June

Book 22: A Short History of San Francisco San Francisco is an exciting city. It’s in the heart of Silicon Valley, the most innovative place on the planet; it’s central to the American LGBT+ rights movement; and it’s home to vibrant art, entertainment, and food. I am a San Francisco resident from now until August […]

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May

  Book 18: A Fine Mess: A Global Quest for a Simpler, Fairer, and More Efficient Tax System The US tax code is a bit of a mess, isn’t it? That seems to be the sentiment of the general public and is one of the many reasons the US desperately needs to update it. I’m reading it […]

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The Industries of the Future

  Overview In The Industries of the Future, Alec Ross, a leading innovation expert, describes a fascinating future and how we can navigate it. He breaks the book up into seven parts, each one focusing on various facets of the future, from robotics to the weaponization of code. Ross grew up in Charleston, West Virginia (“coal […]

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April

  Book 14: The Art of War The Art of War has been called “the Swiss army knife of military theory.” According to Amazon, “Sun Tzu is thought to have been a military general and adviser to the king of the southern Chinese state of Wu during the sixth century BCE. Although some modern scholars have called […]

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What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America

Mysteries of the Great Plains What’s the Matter with Kansas is an interesting, fun book. Tomas Frank wrote this fiery polemic in 2004, but it remains relevant today. The crux of the argument is that conservatives (“Cons”) are voting against their own economic interests. They do this, he insists, because they prefer socially conservative policies (they’re staunchly […]

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