Books:
- Born a Crime – Trevor Noah’s story of growing up in South Africa. This book lives up to all its hype, and then some – it’s difficult to write about racism without victimization and pity, and Trevor did exactly that. Recommend very, very highly
- An American Marriage – I laughed, cried, and smiled with the characters – real race issues in America and what prison does to innocent people. Incredibly beautiful
- Zero to One – Needs no introduction. This book changed my world view on creating large-scale impact and what it means to really change the world
- The Three Body Problem – Was one of my first scientific fiction books, and I got through it slowly, but surely – it’s mind-opening. Set against the backdrop of China’s cultural revolution makes it even more interesting
- 1984 (re-read) – My favourites: ‘if both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?’ and ‘freedom is the freedom to say two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.’ 1984 is a book for the ages
Articles:
- The categories were made for man, not man for the categories – Slate Star Codex. My all time favourite article ever. Period.
- Questions – Patrick Collison. Incredibly thought provoking questions about the past, present, and future of the world we live in
- The future of America’s contest with China – New Yorker. Long read but worth it. I enjoyed understanding Chinese students’ perspectives of the US, and the experience of the author in China
- Content, cars and comparisons in the streaming wars – Matthew Ball. Deep dive on the OTT space – how streaming and television have evolved, and the current landscape (Netflix, HBO, Disney)
- Masa Madness: an analysis of Softbank – Not Boring by Packy. Very well researched, genuinely not boring, and insightful deep dive on Softbank
- Legal systems very different from ours, because I just made them up – Slate Star Codex. Yes, SSC is my favourite blog. Another mind-opening read of what different (theoretical) legal systems could look like
- This is water – David Foster Wallace. This speech deserves to be widely read. How to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life, dead and unconscious – highly recommend
- Targeting meritocracy – Slate Star Codex. SSC is my favourite – even though I don’t fully agree with all the arguments in this piece, it’s a logical and non-polarized opinion on meritocratic systems
- New erotica for feminists (an excerpt from the book) – Short and fun read on what a feminist’s fantasies look like
- How to build curation businesses – Erik Torenberg. Harvard, Stanford and YC are essentially curation businesses, where it comes down to brand and signal value
- Stop trying to try and try – Minding our way. I’m not a self-help/ inspirational reading type of person. But this is very legit advice that I often think of. We need to stop telling ourselves we need to try our best, and actually try
- The three sides of risk – Collaborative Fund. What really matters and we don’t think enough about, is, the tail-end outcome of any decision or situation. I often think about this now, while taking risky decisions
- Twitter, responsibility & accountability – Stratechery. Brilliant arguments on whether Twitter and Facebook are accountable for everything that’s published on their platforms or are they only distributors of content. I don’t fully agree with everything, but this is my favourite read on this topic
- Social cooling – This is not a piece but a new concept. Scary. I re-read 1984 recently, and there were eery similarities with this concept. What happens when all our data is being recorded and we are being watched all the time?
- The case against kids – New Yorker. Good piece on why having kids is not actually a selfless decision
- Why Figma wins – Timeless piece on what makes Figma tick: growth loops and how Figma has made design not only a designer’s thing, but everyone’s thing
- If I ruled the Tweets – Not Boring by Packy. Fun piece that resonated a lot of my thinking about Twitter
- How the Kremlin uses and abuses history – Carnegie Moscow Centre. Intrigued, but not surprised to read how the Kremlin has used and abused history to its benefit (another 1984 reference!)
Podcasts:
- McDonald’s broke my heart – Revisionist History. My favorite podcast episode ever. The McDonald’s fry we all know today is not the OG fry, and for an utterly unbelievable reason. Highly recommend
- Ben Thompson on platforms and aggregators – Invest like the best. Even though Ben Thompson pioneered this topic, but this podcast revisited it with newer perspectives and examples, making it more interesting than ever before
- Negative oil – Planet money. Good explanation of what really happened when the oil futures went negative. I love Planet Money for fun explanations of seemingly complex topics
- Spanx: Sara Blakely – How I built this. Usually not a fan of listening to entrepreneurial stories, but this one’s an exception. Sara Blakely didn’t know what a venture exit was, sold her product to Neiman Marcus in the ladies’ room, and more
- Shishir Malhotra on bundling – Invest like the best. Great mental model of how bundling works (and should work) in the real world
Movies:
- Hamilton – I think this movie will go on to have a deep and rich legacy. This is an experience and made me feel so many different emotions – definitely my top 3 movies of all time
- The Trial of the Chicago 7 – An absolute gem. I didn’t want this to end. Great court room drama about a civilian protest in Chicago against the Vietnam War
- The Post (rewatched) – Yes, I love movies based on historical events AND I love journalism. This covers how the NYT and The Washington Post finally broke the reality behind US’ involvement in the Vietnam War
- Icarus – It is mind-boggling to imagine doping at the Olympics. Icarus tells the story of consistent state-sponsored doping. Bone chilling
All these movies are true stories and the first three based on historical events.
