8 Challenging Books that Helped in a Challenging 2020-21

2020 hit us from all angles. There were spiritual, racial, economic, social, financial, and political issues. And the first few weeks of 2021 reminded us that we're not out of the woods yet.

Books have always been an escape for me. I needed them more than ever to handle the unexpected stresses and strains of the lockdown. What I learned about myself in 2020 is how different kinds of books serve different purposes. They work on different parts of my soul.

Several of the books below gave me a richer appreciation for the American Experiment. Others added a new layer of understanding to my work at BMNT. Still others are interesting to the point of distraction, almost like watching binge watching a Netflix series. Finally, a few offer useful tools for navigating the world and building a fulfilling life.

We are all in this together. E pluribus unum.

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald (my Google Doc summary)

A frontiersman who believed his strength came from aristocratic blood, Lincoln is a fascinating figure. He protected squirrels from the cruelty of small boys. He derived all of Euclid's proofs after borrowing the six books laying his geometry. He was elected by his peers to lead their local militia during the Blackhawk War. He built the Republicans from a regional party to the national replacement to the Whigs and Know Nothings. He responded to critics with the first presidential op-eds in national newspapers. And he invited all Americans (not just pro-union northerners) to frame their sacrifice in the Civil War as a means of restoring the original promise of the nation's founding.

As long as we remain a union, it's okay to be hated by both sides

First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How that Shaped Our Country by Thomas Ricks (my Google Doc summary)

The first four presidents shared a lot, though not as much as we were taught. What united them was the view that rational inquiry is the means of progressing humanity. After that, each figure contributed in his own unique (yet complementary) way. Washington hid his lack of education with relentless self-improvement in the mold of Cato. He used his keen powers of observation to recognize the nature of the war he was fighting, and to win it. Adams patterned his life after Cicero. Prideful and eloquent, he fought against the tide of populism that he saw as the first step back into violence. Jefferson inherited a love of the Greeks (vs the more popular Romans) through a series of Scottish tutors, and pushed hard for the more egalitarian nation that Adams feared. Madison was the most consequential, the only consistent thread through the first 28 years of the nation. He argue for the necessity of political parties ("factions"), balanced against each other to preserve the union.

A government's structure drives outcomes, not the intentions or talents of those serving in it

How Innovation Works: and Why It Flourishes in Freedom by Matt Ridley (my Google Doc summary)

This book blew my mind in so many ways. Ridley starts at first principles. Innovation is the purposeful reduction in entropy. Innovation drives us from precious self sufficiency to prosperous mutual dependence. Innovation is a team sport, driven mostly by uneducated tinkerers rather than elite scientists. Innovation is mostly about providing rich things to poor people, rather than new things to rich people. Innovation drives science, rather than the other way around. For example, thermodynamics emerged after the invention of the steam engine. The modern economy fosters innovation by diversification of consumption with the specialization of production.

Innovation is the free creative attempt to satisfy freely expressed desires

The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy by David Graeber (my Google Doc summary)

I love David Graeber, which is strange because he's a leftwing academic. I disagree on basically every major issue, yet appreciate his well-written arguments and historical perspective. Graeber pushes my thinking in so many ways. He claims that globalization (in practice) means a planetary scale bureaucracy. That bureaucracies are utopian because they assume people will follow rules, no matter how complex. Bureaucracies are secretly desirable because we are (1) lazy and (2) afraid of our own tendency toward violence. We cannot start a revolution that doesn't end in bureaucracy. Urban bureaucracies feed off the stories of rural barbarians. If all this doesn't suck you in, Graeber's closing chapters on the rise of superheroes is fascinating.

We secretly fear play, and are thus drawn toward bureaucracy

The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought by Dennis Rasmussen (my Google Doc summary)

The University of Glasgow had 12 professors in the 1750s. Two of them -- David Hume and Adam Smith -- are now considered to be among the most influential thinkers in human history. How did this provincial backwater attract and retain these men? How did they relate to each other? How did their genius feed off the others? This book makes a strong case that neither could exist without the other. Hume used his fame as a historian to argue forcefully for secular values that have taken root in modern societies. Smith extended the two most powerful ideas of Hume, making each other the subject of books that are now canons of western civilization.

Commerce promotes virtue by rewarding industriousness

Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending by Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Norton (my Google Doc summary)

This book provided me with research-backed insights that I immediately connected to my own life. There are profound differences between investing in stuff vs investing in experiences. Scarcity is so critical to our enjoyment that it should be manufactured if it doesn't already exist. Stress is tied to daily issues not major life events. Consumption should be delayed, heightening anticipation. Get the most out of donations by emphasizing the impact and the fact that it's a choice to give.

Buy experiences & time; invest in others; & remember the future isn't free

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt & Greg Lukianoff (my Google Doc summary)

Jonathan Haidt is another liberal thinker I've come to admire. He digs deep into the New Left in this book, and it's sobering. The concept of violence is being expanded to include subjective feelings. This new "violence" conflates intent with impact. If you say something that "hurts" my emotions, then I am justified in physically hurting you. This childish thinking can only take root on campuses, where education is so expensive that students are increasingly justified seeing themselves as customers. Unfortunately, education cannot make us comfortable and teach us how to think at the same time.

Safety cannot be a paramount virtue because it often conflicts with life-affirming and resiliency-building experiences

The Book of Nehemiah

The more I read this story, the more I appreciate it. He effectively leveraged his position as the king's cupbearer to secure everything he needed to get back to Jerusalem safely. Once there, he quietly assessed the situation before convincing a tiny group to start rebuilding. He quickly expanded efforts, giving new recruits complete authority over specific sections of the wall. Critics grew violent, and the volunteers were forced to work with one hand while holding onto weapons with the other. Incredibly, they finished rebuilding the wall. Nehemiah then immediately began collecting and distributing food to the nungry, and arranging for debt relief among the poor. And on and on went. What an inspiration!

Nothing is ever easy and (almost) everyone will try to stop you