Non-Fiction

Books

Cover for Bad Blood

Fascinating look at the story of Theranos, absolutely appalling how far Holmes and co were willing to go.

Cover for Catch and Kill

Astounding to read all the gory details about Weinstein’s behaviors and everyone who enabled it. Ronan Farrow is a fantastic writer.

Cover for Empire of Pain

This book does a great job of laying out just how much the Sackler family laid the groundwork for the opioid crisis and then managed to evade accountability for it. Depressing, but well-written.

Cover for Another Day of Life

A history of Angola’s civil war as seen through the eyes of a Polish journalist.

Cover for A Primate's Memoir

Part African travelogue, part baboon behavioral study. The travelogue parts are interesting since traveling in Africa, especially in the 1980s, is always an adventure. But the stories of the baboons, and how similar they are to humans, are the highlight for me.

Cover for Beastie Boys Book

Lots of good stories about them as young kids in 80s NYC in the nascent Hip-Hop scene. It was so early and everything was up for grabs. Absolutely recommended for fans of the band.

Cover for The Racket

I know basically nothing about tennis, but this was a great read. Goes into the details of what it takes to succeed at the top level, and how unglamorous it is unless you’re at the very top. You can read a pretty representative excerpt first to decide if it’s your type of thing.

Cover for Bringing Down the House

MIT nerds making money at blackjack using math

Cover for A Random Walk Down Wall Street

Reading this early in my career was very helpful, it meant I invested in index funds early and often.

Cover for Conquerors

The history of Portugal’s colonization in the Indian Ocean. Does a really good job of showing how out of their element the Portuguese were, how they got incredibly lucky to be able to establish a multi-century foothold in Asia.

Cover for Endurance

Intense story of Shackelton’s 1914 expedition to cross Antarctica.

Cover for Breaking Windows

Read this right before I started working at Microsoft.

Cover for The Mapmaker's Wife

Title sounds like a a cheesy romance, but it’s actually a true story about exploration in the Amazon jungle.

Cover of Going Infinite

Don't mistake this for a book about FTX, the focus here is Sam Bankman-Fried. Worthwhile if you're interested in his story and the genesis of FTX. more »

Cover for Reinventing Comics

Much more comics-focused than Understanding Comics

Cover for Adventures on the Wine Route

A bit dated now, but some interesting stories about the French wine industry in the 80s. Drags at times with random stories though.

Cover for A City on Mars

Nerdy, detail-oriented look into what it would really take to have humans living in space. Gets a bit bogged down in legal/governance details, but I enjoyed the exploration of biological and logistical issues.

Cover for Blind Side

Honestly, don’t remember much about this book but I know it hasn’t aged well.

Cover for Rebel Girl

Enjoyed some of the background and anecdotes, but not quite enough there unless you’re a huge fan

Cover for Sapiens

There is very little new here if you’ve read Guns, Germs, and Steel and The Third Chimpanzee, both of which I recommend over this

Cover for The Creative Act

Zen advice on the creative process, can dip in and out of the book depending on where you are in a project. I wish he’d used specific examples from his work, but the book is probably already a bit longer than it could be anyway.

Cover for Deep Utopia

There were a few interesting parts here, but ultimately this book less about AI and more about philosophy/the meaning of life. Not my cup of tea, I preferred Superintelligence.

Cover for A Million Little Pieces

No idea how anyone ever though this was a true story.

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