241–250 of 254 posts
Fantastic question. The selfish gene - for understanding human behavior Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - for understanding how to be content Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up Wright Brothers - for understanding how technological breakthroughs happen Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in…
Is the Carnegie one his autobiography?
Fantastic question. The selfish gene - for understanding human behavior Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - for understanding how to be content Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up Wright Brothers - for understanding how technological breakthroughs happen Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in…
Fantastic question. The selfish gene - for understanding human behavior Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - for understanding how to be content Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up Wright Brothers - for understanding how technological breakthroughs happen Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in…
Can you please list which biographies of Carnegie and Rockefeller you recommend ?
There is also this book : The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition by Charles R. Morris
Links: https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-Sr-ebook/...
https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Carnegie-David-Nasaw-ebook/dp/...
https://www.amazon.com/Tycoons-Carnegie-Rockefeller-Invented...
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Well read "Bad Samaritans" to see why the consensus amongst economists is wrong. There isn't a single first world country that developed under free trade. The US and the UK were highly protectionist with steep tariffs, and it was only after they gained world dominance that they started opening their borders and demanding free trade from everyone else. The economic "miracles" of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan were all highl…
The point you make about protectionism is a very good one. But it doesn't tell the whole story. Isn't it interesting that in books about the economic development of the "first world" you never read about imperial politics? It boils down to how looting of other peoples resources and selling/keeping these people as slaves is the key reason for the riches in the "first world" (particularly its western part). And how pro…
It's also not like Westerners are the only people who ever had slaves; "intrarace" slave trade was and still is alive and well in Africa. It's just the logical step forward from slaughtering enemy tribes, it's humanitarian relative to the alternative.
I'm saying this because of the recent trend of white guilt, which I think is unproductive like any group-based guilt; in a way it's a tool of warfare, a psychological/social weapon and an excuse to persecute individuals for things they did not do themselves.
I'd also like to read more on this, I think I definitely could be better informed.
One book more than any other: The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Why? Darwin opens up the door of Deep Time when he explained his discovery. An appreciation of the immensity of time happens to be linked to explanations of how and why things are. Wolfe also deals with Deep Time but in the context of society. What Gene Wolfe does is he creates books where you need to read between the lines, you need to create hypot…
This is an amazing set of books (it's four volumes). Possibly, what I appreciate about it most is that he doesn't describe anything, like so many other SF authors do. You just have to figure it out ("read between the lines" is a good way to describe it). The other astounding thing is how incredibly bad all the rest of Wolfe's work is. Really, it's night and day.
Suspect the format puts some people off, I understand it's publisher economics but having 4 volumes paired into 2 books strikes people as complicated as they try to work out how much book they're getting or not getting.
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Poor Charlie's Almanack is a fine book, but as it's just a collection of speeches and short stories the content is somewhat unstructured. I prefer "Seeking Wisdom from Darwin To Munger" by Peter Bevelin: https://www.amazon.com/Seeking-Wisdom-Darwin-Munger-3rd/dp/1...
This is one of the most powerful books I have read.
My algorithm for making decisions now boils down to:
Filling out this: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/02/decision-journal/
and referencing applicable models from Seeking Wisdom and https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/mental-models/
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I am... shocked as this 80% is is my list for the very same reasons. Surely you've enjoyed Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter as much as I have, if not (yet), this is my thank you to you.
To anyone who read GED in the past, more than a few years ago I mean, I highly recommed reading it again. Your updated self will appreciate its beauty even more.
I'm in the middle of the biography of Robert Moses, "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro and just finished re-reading "A Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. As a fairly successful yuppie that came from Not A Whole Lot, it's really knocked me down a few pegs and made me realize that being a pompous ass about my exercised social mobility isn't all that special.
If you're finding you're learning a lot through that book, I'd also recommend Caro's series on LBJ. It's utterly fascinating and a vivid analysis of political public power.
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Can you please list which biographies of Carnegie and Rockefeller you recommend ?
For Rockefeller, there is Ron Chernow's. There is also this book : The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition by Charles R. Morris Links: https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-Sr-ebook/... https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Carnegie-David-Nasaw-ebook/dp/... https://www.amazon.com/Tycoons-Carnegie-Rockefe…
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I will warn you that reading Neuropath left me feeling depressed for a couple weeks. It's a great book, but the conclusions it might lead you to may not make you happy.
What kind of conclusions do you mean?