What books are you all reading this weekend? Any topic counts!
I'm reading The Richest Man in Babylon You May Be Interested
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Awesome book.
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If you teach that book too much and it's interesting to look at it from the perspective of trial and error
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Good short book that is an excellent primer on accumulating wealth.
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If you learn a lot from this book
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The Dawn of Everything - A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This is an interesting history book from an anarchist point of view based on archeological facts.
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The Fortunate Pilgrim, by Mario Puzo. A conversation with @kr yesterday got me thinking about it again.
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"Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen
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The blocksize war
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A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
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Henry Miller: The Colossus Of Marroussi
If You want to dive deep into the Aegean/Mediterraenean world this is a must read
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Cowboy Hat Making Fundamentals: Or How to Make a Fur Felt Sombrero That'll Fit Your Head, by Scott Edward Goodwin
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Love it. Might have to take a look at this in future days too
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-Rereading Broken Money by lyn alden
  • Anthem by Ayn Rand
  • Maus by Art Spieglman
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Atlas shrugged by Ayn Rand. Been reading it for many weekends and weekdays so far and many more to come. It’s a big book but really good.
Bitcoin is Rearden metal.
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Energy and Civilization by Vaclav Smil
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I've been tempted to read Smil before, but seems so overwhelming. Thoughts so far?
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The book is referenced in both Principles of Economics by Saifedean Ammous and Apocalypse Never by Michael Shellenberger and that is the reason I picked it up. In the beginning anthropology is somehow the main topic. I find it fascinating that the understanding of the evolution of man helps you understand the misguided thinking of today in terms of energy, health etc.
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I'm reading Mastering Bitcoin and with every new chapter get convincing of Satoshi's genius
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I m starting to read this comic:
Brandon Sanderson's White Sand from Brandon Sanderson
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198 sats \ 1 reply \ @OC 9 Dec 2023
Halfway through The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I'm sure lots of you guys have read it but it's excellent so far (maybe biased Atlas shrugged is one of my favourites). Nothing better than really enjoying a good book
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I really agree with you, and I read this one recently too, along with two friends. but I will say, there is one thing better and it's enjoying a good book with good people
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Nothing yet but caught my attention a book called The Dream by David Icke.. Sounds interesting if you read the introduction
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The fungus . I think it inspired the last of us
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An Uncommon Friendship: From Opposite Sides of the Holocaust
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You can read Capitalism the unknown ideal. This book opens your mind
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STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT: HOW THE IMF AND WORLD BANK REPRESS POOR COUNTRIES AND FUNNEL THEIR RESOURCES TO RICH ONES.
– by Alex Gladstein
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283 sats \ 7 replies \ @kr 9 Dec 2023
Just started Peter Zeihan’s book called ‘The End Of The World Is Just The Beginning’, and it’s a real page-turner.
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I read that one... I have mixed feelings.
The historical, demographic, and geopolitical bits are interesting, but it’s clear when he gets just a bit outside his wheelhouse (e.g. Bitcoin, and economics/finance in general), he’s just regurgitating surface findings and hasn’t done enough research to use it as a foundation for his arguments. I’m not an expert in history, geopolitics, or demographics, but when he uses the same arrogant positioning to talk about things that I do know about (and about which he sounds like a moron), I start to wonder if he actually knows anything true or if he's just spouting nonsense and getting away with it because nobody is truly a geopolitical expert.
In all accounts, Zeihan seems like he should be a raving Bitcoin maxi, but he brings the most obviously debunked arguments to table to say that it will be worth less than zero.
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interesting, does he cover Bitcoin in the book? haven’t gotten there yet if so
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He only mentions it for like a paragraph if I remember. Seemingly out of nowhere he says something like "Bitcoin has no intrinsic value" and he regurgitates a line about bitcoin energy usage that clearly shows he doesn’t know enough about it to know that the mining for the network could run on a single machine and still mine the same amount of bitcoin and process the same number of transactions. He's way outside his research depth but he talks about it like he's the world's leading expert.
He's done some youtube interviews with folks too and it's clear he's just not well studied on it. So I'm skeptical of everything he says now.
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111 sats \ 3 replies \ @kr 9 Dec 2023
ah interesting. i do wish some of his ideas had a little more research behind them, but they are thought-provoking
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I'd love to see someone organize a debate between Zeihan and Jeff Booth. Maybe that's something you can coordinate on your show :)
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agreed. If it weren't for being at least thought provoking I would have said that book was trash, but I still gave it 3/5 stars just for the brainstorm enhancing bits. Same goes for a lot of books by James Rickards (die hard gold bug and anti-bitcoiner). They are interesting, but ultimately antiquated and out of touch with current reality.
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Spot on re Rickards. Many years ago I found him interesting, but he's a one trick pony and he also pumps his own bags.
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Hurricane elaine
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From the introduction:
Advancing social ideas that do not demand obedience or compliance requires far more personal patience than simply forcing others to comply via the political ballot box. The widely held idea that dicta and force can serve a useful purpose will eventually fade into backward thinking in the so-called public sector as it has in the private sector. Time, nature, reason, and the human spirit will see to that. Irrespective of good intentions or the approval by consensus, nature's unrelenting feedback will gradually drive ruling political authorities to extinction.
Liberty is a self-actualized mindset of seeing and enjoying the grandeur of nature and humanity in a way that is not accessible to those adhering to politics and government. As miraculous as the universe is, it is not beyond the workings of nature, and to expect political governments to be able to defy its laws with dicta and force is to expect the unnatural.
A fundamental yet simple tenet of liberty and life is that no one owes you anything! That includes kindness, food, healthcare, education, and respect. The beauty of this tenet is that others, when left to their own devices, are inclined to respond with kindness, food, healthcare, education, and respect, without even being asked. My endless gratitude goes to all those minding their own business while caring for my every need. The belief that government can force these benefactors to take better care of me (and you) is a deep-seated, fallacious, and detrimental notion that those in the political world embrace.
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Hey stackers, today I'm rereading T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone is a book by Hakim Bey (Peter Lamborn Wilson)
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Pure, White and Deadly: How Sugar Is Killing Us And What We Can Do To Stop It
Originally published in 1971, then an updated edition was done around 1982.
Very interesting book. In addition to the details of the history of sugar, and the evidence for sugar having many negative effects, there's lots of up-close and personal details of how the sugar industry, after WWII, doubled down on the pro-sugar propaganda war, which involved demonizing anyone talking about the negatives of sugar. The author (John Yudkin) was one of the main targets of this propaganda war.
It seems like the sugar industry did much better than the tobacco industry. The sugar industry has been very successful in keeping the spotlight off sugar, and on fats, especially saturated fats.
If you want a more recent anti-sugar book, I'm also working my way through Gary Taube's The Case Against Sugar. Also an excellent book.
If you're interested in learning more about nutrition, I would recommend first reading The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholtz. It's an amazing book, and turned my nutritional ideas upside down. Formerly I ate some meat and animal products, but believed in limiting them, and also believed strongly in whole grains, and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, and plant "superfoods". Not any more. I'm not carnivore yet, but may be soon.
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