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How the World Really WorksBook

by Vaclav Smil

Who uses, recommends or left How the World Really Works, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

1 person

Co-founder of Microsoft and the Gates Foundation; publishes book reviews and essays at Gates Notes.
recommended

But I highly recommend reading him on the subject because he is so good at explaining how the world’s energy systems work today.

Gates reviews Vaclav Smil's book on the physical foundations of modern life.

2022-06-06·gatesnotes.com ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:

Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.