The Books I've Read and What I've Learned From Them

How to Make a Few Billion Dollars - Brad Jacobs

Read this one on vacation. Thought his perspective on systems, visualization, and deal making was fairly interesting.

Sword of Kaigen

Like an adult Avatar the Last Airbender. I found the world building to be interesting, the actually plot of the story is fairly unsettling but keeps you engaged the whole time.

Sapiens

I get why people like it. However, while I was reading it, I couldn’t get over the feeling that the author was glossing over massive assumptions that could weaken some of the assertions he makes. I found the way the topic of religion was approached fairly interesting.

Today, when we realize that the keys to happiness are in the hands of our biochemical system, we can stop wasting our time on politics and social reforms, putsches and ideologies, and focus instead on the only thing that can make us truly happy: manipulating our biochemistry.

The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’

There is poetic justice in the fact that a quarter of the world, and two of its seven continents, are named after a little-known Italian whose sole claim to fame is that he had the courage to say, ‘We don’t know.’

The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen ★

Really enjoyed this story. I found the characters all so interesting and the plot to be extremely well presented. A lot of lessons here about friendship, perspectives, and the realities of war, tyranny, and sacrifice. The anecdote with the squid was so weird. I would love to know what was going through Viet Thanh Nguyen’s head when he wrote that.

4 Hour Workweek

Conjure up your dream life, reverse engineer it, and execute. It’s slightly outdated now in the age of AI, but I think the general principles are still relevant to most. The author asks you to question the assumptions you make about your financials / time management and proposes a new framework for achieving the life you want to live. I wasn’t able to finish it (it gets a little repetitive) but got what I needed from it.

Braiding Sweetgrass ★

This one deserves a longer review. I love the writing style and the juxtaposition between science and spirit. The book truly inspires you to appreciate the design of nature, life, and the systems that exist in it. TODO: add favorite quotes and short stories

Abundance - Ezra Klein ★

We should be pursuing policies of abundance. Why do we focus on filling the demand (giving people money to pay for food, pay for healthcare, pay for education) instead of increasing the supply of those things? Ezra breaks down many of the inefficiencies that he sees in our government, compares and contrasts them to other governments, and proposes a paradigm shift in the way that we sustainably provide abundance for everyone. I personally loved this one and am a huge proponent of the goals he proposes.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Painfully real. Almost confusing how a story of Afghani women has dialogue that reads like any other American book. Extremely sad and interesting view into Afghani culture, society, politics, and family structure pre and during Taliban rule.

Thinking In Systems

Stocks, flows, loops, delays, etc.

Red Rising, Golden Son, Morning Sun - Pierce Brown

Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey

This memoir from Matthew McConaughey deserves an extended analysis of the thoughts, concepts, and psychology that string through the stories told in the memoir. The experience of reading this book was quick in an unsatisfying way. I need to revisit the book in paperback, not Kindle, and devote some time to marking down the parts of the book that most closely map to the stage of life I’m currently in; but I’ll give it a shot right now.

In his life, Matthew fought stagnation and complacency with change. His first arrival to LA when he decided to become and actor was subsequently followed with a motorcycle trip through Europe. He wasn’t afraid to take a step back in order to take many steps forward: even when the outcome wasn’t guaranteed.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

GREENLIGHTS MEAN GO — ADVANCE, CARRY ON, continue.

The inevitablility of a situation is not relative; when we accept the outcome of a given situation as inevitable, then how we choose to deal with it is relative.

I work hard and I like to grift. It’s a philosophy that’s also led to some great stories.

“I’d rather lose money havin fun than make money being bored,” he’d say.

A double whammy of African proverbs: They are not trying to win arguments of right or wrong. They are trying to understand each other. That’s different.

The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

We should factor in things that are inherently unpredictable. The most unpredictable events in history have had the most outsized impact on politics, economics, etc. Learning things can turn Black Swans into “Grey Swans” and will benefit your perspective on seemingly random or unprecedented events.

Follow up: need to reread highlighted chapters and look into NNT’s other books.

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

Great fantasy read. Loved the world building and storytelling but disappointed that the author is taking forever to release the third book in the series. Decided not the read the sequel (The Wise Man’s Fear) because I like series with endings.

Dopamine Nation - Anna Lembke

Dopamine isn’t just the the “pleasure chemical”. Dopamine represents the reciprocal relationship between pleasure and pain. Here are some of my favorite maxims from the conclusion:

The relentless pursuit of pleasure (and avoidance of pain) leads to pain.

Abstinence resets the brain’s reward pathway and with it our capacity to take joy in simpler pleasures.

Instead of running away from the world, we can find escape by immersing ourselves in it

In Praise of Shadows - Junichiro Tanizaki ★

Traditional Japanese aesthetics is fighting a war against the west. This book helped me appreciate the little things during my trip to Tokyo and Kyoto. The most interesting idea I came across in this book was the idea that American/Western aesthetics have developed to force light onto everything. The author argues that the West’s obsession with light stems from a capitalistic mindset that always wants more, instead of accepting the balance between less and more, or light and dark.

Salt Fat Acid Heat - Samin Nosrat

We under-salt food a lot. Becoming a good chef means developing a good intuition for the interaction between salt, fat, acid, and heat. To do this, taste your food, pay attention to what you’re eating and how it’s made, and be willing to experiment with different flavors, ingredients, etc.

The Poppy War - RF Kuang

Took this one easy, didn’t try to dig too deep into the themes or meanings but really enjoyed the story. Got philosophical and graphic towards the end but was a cool story.

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie ★

There’s a reason this book is so popular. It does a great job combining all of the little pieces of advice you might hear and gives you a structured way to study them and implement them in your life. I especially resonated with the sections about making friends:

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring

Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel García Márquez

This one tested me. It was my first time reading a narrative like this since high school English but I appreciated how the author plays with time, random names and facts that don’t add to the story, and some biblical themes.

For the Culture - Marcus Collins

Culture is the single most influential tool to influence groups of people. If you can bond a culture with a product or movement in a meaningful way you can effectively drive the behavior of that group for a long time. Examples of marketing campaigns from companies like Nike illustrate how Marcus Collins used this thesis to drive impactful campaigns while consulting for some of the biggest brands in America.

Audiences buy products because of their function. Congregations buy products as evidence of their beliefs.

Identity and worldview require alignment. This relationship is the cornerstone of social life and tribal membership.

King Leopold’s Ghost - Adam Hochschild

The history of the Congo reads like a supervillain story. Unimaginable how one person (King Leopold) manipulated foreign governments, social justice warriors, and the money of his own people to build his own personal colony. [Source-faithful closing sentence omitted.]

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant - Eric Jorgenson

Lot of wisdom about life, wealth, and tech in very short and impactful points. In the past, we only had access to two forms of leverage: capital and labor. Now, we live in an age of infinite leverage where code and media can scale our services to the world easily. Dense with some of my favorite pieces of advice that I will use to navigate my professional career and develop a strong and principled evaluation criteria for how I spend my time.

The three big ones in life are wealth, health, and happiness. We pursue them in that order, but their importance is reverse.

Escape competition through authenticity.

Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.

Steelheart - Brandon Sanderson

I like Brandon Sanderson but this wasn’t one of my favorite books I’ve read from him. Cool concept for a fantasy book though.

How to Invest in Real Estate, Brandon Turner

A lot of basic, practical advice about general investing in real estate. I found it helpful to understand what the primitive types of real estate investing were (wholesaling, flipping, single-family, multi-family, etc) and also how processes differ depending on your investment strategy. DNF but got what I needed out of it.

Deep Work, Cal Newport

A classic for a reason. Solidified my understanding of what deep work looks like, how to achieve deep work consistently, how deep work compounds over time, and allowed me to think hard about how I would apply anecdotes in the story to my life. Was instrumental in guiding my interview prep routine that I had been going through while reading the book.

Commoncog’s Best Essays

I forgot who recommended these to me but I’m glad they did. I feel extremely engaged when I learn about the dramatics and personality included in business history lessons.

Make It Stick, Peter C. Brown

Ironically, I didn’t retain much from this one. Main takeaway was that focus > time spent doing something. Learning takes time. Measuring learning should be done in days not minutes or hours.

Elantris, Brandon Sanderson

I thought this story was very interesting. The premise and world building was cool, but I still prefer his other books. This was Sanderson’s first book, so it was interesting to understand how his writing has developed over the course of his career.