Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity – Kerry Cohen (short, but interesting.)

McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld (thought it would focus more on decentralized criminal organizations but it doesn’t. a look at how Russian culture breeds serial entrepreneurs and hustlers)

The Price of Experience: Power, Money, Image, and Murder in Los Angeles – Randall Sullivan (the title of this book is a complete injustice. TheExecutive gave it to me. it’s a detailed history of the Billionaire Boys Club and Los Angeles in the 80s. It’s like Less than Zero but more fucked up. on par with the Bugliosi true crime books)

Life tips from Nassim Nicholas Taleb (the article they’re cribbed from is great)

Obama and the Rise of Asymmetrical Competition (this is why you need to study the evolution of warfare and organizations)

Why Mergers Don’t Work – James Surowiecki

Warfare, Infanticide, and Statistical Inference: A Comment on Divale and Harris(pdf) (short rebuttal to Cannibals and Kings)

In the two years that I’ve worked with Tucker Max not once have I been called a “mini-Tucker” or a “wannabe” or anything like that. That’s not to say I don’t have my collection of enemies. I do and I hear from them quite often.

Since I defined myself first (look at his masthead and mine, they’re opposites) I can only be attacked on the terms that I set. The people that disagree with those terms aren’t the people I’m looking to impress. Not only did I define myself first, I defined myself as I actually am–weaknesses and all. There’s no illusions I’m trying to protect or any other “brands” I’m hoping to one up. There’s no competition for me, I’m the only one.

Deciding to be yourself is scary. There’s no one to follow, and well, what if they don’t like me? But if you can make that bet, the act of actually being you is easy. All you have to do is wake up in the morning.

Define yourself. Or someone else will do it for you. And worse, you might end up listening.

“Look in the mirror. Day after day, year after year, there’s hardly any change at all. That’s you: wrinkles, gray hair, what the hell – you can see it’s you. And yet, every bone, every muscle, every patch of skin, tendon, blood vessel – every single particle – is being destroyed and replaced right as you look. Surface calm – mad scramble of activity underneath. The shape, the form, the pattern – all unchanged and yet not one single molecule of what was you seven years ago is a part of you now.” – Theory of War, Joan Brady