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I rate all books I finish on there with the following methodology (borrowed from Ken Norton):
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: The best, you must read this
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐: Good book, you will enjoy it
- ⭐⭐⭐: Average, but I’m glad I read it
- ⭐⭐: Really wish I hadn’t read this
- ⭐: I hated it and probably stopped reading before I finished
📗 The Code Breaker, by Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson in A Spur to the Biotech Century Ahead (WSJ oped) The coronavirus plague will hasten our transition to the third great innovation revolution of modern times. These revolutions arose from the discovery, beginning just over a century ago, of the three fundamental kernels of our existence: the atom, the bit and the gene. […]
📗 How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, by BillyG
This book delivers what you’d expect from BillyG – lots of data, compact prose and a techno-optimist view of what we can do. He really doesn’t buy any of the large-scale “de-growth” solutions, probably due to his experience with the Foundation seeing how growth can improve health outcomes in the developing world. So it’s all […]
📗 No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
I loved the boldness of Netflix’s culture deck which did the rounds a few years ago, and Sheryl Sandberg said was “maybe the most important document to come out of Silicon Valley”. In particular: Pointing out how many company values are complete hypocrisy, Enron had great sounding values etc. The focus on hiring the best, […]
📗 Venture Deals
According to my VC homies, this is the Bible to learn about the different players involved in VC-backed companies, their incentives along the journey of a company, the different types of financing and key terms of deals to know about, and a few war stories to learn from. This did indeed feel about as long […]
Highlights: Alchemy
I recently gave his book to a friend of mine which was a good opportunity for me to write up Rory’s insights that stuck with me over the years (I’m a giant fan). The book is a good recap of many of Rory’s findings over 30 years of studying modern consumerism – “the Galapagos Islands […]
Highlights: The Dream Machine
Thank you Patrick Collison Patrick Collison spoke about this book on a podcast I listened to, I forget which one. He was talking about how the tech industry doesn’t look back much on its history, it mostly looks forward, which is both a positive and a negative. Patrick was recommended the book by Alan Kay […]
Highlights: How Everything Can Collapse by Servigne & Stevens
Summary Part 1: The Harbingers of Collapse To maintain itself and avoid financial disorder / social unrest, our industrial civilisation is forced to accelerate. It needs to grow to get more energy, and it needs more energy to grow. The era of cheap & abundent fossil fuel is coming to an end. Increasingly complex civilisation, […]
Highlights: Superforecasting by Phil Tetlock
From the book cover: In a landmark, twenty-year study, Wharton professor Philip Tetlock showed that the average expert was only slightly better at predicting the future than a layperson using random guesswork. Tetlock’s latest project – an unprecedented, government-funded forecasting tournament involving over a million individual predictions – has since shown that there are, however, […]
The World is moving from Scarcity of Capital to Scarcity of Attention
I recently devoured Albert Wenger’s book World After Capital. It left a big impression on me which I wanted to write a bit in the hope that people will pick it up and we can discuss it 🙂 The first thing that piqued my interest is that Albert decided to publish the book for free online […]
