Book Summaries

Whenever I finish an interesting book, I force myself to write a summary of it here. These are often meant for myself (as I find the exercise invaluable for connecting concepts and themes) and for sharing book recommendations with friends. Historically, I've used the Goodreads platform but I find it a bit too vain and the UI is outdated.

< this page is under construction, more to come soon - November 2019 >

• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (June 2019)
  The late Anthony Bourdain's breakout book, featuring his brash but loveable way of explaining the culinary industry and the world at large. A must-read for those only familiar with Bourdain through his TV shows.
• Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations get Stuck (May 2019)
  AI theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky mixes decision theory, philosophy, and macroeconomics to demonstrate where we can (and can't) spot systemic inefficiencies.
• Superintelligence: Path, Dangers, and Strategies (May 2019)
  Highly recommended. This book, published in 2014, is foundational to the field of AI safety and ethics. Nick Bostrom does an exceptional job communicating theories about an abstract, technical, and futuristic field.
• 80,000 Hours: Find a fulfilling career that does good (April 2019)
  Excellent guide. Lessons from the Effective Altruism movement, applied to career advice.
• Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work that Matters, and Make Smarter Choices about Giving Back (April 2019)
  Highly recommended. Learn how to have the greatest positive impact in your life.
• Weapons of Math Destruction (February 2019)
  A popular, but in my opinion fundamentally flawed, warning about mathematical modeling.
• The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (November 2018)
  An insightful look into one of today's most influential companies and the relentless founder behind it.
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE (November 2018)
  An exciting story, a tale of adventure as a young man seeks to find his true calling, scraps together a company around it, then reaches for ever greater heights.
• Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging (October 2018)
  Journalist Sebastian Junger's inquiry into the country's growing problems with depression, political polarization, and lack of community.
• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (July 2018)
  A biography of the man diving headfirst into humanity's most difficult challenges.
• Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla (December 2016)
  David Kilcullen is a counterinsurgency expert who has served in advisory roles for the Department of Defense, NATO, and the White House. This book, published in 2013, is an exploration into the future of counterinsurgency strategy and conflict studies more broadly.