40 Audiobooks continues! I also turn 27 years old today. Sheesh.
🎈
I don’t feel that old yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
Enough philosophy; here are 14 more book reviews.
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Audiobooks are underrated. Unfortunately, they imply a few biases that make or break a book. The narrator is arguably the component of an audiobook that carries the most weight in keeping the reader engaged, entertained, or intrigued. For whatever reasons, humans evolved to understand language in bits and starts. There need to be short sentences. Sometimes there need to be long ones, and these long ones need to be split into multiple sections with commas for room to breathe.
Authors, copywriters, and saxophonists know this.
Saxophonists’ decisions are intimately tied to their instrument’s nature. You need to blow air into it, and the capacity of their breath limits the breadth of their sound. Meanwhile, piano and guitar players (like me) can noodle until armageddon while doing the Wim Hof method. Noodles are usually not very good because they lack scope and focus. A good narrator can apply all the above to keep the reader focused by building an elastic scope for the reader that is ready and willing to accept new information, without sounding noodly.
I did not consider narrators while choosing books this year, but I should have. A bad narrator reading a good book is like a bad musician playing a good piece - which happens all the time in classical and jazzical music (it’s usually too fast). Often, authors narrate their own books - in which case it is always worth listening to that version. Steve Martin does that in his autobiography, Born Standing Up - included in this issue.
The only other narrator that really sticks out in my mind from this year was the icon Gregory Rabassa, who read One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I reviewed in the first issue of this series in
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Ok, I need to fit 34 more books into three issues, and I went overboard last time, so the following reviews will (mostly) be shorter.
7) Blockchain Chicken Farm
By: Xiaowei Wang
Rating: 4/5 - Recommended Reading for those interested in tech/China
Depending on how it’s used, technology can be more of a problem than a solution, and the rural Chinese populations have historically had that mindset. This book outlays several examples to push back on that claim. Farmers are implementing novel solutions - like using a blockchain to maintain the accounting system for a chicken farm, but there is a deeper theme.
The dynamic between the rural Chinese population and the progressive city-dwellers has evolved to the point where mindsets are blending. According to the author, those who live in or strive to live in one of the many Chinese megapolises are more focused on the future and how technology will solve humanity’s problems than they are on the present moment or the planet. This contrasts with those growing up in rural China, where there may be 100-300 million people in a single region. Many are forced to ration food because they must produce so much for the cities - a situation that is out of scope for this review but will likely turn dire this century.
These are generalizations, but the Chinese farmers historically saw those in the cities wanting to move too fast for their own good, and the city-dweller saw the farmers as living too slowly. The farmer’s perspective was that the planet was already perfect, and it was the farmer’s job to maintain it. As the city-dwellers burn out and return to the country, and the rural population adopts technology, the mental divide between the two groups lessens. Both sides have valid points, and it’s up to the reader to decide if technology is more of a problem or a solution.
The title is a bit click-baitey since there are only a few references to blockchains, but nonetheless, it was worth the read.
8) The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
By: Benjamin Franklin
Rating: 4/5 - Recommended Reading for those interested in history
It is truly refreshing to read the personal account of someone level-headed during a time when humanity was not. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is similar, but that book was boring.
I’m no Benjamin Franklin historian, but I know he was a frisky individual and a powerful freemason - this book doesn’t get into that at all (why would it). It mainly highlights the thought processes of a revolutionary polymath who impacted the trajectory of history.
You'll like this one if you’re into period pieces and history.
9) Moonwalking with Einstein
By: Joshua Foer
Rating: 3.5/5 - Recommended Reading for those interested in learning or human achievements
In MwE, Joshua Foer breaks down the process of reporting on a memory competition and winning it the next year. These competitions involve people memorizing thousands of digits of pi, hundreds of pages of poetry, decks of cards (in 1 minute), and more.
It’s a crazy sport and a crazy reality that people can attain those abilities. I tried using the technique of Loci mentioned in this book. I could easily memorize 24 Greek gods and goddesses by placing them imaginarily around my apartment and then remembering where they were - but I haven’t expanded beyond that yet.
For more info on that type of thing, check out the official Art of Memory website. If you like what you see, read the book. The content is 4/5; the execution is 3/5.
10) Life Ascending
By: Nick Lane
Rating: 4/5 - Recommended Reading for those interested in science and the origin of life.
Nick Lane is a world-class biochemist, and I got a D in chemistry in high school. As a result, I had to really pay attention to this one. Each chapter is about an hour long and is a dissertation on a complex concept that has naturally evolved, like the eukaryotic cell, movement, sex, etc.
I came across Nick Lane when I listened to Andrei Karpathy’s interview on the Lex Friedman podcast. He seems to be deeply influencing Andrei, and that connection is interesting. Andrei and the AI world are in some way creating life, or at least entities - and Nick Lane is at the top of his field for studying the origin of life. Insights from biochemistry will likely fuel AI development.
One other note - Nick Lane has repeatedly mentioned the Krebs Cycle as one of the most mysterious and purposeful events in the known universe. To my understanding, all biology begins with the Krebs Cycle.
Well, another fun fact, when I learned about the Krebs Cycle in a 2010 freshman-year high school biology class - the granddaughter of the scientist whom it was named after was in my class.
11) Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter
By: 50 Cent and Robert Greene
Rating: 3/5 - Eh.
I started this after finishing a few financial books that burnt me out. This was a good in-between book, but I didn’t take much away from it. I also skipped around because it was getting repetitive.
Then my burnt-out factor wore off - so I was ready to move on to a new book.
I recommend reading this one if you like 50 or know nothing about him, but it’s in no way required reading. It’s a kind of self-help book. Fun fact: my uncle produced a movie that starred 50 Cent.
Straight to DVD.
12) The Ascent of Money
By: Niall Ferguson
Rating: 4/5 - Really informative, relatively opinionated.
As far as I know, Niall is a high-quality historian. His ability to synthesize centuries of history into a few paragraphs of conclusions is impressive. His witty commentary brings much-needed levity to the long-form financial content filling out the rest of the pages. His appearance on Tim Ferris’show was also very good.
He’s smart, and he highlights many of the patterns that seem to repeat themselves. Booms and busts. The most impactful sections for me were on the Savings & Loans scandals across the US in the 1980s-90s.
Unlike the next book, I definitely recommend reading the Ascent of Money. It doesn’t matter if you’re a CFA or a 6th grader; you’ll probably learn something.
13) Doom
By: Niall Ferguson
Rating: 2/5 - Really repetitive, relatively opinionated.
Love the title and the author, but the content was so repetitive.
The book is about the politics of disaster, but it seemed like he just talked about Covid 19 the whole time and made the same points repeatedly. I tried and failed to get through this one. I think I’m not alone in being burnt out on that topic.
14) Seeing Like a State
By: James C. Scott
Rating: 3/5 - Unbelievably repetetive, but good content.
In similar ways to the Sovereign Individual - reviewed in my first issue, Seeing Like a State has worthwhile content but is flawed by the author’s arrogance. I don’t know if the narrator made it worse, but I did not like the author’s narrative voice. No tin foil hat, but definitely elbow patches.
There is constant reference to the same example in the book. I was amazed. I would skip to the middle of a chapter, and the author would still be iterating the same points about something from a previous chapter. I was very engaged in the first half of this book but skipped around - and I feel like I lost nothing doing that.
Watch a high-quality YouTube video about this book instead of reading it.
15) Life After Google
By: George Gilder
Rating: 3/5 - Somewhat technical and a good intro for those trying to understand blockchains from a web2 perspective.
Life After Google is another book that introduces new technological concepts in non-technical ways. I’ve already swallowed the crypto red pill, so what may blow some people away was run of the mill for me. Some later chapters get semi-technical, but it’s not too complicated. The author has interesting insights about the transition that non-blockchain-based companies and technologies would need to make to adapt - but I’m not sure if the insights are unique.
While this is a good book, it’s not one I would recommend. 6 months after finishing it, I’m not very altered by it.
16) When Money Dies
By: Adam Fergusson
Rating: 3.5/5 - A very dry, historical account of the hyperinflation in Weimar, Germany. Worth reading if you’re into finance or crypto.
Next year I’m going to read Range and Mastery simultaneously. I like reading two books that talk about two extremes of one topic. That’s what I did with When Money Dies, and it’s enlightening to see both sides of something play out. I read this alongside The Ascent of Money, which is reviewed later.
Money means different things to different people, but when it breaks, it’s broken. If you’re in crypto or finance, you should at least skim When Money Dies to see the absolute mayhem that ensues when a central bank unabashedly devalues its currency.
17) How to Change Your Mind
By: Michael Pollan
Rating: 2/5 - If you are new to understanding psychedelics, this might be a good intro.
This would have been a good introductory book to the psychedelic world of medicine, but I read it with the idea of learning about the newest updates in the field, and I felt like I learned nothing. The author is overrated.
I’ve been casually following the updates in psychedelic medicine for the last decade, so I probably wasn’t the correct audience for this book. As a result, I was very bored, skipped around, and quit early.
I’ll likely never read or listen to what Michael Pollan says because my impression of him was so vanilla and trite - but again, I think I’m just not the right audience.
18) The Misbehavior of Markets
By: Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard L. Hudson
Rating: 4/5 - This is a deep exploration of financial fractals.
Benoit is one of the world’s foremost mathematicians specializing in fractal geometry. He applies his methods to all fields, and algorithms based on his work have found novel patterns in financial markets.
This book is pretty dry, but Benoit is so smart that you will regret not coming across it earlier. I read this about ten months ago and don’t recall much, but I remember being engaged throughout.
19) Tribes
By: Seth Godin
Rating: 2.5/5 - Fairly surface level exploration of leadership.
Seth is a marketer and a leader in the field of marketing. Marketers make me roll my eyes, and his catch-all way of explaining things is not my favorite. It’s as if he abstracts away the nuance involved and dumbs things down to a point where they become universally valueless.
I don’t recommend reading Tribes.
20) Born Standing Up
By: Steve Martin
Rating: 4/5 - A quick recap of comedian Steve Martin’s life, in his own words. Funny at times but not really.
Steve Martin is a legend, but his humor is not hilarious to me. I like his personality and respect his artistry, so I thought this would be a nice quick autobiography - and it was.
As the author and narrator, Steve effectively leads you through the various stages of his life in a very empathetic way. He wasn’t always a legend, and he’s clear about that. It’s interesting listening to the entire arc where he went from a nobody to being the number 1 comedian in the world for some time.
He also plays banjo, and you can hear it throughout the book, or maybe just at the beginning and end - I don’t remember.
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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.
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