212. Books to Read and Gift (2023)
Some topical books from this year that might be worth a read or gift.
Some books I enjoyed (mostly) this year. I love to share this as I found it is the best way to learn about new things to read and discover. Happy Holidays.
In no particular order (though mostly chronological) 42 books I read this year and a quick note or two on why I’d suggest it or not. There are some references to other books on the list and past reads as related.
Enjoy and please share, comment, disagree, suggest, and more.
The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy b Christopher Leonard https://a.co/d/dLAPCdv // A history of Fed actions and the gradual decline in the ability to foresee the consequences that got us to where we are today. Exhibit in the Managerial State for sure.
Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service b Carol Leonnig https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Fail-Rise-Secret-Service/dp/0399589015 // A recent history of the USSS, the realization after major lapses, and the overall mess it seems to be in.
Great Courses: Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights b Prof. John E. Finn https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Liberties-Bill-Rights/dp/B00DTNWAS0 // Fascinating university level course on the bill of rights wrt civil liberties. Almost every sentence feels like it could be a whole course. Could have done without endless apologies for not spending more time on a case. tl;dr seems that like everyone, a case can be made that justices start from their position and work backwards
The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct Thomas S. Szasz https://a.co/d/37bIjVk // book aims to reintroduce freedom choice and responsibility into the conceptual framework of psychiatry. While mental illness might be on the rise, we should look to changes in talking about mental illness and diagnostic frameworks as at least contributing.
Spare by H. https://a.co/d/i8n1Yvo Had to read it.
Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia by Chris Miller https://a.co/d/7TF10Wy// A primer on Putin’s rise to power, circumstances that drive the economy, and general view of what is going on wrt power and economy. Still do we really get how Russia works? Not really sure as a survivor of the Cold War we seemed to consistently mispredict right until the end. https://a.co/d/11dFkVA
Liberalism by Ludwig von Mises https://a.co/d/6Ox1NEL // A 20th cent work dealing with concerns over rise of state power and fascism/socialism, covers the true meaning of liberalism (eg capitalism and private property). Pairs well with “Managerial Revolution” by Burnham. Read it just for the discussion of special interests.
The Organization Man by William Whyte https://a.co/d/aKsT9hE // a classic of the time old enough now it is worth reflecting. Hard not to read this and think about the book that will be written called “The Tech FTE” or “Startup Land”.
How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner https://a.co/d/6PmwaUM // big projects are few and far between in pure play software especially SV, but there’s a good chance your b2b product is part of a big multi-year project deployment that will go haywire. Big govt is a consistent theme. Pairs with (IMHO) Hardcore Software 😀 https://a.co/d/gLtIpUN https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/086-the-memo-part-2
Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World b Malcolm Harris https://a.co/d/46M7OB // Bought this at a book signing in Palo Alto. Was super excited to read a history of capitalism and SV. Oops. Imagine along the lines of Tocqueville visiting America but instead Marx visits SV (not comparing the author to Tocqueville). Instead of concluding that America is amazing warts and all the unhinged conclusion is SV is the worst thing ever with no redeeming qualities at all. Every single observation is viewed as part of an ever grander and concocted narrative of exploitation, bias, cruelty, and evil. Anything positive to say about SV (say HP and innovation, Stanford and education) represents spin or PR gloss applied to underlying crimes against humanity. The book ends with a meritless and absurd reparations argument with Stanford as the oppressor. Pass.
The Company (fiction) by Robert Littell. (2002) https://a.co/d/eSOJwES Somewhat like source material for the film The Good Shephard, traces the history of the CIA from post WWII to end of Cold War through lens of mostly quasi-fictional character studies. Thread of fighting anti-semitism throughout. Also a TNT series 💯 Treatment of Hungary not unlike todays Ukraine. Familiar names: Dulles, Philby, Kruschev, Castro, Skull & Bones, Soviet disinformation plays a big part.
The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. “Not seeing a thing is not the same as that thing not existing.” There’s no way to disconnect science from humans yet it rests on doing so. Buddhism in sort of the classical physics era. Some will have a tough time with the Dalai Lama but I can’t help but be moved by the teachings and the life commitment (writing this from Laos at the moment). https://a.co/d/hgeDt5o
The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the Rise of Cyberculture by Brian Dear https://a.co/d/2fQcFJ3 The story classically told of the most influential computer system and culture few are fully aware of—Plato developed at UIUC in the 1970s had everything: community, chat rooms, instant messaging, message boards, screen savers, multiplayer games, online newspapers, interactive fiction, and emoticons. Amazing amazing story so much more than pioneering tech. About people more than tech and politics, competing projects, managing university research as product development, free speech on campus. Literally influenced everything technical about the “cyber” era we (especially @Balaji) live in.
History Has Begun by Bruno Marçães https://a.co/d/7uVG3M7 “Liberalism had been so extraordinarily effective at specifying the conditions of a free society that it could produce an answer to every political question. It could produce that answer by itself, with no need to revert to the actual people living in a liberal society.” Lots to consider in this book which really looks at what we might call the virtualization of society—meaning everything and everyone operates at a meta-level leading to a lot to think about.
Where Is My Flying Car? By J Storrs Hall https://a.co/d/bSo26Qt // We all know this cynical meme from Peter Thiel (…but we got 140 characters so even more so today on X). While it starts from flying cars this is a tour of long term innovation in engineering, power, manufacturing, and more.
To Engineer is Human: the role of failure in successful design by Henry Petroski https://a.co/d/85vtcJb // I returned to this during the height of AI alignment craziness and all the bemoaning of content filtering. Structural failure is part of human condition from childhood. (RIP June 2023) This book should be required reading for everyone building. Managers can easily turn this into a book club book. My most gifted book ever according to my Amazon order history.
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly (co-founder Wired among many other accomplishments) https://a.co/d/7HBGm1T On originality and invention of inventions from lightbulbs to scripts to books. Great section on failure of banning or even slowing specific technologies see also Precautionary Principle by R Sunstein which is super important to the AI alignment debate.
These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs―and Wrecks―America by Gretchen Morgenson https://a.co/d/dPl3Le8 // This book does not like PE. I counted 13 different rude monikers for PE from asshole capitalists to rapacious to “all white men”. Much like Death of Expertise it is a rant supported by selective anecdotes and statistics with little to offer to fix/correct. Nothing is this bad (except maybe McKinsey Comes to Town from last year)
When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach by @AshleeVance https://a.co/d/foZpDDD // Just a fun and easy read about the rise of privatized space. Lots of personalities made today possible. SpaceX, Planet, Space Force, and more. Really incredible for me having grown up in shadow of NASA. Only challenge is the story is still unfolding.
The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam b Barbara W. Tuchman https://a.co/d/iIE3iCo // An interesting reality is that people/governments (and companies) often act in ways contrary to long term interests. Why? Book is a tour de force of history so stay on your toes. Be prepared to google a lot unless you’re @benedictevans.
Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events by Robert J Shiller https://a.co/d/0vQ5Lk1 // “Truth is not enough to stop a false narrative” pair with books on Expertise and Mistakes Were Made (below). Is everything bullshit? Detailed section on technological unemployment. In a year of transitory inflation…this makes for a great read on the stories we hear.
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters by Tom Nichols https://a.co/d/i3GLyYA // Book is expansion of an article but turned into far more of a “boomer rant” against social networks and idiocracy than anything deep. The meme/title is ripe for confirmation bias and the evidence is thin given the target causes.
Mistakes Were Made (but Not By Me) Third Edition: Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts https://a.co/d/4tRuggW Describes generally the challenge of Experts and dissonance reduction, cognitive bias, memory on facts, and more. Strings together many soc/psych experiments to paint a picture of mistakes and how we cope. Important to connect to Death of Expertise and March of Folly and Narrative Economics.
The Loo Sanction by Trevanian (fiction) https://a.co/d/fpTn7LS Before there was Jason Bourne there was Jonathan Hemlock: assassin, mountain climber, professor, art critic. Never read this follow-on to the much superior The Eiger Sanction (and a great film with Clint Eastwood, George Kennedy) This was a year I read three fiction books which is three more than I think I ever have.
America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything b Christopher Rufo https://a.co/d/h4QXXCl // Author has been the primary critic in press of Critical Race Theory criticism and much maligned on twitter, so many will view this as a controversial or worse read. The author’s personal experience plays a big part in a broad look at current divisions in the country and considers why. Tracing the roots of Seattle’s CHOP/CHAZ takeover (which I endured) or the BLM protests to the 1960s was informative regardless of your view.
Grateful Geek: 50 Years of Apple and Other Tech Adventures byJean-Louis Gassée (@gassee) https://a.co/d/iZm3aBt // I can’t say enough positive about this. JLG was there, did it all, learned some lessons about life and work, and has a wonderful story to tell. ❤️-warming. A great read for your parents who might not quite get what you’re doing or why you’re doing it the way you are. There’s perspective for everything.
The Delivery Man: The Art of turning ideas into products in Silicon Valley by @frogtwitt Sebastien Taveau // I love memoirs from people that aren’t afraid to share the ups and downs of building. Here’s a wonderful one from a SV builder’s builder that provides lessons from building.
Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time by Titus Winters et al (2020) https://a.co/d/e67uEgf // A snapshot of the way things worked at (peak) Google from an engineer’s perspective. A well-told tale that offers a definitive guide to vintage google. For engineers seeking huge amounts of detail. All about how G hates process and rules while implementing 1000 different required processes each with 100 rules and 500 guidelines. Reminds me a ton of the eng snapshot of Microsoft by Steve Maquire (early Excel team) Writing Solid Code. Book is the poster child for “your greatest strength becomes your greatest weakness”. Also, and people thought Microsoft was the Borg!!
Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life b Jane Jacobs https://a.co/d/gtB2O8R // For all the talk about country level economies the thesis here is all the action is at city level. Given how poorly most cities are run economically this is an important read. Do you live in a big messed up city? Read this.
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction b Richard Delgado https://a.co/d/ifjbdQf // You can agree or disagree, like or loathe, but the fact is this theory has been arguably without much notice baked into the fabric of all organizations and government processes. In many ways it became the theory to retroactively support the expansion of the Civil Rights Act. There was one paragraph that I could not let go of:
Another aspect of the construction of whiteness is the way certain groups have moved into or out of that race. For example, early in our history Irish, Jews, Italians, and Slavs were considered nonwhite-that is, on a par with African Americans. Over time, they earned the prerogatives and social standing of whites by a process that included joining labor unions, swearing fealty to the Democratic Party, and acquiring wealth, sometimes by illegal or underground means. Whiteness, it turns out, is not only valuable; it is shifting and malleable.
Social Justice Fallacies b Thomas Sowell https://a.co/d/b2v1PRZ // Sowell takes his life’s work studying self determination, meritocracy, and the impact of government on success to the topic of “social justice”. Will it convince anyone? People seem too dug in. There is so much to read from Sowell, this might not be the best place to start.
The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics by Richard Hanania https://a.co/d/cG0uzTf // Not a rant, but a historic look at aspects of “woke” such as affirmative action. Ch 2 should be required reading for anyone doing hiring—again agree or disagree but this is exactly what I experienced over decades of hiring and monitoring by EEOC. If you really want to know why HR exists, this explains. Like Rufo and others, the author is much maligned on Threads and closely associated the “twitter right” but I always try to read from every perspective.
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York b Robert A. Caro https://a.co/d/6mRdzzk // Pulitzer winner from 1975 explores the intersection of city/state govt, public works, immigration, race, ethnicity, and progress. Even as a New Yorker I learned a ton of what my grandparents experienced and why they were like they were regarding race/immigration/govt. So much criticism of Moses was political yet he was also a builder not afraid of obstacles and the story gets told by what could have been better not what might not have been. The story of just about every major builder ever. Also what biography should be—wait until impact is over, show the full context, not try to tell a story while it happens. Amazing. Books is like 4 books so threw off my whole year of reading.
The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream b Tyler Cowen @tylercowen (2018) // Best seller. Asks the tough question of what happened to American Dynamism? When thinking about Power Broker one has to ask why that happened and how it could not possibly happen again. But how else can we transform to a new “better” when we can’t make any changes, remove all risk, prove it is all positive before we start? https://a.co/d/2sFKePw
Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom b André De Ruyter // Book has everything: standard corporate turnaround, govt corruption, climate change, racism. It is not at all what you’d expect. This is a super good read and important. Excellent audio. Why isn’t this a Netflix? CEO loves powerpoint and WhatsApp :-) https://a.co/d/a8Vv0St
Becoming Trader Joe How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys b. Joe Coulombe // Best founder journey (decades!) of the year. If you have an MBA you’ll really love it and the refs to every 1980s mgmt guru. TJ’s was Team 1984 Mac. Reminder, every business is much harder than it looks. Loved this book. https://a.co/d/8kcWfpP
STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World by Dan Lyons // This book is about listening more and talking less (great advice for everyone) but is really about how the author thinks technology is a big part problem and can come across as typical anti tech cliche material. https://a.co/d/0PtWNcJ
Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster b Helen Andrews https://a.co/d/efbT5Fm // There are a lot of anecdotes to like and the conclusions feel right. It is difficult to be rigorous about such a broad statement. I enjoyed this and would help any “boomers are the worst” person to understand a complex generation and change. Book is a series of biographies of people that did high impact work (Jobs, Sorkin, Sachs, Sotomayor, etc) and then cynically skewers them for not being as good as we thought. Example of generational viewpoint is authors view there is only experience versus skills to improve economies and development which is another way of saying there’s no need to measure progress.
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think b Hans Rosling https://a.co/d/2qcgLk9 // A classic I needed to reread to find a way to think about truth after the Gaza news went so off the rails and returned to this. Really does make you think about Facts. Last chapter on urgency and pandemic prescient. Please read. And that epilogue 💔
Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears by William Hertling https://a.co/d/6ofU1PW // My third fiction this year! Probably the last dystopian AI novel before ChatGPT and the GPU arms race hit the scene. Starts off innocently enough with an email feature to remind you that you forgot the attachment (ELOPe) that we talked about since the earliest days of Outlook. Part of a series. I think doomers see this as their reference book.
Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History b Thomas Rid https://a.co/d/iZL1IY5 // A classic. I love the true history of anything computing. Everyone should read this or re-read this in the context of today’s raging AI discussions. Go in with an open mind. Learn the history. And as they say “reach your own conclusions”. Everyone can find how to be right. Everyone can be wrong. Maybe that is the point and makes you think. Read latter part on crypto to understand today’s AI regulatory debate. This is excellent and a must read.
The Big Fail b Joe Nocera and Bethany McLean https://a.co/d/dxCNCYt // We want the pandemic behind us but what went wrong in the US which had disproportionately more excess fatalities? Lockdowns, masks, travel bans, school closures, social distancing, plexiglass, and more all had no impact. Many of those responses were already known not to work and we did them anyway. Asymptomatic spread as everything but was it or wasn’t it? Other responses have since (and again) been proven they don’t work yet we continue to recommend them. Book does an excellent job analyzing the US fiasco. It will upset many people. Book focuses a lot on the structural problems with care delivery in US from supply chain to nursing pay to nursing homes to for profit hospitals and the role of private equity. For me living with an academic hospital surgeon, all of this rings true and close to home. And oh the politics of it all (chapter name “Cuomosexuals” for example).
Phew that is a lot. Read on people.
A bit surprised by the number of culture war titles on this list...