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:

1. The Best and the Brightest - A book on the failures of the Kennedy Administration in Vietnam, and how incentives within a system can guarantee suboptimal, even disastrous outcomes.
2. 1587 - A book on the decline of the Ming Dynasty, and various characters trapped within the roles they played of a bureaucracy that consumed and dismissed individual will - sort of like working at a tech giant?
3. Moby Dick - Surprisingly relevant in Silicon Valley as a parable of obsession with a profession, as well as the in-group culture that is inevitable after long isolation in pursuit of a common goal.
4. 沧浪之水 - A book about what it means to submit individual aspirations and principles to play by the rules of our professional games, as well as the rewards and tribulations concomitant with such compromises.
5. Raising a Secure Child - The only book worth reading (so far) on how to help children with their emotions as a parent.
6. All Quiet on the Western Front - The best depiction of the horrors and alienation of war I’ve read.

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.

1. The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture ??
2. Dear Shareholder: The Best Executive Letters. ??
3. No Rules Rules
4. On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
5. The Art of Bureaucracy
6. Why Startups Fail
7. Leading Change ??
8. Cost Reduction and Control, Best Practices ??
9. The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman ??

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.

1. 沧浪之水 ??
2. 1587 - A Year of No Significance ??
3. The Long Game by Rush Doshi ??
4. Stillwell and the American Experience in China ??
5. Crouching Tiger ?
6. China as a 21st Century Naval Power ??
7. Party of One by Chun-Han Wong
8. The World According to China
9. Forgotten Ally
10. The New China Playbook
11. Nothing to Envy

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).

1. The Best and the Brightest ??
2. All Quiet on the Western Front ??
3. The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis ??
4. Assad or We Burn the Country
5. Forgotten Ally
6. Conflict by David Petraeus ??
7. The Rising Sun by John Toland
8. China as a 21st Century Naval Power ??
9. Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy
10. Korean War by Max Hastings ??
11. Inferno by Max Hastings ??
12. A World Undone on World War I
13. The Guns of August ??
14. On War by Clausewitz ??

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.

1. Raising a Secure Child ??
2. Potty Training in Three Days
3. 30 Million Words ?
4. Raising Humans in a Digital World ??
5. The Gardener and the Carpenter ??
6. Free to Learn

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.

1. Moby Dick by Herman Melville ??
2. The City and the City ??
3. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ??
4. Some Desperate Glory
5. Carrie Soto is Back ??
6. Macbeth
7. Lightbringer ??
8. Titus Andronicus ??
9. Imago by Octavia E. Butler
10. Julius Caesar by Shakespeare

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.