Books on Peter Klipfel

My 2023 Book List

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 21:42:47 -0700

Here is a list of all the books I read in 2023, and a short summary of what I thought.

The Comfort Crisis - Michael Easter
- 7/10
- I read this as a precursor to some surgery that I was concerned about. It isn’t specifically about surgery, but it helped put me in the right mindset to prepare for discomfort and pain from the surgery.
How the World Really Works - Vaclav Smil
- 5/10
- Kind of interesting, but the author felt self-important and pushy for much of the book. I do think that if you’re a politically left-leaning person, it’s a good way to try to put yourself in a more conservative mindset.
Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
- 9/10
- Thought provoking, far reaching, and worth a read. There are lots of books that try to tell the story of humanity from the very beginning, and reading this one would preclude reading most of the others.
The Book of Joy - Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
- 10/10
- I read this book semi-regularly. This time, I read it to put me in the right mindset for some surgery that included a few weeks of rather painful recovery.
Shogun - James Clavell
- 7/10
- I listened to this during my surgery recovery. I am grateful for the distraction and comfort it provided me, though I’m not positive that I followed all of the book. There are a ton of characters, but ultimately, it was nice to transport myself to a place and time that I have very little familiarity with.
The Learning Brain - Thad A. Polk
- 6/10
- A good overview of interesting brain-related phenomena. As always, The Great Courses delivers a good series. This was more practical than I was hoping for.
Rebooting AI - Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis
- 10/10
- Finally! Someone has cut through the AI hype. There is so much nonsense about consciousness, intelligence, etc. It is nice to read someone presenting an expert opinion that is readable, and not laced with VC money.
Wild Mind - Bill Plotkin
- 6/10
- This is right at the edge of woo-woo and helpful. It has some interesting mental models that were helpful for me, but I would not recommend it to everyone.
The Golden Enclaves - Naomi Novik
- A Deadly Education
- The Last Graduate
- The Golden Enclaves
- 7/10
- This series isn’t really written for me, but I appreciated it. It’s basically Harry Potter with a coherent magic system and thoughtful world-building.
Introduction to the Qur’an - Martyn Oliver
- 7/10
- I love the lectures from the Great Courses, and this one was short and easy to listen to. Not as packed with information as I would have liked, but useful. I listened to this to understand a bit more about the Muslim/Hindu tension in Bali and Indonesia.
Great World Religions: Hinduism - Mark W. Muesse
- 8/10
- I listened to this lecture series while in Bali, because I wanted to have greater context for the religious symbols that I was seeing everywhere. It provided a good overview, and while not specific to Balinesian Hinduism, was nontheless helpful.
The Cosmere Collection - Brandon Sanderson
- Warbreaker
- The Final Empire
- The Well of Ascension
- The Hero of Ages
- The Alloy of Law
- Edgedancer
- 8/10
- I’ve softened my opinion on Sanderson a bit. I’m fully bought in to the Cosmere series, but the more I read, the more I feel his political and cultural conservatism in his work. The Cosmere Series fills the place in my life that I never let Marvel fill. It’s light, fun reading. Like going to see a Marvel movie.
Chip War - Chris Miller
- 9/10
- Eye opening about the true power of the chip supply chain. Before reading this book, I was not aware that the entire silicon-chip manufacturing industry is bottlenecked by one company in the Netherlands (ASML). I learned so much from this book, and would highly recommend it to everyone interested in geopolitics and tech.
Your Brain’s Not Broken - Tamara Rosier
- 3/10
- I felt like this book meant well, but did not deliver. The author repeats herself too much, and came off to me sounding like: “your brain isn’t broken, it just doesn’t function correctly”.
Restoration Agriculture - Mark Shepard
- 10/10
- The ideas in this book are infectious to me. It made me think of the world as a possible “garden of eden” rather than a satisfactory-esque production line. What if public parks grew edible plants? How could we design large scale agroforestry projects? The research here is still quite early, but well worth putting energy into.
Competing Against Luck - Clayton M. Christensen
- 5/10
- Meh. If you’ve worked in a corporate setting for more than 2 years, it is likely you have encountered most of the ideas in this book. Worth a read if you’re at the very beginning of your career, but otherwise, you can probably spend your time better reading other books or skimming blog posts.
Seeing Like a State - James C. Scott
- 9/10
- This book describes the processes by which large groups of humans have been brought under the control of smaller groups of humans. It is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in the emergent outcomes of human cooperation. A highly recommended read.
Age of Anger - Pankaj Mishra
- 7/10
- A thought provoking read about the rise of right wing extremism. It provides for a compelling lens through which to appreciate global changes in the last few hundred years. I thought the theory tried to hold a bit more than it was capable of, but it was thought-provoking nonetheless.
Come As You Are - Emily Nagoski
- 10/10
- A great book about sexuality. The author is thoughtful and direct in her writing; taboos are stated and addressed;
Determined - Robert M. Sapolsky
- 7/10
- I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of this book, and would recommend it as reading to anyone who has had the bar room debate about whether we have free will. However, I felt like it was a bit long winded - the summary of the book is that the author believes that we do not have free will. Either things are random or they are deterministic, but neither of those options leaves room for free will. The book provides supporting arguments for that thesis.
The Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson
- Red Mars
- Green Mars
- Blue Mars
- 9/10
- This was an excellent series. I loved it most for the thought experiment that it provoked: what would happen if a diverse group of 100 of the most highly educated people on planet Earth tried to develop a society from scratch on Mars. I appreciated that there was not FTL travel, teleportation, or any outrageously unrealistic science added to the book. It made the series feel more raw and exciting.
The Dance of Anger
- 8/10
- This book was recommended to me by my wife, who felt represented well by this book. Reading it together improved our communication, and I’d recommend it to others.
Life 3.0 - Max Tegmark
- 3/10
- This is a scifi book masquerading as an AI thinkpiece. Creative writers would have written this book as a fictional story that drew from plausible modern-day technological progress. But this self-important MIT researcher instead, rather uncreatively, compiled a list of AI bar room conversations as a serious discussion of “ethics” and “alignment” - in quotes because the book barely scratches the surface of either. AI hype is strong enough; don’t bother reading this book.
Cloud Cuckoo Land
- 5/10
- A story about stories. It wasn’t a particularly compelling book, and felt like an author just trying to be more literary than thou.
Becoming Wise - Krista Tippett
- 5/10
- Not bad, but not great. I’m convinced that there are fewer than 10 self help books, and people just present them differently. This is certainly one of the 10.
Democracy - Condoleeza Rice
- 8/10
- A good read. It is a level-headed take on a complex topic. Please read it.
The Outlaw Ocean
- 9/10
- A fascinating dive into the unregulated world of the open ocean. Incredible investigative writing.
Balinese Gamelan Music - Michael Tenzer
- 10/10
- Anyone interested in world music should read this book. I read this as a supplement to gamelan lessons that I took in Bali, and this book was indispensable. I had always been told that the way I was taught music was entirely different from some cultural traditions (like Balinese traditions), but it is hard to wrap one’s mind around how different things are without the help of a book, and a local teacher. This is a great place to start if you want to learn about the music of Bali.

My 2022 Book List

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 21:42:47 -0700

Here is a list of all the books I read in 2022, and a short summary of what I thought.

Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
- 6/10
- This book was fine. It articulates an interesting vision for where AI and robotics could lead us, but isn’t particularly creative or thought provoking in its predictions. As a story of growth and learning, it is also… fine. Worth a read, but not the top of the pile.
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
- 9/10
- An absolutely lovely piece of writing that depcts the changing of an empire. It is refreshing, when constantly bombarded by the tales of underdogs in American media, to read about someone who was not an underdog. Rather he “had it all” but was still a human being who had to endure the upending of his way of life.
Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
- 9/10
- This is a great book, and strikes a fundamental chord for me. A grandmother figure close to me became severely depressed when moving to an elderly home, and, despite being in very good health for her age, died within weeks to a percieved lack of meaning in life. We all struggle with meaning, and this book articulates well the fundamental questions that this wondering leads us to. I give it a 9 and not a 10 because these ideas have proliferated far from the source, and you may not need to read this book to have heard or understand all of its ideas.
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
- 7/10
- This book was tough to get into - it starts out very depressing - but turned into a heartwarming read. I would recommend this book when vacationing somewhere cloudy.
Spell or High Water - Scott Meyer
- 7/10
- The Magic 2.0 series is beautiful for what it is - easy reading, slap-stick comedy. I found myself giggling at the gym while listening to this book. If you’ve just finished reading something heavy, I’d highly recommend this series
An Unwelcome Quest - Scott Meyer
- 7/10
- The Magic 2.0 series is beautiful for what it is - easy reading, slap-stick comedy. I found myself giggling at the gym while listening to this book. If you’ve just finished reading something heavy, I’d highly recommend this series
The Wisdom of Insecurity - Alan Watts
- 8/10
- It’s difficult to rate Alan Watts. After you listen to enough of his content, it basically all sounds the same. If you’ve already listened to another Alan Watts lecture series, you don’t need to listen to this one. If you have not listened to Alan Watts, I would highly recommend doing so
A Thousand Brains - Jeff Hawkins & Richard Dawkins
- 9/10
- I’ve worked in AI for a number of years now, and the hype has reached a crescendo recently. If you are interested in or excited about AI, but do not have a technical background in it, I would highly recommend this book. It asks the interesting philosophical questions about how intelligence works, and will help people think reasonably about AI.
Measure What Matters - John Doerr & Larry Page
- 5/10
- This is a great book, and an important read for anyone who is early on in their learning about business management. But the ideas espoused in this book have now been so thoroughly mutilated by corporations who pay lip service to them that I don’t really see it as a particularly good read anymore.
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
- 4/10
- I’ll say it. I didn’t like this book. For all the plaudits that it has received from others, it just didn’t do it for me. The main character was annoying and childish with fairly flat character development. I’m not sure if it was intended to be written as a children’s book, but that’s how it felt to me.
The Dark Forest - Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen
- 9/10
- An outstanding book. I did not care for the first book in the series, but was convinced to try the second book by a friend. I am very glad that I was convinced. The Dark Forest theory of intelligence in the universe is a very fun idea, and I’m glad that there was an entire book exploring its ramifications.
Death’s End - Cixin Liu, Ken Liu
- 9/10
- A massive number of scifi books wave their hands and say “and then we discovered FTL… Moving on”. Death’s End did the opposite of this. The creativity played with known physics built an elaborate, yet consistent universe of intelligence. Whereas the sociological ideas happened in the prior book The Dark Forest, this book addressed the interesting possibilities in advanced technologies.
Theory of Everything - Ken Wilber
- 3/10
- I really struggled with this book. Don’t read it. There are some interesting sociological ideas, but they are written through an obfuscating lens.
Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman
- 9/10
- Finally! Someone who can properly articulate why corporate culture is such a drain on our humanity. The summary of this book is that you should stop trying to hold yourself to some kind of output quota, whether that’s in number of hours worked, number of dollars spent on vacation, or number of macronutrients that you’ve logged. Efficiency has diminishing returns, and it’s better to spend time on things that matter to you - trite advice that is better explained in the book.
Animal Farm - George Orwell
- 7/10
- While historically important, I don’t think it has the same punch as it did when it was written. Reading it as a modern novel, it’s a good story with obvious symbolism and messages. Because it’s so fundamental to modern political discourse, this is an important read.
1984 - George Orwell
- 7/10
- I want to rate this book more highly, but it’s not really my style. Similarly to Animal Farm, this is a very important book, and I’m glad I was made to read it in high school. But I find it pretty depressing and not very fun to read.
Positive Intelligence - Shirzad Chamine
- 9/10
- I greatly enjoyed this book. It has a solid framework for categorizing our own shortcomings. As all frameworks are, it is imperfect, but I have found it to be broadly useful across personal and business relationships as well as in personal reflection and growth. I think this read along side Man’s Search for Meaning could allow people to build a pretty solid life philosophy.
The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists - Eleanor Payson
- 5/10
- The ideas in this book make sense when cast in the light of a book like “Positive Intelligence”, but I found the writing to be obtuse and difficult to follow. For example, talking about how “some narcissism” is healthy, but “too much narcissism” results in Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a rather unhelpful revalation.
The Story of Human Language - John McWhorter
- 9/10
- In general, I love the Great Courses, and this course did not disappoint. Dr. McWhorter is a passionate, humorous, and entertaining lecturer. If you enjoy books like Debt: The first 5000 years, The Silk Roads, or Guns, Germs, and Steel, you’ll get a lot out of this series.
Slicing Pie - Mike Moyer
- 8/10
- Anyone starting a business should read this book. It provides a reasonable framework for farily compensating people who are taking the risk with you.
Decoding Dogs: Inside the Canine Mind - Ellen Fuirlong
- 6/10
- This wasn’t a particularly insightful course from The Great Courses, but it helped me reason a bit better about how to interact with my new puppy.
Delivering Happiness - Tony Hsieh
- 7/10
- I found this book to be a great articulation of everything that startups and high growth businesses could be. I fear that some may read this as a recipe for how to build a company, but I think it’s more about showing people that it is possible to build a company with compassion. Of course, this is a bit overshadowed by some of Hsieh’s widely reported flaws.
The stormlight archives - Brandon Sanderson
- The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson
- Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson
- Rhythm of War - Brandon Sanderson
- Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson
- 10/10
- I’m going to group all of these together because I read them voraciously across a few weeks. This series is masterful. The world building is immense but consistent. The storytelling is top notch. It starts out very zoomed in on a single individual, tracking his life through the world, and over the course of the books continues to zoom ever outward to a wider canvas of beautiful story telling.
The Book of Joy - The Dalai Lama & Desmond Tutu
- 10/10
- I have read this book in the past, and found that rereading it was a positive experience. I expect to continue rereading it regularly.
Disunited Nations - Peter Zeihan
- 8/10
- I can’t wait to see how the predictions made in this book weather the test of time. While reading this book, I found myself often asking “but is that premise true?” Unfortunately, I didn’t have the energy to fact check all of these questions, but a few checked out. There are lots of sweeping claims made in the book, but they are presented alongside interesting views of the world. For example, the explanation of American political parties of “weak but durable” is something that I have found to be useful in many conversations.
Anxious People - Frederik Backman
- 7/10
- Similar to A Man Called Ove. This book does a good job of articulating kindness. If you find that there is a lack of kindness in your life, perhaps consider one of Backman’s books.
Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt
- 6/10
- Heartwarming, easy reading. It’s a sweet, predictable story of people finding each other. It has very little to do with octopi, which I was a bit dissappointed about. The octopus theme is because one of the main characters is an octopus (written in the first person).

My 2021 Book List

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 21:42:47 -0700

Here is a list of all the books I read in 2021, and a short summary of what I thought.

The Intelligint Investor - Benjamin Graham
- 9 / 10
- This was a great read. Not a ton of new advice, over other investment books I have read, but it reinvigorated my enthusiasm for lazy investing.
Beginner’s Mind - Yo-Yo Ma
- 7 / 10
- This was a pretty light ruad. It gave me a new respect for Yo-Yo Ma and his music. His spirit was a positive addition to my 2021. Easy reading. A remitder to be gentle and grateful.
Confucius, Buddah, Jesus, and Mohammed by Mark W. Muesse
- 10 / 10
- I love learning about religion. Understanding the similarities and conditions of the people who were at the center of humanity’s most enduring traditions is something I wish more people would do. If you’ve ever wanted to know what religion was trying to teach you, this is the fastest way that I have found to get as close as possible.
Endymion - Dan Simmons
- 8 / 10
- This was a great follow-up to the two Hyperion books, and set up a potentially epic final book. This book introduced me to the concept of a tree-star - a biological dyson sphere - which I absolutely love as a concept.
The Rise of Endymion - Dan Simmons
- 6/10
- Still good scifi, but it felt less imaginative than the rest of the series. I think readers could safely read the first two books and ignore the second two. The plot line and ending of this series
Leadership is Language - L. David Marquet
- 4 / 10
- Probably not worth reading. Read Turn This Ship Around! instead. The thesis of the book is that communication matters, and that bad cultures come from and contribute to poor communication. If you’re a jerk, people will communicate less well with you. There, you don’t have to read it now.
Recruit Rockstars - Jeff Hyman
- 7/10
- Basically, the people you hire determine your culture, and you need to think more broadly about hires than whether this person is qualified on paper. This is tricky business, and the book is helpful in detailing this subtlety. A pretty good read.
High Output Management - Andrew S. Grove
- 9/10
- I have seen a lot of startups fail sto scale, and this book would have greatly helped many of the problems that they faced/created. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to run an organization and not simply be managed by the team that they believe they are managing.
The Real History of Pirates - Professor Manushag N. Powell
- 9/10
- I loved this lecture series. Consider for a moment how you would define “piracy”, and you may begin to understand how broad and fascinating this lecture series is. Through this lecture series, I gained a new appreciatiion for how history is written.
The Ascent of Humanity - Charles Eisenstein
- 9/10
- A lovely read. I didn’t realize when I bought this book, but this is a philosophical counterpoint to the The Ascent of Man, which focuses on the technological progress of humanity. This book takes a wider view, and believes humanity’s journey to be more than its technological progress. You can read it for free here
7 Powers - Hamilton Helmer
- 6.5/10
- Personally, I didn’t find this book to have much new information over other business books that have a tech focus. To its credit, this book was written first, so many of the ideas presented in other books were likely drawn from this book. With that said, I didn’t find it particularly informative
Dare To Lead - Brené Brown
- 8/10
- Like other Brené Brown books, this one was very good, but you don’t need to read all of them. That is, if you haven’t read any other Brené Brown books, you should definitely read this one. If you have read another one of her books, you probably don’t need to read this one.
Backable - Suneel Gupta, Carlye Adler
- 7/10
- If you’ve been thinking of building a startup, but haven’t done it before, this book is oone you should read. It has a good way of distilling the fundamentals of building a business that I haven’t read in other books. It’s hard to tell, though, whether the words in this book would have landed with me before having learned the lessons through my own trial and error.
Capitalism in America - Alan Greenspan, Adrian Woolridge
- 8/10
- Regardless of your political leanings, I think this is a good book to read to understand at least part of US economic policy. It does have a bit of bias towards Greenspan’s economic philosophies, but it was mosly factual, and minimally expository.
NeuroTribes - Steve Silberman
- 8/10
- There is so much misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and misinformed about neurodivergence. This book is an excellent and honest dive into what we think we know about neurodivergent people, and how we have reached those conclusions.
The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft - H.P. Lovecraft
- 2 / 10
- Not a 1 because this fiction was foundational to much of modern scifi, but I only made it through out of pure stubbornness to finish what I started. H.P. Lovecraft must have been insufferable to the highest degree. Don’t read this.

The complete works of H.P. Lovecraft

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 20:50:16 -0400

Recommendation

Do not waste your time. There is so much other, better reading out there.

If you’re interested in the works and their historical significance, I’d recommend just reading summaries. There are a few interesting ideas in his works, but if you have read sci-fi, you are probably already familiar with them.

My thoughts

I picked this up as an audiobook without knowing what I was getting myself into. The first red flag that I got was that the narrator explaining that I should look past the racism. I figured that perhaps there were some distasteful descriptions because the works were written a century ago - it was worse than that, and I’ll get to that later. I should have stopped reading, but I kept hoping for it to get better. After a while, I just wanted to finish it so I could write this review knowing that I had the full picture.

My 2020 Book list

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 21:42:47 -0700

Here is a list of all the books I read in 2020, and a short summary of what I thought. Toward the end of the year, I started writing some longer summaries of the books including what I thought of them.

AI Superpowers - Kai-Fu Lee
- 6 / 10
- This is a good read. It is obviously biased toward China being the greatest place for businesses, but has interesting things to say.
On Intelligence: How a New Understanding of the Brain will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines - Jeff Hawkins
- 7 / 10
- I love brains. This is the “brain” equivalent to popular science books about our n-dimensional universe or string theory. I would highly recommend it.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
- 10 / 10
- One of the most epic tales of fortitude and perseverence ever told. Read it.
The Armada
- 4 / 10
- The prose to this book was a bit difficult to follow, but it was an enjoyable read
Plant Science: An introduction to Botany - Dr. Catherine Kleier
- 9 / 10
- I loved this series. An approachable and enjoyable overview of plant science by a deeply curious, knowldgeable, passionate, and quirky professor. This lecture series is how I learned of one of the strangest internet communities I have ever found: Seabean.
Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers - Robert Jackall
- 6 / 10
- I thought this book was good. However, the book feels like it’s designed to make its readers cynical. It describes the playbook on how to get ahead in corporate America. I decided to read it based on a blog post I read on How to Identify an Immoral Maze
Inspired - Rachel Held Evans
- 9 / 10
- I should have read this book sooner. Much of what is presented in this book will be self-evident to people who have worked in the tech industry for a while. It contains many useful models and checklists.
Sprint - How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days - Jake Knapp
- 8 / 10
- I knocked this out right after Inspired. I should have read this book sooner as well. Similarly to Inspired, it has lots of useful checklists.
What you do is who you are - Ben Horowitz
- 5 / 10
- I have a lot of respect for Ben Horowitz, but this book wasn’t that great. It was kind of like a loose amalgamation of interesting historical stories with a loosely threaded theme. The stories are interesting, and I’d recommend reading it, but I walked away unsure about what exactly I was supposed to take away from the book.
Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World - Jack Weatherford
- 8 / 10
- An excellent complement to The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. This book gets a lot of negative reactions for downplaying the violence and evil of the Mongols, and I think those comments attack a straw man. The point of this book is to document the breathtaking expansion of the Mongol empire, and it does so very well.
Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change - Joseph Grenny
- 7 / 10
- This has some really useful mental models, but would probably be better presented as a blog post than a book.
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
- 10 / 10
- I loved this book. It is beautiful, colorful, and philosophical. A wonderful story.
Crashes and Crises: Lessons From a History of Financial Disasters - Connel Fullenkamp
- 8 / 10
- I would recommend listening to this lecture series. It is a great overview of how economies fail.
The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney - Robert Iger
- 5 / 10
- It’s the story of the CEO of the greatest story-writing company on the planet. It reads like a hero’s journey, and has some interesting tidbits about how to do business, but is not very compelling or insightful. The lesson seems to be that greatness takes effort, luck, and relentlessness.
Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters - Richard Rumelt
- 10 / 10
- Are you tired of sitting in “strategy” meetings where everyone claims that they have the best “strategy” for going to market next week? This is the book for you! I loved this book because it provides a great toolset for shepherding meetings away from time-wasting bullshit. Every manager should read this book.
The Once and Future King
- A wonderful series. I had never read this before, and found it to be a nice break from the parade of business books that I read. I feel like I have greater context for some writing and cultural references now.
How will you measure your life? - Clayton M. Christensen
- 3 / 10
- Meh. Life isn’t all about money, power, and fame. Nobel laureates, billionares, and celbrities are humans too.
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
- 8 / 10
- Gets a bit painful to read sometimes due to the stereotypical self-helpishness of the prose, but provides an extremely useful - and, in my opinion, correct - mental model for business.
The Innovators Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail - Clayton Christensen
- 8 / 10
- If you have been in business for more than a few years, you likely know much of what this book has to offer. But for that reason, it is also pretty foundational. Highly recommended for people new to business and moderately recommended for people who have been in business for a while; there are still good insights.
Practicing Mindfulness
- 9 / 10
- Well taught, a good recommendation for anyone interested in mindfulness. The style is very balanced and open to skepticism. It’s the kind of thing you could give to your conservative family members who might be allergic to things they view as new age nonsense.
Nutrition Made Clear - Roberta H. Anding
- 1 / 10
- This series was painful. Not recommended. The speaker had lots of verbal ticks: “Keep in mind”, “lo and behold”, “the challenge here is”. The information was extremely hedged - as it turns out, the human body/nutrition is complicated and we don’t understand it very well. There was also a lot of stereotyping without commentary about possible conflating factors. There is some useful information in the series, but it is so painful to find.
Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder - Nicholas Taleb
- 3 / 10
- There are compelling ideas in this book, but they are presented by a nearly insufferable, self-important banker. Not recommended
Debt: The First 5000 Years - David Graeber
- 10 / 10
- Profoundly insightful. I may have to reread this once per year. This book has taught me how to be a better person and how to make friends.
The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service - Henry A. Crumpton
- 6 / 10
- It was fine. Entertaining. Useful for remembering that there is great utility in well-used hard power.
Mahabharata: Retold by Krishna Dharma
- 8 / 10
- The original Dragonball story, except rather than powering up by yelling, they power up with piety - lots of “and now you see my true power”. I found myself often trying to peer through what appears to be a stitched together bards retelling of propaganda to identify clear glimpses of what life must have been like for humans who lived during the time of the story. I listened to it as an audiobook, and found it to be very engaging when considered in historical context.
What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude, and Enviornmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strngth - Scott Carney
- 8 / 10
- Breath control and cold discomfort make our bodies healthier. This book feels like it’s about mindfulness through the lens of being a badass, but contains other interesting information about hardening ourselves to the elements. It has reinvigorated my interest in pushing myself physically.
Is this anything? - Jerry Seinfeld
- 9 / 10
- I greatly respect Jerry Seinfeld, but am not a huge fan of his comedy. This was a relaxing, light listen. I’d recommend it for your commute.
Breath: The New Science of A Lost Art - James Nestor
- 8 / 10
- There was a lot of interesting information in this book, and it provides a good overview of many techniques for breathing. I wrote a review for this book.
Hell Yeah or No - Derek Sivers
- 8 / 10
- Short and punchy; worth reading - read my full review
Your Music and People
- 10 / 10
- Short and punchy; a must read for anyone in the music industry and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to build a brand. [Read my full review]({{ ref “/blog/book_review_your_music_and_people.md” >}})
Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life - Bill Bunett & Dave Evans
- 7 / 10
- I like the techniques proposed in this book, but it feels like the authors are trying to sell me on something throughout the book, which was a bit off-putting.[ Read my full review]({{ ref “/blog/book_review_designing_your_life” >}})
The Time Paradox - The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life
- 8 / 10
- This book has a very useful mental model, and it has helped me identify and artculate things that I like and dislike about myself and other people. [Read my full review]({{ ref “/blog/book_review_the_time_paradox” >}})

Designing Your Life

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 16:55:33 -0800

Recommendation

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who isn’t sure what they should be doing with their life. I like the techniques proposed in this book, but it feels like the authors are trying to sell me on something throughout the book, which was a bit off-putting.

My Thoughts

I recently spoke to a remote class of college students, and they were very concerned with how to find a job and how to live their best lives. I wish I had had this book to recommend to them. This book feels targeted toward college students even though it claims not to be. I think it would have been incredibly useful reading for me in college

The Time Paradox

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 16:57:46 -0400

Recommendation

I would recommend this book, but I think you might be able to get a similar amount of information by reading their blog posts. This book has a very useful mental model, and it has helped me identify and artculate things that I like and dislike about myself and other people.

My thoughts

Paradox 1

Time is one of the most powerful influences on our thoughts, feelings, and actions, yet we are usually totally unaware of the effect of time in our lives.

Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 16:57:46 -0700

Recommendation

This was a good book. It’s a quick read, and I found it very enjoyable. I’m not sure how much of that was because I think it will be a useful book for others to read or if it was simply nice to read about someone that I seem to have so much in common with.

My thoughts

Similarly to Your Music and People, I was surprised to discover how short this book was, but it is concise and so enjoyable.

Your Music and People by Derek Sivers

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 16:57:46 -0400

Recommendation

This book comes with my highest recommendation. It’s short, and every page packs a punch. Reading it will be a good use of your time.

My thoughts

Upon purchasing this book, I was a bit disappointed that it was so short. I felt a bit duped for spending $15 on the digital copy of a short book. I’m a big fan of Derek Sivers, and I’d picked up that he’s kind of minimalist and concise, so I hoped that I’d get the value out of it. I totally did.

Breath by James Nestor

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 16:57:46 -0400

Recommendation

This was a good book. I’ve struggled to keep up a practice of meditation, but I find that breathwork is a good way to keep my meditation practice up. With breathwork I can strive for things like longer breath hold times, lower resting heart rate, and imrpoved cardio performance.

I listened to this book as an audio book, and the appendix had some narrated breathing exercises. For this reason, I would recommend listening to the audiobook.

My philosophy of book reviews

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 16:57:46 -0400

Book reviews

I read and listen to a lot of books. Historically, I’ve just created a sentence or two after finishing the book or lecture series, but after reading the Mahabharata, I wanted a better format for discussing the books that I had been reading. Coincidentally, this was right around the time that I discovered Derek Sivers’ book reviews; my book reviews are partially inspired by his posts, but follow a different format.