This year, I completed 25 books and started but abandoned two. Bolded books were my favorites of the year.
- The Patriarch, The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P Kennedy, David Nasaw, 15 JAN 24 - Some incredible gems in here.
- The Lion Trackers Guide to Life, Boyd Varty, 23 JAN 24 - Boyd Varty's first podcast episode with Patrick O'shaughnessy is one of the best podcasts I've ever listened to. Listen to that.
- Confessions of Sociopath, a life spent hiding in plain sight, M.E. Thomas, 23 JAN 24 - shit, am I a sociopath!? But also, what are the effective traits of a sociopath that can be used to achieve success?
- Tape Sucks, Inside Data Domain, A Silicon Valley Growth Story, Frank Slootman, 04 FEB 24
- The World of Yesterday, Stefan Zweig & Anthea Bell, 18 FEB 24
- The Art Thief, A true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession, Michael Finkel, 19 FEB 24 - very fun read. So much of society runs on social norms / most "security" is theater.
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami, 25 FEB 24
- Piranesi, Susanna Clarke, 27 FEB 24 - I liked Cloud Cuckoo Land better
- Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro, 03 MAR 24
- The Man From the Future, The Visionary Ideas of John Von Neumann, Ananyo Bhattacharya, 13 MAR 24
"The [computer] is so radically new that many of it's uses will become clear only after it has been put in operation ... These uses which are not, or not easily, predicable now, are likely to be the most important ones. Indeed they are by definition those which we do not recognize at present because they are furthest removed from what is now feasible" - Von Neumann
- The Lobster Coast, Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier, Colin Woodard, 24 MAR 24 - Fun read about Maine
- The Prize, The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, Daniel Yergin, 26 APR 24 - I read a cluster of books about energy and natural gas this year. The Prize was the best overall. Energy independence and being the marginal supplier has been critical for America's growth and prosperity. I don't think fracking gets enough credit for our best-in-the-world growth post-GFC.
- The Extraction State, A History of Natural Gas in America, Charles Blanchard, 21 MAY 24
- The New Map, Energy climate and the clash of Nations, Daniel Yergin, 29 May 24
- 7 Rules of Power, Jeffery Pfeffer, 19 JUN 24
- Playing To Win, How Strategy Really Works, Lafley & Martin, 21 JUL 24
- Lead Greatly, Brene Brown, [abandoned], XX AUG 24
- Saudi America, The Truth About Fracking and How It’s Changing the World, Bethany McLean, 29 JUL 24 - Despite books like this, I still don't think fracking gets enough credit for our best-in-the-world growth post-GFC
- The Wrong Stuff, How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned, 13 AUG 24 - I took the exact opposite conclusion from this book than the author did. This book is intended to portray the soviet space program as reckless and incompetent, but I see it as a celebration of how much they accomplished with so little! Comparing the soviets against the Americans it's incredible the Soviets got as far as they did. They never evolved past the bootstrap stage, but had they done so history could have been very different.
- Creative selection, Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, Ken Kocienda, 25 AUG 24 - a good look into one way to build great products
- Washington, The Indispensable Man, James Thomas Flexner, 23 SEP 24
- How Innovation Works and why it flourishes in freedom, Matt Ridley, 14 OCT 24
- Doctoring Data, How to sort out medical advice from medical nonsense, Dr Malcolm Kendrick, 28 OCT 24 - a book full of complaints but what about solutions?
- On grand strategy, John Lewis Gaddis, 05 NOV 24
- Finite and Infinite Games, [abandoned] - too philosophical for me
- The Rise of Theadore Roosevelt, Edmund Mortis, 01 DEC 24
- Boom, Bubbles and the End of Stagnation, Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber, 21 DEC 24 - an important look at the coordination mechanism of technology bubbles.
- Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs, A Journey through the Deep State, Kerry Howley, 04 DEC 24 - I was unimpressed by this supposed "expose" of the "deep state". Is this really the best argument against the "deep state"?
Jacob Flanders is the President of Flybridge VI, a strategy consultancy focusing on data at the intersection of health care and life sciences.