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Background

Education

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Political Views

Most attempts to "improve the world" just make things worse. Live and let live. I'm a Hindu.

My goals –

• Acceptance of interracial marriage and an end to informal segregation in workplaces.
• Lowering corporate taxes and rolling back environmental laws to encourage industry.
• Work visas for all undocumented immigrants contingent on learning English.
• Discarding outmoded Cold War foreign policy for stronger relations with Israel and India.

Technology is radically transforming society every decade (Internet to smartphones to AI to ???), mostly for the better, so I'm optimistic much of the above will be achieved in my lifetime.

Some deep thoughts –

• If I had a time machine, I'd try to prevent the Peloponnesian War. It set us back a millennium.
• The collapsed Chinese birth rate precludes an "Asian Century". America will remain dominant.
• Popularizing IVF and selecting for more girl children would solve many social problems.
• A few leaders (Wilson, FDR, LBJ, Reagan, Trump) decide history. We're just along for the ride.

Favorite

Consumer Goods

• Alera High Performance Task Chair (My spine’s best friend.)
• AmazonBasics 8” Chef’s Knife (Kitchen workhorse at an unbeatable price.)
• ASUS ROG Strix 27” 4K Monitor (Movies and games as they were meant to be.)
• Bowflex SelectTech Adjustable Dumbbells (Baby’s first weight set.)
• CAP Barbell Flat Weight Bench (Home gym is the best gym.)
• De’Longhi Portable Air Conditioner (Makes working in the summer bearable.)
• Dr. Collins’ Perio Toothbrush (Angle into the gumline to prevent gum disease.)
• Escuminac Great Harvest Maple Syrup (Turn pancakes transcendent.)
• Kitchen Mama Auto Electric Can Opener (Opens up a whole world of canned goods.)
• iBUYPOWER Pre-Built Gaming PC (For work and play.)
• Mitchum Men’s Deodorant (Anti-perspirant to keep workouts focused and dry.)
• Motorola G Power (Cheap smartphone with two days of battery life.)
• Nature’s Bounty Fish Oil Softgels (Keep your teeth from falling out in old age.)
• Nike Men’s Air Max Shoes (A 1.5” height boost to 5’11” makes life much nicer.)
• Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein Powder (Four scoops a day for optimal gains.)
• Redify Jump Rope (Who needs a treadmill?)
• SABRE Pepper Gel (Self-defense you can actually use.)
• Sensarte 12” Nonstick Skillet (Tacos, fried chicken, pasta sauce, burgers, and more!)
• Vive Wrist Brace (Type for ten hours a day.)
• ZNHIS Magnetic Bookmarks (Avoids the mess of disposable paper bookmarks.)

Hobbyist Books

• The Big Book of Exercises by Adam Campbell (Start here for life-long fitness.)
• Double Your Dating by David DeAngelo (When talking to women, never be a bore.)
• How to Cook Everything: The Basics by Mark Bittman (Save thousands on takeout.)
• Set Your Voice Free by Roger Love (Breath and posture are the keys to speaking well.)

Philosophy Books

• Certain to Win by Chet Richards (How to outmaneuver and defeat much larger enemies.)
• The Complete Works by Arthur Schopenhauer (Patron saint of intellectuals.)
• The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti (Nobody actually exists.)
• Feline Philosophy by John Gray (There is no higher goal than becoming a cat.)
• Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse (How a pawn can become a player.)
• The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene (Either exercise power or have it exercised on you.)
• Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman (Our perceptions merely approximate reality.)
• Natural Causes by Barbara Ehrenreich (Living in fear of death is worse than dying.)
• Straw Dogs by John Gray (Giving up hope of “ultimate meaning” is the secret to happiness.)
• The Trouble with Being Born by Emil Cioran (Resignation is only the beginning.)
• We Have No Idea by Jorge Cham (Probing the edges of scientific knowledge.)
• Zero to One by Peter Thiel (Push the boundaries of what’s possible, or don’t even start.)

Economics Books

• Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber (Jobs are more about societal control than actual work.)
• The Case Against Education by Bryan Caplan (We waste a third of our lives social signaling.)
• The Death of the West by Pat Buchanan (Whites, Chinese, and Islam will be gone by 2100.)
• Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt (Hierarchies deform every aspect of our lives.)
• The Gervais Principle by Venkatesh Rao (Organizational politics for dummies.)
• How Civilizations Die by David Goldman (Birth rate collapse will lead us to war.)
• On the Clock by Emily Guendelsberger (Amazon warehouses are the future of work.)
• Open Borders by Bryan Caplan (Citizenship as a barrier to employment just hampers growth.)
• River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins (Suffering and scarcity are built into the system.)
• Screen Schooled by Joe Clement (Social media has mutilated our collective psyche.)
• The Singularity Is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil (AI, 3D printing, nanotech, solar cells, and more!)
• Technofeudalism by Yanis Varoufakis (Big Tech is more powerful than most governments.)
• The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells (Global climate change may ruin everything.)
• Untrue: Women, Lust, and Infidelity by Wednesday Martin (Primate dating market dynamics.)

History Books

• The Age of Entitlement by Christopher Caldwell (American culture from 1964 to 2015.)
• Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis (50 million forgotten murders.)
• Montaillou by Emmanuel Ladurie (Based on actual interviews with medieval peasants.)
• A Republic, Not an Empire by Pat Buchanan (U.S. history from a pre-WW1 point of view.)
• The Shadow of the Great Game by Narendra Sarila (Pakistan’s Cold War origins.)
• The Unnecessary War by Pat Buchanan (Unredacted analysis of the world wars.)

Autobiographies

• Four Star Reviews, 1967-2007 by Roger Ebert (40 years at the movies.)
• Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella (Good leadership is providing ways for others to excel.)
• Revolutionary Suicide by Huey Newton (Rising up against the system is usually martyrdom.)
• What Happened by Hillary Clinton (Her electoral losses defined the 21st century.)

Novels

• A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin (Living history is written in blood.)
• The House of God by Samuel Shem (Only 57% of doctors would go into medicine again.)
• The Long Walk by Stephen King (Works as a metaphor for pretty much everything.)
• Microserfs by Douglas Coupland (A Silicon Valley office drone is still an office drone.)
• Pet Sematary by Stephen King (Death makes a mockery of everything.)
• The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (Hypnotic in its intensity.)
• Submission by Michel Houellebecq (Prescient satire of the “end of history”.)
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Surreal reflections on Western imperialism.)

Short Stories

• “American Gold Mine” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Any professional can relate.)
• “Coding Machines” by Lawrence Kesteloot (Man’s reach exceeds his grasp.)
• “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin (You can’t outsmart physics.)
• “Fleep” by Jason Shiga (If you lose your memories, are you still the same person?)
• “Frost and Fire” by Ray Bradbury (Man that is born of a woman is of few days.)
• “A Full Life” by Paolo Bacigalupi (Climate change will take grueling years to play out.)
• “Golden” by Nick Bostrom (Animals are trapped in a real-life horror movie.)
• “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka (The best gifts find the fewest admirers.)
• “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison (Allegory for modern life.)
• “To Build a Fire” by Jack London (One is always only a few mistakes from death.)
• “Yellow Card Man” by Paolo Bacigalupi (In the end, you’re alone.)

Comic Books

• Amar Chitra Katha by Anant Pai (Single-handedly keeping diasporic Hinduism alive.)
• Buddha by Osamu Tezuka (Consciousness is a fever dream.)
• Here by Richard McGuire (The trouble is, you think you have time.)
• Invincible by Robert Kirkman (Thrilling visions of U.S.-led, post-racial multilateralism.)
• Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy (Life’s a beach and then you die.)
• The Sandman by Neil Gaiman (Failing to grow can be fatal.)
• Swamp Thing by Alan Moore (It’s better to be a plant than an animal.)
• Watchmen by Alan Moore (Who makes the world?)
• Yossel: April 19, 1943 by Joe Kubert (When the state is your enemy, there’s nowhere to run.)

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