AE

All of his stuff is great. This book helped me understand why countries dominate others. It's a fascinating read.

Highly Recommended

There's this myth that governments don't innovate. In reality, innovative technologies come from government research/government-funded research all the time. The internet, Microprocessors, WiFi, Cellular networks, GPS, Solar panels, Lithium Ion batteries, touchscreen technology, LCD screens, even Siri itself. All created by government R&D or funded by governments. Look at space travel. Government funding & research trailblazed, now the private sector is leading the charge. The government-funded Human Genome Project gave us $100 genetic tests to find your cousins via Ancestry(dot)com or see which diseases you might be genetically prone to. GPS, the greatest government-funded endeavor ever. Like I keep saying, learn your history before repeating common misconceptions.

Highly Recommended.

This is the most important book I read all year. If you're gonna read any book on this list, read this one. This shows history not from the viewpoint of those in power, but those who have fought and died helping the people. I cannot speak more highly for this book.

Highly Recommend

This is the radical centrist viewpoint of why US politics sucks. It has insufficient historical contextualization and provides uninspired solutions. Read this if you've been living under a rock for the last 50 years and need to be slowly introduced to how things have gone horribly wrong. The only redeeming quality of this book is that it's written well before Trump became synonymous with the Republican Party, thus providing more evidence that he's not the cause of what's wrong, the whole dang system is broken beyond repair.

This is the book I'm reading now. Snowden said in an interview that since this is his first book, the publishers made him make it an autobiography. So Part 1 is all about his childhood and early years, which is really dull and can/should be skipped. Otherwise, I'm enjoying it.

I wish it went into detail about US interventionism beyond merely overthrowing sovereign governments. But then it'd be thrice as long. We need to realize that this country is rarely “the good guys” in the geopolitical sphere.

This one I didn't finish because the first few chapters cover everything and the rest just goes into excessive detail about what was already covered. This book made me realize how the US media continually does the bidding of the US government, towing the line and rarely pushing back to the degree that it should.

Super fascinating. It made me realize it was sheer dumb luck that made the USA the dominant global superpower.

This book is so insanely boring I could barely get through it. The author cannot write dialogue for women to save his life, and it's just so dull.

It's nice and short, but manages to talk about the intersectionality of feminism and other socioeconomic issues. It's the mortal enemy of the “Lean-in Feminism” being pedaled by the 1%.

Definitely will help you understand how things have gotten to where they are these days. Very interesting.

One of my favorite books of the year. This is the stuff that history teachers should be teaching but aren't. The sun doesn't set on the US empire.

This one was a real slog. Interesting concept, but rather dull. The best part was talking about extracting trillions of dollars worth of rare earth metals from mining asteroids to eliminate resource scarcity. That was neat. The rest was dull.

This book mostly got me angry. It was unironically championing the gig economy and the end of stable employment while barely mentioning how destructive that would be to a huge chunk of people. This is not the future I want, but it's gonna happen if we keep down our current path.

Fantastic book that explains all aspects of how to solve Climate Change. Though it does not go into the politics of how to implement these solutions tions, which is kind of a bummer. But that wasn't really the point they were trying to accomplish. Their website covers everything thoroughly. Definitely check out their website.

The author is a reformed Silicon Valley investor who realized that Facebook and the rest of the internet juggernauts are fundamentally opposed to making the world a better place. They're actually making things worse.

Not very interesting. More of a podcast than a book.

This guy is great. He's got a great podcast. He really gets it. This book makes you realize that we aren't designing things based on what's best for us as a species or as individuals.

Figured I'd see what all the hubbub is about. But I quickly realized that this book isn't very easily consumable by the layman either. You ought to read a book that analyzes it rather than going straight to the source. Kinda like jumping into philosophy for the first time in your life by reading Thus Spake Zarathustra, you probably won't get it without a more robust foundation.

Not as good as his previous two books, both of which I heartily recommend. This one is pretty forgettable. Give it a shot if you like the author, otherwise Do Not Recommend.

This is the book that started me down the path. We do not live in a meritocracy. We live in an oligarchy.

Very interesting. A lot of “common knowledge” about traffic is completely wrong. Do Recommend.

Very interesting. Kind of a downer. But it shows how much progress we as a society have made in such a short amount of time.

3 of his suggestions are boring legalese I don't particularly care about. The other 3 are: gun control, campaign finance reform, and gerrymandering, all of which I already know way too much about. Cool to get the perspective of someone so knowledgeable about the law and US history. If you're a big wonk into that stuff, check it out. Otherwise, Do Not Recommend

This is before I realized Sam Harris is a pseudo-intellectual hack. Though, in hindsight, this book is probably the least bad one of his that I read since it's the most related to his field of research. It's also really short. Do Recommend