Best reads of 2023

It's hard to believe that this is the 5th year I've produced my year end best reads. I read a lot of fiction last year - highlighted by Asimov's Foundation series - and not as much finance. But I did include some interesting history and science pieces in my reading, including the fascinating The Animate and the Inanimate by genius and polymath William James Sidis (spoiler: it's a little trippy). And I definitely added some new knowledge and perspectives, and that's what it's all about.

First on the list this year is Thinking in Bets by World Series champion poker player and decision science expert Annie Duke. The book is about embracing uncertainty when making decisions. In an industry that promotes the facade of certainty, this intellectual honesty is critical in helping to separate signal from noise. What is likely to happen is by definition probabilistic, and decisions should be guided by some objective assessment of the odds. Of course, good decisions don't always result in good outcomes - sometimes luck intervenes - but I found myself nodding in agreement to chapter after chapter of lessons drawn from real-world examples across sports and business, and highly encourage anyone hoping to improve their decision-making to give it a read.

I was introduced to Bill Perkin's book Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by a former colleague that had been a natural gas trader with Perkins in Houston back in the day. The basic premise of Die With Zero is that our life is the sum of our experiences, and Perkins argues we should be trying to maximize the cumulative utility function of our lived experiences. For many people, this probably means using our money sooner to live a richer life. While I don't agree with everything (optimizing to literally hit zero $ on our final day is imprudent, and terrible advice for the average American, not least because I've fundamentally come to disagree with the model and input hubris required to optimize anything), the book is a good reminder to live a more intentional life and enjoy the journey along the way.

Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don't Have To is an absolutely fascinating read. It describes the life's work of Dr. David Sinclair, a biologist and Harvard professor of genetics regarded as one of the world's preeminent experts on aging. Lifespan argues that the historical view of aging as being a genetic defect is inaccurate. Aging is the consequence of epigenetic breakdowns - effectively analog malfunctions, not digital ones. Sinclair's research has shown that most of these effects are treatable and even reversible. The consequences of this could mean the average person lives to 120 years old in the not-so-distant future, and Sinclair goes so far as to declare that death itself is not a hard-coded biological inevitability. Next, I'm interested in reading Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity to see what it says on the subject.

And last but not least, I'll mention Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. I no longer consider myself to be particularly religious, but I've been trying to read a handful of religious books each year. Zealot is the most historically accurate account of the life of the real Jesus ever put to pen. The book was written by Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American convert to Christianity whose research into the true historical accounts of the Church eventually lead him back to Islam. Aslan presents historical evidence and context that directly contradicts much of the New Testament. For instance, the story of Joseph being called to Bethlehem - the place of his birth - for a census is almost certainly untrue. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of any census in the Roman empire ever recalling people to their place of birth. Censuses occurred where you lived. However, Jesus was from the town of Nazareth, in Galilea, and this fact was widely known. Yet, the prophecies had foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem from the line of David. So, the writers of the Gospel contrived a convenient plot device to have an origin story of Jesus of Nazareth fit neatly into Messianic prophecy. The book may be a difficult or even distressing read for devout Christians. However, I found the historical context not only more interesting, but it gave added perspective to the real and intentional struggle for survival of the early Christian Church.

Honorable mentions include Apocalypse Never by Michael Shellenberger and Social Value Investing by Howard Buffett (Warren's grandson), which provided slightly juxtaposed views on the climate, among other things. I recommend both. I've already got a stack set aside for 2024, and I'm excited to dive in. First up is a dedicated effort to read Pioneering Portfolio Management by Swensen cover-to-cover. I've used it as reference material before, but I haven't set aside time to give it the full attention that it so richly deserves. Time to tuck in!

Happy New Year, and Happy Reading!