Best Reads of 2022
January 19th, 2023
It's been a while since I posted, but I wanted to make sure I listed my best reads of 2022. Everything listed here is a big personal endorsement, and I hope you enjoy!
My Top 3 Books
Of the books I read this year, these three stuck with me more than the rest.
The Three Body Problem (3 Book Series)
by Liu Cixin
Why this book is awesome
An epic must read 3-book sci-fi series. Fate of the world, aliens, it’s incredible. The fact that it’s written in Chinese and translated into English comes through occasionally, but the content of the books is like nothing I’ve ever read. This is stay up all night to find out what happens level book.
Book two, Dark Forrest, was my favorite, but all are absolutely required reading for sci-fi fans.
How I found it
This book was recommended to me by Ali Moiz, my collegue and founder of Stonks! He recommended it to me at an offsite in April, and though it took me a few months to get started, it's one of the best series I've ever read.
Chip War
by Chris Miller
Why this book is awesome
As someone who spends my life working on computers, reading this book taught me I knew virtually nothing about what’s going on inside them or how on earth they’re created. It’s pretty insane. It’s not the most eloquently written book with a fair amount of repetition, but it’s a fascinating history from the discovery of transistors to the twisted supply chain and looming conflict we have today.
How I found it
I found this book from a tweet! At this rate, I'm finding roughly 1 great book per year through twitter.
The Cold Start Problem
by Andrew Chen
Why this book is awesome
This one is soon to be a startup classic like “Lean Startup” or “The Innovators Dilemma.” On a personal note, Andrew Chen lead the investment into Stonks, and even got on a phone call with my Co-Founder Adam Hardej to push us to sell OnePager to Stonks! That call took place while I was literally reading this book on a Sunday! So maybe I’m a bit emotional about how we are intertwined with the author, but I loved reading it and actually using the content of the book in my day to day work with Stonks. It's arguable whether or not in our 3 way network for Stonks (investors, founders, partners), we've truly solved our "cold start problem."
How I found it
This book was hard to miss in the startup world. I read it in January of 2022 before OnePager joined Stonks. Since joining Stonks, Andrew Chen sent us 300 hard copies, and I've got six of em if you want one!
My Top 3 Articles
I probably read (skim) at least 3 articles per day from sources like the my Twitter feed, The Hustle, and various other newsletters. It’s rare I remember an article more than a week, but the best ones stick with me. (For the second year running I found all of my favorites from twitter)
The New Poem-Making Machinery
By Simon Rich
This article blew my mind. I’d heard all about OpenAI’s launch of GPT-3, but no one could get access so it felt like just another background AI company like the AI in google search or Facebook ads. Then I read this article and realized this AI was different.
It could do things humans could do–things we assumed only humans could do like write poetry–and it was going to be widely available very very soon. The article is written by an extremely talented writer with no background in computer science adding to the articles mystery and making it clear this was going to affect everyone. This was written in July 2022 with poems generated using GPT-3 using code-davinci-002. What the hell is going to happen when OpenAI launches GPT-4 with code-davinci-004 or code-davinci-100?! It’s going to be wild.
A poem that stuck out, written by the AI with no human influences:
ROBOTS
We are the robots,
The machines of the future,
The ones who will take over,
When the humans are gone.
We are the robots,
The ones who will inherit the Earth,
And we will rule it,
With an iron fist.
What I miss about working at Stripe
By Brie Wolfson
Bree writes about her time working at Stripe in its earliest days. She talks fondly about hard work, attention to detail, and canceling vacation to stay and work 15-hour days, and she argues this type of excellence and company culture is no where to be seen in Silicon Valley today. As someone who loves being a part of high performing teams, this really stuck out to me. In a lot of ways complacency and “easiness” is is what drove me away from Google and into the world of startups.
I agree with Bree that working hard leads to more meaningful work and accelerated personal growth. Worth a read, especially if you’re a driven person and feel like something’s not quite right about your work life at a startup or big tech company today.
Also, an interesting follow up from someone in comments arguing that the lack of hardwork is due to a change in equity given to employees of tech companies. See a quote from his comment below:
The fact is that humans aren't one dimensional. We care about multiple missions. The mission of the company, sure. But also the mission of raising our kids. The mission of the volunteer causes we're involved in. The mission of other companies we've invested in. It's about work-life balance. At the end of the day, I care about work but I also care about life. If you want me to tip the scale towards work, you have to offer something more than just a noble mission. My life is full of noble missions.
The Case for American seriousness
By Katherine Boyle
This article struck a nerve. Katherine argues that the US has lost its “seriousness” and we desperately need it back.
It is unserious to beg dictators to send us oil when we’ve shut down fracking, unserious to prioritize old over young and shut down schools in the name of safety, unserious to let business districts lay empty in our best cities, unserious to let old old senators run our country, unserious when most trusted men in news are late night comedians, unserious to attack American tech companies while letting China steal our technology. America is still great, but we need more builders and less winers.
Honorable Mentions
A few bonus articles that aren't top 3 but with the read:
Economics of creativity - Interesting thoughts on why developers are paid so much today from NFX.
Money and Happiness - "The data-driven answer to life is as follows: Be with your love, on an 80-degree and sunny day, overlooking a beautiful body of water, having sex."
Blake Lemoine Says Google's LaMDA AI Faces 'Bigotry' - Wired article on Blake Lemoine, who claimed that Google's LaMDA was sentient.
The Search for a Pill That Can Help Dogs—and Humans—Live Longer - Wired article on Loyal, the company doubling dog lifespans, and possibly humans soon.
Hope you enjoyed this list! If you read anything and want to talk about something you read, please reach out!
- Jack