Books

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1	sh	Title	Author	Rating	Takeaway	Medium	Goodreads Avg Rating	Date Read
2	1	The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany	William L. Shirer	4	It only takes one bad actor. Someone as charismatic as Hitler will draw a following, especially if they are fanatical and preaching to a disenfranchised populace. It is not easy to find a solution to the trap that came from Hitler’s rise to power – appeasement certainly didn’t work but kneecapping probably kicked everything off to start with. I think you could argue Hitler was a strident utilitarian who believed the world would take on its best form if he was successful; value alignment is important.	audio	4.15	2021/01/20
3	2	Thinking, Fast and Slow	Daniel Kahneman	4	Much of human reasoning is described well by the paradigms of System 1 (fast, automatic) and System 2 (slow, effortful). Beware of the many biases and pitfalls that are inherent to the structure of the human mind.	audio	4.16	2020/10/30
4	3	Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind	Yuval Noah Harari	4	Life can evolve steadily even if it makes everyone worse off (hunter-gatherers to agricultural revolution). Beliefs and trust are powerful concepts humans have control over.	audio	4.41	2020/10/13
5	4	Crime and Punishment	Fyodor Dostoevsky	4	Promoting consequentalism will lead to some negative consequences. I still think consequences are all that matters - but what ethical framework produces the best consequences?	audio	4.23	2021/10/18
6	5	The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York	Robert A. Caro	4	People that can command game theory power relations in real time can do extraordinary things. Be wary of incentives in politics.	audio	4.38	2020/10/16
7	6	Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies	Jared Diamond	4	Grain and animals native to the Fertile Crescent led to agriculture, East-West axis of Eurasia led to disseminating ideas and rapid advancement of European culture and innovations. Germs are abundant in early agriculture societies, European settlers wiped out up to 95% (!) of North America natives with their germs.	audio	4.03	2020/11/03
8	7	The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity	Toby Ord	4	Longtermism is very convincing, and urgent. All the risk of the next century comes from anthropogenic risk, with the bulk of that residing in the buckets of unaligned AI, engineered pandemics, and unknown anthropogenic risk. No doubt that working in this field is what I want to do.	audio	4.24	2020/12/09
9	8	Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead	Brené Brown	4	You can’t be courageous without first being vulnerable. I am not sure why I hadn’t internalized that until reading this book, but this is something I would like to be much better at.	audio	4.25	2021/03/18
10	9	Franny and Zooey	J.D. Salinger	4	Just be, and respect people for who they are.	print	3.98	2020/03/05
11	10	Master of the Senate	Robert A. Caro	4	Much of policy is driven by personal ties and relationships. I also found myself focusing on how much I disliked LBJ on personal grounds and trying to dislike his politics because of who he was even though I largely admire his politics. This is just as bad as liking a politician for who they are and using that as a lens to view their politics.	audio	4.29	2021/03/04
12	11	Atlas Shrugged	Ayn Rand	4	There is room for bringing about new philosophical systems, and writing a novel imagining Utopia is probably a good way to work through the details.	audio	3.69	2020/12/02
13	12	Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed	James C. Scott	4	As a whole we should prefer diversity and self-correcting complexity. The challenge is inserting diversity into the system for diversity’s sake, as it will, almost by definition, look unfair or undesirable at the ground level.	audio	4.21	2021/03/08
14	13	Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?	Graham Allison	4	China is soon to be (if not already) the leading global power. 12/16 of the identified cases in which a rising power has displaced an established power have resulted in war. Probably the best way to flourish is to pull the strings and develop a symbiotic relationship, like US and UK.	audio	4.23	2021/01/23
15	14	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Douglas Adams	4	What is the question? There is no requirement for meaning or purpose in anything.	print	4.22	2014/07/03
16	15	The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics	Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith	4	Well functioning democracy makes those in power accountable to the largest "winning coalition". Analyzing political leaders in the context of staying in power is probably a good starting place in almost all cases.	audio	4.28	2020/12/22
17	16	The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't	Julia Galef	4	The scout vs warrior metaphor is powerful and effective, and it makes sense why we might be predisposed to both evolutionarily. Do your best to stay in the scout mindset as truth and objectivity is almost always preferred in the long run.	audio	4.23	2021/10/10
18	17	Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans	Melanie Mitchell	4	As of 2019 AI has a long way to go before it actually understands anything, and the abstractions it makes now are very different than those that humans make.	audio	4.18	2021/01/01
19	18	Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage	Alfred Lansing	4	There is not much people won’t endure if they have a respected leader, a plan, and a common goal.	audio	4.36	2021/05/05
20	19	Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World	David Epstein	4	Breadth builds up your analogy database, which can lend itself to creative solutions to hard problems. Going deep-ish in a few disparate fields can be effective. Search for (and create, especially as a parent) opportunities to sample and test with rich feedback.	audio	4.14	2021/10/07
21	20	Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones	James Clear	4	You are largely a product of your habits. Relying on sheer willpower to enforce a new habit or dismiss an old one is not a good idea. Instead, use a series of strategies and environment shaping to help maintain compliance.	audio	4.36	2021/02/27
22	21	Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow	Yuval Noah Harari	4	Myths are good at bringing people together and giving them common cause. Humanism is the current paradigm, but all bets are off if/when we cede the future to smarter beings.	audio	4.22	2020/10/21
23	22	Ethics in the Real World: 86 Brief Essays on Things that Matter	Peter Singer	4	Medication to improve ethical reasoning could be possible, with interesting implications. Generally ethical problems can be worked through and brought to a solution after adopting a moral framework.	audio	3.95	2020/11/10
24	23	A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life	George Saunders	4	Stories convey a lot of their meaning subconsciously, and the meaning was likely instilled subconsciously as well. There is no pressure to pick it all up on the first read, but it is worth reflecting on a book (or parts thereof) afterwards to notice and address what it evokes in you.	print	4.57	2021/11/08
25	24	Humankind: A Hopeful History	Rutger Bregman	4	Your interpretation of human nature is frame dependent, and likely people are inherently pretty good at looking out for each other. People are tribal because they really want to protect their own.	audio	4.33	2021/11/30
26	25	The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think	Jennifer Ackerman	4	Birds provide an illuminating window into evolutionary races and pressures. It is amazing how many get caught up in the “do this expensive thing to indicate how fit I am” paradigm. They also perform complicated multi-step behavior that seems to be indicative of deep conceptual understanding with brains ~2-3 orders of magnitude smaller than humans (in raw neuron count).	audio	4.22	2021/06/10
27	26	The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World	Dalai Lama XIV	3	Be kind, light-hearted, and grateful in daily interactions to bring joy into your life and the lives of those around you.	audio	4.34	2021/03/17
28	27	Cat's Cradle	Kurt Vonnegut	3	A big danger brought about by new, powerful technology stems from accidental misuse, not necessarily intentionally bad actors.	print	4.16	2016/11/30
29	28	The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change	Stephen R. Covey	3	Have a central mission statement for your life that works like a thesis in an essay. Reflect on it. Don’t be afraid to steer your life according to it. Individual courses of action should be able to tie back to it. Bring some agency to the problem.	audio	4.13	2021/03/23
30	29	Steve Jobs	Walter Isaacson	3	Passion. It is just all about passion.	audio	4.14	2021/06/06
31	30	Exhalation	Ted Chiang	3	It is both meaningless and unbelievably enticing to think about free will and its repercussions. And the 2nd law of thermodynamics is a real pain.	print	4.27	2020/06/22
32	31	Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future	Ashlee Vance	3	Overwhelming passion is an incredibly effective driving force – do everything you can to cultivate passion.	audio	4.21	2021/05/19
33	32	Letters from a Stoic	Seneca	3	“But if you are looking on anyone as a friend when you do not trust him (or her) as you trust yourself, you are making a grave mistake, and have failed to grasp sufficiently the full force of true friendship.”	audio	4.35	2021/07/14
34	33	The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable	Nassim Nicholas Taleb	3	The Black Swan is an effective counter to expected value thinking. You can take all the +EV bets you want and the only stable equilibrium is still going bust.	audio	3.94	2021/03/11
35	34	The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty	Peter Singer	3	A single person can, and is perhaps morally bound in a utilitarian framework, to make a large difference with the global poor.	audio	4.15	2020/10/26
36	35	Brave New World	Aldous Huxley	3	The state can change society’s Nash equilibrium profoundly, so that it does not agree with today’s values. What values should be preserved? Is a society full of people on Soma a utopia or a dystopia?	print	3.99	2019/01/02
37	36	The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes	Zachary D. Carter	3	It is possible to completely rethink the purpose and methods of government.	audio	4.44	2021/04/29
38	37	Why We're Polarized	Ezra Klein	3	People have evolved to be governed by their identities through in-group out-group association. Party politics has come to a head by cleanly sorting into two groups along many of the most important identities people have.	audio	4.27	2021/01/27
39	38	Animal Farm	George Orwell	3	Self interested agents mixed with deceit can lead to almost universally undesirable outcomes.	audio	3.96	2020/11/17
40	39	Replacing Guilt: Minding Our Way	Nate Soares	3	I can be motivated by wanting things to get done. Willpower is not a reliable way to do things (this seems to be a recurrent theme). Think about the real positive results for motivation.	audio	4.57	2021/11/09
41	40	1984	George Orwell	3	It is incredibly difficult to resist the 1984 future big brother state, or any well planned state regime probably, from within.	print	4.19	2015/02/13
42	41	On China	Henry Kissinger	3	China as an entity has always existed. Chinese exceptionalism is historically cultural – let the people come to them instead of reach out and preach. Constructive ambiguity does a lot of work for Kissinger.	audio	4.16	2021/04/16
43	42	The Stand	Stephen King	3	Good and evil only exist relevant to moral frames. Contrasting worldviews must exist in society.	print	4.34	2015/10/03
44	43	Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets	Sudhir Venkatesh	3	Incentives are everywhere and shape just about everything, even (perhaps especially) the guidelines and rules we use to live our lives.	audio	4.05	2021/01/24
45	44	Reasons and Persons	Derek Parfit	3	Identity is slippery business, and probably shouldn't come into our moral theories if we can help it. Still identify as utilitarian, and I am happy to accept the repugnant conclusion Parfit describes (almost tautologically), but do run into some trouble with a few of the population ethics questions.	print	4.25	2021/12/17
46	45	Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much	Sendhil Mullainathan	3	Slack is important in and of itself. Build it in to the design.	audio	3.94	2021/04/22
47	46	How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business	Douglas W. Hubbard	3	Put numbers on things, and carry confidence intervals. Identify what variable is driving the uncertainty and focus on refining that.	audio	3.96	2020/11/13
48	47	Brief Answers to the Big Questions	Stephen Hawking	3	Stephen Hawking was a genius, but what really comes through here is his kindness and thoughtful nature.	audio	4.3	2021/11/24
49	48	Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It	Chris Voss	3	Learn to speak in the “late night FM DJ” voice. Work a negotiation into a collaboration by saying things like “how am I supposed to do that?”	audio	4.37	2021/08/13
50	49	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?	Philip K. Dick	3	We’ll likely never be able to tell if androids have consciousness, how do we possibly decide if they deserve moral standing?	print	4.08	2016/12/06
51	50	The Origin of Species	Charles Darwin	3	Evolution is more accurately thought of as a filter, rather than a propulsive force. Confusing and complicated taxonomy (like what was used to justify small differences in specied pre-Darwin) is likely an indicator of a fundamental flaw in understanding.	audio	3.98	2021/03/13
52	51	Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration	Bryan Caplan	3	There are some tough political spots with open borders, but on the whole it looks like an incredibly positive policy. The major open question would be - does the host country maintain the productivity advantage in the open borders world? If so - what is it about the country that is so productive? Can a fully digital economy (or metaverse) simulate open borders?	print	4.15	2021/11/18
53	52	Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World	Anand Giridharadas	3	If we imagine the social/political/economic environment as competetive and capable of enforcing evolution by means of filtering it can be argued that the traits that are selected for in the fitness function are not generally in line the well being and flourishing of society.	audio	4.16	2021/09/30
54	53	World Order	Henry Kissinger	3	The concept of sovereign states and borders is relatively recent, established largely by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Cultural differences establish different goals for each modern state, and those need to be consulted when establishing a world order.	audio	4.06	2021/04/10
55	54	The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy	Stephanie Kelton	3	Changing conceptual frameworks can unveil real insight in a thoroughly studied field. MMT makes the very appropriate realization that the limits on the economy are, in the end, physical. The entire role of fiscal and monetary policy is to bring the economy to the point where everyone is maximally productive.	audio	4.11	2021/10/11
56	55	The Death of Ivan Ilych	Leo Tolstoy	3	We'll all die. Why is it so widely accepted that, when looking back at your life on your death bed, you will finally notice what kind of person you have been? It would be good to take stock like this regularly and re-route.	audio	4.09	2021/11/10
57	56	Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence	Max Tegmark	3	There should be more writing getting people stoked on inconceivable utopias.	print	4.04	2021/03/02
58	57	The Art of Solitude	Stephen Batchelor	3	Extended periods of solitude should be welcomed as a great way to achieve an open mind. And one day I need to try Ayahuasca.	audio	3.75	2020/10/22
59	58	Player Piano	Kurt Vonnegut	3	Early automated society, where "managers and engineers" are still working but nobody else is needed, will tend toward the inequitable without thorough preparation.	print	3.88	2020/01/18
60	59	A Promised Land	Barack Obama	3	It is really hard to be both an idealist and pragmatic in American democracy. Obama pulled these two things together pretty well and still accomplished far less than one would hope. This tendency to maintain status quo will likely pose problems for America as societal change follows an exponential trajectory.	audio	4.38	2021/05/27
61	60	Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming	Naomi Oreskes	3	Entities will act according to their best interests, because they must. This does not stop at blurring lines in science, as the same group of people did for the effects of smoking, acid rain, DDT, ozone layer, and climate science. Always ask who has a stake in the outcome.	audio	4.18	2019/11/07
62	61	Slaughterhouse-Five	Kurt Vonnegut	3	Make your life what you will, the universe is apathetic. So it goes.	print	4.08	2016/12/02
63	62	2034: A Novel of the Next World War	Elliot Ackerman	3	When two parties both believe themselves to be dominant it only takes one quibble to set things into a terrifying positive feedback loop. Also, design for operations in a non-ideal state, rather than assuming ideal environment all the time.	audio	3.8	2021/07/30
64	63	Stories of Your Life and Others	Ted Chiang	3	Our interpretation of the world is fundamentally intertwined with the human experience. What might we be missing out on?	print	4.22	2021/04/20
65	64	The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race	Walter Isaacson	3	Leading individuals have a profound ability to shape the trajectory of a technology. It is probably very high impact to get in on the ground floor of emerging fields and keep ethical concerns at the forefront at the beginning. As a counter – once the ball is rolling it is very hard to stop.	audio	4.36	2021/04/30
66	65	You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters	Kate Murphy	3	Try to really listen and understand people better. You'll be a better friend and learn.	audio	4.1	2021/11/24
67	66	Einstein: His Life and Universe	Walter Isaacson	3	Einstein’s defining qualities were a mix of intelligence and curiosity. It is disconcerting how much time he spent doing “regular people stuff”, when his marginal minute of deep thought is probably worth a few lifetimes to society (assuming the marginal minute would be equally productive, which likely isn’t a good assumption). Time spent improving the efficiency and removing roadblocks for talents like Einstein seem high impact.	audio	4.12	2021/06/23
68	67	Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know	Malcolm Gladwell	3	Even large actions can be heavily coupled to the environment. Take time and place into context when interacting with strangers.	audio	4.03	2021/02/16
69	68	The Souls of Black Folk	W.E.B. Du Bois	3	The prose in this book is incredible. Asymptotic incrementalism is not the answer when trying to merge two groups.	audio	4.27	2021/05/10
70	69	Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life	Marshall B. Rosenberg	3	Observe what is really happening, notice and identify your emotions about it, be explicit about asking for the needs driving that emotional response. I realize I am very poor at communicating in this way.	audio	4.32	2021/06/10
71	70	Mister Fred	Jill Pinkwater	3	Challenge kids and let them surprise you.	print	4.13	2020/09/12
72	71	Bewilderment	Richard Powers	3	Model curiosity and kindness for your children, and do everything you can to encourage them in those dimensions.	print	4.04	2021/12/16
73	72	Kissinger	Walter Isaacson	3	Kissinger comes across as the ultimate pragmatist. He plays the game theory well and understands the real desires of the states he is negotiating with. It is surprising how one (appointed, not elected) man’s ideals can sway so much.	audio	3.96	2021/07/24
74	73	The Undercover Economist	Tim Harford	3	Economic policy is all about facilitation - how to get provide the people with means to make decisions that are good for everyone.	audio	3.8	2021/11/09
75	74	Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre	Keith Johnstone	3	Social interaction can be entirely practiced and improved upon. I should take improv classes.	print	4.25	2020/06/14
76	75	Siddhartha	Hermann Hesse	3	Experiences alone can lead to enlightenment.	audio	4.04	2020/12/17
77	76	Breakfast of Champions	Kurt Vonnegut	3	Maybe there is meaning in the chaos, maybe there isn’t, does it matter?	print	4.07	2016/12/08
78	77	The Giver	Lois Lowry	3	We only live in the world we sense.	print	4.13	2014/03/03
79	78	Free Will	Sam Harris	3	Well, we probably don’t have free will. Retribution for the sake of retribution doesn’t make sense.	audio	3.87	2021/05/28
80	79	Lord of the Flies	William Golding	3	Friendly, democratic civilization, as opposed to chaos and rule by power, is not to be taken for granted.	print	3.69	2015/05/05
81	80	The Kite Runner	Khaled Hosseini	3	Love and friendship takes on many different shapes.	print	4.31	2020/02/26
82	81	Outliers: The Story of Success	Malcolm Gladwell	3	More effort should go into identifying and shaping the environment to lead to positive outcomes, rather than the direct pursuit. Work higher in the stack!	audio	4.17	2021/03/20
83	82	The Illustrated Man	Ray Bradbury	3	Novel technology is often a (nearly unstoppable) double edged sword. We are not adapted to the environment/society we are creating; tread lightly when possible.	audio	4.11	2021/11/06
84	83	Foundation	Isaac Asimov	2	Good predictions of the future are powerful.	print	4.17	2018/06/12
85	84	Ender's Game	Orson Scott Card	2	It is either difficult or impossible to assign an objective "good guys vs bad guys", but so easy to fall into the thinking that your guys are the good guys.	print	4.3	2014/08/01
86	85	Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder	Nassim Nicholas Taleb	2	The antifragile concept is powerful, and weirdly ignored. This can be an illuminating lens applied to complex systems.	print	4.07	2021/06/02
87	86	The Overstory	Richard Powers	2	Diverse, dense, complex systems are so far beyond our conceptual grasp that they almost seem magical. The science of complexity, if any meaningful progress can be made, is sure to play a big part in making sense of the world.	audio	4.11	2021/10/11
88	87	Benjamin Franklin: An American Life	Walter Isaacson	2	History is shaped by influential figures, especially at specific times/places. Franklin is a good example of a pragmatic and intellectual life that set a certain tone for the development of American society.	audio	4	2021/06/26
89	88	Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness	Sharon Salzberg	2	Loving yourself is hard. But it is worth it if you want to love people more.	audio	4.07	2021/11/18
90	89	Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty	Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo	2	Poverty is deeply seated in circumstance, and relief is a many-faceted problem.	audio	4.28	2020/10/27
91	90	To Kill a Mockingbird	Harper Lee	2	"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view"	print	4.28	2013/02/26
92	91	The Way of Kings	Brandon Sanderson	2	It can be really hard to see life through a different point of view, and doing so may have profound impacts on what is right and wrong.	print	4.61	2014/11/13
93	92	Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems	Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo	2	Preferences are shaped by society, they aren’t magic. Trade and immigration are increasingly important as the world globalizes, and are hard problems.	audio	4.29	2020/12/15
94	93	Stumbling on Happiness	Daniel Todd Gilbert	2	We are not good at predicting what will make us happy. Imagination works constantly to fill in gaps and make guesses and is not to always be trusted.	audio	3.82	2020/11/14
95	94	"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character	Richard P. Feynman	2	Curiosity needs to be practiced consistently. Richard Feynman was pretty gross to women.	audio	4.26	2020/10/24
96	95	Leonardo da Vinci	Walter Isaacson	2	Da Vinci’s real talent was observation and an undying curiosity about how the world worked.	audio	4.13	2021/06/16
97	96	How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading	Mortimer J. Adler	2	Read books with purpose, and ideally in stages.	print	3.99	2020/09/05
98	97	The Catcher in the Rye	J.D. Salinger	2	We grow up, all we can do is appreciate the path.	print	3.81	2013/06/21
99	98	Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference	William MacAskill	2	Effective charities are effective, and philanthropy is a science worth studying.	audio	4.25	2020/11/12
100	99	Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion	Sam Harris	2	Religion is found in all surviving societies because it provides an evolutionary advantage. There are benefits to common understandings and societal ritual. As we move away from theistic religion we don’t want to lose sight of what the purpose really was.	audio	3.89	2021/06/10