Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades

Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades by David Eltis

This book objectively explores the history of Atlantic slave trade within the context of the day. Slavery was a fairly normal part of the world. However, some restrictions had come into play, such as Christians not enslaving other Christians. This left Africans as a common source of slaves. Africa was far from homogeneous. It was often one group selling off their enemies to be slaves. The names of slave ships showed the gradual change in feelings towards slavery. The slaves were treated less humanely and the slavers begin to acknowledge it. The practice of slavery became more and more repugnant and more open to calls for abolition. 

The author also explores the economic impact of slavery and came to the conclusion that it likely hurt development more than it helped. Places with the most significant slave culture often stalled developmentally compared to similar places with stronger embedded slavery. This book is able to present powerful arguments against slavery without retrofitting modern values onto the past.

Einstein's Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies Beyond the Quantum

Einstein's Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies Beyond the Quantum by Lee Smolin 

Quantum mechanics is hard to understand. It often seems to go in the face of what we observe. However, it is possible to be realist and understand quantum mechanics. There were some that put forth the postulates, but did ended up losing popularity to the non-realists. (Einstein was a realist, but he struggled to get a good explanation.) Today, we may need a revolution to adopt a new framework that truly covers everything together. Some will likely fail, but we need new ideas to come to final solution. The book says as much about the pitfalls of academic culture as it does with the quantum mechanics. Academia can get stuck in its ways and find it difficult to move on.

Two Women Living Together

Two Women Living Together: The Bestselling Korean Memoir by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo

The title describes it well. This is the story of two adult women who live together. They are not romantic partners. They are just friends that care for each other.  They also advocate for better legal protections. Why are rights tied to marriage whether heterosexual or homosexual? What about people that have mutual caring without the romance? There is not a lot of substance to the book, but it does have some interesting thoughts to explore on the different styles of human relationships.

Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster

Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster by Jacob Soboroff

A reporter found himself in LA reporting on his hometown of Pacific Palisades burning down. The book tries to straddle the line between detachment and heavy involvement. There are reminiscences of the past in the area as well as jabs at Trump. The fires came right around the transition from Biden to Trump so there is ample time to poke fun of Trump's obsessions. (Many seemed to start off with a rational point and then go off the rails with hairbrained solutions.) The fires come across as surprisingly non-dramatic in the book. There was a lot of hard work and creeping into deserted areas, but not much of the expected personal drama. Maybe we have just become too spoiled with the disaster genres.

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland

This book is more a less a history of Christianity. However, instead of focussing on the internal leadership of the church, it explores the "power" that church held in society. The narrative meanders around different times and places. It lacked a clear focus as it explored the influence of Christianity on society.

The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant

The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim

There were many times in the early days where Nvidia almost went belly-up. They had some strategic decisions that didn't pan out. They bet on new, better technology, but had slow software translation to the old technology. The company would strive to excel technically, while not disgarding the lower levels of the market. The organization structure is extremely flat with the CEO having a large staff. Employees from the CEO down put in crazy amounts of hours of work. They always viewed themselves as being one bad mistake away from oblivion.

Things really started to boom for Nvidia after the company received an XBox contract. Later the company coined the term GPU to describe their programmable graphics chips, but let the term be used generally. They released programming tools and were able to dominate the GPU market. Nvidia saw the potential for GPUs to be used in artificial intelligence work and have been able to ride the AI boom to record valuations. They also got a nice lift from Bitcoin mining and they are still popular with gamers. Nvidia has been able to become the world's highest valued company thanks toa confluence of hard work and being in the right place at the right time.

The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative

The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick

How do you make a memoir sound alive? This book provides examples and tools for helping to write memoirs. There is not much narrative in the book itself, but it may be appealing for writers.

The Love Hypothesis

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

A girl runs into a guy when she is visiting campus. She thinks he is a grad student. He gives advice that helps her choose her future path. She doesn't realize that he is actually a professor and he had feelings for her also. She later chooses to kiss a random guy to "allow" her best friend to date her boyfriend. This ends up being the professor. But neither of them realized it at the time. They decide to carry on "fake dating" for a while. They are both oblivious to each other's feelings. It finally comes to a head when they agree to share a hotel room at a conference (in a Platonic relationship.) Things end up being not so platonic. Then there is the episode where the professor's old friend ends up being a scumbag and the professor gets in a fight with him. It makes for a welle-executed, very typical romantic comedy. You jus wish the main characters would stop behaving like middle schoolers and talk about their feelings.

Source Code: My Beginnings

Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates

Bill Gates had the perfect childhood to set himself up to launch Microsoft. His parents were dedicated to their family, but gave their children significant autonomy. His mom was highly involved in community organizations and had many connections. His father was a lawyer. There were entrepreneurs in his family tree as well as a doting grandma that helped teach logical thinking through games. He enjoyed learning what he wanted to learn and struggled in school and socially. He would have been diagnosed on the autism spectrum today. His parents didn't give up on him or try to force him in a certain path. They had him engage in common youth activities. They let him learn on his own terms. He ended up enjoying some of the "punishments" he received in school (such as working in the library.) His parents helped him to "fall up" out of the public school to attend private Lakeside school. There he was able to find another socially awkward friend as well as other "geeks" who would help found Microsoft.

Lakeside was one of the few places that had a computer for students to access. Gates was drawn to the computer. He would spend time thinking in code and how to program. Through connections, he and some friends were able to get access to other computers at companies and the University of Washington. He had friends in older grades, such as Paul Allen that could get access. They were able to work on business projects finding bugs and coding - all while still in high school. Their parents helped support them as well as get them further connections. He was able to get into Harvard and explore other academic interests. There he met others with complementary skills. Then the first real home computer came out. He and his friends had experience and created a basic interpreter. They were able to sell it and create an appropriate contract that would help them defend their rights. They would later be able to defend their rights to allow the company to continue. 

Bill Gates was at the right place at the right time and had the proper support as well as the personal interest and drive to keep with his company. There are so many ways that Microsoft could have failed to be, yet it somehow managed to be the behemoth it is today.  

Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back by Marc J. Dunkelman

Progressivism is torn between individual autonomy and the desire for big government solutions. The current result is massively expensive projects that can be easily be derailed by the simplest thing. 

Big Projects reached their zenith during the age of Robert Moses. He had the wherewithal and the budget to do just about anything. He rammed freeways through residential neighborhoods with little regard to who lived there or what they needed. He decided parkways should be for cars and not buses. He built beaches and other amenities with particular people in mind. He got things done. At first, people were happy with the benefits they saw from his megaprojects. The people complaining were seen to be in the way of progress. Eventually his plans got in the way with those in power. This led to greater restrictions on what could be done.

Today things of turned far in the other way. Environmental impact statements require development to explore various different negative impacts of a project. These stretch much beyond the ecological environment to different peoples and groups. Projects are looked at through an equity lens to ensure that some groups are not disproportionately hurt. There are many veto points in the process. There are also many opportunities to file lawsuits to halt a project. Projects often balloon in cost in order to respond to all these complaints. Perversely, wealthy people with deep pockets are most able to stop projects. You can see in Seattle where there are freeway lids over the rich suburbs, but not in the dense city where they would be most useful. The process also favors the status quo. An existing project that harms many people, but benefits a few is hard to change. Even if the benefits would greatly outnumber the harms it is difficult to make changes due to few people that would be impacted by the changes.

The book explores the conflicting Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian impulses. There is a desire for small government to let people do what they want. There is also the desire for big government to help rid society of its ills. The progressive movement has many of both combined together. They want government to protect individual rights and liberties. They also want government ro provide a safety net and implement programs to help people and to provide the needed infrastructure needed. Conservatives, too, have a mixture of both ideals. These two conflicts are what has lead to massive expenses but little benefit. As an example, we want to help the homeless, but give them full autonomy to live how they like. This results in lots of money spent, but little benefit. California would like high speed rail, but has produced almost nothing with all the time and money spent.  China was able to build a great network of high speed rail in the same time. California has been able to maintain and expand the existing freeways despite the environmental degradation caused. As a society, we expect all big organizations and government to be "perfect". Any negative caused is grounds for lawsuits. Alas, this risk aversion has also prevented much good from occuring.

Fall of Civilizations

Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline by Paul Cooper

What causes civilizations to fall? What are some of the big civilizations that fell. This book explores many of the different failures, from ancient times up to Easter Island. Much was based on a podcast that he has. He does explore different reasons for failure. In the case of Easter Island, he rejects the "resource depletion" argument, and instead focusses on the European discovery. They dropped off diseases and took away many of the residents, leaving the culture in poor condition. Later a sheep ranch used the land, denuding what remained. Other cultures had different reason for collapse. The book goes somewhat chronologically, though it is covering individual experiences rather than a coherent narative.

Best Offer Wins: A Novel

Best Offer Wins: A Novel by Marisa Kashino

A couple in DC is trying to buy a house. Alas, they get outbid in all their offers. They want to have a family, but getting the house first is a priority. The book is told primarily from the perspective of the Asian wife. Then they hear from a friend that a house in Maryland is coming on the market. The woman decides to scope it out. She absolutely loves it. She even decides to sneak in the back yard for a look. She stays too long and almost gets caught by the owner. However, she manages to get out just in time, but does run into him. She decides she will try to get the house as a "pre-listing" transaction. She stalks the owners and discovers that they are a gay couple with an adopted Asian daughter. She  tries a yoga class that one attends.  They actually hit it off and end up getting invited to dinner. At dinner she pushes things too far about an offer and end up getting discovered and kicked out. That is still not enough. She hunts for dirt on the couple. She discovers that somebody had bad things to say about one of the men (a university professor who published a book.) She traced all the students in his program at the time to see if she could find who it was. (She had previously been a journalist, so had connections as well as desire to do it.) She travelled distances to find dirt to potentially use it against them. She found he plagiarized a student. However, the student realized that she was a fraud and didn't give her the evidence. She tried to use this against the men. However, they eventually called her bluff.

Then the novel takes a very macabre turn. She realizes that her husband had been having an affair. She kills the woman involved and takes her body to the basement of the house. She framed it as having been done by a friend of hers. (She had the friend tour the house and used the friend's car and dressed like the friend when committing the crime.) Then, right before the police were ready to catch the friend, she gave her various drugs to make it look like she committed suicide. It helped wrap everything up. It also left the house available to them as the only people willing to put in an offer. The book ends with the woman discovering another affair from her husband and makes us wonder what she will be doing.

The book is a fast moving case of desperation in a crazy housing market.

Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank

Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank by Justene Hill Edwards

The Freedman's bank was formed at the end of the Civil War to give former slaves a place to save their money. It was initially charter to be a very safe savings bank in a single location. It would invest in government bond and pay a small amount of interest. It expanded to other locations. Many of the leaders were white men who desired to help the blacks. The bank later expanded to many other locations. Many of the clients were using it as a place to store money until they could buy land. Transactions tended to be small. The bank later ran into money issues. It had difficulty making the promised interest payments. It spent money on opulent buildings. The solution seemed to be to go into other money making ventures, such as making loans. It was restricted to making "safe" loans to those with significant land as collateral, and was forbidden from loaning to those controlling the bank. Alas, the first restriction ended up restricting loans to most of the black patrons and the second restriction was flouted. After a banking panic hit, the bank hit huge issues. Advance notice was required for withdrawals. (Though certain mostly white business customers could get money out easily.) The bank eventually failed. Even in failure, there were some last minute loans to friends. Almost none of the outstanding loans were paid back. The clients only received a few cents on the dollar and now were resistant to dealing with banks. It is a typically case of bank failure caused by greed, tho. This probably set back the financial condition of the freed slaves, though was only a small part of the many negative policies during reconstruction. 

Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places

Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places by Paul Collier

The author of the book appears quite full of himself, but has a good message. Places that are not succeeding need help. The help is best when it comes within. External groups can (and should) support the process, but do so in a hands off way. Throwing dollars at a poorly functioning location can often make things worse. People do not like being told what to do. Leaders may capture benefits for themselves or create "trophies" that make things worse in the long wrong. Instead, the local groups need to adopt policies that work best for them. Aid without strings may be useful for helping implement the changes. (Though this may not be necessary.) Many of the most well-functioning egalitarian states were backwaters at one time. They suffered from many of the problems modern basket-cases do now. They may be able to There have been successful authoritarian regimes and failed democracies. Singapore has boomed through a time with a single ruler. Rwanda has gone from civil war and genocide to tourist haven. South Africa has fallen down, despite dropping apartheid and allowing global electoral participation. Each place has their own special cases and most adopt appropriately.

How to Lead When You're Not in Charge

How to Lead When You're Not in Charge by Clay Scroggins and Andy Stanley

While the content is generally applicable, many of the examples are related to the author's experience as a southern church pastor. There is the story of how chic fil-a started serving milkshakes. (A local manager decided to experiment with ways to do it. He did not keep quiet about it, but did not spend too much time bragging. He had built up trust with the higher ups and was able to demonstrate how it worked well.) In another example, the church team advocated taking off Memorial Day Sunday after seeing another church do that with success. At first, the attempt was shot down. However, they later presented evidence and built up a solid case for giving volunteers some time off so they could come back stronger for the summer.

The core message is that leadership and authority are different. Leadership does not need authority. A position of authority works best for somebody that is already a leader. True leadership requires understanding others and helping them to achieve their maximum potential - whether they are above you or below you in the hierarchy. Being positive is key. Even when you seek change, doing it from a position of positivity is the best way to get it done. 

Eradication: A Fable

Eradication: A Fable by Jonathan Miles

A person is hired to eradicate goats from an island to disturb the ecological balance. He had no previous experience in the field and struggles with the activity on a physical and philosophical level. He discovers that there are other people on the island illegally fishing for sharks. Should people be playing god? There are some interesting questions explored, but the narration feels distant.

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.