November 30, 2021

Podcast Notes Book Collection: 2021 Edition

Podcast Notes Book Collection: 2021

• Podcast Notes covers the most critical topics in society including health optimization, mental models, technology, entrepreneurship, and so much more. This is a collection of some of the greatest new releases and popularly referenced books that we’ve covered in our content throughout 2021. Every book title is a link to purchase and is attached to it’s referenced Podcast Notes post.

• Revisit a topic, dig deeper, gain a better understanding of the modern world we are living in. Enjoy!

Become a Better Reader

• Before diving into the book collection, here are some resources to help you become a more effecient and effective reader:
  • Lessons From Reading 600+ Books & Connecting Big Ideas With The Latticework | Blas Moros on The Reader’s Journey
  • A Guide to Reading More & Become A Better Reader: A Podcast Notes Collection
  • Follow @AlexAndBooks_ for daily reading insights

Blockchain & Bitcoin

• The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything by Paul Vigna (All-In PN ref)
  • Everything you need to know about the potential of Blockchain technology, explained in layperson’s terms
  • Recommended by Balaji Srinivasan
• 21 Lessons: What I’ve Learned from Falling Down the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole by Der Gigi (Jordan B Peterson PN ref)
  • The Bitcoin rabbit hole is all-absorbing. One attempts to find the bottom rather than go back to the surface.
  • Bitcoin offers an extreme and unprecedented form of ownership. The absence of dependence on external entities accelerates the change towards personal responsibility, with two key outcomes:
    • It motivates people to extend this level of sovereignty over everything in their life
    • It extends people’s time horizons which translates into their thinking, preferences, and motivations
• The Bullish Case for Bitcoin by Vijay Boyapati (The Reason PN ref)
  • “I think Bitcoin is the most important innovation to money in a thousand years” – Vijay Boyapati
• Why Every Fixed Income Investor Needs To Consider Bitcoin As Portfolio Insurance article by Greg Foss (What Bitcoin Did PN ref)
• All the Bitcoin resources you could need compliments of Nic Carter (Lex Fridman PN)
  • The Bitcoin White Paper and Satoshi’s writings are important to understand the system intentions without third party influences
  • The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous is the canonical economic work in regards to Bitcoin
  • Layered Money by Nik Bhatia goes into depth and layered approach to scaling
  • Technical resources include Grokking bitcoin by Kalle Rosenbaum and Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos
  • Inventing Bitcoin by Yan Pritzker
  • Bitcoin Clarity by Kiara Bickers
  • The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier
  • More reflections and resources can be found in Robert Breedlove’s conversation with Lex Fridman (PN ref)

Business

• The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building by Matt Mochary (PN ref)
  • Naval Ravikant recommendation, it has to be good!
• The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch (Naval Podcast PN ref)
  • Changed Naval Ravikant’s life in regards to his knowledge and reasoning
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout (Tim Ferriss PN ref)
  • #2 Law of Category – It’s easiest, and potentially more fun, to create a category and own it, as opposed to trying to dominate an existing category
    • Check out the 21 other laws!
• The Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne (Tim Ferriss PN ref)
  • How to create uncontested market space and make competition irrelevant
• Play Nice But Win: A CEO’s Journey from Founder to Leader by Michael Dell (a16z PN ref)
  • “It is not for everybody; you need to be deviant, mischievous, and a rule-breaker” – Michael Dell
• Invention: A Life by Sir James Dyson (Tim Ferriss PN ref)
  • Achievement at a surface level looks a lot like brilliance, but brilliance deemphasizes the hard work, time, and failure that contributed to the achievement
    • “If Henry Ford asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse” – Tim Ferriss
• Entrepreneur to Millionaire by Kent Billingsley (Mark Cuban on Pod of Jake PN ref)
• Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero by Tyler Cowen (Lex Fridman PN ref)
  • Do we have a negativity bias towards big business? Tyler Cowen argues yes
• Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand (Tyler Cowen on Lex Fridman PN ref)
• The Practice by Seth Godin (Knowledge Project PN ref)
  • The master marketer, Seth Godin, gives us another gem on all things creativity
  • Create for someone, not for everyone!
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith (Below the Line PN ref)
  • Different goals require different strategies
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi (Tim Ferriss PN ref)
  • Everyone is taught how to save money but nobody teaches you how to spend money
  • Ramit gives incredible advice on how couples can handle their finances in a efficient, creative, and fun way

Fungi and Psychedelics

• Giuliana Furci, pioneer mycologist, gives an introduction to everything Fungi! (Tim Ferris PN ref)
  • Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
  • The Triumph of the Fungi by Nicholas P. Money
  • Fantastic Fungi documentary
    • Great beginner-level introduction to mycelium networks and the history of psychedelics
  • Try some Yerba mate – Tim Ferris and Giulian Furci’s favorite natural drink
• Dennis McKenna, ethnopharmacologist & research pharmacognosist, gives his input to the world (Tim Ferris PN ref)
  • The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss by Dennis McKenna
    • Deep dive into the relationship between brothers Dennis and Terence McKenna
  • The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda
  • Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (Vol. 1 & 2): 50 Years of Research by Dennis McKenna
  • Learn about his Ayahuasca experiences
• Michael Pollan explores the possibilities of plants (Tim Ferris PN ref)
  • This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
    • One of the great mysteries of nature is how we use plants to transcend consciousness, alter our minds
    • Analyzes the symbiotic relationship between plants and humans, how we change plants and they change us
  • The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
  • Opium for the Masses: Harvesting Nature’s Best Pain Medication by Jim Hogshire
  • The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
    • Michael Pollen’s introduction to Mescaline
    • A Mescaline experience doesn’t take you “out of this world”, it takes you “deeper into this world”
  • How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons
• Scientific Research:
  • Recent study on the clinical use of psilocybin for the treatment of depression article referred to by Andrew Huberman (PN ref)
    • Significant improvement in depressive symptoms, mood, and affect in 50-70% of study participants who received psilocybin treatment
  • Trial of Psilocybin versus Escitalopram for Depression by Carhart-Harris, et. al. (Tim Ferris PN ref)
    • Finding: no statistically significant difference between psilocybin and pharmaceutical
• More resources on Psychedelics:
  • Neuropsychedelia by Nicolas Langlitz (Hamilton Morris on Tim Ferris PN ref)
  • The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys by James Fadiman (Making Sense with Sam Harris PN ref)
  • Microdosing Psychedelics by Paul Austin (Ben Greenfield PN ref)

Health Optimization: Sleep, Breath, Aging, Diet, Meditation +

• Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD (Andrew Huberman PN Ref)
  • “Sleep is probably the single most effective thing you can do to reset your body and health” – Dr. Matthew Walker
• Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor (Modern Wisdom PN Ref)
  • The lungs are an organ you can control unlike our kidneys, liver, heart, etc. The control of the lungs can directly control many vitals and overall health of the body.
• Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To by David Sinclair (Joe Rogan PN ref)
  • “Your genes only control 20% of ultimate health and old age; 80% is in your hands.” – David Sinclair
• Mind Over Meds and Healthy Aging by Dr. Andrew Weil (School of Greatness PN ref)
• Heartwarming  by Hans Rocha Ijzerman (Radiolab PN ref)
  • How our inner thermostat made us human
• This Is Your Brain On Food by Uma Naidoo, MD (Below The Line PN ref)
  • 90% of serotonin receptors are in the gut; 70% of the immune system is in the gut
• Fat Loss Forever by Layne Norton, Ph.D (Peter Attia PN ref)
  • “Resistance training is the most powerful tool to change body composition and arguably overall health too.” – Layne Norton
• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki (Tim Ferris PN ref)
• The Wim Hof Method: Activate Your Full Human Potential by Wim Hof (Rhonda Patrick PN ref)
  • Wim Hof breathing technique increases epinephrine which has an anti-inflammatory effect and secretes anti-inflammatory cytokines which protect the immune system

Philosophy

• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R Hofstadter (Tim Ferriss PN ref)
  • Explores the connection between computer science and philosophy
• Risk: A User’s Guide by General Stanley McChrystal (Tim Ferriss PN ref)
  • Risk = Treat * Vulnerability
  • We have a habit of only holding the person who makes the decision accountable; we don’t often hold the person who refrained from decision making accountable
• Into the Impossible: Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner by Dr. Brian Keating (Into the Impossible PN ref)
  • “Every activity of man is amazingly complicated, not only that of the genius: but none is a miracle” – Brian Keating quoting Friedrich Nietzsche
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (Tim Ferris PN ref)
• Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee by Shannon Lee (Art of Manliness PN ref)
• Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey (Jordan Peterson PN ref)

Psychology

• The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning by Paul Bloom (PN ref)
  • We are motivational pluralists, we don’t just want one thing – happiness is made up of reward, struggle, self-fulfillment, well-being (etc.), and not just pleasure
• Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength by Dr. Samantha Boardman (Modern Wisdom PN ref)
  • “We are so good at noticing what is left undone but not particularly good at remembering what we accomplished” – Dr. Samantha Boardman
• The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self by Michael Easter (EconTalk PN ref)
  • What can a Misogi experience do for you?
• Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives by Michael Heller & James Salzman (EconTalk PN ref)
  • Mine! is supposed to be the Freakanomics for property rights
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (Knwoledge Project PN ref)
  • How to become a better decision maker
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini (PN Ref)
• Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan B Peterson (Modern Wisdom PN ref)
• The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn by Richard Hamming (Reader’s Journey PN ref)

Remote Work

• The Ultimate Work-from-Home System to Work Smart, Stress Less, and Love Life by Joshua Lisec (PN ref)
• Andreessen-Horowitz survey results showing that creativity will exceed expectations in our new remote work environment

Science

• Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution by Richard Dawkins (Impact Theory PN ref)
• The Rise of the Wave Theory of Light: Optical Theory and Experiment in the Early Nineteenth Century by Jed Z. Buchwald (Lex Fridman PN ref)
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn (Lex Fridman PN ref)
  • One of the most influential books about the history of science
• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson (Into the Impossible PN ref)

Society

• The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America by Noah Feldman (Tim Ferriss PN ref)
  • How Lincoln broke the Constitution to remake it
• Wireless Wars: China’s Dangerous Domination of 5G and How We Are Fighting Back by Jon Pelson (Hidden Forces PN ref)
  • Describes the dangers and ramifications of no American manufacturer currently developing the telecom equipment to enable 5G
• A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin (EconTalk PN ref)
  • No society can function without institutions shaping the function of people and upholding the rules that define accepted truth
• Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop. by Anna Lembke (Joe Rogan PN ref)

Sports

• Letters to a Young Athlete by Chris Bosh (Knwoledge Project PN ref)
• The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance by George Mumford (Tim Ferris PN ref)
• Lessons from Michael Jordan and the late Kobe Bryant, compliments of Tim Grover (BiggerPockets PN ref)
  • Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim Grover
  •  Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness by Tim Grover

Members Only : bitcoin, blockchain, breath, fungi, health, life, meditation, philosophy, psychedelics, psychology, remote work, science, sleep, society, sports
Notes By Drew Waterstreet