What I Read This Week: 27th Jan 2025

?? Weekly Reading Recap

This week, I dived into an eclectic mix of books, audiobooks, podcasts, and articles. Here’s a rundown of what I’ve been exploring:

?? Books I’m Reading:

• Happy by Celina Baljeet Basra

I paused my other reads to focus solely on Happy this week. This book tackles the sensitive issue of migration and truly takes off after page 100. The early chapters set a vivid scene that forms the protagonist’s core memories — an inescapable narrative that stays with you.

• Maniac by Benjamín Labatut

Although I was already reading Maniac on Kindle, I picked up a physical copy from the library. I plan to start it once I finish Happy. Trying to see if I can read more physical books this year.

For a glimpse at what else I’m reading, check out my Goodreads profile.

?? Audiobook I’m Listening To:

• I am about to finish Hackers & Painters by Paul Graham. It’s a blend of fanboy enthusiasm for Lisp and timely insights on coding efficiency in today’s tech climate.

?? All About DeepSeek:

This week (and last week) was dedicated to exploring DeepSeek.

If the constant buzz on AI and DeepSeek in particular has you overwhelmed, here are some starting points:

• DeepSeek FAQ by Ben Thompson: If there is only one thing you want to read on Deepseek, it should be this.

Introductory Articles:

• DeepSeek Pure RL in Plain English
• https://x.com/morganb/status/1883686162709295541/?rw_tt_thread=True
• DeepSeek R1 Explained to your grandma
• Hugging Face Journal Club — DeepSeek R1

For Strategic Insights and Second-Order Implications:

• The Short Case for Nvidia Stock | YouTube Transcript Optimizer: A longform piece that’s going viral; if you prefer audio/visual content, listen/view it here
• Deepseek: The Quiet Giant Leading China’s AI Race (Interview with DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng)
• Dario Amodei — On DeepSeek and Export Controls
• ??DeepSeek: everything you need to know right now.

Your go-to list if you want to dive into the research papers without any fluff: No Hype DeepSeek-R1 Reading List

?? (Other) Articles That Stood Out:

• Just delete them — by Caoilainn
• Monk Mode — by Mario Gabriele: Some great ideas on experiments. I already have my phone largely on B&W mode.
• The most beautiful invention of all time: The unsung hero of the stationary world.
• Thinking about Nuclear Weapons [pdf]: Michael Quinlan, a former UK civil servant and expert in defence policy wrote this paper in 1997 presenting a structured analysis of nuclear weapons and their role in global security. He argued that nuclear weapons have fundamentally transformed warfare, making full-scale war between nuclear-armed states almost inconceivable due to the principle of deterrence. Very interesting read.
• The Mundanity of Excellence [pdf]: In the early 1980s, sociologist Daniel Chambliss studied swimmers at all levels — from regional teams to the U.S. Olympic Team. His 1989 paper, The Mundanity of Excellence, revealed that doing more does not equal doing better, even at the Olympic team level, talent is a useless concept and most importantly, “excellence is accomplished through the doing of actions, ordinary in themselves, performed consistently and carefully, habitualized, compounded together, added up over time.”

This week’s reading has been a mix of deep dives into personal development, AI insights, and even a touch of sports sociology. Each piece has offered unique perspectives, challenging me to think differently and question the status quo.

Happy reading!

Originally published here