Thread by @sriram1394, In the last few years, I have consumed a lot of content [...]

In the last few years, I have consumed a lot of content in the form of books, podcasts, online articles and videos. But there are few which make you go "Damn, I wish I had discovered this earlier. My thinking and world view would have been much better". Here is my stab at this

I have been a fanboy of @naval ever since I've been an active twitter user. His insights on wealth creation, asymmetric opportunities, meditation and mortality run counter to the conventional wisdom one receives in a middle class Indian household

"The Almanack of Naval Ravikant" by @EricJorgenson is a compilation of his various insights. You should definitely check this out.

A friend of mine recommended the book "The Dictator's Handbook". This book completely changed the way I think about politics. A politician's actions make more sense when one understands the underlying incentives at play

How can I mention "incentives" and not talk about @amitvarma ? His "The Seen and the Unseen" podcast has been a constant companion in the last few years. It is easy to get bogged down by the average length of the podcast (150-180 minutes).

But you soon realize that the conversation feels so intimate that you're disappointed that the episode is coming to its end.

There are multiple running themes in his podcast but my two biggest takeaways are
1. How incentives shape the outcomes
2. People contain multitudes

These takeaways provide a natural segue to display my fanboyism for @ThomasSowell and @paulg.

I read "The Vision of the Anointed" at a time when I was still figuring out where I stood on the political spectrum.

You can have your ideological differences with Sowell but it is hard to counter his primary thesis of this book which is "Outcomes matter more than intentions and this is the lens through which any public policy needs to be evaluated".

At a time when narratives and moral posturing hold more sway than actual outcomes, Sowell's insight is worth keeping in mind

"People contain multitudes" - @amitvarma reiterates this so much that I find labels almost pointless these days. I also try hard not to put anyone on a pedestal since your heroes inevitably disappoint you in one aspect or another

Not that his other essays are any less brilliant, but since we are on political ideologies, I keep going back to these essays by @paulg
http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/mod.html

As I enter my late twenties, I find lists very entertaining to read. I keep going back to this list by @sama
https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short

Points 5, 11 and 33 resonated a lot with me

The days are long but the decades are short

I turned 30 last week and a friend asked me if I'd figured out any life advice in the past decade worth passing on. I'm somewhat hesitant to publish this because I think these lists usually seem...

https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-are-short

Alright, moving onto learning and mental models.

Halfway through my grad school, I took the course "Learning How to Learn" in @coursera This is where I came across the concept of "Deliberate Practice", which differentiates the elite performers in any field from the average ones

Sometime later, a friend recommended this treasure trove called @farnamstreet. Developing useful mental models is fundamental to making sense of the nuanced world we live in. @farnamstreet is a great resource in that

I'm also a huge fan of their podcast. The episodes featuring @tobi and @patrickc are absolute gems

"Super Thinking" by @yegg is also an excellent resource on mental models.

While we're on improving our thinking and deliberate practice, I've to mention Cal Newport's excellent books - "Deep Work" and "So Good They Can't Ignore You". Both these books are succinct and offer actionable feedback.

Any discussion on thinking is incomplete without mentioning Daniel Kahneman's magnum opus "Thinking Fast and Slow". It's fascinating to understand the evolutionary baggage that our brains have to constantly fight, in order to make better decisions.

A rather sobering fact is, the new found knowledge of the various biases that afflict us does not make us any more immune to them. It's a never ending struggle to keep these biases at bay

I've a new found fascination for economics, thanks to folks like @tylercowen @ATabarrok @srajagopalan and @amitvarma. But I wish I had seen this video by @RayDalio much earlier. I learnt more from this video than what masqueraded as Econ in high school

Switching to a different topic. I came across "FOOD : What the Heck Should I Eat?" by @drmarkhyman through a tweet by @chetrisunil11. I realized that my carb heavy, sugar heavy diet in the first 25 years of my life has been a complete disaster.

This sounds trite at this point but "Cut down sugar" is the single most impactful diet advice that anyone can receive

How can this thread be complete without mentioning "Sapiens" by @harari_yuval ? The cognitive dissonance from reading this book is hard to describe in words.

Stories shape our lives.
Stories shape our lives.
Stories shape our lives.

I developed a new sense of respect for great story tellers after reading this book. With the explosion of avenues for story telling, this might as well be the "decade of the story tellers"

This thread turned out to be longer than I had expected but it would be fitting to end this with a shout out to @amitvarma 's writing course. Even if you have a passing interest in improving your writing, I would strongly recommend this course.

Truth be told, I didn't even complete all the exercises but mere exposure to the ideas presented in the course makes you more mindful of the common mistakes that bad writing suffers from.

One of the best to spend INR 10,000/- on

@amitvarma would already be aghast at the adjectives and adverbs that I have used in this thread :)

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