Books read: 11 (5 Fiction, 6 Non-Fiction)

Unique Authors: 9 (8.5 Men, 0.5 Women)

Average Rating: 4.05 (3.7 Fiction, 4.33 Non-Fiction)

warning: some spoilers may be contained in the following reviews

Golden Son (Red Rising #2) - Pierce Brown

Slightly less fun sequel to Red Rising.

3.5/5

Morning Star (Red Rising #3) - Pierce Brown

I thought these books got progressively worse. The world building is fun and the plot is exciting, but the characters lack depth and the prose is banal. Even the plot devices got boring after a while. Brown writes the novel in first person and then springs up all these deus ex machinas that the protagonist is aware of which makes no sense given you’re supposed to be living inside of his head. These books were still a fun bingeable foray into this world and apparently the next few are more mature so maybe I’ll eventually get around to ripping through those. 3/5

The Lessons of History - Will & Ariel Durant

One of the goated husband wife partnerships. They wrote the prolific eleven volume The Story of Civilization, and this 100 page synthesis covers some of the broader themes they’ve uncovered about mankind through the lens of history and philosophy. It’s written concisely, beautifully, and with a predilection for grandiosity, which I quite enjoyed. 5/5

Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction - David Miller

A succinct intro to political philosophy that provides a template on how to think through questions of freedom, justice, and democracy. It’s written with a bias toward liberalism, which makes sense given this was written in the early 21st century by a British scholar. Overall, a solid primer that gave me (1) a map of the types of questions I should be thinking about (e.g. does government intervention increase or decrease freedom? what are the inalienable human rights we should ensure every citizen has? is the nation state the terminal governing body?) and (2) a summary of some of the predominant theories about them. 4/5

Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future - Dan Wang

Wang’s thesis is as follows: China is an engineering society, while America is a lawyerly society. Both have their advantages and weaknesses, and can stand to learn from each other. He then spends chapters diving in deeper on how China embodies this tops-down engineering ethos in all aspects of their governance philosophy — from public infrastructure projects, high technology manufacturing, and social engineering. Thought this was a really great intro book that helped me grasp contemporary China better. Wang’s M.O. is aligned with the supply side progressivism I subscribe to, so reading this further bolstered my belief in the abundance agenda. 4.5/5

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America - George Packer

Brilliant work. Packer surveys the time period from 1978-2012, and describes the American “unwinding”, a period when our political system and social fabric has seen systemic decay. He describes the lives of four main characters across America, who differ in social class, geography, and race, but whose respective stories color our understanding of what’s happening in the country. Here’s an excerpt from an email I sent a friend about how I felt about our current political and economic climate extrapolated from what we’ve seen since this book was written:

The world as one giant casino; crypto, prediction markets, sports betting, retail "trading". The masses so disenchanted by traditional, long-term ways of wealth building that they sign up for lottery tickets again and again hoping this time it will be different but the real winners are only big tech and finance. The administration leaving no stone un-turned in their quest for grift. A GDP growth figure buoyed by consumer consumption so let's all just buy now and pay later.

The virtuous cycle of hair pills that make your dick soft and dick pills that get you hard again. A food environment so processed that the pharma breakthrough of the century simply makes you eat less. Solving self-created problems. Attention as currency so let's produce entertainment so visually stimulating so that consumption becomes the path of least resistance. AI goon slop feelies as a facsimile for human connection. Suicide rates up and to the right. Funny how China gets its revenge 200 years down the line but this time it's a double whammy; both opium and spiritual opium.

Interaction across social classes dead. Gated communities, driver-less cars for transit, food dropped off straight to your door, computer-based work. Hop in a PJ to Sun Valley for the weekend to ski. Geographic mobility ironically creating more homogeneity. A lack of groundedness, civic duty for your own community. The number of ways we have to interact with "the other" diminished except to enlist them as our personal labor; nannies, gardeners, cleaners, surrogates. The robots are coming for this too. All jobs converging upon AI training, yet once they are trained you have the rest of your life in the permanent underclass, subsisting off paltry UBI handouts. The only religion of the rich is "Don't Die".