What I’m Reading Now:

Recently Finished:

Atlas ShruggedAyn Rand

From Pieces to Weight50 Cent

Meditations (partial reread)

Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of Americans with Disabilities Act (Academic Paper)

Reading:

How to Be Creative– Huge MacLeod

A Farewell to AlmsGregory Clark

It’s a really fascinating book about Malthusian traps and the Industrial Revolution. The basic assertions ishat life in from 5,000 BC to 1800 AD was almost completely unchanged. And that the gains from hunter-gatherer societies to preindustrial societies were abysmally small compared to the changes from preindustrial to industrial. But within the span of 1200-1800 AD, the rich were massively more successful reproductively and thus their values outpaced the poor’s values, and we were left with the Western man. Without the trickling down of the genes of the successful, industrialism never would have been possible. So that it wasn’t technology or institutions facilitated the paradigm shift but rather the culture created by specific natural selection in England.

I’ll post more when I’ve finished.

Written by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday is the bestselling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying, The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is The Enemy, and other books about marketing, culture, and the human condition. His work has been translated into thirty languages and has appeared everywhere from the Columbia Journalism Review to Fast Company. His company, Brass Check, has advised companies such as Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as Grammy Award winning musicians and some of the biggest authors in the world. He lives in Austin, Texas.