Debt: the first 5000 Years, by David Graeber , is a book about the history of debt, credit, and money. It gives a detailed account of the origins of money and its development over time. Graeber argues that the development of money is closely linked to the development of debt, and that the two are … Read more
“Bullshit Jobs: A Theory” is a provocative book by anthropologist David Graeber that challenges conventional wisdom about the nature of work and employment in the modern economy. The book seeks to identify and analyze what Graeber terms “bullshit jobs,” which he defines as positions that are so utterly pointless, even the person doing the job … Read more
In “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media”, Chomsky examines the ways in which the mass media can be used as a tool to control and manipulate public opinion. Chomsky breaks down his theory into five main filters: size, ownership, advertising, flak, and fear. Chomsky’s Five Filters of the Mass Media Size: The … Read more
Michael Lewis is a prolific writer and his books are widely celebrated. But with so many titles to choose from, where does one start? This guide will provide a brief description of each book, in chronological order, to help you decide which ones are right for you. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game … Read more
In “Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World”, Adam Grant tackles the question of what drives people to be creative. To find answers, Grant looks at a variety of fields, from business to sports to government, and unveils the strategies that underlie groundbreaking ideas. He also explores how we can identify originals in our own lives … Read more
The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig isn’t about discarding the people who claim to have discovered the secrets of business success, but to make a more subtle point, or rather to ask a more subtle question: why is it so hard to define success? There are many delusions that shape the way we think about … Read more
Written in a lucid conversational style, the essential argument made by Jaron Lanier is that smartphones carry ramifications that could spell disaster for the human species. Smartphones are an invention that we take for granted. But we should remember how recent this invention is. Since we carry around this device everywhere, we are always being … Read more
The central message of What I Learned From Losing a Million Dollars by Jim Paul is: don’t take success personally. Entrepreneurs and traders are sure to fail if they do take success or failure personally. Why a Book on Losing? A lot of people have made money, but everyone has lost money, so it’s clear … Read more
“The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves” is a book written by Matt Ridley, first published in 2010. The book presents a comprehensive historical narrative and argument, asserting that human progress and prosperity are a direct result of market exchange and specialization of labor. Ridley starts his argument by looking at the beginning of human civilization … Read more
People will more and more freely find ways to exchange their specialised production for diversified consumption. This world can already be glimpsed on the web, in what John Barlow calls ‘dot-communism’: a workforce of free agents bartering their ideas and efforts barely interested in whether the barter yields ‘real’ money. The explosion of interest in … Read more