The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination

The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination by Stuart A. Reid

Democratic Republic of the Congo had a rough start. The region was originally the Belgian King's private realm. It covered an area including many different ethnic groups. White Belgians helped build up the economy with western industrialization. However, the natives were for the most part left out. Only low-level service jobs were open to them. Eventually Belgium was encouraged to turn over power. Alas, things didn't go rail. Many people expected the benefits of the "good life" that the Belgians had without putting forth the effort. There were different people competing for power. Eventually voters selected a prime minister. Alas, things went downhill. The military revolted against their low pay and Belgian leadership. The leader also got caught in cold war machinations and internal conflict. The prime minister and president both relieved each other of their office. The CIA was concerned that the prime minister may be a Soviet tool and plotted his assassination. Eventually he was killed in a plausibly deniable way. A UN plane with the secretary general also crashed around the same time (most likely due to natural causes, but rumoured to have other factors involved.) A new strongman leader was installed and the country stagnated.

The book paints a compelling narrative. However, some of the key names sound similar, make it difficult to keep track of who is who. There is extensive coverage of the UN and the challenge of keeping legitimacy with many competing forces. The CIA plot doesn't come until the end.

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

What are morals and where do they come from? Hume has an analysis of the morals people have and why they exist. Despite having some nice insights, I had trouble staying interested in the book. The librivox narration was not too bad.

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation by Carl Benedikt Frey

What is the impact of technology on society? The answer is tricky. In the short term, current occupations are destroyed. Those that spent much time developing skills find those skills irrelevant. The skilled artisans must fight for new positions once their past jobs are eliminated. In the long run, society is usually better off. People have access to more lower priced goods. Those who lost their livelihood eventually find new work (or leave the workforce.)  New career opportunities appear.

The book details many cases of technology change through history. The response has differed depending on implementation. Workers were not thrilled when skilled jobs were replaced by unskilled children. When workers have been able to benefit from increased technology they are happier with the changes. Social safety nets also increase the willingness of people to adopt the changes.

The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears

The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears by Donald Katz

Sears was the Amazon.com of its time. It started as a mail order company with a giant catalog. It then went into the physical store business. It was a huge business that dominated the retail sector. However, it became stuck in its ways and started to fade as shopping habits changed. It went through various attempts to improve its financial position. Attempts at international expansion fizzled out after showing potential. Acquisitions and non-retail business lines also showed potential. Sears invested heavily in computer systems. The company also realized that they sat on a treasure-trove of data that would allow cross-selling insurance and other financial products. 

The book primarily covers the Telling leadership of the company. He started shortly after the move to the Sears tower and had a "different" style of leadership. The book ends with the choosing of Brennan as the new leader. There are many different personalities involved, with the ups and downs of a company trying to find its way. Seas seemed to be finding its way through the struggles at the end. It is interesting toread about "classic" business practices. However, the book was written in 1987. Since then Lampert acquired the company and fully drove it into ground. Will this be the fate of Amazon? Despite Sears being nearly non-existant, past components like Allstate are still thriving.

Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life

Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life by Alex Mayyasi, Alex Goldmark, Erika Beras , Mary Childs , Sarah Gonzalez , Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi and Kenny Malone

Planet Money is an NPR show and podcast that discusses interesting money matters. The audiobook has some highlights which are then translated back to an audiobook. The stories are nice bite-sized pieces that explore economics and money. There are anecdotes and examples illustrating various economic points, including those that appear somewhat counter-intuitive.

Recovery: How We Can Create a Better, Brighter Future After a Crisis

Recovery: How We Can Create a Better, Brighter Future After a Crisis by Andrew Wear

Bad things happen. We can choose how to behave afterwards. In many cases, people have recovered from tragedy to create something much better than existed before. Germany grew to be a power after war devastation. The roaring twenties boomed after the Spanish Flu. There are many cases of cities that had a big growth spurt after the destruction of a fire. The book includes many examples of positive recovery and looks forward to future improvements as society deals with struggle. It has the tone of a grandfather discussing the past.

Violent Saviors: The West's Conquest of the Rest

Violent Saviors: The West's Conquest of the Rest by William Easterly

A common antebellum argument in favor of slavery was that the slaves were much better off than they would be had they not been slaves. Materially, this is likely true. Despite this, many slaves would go through great efforts to escape slavery. People value their freedom even more than their material comforts. The book provides many examples that come down to this same point. These stretch from colonial periods up through the cold war and modern times. Western leaders still have trouble grasping the importance of self-determination, even if something else seems "better". This is a problem both at home and abroad. Many programs seem to make people better off, but they fail if the people don't want them. Sometimes this "progress" ends up being fleeting (such as neighborhoods destroyed for freeways). Other times it could be something they would adopt - as long as they had control.

The Nightingale

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

During German-occupied France, two girls tried to live their lives. Their lives were changed with the Nazi occupation and gradually clamping down on rights. They work in different ways to help the resistance. They help guide allied soldiers to Spain to return home and also shelter Jews in their home. One is caught and spent time in a concentration camp. The book is told as flashbacks from the modern woman who is in poor health. She has not told her children much about her efforts or her the assumed name she had. Her son only learns when they are there to talk with others. This provides a bit of sentimentality towards a past life, even when it is something you would like ot have forgotten.

The Forest on the Edge of Time

The Forest on the Edge of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride

Some time travelers are sent to different points in time to save the world from ecological destruction. Unfortunately, once of them damages the time machine. One is back in ancient Greek. There she struggles with the culture that includes slavery, but also realizes there are advantages to being back here. The book also explores some time travel paradoxes. Can you really complete your mission if you know all about the past and future? It reminded me a bit of Brandon Sanderson's time travel novella.

Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs

Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs by Gina Keating

Netflix was founded by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings in the late 1990s. They had worked at a software company together that was acquired by IBM. Randolph was the primary force behind the initial idea and wanted to do something Amazon with video. Netflix was somewhat lucky that the potential competitors like Amazon and Blockbuster were inept, allowing Netflix to grow. An "activist investor" was busy trying to pull money out of Blockbuster preventing them from putting enough money into the DVD delivery operation to compete with Netflix. Blockbuster also had to struggle with the possibility of cannibalizing their existing store's revenue model - including the reliance on late fees. Netflix had optimized fast delivery of DVDs through the mail system to locations where their customers were. This seemed simple, but was difficult for others to copy. This book was written more than a decade ago, so only touches the surface of the pivot to streaming. Netflix did not do things perfectly, but was able to learn from mistakes and pivot to continue succeeding.

The Cruel Prince: The Folk of the Air, Book 1

The Cruel Prince: The Folk of the Air, Book 1 by Holly Black

For a romantic-ish fantasy, this book was surprisingly readable. A girl has an interesting family background with plenty of death and destruction. She is a human that later goes to live among he fairies. Things are bad there with a pretender to the throne managing to sneak around a curse by killing the leaders in the process of transition. In the middle of this the girl escapes and has brief romantic flings. It isn't a great book, but it beats most of the other fantasy drivel out there. 

How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations

How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations by Carl Benedikt Frey 

The big theme of innovation is centralization vs decentralization. The two need to be balanced to drive innovation and progress. Decentralization helps innovation. However, too much decentralization leaves anarchy and little ability to spread the innovations. Centralization provides rules of law and helps support processes and carry out big project implementation. However, centralized organized are prone to keep with the status quo and have little room for innovation.

Big companies rarely innovate as much as small ones. Entrenched big firms benefit from regulation. They like to keep their position. Their location at the forefront of technology is usually short lived.

The discussion of progress is well researched though it is wordy.

Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child's Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods

Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child's Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods by Michaeleen Doucleff

While this book makes sense, it has a "snake-oil sales" tone. Everything bad is related to screens and ultra- processed food. Sure, there is plenty of negativity with those. But can we really single them out like that? Books were once "bad" and now they are the solution here. There author comes across as a San Francisco Waldorf mom that is really trying to relate to others. The book is primarily a journey with her and her young daughter as they fight screens and "pood". It is a two-way process. You can't have parents addicted to screens and expect the children to avoid them. It is important to have other activities that can be used and provide the interest.

The book spends time discussing dopamine and how things were wrong. It helps drive desire. The fulfilment can be a downer. Slots are an example of crazy addiction. I was playing a stupid phone came for a bit while playing it. I hated it but was still playing. Just the badness it describes. For food, the processed food gets us all the energy in a hurry. We consume the calorie dense junk food quickly and then come back for more and more. Real food takes more work, but gives a better payoff. The discussions all feel sound. But are we missing part of the argument?

High Output Management

High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove

This is an older management book from a boss at Intel. The chip business was booming in the day, though there were plenty of pivots and changes that the company went through. There are some insights that seem funny today. Email was seen as a powerful tool that helped enable communication throughout the company. This would give American companies the similar "real time" communication similar to Japanese companies where everybody sits at a table together. Well that has come and gone. We have even gone through the open office trend, instant messaging and other real time communication tools. Now the college is often to get more focussed.

There was some good discussion on 1:1 meetings. It is good for both sides to take notes. Look at problems. Plan actions and get to the bottom of things.

In spite of the changes in technology many key aspects of management remain similar.

Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City

Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City by Bench Ansfield

Government and industry attempted to end redlining, but instead created a moral hazard that lead to apartment destruction. Special "high risk" insurance pools were available for landlords with few questions asked. If the apartment burned down, they could pocket the money and stop worrying about the headache of maintaining the building. Arsons were rarely investigated, and eve when they were it was assumed that the low-income tenants were behind them. (Though this did not stand up well in comparison to public housing where there were no arsons.) According to the author, the landlord would often hire arsonists to burn down the buildings.

The book ended with communities fighting back against arson and then gentrification. The author did identify the root cause of "unintended consequences" leading to destruction. However, they didn't quite draw it back far enough. Why was it more valuable to burn down buildings? Were there other regulations (such as rent control or tenants rights) that made the buildings less profitable? Did the end of redlining actually make things worse? If gentrification is bad, does that mean people want to live in slums? Should we let neighborhoods get better and worse?

Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI

Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI by Karen Hao

Sam Altman is not a good guy and we are trusting him with what could be existential technology. He has had issues with family members. He is a smooth talker with many connections in Silicon Valley. He was ousted from OpenAI for very valid reasons. Alas, there was not sufficient backbone to keep him out and he returned stronger than ever. Despite being called OpenAI, the company is very secretive. As a startup they were able to skirt the law and train their models on other people's IP. They would also outsource data annotation to many poorer companies, leaving some destruction in the wake. They also worked on massively scaling up hardware to accelerate improvements. Alas, this requires huge data centers and massive amounts of water. 

Some people got tired of OpenAI and went to form Anthropic. Google and Microsoft have gone all-in on their AIs. It is nice to see Open AI demoted in importance. Alas, the AI arms race is still ongoing. What will the impact be on humanity?

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

In its early days Facebook was run like a fraternity, with little respect for how it would impact the world. It was all about maintaining engagement. Government relations only came later as a reluctant necessity. The author of this book came from a diplomatic background. She liked Facebook and thought she could make a difference. Things did not go well. Facebook was not ready for her and she was not ready for Facebook. The book is a hatchet job on Facebook, with attacks especially on Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg. Her ire is especially strong on Sandberg. As an executive, Sandberg preaches female empowerment and mixing motherhood with work. However, in practice she wants work to dominate. She mandated international travel late in pregnancy and required her to get a nanny. Zuckerberg is portrayed as a clueless guy who doesn't get the importance of political hobnobbing - until he decides he wants to run for president.

There are legitimate concerns exposed in the book. However, there is also a significant clash of culture and personalities. I'm sure the other side would have plenty of valid counterpoints. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Automatic Noodle

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

In the San Francisco of the future, robots and humans live together in a not-quite peaceable manner. Many things, such as owning a restaurant, are reserved for humans. Some robots have been working at a restaurant when the owner disappears. They decide they would like to run the restaurant themselves. They manage to work through some technicalities to get "authentic noodle" set up. They rely on a review site to help customers find them. However, they are dependent on good ratings. Somebody later tries to review-bomb them to bring them down. This person is part of the anti-robot group. Eventually, they find them and restore their reputation. However, in the process they learn that they do not depend on the service and take pride in the "automatic noodle" name they have been given by their detractors. The book has a lighthearted approach to working together even with differences.

Summer War

The Summer War by Naomi Novik

There is some realistic fantasy with some magic and siblings and lack of love. It was easy to fall asleep

Fourth Wing: Empyrean, Book 1

Fourth Wing: Empyrean, Book 1 by Rebecca Yarros

Sex. Violence. Dragons. Blah.

Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology

Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology by Gayle Laakmann McDowell (Author), Jackie Bavaro

This book provides an introduction to the career of a product manager and the interview process typically involved. There are examples of some of the types of questions asked and proper ways to solve them. There is also a section on resumes. You want to have accomplishments written in the past tense, not activities that you were told to do. It is good to tell stories when asked. Bring up accomplishments as you are going. Talking in bullet points is also good. 

Some of the book is dated. (Yahoo! and Twitter are not at the top of anyone's lists now.) It also spends a little too long on programming questions (they have other books for that.) There is other content like case studies that also feels repetitive from their other books, but overall, this book has a better variety of content.

Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century

Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century by W. David Marx

Early 20th century culture is fairly blah. This book describing it is pretty blah. 

Tortoise's Tale

The Tortoise's Tale by Kendra Coulter

A tortoise lives a long time. This book tells California history through the eyes of a tortoise. The tortoise was captured and taken to an estate in Southern California. This area changed through the years. Music changes. We run into random historical figures and events (like RFK assassination.) The tortoise lives on. The use of the land changes. The tortoise lives on. At first it feels like a disney animal tale. Then it shifts to  It is a "Forest Gump" style history.

The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind

The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind by Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester does a great job of tying personal experiences into a narrative history. In this book, he attempted to document the wind. This is perhaps a little too broad. The story seemed to jump around various areas impacted by the wind. From sailing to dust storms, the wind has played a role in history. The many bits are interesting, but do not form a coherent whole.

Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right

Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right by Laura K. Field

The book starts with an anecdote from the author's experience at a conservative conference where another attendee made an off-color, cringeworthy comment. This sets the tone of a book that is ostensibly objective, yet subtly biased. I couldn't help but feel sympathy for the MAGA folks. The conservative intellectuals come from different backgrounds and have different intellectual goals. There are Harvard professors as well as talk-show hosts. There are securalists, evangelicals as well as a strong Catholic contingent. Trump is not really part of this movement. However, he has been adopted by them as a way to help push the desired agenda. If the United States had proportional representation, there would be a number of different parties that formed a MAGA coalition with plenty moving in and out. There are many that are willing to stick to their principles despite opposition.