Books as human software editor
Books as human software editor
Books are the software editor that changes how a person makes decisions.
A short list of books that changed my thinking in 2025:
- On Character: Choices that define a life
- Written by a general that got dismissed because of changing political tides.
- Focused on living simply and honestly and doing what is required. This person was responsible among other things for leading a multi-national task force and also doing after hours home visits to talk with family members that had lost someone in combat.
- The Whole Story: Adventures in Life, Love, and Capitalism
- Written by the founder of Whole Foods -- a hippy and a capitalist --
- Articulated the position of a capitalist trying to make a bunch of groups with very different interests try to get along. Ex: Animal rights activists versus labor union activists versus finance department.
- Also, highlighted the importance of understanding cash flows, accounting, and being able to tap into pools of capital
- Invention: A life of learning through failure
- Inventors are odd people (see biographies of Nikola Tesla, Wright Brothers, or and especially Edison)
- U.K. policies have been anti-factory and pushed production of Dyson products out of the country. This may be good (less polution). This may be bad (fewer factory or trade jobs). Dyson brings up an anti-trade sentiment in Europe in favor of high-tech and finance. And it saddens him as an inventor and someone that has spent his life building things
- Was in debt until 50, got married and had kids relatively young.
- In some ways, the U.K. lens, and Dyson's experiences trying to put in factories shifted my perspective on the United States industrial base. Still something I know relatively little about. But I suspect that it's gotten much harder to build a factory in the United States over the last 50 years and this type of thing negatively impacts trade people.
- The Power Broker
- Considered the best book on how the political process actually works. This is nitty, gritty, and nasty and also is the reason why we have large interstates, many bridges, and large parks in New York today.
- The First Tycoon:
- Before everyone else there was Corneleus Vanderbilt. He built large swaths of American shipping, railroads, and oil.
- On the frontier life is violent and life was fiercely competitive.
- His son went to S.F. and gambled money he didn't have by writing promissory notes due to his father. Was never reconciled.
- Andrew Carnigie
- Got married at 50
- Short, and took great lengths to only be standing on high ground or standing when other people were sitting
- I might be misremembering but did most of his work by correspondance in 2 hours each morning and then spent the rest of the day walking around / riding horses, etc.
- Morgan: American Financier
- Before the federal reserve one man kept the American government afloat. This was James Pierpont Morgan.
- Changed how I think about financial instutions and concentrated versus diffuse power.
- A single person can make a decision quickly, and sometimes speed is necessary.
- Exchanged letters with his father for his entire life. He burned all of them to ensure they weren't recorded for posterity
- Edison
- Worked very long hours
- Bad with finance and money
- Tended to bet everything, or continue to spend his vast personal fortune to get projects done.
- Modern day similarities to Elon
- Changed how I think about work life balance
- Awaken the Giant Within
- Generally against self help and life advice. But Tony Robbins audio book was useful for me
- The Price of Time
- This is the best book on interest / history of money that has been written
- Happy City
- Useful to learn about city design, what makes people happy in urban environments.
- Longer story is that cities were designed for cars and if you focus instead of designing them for biking and walkability to school, work, and grocery, etc. people are happier.
- Not sure how feasible it is to redisgning existing cities but useful for designing new cities
- Also, I think generally cities are overrated and too-high density.
- Better solution is getting people to have good economic outcomes in less dense areas. Historically this hasn't been possible because complex coordination of goods / services / people is how most value is created. But the internet creates a small pipe for alternative services that aren't contained by location
- The Prize
- Oil (more broadly energy) is power in the modern world and this gives a good history of how countries, companies, governments all battled over oil
- The Upside of Stress
- Most of the messaging in the culture is about work life balance. And how taking days off will make you happier.
- I found this a refreshing alternative suggestion that doing more and doing things that are challenging will lead to a more fulfilling life
- Neurotribes
- Made it halfway through this one. But enjoyed the history of Asperbergers and Autism and more generally the study of humans and the brain
- The American Challenge
- Written by a french economist on how France can be competitive in the international landscape. About 30 years old.
- Useful as a lens of what did and didn't end up working.