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The Beginning of InfinityBook

Explanations That Transform the World

by David Deutsch, 2011

Who uses, recommends or left The Beginning of Infinity, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

4 people

Patrick Collison
Co-founder of Stripe. Publishes the contents of his bookshelf, marking the standouts.
loved

On his bookshelf, marked as one he thought was particularly great.

patrickcollison.com ↗

Kevin Simler
Writer and engineer behind the blog Melting Asphalt; co-author with Robin Hanson of The Elephant in the Brain.
loved

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity. Even better than Fabric of Reality (thanks Mills, David, Andy). Deutsch offers the most compelling left-brain worldview I imagine it's possible to construct, given our current understanding. Of special note are (1) his emphasis on knowledge as a physical phenomenon, and (2) his ideas on the evolution of creativity. Probably going on the all-time greatest list.

His running "Reading Archive" page, where he logs each book, lecture series and podcast he finishes with a short verdict. The page carries no date; the newest entry on it is Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny (published February 2017), so it was last extended around then.

meltingasphalt.com ↗

Naval Ravikant
Angel investor and co-founder of AngelList; writes and podcasts at nav.al.
recommended

I’m currently stuck in a loop where, at least in science, I’m only going to read The Beginning of Infinity and The Fabric of Reality over and over again until I understand them fully.

Transcript of his episode “Read the Best 100 Books Over and Over Again”, a conversation with Brett Hall about Deutsch; he adds “You should buy the hardcover and electronic versions, so you have it all.”

2021-03-10·nav.al ↗

Naval Ravikant
Angel investor and co-founder of AngelList; writes and podcasts at nav.al.
recommended

Start with The Beginning of Infinity.

Replying on X to a follower asking where to start reading; he then lists authors to follow.

2020-05-02·x.com ↗

Amjad Masad
Founder and chief executive of Replit; previously an engineer at Facebook and Codecademy. Writes essays at amasad.me.
recommended

This book layed out the basis for a hopeful and optimistic Physicalist worldview.

From his 2016 year-in-review post, in a section on books that helped him come to terms with a physicalist worldview. (His spelling.)

2017-01-08·amasad.me ↗

What they also use

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.