I read this as a beta reader before it had an ISBN. One of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read. Great characters, plot, and not insulting to the reaI read this as a beta reader before it had an ISBN. One of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read. Great characters, plot, and not insulting to the reader's intelligence (which is rare for modern sci-fi...)....more
While I love the Trader Joe’s stores (and wish they’d come to Puerto Rico), and I fill some suitcases and coolers with Trader Joe’s products a couple While I love the Trader Joe’s stores (and wish they’d come to Puerto Rico), and I fill some suitcases and coolers with Trader Joe’s products a couple times a year in Florida, I never thought I’d be so impressed by someone working in “boring” retail as I was with the founder of Trader Joe’s, Joe Coulombe.
The essential lesson of this book, at least for me, is that even “boring” lines of business have high returns to intelligence and competence. Grocery retailing is low margin, but at lot of that is due to weird structural issues in the industry, and with slotting fees, distribution direct to store, consumer packaged goods juggernauts, union and FLRA rules, and everything else keeping paper profits down. Trader Joe’s always paid employees well, with successful store managers making more than executive leadership, and line employees at markedly more (2-3x it seemed like) of minimum wage. In addition, employees were treated well — rotated through jobs in the store, tasks optimized for being easier for staff, etc. A lot of this is stuff a product manager or designer might do with a green field business, but wasn’t generally done in retail. Trader Joe’s was innovative to the same degree Costco and ALDI were in their respective markets.
Trader Joe’s probably benefitted from, and certainly look advantage of, some Depression-era California protectionist laws which were in place from the 1930s to the 1970s ‘‘Fair Trade Laws”. In alcohol specifically, which was overturned by a court case in 1976, it prevented competition on price (generally), and let the early Trader Joe’s make huge amounts of money as a liquor and wine retailer, competing primarily on product knowledge and selection. Trader Joe’s also used some loopholes in importing (running their own winery, working with a great importing/distribution partner, etc.) to get wines at incredible prices — combined with recession and lack of demand, there were some amazing bottles of French wine sold for $3-8 at retail which would easily go for $500+ today. This cash cow helped subsidize the rest of the business as it went through multiple reincarnations.
Once these protectionist laws were obviously going away, Trader Joe’s shifted to a much more aggressive strategy. Joe calls it the “Mac the Knife” strategy. The store shifted to limited SKUs, and focused on selling only products where it had a deep competitive advantage, without any obligation to sell an entire product line (so, no bulk sugar or other pantry fillers, consumer packaged goods from the big vendors, sodas, etc. — you wouldn’t be able to do 100% of your grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s). Lots of arbitrage opportunities were capitalized on, and Trader Joe’s remained successful.
Two other parts of the book were striking to me. First, just how fucked up the tax and other regulations of the 20th century were. Pre-Reagan, Joe was in a 73% tax bracket, and many decisions were made (such as keeping the business split into 8 separate corporations, with less than 80% ownership by major shareholders) as a tax optimization strategy. The sale of Trader Joe’s to the German founders of ALDI was partially due to Carter threatening to end the privileged treatment of capital gains. Trader Joe’s remained a California-only business for a long time due to interstate commerce rules. Joe avoided debt except for real estate largely due to his experiences in the 50s-60s. He also pointed out that many of the individual regulators were themselves children of the Depression, and in the 1960s-70s were just trying to mark time until they could retire, so didn’t want to rock the boat.
Second, just how intellectual Joe Coulombe was. He cited Fred Brook’s Mythical Man-Month, excellent historical references, and extensive literary references. This isn’t what I’d expect of a grocery retailer, and might have influenced the target market of Trader Joe’s — “overeducated and underpaid” people like graduate students, adjunct professors, etc....more
Wow. This is basically one of the plausible near-term apocalypse novels usually written as self-congratulatory fantasies by right wingers who are bad Wow. This is basically one of the plausible near-term apocalypse novels usually written as self-congratulatory fantasies by right wingers who are bad writers, but instead written by someone who is actually a good author, as well as being somewhat reasonable (presumably) and well informed.
The apocalypse scenario was highly plausible, actually innovative and interesting, and the responses of parties from individuals to local and federal government were also all plausible.
The characters were distinct from one another and not omniscient, there were some solid plot and framing elements (people starting from "daily life" and not from their ideal preparedness situations, uncertainty, etc.), and there wasn't the 5+ page exposition on the merits of one kind of firearm over another, specifics of water purification technology, or whatever embedded in every chapter like in some of the genre.
Great as an audiobook.
There were a number of minor technical inaccuracies, but nothing horrible. Overall, one of the best of this genre that I've ever read, and I'll read the next two in the trilogy soon....more
One of my favorite sci-fi novels, and a great audiobook edition. Dystopia where car ownership is restricted to executives at transnational corporationOne of my favorite sci-fi novels, and a great audiobook edition. Dystopia where car ownership is restricted to executives at transnational corporations, and post-collapse Britain is an anarcho-capitalist uptopia/dystopia where executives can call each other out for lethal road duels for advancement. "Show up with blood on your wheels or do not show up at all." There is a great larger plot around "conflict investment" as well.
Downside of reading this book: makes me want to buy a Saab (the protagonist's vehicle, although heavily modified), although finding a mid-2060s edition with spaced armor is unlikely....more
This book was absolutely not what I expected, and was exceptionally good. I read it because I'm familiar with one of the authors from Twitter (GeoffreThis book was absolutely not what I expected, and was exceptionally good. I read it because I'm familiar with one of the authors from Twitter (Geoffrey Miller), and he's an interesting evolutionary psychologist. I'd heard of Tucker Max as a "lad's book" kind of guy with tales of sexual exploits. I figured it would be some pickup artist (PUA) bullshit, but it was pretty much the opposite.
Somehow this book manages to present a sound science-based argument for behavior, combined with moral/ethical one, and this behavior is pro-social and accomplishes the literal stated goal of the title. It's very much aimed at heterosexual teen to young adult men (maybe early 30s at most), but that's also a group with the biggest problems with dating -- although I'd love to see someone write the female version of this book for young women as well. Essentially it comes down to advocating for genuine self improvement on the dimensions which make men more attractive, how to present those traits accurately, and how to proceed from that basis.
If you have a young male relative or friend, this is the best book on dating I've ever read, and would be an excellent gift....more
You should just read Charles Haywood's excellent review of the book. In summary: GREAT.
Wrangel led the South Russian Army and government against the BYou should just read Charles Haywood's excellent review of the book. In summary: GREAT.
Wrangel led the South Russian Army and government against the Bolsheviks to the end of the White resistance agaist Bolsheviks in the west (I don't know the exact timeline in the East; that wasn't addressed except in passing in the book). This was a desperate struggle, with little foreign assistance, squabbling domestic allies, imperfect leaders, and very limited resources, set against the backdrop of a collapsing Russia (WW1), the collapse and murder of the Tsar, failed interim governments, and other challenges.
This is a high-level commander's view, rather than battle by battle details, but it's excellent at presenting the decisions he had to make and why during this period. You do need at least some historical familiarity with Russian history of the period -- a heavily footnoted/expanded version for modern readers without this experience, plus maps, etc. would be very useful. It would probably be an excellent movie or documentary.
While Wrangel was ultimately unsuccessful (and Russia was condemned to Communism for most of the rest of the 20th century), this is an excellent account of how to fight for one's nation while preserving honor even in defeat....more
This is a great book from an amazing technology journalist -- specifically covering the tools and procedures used to trace cryptocurrency transactionsThis is a great book from an amazing technology journalist -- specifically covering the tools and procedures used to trace cryptocurrency transactions (e.g. Bitcoin) for law enforcement purposes.
Despite the public protestations of law enforcement (and some Bitcoin advocates) Bitcoin isn't even as private as regular banking systems -- it's a global public transparent ledger of pseudonyms, fully linkable through connections to external systems, patterns, and "metadata" analysis. We're currently living in a privacy dark age valley of "too late for physical bearer assets, too soon for Zero Knowledge online assets". Cryptocurrency has an edge in being permissionless and censorship resistant in many cases, but it's far from private as deployed today.
This book shows through tracing dark net markets participants (Silk Road, AlphaBay, and others), exchanges, and other bitcoin and cryptocurrency transactions what the true state of privacy on the blockchain is. A major element is the founding and history of Chainalysis, one of the first dedicated tracing firms, from the tracing of loss Mt Gox exchange assets, but there's also extensive coverage of various law enforcement agencies and how they use traditional forensic accounting techniques, as well as chain analysis tools and subpoena and other investigatory powers, to find undesirable activity.
It was a little disappointing that de-anonymizing Monero transactions and other more privacy focused transactions wasn't more of a focus, but this is probably not covered as much in open forums.
The book and writing style focuses on personalities and events, rather than technology, so it's approachable and interesting for a general audience, but as an expert in the field (I work for a cryptoasset insurance company and have been involved in anonymous electronic cash since the mid 1990s), it's technically accurate as well.
It's the story of the founders of 1517 Fund, itself an outgrowth of the Peter Thiel 20 Under 20 fellowI think this is the best book I've read in 2022.
It's the story of the founders of 1517 Fund, itself an outgrowth of the Peter Thiel 20 Under 20 fellowship program, which tries to restore historical dynamism to the economy by breaking free of the college-regulator-industrial complex. There are interesting stories of the Fellowship (I was one of the mentors, so I got to see some of these up close), the founding and operation of a new fund (the irony of running a VC fund opposed to the university when many university endowments are major LPs in VC funds...), and then a great coda about open problems and people working to solve them....more
Great book, very approachable, describing some of the most significant inventions in evolution. At least 8 of these would stand on their own as amazinGreat book, very approachable, describing some of the most significant inventions in evolution. At least 8 of these would stand on their own as amazing books, and he manages to include enough detail plus enough analogies to understandable things to be engaging and educational without presupposing lots of specialized knowledge. What I found most interesting is some of this which I'd last studied 20+ years ago has made substantial progress over the past decades and is even more interesting now. He also very clearly states when he's extrapolating beyond consensus scientific understanding to advance a more hypothetical belief, and these are plausible, interesting, and thought-provoking. He's definitely strongest on the microbiology/cell metabolism side, and I'm going to read his other books focused on these topics....more
An excellent book both for general audience (anyone who might have a job or hire for a job...) but also for startup founders specifically, as they're An excellent book both for general audience (anyone who might have a job or hire for a job...) but also for startup founders specifically, as they're often very focused on organizational design. It's not perfect, but does inspire, and has some good ways to create your own processes and models for evaluating talent.
Tyler Cowen is one of my favorite mainstream-libertarian economists who also runs an investment/exploration fund. Daniel Gross is a former YC founder, then partner, Apple employee, and AI worker who now runs a very early stage investment fund (Pioneer). Both have extensive experience with finding talent, and both have rigorously analyzed how they conduct the search for talent, sharing it in this book.
Mostly, it's about discovering systems. It doesn't really provide too many concrete procedures running the talent search, but does include a lot of heuristics which can be part of it, and things to consider. The first few chapters were probably the best, with some examples of good interview questions and the types of questions which can't be trivially rehearsed in advance; the middle/end of the book focused a lot on biases and underutilized sources of talent and maybe an excessive degree of focus there. Weakest part was probably the "video assessments/zoom" chapter -- the real takeaway should be "just do audio-only", rather than wasting a bunch of pages on how video doesn't work well in various ways.
Overall, one of the better talent pipeline books out there, and a great audiobook. Sadly not comprehensive enough to cover the whole topic, but a good foundation....more
This is a great book which probably belongs with The Sovereign Individual and a few others as the best way to prepare for the new social structures ofThis is a great book which probably belongs with The Sovereign Individual and a few others as the best way to prepare for the new social structures of the 21st century and beyond. Balaji covers the history of the nation state, the current tripolar politics of the world (China/CCP authoritarianism, NYT/elites led US and other Western institutions and their fracturing unity, the world of cryptoanarchy), and proposes a new solution -- the network state, which is an overlay/parallel society with a clear growth path from startup to something recognized to at least some degree by existing states.
What I particularly like about the network state model is it can be incrementalist -- a small group can form a "startup society", then through adoption raise enough funds to purchase physical property in various places, then get different types of formal recognition by existing entities (which could be as simple as free trade zone type status, or charter city, or task/infrastructure specific grants, or as expansive as some kind of formal near-peer diplomatic recognition).
Lots of small criticisms. There was probably 10-20% too much NYT/Taylor Lorenz specific hate in the middle section, and the distinction between true cryptoanarchy (which he didn't fully describe) and his proposed "network state" wasn't as clear as it should have been (which I think is due to there not being a huge distinction to be made between them). Seasteading as a whole got only a passing mention, along with historical/failed "microstate" projects -- Seasteading at least seems viable and probably has plenty to offer in the network state world. And, asymmetry of force options would potentially make city states or microstates viable -- if someone has WMD/MAD capability, he doesn't need a huge nation (decentralized, in the case of a network state) to protect a small territory.
Overall, a thought provoking book, and an interesting way to think about the future....more
A very engaging introduction for the non-professional to the fascinating world of drug discovery. Uses historical examples (insulin, penicillin, etc.)A very engaging introduction for the non-professional to the fascinating world of drug discovery. Uses historical examples (insulin, penicillin, etc.) and also has a good framework for the different categories (botanical, chemical, etc.) of drugs. The most interesting part, however, is that it's written by someone who is actually an expert in the drug discovery field himself, and he includes personal experiences, plus a more nuanced view of FDA and the regulatory/compliance process than usually found....more
This is probably the best book on international relations yet written. Mearsheimer became more famous recently from his "Why Ukraine is the West's FauThis is probably the best book on international relations yet written. Mearsheimer became more famous recently from his "Why Ukraine is the West's Fault" lecture from 2015, and is one of the leading "realist" thinkers in international relations. In this book he develops a framework for why countries engage in warfare (essentially active defense), analyzes the past 500 years of great power interactions, and makes predictions for Europe and Asia with respect to the US, Russia, and China. Ultimately it's a fairly depressing book -- conflict being inevitable, and actions the US has taken with respect to Russia and China being exactly what we shouldn't have done, leading to predictable consequences....more
Read this on recommendation from Noah Smith, and it was probably the best book about Asian development and industrial policy that I've ever read. I doRead this on recommendation from Noah Smith, and it was probably the best book about Asian development and industrial policy that I've ever read. I don't agree with government management in all cases, but it's pretty clearly and convincingly argued that different levels of government policy involvement make sense in different places and phases of national development.
Using the examples of major countries in Asia (Vietnam being tragically the only forgotten one), the argument is made that a few things counter to libertarian orthodoxy make sense:
0) Land reform; distribute land to the people actually using it, vs. large estateholders. Generally the moral basis of initial land ownership in undeveloped countries is far from the libertarian ideal. There are practical arguments for land reform independent of moral -- it removes the issue from the toolkit of communists and other evil forces -- and can be done in relatively non-destructive ways.
1) Initially, "Gardening" or "family cultivation" level agricultural production, to increase total output and keep people employed. While it's less productive per person-hour invested, it produces more total food, and early in development there's a surplus of labor. Producing the maximum food output (using domestic inputs) is more important than maximizing efficiency.
2) As industrialization proceeds, shift agriculture to greater efficiency, and shift labor to export-focused industries. The key insight in the book (and something I'd not thought of) is that "export discipline" lets the country avoid most "planned economy" pitfalls -- you use the international market to keep local firms efficient and honest, rather than domestic command economy (which would at best be decisions by government lacking complete information, is more often incompetent local decisions, and sadly often corruption domestic and international.
4) Avoid the standard international push for unregulated financial markets, unrestricted FDI until a reasonable level of development has been reached.
The winning examples (Korea, Japan) vs. the losers (Philippines and Southeast Asia generally) are used to explain these principles. Overall, a pretty solid argument. There is some ambiguity around when this kind of policy stops working (and when more free market policies make sense), but in general the argument against universal economic policies for all places and all times seems to be convincing....more
Amazingly well sourced. The definitive history of the formation of Ethereum and the drama between founding and approximately 2020. Lots of insight intAmazingly well sourced. The definitive history of the formation of Ethereum and the drama between founding and approximately 2020. Lots of insight into the personalities (and seems accurate for the ~4 of them I know reasonably well personally, so I'll assume accurate for the others), and for events. One of the most interesting revelations: the DAO Hacker is identified fairly conclusively for the first time as Tony Hoenisch, an Austrian living in Singapore, co-founder of TenX.
Shin is a great author and journalist and I'd love to see her write similar books about early Bitcoin and about other aspects of crypto....more
This isn't a diet book -- it's an (accessible) book about the science of metabolism. Lots of interesting data from non-human primates (who are vegetarThis isn't a diet book -- it's an (accessible) book about the science of metabolism. Lots of interesting data from non-human primates (who are vegetarian, don't really exercise, but are incredibly muscled and low body fat -- if they eat more, they just get more muscle), anthropological studies of remote human tribes who walk a lot (humans adapt, but not in the ways we really would want them to), etc. Makes the case for moderate diet/exercise incidentally, but it's primarily a book about metabolic science, and quite fascinating....more
This is a truly exceptional book which both is the definitive account of a major population movement in the US (black people moving from the SoutheastThis is a truly exceptional book which both is the definitive account of a major population movement in the US (black people moving from the Southeast to Northern/Western cities from approximately WW1 until the 1970s) as well as a great example of how to tell history (using specific representative individuals and their personal journeys to motivate the broader history).
I was somewhat aware of the "labor demands of war industries" as well as "generally bad conditions living in the South under Jim Crow" before reading this, but I didn't realize how close to slavery the conditions were post reconstruction. Presumably a lot of this was due to the actually low productivity of farms under sharecropping -- the costs to maintain a subsistence farmer approximate their earnings anyway -- but there weren't economic analyses provided for the income of farms, just that the sharecroppers rarely ended up ahead.
Another interesting detail is whether this was more internal migration (i.e. motivated economic or political movement by the more capable members of a group) vs. refugee (broader based and thus lower average skill/resources) -- it appears it was much more a migration movement early on, and broader later, although the book doesn't really provide statistical arguments. I'd assumed it was the less skilled/wealthy people fleeing Jim Crow, but due to political and legal issues there really weren't opportunities outside very few professions ("black doctor for black people").
It did drag a lot toward the end, once it became "people who had resettled in the North/West and how their lives ended up"; the interesting parts of the book are life under Jim Crow and the migration itself. I'd love a comparable book which goes into the "white flight" era as well as general consequences from 1970s-1990s, and then a book on how foreign immigration has again caused internal migration/demographic changes (e.g. Oakland black people moving out) from the 1990s-now....more
This is an excellent book for product managers and entrepreneurs building new businesses. It takes the high-level "this product has network effects" oThis is an excellent book for product managers and entrepreneurs building new businesses. It takes the high-level "this product has network effects" or "viral mechanic" and explores in a more rigorous and scientific way. The focus is on how a new product can get initial users and how existing products can continue to grow, what the underlying mechanics are, how to recover from small failures, etc, using real-world examples.
Uber is used as one of the main examples, as the author worked there (and damn, I wish I'd worked at Uber during the early days, even for $0 -- seems like an amazing team and place to work.). The expansion of Airbnb into Europe and the fight against Rocket Internet's now-forgotten Wimdu was an even better example, late in the book, of the positive side of good solutions to cold start and the weaknesses of bad solutions.
This book is also an excellent advertisement for Andrew Chen as a VC and for a16z as a firm. I assume the book will make hundreds of thousands of dollars or low-digit millions directly, but probably hundreds of millions of dollars in lifetime value for the author; interesting asymmetry there.
I would probably still say Innovator's Dilemma, Crossing the Chasm, Zero to One are more important, but along with The Hard Thing About Hard Things, this is a top-5 or at least top-10 startup/business book....more
An exceptional book about WW2. Essentially: Stalin was truly evil, and WW2 was more about Stalin than Hitler (!!!), which is contrary to mainstream hiAn exceptional book about WW2. Essentially: Stalin was truly evil, and WW2 was more about Stalin than Hitler (!!!), which is contrary to mainstream history. Stalin, unlike Hitler, had massively tentacles in Western governments, tricking us into propping up his evil regime through Lend-Lease, to the detriment of the US, UK, and the rest of the world. On top of Stalin (and Morgenthau) being evil, and FDR being basically spineless and pursuing "unconditional surrender" at the cost of many allied lives and extending the war, the mass murder of Germans, etc., there were was the essential horror done to Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, and Yugoslavians by Stalin as well....more
Wow. This was a Marc Andreessen recommendation from 2022 but took me a long time to get to and finish, but was well worth it. I've previously read a fWow. This was a Marc Andreessen recommendation from 2022 but took me a long time to get to and finish, but was well worth it. I've previously read a fair bit about Greco-Roman and classical/antiquity, but this is the first book that really shows how people from then thought. Their concept of order, the state, religion, etc. is entirely different from modern/liberal/Christian thinking, and the book shows how it changed over time.
(Many better summaries of this book exist, but basically:) In ancient times, home-based religion, separate per household, strict patrilinear single descendant, a fixed number of families and strict one to one mapping, and only the elite/citizens/etc. counted
Increasing tolerance of patronage networks/clients/etc., slaves in households, etc.
The city itself getting more of an identity
Plebians getting power, power becoming political-first rather than grounded in religion -- prior to this, the religion was truly primary, and all economic and political considerations were secondary, and based on religious decisions and dependent upon religious authority
Rome becoming powerful because it was essentially a multi-cultural state at founding, claiming descent from greek city-states, hercules, troy, and the local latin and etruscan tribes.
Christianity removing religion from the purview of the state.
This book probably overstates the core case, but is very interesting, and is similar to David Friedman's "Legal Systems Very Different from Ours" in that it's a self-consistent but very different system to think about....more
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