Some of the books I’ve read in no particular order.
Favorites
David Deutsch The Beginning of Infinity [Link to my notes]
“The uniquely significant thing about humans is our ability to create new explanations”
“We are fallible, but through conjecture, criticism, and seeking good explanations we correct some of our errors”
Richard Dawkins The Selfish Gene
Thomas S. Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
“Scientific fact and theory are not categorically separable”
David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest
Henry Hazlitt Economics in One Lesson
“Depth in economics consists in looking for all the consequences of a policy instead of merely resting one’s gaze on those immediately visible.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment
“Power is only vouchsafed to the man who dares to stoop and pick it up” … “One has only to dare!”
Notable mentions
Kurt Vonnegut Cat’s Cradle
“Man blinked. “What is the purpose of all this?” he asked politely. “Everything must have a purpose?” asked God. “Certainly,” said man. “Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,” said God. And he went away.”
Nick Bostrom Superintelligence
“If an agent is not fundamentally friendly by the time it gains the ability to reflect on its own agency, it will not take kindly to efforts at brainwashing.”
Ray Dalio Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
Ernest Nagel and James R. Newman Gödel’s Proof
Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen The Distracted Mind
Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations
“What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.”
Donald Hoffman The Case Against Reality
Sam Harris Waking Up
Viktor Frankl Man’s Search for Meaning
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.”
Isaac Asimov The Foundation series
Alfred Lansing Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
Walter Isaacson Einstein: His Life and Universe
Michael Pollan How to Change Your Mind
Luke Burgis Wanting
Neal Stephenson Snow Crash
Albert Camus The Stranger
Aldous Huxley The Doors of Perception
“My own belief is that, though they may start by being something of an embarrassment, these new mind changers will tend in the long run to deepen the spiritual life of the communities in which they are available… . From being an activity mainly concerned with symbols, religion will be transformed into an activity concerned mainly with experience and intuition — an everyday mysticism underlying and giving significance to everyday rationality, everyday tasks and duties, everyday human relationships.”
I took the idea of a digital bookshelf from Patrick Collison’s blog. The template for this page was partly inspired by Joanne Peng’s website.