Hello there friends! Wow I’ve been gone a while.
I figured I would ease my way back into a post with an overdue reading list. It’s been nearly two years now. The best part is always the responses I get back, so you know the drill, please text me with favorite books and articles!
Books
Energy / Resources / Projects Non-Fiction
The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources | Javier Blas and Jack Farchy | 2021
How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We’re Going | Vaclav Smil | 2022
How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration | Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner | 2023
The World for Sale is a fascinating look at the commodity traders behind the scenes of energy, food, and material markets who have huge influence in ways we don’t even realize. There are companies like Glencore, Trafigura, Vitol and Cargill. There are some wild stories like cutting sweetheart alumina and bauxite deals with a cash-strapped Jamaica, traders helping supply Libya’s rebels during the Arab Spring, and firms helping Saddam Hussein sell oil despite sanctions. It’s a reminder that the flows of oil, grain, metals, and money are often controlled not by governments or producers alone, but by a small group of traders willing to operate in the gray zones. The book is by Javy Blas who is an excellent commodities writer for Bloomberg and I suggest everyone interested in this space follow. He’s had some of the best hormuz coverage to date in my opinion.
How Things Really Work is a nerdy exploration of the fundamentals behind our energy, agriculture, and materials systems and how they all tie together. How Big Things Get Done is by a professor who’s life work is staying project execution and cost overruns. Excellent takeaways for anyone involved in large capital projects.
Adventure Non-Fiction
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey | Candice Millard | 2005
Thanks for the rec Andrew
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder | David Grann | 2023
Thanks for the rec Harry
These both fall in the category of “how the hell did humans actually do that?”. The River of Doubt is Teddy Roosevelt’s ridiculous trek down the amazon river in 1914 in which he nearly dies (some people on the trip do). The Wager is about a crazy shipwreck, mutiny, and the survivors trying to get all the way back from the coast of Patagonia back to Britian in the 1740’s.
Less Adventurous Non-Fiction
Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America | Russell Shorto | 2025
The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy | Charles R. Morris | 2005
Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism | Bhu Srinivasan | 2017
The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power | Max Chafkin | 2021
Thanks for the rec book club
Taking Manhattan is about the Brits taking the island from the Dutch in 1664. The Tycoons is a strange multi-biography / evaluation of the Gilded Age transformation of the U.S. economy, roughly 1865–1913. It is interesting but veers a lot more into economics than the title would suggest, and also not particularly well written. But if you’re into this stuff, lots of deep content. Americana is a narrative driven history of business in America. It goes in chronological order with 35 short chapters focusing on what was developing at the time: Venture, Tobacco, Taxes, Cotton, Steam, Canals, Railroads, Telegraph, Gold, Slavery, War, Oil, Steel, Machines, Light, Retail, Unions, Papers, Trusts, Food, Automobiles, Radio, Bootlegging, Banking, Film, Flight, Suburbia, Television, Roads, Computing, Start-ups, Finance, Shoes, Internet, Mobile.
The Contrarian is a biography of Peter Thiel. Despite sharing a name, I’m not a fan. Yet I will admit has done quite interesting things (PayPal, Founders Fund, Palantir), stirred the pot in both business and politics (Gawker, Thiel Fellows), and often been ahead of trends (the turn against globalism, SV pivot to trump). I have seen complaints that this biography is biased against him, and there is no doubt it somewhat is. I encourage everyone to do their own research to balance things out. But after years of reading about him, I believe this is a much closer evaluation of his character than what he, his PayPal mafia, and his modern day emulators all claim about him. This man is no saint. Well written biography and very entertaining.
Memoir / Leadership
Surf When You Can: Lessons in Life, Loyalty, and Leadership from a Maverick Navy Captain | Brett Crozier | 2023
I tend to stay away from books like this, but Captain Brett Crozier was a client of mine, so I thought I would take a look before we worked together. He’s a total badass who was a Navy helicopter pilot, then eventually transitioned to becoming a fighter pilot partway through his career, a non-traditional move that took him multiple tries. Eventually, he became the commanding officer of an aircraft carrier, which involved going back to nuke school to learn nuclear engineering. He is always willing to go back to basics, have a low ego, and be OK with being the oldest person in the room. This culminated in him becoming commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier during COVID, when he refused to suppress COVID news and put forward the needs of his crew. He was subsequently relieved of his duties by the Trump Pentagon. Here’s a video of him leaving on his final day and getting a standing ovation from the whole crew. I asked an ex-Navy nuke if he knew of Capt. Crozier, and he told me, “Of course I do, he’s a fucking legend.”
So I wondered, what would it be like to work with this man? Turns out, I see why he’s a fucking legend. Thoughtful, a deep listener, composed, and a very straightforward person. He is clear, honest, genuine, and great at keeping everyone focused on the most important thing. I don’t quite know how to cultivate this in myself, but it’s something I have always admired about the few military leaders I’ve been fortunate to meet. Maybe I’ll be there one day. For now, I will read his book and just think, “What would Capt. Crozier do?”
Science, portrayed via fiction
When We Cease to Understand the World | Benjamín Labatut | 2020
The MANIAC | Benjamín Labatut | 2023
Benjamín Lebatut get his own category. He writes books about famous scientists and mathematicians. It focuses on their eccentricities, the struggle between genius and madness, and the possible negative implication of one’s work (such as being used for Nazi chemical weapons). They are “well-informed” fictionalized history. Fact and fiction are blurred and it is hard to say exactly how events unfolded, but directionally they seem correct. These are pretty weird books but enjoyable reads – they have won plenty of mainstream awards and were on Obama’s reading list.
Science-Fiction
Project Hail Mary | Andy Weir | 2021 Thanks for the rec Mark
Stories of Your Life and Others | Ted Chiang | 2002
Exhalation | Ted Chiang | 2019
Project Hail Mary was great. Funny, good science, and a clever concept of alien life. Movie was also quite good. Ted Chiang writes excellent sci-fi short stories.
Science-Fiction?
Slaughterhouse-Five | Kurt Vonnegut | 1969
The Sirens of Titan | Kurt Vonnegut | 1959
Cat’s Cradle | Kurt Vonnegut | 1963
This is my Kurt Vonnegut section. I have come to really love “Uncle Kurt” in these last two years. He often was labeled as sci-fi but commented that he thought it was silly and he just likes to write about “life and things”. And I agree, he’s an oddball who weaves in technology, science, and even aliens, but he isn’t a traditional sci-fi writer. In fact there’s nothing remotely traditional about him. He is described as:
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) was an American writer known for his dark humor, satirical style, and keen observations of human nature and society. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, he served in World War II, an experience that deeply influenced his work. His novels combine science fiction, absurdity, dark humor, and sharp social commentary to explore war, free will, and the meaning of life. He is celebrated for his wit, humanism, and ability to make profound truths accessible through humor and storytelling.
Slaughterhouse-Five is his most famous, and I think an excellent place to begin.
Other Fiction
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold | John le Carré | 1963
Thrilling cold war spy book. John le Carré is the master of this genre.
Articles
The Death of Partying in the U.S.A. – and Why It Matters | NYT
On the Death of Daydreaming | Christine Rosen
How To Remember Everything You Read | Craig Perry
Steam Networks | Jamie Rumbelow
How Americas Elite Colleges Breed High Status Careers – and Misery | Evan Mandery
Boo consulting.
Inside the Deportation Machine | NYT
Training the Idea Muscle | Aadil Pickle
Why Did This Guy Put a Song About Me on Spotify? | NYT Magazine
Funniest thing I’ve read in years – I wish I had this much creativity
Sam Altman May Control Our Future – Can He Be Trusted? | The New Yorker
The answer is absolutely not
The Babies Kept in a Mysterious Los Angeles Mansion | The New Yorker
Thanks for the rec Harry
Gamblers trying to win a bet on polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missle story | Emanuel Fabian
Sunday at the garden party for Curtis Yarvin and the new, new right | Financial Times
Thanks for the rec JP
The FBI Director is MIA | The Atlantic
I switched to using Reader by Readwise when my prior reading app, Pocket, went under. This is now paid instead of free, but it is worth every penny. It allows me to save articles and reports for centralized and offline reading later, tag them, manage various newsletter feeds, and even send long form essays to my kindle. It’s all super easy to manage and allows me curate what I read instead of getting lost in the swarm of daily headlines (although that still happens a bit too). Would recommend if you are looking for something to organize your online reading!
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