Last year I announced a book review roadmap. Due to recent events, I’ll have less time to write book reviews, mostly interspersed between AI reporting and political theory articles. Consequently I’ll be collapsing some of the reviews to make the points in a shorter fashion. Some of the distinctions that I wanted to draw are not necessary to understand the broader ideas and cover many similarities. I may return to the exempted books later on. If you haven’t read the existing reviews,
Sadly, Porn review from last year
Part 1 of the Network State review two weeks ago
And Part 1 of the True Believer will be out next week, and Part 2 out soon after.
The revised list is below:
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
Steven Pinker
https://www.amazon.ca/Blank-Slate-Modern-Denial-Nature/dp/0142003344
The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
Kevin Simler, Robin Hanson
https://www.amazon.ca/Elephant-Brain-Hidden-Motives-Everyday/dp/0190495995
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail
Ray Dalio
https://www.amazon.ca/Changing-World-Order-Nations-Succeed/dp/1982160276
The Essential McLuhan
Eric McLuhan
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-McLuhan-Eric/dp/0465019951
(h/t Katherine Dee)
The Network State
Balaji Srinivasan
https://thenetworkstate.com/
The True Believer
Eric Hoffer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer
(h/t Marc Andreesen)
Sadly, Porn
Edward Teach (The Last Psychiatrist)
https://www.amazon.ca/Sadly-Porn-Edward-Teach-MD/dp/1734460822
The Populist Delusion
Neema Parvini
https://www.amazon.ca/Populist-Delusion-Neema-Parvini/dp/1922602442
(h/t Alex Kaschuta)
The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times's Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History
Ashley Rindsberg
https://www.amazon.ca/Gray-Lady-Winked-Misreporting-Fabrications/dp/1736703307
Moral Mazes
Robert Jackall
https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Mazes-World-Corporate-Managers/dp/0199729883
(h/t Zvi Mowshowitz)
I was going through the original, categorised list and I noticed that one book, Elias Canetti's Crowds and Power, has incredibly powerful insights across sections 2., 3., 4. and 5., so I wanted to recommend it.
While I'm there,
- Isaiah Berlin's The Crooked Timber has a bunch of essays that seem to be made on purpose to connect 3-to-5;
- Joseph Tainter's The Collapse of Complex Societies will probably get you as soon as you read the full index;
- Nick Chater's The Mind Is Flat is like the blackpilled, neurosciencey version of the elephant;
- C. P. Snow's The Two Cultures is incredibly short and incredibly prescient (big rift between humanities and science, and effects of the lack of a language between the two);
About the "People Have Reactions, Not Beliefs": I think the wording might be the issue. It's usually been phrased "Beliefs/justifications/stories come after feelings"; in your version I'm afraid the reader would be distracted by "what you mean, NO BELIEFS".
If you're interested in the genealogy, Dennet's "Consciousness Explained" introduces the press secretary (and has a bunch of insight related to your WokeGPT posts); William James' "The Principles of Psychology" was the first modern book to admit the primacy of emotional reaction, and will connect to section 1 of your list.
Finally, speaking of genealogy: it's insane how much of all of this is found in The Gay Science, check for instance #116, #319 and #345.