Episode · Modern Wisdom · 2024-09-02
Books mentioned on Are We On The Brink Of A Revolution? - Eric Weinstein - #833
Eric Weinstein is a mathematician, economist, former Managing Director of Thiel Capital and a podcaster. It feels like the world is reaching a fever-pitch.
Eric Weinstein recommended Save the cat! by Blake Snyder, and discussed A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Gordon Malkiel, Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Victor/Victoria by Leslie Bricusse, A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, and Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Chris Williamson discussed Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier and Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Save the cat!
Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder is a foundational screenwriting guide that breaks down storytelling into clear structural frameworks, beats, and specific page-number milestones.
Recommended“I think everyone should for example read save the cat uh it's a book on screenwriting that points out that films aren't broken into scenes so much as they're broken into beats”
Where to get it
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A Random Walk Down Wall Street
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Gordon Malkiel is a foundational financial text arguing that stock market prices are completely unpredictable and that passive index investing outperforms active stock picking.
Discussed“a random walk down Wall Street nobody can beat the market”
Where to get it
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Fooled by Randomness
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a popular exploration of the massive role that chance, luck, and probability play in human success, finance, and everyday life.
Discussed“this is what being Fooled by Randomness is all about”
Where to get it
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Victor/Victoria
Discussed“did you ever see a film called Victor Victoria no Victor Victoria is the I think the tagline on the poster was the story of a woman playing a man playing a woman”
Where to get it
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A People's History of the United States
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn is a controversial and influential historical work that retells American history from the perspective of marginalized groups, laborers, and social movements.
Discussed“And, you know, you've always had Howard Zinn types, let's say, on the left who are willing to point to issues, and your parents would say, 'Well, you know, be very careful with that book, because if you do know the truth, you can't participate in polite society.'”
Where to get it
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Bad Therapy
Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier is a nonfiction book that examines modern mental health practices and argues that excessive therapy and over-parenting are harming children and hindering their emotional growth.
Discussed“Abigail Shri wrote a book bad therapy yeah and I fundamentally disagreed with a lot of the ideas in it”
Where to get it
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Flatland
Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott is a satirical novella that uses the adventures of a square in a two-dimensional world to explore the concepts of dimensions and perspective.
Discussed“escaping flatland oh how can I not even know about this so uh it's a book from the 1800s and it is about a sphere that goes to visit a two-dimensional world of flatland”
Where to get it
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Guns, Germs and Steel
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond is an expansive historical non-fiction work that explores why Eurasian civilizations survived and conquered other societies, attributing these outcomes to geographical and environmental advantages rather than biological differences.
Discussed“example I like to give is Guns Germs and Steel may have been one of the great books of all time”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“it's the same stories you get in The Alchemist by Paulo quo etc etc”