Reading List

This is my attempt to keep track of everything that I have read, but I will inherently miss things. You may find it interesting.

Business

• Kate Bingham, Tim Hames - The Long Shot A brilliant explanation of how to take big risks safely at speed.
• Peter Thiel - Zero to One
  A book about startups and PayPal. ISBN: 9780804139298

Complex Systems

• Patterns - John Boyd Mostly a re-hashing of other people’s ideas, however it explains how to operate in complex environments very well. For example, it has a brilliant explanation of view points and the OODA loop. A transcript of the original presentation.
• Kevin Simler - Going Critical A brilliant explanation of complex systems and chaos theory. Brilliant animations.
• Philip Tetlock - Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?
  A book about the Good Judgment Project and the failure of most experts to predict the future. ISBN: 9780691128719
• Philip Tetlock - Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
  Tetlock explains a study that aims to improve the accuracy of short-term political forecasts. ISBN: 1847947158
• General Stanley McChrystal - Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
  McChrystal’s approach to modern warfare through transparent communication and decentralized decision-making. ISBN: 0241250838
• Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke - War Diaries
  A diary outlining the management of the British war effort during WWII. ISBN: 1842125265
• Jacob Neufeld - The Development of Ballistic Missiles in the United States Air Force 1945-1960
  Interesting study on missile development.
• Atul Gawande - The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
  A brilliant book that explains how checklists can sometimes help manage complex systems. ISBN: 1846683149

Computer Science

Historical Texts

• John von Neumann - Probabilistic Logics and the Synthesis of Reliable Organisms from Unreliable Components
  A paper based on a series of lectures explaining how error can be corrected.
• Alan Turing - On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem
  The key CS paper that explains Turing Machines. ISBN: doi.org/10.1112/plms/s2-42.1.230
• Arthur W. Burks, Herman H. Goldstine, John von Neumann - Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument
  The paper that explains the von Neumann architecture.
• John von Neumann - CAN WE SURVIVE TECHNOLOGY? An article discussing von Neumann’s ideas about the future of technology and its impact on humanity.

DevOps and IT

• John Allspaw, Paul Hammond - 10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr
• Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Jennifer Petoff, and Niall Richard Murphy - Site Reliability Engineering
  An explanation of how Google maintains some of the largest software systems in the world. ISBN: 9781491929124

AI

• Stuart J. Russell and Peter Norvig - Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach
  One of the main textbooks about AI systems. ISBN: 1292401133

Low-Level CS

• Woodhull Tanenbaum - Operating Systems Design And Implementation
  A textbook on operating systems design. ISBN: 8190844997
• Joshua Herskowitz - nand2tetris Low-level CS overview.

Networking

• Peterson and Davie - Computer Networks: A Systems Approach
  The best book about networking, also open source. ISBN: 0128182008
  A great Youtube version

Programming

• Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie - The C Programming Language (2nd Edition)
  The best book for learning the true basics of low-level programming. ISBN: 0131103628
• Chris Postma - How to Write Better Code Faster
  An interesting take on how to write good code and be a productive developer.

Data

• Nate Silver - On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
• Edward Tufte - The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
  Explains how to represent data graphically with clarity.
• Edward Tufte - Beautiful Evidence
  Focuses on common mistakes in data presentation, such as “chart junk” and the misuse of PowerPoint.

Finance

Personal Finance

• Claer Barrett - What They Don’t Teach You About Money A brilliant book that explains personal finance and how to make the most efficient use of money.

Economics

• John Kay - The Truth About Markets: Why Some Nations are Rich But Most Remain Poor The opposite of Friedman.
• Steven E. Landsburg - The Armchair Economist: Economics & Everyday Life

History

• Daniel Finkelstein - HITLER STALIN MUM & DAD HB
• Anne Applebaum - Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine
• Simon Schama - A Complete History of Britain A brilliant rundown of British history, from 3000 BC to AD 2000. Just enough detail.

Marketing

• Paul Slovic - The Perception of Risk (Earthscan Risk in Society)
• Eric Dezenhall, John Weber - Damage Control: Why Everything You Know About Crisis Management Is Wrong A very guide explanation of how to communicate in a crisis and what some of the pitfalls are.

Miscellaneous

• Avinash K. Dixit, Barry J. Nalebuff - Thinking Strategically
• Tony Geraghty - Guns For Hire
• RICHARD P. FEYNMAN - Cargo Cult Science
• Machiavelli - The Prince
• Richard Feynman - Do not remain nameless to yourself
• Richard W. Hamming - You and Your Research A brilliant talk. It discusses a mindset for effective autodidactic learning and personal advancement. It highlights the need for others in this process.
• Homer - The Odyssey One of my favorite books. The Odyssey explores a modus operandi of exploration and doing things the unconventional way, to achieve good results even at great cost. It is also a brilliant story.
• Paul Graham - How to Do Great Work A well-reasoned argument about how to build good things well.
• Rolf Dobelli - Stop Reading the News An argument about the merits of the news media.

Philosophy

• Friedrich A. von Hayek - The Theory of Complex Phenomena
  Looks interesting but hard to read.

Physics

• Richard Muller - Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines
• Michael Nielsen - Why the World Needs Quantum Mechanics A blog post explaining both why quantum mechanics is useful and what it is.
• Michael Nielsen - Quantum Computing for Everyone Another excellent blog. This explains quantum computing in a way that is easy to understand.

Politics and Policy

• James Fallows - National defense
• Mariana Mazzucato - Mission Economy
• Michael Barber - How to Run A Government
• James Burnham - The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom
• Ray Dalio - Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail
• Daniel Ellsberg - Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
• William P. Thurston - Mathematical Education An interesting exploration of the failures in maths education. It suggests that it needs to be more relatable and broad, rather than resembling a tall unsupported tower of knowledge.
• Michael Quinlan - Thinking About Nuclear Weapons A brilliant paper written by an ex-civil servant for RUSI. It discusses nuclear defense policy.
• Francis Fukuyama - Deep State Series An excellent series of articles that try to understand the deep state. It is very US-focused but fascinating, and its ideas can be applied elsewhere.

Psychology

• Gustave Le Bon - The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind
• Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson - Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)
• Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow Not read fully. The book lacks a compelling narrative and fails to effectively address and explore the nature of the problems it discusses, particularly in the realm of decision-making.

Outdoors

• HM Forces - MILITARY MAP READING
• Langdale Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team - Casualty Care revision in Mountain Rescue
• Peter Owen - Knots: More than 50 of the most useful knots
• Carlo Forte - Navigation in the mountains Not very good, Ultimate Navigation Manual is better.
• Lyle Brotherton-Ultimate Navigation Manual

Reading and Writing

• Adrian J. Wallbank - Academic Writing and Dyslexia: A Visual Guide to Writing at University Contains irrelevant information and lacks innovation. The book does not adequately address the challenges dyslexics face in academic writing.
• Ernest Gowers - The Complete Plain Words
  Gowers explains how to improve written communication to enhance clarity. The book is available online for free as it is out of copyright.

Security

• Joseph Cox - Dark Wire
• Steve Gibson, Leo Laporte - Security Now
  A brilliant podcast and one of the best information sources about security.
• Deviant Ollam - Lawyer. Passport. Locksmith. Gun. (A Talk About Risk & Preparedness)
  Discusses personal security and threat modeling. It’s US-focused and somewhat OTT but still interesting.
• Michael Horowitz - A Defensive Computing Checklist
  Provides an approachable guide to securing digital systems for both semi-technical and technical users.
• Chris Domas - Repsych: Psychological Warfare in Reverse Engineering
  A Defcon 23 talk on psychological tactics in reverse engineering.