Recommendations you can check.
Writer and consultant; founded the blog Ribbonfarm and now writes the Contraptions newsletter on technology, history and organizations.
6 things
City of FortuneBook Roger Crowley
I read that last month, and visited Venice while I was reading it, and I was struck by the extent to which medieval Venice was a well-oiled political economy machine.
The post launching his monthly Contraptionist History book club; this passage is on the first pick, Roger Crowley's City of Fortune.
2025-01-03·contraptions.venkateshrao.com ↗
Slouching Towards UtopiaBook J. Bradford DeLong
Slouching Towards Utopia offers one thought-provoking answer to the question that is worth taking seriously, and integrating into your thinking.
His review of Brad DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia, which he says is a rare exception to his not reviewing books.
2023-06-17·contraptions.venkateshrao.com ↗
Yak TalkOther Yak Collective
An infrequent newsletter with updates about the goings on at the Yak Collective
Venkatesh Rao's own recommendation blurb for the newsletter Yak Talk, on their Substack's recommendations page.
2022-07-08·contraptions.venkateshrao.com ↗
The World Is FlatBook Thomas L. Friedman
I don’t know about you, but I personally feel starved of ambitious sensemaking frames for recent history that aren’t quite as silly as say Friedman’s World is Flat or Harari’s Sapiens, or quite as ideologically compromised as Graeber’s Debt.
His review of Brad DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia, which he says is a rare exception to his not reviewing books.
2023-06-17·contraptions.venkateshrao.com ↗
SapiensBook Yuval Noah Harari
I don’t know about you, but I personally feel starved of ambitious sensemaking frames for recent history that aren’t quite as silly as say Friedman’s World is Flat or Harari’s Sapiens, or quite as ideologically compromised as Graeber’s Debt.
His review of Brad DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia, which he says is a rare exception to his not reviewing books.
2023-06-17·contraptions.venkateshrao.com ↗
Debt: The First 5000 YearsBook David Graeber
I don’t know about you, but I personally feel starved of ambitious sensemaking frames for recent history that aren’t quite as silly as say Friedman’s World is Flat or Harari’s Sapiens, or quite as ideologically compromised as Graeber’s Debt.
His review of Brad DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia, which he says is a rare exception to his not reviewing books.
2023-06-17·contraptions.venkateshrao.com ↗
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