These books, articles, and posts have non-trivially changed how I think about something.
Modestly long article (under an hour). Every person who has an opinion on how companies work should read this.
Long-form multi-part article (few hours). Far from a settled matter, but this long breakdown was thought-provoking in getting me to question assumptions about our biology. What if we’ve been “looking under the street lamp” on obesity?
Moderately short but easy to read book (few hours). The seminal work on human psychology and persuasion.
Short article (under an hour). A positive (not normative) analysis on the fact that historically, inequality is the norm not the exception. We have been living in a period of unique prosperity in last few decades — this is instructive in thinking about sociopolitics.
Moderately long multi-part article (couple of hours). I didn’t understand how seismic a shift ASI could be until I read this. The observations are a lot more obvious post-ChatGPT, which makes Tim Urban’s work all the more prescient and impressive.
Short article (five - fifteen minutes). Honorary mention for an excellent summary, even if the individual points weren’t perspective-shifting (summarization is an art form).
Short blog (five - fifteen minutes). A list of things that have been built fast, across the world, over the last couple of centuries… contrasted by more recent, sclerotic development in today’s society. Calls into question whether we simply have political will to build great things anymore.
Long-form multi-part article (a few hours to digest properly). A brilliant, deeply detailed breakdown of of “rhyming” themes in Star Wars.
Tweetstorm (five - fifteen minutes). I’ve never thought of freedom of transactions as a concept, but this lays out a brilliant argument for why you can’t have freedom of anything without freedom of transaction.