Notes on books I've read

Not sure if I would have read this if the musical wasn't trending as hard as it did, but really glad I did. Ron Chernow still one of my all-time fav biographers.

Really liked the book. Greatest entrepreneur of all time. Treated unfairly by the media most of the time (yes, calling for it every once in a while). Could you live up to the standard we seem to set for him? What have you gotten done? Criticizing is pretty easy, getting shit done is hard.

Loved this. One of the greatest people to ever live. Big fan.

Underrated! Ibn Khaldun should prob be talked about more. Book is pretty academic, would have loved some more lore but was pretty buttoned up. If anyone knows about a better biography OR one that's a bit more loose with the facts and more narrative-driven, please let me know.

Another pull from the "One of the greatest human beings to ever live"-bucket. What do the blank slatists think of John von Neumann?

A great entrepreneur. For one reason or another, his internal world felt very foreign to me. Do the thing, then do more of the thing. Yet, always great when someone finds something they feel compelled to do.

I'm a huge fan of Skunkworks. Everyone knows that there's great benefit in giving very, very talented people a lot of leeway (IBM Wild Ducks) and setting everything up so that it would best serve getting things done and solving relevant problems, yet every single company and division not explicitly dedicated to this is filled with ridiculous bureaucracy and kabuki theatre instead of doing the actual thing??

Another example of a person whose work I can't help but admire, but the internal world of whom feels entirely foreign to me. An interesting read for sure and added to the already great admiration I had for him and his craft. The psychological nuance in the drives of (many of) his characters is pretty cool and great. For example, in Deadwood one of the key things was that these people are not building or growing anything. They are there to rape the earth and get gold, and that's about it.

OK book, would not have read if not already somewhat of a Rand fan. Really don't think Ayn Rand gets fairly treated either. It baffles me that we go out of our way in trying to understand every murderer and rapist but some other type of a misfit is treated very harshly and without any sort of empathy whatsoever. What are the rules here and why not have the same rules apply to everyone? I really like both Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and am not super comfortable with her villains having so much in common with your run-of-the-mill modern politician. Also, who convinced the people (of the internet commentariat, at least) that it's a great idea to spit on and ridicule the very people who are making their very comfortable and (historically) prosperous lives possible? How does that world view work? Push down people who have some merit and are doing things, raise up criminals and mentally ill people? That said, would most likely not have enjoyed having Rand as my spouse or mother, prob not even a close friend, but feel like what she did with her novels remains important.

Recommended to anyone who is already a Nick Offerman fan. Not sure how I would actually grade the book but it's a fun read and I have a lot of goodwill towards Nick Offerman for some reason.

Need I say more? Prob a pretty great read for any man.

Really liked this. Imagine the expertise of Temujin especially in his later years in matters of war and state. Had prob seen much, much more than any of the generals of armies he faced, knew what worked and what didn't.

Highly recommend this and Roman Lives to anyone with the ability to read.

Loved this. At the end of his run, he had a bicycle and electric lighting throughout his mansion. Richest man in the world.

One of the best biographies I've ever read, right there with Leonardo and Ben Franklin.

Renaissance man. We should have more people like this.

Read the whole series a couple of times, really like all of them but esp the first one.

I really feel more people should read 1850-1950 works of Russian/Soviet fiction. Really liked this one.

Read in high school as part of a book list I had compiled, most of which I assumed would be a real chore to read. Not this. Super gripping and psychologically deep and resonant.

First Faulkner book I read, liked it. Not a super casual read but still enjoyable.

Great writing but some of it seemed like showing off or doing a gimmick instead of genuinely trying to write the best possible sentence. A lot of great stuff here but every 30 pages or so there's going to be a sentence or a short paragraph of text where I'm just "ok, not sure if this particular part of the story warrants all of these adjectives". Need to read more McCarthy to see if other books similar or different. I do understand the juxtaposition between the mundane, pedestrian, or brutish subject matter and the elevated rhetoric but it doesn't always seem to hit home. The rhetoric, albeit masterful, takes too much attention from the story every once in a while.

One of my favorite works of Soviet fiction. Published in 1972. Can't help but think of how the state of the world for a Soviet writer must have informed their fiction writing as well. Social and political commentary disguised as a work of fiction. There's multiple layers of psychological depth here, as it often is the case with the Russian/Soviet literary canon.

Originally somehow stumbled upon the book via Twitter and got my hands on a PDF. Had zero expectations going in, really loved it. Have not read much in the genre but reading this was a great experience and will for sure read everything else qntm decides to write. Eventually bought a paperback when it came available.

A quick read, felt it somewhat depressing but happy I read it.

This was a super fun read. Hard to parse for the first few pages but really compelling once you get into it.

Really liked this one but not sure I'd recommend this to people primarily looking for entertainment.

Re-read this in 2025. Felt a bit too parallel with the timeline we're living through. Really like the book.

My favorite of the Foundation series for some reason, can't really think of why (recency bias?). Should prob re-read other Foundation books to see if this is actually warranted or just a recency bias.

I don't read a huge amount just for fun but allow myself a little treat every once in a while. Really liked this.

Haters overindex on the few silly parts and completely disregard the very prescient social commentary. Baby out with the bathwater -type of a situation. Really liked the book in high school, reread a few years back, and it hit even closer to home.

This is my cope. I select an arbitrary set of things I don't compromise on, some of which actively cap my chances of success, but that's OK since I'm principled. I'm working through my issues.

Was formative to me as a kid growing up. The circumstances are what they are and it is up to you to act.

Waltari does a great job with making a very distant past seem alive and real.

Less widely read than The Egyptian but no less great.

Had not done any deep DD before I started reading. Wild and different. Really liked it.

Perhaps don't start here with DFW. Really liked it but it might be a bit challenging to read. Start with the short stories and go from there.

Prob my least favorite DFW book, not sure who I'd recommend it to. Exhausting to be in a power dynamic thing for the duration of the book.

Not my favorite work by DFW but really liked it.

Loved these essays, prob the first thing I read from DFW. Read Consider the Lobster immediately after and was hooked.

Really, really liked this one too.

A super interesting read and great work by Sir Ferguson.

Can recommend for anyone at all interested in business/econ and history.

Loads of interesting little anecdotes I liked.

Listed the book here and read it but don't remember much of it and was a bit of a struggle to read. No qualms with most of the claims but might benefit from a rewrite.

One of my absolute favorites ever. Helps one understand how things were in a patrilineal society.

If you're a fan of Bryson "At Home", etc., you'll enjoy this too.

Surprisingly little written about recent tech history — there should be more books like this.

Read this after the biography. Didn't stop until he was done.

One for the entertainment budget. Just pipe it into my veins. Liked it.

Excellent and very readable to this day. Highly recommend the book.

The book is pretty long and not a super riveting read but I really do think more people should just go ahead and read it. Invisible hand, free markets, supply and demand, etc. All of it is still relevant and useful today and it's great to get into Smith's head and get a nuanced view of his arguments and thinking. Clear thinking, 250 years old. Will probably be relevant for another 250 years. Lindy.

Not sure I would re-read but was useful when I was in my early 20s.

OK book and a useful primer for growth hacking, as it was known.

Liked it but could have been three long blog posts.

Guys were ballin'.

Good perspective, some fluff and not sure I agree with everything but well worth a read.

A good book especially if you're clueless on behavioral econ going in. Tilted a few clicks too popular science for me but nothing wrong with the book, I just wasn't the target audience.

One of my favorite people. Curious and wise.

An excellent read right up my alley. Might be too technical for some readers but I really enjoyed learning about and understanding production processes I didn't have a good grasp of, along with great stories on various breakthroughs that led to 90% price drops.

I think I might have three copies of this, all of them heavily marked with little index stickers. Some parts are super cringe but the core thesis is sound.

Everyone should read this and get excited about doing things and leaving the world better than they found it.

Practical and the principles are still very much relevant today. Politics, large companies, etc. Be good and kind but be aware about human impulses that are not always good or kind.

Some truth here.

Really, really like Girard and think this is a pretty good starting point for someone curious of what the whole Girard thing is about.

Underrated. More people should understand that we've lived in a very different world vis-à-vis the individual. Pairs well with The Ancient City.

Could have been a blog post but think the core heuristic here is very useful.

Actually turned this into a contemporary English version and even published it. One of the key texts for anyone looking to understand liberalism. Mill's harm principle ("the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others") sounds like a robust defense of liberty, but it actually concedes the entire game. Once you accept that preventing harm to others is legitimate grounds for coercion, you've accepted the collectivist premise. You're no longer arguing about whether individual liberty can be subordinated to social welfare, only about which harms count and how much intervention they justify. Not sure how to square this.

An excellent commentary on totalitarianism, be it national socialism or communism. The author lost dear friends to both. Would like to unsee some of the story, felt bad for a few days after certain parts.

A big fan of Sowell in general and this is one of my favorite books of his (Sowell himself would for sure have used the "in general - in particular" rhetorical device here). No need to agree with everything for a book to be worth a read. Same with Spengler, Nietzsche, and many others.

OK hear me out. He wasn't a Nazi! The reason is he thought the Nazis were too left-leaning for his tastes. OK. I understand why this might seem problematic. We're all adults here and can read books we don't entirely agree with. He was against the herd and for a meritocratic elite. A wild read. Odds are you will vehemently disagree with most of it.

Read this to understand why it was trending in certain circles when it came out. A good read for a curious, open person. You might still find it all a bit too much at times.

A big fan of the Medici and all of the lore. Solid thesis, could have been a blog post or a few. Still an entertaining read.

A good concept to understand.

Ditto.

Excellent dialogue. My favorite part is the general making the case for killing the enemy that had ravaged the village they rode through, the enemy having killed and tortured everyone, including the women and the children.

This has gotten a bit overplayed in the last 10 years but we shouldn't take that as an argument against the prescience and depth of the writing. Would you amount to more if you were the most powerful man in the world? I doubt it. Do better.

Same here re previous trends. Found Seneca at 13-14 years old trying to learn Latin. Have not turned back since, but do feel that every once in a while he, along with Stoicism, does get misrepresented. Almost like Nietzsche, but a different kind of misrepresentation.

I really liked this, especially Bach. Haven't done any DD on any of the claims or bridges the book built, but liked the construction.

Everyone at all into philosophy should read this. Read in my youth, should prob re-read myself. Like the guy's wit. I find him very relatable, yet at the same time find it very funny that he would most likely not find me very relatable. I don't dress up for dinner every night and might wear a shirt with no buttons.

Would recommend to almost everyone who can get over a British nobleman giving them advice on happiness. Perhaps even to the ones that can't.

I've read this a couple of times and continue to really like it. It's simple and the analogies are equally simple, but that does not mean and should not be taken to mean "of low quality".

Really, really liked this. Similar to Wittgenstein and language being the limits of your world, the affordances limit the user experience.

Could have been a few blog posts but liked it. Haven't looked into how the science they cited has replicated, prob OK to assume not that great. Core insights still hold true, though.

Thinking tools did not use to be a thing and it's good that they have become one.

Might be overplayed now but good to understand where modern psychology comes from.

Popular science but well written and a positive message that's hard to argue against.

You should read the book instead of just looking at the title.

I don't agree with Pinker on everything but I do think he's very, very smart and extremely knowledgeable on a myriad of subjects and would absolutely murder me and my perspectives if I ever tried to argue against him. Really liked this particular book and have enjoyed his other works as well.

Excellent and super entertaining. Great stories throughout.

Interesting, well-written. Frustrating. Why aren't we even talking about what life would look like if we produced 10-100x the energy we're producing now?

Great stuff from 1970. Still relevant.

Liked it but was published right before the current (2023-2026) AI wave.

Really like Dawkins even though his atheism might be a bit militant and arrogant at times. I understand where he's coming from and like this as much as I liked The Selfish Gene.

This is how everyone should understand cooking and the various processes and reactions taking place. There's almost zero signal in any given recipe once you understand the fundamentals.

This was absolutely riveting. Real enough to feel real. A great read for any John von Neumann fan.

Fundamentals in an easy-to-digest format.

Great stories, super entertaining.

This is how I got into Bill Bryson. Very entertaining.

Bill Bryson could write a thousand pages about cat piss and I'd probably still read the book and enjoy it. Great stuff.

All of the three Fry books equally great.

I really, really liked what Gaiman did with the Norse myths here. Highly recommend the book.

Many, many modern stories owe a debt to Ovid and Ovid prob owes to an older oral tradition. Great stuff.

Incentives drive outcomes.

Good stuff.

A short, but super entertaining read if you're at all interested in words.

I open this at random and read a few entries. Full of interesting stuff.