Review

15th book of 2020. An Outsider’s view. If you want an entertaining remix of the facts, I would recommend watching ‘The Social Network.’ It’s equally inaccurate and has a better soundtrack. Having worked closely on the areas that Levy covers, I can affirm that Levy is no Bob Woodward. Levy’s book reads like a summary of press from 2017-2019, too busy dunking on Facebook’s mistakes to bring any new insight to the table. If you want to understand Facebook, read Ben Thompson’s newsletter, or Chaos Monkeys, a book written by an actual (if disgruntled) insider.

Julie Zhuo had a great career at Facebook starting from managing people at 25 to becoming the de-facto head of design for the entire company. Making of a Manager covers both the autobiographical aspects of how she started as a manager at Facebook, and adds in a few frameworks, learnings and anecdotes from the journey. Like the rest of Silicon Valley, Zhuo assumes a given set of cultural norms, and much of her advice ends up being applicable only to flatter tech-centric organizations. Books like High Output Management and The Lean Startup are better introductory material for how silicon valley likes to operate, whereas this book is more of an operating manual for this specific management niche. ...

A riveting description of picking things up and setting them down again.

13th book of 2020. A story of a boy who needs to take some time off from magic (code?) and travels east (Iraq?) where he learns how to navigate palace politics and strange cultures. Then he travels further east (China?) engages in questionable relationships with teachers before finally coming back to resume magic studies and finally starts to make some money. Fantasy drama version of my life from 20-28.

A nice, if dry history of VC in the US. While the recent history of VC firms like Greylock, Sequoia was interesting, I’m still partial to the description of the whaling ventures, and most appreciated the returns chart showing how whaling returns align almost precisely with VC shops. The last decade of VC megaboom has left this book a bit outdated, but getting the context on different models that have been tried and were considered failures (especially the government versions of VC made it a worthwhile read. ...

11th book of 2020. Didn’t know the first thing about pregnancy, and I’ve been on a kick with books based on studies for everyday health topic (How not to Diet, Why we Sleep), so this seemed interesting. Since we are not expecting a baby anytime soon, much of the information felt rote, but it’s good to know that the reference is there for when we are ready. Interesting factoids (to me) ...

10th book of 2020. 2.5 Stars. “If corn could have an opinion it would marvel at the absurdity of it.” Ummm what? I think corn would think that industrial production is awesome and an amazing feat of symbiosis. Isn’t it great to have humans doing all the work? Pollan’s thesis isn’t new or clear. It boils down to: eat natural food, it’s better. I agree with this idea, but couldn’t help but feeling a growing disdain for the liberal coastal elite mentality dripping from each page. Every vignette he tells is the book equivalent of a carefully crafted instagram photo that Pollan self-consciously composes to arrive at a pre-ordained end. ...

** Not Empty Calories ** Mother says to eat more vegetables, Chinese mother says to eat more gojiberries, and those in the gym tell me to eat more protein. Who should I believe? As Greger says throughout the book: You don’t know… until you put it to the test. This book is heftier than the typical American waistline, but covers enough ground to make it worth the girth. **1. There’s something in the air ** While not strictly about dieting, Greger gives his diagnosis on why Americans have gained so much weight in the last 30 years. He is skeptical of mainstream ideas like ‘Americans are lazier’ and instead thinks that what we eat (and how that has changed) is the biggest contributor to the problem. What I appreciate about this section is that he points out there are no big villains. There are just companies doing what companies were founded to do: make money. Selling cheap food that hits the all the right flavor notes we have been conditioned to crave is a great way to make money. I, for one, love sour cream and cheddar ruffles potato chips. This part of the book reminded me of attention merchants, and presented a compelling thesis of where we as a country went wrong in our diet. ...

** 9th book of 2020: Recursive Programming Management ** Most people don’t start as a manager asking themselves, “what does it mean to manage other people?” Instead they find themselves in a situation first influencing what others do, then directing, and slowly looking at the ability to become an official manager for teams or teams of teams. Fournier leans into this ambiguity by creating a bottoms up approach of the skills needed for effective managers in the tech industry, and this is the best handbook that I could recommend to new managers on my team. Parts that I found useful: ...

7th book of 2020. A story about a boy who thinks he’s smarter than everybody else (check), who grew up with a traveling troop of nomads (carnival?), was homeless before eventually ending up at university while scraping pennies together studying magic (code?). So I guess this is the fantasy drama version of my life from 16-20.