I fell a bit short on my reading goal of 52 books this year, but I still feel pretty good about reading 39 books alongside a busy year. I read 43 books in 2019, and 59 in 2020 with the extra free time due to COVID restrictions.
I put together this compilation from my newsletter posts throughout the year, so be sure to subscribe if you’d like to get updates on new books read, or you can check out my reading list on Goodreads.
If you’re reading this in your email inbox, be sure to click the header link above or the bottom will be cut off. This post is quite long!
Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1)
I rarely read Fiction, but decided to pick this up after the repeat recommendations from my brother and seeing that season 4 of the TV show adaptation was recently released. This series falls into the interesting ‘space opera’ niche and although I’ve read a decent amount of Sci-Fi this was entirely new to me.
Although the first few chapters were a bit confusing in terms of world-building, I enjoyed the thrilling story line wherein two main protagonists clash with each other in idealism/optimism vs. cynicism/nihilism. The story fills the mysterious middle gap between near dystopia and distant future utopia with what could be a middle lull and eventual tipping point between the status of both. Even the best technological advancements that would allow us to live across the galaxy do not necessarily solve the problems of human behavior. Elon Musk has said it best that for the survival of our species we’ll need to leave Earth at some point and colonize elsewhere. Overall, I recommend this book and plan to mix in some of the books and short stories from the series.
Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction
I recently came across the Very Short Introductions collection by Oxford Press, now at over 700 books, which concisely summarize information into a ~100 page format. With the recent turmoil of the storming of the capitol and general political divisiveness this seemed like an applicable read. Lincoln had an interesting, and unconventional life, particularly for a politician. The book breaks down the shift of Lincoln and others from the Whigs to the Republican party, exactly how and why the Civil War began, and Lincoln’s reasoning in risky, early decision making early on in the war. As a native Illinoisan I was reminded constantly of his time spent in the state, but I hadn’t gone out of the way to read the history. I recommend this read and I’m sure I’ll be revisiting the Very Short Introductions series in the future for other topics.
Money for Nothing: The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich
I was lent this book from a friend and it ended up being coincidentally relevant with the events of the last week. The book explores the methods utilized to restructure government debt, issue currency, and how early financial markets and devices came to be. The book was a bit dense at times due to the sheer amount of names being thrown around the historical context, such as Isaac Newton who was instrumental in the re-minting of Britain’s silver currency. A national debt at the time was a novel concept which helped both Britain and France fund wars across the globe. My main takeaway from the book is that financial engineering and derivatives on top of derivatives is not a novel concept, and why free markets which are also appropriately kept in check are crucial for economic success. Finance is unlike other sciences where trial and error can cause major devastation and ruin. The eventual burst of the South Sea bubble and the attempt to make investors whole seems incredibly benevolent and fair when contrasted to the fallout of the 2008 housing crisis. The author’s odd grammar confused me at times, but the overall structure of the book, which focused on highlighting the individual contributors to the overall story helped me follow the complex events that occurred.
The Richest Man in Babylon
This book takes a first principles approach to personal finance using interesting story-telling with a focus on self-sovereignty and utilizing strategic investments to build wealth. With personal finance sorely lacking in American public schools, it should come as no surprise that even a limited understanding can bring you leaps ahead of peers. I strongly believe that the receptivity of more collectivist systems such as communism/socialism have risen primarily due to a refusal to even learn the basic rules which govern the type of capitalist society that has existed for thousands of years.
Money is the medium by which earthly success is measured. Money makes possible the enjoyment of the best the earth affords. Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws which govern its acquisition. Money is governed today by the same laws which controlled it when prosperous men thronged the streets of Babylon, six thousand years ago.
If you’re looking for something a little bit different in the vein of finance, something which has stood the test of time (it was published almost a full century ago), I recommend this short read.
Some of my other highlights from the book include:
'Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed. The first copper you save is the seed from which your tree of wealth shall grow. The sooner you plant that seed the sooner shall the tree grow. And the more faithfully you nourish and water that tree with consistent savings, the sooner may you bask in contentment beneath its shade.'
Now I will tell thee an unusual truth about men and sons of men. It is this; That what each of us calls our 'necessary expenses' will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary.
The Diary of a West Point Cadet
I’m an avid listener of Preston Pysh’s Bitcoin Fundamentals podcast and during his podcasts he’s made several references to his time at West Point being critical in shaping his outlook, habits, and general drive. Each chapter comprises a story with a breakdown at the end of how the lesson applies for striving to be a better leader. I found Preston’s internship at NASA especially fascinating; during his senior year he worked on developing an autonomous robot to assist astronauts in space as his capstone project. A quick and relatively easy read, I found the book both entertaining and insightful.
Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies
One of the more difficult aspects of understanding Bitcoin is placing it within the context of what we historically know as money. As an American, it’s important to understand how the dollar influences the global financial system in terms of how other currencies are laid on top of the dollar. I first heard about Layered Money when the author came on the What Bitcoin Did podcast to talk about his book. This book makes the case for how Bitcoin can be used in the future as a first-layer money, in the same way that gold was in past. I found the visuals in this book showing how the layers of money have changed to be very helpful. If you’re looking to understand the broader implications of Bitcoin eating away at the legacy financial system, this is a very approachable and informative read.
Toyfolio: How to Invest in and Sell Toys Like Stocks
I’ve seen this book recommended repeatedly by fellow Amazon FBA sellers and finally picked it up to help diversify my inventory. I had no idea prior to this the return on some toys, especially LEGO, could be due to the scarcity effect on price. LEGO in particular will run a set for some amount of time, and then once it’s retired by the company it never returns to production again. The basic premise of the book is to selectively buy certain big name toys during the two main clearance seasons: post-Christmas in January, and the summer months May-July. Once you’ve purchased the toys, hold them either at your house or a climate controlled storage unit for some period of time. The average LEGO set, for instance, only runs in production for about 3 years. The biggest barrier to selling brand names is the ungating process through Amazon, which requires you to initially purchase a quantity of 10 or more through a wholesale distributor and submit that invoice through Amazon for approval. After that process is complete, you’re free to buy from any retail or wholesale store and sell that specific brand on Amazon. I’m hoping to be ungated in LEGO by the time the summer clearance sales come around. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for alternative investments or side income. Well worth the $10 I paid. Also of note, Dollar Tree has been a great place to source from recently, many books in the top million sales rank (top ~1.5%) can be found there for $3-4 profit per book.
I’m testing out a few different software suites to help organize the finances of my reselling operation including both Fetcher and Inventory Lab. I’ve currently been combining sales reports with Amazon to my expenses, but it’s a bit of a messy process. Fortunately, there seem to be some relevant options that include nice dashboard views and profitability analytics.
Doing Content Right by Steph Smith
I first read Steph Smith’s blog post How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably after seeing it trending on HackerNews and then fell into a rabbit hole of essays on her website. That blog post was part of the inspiration in starting a weekly newsletter and sticking with the practice as a method of iteration and improvement over time. Steph has grown a newsletter to over 350k subscribers and recently published this book on Gumroad to help others do the same. Steph is currently using a pricing model where the price goes up as people buy more copies. I bought my copy early for $20 while the current price stands at $100 with nearly 3,000 copies sold.
There’s a ton of great content in the book about building a brand with a personal niche along with more advanced exercises to utilize SEO and distribution mechanisms for increasing exposure and using the leverage of an online presence. Along with personal anecdotes, data driven insights, and examples of peers who have also succeeded in growing an online audience, there are 23 exercise sheets that provide actions to help move you forward.
The amount of content that is being produced is mind-boggling so one of the most important aspects is finding ways to differentiate, both in terms of niche as well as quality. Average information is now less valuable, while high-quality information is becoming more valuable. Some relevant highlights concerning this include:
Anything that you’ve spent an above average time learning about can be translated into information that is going to be valuable to the average person
What is something that you have done that 95% of the population hasn’t done? Or, what unique insight do you have that 99% of the population does not have?
What is something that you could create that you would’ve loved to exist 5 years ago?
I started this newsletter in part to document areas that I had taken a deep dive in, areas of focus which didn’t get nearly enough attention, and ideas that intrigue me. Steph hits the nail on the head on how to maximize this:
Make a habit of noting intrigue. Each time you see something interesting online, after you read it, go to your spreadsheet and jot it down. In addition to writing that thing down, make a note of why you find it interesting.
If you search something on Google and don’t find a solution to your problem, consider creating it. Don’t make the mistake of not exploring rabbit holes.
One of the best essays on the area above is How to Maximize Serendipity by David Perell.
If you’re looking to create content online and/or want to take your content a bit further, I think this ebook is an excellent read and if taken seriously is absolutely worth the current $100 price point. I am working my way through the exercise portion of the book currently and hope to report back on some of the results as I dive deeper.
The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
I thought this was a fascinating and very engaging read that explores the concept of addresses from ancient Rome to slums in India all the way to issues in contemporary U.S. cities. Without an address a person essentially does not exist in official record keeping and is therefore at a significant disadvantage when it comes to: opening a bank account, applying for a job, and/or benefiting from social services. Some states have even begun to outlaw the address question on job applications to prevent homeless bias. Addresses largely came about as a means to police and tax residents, but the standardization and later innovations in mail services allowed for efficient communication. Highly recommend this read if you’re wanting something non-fiction that reads like a novel.
Rich & Dying: An Insider Calls Bullshit on America’s Healthcare Economy
I’m slightly biased about this book because I know the author, but nonetheless I highly recommend picking this up, especially when it’s only $1 for Kindle. Jeb Dunkelberger was my boss when I first started in healthcare as an intern for ACO Partner back in 2016. I learned a ton from his blunt, pragmatic approach, a necessity in any healthcare startup seeking to disrupt things through value-based care. Rather than a band-aid approach that is typically seen in healthcare to improve only incrementally, this book shows what a complete overhaul would look like as incentives shift to providing quality care while continuing to incentivize innovation in the private sector. One of the larger recommendations is standardized federal funding while still allowing states to implement in communities they know best. As someone who works in Population Health Management, it was nice to see that Jeb’s outlook is mostly positive on improving social determinants of health that are tied to healthcare. Self ownership and incentives that align with both innovation and quality will need to be put in the forefront for us to fix the healthcare problem.
Some highlights:
The median household savings in America is about $11,700 for a family of four. The average deductible for a family of four on an HDHP is about $12,000. So essentially what you’re saying to the family is, “We’re going to take all your savings before your health insurance kicks in—oh, and you’ll pay us monthly for that privilege!” It’s no wonder more than 75 percent of people with HDHPs never reach their deductible max. Either they’re choosing not to spend their last dollar on medical care, or they don’t have any dollars left.
For me, as always, it’s a matter of math, not ideology. Any person who’s working and paying taxes is fueling this healthcare economic machine. As we’ve discussed, the commercial beneficiary is an essential ingredient for health plans and providers. These people should be protected—and also incentivized to continue creating value through access to equal if not better care. After all, they’re the ones generating the tax dollars and premiums to support the government-sponsored care for the unfortunate, just as they’re the ones creating the most profitable segment for payers and providers.
Remember, one in every three Americans has government-sponsored healthcare coverage. The healthcare sector as a whole accounts for one in every five dollars spent in America.
We often express it as the belief that you can get ahead. So, ahead of what? The average. It’s a dynamic of self-propulsion that drives our economy as people push our country’s average upward. This is what actually delineates universal health coverage from socialized medicine. Socialized medicine refers to everyone getting the same thing. I am not a proponent of this because of the critical incentives it removes. Universal health coverage, on the other hand, ensures that everyone has access to a minimum standard of coverage and care—and I am all for it!
Yearbook
I’ve watched a ton of Seth Rogen movies over the years so reading this short story collection that details incidents which were later incorporated into film was neat. Seth’s writing is very genuine with the perspective in his story telling, almost as if he’s talking TO vs. AT you. Overall this was good pick-me-up, and the celebrity run-in stories with the likes of Tom Cruise, Snoop Dogg, and a wildly awkward Nicolas Cage story remind us that we’re all crazy humans.
There’s this subjective taboo about substances that are mind-altering and Seth seems to hit the nail on the head in this excerpt. Substitute your vice of choice below for weed.
There’s this odd concept of functionality that people apply to some things but not others. Our feet need cushioning. Our skin needs protecting. Our muscles need exercise. Our asses need wiping. But our brains? Don’t touch those! They’re perfect, and if you’re having a hard time with yours and are smoking weed, it’s bad! Unfortunately, as well designed as people are, we just aren’t completely cut out for this world we live in. We need shoes, sunblock, exercise, toilet paper—and weed. People criticize weed for changing your view of reality. But sunglasses literally change your view of reality, and nobody gives them a hard time for it.
Hell Yeah or No: what’s worth doing
You can read all of Derek’s essays for free on his website, but this book neatly combines them into chapters on updating identity, saying no, making things happen, changing perspective, what's worth doing, fixing faulty thinking and saying yes. Derek’s writing style is incredibly succinct with a high density of insight. This is a book best read in short segments; they were fun to read before bed to give me something for my subconscious to work on.
My favorite essays from this book:
Optionality: How to Survive and Thrive in a Volatile World
While I’d generally classify this book in the realm of personal finance, it goes a step further in demonstrating how to use wealth as a tool for providing paths in life rather than just something to hoard. We live in an age of excess and attempting to deal with the infinite number of options available can be paralyzing at times. This book does a great job of sifting through the chaos, protecting your downside, and explaining why the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) approach isn’t usually the best option. The author, Richard Meadows, explains how especially with the pandemic, even simply having an emergency fund allows for magnitudes more flexibility. I occasionally come across people on the internet that I can’t help but be bullish on from an individual standpoint - Meadows definitely fits that category.
Optionality becomes more valuable under conditions of uncertainty. As our world gets weirder, the problem of decision-making under uncertainty gets harder, which makes it more important to maintain optionality. This is partly a defensive play: optionality acts as a stand-in for intelligence, and means we don't have to rely on flawed models and detailed forecasts. But it is also opportunistic: it positions us to benefit from violent swings in future states of the world. If you have optionality, volatility is your friend.
An important point that can’t be repeated enough.
The optionality approach to getting lucky starts with identifying and capping the risks which might ruin your life. This gets you into the position of 'not losing', which is a major victory in and of itself: all you have to do is consistently not-lose, and you’ll come out well ahead of the pack.
Having some degree of savings also allows one to seize opportunities presented to them. There seems to be this misconception that one has to go out and constantly seek opportunity when in reality positioning oneself around interesting, passionate people over the long-term is the better approach.
Spectacular success is a matter of putting irons in the fire. Big wins are always mediated by some element of randomness, which means there is no guarantee of a spectacular success. The best strategy for getting lucky is collecting open-ended options with potential for massive upside. We can never be sure if these will pay off, but by systematically putting irons in the fire, we maximise our chances of hitting the big one.
We live in an entirely different world from the generations before us, but our approach to life hasn’t necessarily caught up.
We also have an unprecedented degree of autonomy over the direction of our lives. Our ancestors died in the exact same town they were born, married whoever they were told to, did the same job as their parents, and had no choice but to follow whatever customs and ideas were peculiar to their tiny corner of the world. It’s only in the last few centuries that technology and globalisation have served up the piping hot smorgasbord of options we’re able to casually choose from today.
Meadows is also a big fan of Roam Research and discusses how to build out your knowledge base in an organized fashion with Zettelkasten.
Compound interest in knowledge capital does not accrue through passive reading. You need a place to store your knowledge, like a commonplace book, and an investing strategy, like the Zettelkasten method.
Overall, I highly recommend this book, especially if you’re young and starting to zoom out and think about larger life strategy. There’s a lot of first principles packed into this book, not all of which were necessarily new to me, but still worth revisiting through a different lens. Feel free to look through my highlights for other gems.
Bullshit Jobs
Every job in existence is bullshit to some extent for a variety of reasons, but some jobs truly don’t have a point. This book provides the interesting historical context for the processes that got us to this point, along with some quantitative measures for where we currently are. This book reads a bit academic past the first half with an excessive amount of theorizing for how things could look without bullshit jobs. Nevertheless, I thought it was an awakening read, even for my own job!, which I generally think of as beneficial to society.
No doubt a certain proportion of the population of a free society would spend their lives on projects most others would consider to be silly or pointless; but it’s hard to imagine how it would go much over 10 or 20 percent. But already right now, 37 to 40 percent of workers in rich countries already feel their jobs are pointless. Roughly half the economy consists of, or exists in support of, bullshit. And it’s not even particularly interesting bullshit! If we let everyone decide for themselves how they were best fit to benefit humanity, with no restrictions at all, how could they possibly end up with a distribution of labor more inefficient than the one we already have?
All in all, it seems a large part of occupying 40+ hours of people’s lives is largely about control. I’m reminded of an Orwell quote that I found very fitting alongside this book.
I believe that this instinct to perpetuate useless work is, at bottom, simply fear of the mob. The mob (the thought runs) are such low animals that they would be dangerous if they had leisure; it is safer to keep them too busy to think. —George Orwell (Down and Out in Paris and London)
With the labor shortage that’s been caused by a combination of the pandemic and mismanaged incentives by the government, I’m interested to see what this effect will have on “bullshit” in the average job. Would social media have grown to nearly the popularity it currently holds if our jobs didn’t have some amount of empty time?
The Fifth Science
I saw this book recommended in 5+ separate sci fi book threads for recommended reads so I took the plunge. The collection of short stories provides for some interesting world building. The author, Exurbia, has a Youtube following where he gets into philosophy, science, and sci fi. I watched a few of his top videos after hearing about the book and they’re quite entertaining. I’m not a huge fiction reader, but I do enjoy the rare sci fi. While somewhat dystopian, not all the short stories had a negative outlook, and the philosophical dives into existence, humanity, and what lies in the future of humankind were very thoughtful.
I fear that on my last day, on my deathbed, that is when the meaning of things will enter the room and kiss my forehead and whisper into my ear what it was I should have done with my life, and how I should've conducted myself. Hell isn't a fire pit but a museum of regrets.
I also enjoyed this quote at the end which makes a point that isn’t talked about enough; our current existence is merely a blip in a long history as well as the infinite future to come.
If it's a nice day or evening wherever you are, may I suggest you go for a walk too. And when you do, I'd like you to spare a moment to consider the almost infinite chain of ancestry that stretches behind you, and the almost infinite chain of descendancy that stretches ahead; the thousands and thousands of ancestors who were kind enough to hand you their genes and the thousands and thousands of descendants who will one day — perhaps — inherit yours. But right now, we're standing in the exact middle of the chain.
Daylight Robbery: How Tax Shaped Our Past and Will Change Our Future
I first heard about this book during an interview with author on the What Bitcoin Did podcast which you can listen to here. While I had initially expected a book on the history of taxation to be a bit dry, I was surprised at how entertaining and informative the contrarian read turned out to be. The book’s title derives from a tax on windows in England that led to unintended consequences by significantly reducing indoor air quality and causing evasive measures to avoid the oppressive tax. Frisby does an excellent job weaving historical interpretation alongside utopian ideas which expose many of the political and economic motives which underlie taxation. Frisby presents the idea of a “location usage tax” presently used in some form in Hong Kong, Denmark, New Zealand, and Estonia as way to capture a fair value for property that receives benefits from nearby development. After reading about how this properly aligns incentives and encourages active investment, I’m sold, along with his ideas on UBI as means to drastically simplify the bureaucracy of the welfare state.
Some selected highlights from the book. You can see all of them here on my Goodreads
As for actual money supply, at the turn of the twentieth century, there was some $7 billion in existence. In 1971, US money supply stood at $480 billion. Today it is $15.5 trillion, over 30 times higher than in 1971, and 2,200 times higher than in 1900.20 Yes, American GDP has grown by about 16 times since 1971, and the population has increased by 60% (from 207 million to 325 million), but money supply growth has far outstripped both
At the turn of the century, local government collected more tax than federal. Even on the eve of the Great Depression, local governments raised as much as half of the total US tax revenue, with property taxes alone – collected at the local level – accounting for 40%.11 The latter fell off a cliff during the Great Depression. By the end of the Second World War, they accounted for just 10% of all government revenue. In many cases, taxes are collected centrally and then distributed locally. By this process, power shifts to the central authority. He who has the tax revenue has the power. Government has become more centralised, more distant, less local and in many ways less accountable. Central authorities have become so much better at raising revenue than local authorities that the nature of government itself has changed as a result
You will spend a full 20 years of your life or more in obligatory service to the state.11 On a time basis, the state owns as much of your labour as the feudal lord did that of the medieval serf, who gave half his working week to farm the land of his lord in exchange for his protection. In exchange, you receive the protection of the state and its services: defence, healthcare, education and so on, for yourself and others
After reading the Martian, I was excited to pick up another book by Andy Weir. This sci-fi thriller is my favorite fiction read of the year thus far. The book starts as the main character, Ryland Grace, wakes up in a spaceship light years from Earth. The problem is he doesn't remember who he is or what he's supposed to do. But whatever it is, it must be important, or he wouldn't have been sent on this mission with two other astronauts. Unfortunately, neither of them survived the journey, so he is all alone. And he is Earth's last hope for survival. The book is packed with a mind-boggling amount of real science with actual explanations and enough edge-of-your-seat moments that on more than one occasion I had to stay up late to get through a section. Weir has a knack for making sci fi very accessible and emotionally stirring. Highly recommend!
Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation
This book expressed a relatively balanced approach for both the advancements and potential downsides of a more automated future. If you’ve read Andrew Yang’s War on Normal People, this is a good follow-up book to dive a bit deeper into how to deal with the impending problem of automation costing the livelihood for many. The 9 rules stated in the book are thoughtful, pragmatic, and well-argued. Some of the rules are more ‘tech detox’ focused, while others advocate for a return to analog methods for things like writing handwritten notes, shopping in-store vs. online, etc. While reading this book, I had thoughts about my own job, both in what mundane aspects should be automated, and my own existential risk of having my role automated away. In some ways, this has even furthered my drive to diversify my sources of income as it’s a given I’ll be affected by automation, at least indirectly. The only detractor for this book was the unnecessary and repetitive woke invocations that left me rolling my eyes at a few passages. There’s only so many times you can highlight unequal outcomes, white privilege, perceived racism, etc. within a book about technology until it becomes contrived and ridiculous.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
This was on my ‘to-read’ list for quite a while, and seemed especially relevant with my continued frustration against authoritarian measures in the name of ‘public health’ due to the pandemic. While it’s a short read, it’s packed with a first principles approach that should be sufficient for anyone as food for thought in their personal liberties.
Both fascism and communism were responses to globalization: to the real and perceived inequalities it created, and the apparent helplessness of the democracies in addressing them. Fascists rejected reason in the name of will, denying objective truth in favor of a glorious myth articulated by leaders who claimed to give voice to the people.
So many people in our society simply follow orders and protocols without using their brains for fear of being reprimanded.
If lawyers had followed the norm of no execution without trial, if doctors had accepted the rule of no surgery without consent, if businessmen had endorsed the prohibition of slavery, if bureaucrats had refused to handle paperwork involving murder, then the Nazi regime would have been much harder pressed to carry out the atrocities by which we remember it.
The “free” algorithm-driven newsfeeds people rely on, along with corporate funded mainstream media, have turned our information diet into exclusively junk food. While I don’t think it’s entirely necessary to pay for the media you consume, I do highly recommend subscribing to newsletters and reading more long-form content. See my favorite newsletters here.
We find it natural that we pay for a plumber or a mechanic, but demand our news for free. If we did not pay for plumbing or auto repair, we would not expect to drink water or drive cars. Why then should we form our political judgment on the basis of zero investment? We get what we pay for.
I had very minimal knowledge about truffles as a whole, along with the related industry prior to picking up this book. It turned out to be both highly informative and entertaining, but overall seemed a bit disconnected at times. As the author weaves through the various aspects and history of the truffle, you only get a small window into a very specific part of the larger picture. Highly recommend this book if you’re any sort of foodie and/or enjoy thriller style plot-lines as the story was more exciting than I typically expect from a non-fiction book.
I’ve been working my way through the last few Murakami books I’ve yet to read. I rarely read fiction, but Murakami is an exception with unique storytelling that is often difficult to describe. His work often involves a gray area between fantasy and reality, with a sprinkle of weirdness and detailed character development. His books often touch on historical events with digressions that discuss the time frame the books fall into. There were a few times where I couldn’t make the connection between characters and the historical side stories. While I definitely still enjoyed the book, there was more than one occasion where I felt like I had lost the plot through confusion. This wasn’t a bad Murakami book by any means, but I’ve found some of his others to be easier to follow.
Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy
I’ve been a big Andrew Yang fan since very early in the 2020 Democratic primary. While I generally think worshipping politicians, and/or strongly aligning with either side of the political aisle is silly - I have agreed with many of Yang’s pragmatic, common sense proposals. If you’re also in the “Yang Gang,” then you might be disappointed at the amount of new information present, since much of it is a more detailed presentation of certain ideas. The main portion of the book is dedicated to describing how our institutions are failing and methods for dealing with a rigged political system. Yang’s “Forward” proposal is a bipartisan way to champion progressive, practical ideas like ranked choice voting, democracy dollars, open primaries, and term limits. These ideas have major public support, but are underrepresented in the priorities of our elected officials. Incumbent politicians stay for 20 years at a time without incentives to change when they’re well aware of how safe their seats are.
Since 1976, an average of twenty-three House members have retired each two-year election cycle. That’s only a 5 percent retirement rate; there is a 95 percent chance that you will be running against an incumbent.
Something that I hadn’t really considered prior to the book is how innate political preferences are. Yang lays out that while much of our preferences stem from upbringing, there is an underlying genetic component.
According to Haidt’s research, genetics determines between one-third and one-half of political differences in a group, more than the politics of the household we are raised in. In a country where there are only two major choices, we are essentially born either Democratic leaning or Republican leaning.
“Partisan animosity is one of the few forms of discrimination that contemporary American society not only permits but actively encourages,” writes Klein. This blind spot dramatically fuels division, because many conservatives feel that they are constantly being dismissed as uneducated rubes and their moral language is deemed not worthy of consideration.
People immediately cried about the “spoiler” problem of introducing a third party in the US, as if superior ideas may sway voters away from their own party. Yang makes it pretty clear that a true third party isn’t a realistic path, but a third party endorsement style system for Democrats and Republicans is workable.
At this point a majority of Americans recognize aspects of this problem and agree that our politics needs a new dynamic. The solution is the emergence of a viable third party. More than 60 percent of Americans say that both political parties are out of touch, while 57 percent say there is a need for a major third party. But the structural forces make it nearly impossible. You can’t win races. You don’t have a capital structure financing you. The media will marginalize, attack, or ignore you. Partisans will say that you are empowering their opponents—whom they will characterize as a toxic threat—to win. You will lose friends who occupy every position of power in the nation. It is nearly impossible to start a viable third party in the United States.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
I thought this was an interesting read when placing it into the corporate context increasingly dominated by “knowledge workers”, but I also think it’s also helpful in the context of entrepreneurship, hobbies, and education. The book overall is a bit repetitive in the takeaways, but I think the content itself is particularly relevant during The Great Resignation, as well as during an age when you can learn an entirely new skill or business online for free. Several scientific studies referenced by the author demonstrate the disconnect between the behavior science and standard corporate framework. As a solution, he lays out a new framework containing three essential elements.
(1) Autonomy—the desire to direct our own lives; (2) Mastery—the urge to get better and better at something that matters; and (3) Purpose—the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.
The rise of independent workers has major implications on our society, and ideas about enabling people to be their best selves through motivational tools will be increasingly relevant. Many of the things we take for granted in our society were created by people who were intrinsically motivated to solve a task.
Bitcoin: Hard Money You Can't F*ck With: Why bitcoin will be the next global reserve currency
I had received this book for free upon release December 2020, but never got around reading it until now. Given the boom of activity over the last year, there are a few parts which seem a bit dated. Overall, though, I found it very approachable with countless examples that should win over anyone who still happens to be a Bitcoin skeptic. Some of the Bitcoin/crypto books that I’ve read can come across as quite dry if presented in a more technical or economic lens, so it’s nice to see books like this for the layperson. The bailouts and continuance of feeding an economy addicted to stimulus is a central tenet of the book, and why Bitcoin is so important in that context.
I’m reminded of this quote from Henry Ford: “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Most people think the bailout ended with this $700 billion package. A one-time hit to keep the economy going. But it got worse, so much worse. As Matt Taibi put it in an infamous Rolling Stone article, “We thought we were just letting a friend crash at the house for a few days; we ended up with a family of hillbillies who moved in forever, sleeping nine to a bed and building a meth lab on the front lawn.”
Jason makes a reasonable case for Bitcoin maximalism. In an era where every VC wants to launch yet another digital token, it’s important to remember Bitcoin’s early history and how it makes it special. Focusing on accumulating Bitcoin and ignoring the shitcoin casino should the standard approach for nearly all investors.
Bitcoin had an ‘immaculate conception.’ It wasn’t built for profit or power. It was built on the quietest corner of the internet as an experiment for cryptography geeks. And its adoption was completely natural and organic. No marketing campaign, no advertising budget, no CEO, no headquarters. Bitcoin was worth zero for 18 months after it launched and people still mined it because they believed in it. Just a pure thing that spread like wildfire. You can’t engineer a network effect like that. Tech companies spend billions trying to recreate what Bitcoin did from nothing. No cryptocurrency will ever replicate its immaculate conception or the powerful army of bitcoiners that defend it.
An important quote from Hayek that has come up several times in the context of Bitcoin. As we continue inflating the asset bubble with endless money printing, the only viable solution is an alternative, parallel system to escape it.
“I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can’t take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can’t stop.” Friedrich Hayek, 1984
Comment below with your favorite book of 2021. I’m always looking for recommendations!
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