The Book Report

I read this book, "Keys to the Kingdom" by Alison Armstrong, and learned more about myself as a man and the stages a man goes through in life. The author categorizes the stages as page, knight, prince, and king. There's also the sage, a wizard-like character representing life after retirement. She points out many issues with modernity, such as equality in the workplace and contraceptives, which confuse the relationship of the birds and the bees into one of trade rather than connection in the ...

The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume One is a dense, comprehensive, and enjoyable educational material for anyone curious about physics. He goes into detail about how the physical universe works. The book is organized in a way that encourages readers to read from cover to cover. It's not a reference book, but a series of lectures on the quantifiable subject of our shared physical reality. Feynman is a phenomenal teacher. His breadth of knowledge helps digest this topic in a comprehensible ...

I read this short book "Skill and Weighted Chances: The Strategic Math of Poker" by Catalin Barboianu to gain a deeper understanding of the game of money. 📚 It lays out the basic math of pot odds and debunks the "four and two" adage. 📊 In the long run, the "four and two" heuristics splinter into randomness. Mathematical probabilities are only one dimension of the game, and although the game involves skill, the fact that chance is involved is what keeps the game dynamic. 🃏🔄 As Catalin Barb...

Raymond Aron's The Opium of the Intellectuals is a must-read for anyone with a background in the liberal arts. I also recommend this book to people in physics, engineering, mathematics, and the general STEM fields. The book was published in the 1950s, a time when the US was promoting free-market capitalism and the East promoted state-centralized communism, while Europe, particularly France, remained undecided about its own destiny. I found it poignant, as I see the global theater today perfor...

"The Princes of the Yen" by Richard Werner offers a fascinating window into the gears and levers the men held in shaping the Japanese economy from post-war to free markets. It starts after WWII, when many of the pre-war leaders were reinstalled into their positions by the Americans. They then cloaked themselves inside the Bank of Japan within the Ministry of Finance. These men would rule over the interest rate into the new millennium, and their influence continues even today. The writer, Rich...

"The History of Interest Rates" by Sidney Homer is a book wealth of knowledge for those curious about the bond market. Homer gathers data points across civilization, starting from ancient Babylon, Rome, and the medieval ages to the millennium. Some interesting takeaways: interest rates at the dawn of civilization were as high as 50%. And over the course of five millennia, we can see nation states' short-term and long-term rates fall to today's three to five percent. Interest rates tend to for...

Softwar: A Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin by Jason P. Lowery is a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of the changes in our times. Lowery shifts the lens of monitoring and using Bitcoin from one of finance and economics to one of national security and survival. He defines the ethereal world as a place currently dictated by god kings and the Bitcoin network as man's antlers to for self defense in this ever-expanding space with counteri...

The second volume of The History of Private Life Vol 2: Revelations of the Medieval World takes the reader on a journey from early medieval times to the Renaissance. The behavior of men and women is pious and humble, with the hearth at the center. Time marches, and we see the hearth enclosed within huts, houses, forts, castles, and eventually palaces. I enjoyed this series immensely, as I find humility in the behavior of man; we seldom change. Survival ignites the spirit, and the spirit aims ...

The Queen's Code is another book by Alison Armstrong, unraveling the challenges of relationships in modernity. Both men and women are equal economically and democratically, and because of this, our differences are more pronounced than ever. She uses symbols of kingdoms and fealty to highlight the differences between men and women, and their needs and wants. This was another book by her that I read, which helped me grapple with manhood in the 21st century. Subjects such as accountability, resp...

MATH-DRIVEN ROULETTE BETTING by Catalin Barboianu is a concise book that lays out the principle math behind the game of roulette. Roulette is an open game, meaning it's mostly reliant on chance. This doesn't mean the game is unbeatable. Players can choose strategies for where to place their chips. Increasing the probability of winning decreases the potential payout if the bet is won. In investment terms, I see these two axioms as preservation of capital (diversification) versus focusing posit...