Reviews and Comments

This is probably the most in-depth book on the socio-technical nature of software systems that I've ever read. After starting off with a high level overview of how and why algorithms are developed in high stakes situations, Robinson dives into the case of organ transplantation. Examining the history, scientific background, and the messy and continuing process of developing algorithms to parcel out organs is enlightening. This should be required reading for anyone developing or using algorithms in high stakes settings. Highly recommend

People throw around the concept of GDP like it's an objective entity, but rarely do they peek under the hood and understand how and why it's calculated in a certain way and the implications of those very subjective, human choices. Coyle reviews this history nicely, pointing out that this metric is very much designed for a manufacturing-intensive world, that many parts of the economy are left out, and how challenging it is to come up with accurate, coherent metrics in an ever changing world. I only wish this book were longer. Highly recommend

This is essentially two books - one is a great one that analyzes the dominant international technology regulatory regimes and their strengths and drawbacks, while the other is a newspaper editorial from 2023. The first is informative and thought-provoking, and I also liked Bradford's identification of the fragmented nature of the EU's financial markets as the primary cause of its anemic tech output. I don't really like opinion pieces though, and even if that's your speed these sections are already woefully out of date and mostly irrelevant. Beyond that, there's a myopic focus on social media technologies, which despite being highly visible is an extremely small part of the overall tech ecosystem. If you skip those sections I still think this is a worthwhile read though.

This book uniquely contextualizes human history by positioning the environment as an important player, exploring the effects of different environmental changes over the millennia and situating those changes within major human events. Frankopan doesn't engage in environmental determinism - he's quick to point out when the environment is much more of a bit player in a particular event - but it is enlightening to get a full sense of the oft-neglected power of the environment in driving events. The science around modern times does get a bit shaky (there's a lot on cloud seeding that is unfounded, for example), and the lack of systematic exploration of different types of environmental changes over the millennia leaves a big gap. But overall this is an extremely insightful read. Highly recommend

I'm biased because this book is about my ancestors, but this is an incredible work of scholarship that is still relevant today both because of the insight it offers into the American Jewish community and the challenges immigrants face more broadly. Beginning in the 1880s in Eastern Europe and ending in the 1970s, Howe traces the factors that pushed Jews to the US, the deplorable conditions they experienced on the trip over and upon arrival, and their gradual but unique integration into American life. As one might expect from a book that clocks in at 768 pages, there is ample room to cover nearly every facet of Jewish life in the US. Later chapters particularly resonated with me personally and felt deeply true of my own experience. Highly recommend

This book zooms in on the individuals that through the decades fought against discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community in the US, chronicling the horrific conditions of the mid-20th century and the gradual, incremental victories that eventually built to where we are today. The book is organized by issue rather than chronologically, which causes some whiplash when reading and also makes it challenging to connect the different movements that were interacting. Clocking in at nearly 800 pages though, this book certainly covers the bases and gives you a personal view on the movement for equality and justice.

Using expansive historical economic, anthropological, and archaeological research, Scheidel convincingly demonstrates that one of the only consistent sources of income inequality reduction comes from war. To be fair, economic development prior to the industrial revolution was anemic, however the data since then as well is decently convincing. It’s a depressing conclusion, but one that should challenge us to think of more peaceful but nonetheless radical ways to overturn centuries of history. Highly recommend

This is an extremely well argued, thought-provoking book, philosophically deconstructing the notion of debt to its core and then following its historical trajectory to the present day. As a corollary, Graeber shows how true “barter economies” have basically never existed, but the notion of money and debt has significantly evolved from its original development. The book goes a bit off the rails and is wildly inaccurate at the end once it gets into post-industrial economies, and the fact that Graeber doesn’t show his work and makes huge assumptions leaves lots to poke holes in. However, overall this is still an impressive and important book. Highly recommend