Episode · Lex Fridman Podcast · 2022-10-20
Books mentioned on #331 – Balaji Srinivasan: How to Fix Government, Twitter, Science, and the FDA
Balaji Srinivasan is an angel investor, tech founder, philosopher, and author of The Network State: How to Start a New Country. He was formerly the CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Road to Reality
The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose is an exhaustive and profoundly deep exploration of modern physics that begins with foundational mathematics and guides the reader all the way to the absolute cutting-edge boundaries of scientific inquiry.
Discussed“I know Roger Penrose has like his Road to Reality series for like basic physics getting up to everything we know”
Where to get it
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Seeing Like a State
Seeing Like a State by James C.
Discussed“in fact there's a book called seeing like a state which actually talks about the origins of surnames and whatnot”
Where to get it
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Exit, voice, and loyalty
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty by Albert Otto Hirschman is a foundational political science text that examines the ways individuals respond to declining organizations, states, or relationships.
Discussed“so uh there's this you know book which I i reference a lot I like it um called exit voice and loyalty by Albert hman”
Where to get it
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Der Judenstaat
Discussed“but a very important reference that I think is much more important to me than snow crash which is which is good a good book whatever but fictional is Der Juden by The Herzel which translates as the Jewish State and that led to the foundation of Israel”
Where to get it
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Bloodlands
Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder is a historical study examining the mass killings perpetrated by the Nazi and Soviet regimes in the regions between Germany and Russia during the mid-twentieth century.
Discussed“because I visited Ukraine I've read red famine by an apple bomb bloodlands Y and it's just just a lot of coverage of the senses”
Where to get it
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Red Famine
Red Famine by Anne Applebaum is a comprehensive historical account detailing the devastating Holodomor man-made famine in Ukraine.
Discussed“because I visited Ukraine I've read red famine by an apple bomb bloodlands Y and it's just just a lot of coverage of the senses”
Where to get it
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Timescape
Discussed“benford's law of controversy is an adage from the 1980 novel Timescape stating passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available”
Where to get it
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Reputation and Power
Discussed“so if you read reputation and power okay I'm going to just quote this because it's amazing amazing book right it's written by a guy you know Daniel Carpenter smart guy but he's an FDA sympathizer he fundamentally thinks it's like a good thing or what have you nevertheless I respect Carpenter's intellectual honesty because he quotes the CEOs in”
Where to get it
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a classic gothic novel exploring the corrupting nature of vanity, hedonism, and moral decay through a portrait that ages while its subject remains youthful.
Discussed“there's this book called the picture of Dorian Gray right”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (3) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“the following is a conversation with bology s Nason an angel investor Tech founder philosopher and author of the network State how to start a new country”
“I mentioned this actually in in the network State book”
“so I've got you know this book the network State um which which covers some of these topics”