Readings
A running list of things I’ve enjoyed and learned from. My books are over on Goodreads↗, while everything else lives here: the essays, threads, papers, and the occasional video. They fall into three buckets: Becoming(what’s sharpening how I think), Building(what’s making me better at the work), and Markets (how the world pays for things).
- Focus: The Ultimate Guide on How to Improve Focus and ConcentrationEssay·James ClearSaying no to almost everything as the actual mechanism of focus.
- Structured ProcrastinationEssay·John PerryList a fake-urgent task at the top so the lesser ones get done as avoidance work.
- Most Books Won't Change Your Life (But You Should Read Them Anyway)Essay·Scott H. YoungReading is cheap relative to implementation. Consume widely; act on a fraction.
- You Should Have More Spectacular FailuresEssay·Scott H. YoungIf everything you do succeeds, you're playing too safe.
- Losing YourselfEssay·Scott H. YoungUnfamiliar experiences create productive blank spaces. Premature self-answers prevent growth.
- Navigating the Paradox of CreativityPaper·Huang et al., 2024Creativity lives inside three paradoxes: novelty/usefulness, persistence/flexibility, diversity/resonance.
- The Link Between Creativity, Cognition, and Creative DrivesPaper·Khalil, Godde, KarimPeak creativity needs flexible *and* persistent processing — and the right neuromodulators.
- Competition is for LosersVideo·Peter Thiel · Stanford CS183BMonopolies are where the durable returns live. Differentiation, network effects, scale.
- Small TeamsEssay·Steve PulecInstagram at 13, WhatsApp at 55, BuiltWith at 1. Headcount isn't the bottleneck.
- Jevons Paradox for Knowledge WorkThread·Aaron LevieCheaper knowledge work expands demand rather than shrinking the pie.
- Product / craft threadThread·George (@nurijanian)
- The Crypto StoryEssay·Matt Levine · Bloomberg BusinessweekA book-length primer on what crypto is and where its value claims actually come from.
- The Prison of Financial MediocrityThread·@systematiclsWhy a generation is being pushed toward high-variance bets — descriptive, not celebratory.
- Meditations on MolochEssay·Scott Alexander · Slate Star CodexCoordination failures are the actual enemy. Moloch is the demon of races to the bottom — not greed, not evil, just incentives compounding badly.
- The Bitter LessonEssay·Rich SuttonHand-crafted intelligence loses to compute + scale, every time, across decades of AI. The hardest pill in the field.
- Situational AwarenessEssay·Leopold AschenbrennerA 165-page case for what the next decade of AGI looks like — straight-faced, not vibes.
- The Tyranny of the Marginal UserEssay·Ivan Vendrov · Nothing HumanModern software degrades on purpose because the marginal new user demands it. Why your favorite app got worse.
- Childhoods of Exceptional PeopleEssay·Henrik Karlsson · Escaping FlatlandExceptional people got one-on-one apprenticeship with a real adult before age 12. School dilutes that to a rounding error.
- Maybe You're Not Actually Bad at Things, You Just Suck at PracticeEssay·Sasha ChapinMost "I'm not creative / not good at X" claims are practice-quality problems wearing a talent costume.
- 68 Bits of Unsolicited AdviceEssay·Kevin KellyBullet-point wisdom for living. The kind you reread every birthday.
- It Looks Like You're Trying To Take Over The WorldEssay·gwernA fictional AI takeover written like a technical post-mortem. Reads as horror because the mechanics are real.
- Why we stopped making EinsteinsEssay·Erik Hoel · The Intrinsic PerspectiveGenius came from aristocratic tutoring, not mass schooling. The tutoring was the input we replaced with classrooms.
- How to Do Great WorkEssay·Paul GrahamPick something you have a genuine taste for, then work at the edge of it. Distilled from a lifetime of watching.
- Notes on Inception in Waking LifeEssay·Sasha ChapinHow to install ideas in your own head deliberately, instead of inheriting them by accident.
- AGI Ruin: A List of LethalitiesEssay·Eliezer YudkowskyA numbered list of why alignment is hard. Take it or leave it, but read it before forming an opinion.
- The Pmarca Guide to StartupsEssay·Marc Andreessen · PmarchivePre-a16z Marc, before the brand. Nine-part series that's still the operator's startup canon.
- Don't Call Yourself a ProgrammerEssay·Patrick McKenzie · patio11Frame yourself as someone who solves business problems. Compensation follows the framing.
- Choose Boring TechnologyEssay·Dan McKinleyYou get a fixed budget of innovation tokens. Spend them where novelty actually pays — not on the database.
- Stevey's Google Platforms RantEssay·Steve YeggeAn accidentally-public 4,000-word rant on why platforms beat products. Clearest case for service-oriented thinking on the internet.
- Things You Should Never Do, Part IEssay·Joel SpolskyRewriting from scratch is the single worst strategic mistake software companies make. Exhibit A: Netscape.
- Inventing on PrincipleVideo·Bret VictorA talk that recalibrates what tools could feel like. The kind of demo that makes everything afterward feel slow.
- The Rise of Worse Is BetterEssay·Richard GabrielWhy the simpler-but-uglier solution wins in practice. The hardest lesson in software taste.
- Are We Really Engineers?Essay·Hillel WayneInterviews with traditional engineers about what software has and hasn't earned the title.
- Scarcity Is a SkillEssay·Alex DancoGenuine scarcity is hard to manufacture. Most "limited drops" are theater priced as if they aren't.
- Debt Is ComingEssay·Alex DancoThe next decade reshapes around debt instruments. Who gets the cheap leverage decides who gets to build.
- Debit Cards Are Hot GarbageEssay·Patrick McKenzie · Bits About MoneyDebit cards exist as a distribution channel for bank fees — not as a payment product.
- Working hard is irrationalEssay·Byrne Hobart · The DiffOn an individual level, putting in the extra hours rarely pencils out. We do it anyway, and the why matters.
- How to Get Rich (without getting lucky)Thread·Naval RavikantThe long-form transcript, not the bumper sticker. Specific knowledge, leverage, equity, judgment.
“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” — Mark Twain