In particular read. , Zeilinger. Also you cant understand our world unless you have a sense of Nietzsches profound influence on 20th Century artists, thinkers, and politics. A great textbook by the worlds leading scholar on the subject. Anybody who goes to Hollywood can see right away what the setup is Hollywood is Hollywood, theres nothing you can say about it that isnt true, good or bad. . on the hideous science funding system. The river was also burning. , Charlie Munger. Theres no question about this. His. Remember that approxmitately no MPs and few in Congress are aware of these facts or ideas yet they speculate confidently about Putins thinking on nuclear weapons. NB. Yes its striking that looking at my internet favourites for politics there are no UK-based political blogs/writers I regularly read. Two of the most important documents on the computer revolution by two of the critical figures in ARPA/PARC. Hes a very unusual thinker and much more right much more often than just about anybody, partly because of how he thinks. (Dostoyevsky was Nietzsches favourite novellist!). , which was unpublished for many years and seems to be generally unknown, is super-useful. Six months later tens of thousands died for the lack of such skills. High Output Management, Andy Grove, ex-founder/CEO of Intel. khloe kardashian hidden hills house address. On Renoir and Hollywood: It would be ridiculous to be bitter about Hollywood. (Planning to see some classics Ive missed: Intolerance; Tokyo Story; Bicycle Thieves.). , in contrast to most professional economists who influence media debate on regulation who have no idea of how government really works and how destructive it is to make simple things take years, how it drives people away, rewards the worst people and companies etc. In 2018 I asked some academics to consider this and we built a crude tool. We look back on history and abstract over decades or centuries, judging the ideas that held sway for a few decades and sneering at how formerly all the world was mad as Nietzsche put it. Physics for Future Presidents, and Energy for Future Presidents, Richard Muller. Much (mis)quoted, rarely read. . Non-fiction books on politics fail to give you this crucial sense. I'll answer some over the next 48 hours, on Friday I'll focus on live questions/discussion, then tidy up after. Genres Politics I've read at least some of (almost) all of them and (almost) all of most titles I refer to (not all the textbooks). Thinking, fast and slow, Kahneman. It also corrects a lot of modern books that have reverted to the World War I was a terrible accident / railway timetables idea in fact crucial nodes in the Prussian deep state network were trying to force war in summer 1914 and to manipulate Wilhelm II into going along with their plans. The Dance of the Photons, Zeilinger. On connections between quantum physics, computation and information theory. He also wrote a, A great textbook by the worlds leading scholar on the subject. I wish there was something similar on the history of the LMB at Cambridge, one of our crown jewels which Whitehall (and the VC office) has gradually buried with stupid regulation. A classic book on mathematical problem solving. Rosen on military innovation, very relevant to discussions on things like drones and AI in Ukraine. Steve has a startup that is a leading player in this emerging field. NB. For example: , Andy Grove, ex-founder/CEO of Intel. , Bhattacharya. For this unprecedented project in world history Groves had no huge central staff, he worked with a brilliant woman and a tiny staff with truly extreme decentralisation. , von Neumann, 1955. Like with ARPA-PARC its fascinating to see how funders ignore such successful examples. I googled recently after getting no reply to an email and learned to my dismay that he died of cancer last year. , summarising the arguments on why artificial general intelligence is so dangerous and why controlling these dangers is so very hard. Quotes. Dyson, Hawking) is wrong. And a very recent post. Also the club of those who write about UK politics a) are rarely interested in how power really works, b) are almost, interested in management, how to get hard things done, or how organisations work, c) think theyre an expert on communication but are not a general problem for hacks who confuse understanding journalism with understanding communication. The Deputy Prime Minister resigned yesterday because a lawyer found against him on two of the eight allegations made. What is moral behaviour is not the same question as what are the principles of high performance in politics! I did pinch ideas from how Bismarck dealt with the Prussian constitutional crisis.). , Sipser (2005 edition). This by Fields Medallist Terry Tao, maybe the greatest mathematician alive, is brilliant and incredibly useful for someone like me explaining a lot of fundamental concepts in non-technical language. On dynamic tools, interface design, Seeing Rooms, new ideas about programming, tools for thought, and so on, read Bret Victor, a rare genius. Interesting on the psychology of selling and marketing. The United Kingdom parliamentary second jobs controversy of 2021 began with Owen Paterson and his lobbying and breach of Commons advocacy rules, which led to his resignation on 5 November, and this was followed by extensive press coverage and debate about the second jobs of other MPs, particularly Geoffrey Cox.Cox, a former Attorney General, registered a total income of 970,000 in 2020, for . Review of the disintegration of the Tories in the context of Brexit, SW1 vs, perspectives on risks of Brexit/Remain, and, and save the trolley to Get Brexit Done despite our reservations. Quantum Computing Since Democritus, Scott Aaronson (2013) is a brilliant introduction to many ideas about computation, physics and quantum information. I wrote some essays on the history of maths and computing which have further reading lists. . 19 Apr 2023 07:47:58 The Idea Factory, Gertner. Fascinating. Ill do a separate list on science funding. I blogged on it here. As the craziness of 2024 approaches his ideas will be much more influential in some circles than you will realise from the media. Dominic Cummings's Odyssean reading list might make you smarter. , Seymour Papert. , Franzen. If you really are interested in policy and how someone tries to bring principles of high performance to government, this is essential. I like reading stuff about people where incentives and feedback work, from used car salesmen to fortune tellers. Ditto for the Johnson volumes (Ive not read) when Caro publishes the last. Vernon Smith, economics Nobel-winner, argues that TOMS provides a better basis for economic models and prediction than modern neoclassical economics. The Story of Mathematics, Marcus du Sautoy. Their favourite argument is the laughable its a small island, about as sensible as a general saying Alexander the Great was using cavalry so its out of date. For the beginner, by a Fields Medallist. Almost the only good business book I have read on strategy. NB. With Bismarck you can follow the twists and turns of a true (and monstrous) genius in great detail and learn an extraordinary amount about how politics, government, war and diplomacy truly work. The Misbehaviour of Financial Markets, Mandelbrot. I wrote, which has a further reading list. Michael Nielsen on quantum mechanics and computers: textbook on QCs, one of the top ten cited physics books ever written. Apr 18. Twitter Web App Retweets This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. , Spivak (2008 edition). Classic on teaching children programming, recommended by Alan Kay and Bret Victor. We can now test fertilised eggs for common risk factors such as mental disorders and heart attacks and choose which egg to use for IVF. by Gomme and Andrewes, two of the great 20th C classical scholars. Please just ask one question as precisely as you can, it will increase the chance I answer. I'm thinking re 'What should Labour do to win the next election'. Partly accessible to a non-specialist with some maths already, though very challenging for most including me. If you get into it you have no right to be bitter, youre the one who sat down and joined the game People who dont succeed, people whove had long bad times like Renoir Renoir was the best director ever are people who didnt want to make the kind of pictures that producers want to make. I'll post final LKY notes tomorrow. I thought this was outstanding and every young person aspiring to be influential in politics should read it. The media laughed and many said its so boring. Sun Tzu. The Method of Coordinates, Gelfand, Glagoleva, Kirillov. Dominic Cummings is a man known to be fond of reading lists (Oliver Wright writes).But while the prime minister's chief adviser exhorts others to read books on subjects such as . , biography by John Sugden. If youre involved in Isaac Physics and want to discuss how it could continue please get in touch.). Vast amounts of what you read on this is rubbish. A big problem for UK political discussion is people focus obsessively on the immediate interest of the London media rather than trying to think about whats really important. Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's Rasputin, is happy to watch the country blow up if he gets what he wants. On May 22, 2020, The Guardian and Daily Mirror newspapers in the UK published details of how Dominic Cummings, senior aide to the British prime minister, had broken lockdown rules by travelling 420 km to a family estate with his wife (who had suspected COVID-19) and child. , Flannery OConnor my wife gave me these, theyre little known and absolutely brilliant, the closest to Dostoyevsky of anything in the 20th Century Ive read. Worthlin. A mathematicians apology, Hardy. Some supported this approach but as youd expect the worst hated it. I will publish soon a chronology of 1862-67 following the twists and turns of Schleswig-Holstein, the escalating conflict with Austria, the domestic conflict running through the period. Re George Mueller, the man who managed the Apollo program. Update to Trump v Biden blog of last September. He was a mathematician who got interested in how markets work. Anyone interested in terrorism and counter-terrorism should watch Pontecorvos movie. Book accompanying an OU course. Rohls multivolume biography on Wilhelm II is brilliant and, like Pflanze, a whole political education in itself. The vaccine taskforce a) created huge value for the UK and the world, b) would, have happened without [typo original!] This is false. British political writing depends hugely on assuming that much of the newspaper coverage is roughly true, so given much is actually invented it means the books repeat a lot of fake news and miss the point. Fascinating. , and let non-player characters stumble into a set of critical decisions in November? . In the search I came across Boyd. You can download that version (2.0) here. On the 50th anniversary Munger reflected on why his partnership with Buffett had been so successful and Buffetts personality. In particular Ill add textbooks, history and philosophy which Ive largely left out. Nobel-winner, Feynman sparring partner, co-founder of Santa Fe Institute, wrote a book on complex systems for the general reader. Our impression was there is valuable low hanging fruit for governments, hedge funds, campaigns, Thucydides. The politicians soon are on the next current thing too. Ive read at least some of (almost) all of them and (almost) all of most titles I refer to (not all the textbooks). Also cf. it would have advised the same had Brexit not happened, but credit to the Cabinet Secretary for backing Vallance and me with the PM), c) the elite world resolutely refuses to consider procurement generally or the VTF in particular in the context of Brexit good/bad, d) in 2021 the VTF was effectively closed and turned into a normal entity rather than given the money and goal of replacing current vaccines with new ideas to solve the variants problem with safer technology, e.g nasal vaccines, e) this too is a non-subject in SW1. People who climb to the top of the science system tend to defend the system rather than support change, even when they realise how bad it is. Keynes essay on Newton is great: , the core document of the rationalist movement. I applied his basic ideas in the euro campaign, in the 2004 North East referendum, in thinking through education reform and trying to get the Department for Education to do what I wanted, in the Brexit referendum, in solving the 2019 impasse, in No10, and to removing this PM since spring 2021. Some of the. Youll see its very similar to Grovess principles (above). The more I study the more clear it is that luck plays a crucial part in almost all famous successes. The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver. Their favourite argument is the laughable its a small island, about as sensible as a general saying Alexander the Great was using cavalry so its out of date. , Klein. Its crucial to remember both aspects of this genius-monster without whom probably no World War I, Lenin, Hitler etc summed up by Salisburys two comments: One misses the extraordinary penetration of the old man and he will do things of which it would be absurd to suspect any other statesman in Europe. Dynamics of 2024. Six months later tens of thousands died for the lack of such skills. Someone should run a prize for the best 10,000 word essay summarising the fundamental lessons of this book (which I havent read in full, just skimmed, because of time not a judgement). Interesting on the psychology of selling and marketing. Start trial Already a paid subscriber? I searched for explanations. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Beautiful Evidence, and Seeing With Fresh Eyes, by Edward Tufte are classics about the presentation of information by the worlds leading expert. He is not a member of parliament and is not elected. They have insurgent energy and feed on grievance. For us its often seen as high level political philosophy but it was bashed out by Hamilton et al as part of a brutal political struggle including many dirty tricks on both sides. The Quark and the Jaguar, Murray Gell Mann. Dominic Cummings Most claims you read about psychological manipulation are rubbish. A scholarly history of maths, not for a general reader. Am told that the Loebs translated by Shackleton Bailey is the best translation. David Deutschs books. The difficulty comes from the fact its psychologically very hard to stick to and almost all bureaucracies operate with incentives and culture that push in opposite directions. So, let's conclude this list with two of his scientific heroes. It was a direct inspiration for my terrorist demand to Boris, July 2019: we must create an ARPA. Ditto for the Johnson volumes (Ive not read) when Caro publishes the last. The replication disaster means you have to be careful about what you believe but its still a good book. Follow Julia Galef. (I knew Mark, a professor at Cambridge, who spent a huge amount of time over the past decade helping state school pupils get hold of great physics material via Isaac Physics. Then nationalism became generally despised by educated liberals, and so on We cant, how our own ideas will appear in the future but its fascinating how little we, to imagine how foolish our own views will inevitably appear to those looking back on us. The best modern subject for those interested in how political decisions are taken and effective action in politics/government is Bismarck. How to Solve It, Polya. If you get into it you have no right to be bitter, youre the one who sat down and joined the game People who dont succeed, people whove had long bad times like Renoir Renoir was the best director ever are people who didnt want to make the kind of pictures that producers want to make. Dominic Cummings, a special adviser to UK education minister Michael Gove, discusses technological advances (quantum computing, 3D printing, energetics etc. The real reason is most people in politics dont want to face the big questions about what government is for and how to do it better (and especially dont want to face the quality of people). Mr Cummings is Boris Johnson's chief adviser. No question, it's Dominic Cummings. The main biography of Buffett, , is also interesting. (Politicians also constantly make this mistake in hiring journalists to do communication, almost always a bad idea.). Governments find it very, very hard to fund such ventures. Dominic Cummings's Odyssean reading list might make you smarter. Doing the Impossible, Slotkin. Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche. that will prove false like the British navy rules the waves (true and a useful heuristic for many decades then suddenly and drastically not true) and values that will seem evil/comical. The difficulty comes from the fact its psychologically very hard to stick to and almost all bureaucracies operate with incentives and culture that push in opposite directions. I know some of them. (I used this to argue for checklists and transparency over the repeated failures of social services with child abuse when in the Department for Education 2011-14. I think hes right that most academics assume models for how this works that are clearly not how people really think under pressure. Sources of Power, Klein. If we could predict events like the fall of the Berlin Wall better it would have huge value. The Selling of the President 1968, McGinniss. On typical problems dealing with statistics, Bayes Theory, and how to improve understanding of probability. Mathematics and the Physical World, Morris Kline. ): how much was the. Mindstorms, Seymour Papert. Pentagon Wars, Burton. This is true even of those who frequently complain about this phenomenon. The best biography in English (probably any language) is Otto Pflanzes three volumes. I blogged a series on this great book starting here; if you only read one of these blogs make it this one on the most important issue, great people (NB. While some characters from the ancient world, such as Themistocles or Alexander the Great, would be as interesting to study in minute detail we dont have the sources. . There's a big bad enemy out there, possibly with superior weaponry but. , Courant. If youre thinking of doing a startup or just curious about how to do hard things you should read. Producers didnt want to make a Renoir picture even if it was a success. Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times (3 volumes), Morris Kline. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. I thought this was outstanding and every young person aspiring to be influential in politics should read it. , Gustave le Bon. Youll understand more of how SW1 really works than from all PM memoirs of the last 30 years combined (PMs never face why they dont control much of Whitehall even after theyve gone). A remarkable 19th Century book about propaganda and politics that influenced Lenin, Hitler and PR pioneers like Bernays. If you havent read it dont read another modern book until you have. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems). Elite opinion in London today is dominated by very similar people with very similar education and very similar views that inevitably include. No doubt about that Nietzsche produced the climate in which Fascism and Hitlerism could emerge. Many academics predicted OpenAIs approach would not work but have been proved repeatedly wrong.). I started like everyone young assuming those at the top of politics must be smart, interested in policy and great at organising things. This is not true of blogs like Marginal Revolution. SW1 suffers such extremely powerful wilful blindness even an event as big as covid doesnt puncture consciousness in many important ways. was the fundamental reason I think Brexit is the right idea and the EU is doomed to fail in important ways. The best book on politics. Classic text, university level. He was a mathematician who got interested in how markets work. I know I should like Dickens, the Russians loved Dickens, but I just couldnt enjoy it, probably a school effect, and I should retry. The Dominic Cummings guide to management Boris Johnson's adviser plans to put business leaders' strategies into practice Andrew Hill Dominic Cummings, the prime minister's senior adviser, has. For example: The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. A striking thing: notice how. ; 2) how to map the spread of memes and identify critical nodes in the network that, if influenced somehow, can amplify or dampen signals? One of the most critical lessons? While No 10 was trying to get a grip on the pandemic, news came in . E.g his few pages on maths and economics which few economists seem to know about! In 2018 I asked some academics to consider this and we built a crude tool. The greatest deeds are thoughts (Some confusion about his ideas is a result of his sister who was a Nazi supporter and edited things he wrote to distort his actual views. ), Modern works on war / strategy (NB. The Nazis did indeed think they were creating a new world beyond good and evil, so did Stalin. In general Colin Grays work. Will. Why it's in AOC's interests to challenge Old Joe. Perhaps America has elections every four years, power supply is ~100% reliable in the First World, Europe wont see millions killed in wars again, nobody lives happily/normally to 200, robots cant escape control and kill vast numbers of humans, children should study curricula controlled by the state, I support policies that undermine traditional ideas about the family will seem as quaint in 2052 as Bertrand Russell being taught by a grandfather whod met Napoleon that British naval dominance is a fact of life. The director was evacuated from the horror of Stalingrad as a child: The city was ablaze up to the top of the sky. The best modern subject for those interested in how political decisions are taken and effective action in politics/government is, . Almost no MPs or senior officials study him or are even midly interested. Brexit and VL in No10 (original official advice was to go with the useless bureaucratic EU scheme even though wed left so a fortiori it would have advised the same had Brexit not happened, but credit to the Cabinet Secretary for backing Vallance and me with the PM), c) the elite world resolutely refuses to consider procurement generally or the VTF in particular in the context of Brexit good/bad, d) in 2021 the VTF was effectively closed and turned into a normal entity rather than given the money and goal of replacing current vaccines with new ideas to solve the variants problem with safer technology, e.g nasal vaccines, e) this too is a non-subject in SW1. If one could observe a discussion between Bismarck and one politician from the 20th Century, he might be the most interesting choice. , Murray Gell Mann. Highly recommended. Who is Dominic Cummings? A Cavendish Quantum Mechanics Primer, Professor Mark Warner. Gdels Theorem: An Incomplete Guide to its Use and Abuse, Franzen. A good introduction to P=NP?. , George Dyson (son of Freeman). Most educated people remain unaware of how little home environment affects IQ/education nor that modern analysis of DNA has confirmed the data from decades of twin/adoption studies. Richard Muller. which egg to use for IVF. Keynes essay on Newton is great: He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than10,000years ago Why do I call him a magician? How to predict news? de Tocqueville. why some of the VL team decided to go to No10 in 2019, Thoughts on past and future of the Buffett system, , Scott Aaronson (Scientific American, 2008), Orson Welles thought Renoir the greatest director, https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/october-2020/the-eu-godfathers-wall-street-roots/, https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/may-2021/the-sphinx-who-reshaped-europe/. The title comes from. If hed run the Hillary campaign in 2016, no Trump as President.

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