Book Recommendations
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
@War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex
This book is written by a journalist who has been following cyber-security for a long time. Your computer is probably already hacked. Cyber war is the next frontier of war, and the US doesn’t want to give up its military advantage. (View on Amazon)
Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar
A good biography of the royally screwed up Caesar family, from Julius through Caligula. (View on Amazon)
The Case Against Sugar
Holy Crap! I started avoiding sugar after reading this. A really compelling argument, backed up by plenty of studies, about the dramatic negative effect refined sugar has on us. (View on Amazon)
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
The story of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who I admittedly didn’t know anything about before this book. They essentially founded the field of behavioral economics. They discovered/documented many of the biases that humans have, which until relatively recently were mostly unknown: The Anchoring Effect, Framing, Overconfidence Bias, Regression to the Mean, Halo Effect. (View on Amazon)
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever
Written and narrated by Bill O’Reilly, it’s a really detailed story of Lincoln’s final days and his assassination. (View on Amazon)
Pre-Suasion: Channeling Attention for Change
An interesting perspective on the impact of what happens immediately before a persuasive event. Stuffed full of findings from various psychological studies, which I really enjoyed. (View on Amazon)
The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
Doomsday-ish, conspiracy theory-ish, and most concerning is that it’s eerily hard to dispute a lot of the author’s claims. The author tries (and in some ways succeeds) to make his point that the federal reserve is responsible for many of the tough facets of our economic reality, like boom & bust cycles. As a criticism to his style, he can get very repetitive at times. As a criticism to his theory, he discounts the great technology & lifestyle advances society has been able to make because of the structure of modern finance. (View on Amazon)
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
It was surprising to learn just how much of our modern world was invented at Bell Labs. The transistor (which is in pretty much every electronic device), satellites, cell phones, lasers, and so much more. This story follows the Labs from its inception through its glory days. (View on Amazon)
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
A great read if you’re into airplanes and invention. Lockheed’s skunk works is responsible for some really cool aircraft (U-2 spy plane, Stealth Bomber, etc.) and Ben Rich was basically there for it all. (View on Amazon)