Bradford Fults

Deeply moving and poetic as it tows you through the slow realities and unrealities of family, personal history, pain, and what it feels like to be on the lesser side of power against the backdrop of an unsimplified Gold Coast of Africa, shifting into America. The weights of shame, helplessness, social exclusion, family judgment, ambition, fear, triumph, and indignation are heavy in this book. Generations are explored from the perspective of those struggling through them, and fully imparted is a knowledge deeper and more permanent than any facts of the era and events could convey.

A pretty solid overview of a compelling philosophy, rooted in real-world experience at Google and Apple. Scott has an engaging writing style and knows how to balance claims with anecdotes, rather than the all-too-common anecdote-until-submission strategy of many business book authors.

I learned some new things and found her perspective to be clear and helpful for things which which I already had experience or opinions. Recommended overall.

Ridley takes the roundabout path to explaining his optimism, first enthralling the reader with many of the terrible and calamitous aspects of modern humanity, only then digressing into his evaluations and reasons for his (very well-founded) rational optimism. Along the way, one finds much that is well known, but then much more from Ridley that is not widespread or immediately obvious. His depth of knowledge about myriad topics is almost as impressive as the passion and clarity with which he [eventually] delivers the good news.

From global warming to starvation, disease and corruption, Ridley patiently, thoroughly, but quickly dispels rumors, explains facts and offers brief yet poignant analyses. Ridley's prose is not fancy, but it is simple, approachable and well-paced. It is this overall pacing and structure of the book that lead one into the mind of optimism, not because of any emotional appeal, but because Ridley's unwavering rationality and encyclopedic treatment of his subjects and preemptive addressing of notable objections inspire a confidence based on the facts presented.

Ridley's view is a long one. His exposition should be seen as a long-term counterweight to the invective and doomsayer attitudes of the daily press, constantly and irrationally trying to convince the population that tomorrow will surely be much worse than today, despite several thousand years of evidence to support the opposite conclusion. Optimism may not sell as well as fear, but Ridley does more justice to it than one could ask; his cogent volume is one for the ages.

So, so great. My only complaint is that it's only 880 pages long, when I would have preferred 3000–5000 pages. Stephenson's prose is, per usual, skillfully crafted, and his vision is expansive. The world-building in this one is especially fun, and his research and technical underpinnings are of course top notch. Stop what you're doing and read this.

The form and format of this book may be as important as its content. The whole idea of setting down principles and describing how and when they apply, and walking through conscious trade-offs is a powerful exercise for sharing an intellectual framework.

The content of the principles are good for reflection, and as the author notes: you should figure out principles of your own—his aren't meant to apply to everyone. But he has some deep thinking that have gone into many of his principles, and they are relatively well-balanced against one another, enabling them to work well together as a whole. That last bit is notable because many writers love to talk about their principles or approaches, but never actually manage to create a balanced whole of attributes that don't conflict with or confuse one another. Dalio does.