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Background

Education

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Political Views

News, social media, and AI are propaganda. Read good books instead. I'm a Hindu.

Some deep thoughts –

• If I had a time machine, I'd try to prevent the Peloponnesian War. It set us back a millennium.
• China, Japan, and South Korea's populations are now declining. East Asia already peaked.
• White supremacy and Islamism won't survive demographic shifts in Europe/USA and MENA.
• Sincere belief in an afterlife is rare. Religion is now mostly political, and politics is a religion.
• Since 2020, telework, global Internet, and LLMs have transformed society. 2019 feels alien.
• Popularizing IVF and selecting for more girl children would fix a lot (crime, racism, etc.).
• Capitalist or Communist oligarchs. Pick your poison. (At least the capitalists reward merit.)
• 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 (Can’t live with them. Can’t live without them.)
• 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 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.)
• 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 (Internet use can be catastrophic for children.)
• 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.)
• 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.)
• On the Clock by Emily Guendelsberger (Technology increases the pace and stress of work.)
• 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 (Metaphor for any competition where most participants lose.)
• 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 (Alternate timeline where Hillary won in 2016.)
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Surreal reflections on white imperialism.)
• The Witches by Roald Dahl (A boy and his grandmother against the world.)

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 Old Testament God.)
• “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 (100 years from now, nobody will remember that we existed.)
• 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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