Last year was a big one, but not for the DAOJ.
If you have issues viewing this email, please click “View the entire message.”
Besides a single post about Blockchains in Africa, the DAOJ has been hibernating. Meanwhile, the broader world of crypto and technology has experienced accelerations that surprised both insiders and outsiders. Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT controversially satiated the mainstream tech ingesters while many rising stars in the crypto industry fell into the shadows.
As we come to terms with the consequences of AI’s progress and the realization that (so) many capital allocators just follow the herd, I wanted to take a step back and reflect on a forgone technology that seems to get more overlooked each year. Books.
Since January 1st, 2022, I’ve read 40 books. Actually, I’ve listened to 40 audiobooks, so I’ve read zero books. Audiobooks are less fulfilling than physical books, but they’re surely a step up from podcasts. Genres ranged from historical autobiographies to modern science fiction and included diverse explorations of finance, history, technology, and the fate of humanity.
With publishing dates ranging between the 7th century BC (Homer’s Illiad) to June 14th, 2022 (Peter Zeihan’s The End of the World is Just the Beginning), there was a lot that these writers had to talk about.
The following highlights my quick opinion and perception of each.
A list of 40 won’t fit in one post, so I’m splitting this into four posts - subscribe and share below to ensure you receive the follow-ups.
The most difficult aspect of this process was choosing what to read - so if I started a book, I had no problem skipping around and moving on to the next because my reading list was so long. For me - at least right now, quantity trumps quality unless the quality is top-tier. Generalists are going to rule the world.
TL;DR
The following list is NOT in order, but there are 40 reviews.
Ministry for the Future was the year's best book.
Fahrenheit 451 was the worst.
Ok, here we go.
1) Siddhartha
By: Walter Herman Hesse
Rating: 4/5 - Read if you’re new to Buddhist principles.
I don’t have anything novel to say about this book, but it was pretty good. If you like Buddhism but don’t know much about it, this would be a good introductory, semi-fictional account for you to wrap your head around - but if you’re an avid student of Buddhism, you’ll be bored.
It’s written well for a younger audience. It would be a good required book for high or middle-schoolers. Just replace Metamorphasis with Siddhartha in all the school curriculums out there, and there would probably be more peace in America.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a better adult exploration of Buddhist thought. I recommend reading that one if you are already familiar with the fundamental principles.
2) Metamorphosis
By: Franz Kafka
Rating: 2/5 - Never again.
This book was not fun. I wanted it to end as soon as I started, and it made me feel like I was wasting my time. The symbolism does nothing for me. The most I’ve ever felt like this before was when I read Bob Dylan’s book Tarantula, but that was a few years ago so it’s not included on this list. Tarantula is probably the worst book I’ve ever read.
With that said, Franz seemed like an interesting person, and he died far too young. He was a lawyer by day, a writer by night, and he never became famous until after his death. RIP.
3) One Hundred Years of Solitude
By: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 5/5 - Very entertaining.
Exhausting but so good. This was in my top 5 this year - and maybe of all time for fiction, but I’ll likely never listen to/read it again. It’s fantastical, written for an adult audience, and is so imaginative - like a constant barrage of colorfully translated words. Even the family name is colorful, and nearly every character has a 3 part name that rolls off the tongue. It’s rhythmically written.
The story follows 7 generations of a single family, and so often, when a character is brought up, their full name is spoken, which in audiobook form - is a lot - but it works. The story gets repetitive, but it has a nice button ending and contains interesting descriptors of the external and internal human condition.
For fiction enjoyers, this is a must-read.
4) Meditations
By: Marcus Aurelius
Rating: 3/5 - There are better ways to ingest stoic content.
I listened to this when I traveled to the Permissionless crypto conference in May. Maybe it was the airports or Miami, but I didn’t enjoy the experience, although it was likely worthwhile.
Historically speaking, Meditations is intelligent and deep, but the chapters were belabored when presented in this format. As a Goodreads reviewer commented, “This basically consists of Marcus Aurelius repeating, "Get it together, Marcus" to himself over and over again over the course of 12 chapters.”
Rather than a book, this content is best delivered in small tidbits, like Buddhist kōans… or as a calendar… 😆.
5) The Sovereign Individual
By: James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg
Rating: 3.5/5 - Overrated but recommended reading if you’re interested in tech, finance, power, or the global order.
The Sovereign Individual is an important piece of literature with insights everyone should know, but it’s also a long-winded essay by eurocentric, paranoid doomsayers. Many viewpoints about technology’s future relationship with humanity have been proven true, or at least partially true - which is why the book has so much staying power.
It’s difficult to say if this resulted from the authors’ foresight or if they succeeded at landing a few punches while throwing a kitchen sink of ideas at the reader. Most of the book is written as a prediction, but claim after claim without evidence is a tiring pursuit. Occasionally, the authors venture to theoretical conclusions that have since been proven false. An example is all of what they said about Y2K.
Having worked in crypto for a few years now, it's clear why this book is so heavily relatable to the libertarian ethos in the industry. Crypto enables self-custody, which is a central tenet of self-sovereignty, and much of this book centers around that mindset - which is great. I myself have written ad nauseam about self-custody here, here, here, here, here, and here.
It’s a good mental exercise and framework to view the world with the mindsets detailed in the book, but be wary of the author’s vision. You can occasionally feel the elbow patches on their suits clash with the tin foil in their hats.
To further explain my take on the paranoia perspective, look at Nostradamus’ other books.
Overall, The Sovereign Individual was a good book worth the read because some of the concepts included are profound and ahead of their time. It highlights how technology can open doors that didn’t exist before, and this book unlocks many of those doors in the reader's mind.
6) Deep
By: James Nestor
Rating: 5/5 - Recommended Reading for everyone - especially sciency people.
This book works well when listened to shortly after Breath - a book also on this list by the same author. Breath is more clinical, while Deep is more theoretical.
The chapters are titled -30ft, -600ft, etc., and explain what's happening at that depth. The first few chapters on freediving explore the absolute limits of what a human body can do underwater. After that, you journey to the bottom of the ocean in a submarine.
I got Scuba certified in Thailand (2nd cheapest place in the world to do that), so I’m familiar with diving and the ocean's wonders, but freediving is a whole other thing. I was predisposed to like this book.
Freediving to relatively shallow depths sounds amazing, but the competition for people to go deeper than others should be discouraged - very scary, dumb, and sad stories come about. The freediving sections are the best part of the book because you learn about the sparsely reported, niche content that the author is so good at bringing to light. He does the same in Breath.
Another highlight is the story of James Cameron, the director of Avatar, visiting the bottom of an ocean in a submarine by himself. It would make sense if he went there to research or find inspiration for Avatar 2.
It mostly takes place under the ocean.
I’m Limited
Substack only allows a certain email length, so they limit me.
They cite their limitations as being based on Google’s Gmail standards. In any case, I won’t be able to provide 40 reviews in a single newsletter - so this series will be spread across as many as it’s going to take - and it’s going to take 4.
Stay Tuned for Parts 2,3,& 4
Here are the buttons again.
Who is zachary r0th?
Zachary is a technical writer, product manager, and aspiring full-stack developer with expertise in blockchain technology.
As part of the original team behind Solrise, the parent company for Solana's Solflare Wallet and Aptos' Rise Wallet, Zach managed product backlogs, ran all consumer-facing publications, led user research initiatives, and developed diverse sets of documentation for several blockchain products, including programming resources, courses, and editorials that helped onboard hundreds of thousands of people to crypto for the first time.
As a freelance writer, Zach manages the DAOJ - a free newsletter about blockchain-enabled innovations with an occasional sponsor.
He also contributes to various financial publications, often as a ghostwriter. Recent projects have included ghostwriting newsletters about global blockchain regulation for an audience of institutional investors whose AUM > $3 billion and authoring multiple key sections of a private placement memo for a fund that raised $500,000,000 to source streaming and royalty deals on precious metals.
His website features work across dozens of publications, including MoonPay, Solflare, Solrise, Rise, Substack, Global Coin Research, CryptoManiaks, and more.
To keep up with Zach, follow him on Twitter, GitHub, or LinkedIn.
You can also follow the DAOJ on Twitter.