I hope you have a good time here. Thanks for dropping by.

• Background
• Favorite

Background

Education

Click the pictures!

Political Views

I'm broadly happy with the direction the U.S. is going, and look forward to a lifetime here.

Some of my goals –

• American dominance in technology at all levels of the supply chain.
• Trillions in investment for infrastructure, nuclear power, artificial intelligence, and space travel.
• An increase of the U.S. population to one billion by the end of the century.
• Normalization of interracial marriage and an end to informal racial segregation in workplaces.
• Higher cultural expectations for Americans at all incomes to be well-read and physically fit.

Favorite

Music

Consumer Goods

• Alera High Performance Task Chair (My spine’s best friend.)
• AmazonBasics 8” Chef’s Knife (Kitchen workhorse at an unbeatable price.)
• Asus VS228H-P 21.5” 1080p Monitor (Ideal bezel, size, and display ports for extended use.)
• Bowflex SelectTech Adjustable Dumbbells (Home gym is the best gym.)
• CAP Barbell Flat Weight Bench (Can’t bench press without a bench.)
• De’Longhi Portable Air Conditioner (Makes working in the summer bearable.)
• Hero Bread (No-carb bread which actually tastes good.)
• iBUYPOWER Pre-Built Gaming PC (For work and play.)
• Motorola G Power (Smartphone with two days of battery life.)
• Nike Men’s Air Max 2090 Shoes (A 1.5” height boost can come in handy.)
• Redify Jump Rope (Who needs a treadmill?)
• SABRE Pepper Gel (Self-defense you can actually use.)
• Sensarte 12” Nonstick Skillet (Pancakes, tacos, fried chicken, 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 (Work every muscle group twice a week.)
• 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.)
• Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt (Thriving in the white-collar workplace.)
• 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

• The Age of Entitlement by Christopher Caldwell (Understanding the “national debt”.)
• 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 (Demographics are destiny.)
• Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber (Loan interest makes the world go around.)
• The Gervais Principle by Venkatesh Rao (Organizational politics demystified.)
• How Civilizations Die by David Goldman (Birth rate collapse and its implications.)
• Open Borders by Bryan Caplan (Immigration restrictions make no economic sense.)
• River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins (Suffering and scarcity are built into the system.)
• Screen Schooled by Joe Clement (Social media has mentally crippled most people.)
• The Singularity Is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil (I, for one, welcome our new AI successors.)
• 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

• 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-1960s point of view.)
• The Shadow of the Great Game by Narendra Sarila (Pakistan’s Cold War origins.)
• Stalin by Domenico Losurdo (Perhaps the 20th century’s most influential person.)
• The Unnecessary War by Pat Buchanan (Unredacted analysis of the world wars.)

Autobiographies

• Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino (Watch the films as you read to fully get it.)
• 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 (Worker’s-eye view of Silicon Valley pre-dot-com boom.)
• 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 (Existence 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.)

Click the pictures!