Roose, Young Money. Too focused on a few individuals for my taste, but still has some interesting content. (my clips)
Hofstadter & Sander, Surfaces and Essences. Probably a fine book, but I was only interested enough to read the first and last chapters.
Taleb, AntiFragile. Learned some from it, but it’s kinda wrong much of the time. (my clips)
Acemoglu & Robinson, Why Nations Fail. Lots of handy examples, but too much of “our simple theory explains everything.” (my clips)
Byrne, The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III (available here). Gave up on it; too much theory, not enough story. (my clips)
Drexler, Radical Abundance. Gave up on it; too sanitized and basic.
Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies. Gave up on it; too slow in pace and flowery in language for me.
Fukuyama, The Origins of Political Order. Gave up on it; the author is more keen on name-dropping theorists than on tracking down data.
Friedman, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth (available here). Gave up on it. There are some actual data in chs. 5-7, but the argument is too weak and unclear for my taste.
Tuchman, The Proud Tower. Gave up on it after a couple chapters. Nothing wrong with it, it just wasn’t dense enough in the kind of learning I’m trying to do.
Foer, Eating Animals. I listened to this not to learn, but to shift my emotions. But it was too slow-moving, so I didn’t finish it.
Caro, The Power Broker. This might end up under “outstanding” if I ever finish it. For now, I’ve put this one on hold because it’s very long and not as highly targeted at the useful learning I want to be doing right now than some other books.
Rutherfurd, Sarum. This is the furthest I’ve gotten into any fiction book for the past 5 years at least, including HPMoR. I think it’s giving my system 1 an education into what life was like in the historical eras it covers, without getting bogged down in deep characterization, complex plotting, or ornate environmental description. But I’ve put it on hold for now because it is incredibly long.
Diamond, Collapse. I listened to several chapters, but it seemed to be mostly about environmental decline, which doesn’t interest me much, so I stopped listening.
Bowler & Morus, Making Modern Science (available here) (my clips). A decent history of modern science but not focused enough on what I wanted to learn, so I gave up.
Brynjolfsson & McAfee, The Second Machine Age (my clips). Their earlier, shorter Race Against the Machine contained the core arguments; this book expands the material in order to explain things to a lay audience. As with Why Nations Fail, I have too many quibbles with this book’s argument to put this book in the ‘Liked’ category.
Clery, A Piece of the Sun. Nothing wrong with it, I just wasn’t learning the type of things I was hoping to learn, so I stopped about half way through.
Schuman, The Miracle. Fairly interesting, but not quite dense enough in the kind of stuff I’m hoping to learn these days.
Conway & Oreskes, Merchants of Doubt. Fairly interesting, but not dense enough in the kind of things I’m hoping to learn.
Other:
Roose, Young Money. Too focused on a few individuals for my taste, but still has some interesting content. (my clips)
Hofstadter & Sander, Surfaces and Essences. Probably a fine book, but I was only interested enough to read the first and last chapters.
Taleb, AntiFragile. Learned some from it, but it’s kinda wrong much of the time. (my clips)
Acemoglu & Robinson, Why Nations Fail. Lots of handy examples, but too much of “our simple theory explains everything.” (my clips)
Byrne, The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III (available here). Gave up on it; too much theory, not enough story. (my clips)
Drexler, Radical Abundance. Gave up on it; too sanitized and basic.
Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies. Gave up on it; too slow in pace and flowery in language for me.
Fukuyama, The Origins of Political Order. Gave up on it; the author is more keen on name-dropping theorists than on tracking down data.
Friedman, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth (available here). Gave up on it. There are some actual data in chs. 5-7, but the argument is too weak and unclear for my taste.
Tuchman, The Proud Tower. Gave up on it after a couple chapters. Nothing wrong with it, it just wasn’t dense enough in the kind of learning I’m trying to do.
Foer, Eating Animals. I listened to this not to learn, but to shift my emotions. But it was too slow-moving, so I didn’t finish it.
Caro, The Power Broker. This might end up under “outstanding” if I ever finish it. For now, I’ve put this one on hold because it’s very long and not as highly targeted at the useful learning I want to be doing right now than some other books.
Rutherfurd, Sarum. This is the furthest I’ve gotten into any fiction book for the past 5 years at least, including HPMoR. I think it’s giving my system 1 an education into what life was like in the historical eras it covers, without getting bogged down in deep characterization, complex plotting, or ornate environmental description. But I’ve put it on hold for now because it is incredibly long.
Diamond, Collapse. I listened to several chapters, but it seemed to be mostly about environmental decline, which doesn’t interest me much, so I stopped listening.
Bowler & Morus, Making Modern Science (available here) (my clips). A decent history of modern science but not focused enough on what I wanted to learn, so I gave up.
Brynjolfsson & McAfee, The Second Machine Age (my clips). Their earlier, shorter Race Against the Machine contained the core arguments; this book expands the material in order to explain things to a lay audience. As with Why Nations Fail, I have too many quibbles with this book’s argument to put this book in the ‘Liked’ category.
Clery, A Piece of the Sun. Nothing wrong with it, I just wasn’t learning the type of things I was hoping to learn, so I stopped about half way through.
Schuman, The Miracle. Fairly interesting, but not quite dense enough in the kind of stuff I’m hoping to learn these days.
Conway & Oreskes, Merchants of Doubt. Fairly interesting, but not dense enough in the kind of things I’m hoping to learn.
Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Wessel, Red Ink
Levitt & Dubner, Think Like a Freak (my clips)
Gladwell, David and Goliath (my clips)