How different groups of capitalists funded the fascist revolution.

How different groups of capitalists funded the communist revolution.

How journalists “befriend and betray” their subjects for clicks, a book taught in journalism schools as something of a how-to manual.

How the Soviet Union actually worked.

What the Soviet Union was actually like.

reminds us that the tech era is very new, only really about 10 years old, and only began in earnest with iPhone adoption.

how a cyclic theory of history forecasts a serious American conflict in the 2020s (written in the mid-1990s).

how quantitative methods can identify recurrent cycles.

how today’s America resembles the Dutch and British empires of the past in terms of its monetary overextension.

The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.

This is all about enforcement discretion. In the DOJ, for example, US Attorneys have plenary authority in their territory and the ability to press charges or not as is their wont.

Anyone working on NFT collections should understand the history of the Freemasons. Many of their rituals could be usefully updated for the digital era. With modern technology, could feel like real magic.

Bruno’s thesis is that America is increasingly becoming a virtual society, focused on make-believe above all. I have to agree. This novel vantage point unifies many otherwise opposed schools of thought. Fantasies of the past, delusions about the present, visions of the future.

An example of a well-run state.

With Mastering Bitcoin, Andreas Antonopoulos wrote one of the best technical books on digital currency. With The Internet of Money, he's matched that feat by compiling his talks into one of the best books on Bitcoin for a broad audience. Highly recommended!

More and more frequently, I point people here for an accessible explanation of how blockchains allow us to establish certain kinds of truths even in adversarial environments.

This book taught me why. It talks about how the reputation of that agency being key to its power.

This book also makes it clear history is a boneyard. There’s probably not a single ethnic group on the planet that simply peacefully occupied their plot of land since “time immemorial.” One tribe’s homeland was once their distant ancestors’ frontier.

Kai-Fu Lee's book holds up very well today in key ways. I initially thought it'd be a pop overview of AI. But it's actually a history of the Chinese tech ecosystem. Many of his takes on the speed of execution and innovation have now proven out.

Jill Abramson, former editor of the New York Times, on how business imperatives and pageviews drove the editorial process.

10/10 recommendation. Everybody in crypto should read it. I put this up there with The Sovereign Individual.

Fire arguably made us human. This book talks about how the invention of fire allowed humans as species to outsource our metabolism to the fire and allocate more of our scarce calories to the brain.

"There’s a sense in which the term 'real name' is a misnomer. A better term is a state name — a name which makes you legible to the state." - Balaji Srinivasan