Person
Nate Silver's book recommendations
Across 6 podcasts. Every show Nate Silver appears on, in one place — not just one.
Nate Silver’s most recommended books
- Fight by Jonathan Allen
- Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Schüll
- Quit by Annie Duke
- The Biggest Game in Town by Al Alvarez
- The hour between dog and wolf by Coates, John
- The making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes
- The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert J. Gordon
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- 21 Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich
- An Abundance of Caution by David Zweig
Nathaniel Read Silver is an American statistician, political analyst, author, sports gambler, and poker player who analyzes baseball, basketball, football, and elections. He is the founder of FiveThirtyEight and held the position of editor-in-chief there, along with being a special correspondent for ABC News until May 2023. Since departing FiveThirtyEight, Silver has been publishing in his online newsletter Silver Bulletin and serves as an advisor to Polymarket. On various podcast appearances, Silver recommended several books. He discussed Robert J. Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth and its account of U.S. economic growth. Silver recommended Al Alvarez's The Biggest Game in Town, praising its writing on early World Series of Poker-era Las Vegas gamblers. He brought up Jonathan Allen and Amy Parnes's Fight to draw comparisons about aging in political figures, and mentioned Annie Duke's Quit while discussing decision-making. He recommended John Coates's The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, Richard Rhodes's The Making of the Atomic Bomb for its comparison between the Manhattan Project and large language models, and Natasha Dow Schüll's Addiction by Design based on her study of Las Vegas. Finally, he recommended Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow as a modern guide to thinking.
Books recommended by Nate Silver
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On the Edge
On the Edge by Nate Silver is a non-fiction book that explores the world of high-stakes risk takers, examining how individuals in fields like professional poker, artificial intelligence research, and venture capital operate and make decisions under uncertainty.
Discussed“the notion of like gambling halls or casinos I think kind of dates back to you know maybe 16th or 17th century Europe roughly like that's that's potentially newer but the notion of like tempting one's fate I think um which is still a romantic notion I think some gamblers have right like Irving gothman who I cite in the”
Where to get it
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Fight
Fight by Jonathan Allen and Amy Parnes is a political non-fiction book examining Joe Biden and the inner workings of his political campaigns and administration.
Discussed“um, one, we have talked on this program before about the book Fight by uh Jonathan Allen and Amy Parnes.”
Where to get it
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Addiction by Design
Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Schüll is a 2012 cultural anthropology and science-and-technology studies book that investigates the machine-human interface of gambling, focusing specifically on how modern video poker and slot machines are engineered to induce hypnotic states of flow and compulsive behavior in players.
Recommended“The third is called Addiction by Design um by Natasha Schüll. And Natasha is an NYU anthropologist who studied Las Vegas as like her thesis, basically.”
Where to get it
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Quit
Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke explores the psychology of decision-making and the hidden costs of stubbornly persevering with goals that no longer serve us.
Recommended“Annie Duke wrote a book called quit and she's in the book too also a former poker player of course”
Where to get it
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The Biggest Game in Town
The Biggest Game in Town by Al Alvarez is a classic non-fiction book published in 1983 that chronicles the high-stakes world of professional poker players during the early eras of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Recommended“Probably the best poker related book of all time is called The Biggest Game in Town. It was written by a guy named Al Alvarez in 1983. It's a short compact read.”
Where to get it
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The hour between dog and wolf
The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by John Coates is an exploration of the biological, hormonal, and psychological factors that influence risk-taking behavior in financial markets and high-pressure environments.
Recommended“Um so, one book is pertinent to the discussion that we had a moment ago, which is called The Hour Between Dog and Wolf. It's written by John Coates, who is an academic economist who then um became a derivatives trader, I think, for Deutsche Bank in New York.”
Where to get it
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The making of the atomic bomb
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a comprehensive historical account of the scientific breakthroughs, political forces, and personalities behind the development of nuclear weapons during World War II.
Recommended“Number two, in a totally different direction, um The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. We didn't talk as much about some of the AI stuff today, but at the end of the book there's a pretty long, elaborate comparison between the Manhattan Project and the building of these large language models”
Where to get it
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The Rise and Fall of American Growth
The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert J.
Recommended“The first one is The Rise and Fall of American Growth by the Economic Historian Robert Gordon. It was written in 2016. I remember kind of reading this book when I was in Paris at a poker tournament in Paris as one does, right?”
Where to get it
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is a seminal exploration of behavioral psychology that examines the two systems of the human mind—intuitive thinking and deliberate reasoning—and how cognitive biases drive systematic errors in judgment.
Recommended“You know, I kind of often talk about Daniel Kahneman and thinking fast and slow was kind of just, I think, a really great overall kind of modern guide to thinking, if that isn't a little too pretentious. Or too precious, rather. But that's one of my favorite books.”
Where to get it
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21 Bringing Down the House
Discussed“the movie 21, which is based on the book Bring Down the House by Ben Mezri, that came out kind of right when I was getting into poker and like that I guess the book had come out, the movie was maybe later, right?”
Where to get it
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An Abundance of Caution
An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions by David Zweig is an investigative examination of the institutional decision-making processes and faulty rationales that led to prolonged pandemic school closures.
Discussed“David Zwag is a journalist and author, most recently of the book, An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions.”
Where to get it
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Bad Blood
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou is an immersive investigative non-fiction book that uncovers the massive corporate fraud behind Elizabeth Holmes and her blood-testing startup, Theranos.
Discussed“Look, I remember reading the uh reading the book bad blood by the Wall Street Journal journalist John Keru, I believe.”
Where to get it
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Ben Smith
Discussed“did you read the Ben Smith book uh no it's pretty like just yeah just as it”
Where to get it
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Dr. Strangelove
Dr.
Discussed“lot of Dr Strange Love Too y um which is according to some experts app parody of vman vman but so yeah what they wanted was a machine that would automatically retaliate if it detected an attack”
Where to get it
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson is a comprehensive biography detailing the life, ventures, and management methods of the billionaire entrepreneur.
Discussed“if you read the Walter isacson book on Elon Musk his poker strategy is literally going all in every hand until he runs out of money or wins it all”
Where to get it
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Expert Political Judgment
Expert Political Judgment by Philip E.
Discussed“if you read Phil tatlock's book that you referenced Maria expert political judgment”
Where to get it
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On Fire
On Fire by Larry Brown is a compelling memoir written by a Mississippi fireman who transitioned into a celebrated novelist, chronicling his rugged life experiences.
Discussed“and he um in his Memoir um admitted that yeah he did on baseball but never for his team to lose because he only wanted his team to win”
Where to get it
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Original Sin
Original Sin by Tatha Wiley is a non-fiction book examining political decline, media coverage, and the controversies surrounding political figures.
Discussed“There's another book out called Original Sin, which takes a slightly longer exposure fights mostly about the period where Biden has this terrible debate and then is kind of forced to drop out.”
Where to get it
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The 48 Laws of Power
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers is a provocative guide examining the historical mechanics of influence, strategy, and social dynamics.
Discussed“have you read the book The 48 Laws of Power I have yes it's a very interesting book”
Where to get it
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The Contrarian
The Contrarian by Max Chafkin is an investigative biography examining the life, career, and political ideology of tech investor Peter Thiel.
Discussed“There's a good book by I think Max Chafkin was the journalist or Chafkin, I don't know how you say his last name. Um about Peter Thiel called the Contrarian, which is convincing that Thiel is like actually quite conservative more than libertarian and probably quite religious.”
Where to get it
The other 2 books Nate Silver recommended or discussed, ranked
- The Only Rule Is It Has to Work by Ben Lindbergh
- What We Owe the Future by William MacAskill
Books by Nate Silver
Appearances
Other mentions (14: passing, ad reads, own books)
“Yeah. We talked to Nick Thompson, the author of The Running Ground.”
“Anyone who's read The Biggest Bluff, I have a whole chapter about the hands.”
“I bet Jill probably fantasizes sometimes, what if I become president, right? Uh like House of Cards or something, right?”
“like George castanza working for the Yankees in Seinfeld were like they wouldn't give woto a sweet”
“yeah so the village and the river are terms from my book on the edge um The Village is kind of what it sounds like”
“So the Village and the River are terms from my book, 'On the Edge.' The Village is kind of what it sounds like; it's the East Coast establishment.”
“Plus you have a book coming out, which was supposed to come out a year and a half ago; right?”
“Having a book that was unexpected and fun could represent a shift in the desire for politically adjacent content.”
“I mean, that's what the book is about.”
“I was narrating the Silicon Valley Chapter um in my book just last week so was reading thinking about some of this stuff”
“because the top desile Silicon Valley firms actually are almost guaranteed a profit based on the research I've done for my book”
“if you talk to mountain climbers which I literally talked to in my book they prepare very extensively”
“I I wrote about GameStop a little bit in my book um from the standpoint of Game Theory actually”
“there's a long discussion about this in my forthcoming book on the edge we actually talked about an experience we had playing together Maria in The Bahamas where we were playing the 25k pspc first time I played a $25,000 tournament and like I was just really why more than I wanted to be”