Episode · Dwarkesh Podcast · 2021-10-05
Books mentioned on Byrne Hobart - Optionality, Stagnation, and Secret Societies
Byrne Hobart writes The Diff, a newsletter about inflections in finance and technology with 24,000+ subscribers. Watch on YouTube.
Byrne Hobart recommended Dude, Where's My Flying Car? by Tim Jackson, and discussed Death by Regulation by Mary J. Ruwart, The Money Game by Adam Smith, and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. Dwarkesh Patel discussed The Complacent Class by Tyler Cowen and How Asia Works by Joe Studwell.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
Dude, Where's My Flying Car?
Dude, Where's My Flying Car? by Tim Jackson is a detailed, thoughtful, and thoroughly footnoted exploration of technological stagnation, energy systems, and the regulatory and historical hurdles preventing the realization of personal aerial vehicles.
Recommended“where's my flying car which is um it's basically this extended um very detailed very thoughtful very well footnoted rant from someone who really wants to have a flying car and he's interested in them”
Where to get it
-
Death by Regulation
Discussed“she worked on a pharma company and she wrote a book called death by regulation and one of the points she made was um you know if anybody like actually talked about like how many deaths the fda causes by you know”
Where to get it
-
The Money Game
Discussed“but there's actually there's a story in adam smith um the pseudonymous financial commentator um not the not the economist adam smith's money game where he talks about a guy who did that in the 19th century and he bought a lot of very reliable blue ship stocks and he i think he set up his will”
Where to get it
-
The Looming Tower
The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright is a detailed non-fiction account tracing the origins of the war on terrorism, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and the events leading up to September 11.
Discussed“the book the looming tower it talks about bin laden's early life and his early campaigns as a sort of terrorist”
Where to get it
-
The Complacent Class
The Complacent Class by Tyler Cowen is an insightful social commentary exploring how contemporary society's self-defeating quest for safety, comfort, and predictability ultimately breeds stagnation and hinders the American dream.
Discussed“one way of reading tyler accounts complacent class is basically just a way of like our preference we've just our preferences for optionality have grown a lot”
Where to get it
-
How Asia Works
How Asia Works by Joe Studwell is a prominent economic study that analyzes the developmental trajectories of East Asian nations such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Discussed“in the book how asia works the author talks about how you know many of these countries created terrorists basically to create internal knowledge”
Where to get it
