2023 in Books
2023 was a return to the new normal – full-time work resumed, but at OpenAI. Daily commutes resumed, but on a skateboard rather than a bus. On the home front, our decision to teach our children Chinese has been a case study in unintended consequences, with this decision affecting their interactions with each other, with us, and with the broader world. In reading, 2023 focused on four areas - books directly relevant to my profession, catching up on nonfiction around China, understanding America’s military foreign policy in the 20th century, and strategies to raise a family. I ended up reading about 120 books, and here were the best of the lot:
Of the 120 books, I rated 42 as 4+ stars, and 3 at 5 stars. Nowadays, over 95% of my consumption is through audio, during commutes or falling asleep, and of course I wrote this with the help of AI. I made significant progress in reading Chinese, reading nearly 1000 pages compared to 200 last year. Below are buckets of ‘23 reading categories, along with some emoji reviews and quick summaries. A full list of the books I read is helpfully tracked by Goodreads.
Key: ???Best of the year; ???Worthwhile ideas; ???Bone dry; ???didn’t meet expectations; ??not recommended ???fun read
Professional Books (Big Tech → AI)
In my professional reading this year, I discovered that most books on AI were disappointing. Similarly, 'how-to' guides on topics like cost reduction and organizational change seem increasingly irrelevant in a world post LLMs. The most enlightening reads were historical, particularly those about Google's rise, offering insight for OpenAI's potential future success path. Additionally, compilations of shareholder letters from figures like Warren Buffett and Don Graham provided a deep dive into American capitalism and long-term business strategies, which are especially pertinent for an influential yet unconventional organization like OpenAI. However, there's a notable gap in literature on AI's societal impacts, an area where I'm eager to find more substantial and enlightening works next year.
China Watching, or: Watching America Watch China
Meta was not a place that I could pursue my interest in US-China relations, but this year I endeavored to get to the next level of understanding on China. Ironically, it just meant understanding court politics better, which was as useful to understand Mark Z.’s court as it was to understand China, but in both cases useful. Easily the best book I read this year was 沧浪之水 a story of a headstrong government bureaucrat who succumbs to the temptations of bureaucracy and finds fabulous success. 1587, apparently undergoing a resurgence of popularity in China, also finds its way to be applicable to modern tech giants. As a fallen wannabe Facebook courtier, reading histories of court politics made the OpenAI board coup easier to process over thanksgiving. As for the modern takes on China, it seems like most authors are still reacting to 1990’s optimism about China, and that hangover from the dream of the Washington Consensus clouds any further historical or cultural context from creeping into analysis.
领英推荐
20th century American Military History
Another weak point of knowledge that I sought to address was my understanding of military history, especially as it applies to America. I started with On War, which was disappointing beyond it’s central thesis. America’s 20th century history at arms seems to demonstrate the need for a Clausewitzian paradigm as well as the American Institutional stubbornness to see foreign policy objectives as nails for the military hammer. My conclusions after this year’s reading: America has fought in a lot of wars, almost always late, and almost always relying on overwhelming airpower and allied armies. Outside of signals intelligence in WW2, our ability to correctly understand the diplomatic angle is dubious. (China in WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Syria) Perhaps most striking is the danger of groupthink forewarned in Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, demonstrated by the groupthink of US-China Foreign Policy books (3,5,6,7,8,10 in the list above).
Parenting
With a one and a three year old around, there was less time for parenting theory. I dabbled across topics but the most worthwhile book was Raising a Secure child, which comes with a clear thesis on the emotional role of parents, pitfalls preventing parents from achieving that role, and ways to emulate it. I expect to keep reading a few books every year, but that doesn’t prevent the fear that there is some information about parenting that I totally missed.
Fiction Classic and Non Classic
It’s surprising this year to find that I enjoyed classics more than genre novels. Moby Dick, a book I read as the parable of professional obsession (and like 1587, applicable to modern tech!), was especially surprising and rewarding. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow makes me appreciate the security guards at our headquarters, and Carrie Soto was the best possible justification to keep up tennis lessons.
Next year I hope to focus more on foreign languages, especially Chinese and Arabic, which are becoming increasingly available in audio. I also hope to deepen my understanding of Asian history, explore more poetry and essays, and engage more in short form content. Rather than reading more, I would again like to read less, analyzing the books in greater detail, using GPT to write reviews and reflect on key ideas.
US Army (Retired) | University Transfer Student FALL 2025 | Soldiers to Sidelines
1 年https://chat.openai.com/g/g-4zsDB3jy7-history-hero
Director, Product Growth for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Reality Labs
1 年What’s your secret to reading given that you have kids?
Adding 1587 to my list for this year. And congrats on the skateboard commute.
So impressed you made it through 120! Do you have a daily reading practice that helped you reach that many?
Systems Thinking | Empathy First
1 年Thank you Jonathan! So happy you shared this. Can’t wait to dive into the kids one and some of your tech related and historical picks, especially on winter break.