4 ms·
1) Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor Everything from the tulip craze to the dotcom boom. 2) If I Understood You
by saryant 8y ago
1) Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor
Everything from the tulip craze to the dotcom boom.
2) If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look On My Face? by Alan Alda
Alan Alda of MASH fame teaches you how to build more empathy and improve your communication skills.
3) Bad Blood by James Carreyou
Theranos. Enough said.
4) Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Steve Coll
I think of this as the last book in Coll's unofficial trilogy on Afghanistan. First up was Ghost Wars, a history of American involvement in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion up to 2001. Second is his biography on the Bin Laden family. Last year he released Directorate S, a chronicle of American and Pakistani involvement post-9/11 primarily told through the lens of the Pakistani intelligence directorate tasked with influencing Afghanistan.
Coll has interviews with everyone from in-country CIA agents and foot soldiers who were on the ground all the way up to defense secretaries and military leaders, from both sides. An in-depth examination of what went wrong and why we're still stuck there.
5) Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads by Paul Theroux.
The greatest travel writer of the last half-century finally turns his attention homeward: the American Deep South. Four road trips over four seasons. He published an article in Smithsonian Magazine hitting the highlights: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/soul-south-180951861/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/soul-south-180951861/
- txcwpalpha 8y agoI can't second the recommendation of Bad Blood enough. I couldn't put it down. Every chapter I thought "surely I've reached the bottom of the rabbit hole now. It CANT get any crazier than this", but then it always did. Aside from being a really enthralling and interesting story about one of SV's darling unicorns, it was also really eye opening into the absurdity of the amount of money that gets thrown around willy-nilly in SV, and how the bandwagon/FOMO effect just makes it worse. I won't say anything more because it's better to just read the book, but this is one of those stories that is almost endlessly fascinating.
- freehunter 8y agoDoes anyone have a recommendation on a good book around the DotCom era? I was too young and too far removed from the tech world at the time to know much about it, and I've had a hard time finding anything that could transport me back to that era. What were the offices like, what was everyone doing, what languages/tooling were they using, what was the feel? There are plenty of books I see recommended that talk about SV today but what was it like 20 years ago?
- misiti3780 8y agoyou may enjoy this one: https://www.amazon.com/New-Thing-Silicon-Valley-Story/dp/0393347818 https://www.amazon.com/New-Thing-Silicon-Valley-Story/dp/039...
- killaken2000 8y ago+1 for bad blood as well. I don't think I've read a book faster. Every chapter was more unbelievable that the next.
- arethuza 8y agoIf someone had written Bad Blood as a work of fiction I'm sure it would have been savaged for being completely unrealistic.
- refurb 8y agoAgree. Bad blood is a fantastic book. Really well written and tells the story in an incredible amount of details. The author did an amazing job in his research.
- divan 8y agoI also couldn't stop reading it, and devoured it in one day. Amazing read.
- arethuza 8y agoThe Steve Coll book is pretty disturbing - e.g. the CIA hints on "How to spot a terrorist" including things like "Keeps insisting on their innocence when tortured", "Keeps asking for to see a lawyer or a doctor" etc.
- cncrnd 8y agoBad Blood is crazy stuff. Stayed up reading it last night after seeing the recs here. Not sure what I learned other than people are carried away easily, but it was very entertaining.