It really surprised me that two of the books he mentioned were about the Vietnam war.<p>I am a Vietnamese millennial who have never experienced a day of the war and moved to the US as a college student. While most people have come to the agreement that the war is over, I have seen myself many ugly scars it left in people's minds. My friend and I would go to a Vietnamese supermarket, and after hearing that my friend was not speaking "hello, how are you" with the South Vietnamese accent (like a refugee), the cashier refused to look at or speak to her. We checked out in silence. We, as millennials, have never decided to invade the South. Our parents didn't either. We didn't fight that war, we didn't endorse that war. We don't have shit to do with it.<p>The war has ended 40 years yet we felt the pain every once in a while.
Unlike Ray Dalio, when Bill Gates talks about something like books it never feels like he's trying to impress anyone.<p>It's "here are some books I really like and maybe you would too" versus "I am a genius, if you enjoy these books you might be a genius too."
I really appreciate the fact that he continues to put out reading lists. I believe that people are more motivated to read after finding out out Bill Gates reads a lot bc people want to emulate him (and his success).<p>More people reading is obviously only a good thing if you believe that reading is a good habit for people to have bc it exposes you to different arguments, opinions and ideas. I do think that reading is a net good. If you don't I'm interested to hear why.
I really appreciate that one of the richest (sometimes the richest) humans on the planet takes the time to read about the experience of poverty in depth. Hopefully that continues to influence his philanthropy, and his influence on what other wealthy individuals and other policy makers do.
Two of the books he mentions won the Pulitzer prize for non-fiction: "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" and "Evicted".<p>They are both excellent.
I admire Bill Gates. I wish he read more poetry.<p><a href="https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/" rel="nofollow">https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/</a>
These sound like good books to read. If you poke around gatesnotes.com you'll also find a video of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet testing mattresses. Looks like fun!<p><a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Testing-Mattresses-with-Warren-Buffett" rel="nofollow">https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Testing-Mattress...</a>
This is tangential, but I wonder what was meant by Eddie Izzard lacking natural talent. Outside of rare provable conditions (learning disabilities, height, etc.) I wonder if natural talent exists or if it was a matter of determination plus deliberate practice before people noticed and thus declared someone "naturally talented".
Maybe not the best place to ask, but is it known what engine is used behind his website?<p>I can assume it's probably something custom made? I like the way topics are structured, the navigation is clear, nice comment section.<p>Are there any known tools or service capable of building a full-featured website like this? Any good open source projects? (please no jokes about Wordpress)
A book I just read that I highly recommend: <i>Red Notice</i> by Bill Browder. The true story about how a grandson of the American Communist Party's 1940 presidential candidate made millions of dollars investing in Russia in the 1990s, and became one of Putin's most hated enemies.
Reading many of the books often shared by on these kinds of lists by ‘famous’ people I recently started to wonder: “how does one come up with these titles?”. They are not on the top 10 of your average book shop.
I agree with all the positive comments about BG. Also, interesting he sited two books about Vietnam. If you haven't caught the Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam (<a href="http://kenburns.com/films/vietnam/" rel="nofollow">http://kenburns.com/films/vietnam/</a>) you should try to catch it if it repeats on your PBS station or order them from pbs.org and help support them. KB always does great work and if you don't have time to read a book about it, it is a really great documentary series IMHO.
I really like the animation embedded in the article. If that person happens to read this and has other videos, I'd love it if you would share some links and details on how you made the video.
>The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui.
This gorgeous graphic novel is a deeply personal memoir that explores what it means to be a parent and a refugee. The author’s family fled Vietnam in 1978. After giving birth to her own child, she decides to learn more about her parents’ experiences growing up in a country torn apart by foreign occupiers.<p>>Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond.
If you want a good understanding of how the issues that cause poverty are intertwined, you should read this book about the eviction crisis in Milwaukee. Desmond has written a brilliant portrait of Americans living in poverty. He gave me a better sense of what it is like to be poor in this country than anything else I have read.<p>>Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens, by Eddie Izzard.
Izzard’s personal story is fascinating: he survived a difficult childhood and worked relentlessly to overcome his lack of natural talent and become an international star. If you’re a huge fan of him like I am, you’ll love this book. His written voice is very similar to his stage voice, and I found myself laughing out loud several times while reading it.<p>>The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen.
Most of the books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen about the Vietnam War focused on the American perspective. Nguyen’s award-winning novel offers much-needed insight into what it was like to be Vietnamese and caught between both sides. Despite how dark it is, The Sympathizer is a gripping story about a double agent and the trouble he gets himself into.<p>>Energy and Civilization: A History, by Vaclav Smil.
Smil is one of my favorite authors, and this is his masterpiece. He lays out how our need for energy has shaped human history—from the era of donkey-powered mills to today’s quest for renewable energy. It’s not the easiest book to read, but at the end you’ll feel smarter and better informed about how energy innovation alters the course of civilizations.
>Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens, by Eddie Izzard. Izzard’s personal story is fascinating: he survived a difficult childhood and worked relentlessly to overcome his lack of natural talent and become an international star. If you’re a huge fan of him like I am, you’ll love this book. His written voice is very similar to his stage voice, and I found myself laughing out loud several times while reading it.<p>International star is technically correct since he is known both in the USA and Great-Britain.<p>But that's the first time ever I heard of him.
>I’ve been trying to learn more about the forces preventing economic mobility in the U.S., and it helped me understand the role federal policies have played in creating racial segregation in American cities.<p>Perhaps consider the large-scale consequences of wage-fixing by the tech giants including Microsoft in the early computer industry? Maybe divorcing the compensation workers received totally from the value of the work they were doing (the actual value to the company) and letting annual increases fall so far behind annual efficiency increases had something to do with it?<p>Around 1980, wages died. Around 1980, computers were introduced to the workplace. Around 1980, average worker productivity stopped going up by 1 or 2% per year but jumped to 10% or 20% a year thanks to those computers. These things are not mere coincidence. To me, they smell a lot like exactly what happened with the rise of industrialized factories that reduced entire families to working 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, children included, just to feed themselves. Everyone said 'the machines do the work, they don't deserve any more money.' And they were reduced to starving. And according to any statistic you care to look at, we are headed directly back to that situation.<p>Interestingly, social mores around sex originally became extremely restrictive during the Industrial Era due to a need to suppress the birth rate of the lower class.... and we are seeing sexual mores become more restrictive by the day now too, though families literally starving as a result of adolescent workers having babies they couldn't afford to feed is thankfully rare.