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Books

Books have had a large influence on my life. When I was young my dad made the value of reading clear to me. While reading was always something I did for fun, it was during college that reading started to feel transformative.

Unlike most, I organize the physical bookshelf in my house in the order I read the books, and here is the narrative I hold in my head as reflect upon what I've read and how it's influnced my life. The narrative is loosely held as at the time of choosing what to read, it's not really clear what the narrative is.

Before College

Before getting to college I was reading mostly for fun or because I had to from school. I enjoyed reading

  • Harry Potter
  • The Series of Unfortunate Events
  • The Giver
  • Percy Jackson trilogy
  • 1984

College

Interestingly for Rutgers BS CS there was no required reading. And I was pretty hungry to learn about the world. I discovered a love for programming at an early age but I sorta built whatever the first idea that popped into my head was. I met one of my dad's friends who was tangentially involved in a high frequency trading firm. Until this point I believed that most programmers were just making Android and iOS apps. He recommended I read Flash Boys which began my first serious foray into reading non-fiction.

  • Flash Boys
  • Zero to One
  • Lean Startup
  • Crossing the Chasm
  • Economics in One Lesson
  • The Innovator's Dilemma
  • Black Swan
  • Rich Dad Poor Dad
  • Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
  • Fahrenheit 451
  • Industrial Society and It's Future
  • Elon Musk (Ashlee Vance)
  • The Big Short

At the time I was an intern at SAP, a pretty large software company (comparable to Oracle in lots of ways) and I was working on a Robotics oriented startup. I was hungry to learn the processs of novel-value creation and spent a lot of time reflecting on what human progress actually means. As I generally gained confidence in myself I was actively trying to determine where I wanted my career to head. Did I want to try to be an entrepreneur? An academic? A politician? A highly paid software engineer? I started to form the desire to zoom out and understand the bigger picture more deeply, I think this desire was probably sparked after reading Black Swan. Towards year 3 & 4 of college it seemed like political tensions were also on the rise, and as far as I can tell, henceforth it's always felt that way. I wonder, has it just always been that way, and it's just my awareness that's changing. Anyways I also wanted to be good in the grand scheme of things and I was humble enough to know that it's not clear how to do that. I was open to utilitarian ideas of effective altruism, spritiual ideas of just being the best version of yourself, and seductive ideas of social change.

  • 12 Rules for Life
  • Ready Player One
  • Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
  • Principles: Life & Work
  • Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder

After College

Towards the end of senior year I also had the good forture to experience a psychedelic trip with some of the people I respect the most in life. On graduating I was extended a full time offer from SAP, and soon after I would have a much more attractive offer from JP Morgan. On graduating, I lived in Jersey City with some of my closest friends, and the journey into self discovery continued. I read about traditional accounts of psychedlics, psychology, and neuroscience.

  • Waking Up (Sam Harris)
  • Brave New World
  • Island
  • Doors of perception
  • Thinking Fast and Slow
  • Outliers

While SAP was a big company, I worked on a small team that felt like it was solving experimental problems. Or maybe that's just what they had interns do. My insights during this time were largely about programming itself, and were of the straightforward kind. I was learning about React, APIs, databases. When I got to JP Morgan I experienced very little technological growth, but I learned a lot about working in social environments. At this time I started reading Ayn Rand and as someone who's read a lot of dystopian friction I've never read a more prophetic book.

  • Atlas Shrugged.
  • The Fountainhead
  • Dune
  • Dune Messiah
  • Hitchiker's guide to the galaxy

It was during this time I transitioned to Gemini, an environment where I was surrounded by great peers, great mentors, and great technology. At this point I was pretty convinced that progress, and empowerement of the individual were very related ideas. Gemini had an environment which promoted a healthy exchange of ideas (which was rare, in my opinion). I wanted to learn more deeply about other tools that empower the individual (like crypto-currencies do), and I wanted to learn more deeply about the state. Gemini also re-ignited the idea that programming is a craft.

  • Red Queen
  • Last Call (on prohibition)
  • Steve Jobs
  • The anatomy of the state
  • Come and take it (on 3d printed guns)
  • The anarchist handbook
  • Zen and art of Motorcycle Maintainance

After Gemini

I was captured by the idea that some stories are deeper than others. A book like Harry Potter has it's roots in the Cristian tradition. I had a desire to go to the source and read deeper content.

  • Siddhartha
  • Moby Dick
  • 2001 A Space Odyssey
  • Crime and Punishment
  • Anna Karenina
  • East of Eden
  • Name Place Animal Thing
  • Bhagavad Gita
  • Plato
  • Old Testiment
  • Lolita

2025 onwards

It's hard and maybe not in my best interest to form a narritive about things that I'm actively reading, I sorta just want to read whatever interest me the most, but they'll continue to be listed here:

  • Count of Monte Cristo

Reading Backlog

If someone recomends a book to me, it ends up here:

  • The Gulag Archipelago
  • Mountains Beyond Mountains (Carolyn)
  • The Machiavellians: Malice
  • A renegade history of the united states: Malice
  • Dear Reader: Malice
  • When Genius Failed: Steve, Swanson
  • Society of mind: Lee
  • GEB: Sid
  • Win firends Influence People
  • Origin of species
  • Ben franklin
  • War of art: Dahlia
  • Ordinary Men: Peterson
  • Paradise Lost: Peterson
  • Panzram Journal of: Peterson
  • Discovery of unconscious: Peterson
  • Interpretation of dreams: Peterson
  • Miracle morning: Steve
  • Sleep: Raayan
  • A mind for numbers: Alan
  • Creature from Jekyll Island: Steve
  • The day of the Jackal thriller: Dad
  • The golden gate: Dad
  • Arthur C Clarke moondust: Dad
  • Asimov robot short stories: Dad
  • Pg Wodehouse J&W: Dad
  • Tao te Ching Raayan
  • The mom test: Lee