One of my goals for 2019 is to read 1 book per month. After doing virtually no reading in Q1 I prioritized making time to read and I cranked through 9 books in Q2.
For me, there are 2 main reasons to read: to educate and to entertain. I genuinely enjoy learning new things, so I find education to be entertaining as well.
For each book I’ve read I’ve tried to take away one big lesson or theme. I’ve also written whether or not I’d recommend the book.
Note that I was able to get all of these books from my local library, and I recommend that you do the same. However, if you want to read one of these books and it’s not available at your local library, you can click on the book cover to go to the book’s Amazon page. If you purchase through this link I’ll receive a small payment from Amazon.
Recommendations
Highly recommended
Recommended
- “Business Adventures” – John Brooks
- “The Heroin Diaries” – Nikki Sixx
- “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” – Stephen Hawking
Not recommended
- “Weapons of Math Destruction” – Cathy O’Neil
- “The Campaigns of Alexander” – Arrian
- “Legacy of Ashes” – Time Weiner
Detailed Reviews
Weapons of Math Destruction – Cathy O’Neill
Written by a “Big Data” scientist, the book is an examination of how our personal data is used by companies and government entities in the digital era and how it differs from personal data use in the pre-digital age.
For example, in the “old days” if you wanted to get a loan to start a business you’d go down to the bank, submit an application, and make your case to the loan officer. The decision on your loan rested in the hands of one person – the loan officer, and his biases and previous experiences would affect your ability to get a loan.
Maybe the loan applicant is 6’4″, the loan officer is 5’4″ and he has a chip on his shoulder about his height, in which case the loan officer might deny the loan application just as a show of power.
Or maybe the applicant is black and the loan officer is racist. Or maybe you’re applying for a loan to start a HVAC repair company but this loan officer previously made a loan to an HVAC repair company that failed, and now the officer believes that HVAC repair companies are a poor risk. Whatever the reason, your application might be denied for reasons other than the strength of your application.
In the digital age loan applications are handled by an algorithm which looks not only at your credit score, but also where you live, what you do, your driving record, where you went to school, and a number of other factors. The idea is that this additional information gives more nuanced information about a person’s ability to pay back a loan than just their credit score. For example, a poor driving record might indicate that you take too many risks or lack self control.
The main point of this book is that the new algorithms aren’t perfect – it’s not fair that a bad driving record could hurt your chances of getting a loan, as the two aren’t directly related. In addition, a poor driving record might not even mean that you commit driving infractions at a higher rate than anybody else – it might just mean that you live or drive in an area with a higher police presence, which would increase the chances you get caught for any given infraction.
But at no point does the author make suggestions on how to make the algorithms better or acknowledge that the current algorithms are better than the old way of doing things. And, from the author’s own admission, the algorithms are better and more fair than the old way of doing things.
My feelings are that, in general, the free market works these sorts of things out. If one company has a poor algorithm for approving loans, then either loans will be given to applications who aren’t creditworthy (in which case the company loses money), or the company doesn’t give loans to people who are creditworthy (in which case the company loses that profitable business to competitors). Inevitably, the algorithm will get corrected to better reflect reality or the company goes out of business.
Recommended? No.
Lesson: Although there are a number of privacy issues with allowing companies to gather personal information about us, the silver lining is that the additional information should allow those companies to provide better products and services to us.
The Heroin Diaries – Nikki Sixx
If you’re not familiar with who Nikki Sixx is – he is/was the bassist for the rock band Motley Crüe. This book is based on a diary that Nikki Sixx kept from Christmas Day, 1986 to Christmas Day, 1987.
This book pulls no punches. It’s called “The Heroin Diaries” because it covers a period of time where Nikki Sixx was deep in heroin addiction. At the beginning of the book Nikki is living at home. Early in 1987 he and the band start practicing for their upcoming tour. The rest of the book describes the tour itself.
It turns out that the life of a rock star is exactly what I thought – it’s sex, drugs, rock and roll, and then even more sex and drugs. These guys were a walking pharmacy. They had drug dealers delivering mountains of heroin and cocaine throughout their tour. There were gaggles of groupies waiting at every concert stop and hotel that they stayed in.
At night they played crazy pranks on each other. They would light each other’s hotel room doors on fire. The band would run through the hotel halls totally naked. They’d destroy the furniture in each other’s rooms. It’s a miracle they didn’t all end up dead or in prison.
I wouldn’t say that this book was educational (other than confirming that heroin is a terrible drug, but I think most people know that already). However, it was awfully entertaining, mostly in a voyeuristic, oh-my-God-that’s-ridiculous kind of way.
Recommended? Yes, if you’re interested in reading about the life of a rock star in the mid to late 1980’s.
Lesson learned: Don’t do heroin. Ever.
Bad Blood – John Carreyrou
I loved this book.
In fact, I loved this book so much that I read the whole thing in just 24 hours (during the middle of the week, no less). It’s a true story but it reads like a thriller.
Bad Blood is the book that broke the Theranos scandal wide open. If you’re not familiar with Theranos, it was a company founded by Elizabeth Holmes with the promise of providing hundreds of blood test using just a drop of blood. The technology was compelling on its own, but the story was even more compelling because Elizabeth Holmes was a somewhat attractive 20-something Stanford dropout.
Over the course of a few years Theranos received $100’s of millions of dollar in venture funding, signed an agreement with Walgreens to put Theranos testing devices in Walgreens centers across the nation, and was hiring some of the best and brightest designers and engineers from across Silicon Valley. At the peak of Theranos’ success Elizabeth was worth over $5 billion.
There was only one issue – the technology didn’t work. Theranos lied to investors, faked their results, and ended up using competitors’ commercial products to run patients’ blood tests rather than their Theranos testing devices. The effort they put into perpetuating this fraud is astounding.
The book does a great job of digging into how all of this happened. One thing that really struck me was that while the rest of the world was lauding Elizabeth Holmes as a genius for “inventing” this technology, the reality is that she WAS a genius, but in a different way. She was incredibly smart about surrounding herself with well known names to provide credibility to her story.
She used her charm and looks to get a few high-profile, well known men onto her Board of Directors. Once she had a few big names she then used those names to get more big names. Eventually, people stopped asking about the technology – everybody figured that if Larry Ellison had invested money then the technology must be solid, and if a Four Star General was on the board then the company must be legit.
Of course, as with every fraud, there was eventually an “Emperor has no clothes” moment and the whole thing came crashing down. The story of how the fraud was eventually uncovered is amazing and really came down to the actions of just two 20-something employees who were willing to risk lawsuits and legal actions to ensure the truth came out.
Recommended? Yes – I give this an unconditional recommendation. This is the most interesting and compelling book I’ve read in quite a while.
Lesson learned: It’s easy to get caught up in a mass delusion if you allow yourself to defer to people you know, trust, or respect. Never make an investment just because somebody else did – always do your own due diligence. And if something seems too good to be true…then it probably is.
Business Adventures – John Brooks
I read this book because both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates listed this as the best business book ever written. That’s pretty high praise, so I moved it right to the top of my reading list.
The book itself is a collection of interesting business-related vignettes. None of the 12 stories are related and they cover a wide range of topics. One is about a stock market flash crash. One is about an early case on IP law and protections. Another is the story of the epic failure of the Ford Edsel.
Although the book was written in 1969, the themes in the book are timeless. Each story has its own lesson, and those lessons are just as true today as they were then. People are emotional. Listen to your customers. Revenge rarely pays. People and companies are self-serving. Laws are needed to prevent people from doing unethical things to enrich themselves at others’ expense.
The writing is the book is spectacular. You know how some people (Morgan Freeman, for example) have a voice that’s so great that you’d enjoy just listening to them read the phone book? John Brooks has the kind of writing style that could make a phone book fun to read.
Recommended? Yes.
Lesson learned: Times change, but people and business principles don’t.
Brief Answers to the Big Questions – Stephen Hawking
This is a collection of essays written by Stephen Hawking and published posthumously. Each essay is pretty short and the book is an easy read. Unlike his previous books, this book is less scientific and much more philosophical. I’m not sure if there’s even a single math equation in the entire book.
The essays tackle the big questions – is there a God? Is there sentient life elsewhere in the Universe? Is time travel possible?
Each of these question is answered from a reason-based scientific point of view, which I find refreshing.
I enjoyed the book and it was a nice change of pace from some of the other stuff I’ve been reading.
Recommended? Yes, if you’re interested in getting a scientist’s answer to some of the major philosophical questions.
Lesson learned: It’s hard to think about big scientific questions without also thinking about big philosophical questions.
The Campaigns of Alexander – Arrian
I added this book to my list because it was on a list of the best military strategy books. This book was NOT what I expected. I expected (and wanted) a book with detailed strategy and tactics for Alexander’s various battles.
Instead, this book is really more of a broad history of Alexander’s campaigns. There is some discussion of Alexander’s battles, but nothing sufficiently detailed for it to be instructive or useful.
In addition, the book itself was written about 400 years after Alexander’s death. This meant it was based on various other secondary sources. That is, Arrian obviously never met Alexander or anybody who knew him directly. In fact, it turns out that there are virtually no reliable primary sources about Alexander’s campaigns and battles, so everything that’s come down to us is multiple levels removed from Alexander.
Finally, the book itself is a bit of a slog. It goes into great detail on the cities, peoples, and counties of Alexander’s campaigns, but none of those exist anymore. It was very hard to keep everything straight, and I had no idea where some of these things happened or what certain groups of people were like.
Despite all of the above, there were a number of interesting things in the book. Alexander was clearly a military genius and an amazing leader. However, his campaign eventually ground to a halt because his troops more or less rebelled after many years of continuous military conquest.
One big take away for me was that Alexander was clearly addicted to glory, power, and wealth. In many ways, Alexander was the antithesis of the minimalism. At the time of his death (at age 32) he was the most powerful and wealthiest man on Earth, yet he still wanted more.
Recommended? Only if you are very interested in military history and don’t mind slogging through an ancient text.
Lesson learned: For some people, there is no such thing as enough.
Happy City – Charles Montgomery
This is an absolutely awesome book about urban design. I read this book based on a recommendation from Mr. Money Mustache, and I’m glad I did. It was the most interesting and perspective-changing book I’ve read this year.
The basic argument of the book is that the design of our cities shapes our happiness, health, and satisfaction. Good design provides opportunity for socialization, promoting walking and biking, and creates stronger communities. Proper urban planning should design cities around people.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of cities in the US are not based around people. They are based around cars. As a result, huge swaths of land are dedicated to roads and parking rather than parks, walking trails, and parks.
This design is because our understanding of what makes us happy is wrong. Most people think that personal convenience, such as being able to drive to the store and find readily available parking when there, will make us happy. However, it turns out that shopping in that way is socially isolating (you don’t meet new people while you’re driving) and physically harmful (time spent sitting in your car is time not spent walking or biking). This type of urban design leads to physically and socially inactive (and unhappy) people.
People think that having a large house on a big chunk of land somewhere in suburbia will maximize happiness, but in fact that type of living is socially isolating. The type of housing that maximizes happiness is higher density urban housing with ready access to public transportation and highly walkable neighborhoods with integrated commercial and residential areas. In these neighborhoods restaurants, grocery stores, bars, and a variety of other services are just a few blocks away. The highly walkable nature of the neighborhoods leads to serendipitous social encounters on the street and higher levels of physical fitness.
I highly, highly recommend this book to anybody and everybody. It’s an engaging, easy read that provides actionable ideas about how to make our cities work better for everybody.
Recommended? Yes – highly recommended for everybody.
Lesson learned: The message from this book dovetails nicely with the general principles of the FIRE community – happiness doesn’t revolve around money or things. Happiness comes from strong social connections, physical fitness, and feeling like you’re part of a community.
Legacy of Ashes – Tim Weiner
This is the definitive book on the history of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency in the USA). I read this book because it was recommended by Malcolm Gladwell.
The book starts with the founding of the CIA and stops in the mid 2000’s (the book was published in January, 2006). It’s an incredibly detailed look at why the CIA was founded, how the goals of the CIA have changed over time, and the missions the CIA has attempted.
“Legacy of Ashes” does not paint a flattering picture of the CIA. Based on this book it seems the CIA is largely inept and causes as many problems as it fixes. They have a hard time holding on to top operatives and the goals of the CIA don’t always align with their capabilities.
The book itself was a moderately difficult read. There are lots of names (literally hundreds if not a thousand) introduced over the course of the ~70 year timespan that the book covers, and it’s easy to lose track of who’s who.
There were two broad themes I got from this book. First, it’s very hard to run a secret/clandestine agency in an open, democratic society. There’s always a conflict between the need for government oversight of a clandestine organization and the need for secrecy to protect the people and missions. This conflict has often led to the CIA either keeping information from Congress or flat out lying to Congress about what activities are being undertaken and how the missions are being run.
Second, the nature of clandestine operations means that failures can be swept under the rug. There isn’t any after action report to dissect the operation and learn from the failure. As a result, the CIA continued to make the same sort of mistake over and over again.
Recommended? Only if you’re very interested in the CIA.
Lesson learned: If you want to improve as a person you must analyze your successes and failures and learn from each (and failure is usually more instructive than success).
Conclusion
There you go – the 8 books I read in Q2. I think just about anybody will enjoy “Happy City” and “Bad Blood”, and most people will enjoy “Business Adventures”, “The Heroin Diaries”, and “Brief Answers to the Big Questions”.
If you’ve read any of these books please let me know what you thought, and I’m always interested in getting recommendations for other great books to read.