Books
Book of the week is James C Scott’s Against The Grain (UK) (US) – an examination of the origins of civilisation. Scott – best known for the magnificent Seeing Like A State (US) (UK) – is on fascinating form. There’s a fine long review by John Lanchester in the New Yorker.
I’ve been enjoying Ed Thorp’s A Man For All Markets (UK) (US). Thorp is a quite brilliant thinker about both gambling and investment – he also built a wearable computer with Claude Shannon to predict the fall of the ball on a roulette table. So far this is a fascinating autobiography. Thought-provoking foreword by Nassim Taleb, too, who emphasises the simple practicality of Thorp’s approach.
Then there’s Paul Goodwin’s Forewarned (UK) (US) – which at first glance seems to be a great survey of what works and what doesn’t in the forecasting game. (It’s next on my list to read.)
Bro-casts
I’m going to admit to listening to The Art of Manliness and The Tim Ferriss Show, at least on occasion, because there are occasional gems. Check out this fascinating interview about the professor who taught Homer’s Odyssey to a class including his on octogenarian father – and what both the text and the class taught him about the relationship between fathers and sons. And here’s Mr Money Moustache on Ferriss’s podcast.
And not-at-all Bro-ish, but I loved this recent episode of The Why Factor about why we ask “so what do you do?” of strangers – and whether we can do better than that question. Wonderful radio.
The Search For the Fifty First Thing
If you’ve been enjoying the book / series of Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy you can vote for one more special episode here (until noon GMT 6 October 2017) – the shortlist of six is worth a look!