite likely to do again in the twenty-first, capitalism automatically generates arbitrary and unsustainable inequalities that radically undermine the meritocratic values on which democratic societies are based.”
The Revolution Betrayed Leon Trotsky
Socialism is a hot topic again these days, as it always is during election season. It's interesting for me to learn how much deep nuance there is in the history of Socialism. Leon Trotsky was a military leader in the red army who, along with Lenin, overthrew the Czarist government of Russia in 1917. On the back of 'The Communist Manifesto" they were going to install a temporary government to distribute resources until they could eventually eliminate the government and have a "dictatorship of the proletariat". Along the way Stalin found opportunity in this new government and hijacked it with his cult of personality. He then did the opposite of what the Bolsheviks wanted and created a massive government bureaucracy aimed at keeping himself in power and eliminating political enemies. Trotsky wrote this book while in exile from Russia against the Stalinist government as a betrayal of the true socialism they were trying to install. Trotsky was later assassinated for his dissent. Most people only know that "Socialism is bad" but have less context about how the history was really formed. If you really want to know the nuance, this is a great insight.
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky
I've been quite clear about my disdain for fiction, but occasionally I get one that pings me hard. This was one of them. Beautifully written, albeit long and sometimes tedious, this is a story of the internal struggle that comes with murder. I love reading moral philosophy and find it incredibly valuable. Highly recommend to anyone who knows there is more to understanding human life than can be found in the shallow writings of self-help.
The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins
Dawkin's 1976 work on our evolutionary biology is a must read for anyone who wants to better understand what our true relationship to nature is. We may have Starbucks and cell phones, but we are still animals. Not nearly as far removed from the habits and behaviors of the animal kingdom as it may seem. To deny this is to deny our natural biology. Man is not selfish as a holistic concept, but our genes are all very selfish on the micro level.
A People's History of the Supreme Court: The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped Our Constitution Peter Irons, Howard Zinn - foreword
The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism F. A. Hayek
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong James W. Loewen
Does it concern you that the government ,makes public school MANDATORY and then gets to dictate the curriculum as well? We learned in school what the government wanted us to learn. Funny how I got out of school and thought America was the worlds purveyor of piece and moral high ground. Most people know that Columbus didn't discover America, he showed up and committed genocide, and now we honor him. Seems weird. This book covers the Indians, black/white race relations, and other taboo topics like class structure and social mobility. Things that the government wants to tell you about but not actually learn about. Take some time to be a cynic like me ;)
Capitalism & Slavery Eric Williams
This book was quite eye opening in how early capitalism changed with the industrial revolution. The quotes from politicians in the days of slavery are astounding in today's context. It's clear that the only reason slavery ended was because the economics of it changed with the invention of machine work. There was very little moral argument to end it other than at the last of the timeline as a political way to leverage the slave owning holdouts. Another thing this book makes abundantly clear is that black chattel slavery was not born out of racism, racism was formed because of the slave trade we created. "God for- bid," said Lord Wynford, "that there should be anything like a forcing of the master to abandon his property in the slave! Once adopt that principle and there was an end to all property."
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman Richard Feynman
This autobiography was great. A Nobel prize winning physicist tells his story about how to think about the world differently through his entire life. It's hilarious, smart, and entertaining. Easy read!
Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker
This was a fantastic book. I found it on Bill Gate's reading list (where I find many of my choices). It's a bit of a dense book about the abstract idea of the 'the enlightenment' which like most people I had heard this term and had a vague understanding of what it meant but was quite under informed. Can the world be better in the future than it is today, and what will it take for that to happen? Things don't go well automatically, in fact quite the opposite, if we are apathetic or too cavalier about how we treat the future it absolutely can go worse.
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life Richard Hofstader
This book really deserves a full review from me. Maybe I'll add one later, but for now I will say this book is fantastic! It's written in 1961 but it's a history of American society so the older date doesn't negative impact the narrative much. In fact I often prefer slightly older books so I can avoid the politicization of current day books. The premise of this book is that Anti-intellectualism in America has a constant impact that fluctuates in intensity and it's born of our rebellious nature. This book reminds me greatly of another called "Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire". Both books are founded on the premise that Americans can find their own truth, and we says fuck you to authority. It's how we became independent and it's built into our culture. In many ways it's a beautiful and encouraging way to live, but it has flaws. The big one being that we can deny science, rationality, and intellect if we so choose and we can feel redeemed for this behavior for the same reason: it's built into our culture to be rebellious. The title is surely a bit pretentious but the content is top notch. Will likely be in my favorite books of the year.
Upheaval Jared Diamond
For some reason this author is extremely highly regarded, and I just don't get it. His last famous book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" I thought was inferior to my much preferred "Why the West Rules....for now" and this one didn't do it for me either. I read it because Bill Gates put it on his summer reading list and generally Bill provides great recommendations. This one though is long, tedious, and the motive of the book: understanding how countries adapt to large crisis did not pack much punch in my opinion. Meh
The Dictator's Handbook Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith
This was a fantastic read, albeit quite cynical. I started reading a history a few years back now and I found it incredibly useful to better understand how today's world works. This one in particular is neat because it discusses similarities in all political leadership, from dictatorship to democracy. One thing I've noticed as a never ending trend in human behavior is our propensity to be selfish. This book has only served to confirm that position.
The (Mis)behaviour of Markets Benoit Mandelbrot
Rarely will I get the opportunity to say this becuase I'm a cerebral stud but: This book was too smart for me I read this book because Nassim Taleb raves about it and Mandelbrot's work, both these guys are outside my level of intelligence though. I read the whole thing, I grasped some but far from all of it. I really need someone to read this book and create a summary for me. Please help!
The Creature from Jekyll Island G. Edward Griffin
Are you a conspiracy theorist, this book is FOR YOU. If you're a reasonable person who likes to understand nuance of a complicated topic and you HATE being sold heavily biased perspectives to push someone else's agenda then this book is NOT for you!
I've written a long form review here if you want details.
How Google Works Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
My brother recommended this book, it's definitely something he would love. I thought it was ok, but it was useful to hear what those in charge of such an influential company say are important factors in running a business. Consider the customer first and competition last Culture in a company is of utmost importance
The Kingdom of God is Within You Leo Tolstoy
I read this book because I wanted to learn more about the history of Christianity, I received so much more than I could have asked for. I am not a religious person, but I have spent my life learning about religion. This book is truly amazing. It discusses the gap between the teachings of the bible, and the actions of the church. It discusses how the government and church apparatus manipulate the poor to do it's bidding in the name of religion. Really loved this book
A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
Great book on our understanding of the world, and how we grew to understand it. It's mostly focused on scientific discoveries.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra; A Book for All and None Friedrich Nietzche
I absolutely adore this book. It's a 250 year old philosophy on ethics, virtue, and man's journey to reach his fullest potential. I grossly underestimated how much I would love this one
GRIT Angela Duckworth
Another self-help book backed by ZERO science and 100% anecdotes. I understand why people are obsessed with finding out why some people succeed and some don't. Instead of finding the answer though they just write book after book about what they think the answer is. This whole book contains no new information and reads more like a research paper rather than a teaching paper. This is super popular book among my peers and that's the only reason I include it on my list. To separate myself from anyone who thinks this is literary gold. Skip this one and read "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Taleb instead.
The Tipping Point Malcom Gladwell
Gladwell's other book, Outliers, is much better. This one is anecdotal and in my opinion very subjective. His writing sort of reminds me of Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Big Short, Flash Boys) in that he tells the narrative of a story to sound way more important or impactful than it really is. It's certainly entertaining and a smart read, but I found it a bit lacking.
The Ego is the Enemy Ryan Holiday
Have you ever heard me rant about self-help books? I do it all the time. Regardless, I do stumble across a good one on occasion and I'm happy to say this is one of them This book is hard to summarize, it's very introspective and well thought out picture of all the ways our ego get us into trouble.
The Coddling of the American Mind Greg Lukianoff Jonathan Haidt
This book is flat out awesome. This book explores the negative sides to safe spaces, micro-aggression, and social justice.
I wanted to write a small summary but it turned into a whole page of thoughts. Check them out here
Letters to a Young Contrarian Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens is maybe my favorite author (tied with Nassim Taleb). He's a journalist and author, but he's known to be argumentative, combative, and uncompromising for those who are delicate: Pretty much my dream bio. This book is from the point of young kid sending letters with the overarching question of how he can stand up to the world when it tells him something he thinks is wrong. This happens all the time, the world teaches us something that's not correct or something you don't agree with. It's much easier to go with the flow than to debate with people or create a social rift. Especially over the long term. This book will give you the courage to stand firm on your convictions and be unafraid to fight for them. Hitchens narrates the audiobook version and it's fantastic, he's snarky, charming, and inspirational. Certainly one of my favorites.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reigh William L. Shirer
This was a DENSE read but it was amazing from start to finish. What an incredibly useful piece of history to know.
I wrote a reasonably long review about what I learned HERE
Manufacturing Consent Noam Chomsky
I've heard of Noam Chomskey for years but never read any of his material until this year. This book is a critical account of today's mainstream media. The basic premise is that media is a capitalist construct in which companies do not profit from truth, but by clicks. CNN doesn't make money when they do a good job of reporting, they get paid when they keep your attention. Extrapolating this basic understanding the author gives specific examples and details of how the media gives a bias account of reality to the people and many times not explicitly intentional. The nature of this seeing this asymmetry will forever make me suspicious of media, but that's ok I prefer to be suspicious. Great read, albeit a bit dense.
Incerto Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I've already reviewed the main book of this series below, but once I was done I knew I had to write more. This guy Nassim pinged my brain in ways few other writers ever have.
I've made a full review of my favorite points from Incerto here. It certainly doesn't do the series justice, but my hope I can get some other people to find the same value as I did
A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking
My dad had this book laying when I was about 15 and I remember it distinctly. These were formative times too. Early in the book, as they are discussing previous understandings of how the earth was formed, and this really just stuck with me:
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
I love this story! The book is about high concept science but it's written for the laymen, it's not a hard read (I was 15 and understood most of it!). This particular bit is meaningful to me though because that lady really believed what she said, and she was going around the world educating people on that information....and she's dead wrong. In fact to hold the opinion that the world is resting on turtles is completely bananas, but so is the claim that the earth is flat and many others. In fact people will tell you lots of bananas stuff in your life, happens all the time, every single day. They tell you nonsense confidently, eagerly, and incorrectly, and it's been extremely useful for me to learn this fact early on in life. This is a book for everyone who wants to know how the universe works.
Antifragile Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim wrote 5 books in a group called "Incerto". I stumbled across #5, "Skin in the Game", a few months ago and LOVED it. So I picked up "Antifragile" and it's even better. The premise of all 5 books is to talk about behaviour and risk. The book is not the easiest read but it's not technical, it's just complex. Nassim is also flat out brilliant and has a way to blend technical analysis, poetry, and ancient wisdom in a way I've never seen. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite writers
The Gulag Arhipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I read this book because Jordan Peterson won't stop talking about it. Glad I did too. It's epic, long, and heart wrenching. The author was a political prisoner of the Soviet Union. This is his story of going to the gulag hard labor camp and the process of rampant oppression by the Soviet regime. I simply can't do this book justice by providing a lousy summary, I will say it's a definitive piece on morality, politics, and humanity.
Outliers: The story of success Malcom Gladwell
I've heard about this book for years and I'm glad I finally got to it. Outliers is about social and cultural outliers that we call "successful". The narrative in America is that success is determined by the individual effort and ability, but Gladwell shows that the environmental causes matter far more than we like to give credit for. Why are most professional hockey players all born in between January and March? Why does the global airline industry all agree to speak English? These are the types of questions Outliers covers, it's both educational and very entertaining.
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos Jordan Peterson
Jordan Peterson is often considered controversial, but really he's extremely rational and reasonable. He also narrates the audible version and it's excellent. Peterson has a way to explain complex cultural nuance in a simple and entertaining way. He talks about really complex and high level concepts, and he does so without polarizing. He doesn't take sides, he doesn't bait, judge, and he doesn't walk the fence either. He'll have you looking at the world with a much deeper and more meaningful perspective.
Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is a famous evolutionary biologist and author. He's always brilliant and I think this is my favorite book of his. The premise is that there is mutual ground for cogent hard scientific understanding and spirituality. Spirituality seems to come in many different forms, it seems to affect everyone and crosses all known belief systems. So can there be a rationalist approach to the spirit? Dawkins thinks there is.
How to change your mind Michael Pollen
This is not your typical non-fiction book about self-help, or self-improvement. Michael Pollen goes on a journey to explore psychedelic drug usage, culture, and history. Outside of rumors what do they do? How do thery work, and can they really change the way you think? Psilocybin is starting drug trials for medical use around the globe currently, is there really value in that? This is fantastic look into a very taboo topic and the author is fair, thorough, and intelligent.
1984 George Orwell
Everyone read this one in school right? I was invited to read it with someone recently which I love doing (just ask me!) and I gladly accepted. The book is about a future dystopian society where we are watched constantly by the government, called Big Brother. The thought police would punish us for even thinking of standing up to the totalitarian and invasive regime. Now that I'm older it feels a little more heavy handed than I remembered. That said I also notice a lot more scary similarities of today than I did as a child. Some good quotes: "Apparently she had not even noticed that the name of the enemy had changed. I thought we've always been at war with eurasia..." "Who cares, it's always one bloody war after another, and one knows the news is all lies anyway"
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It Chris Voss
This book is written from a 20 year veteran of the FBI hostage negotiation task force. The premise is that the fundamental rules for negotiating are universal, they apply the same for hostages as they do business transactions. We achieve best results through empathy, leading through open ended questions, and understanding the opposition's position. Negotiating is emotional, and people are generally bad at controlling their emotions, this leaves a wide margin of opportunity. This book is unfortunately not a uniquely profound negotiating book, but it is a very good one. If you’ve ever read “How to win friends and influence people” it’s quite similar and is good reinforcement. If this is your first book on negotiating, then it’s a must read.