Books
0. Curse of Cash by Kenneth
Rogoff
Why: The authors premise is
that paper currency is the root cause of many evils and advanced country
governments should do away with it as much as possible and limit currency to
smaller denomination and coins. The book is divided into three sections. the first
section talks about the evolution of paper currency, currency circulation,
currency demand in underground economy, the concept of seignorage and the need
to do away with most of the paper currency. The second section discusses in
detail the idea of negative interest rates. The third section talks about the
global implications to phasing out paper currency and how the governments will
look at digital currencies and he doesn’t have good news for Crypto currency
lovers.
Quoting from the book "With all due respect to
promising security advances offered by public ledger technology and the
ingenious algorithms embodied in some of the new “currencies,” the view that
Bitcoin— or any other cryptocurrency— is going to replace the dollar anytime
soon is quite naive. As currency innovators have learned over the millennia, it
is hard to stay on top of the government indefinitely in a game where the
latter can keep adjusting the rules until it wins. If the private sector comes
up with a much better way of doing things, the government will eventually adapt
and regulate as necessary to eventually win out. Even if (for argument’s sake),
cryptocurrency technology proved unstoppable, the winner (say, Bitcoin 3.0)
would only end up being a precursor to a government controlled “Bencoin” (after
Benjamin Franklin, who now adorns the US $100 bill)."
I would say a provoking book, and people are free to
agree or disgaree with Mr Rogoff. Afterall, he has been the Chief Economist of
the IMF. He also happens to be a Chess Grandmaster :-)
1. 'When Breath Becomes Air' by
Paul Kalanithi
Why:This book is the most
moving book I have read . :-(
I know many won't get
through this book.It impacts you at different levels . The prose is just
beautiful . For me , It just reminds us how vulnerable we are and helps
appreciate better, what(ever) we have .
2. The Phoenix Project - A
Novel about IT, Devops, and helping Your Business Win - by Gene Kim, Kevin
Behr, and George Spafford
Why: Wanted a non-technical read
on DevOps.
3. 'A Man for All Markets' by
Edward O Thorp
Why: If you are interested in
logical thinking and if you want to be rational in an irrational world , if you
are interested in investing and want to learn from a person who not only had
his skin in the game , but was also extremely successful in wealth generation,
do read this book.
4. The Little Book that beats
the market by Joel Greenblatt
Why: It is the book on value investing and a must read for
any value investor
5. " The Theory That Would
Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian
Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy " by
sharon bertsch mcgrayne
Why:This book provides an excellent introduction to the
history behind the evolution of Bayes Theorem. People's struggles to just use
the theory, the opposition it had to face, the famous personalities, prominent
role played by Bayes in cracking the Enigma code, for e.g. and lot such
information is available in the book. We understand how much opposition it had to
undergo before reaching a position of pre-eminence that it enjoys today.
This
is how the book ends "Talking of religion, I am reminded of a strip of
cartoons about Bayesians that appeared some time ago. They showed a series of
monks. One was looking lost, one was dressed as a soldier, one was holding a
guide book and one had his tongue stuck out. They were, respectively, a vague
prior, a uniform prior, an informative prior and, of course, an improper prior
..." :-)
6. Tell me the odds - A 15 page
introduction to Bayes Theorem
Why: Because i wanted to brush
up on Bayes and found this book to be good and more importantly free on Amazon.
7. The Lessons of History by
Will Durant
Why: Good knowledge of history
is very important for good decision making. This is a condensed work from the
authors books and is eminently readable. The kind of book that if you start
underlining the important paragraphs, you end up doing it for the whole book. i
would call this one of the most important books read in recent times.
8. Business Model Generation: A
Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by by Alexander
Osterwalder (Author), Yves Pigneur (Author)
Why: I was given this book when
i worked on a business model for a hackathon. I read the book , found it
extremely useful and used it in my presentation. It covers everything about a
business model that you have to know of. May be this needs a separate blog post
:-)
Books Started and planned to be
finished in 2018 ( Hopefully)
- The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science (Hardcover) by Marcus du Sautoy
- The Island of Knowledge by Marcelo Gleiser
- The Most Important Thing Illuminated: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor by Howard Marks
- Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
Articles
1
2. Simple math is why Elon
Musk’s companies keep doing what others don’t even consider possible
For me the key take aways are realizing the 'limits of
incremental innovations' and the need to go back to the basics to bring newer
perspectives to the problems that we face and not being constrained by the
status-quo.
And this article starts with #Feynman, "Feynman didn’t mean all human
knowledge must be distilled into an introductory college course. His point was
that we need to build our grasp of science and technology from the ground up if
we are to master it, not to mention reimagine how it works."
3. A Path Less Taken to the
Peak of the Math World
Inspiring story of a person who took to mathematics
quite late and famous for his proof of rota conjecture. at the age of 34, he
now is a member of the IAS Princeton, New Jersey.
He is also a fields medal contender.
A poor maths test at elementary school that made him
lose interest in maths and try his hand at poetry, a failed attempt which made
him look at journalism as a career and how a chance meeting with a 1970 fields
medal winner from Japan changed his life for ever is well narrated.
The more interesting part is the comments section where
a reader identified a mistake in the article. 
:-)
Cooling to absolute zero mathematically impossible.
Third law of #Thermodynamics on firm
footing now.
When i read in school that diamond burns at 690 C, my
question was whether we will get diamond if we cool carbon to -690 C. The
answer was a No and that reaching colder temperatures wasn't easy. It was only
later that i learnt the concept of absolute zero.
"Religion is not going away any time soon, and
science will not destroy it. If anything, it is science that is subject to
increasing threats to its authority and social legitimacy. Given this, science
needs all the friends it can get. Its advocates would be well advised to stop
fabricating an enemy out of religion, or insisting that the only path to a
secure future lies in a marriage of science and secularism."
The hypocrisy of treating certain animals as pets and
certain other animals as food and the ill treatment meted out to intelligent
animals.
Warning: Article contains images
that are disturbing, but i would still suggest you read to understand the
perils of industrial farming of animals.
“The DeepMind team had managed to prove that a generic
version of their algorithm, with no specific knowledge other than the rules of
the game, could train itself for four hours at chess, two hours in shogi
(Japanese chess) or eight hours in Go and then beat the reigning computer
champions – i.e. the strongest known players of those games. In chess it wasn’t
just a beating, but sheer demolition.”
The story of Bernd Heinrich who is 77 years old and the
author of 21 books.
This paragraph should provide an idea about the person
"When I began adding up Bernd’s septuagenarian streak, I realized that
here was a rare man—a throwback. We live in an age that affords little time and
space for communing with nature. We’re busy. Our days are fragmented. But Bernd
has dug in his heels against this collective drift. He has recognized where he
wants to be in old age and settled in, with purpose.".
Books referred to or went back
for selective reading
- . Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- . Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
- Bharathiar Kavidaigal
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
