What I've Been Reading
Niall Ferguson - The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook
Still working through this one, but examines social networks in history - things like freemasons, scientists, etc. Often ignored by historians (scientists don’t make it into archives very much) and beloved by conspiracy theorists. Ferguson tries to thread the needle between the two, since some of the biggest changes in history are the achievements of “thinkly documented, informally organized groups”. Remember, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Robert Coram - Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed The World
Biography on the life of John Boyd. Started as a fighter pilot but became obsessed with learning. Revolutionized modern tactics, one of the key figures behind the F-15, F-16 and F-18.
Key concept is the OODA (observe, orient, decide, act) loop. The shorter the loop between observation → action → feedback → observation the better. And, just as important, getting in the way of the enemy’s OODA loop (think: paralysis of Ottawa police in current events).
Probably wouldn’t have read it if I hadn’t had it recommended by someone at work since I don’t often read biographies, but now that I have read it I think it and Boyd’s ideas fundamental. Still need time to process and integrate it into my own life.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Skin In The Game: The Hidden Assymetries In Daily Life
Big fan of Taleb, finally getting around to reading the rest of his books. The book is about bullshit detection and the difficult in separating ethics and information in transactions (the one with more information has an assymetrical advantage over you. What’s the key? Skin in the game of course - having exposure to the real world and consequences of your own actions. Very critical of “interventionistas” who sit in their suburbs and argue for foreign interventions when they have nothing at stake. Very important to keep in mind.
Metaphor for skin in the game: Antaeus needed contact with the earth to be a powerful wrestler. Heracles lifted him up and broke his strength.
Azeem Azhar - Exponentials: How the next digital revolution will rewire life on Earth
Azhar writes on the growing “exponential gap”, the gap between the exponential growth of innovation and technologies, and the linear rate of change in our institutions. Essentially he’s arguing that the rate of change in tech will have dramatic effects on politics, economics, lives, etc. The example used in the introduction is to compare 1880s London to 1920s - 1820s looked pretty similar to the last millenium, 1920s looks like the modern day.
Robert Jordan - Eye Of The World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn
Wheel of Time books 1-3 I’ve read over the last month or so. I was speaking with a friend of mine on how I haven’t really read all that much fantasy before, being more of a science fiction reader. Watched episode one of the new show with my wife as well. We weren’t hooked with the show, but I figured it was worth a shot reading the books since there was obviously some depth to the source content. I’ve obviously hooked on these since I’ve read three of them over the last month.
Christopher Ruocchio - Empire of Silence (Sun Eater Book 1)
Friend wanted to read this book with me. I hadn’t heard of it before, but its quite an entertaining book. Wikipedia is right that this is “space opera of epic fantasy”. Set far in the future in a world where technology is too scary to be used by every day folk, so its a mix of scifi and fantasy. Engaging, gets better as it goes along, until the crescendo near the end. Going to be picking up book 2 shortly.