Books for the Beach

For this edition of the newsletter, we’re going to do something a little different… it’s summertime and, as much as we all love markets, sometimes we need to disconnect for a bit and head on over to the beach or wherever the hell we find that much sought-after peace that we all need from time to time. 

So, instead of an excerpt from our most recent report, I’m going to share a list of books I’ve read this year (in no order of importance) as I am often asked this question. Happy reading everyone!

So, let’s start with the books I re-read. There are books that are just so damned important that that you need to read them again and again and again… 

·      The Fourth Turning – Neil Howe and William Strauss (re-read for the sixth time!)

·      Homo Deus – Noah Harari (totally shaped my understanding of AI/robotics)

·      Stray Reflections – Jawad Mian (reminds you of what matters)

·      The Alchemy of Finance – George Soros (THE masterclass in macro)

And here’s the list of books I read for the first time this year: 

·      The Trades of March – Alex Gurevich (a fabulous masterclass in macro)

·      The Network State – Balaji Srinivasan (truly profound but dense read, helped shape my world view)

·      Narrative Economics – Robert Shiller (fascinating and even more true today)

·      The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel (really enjoyed this simple read)

·      Outlive: The Science of and Art of Longevity – Dr Peter Attia (important stuff)

·      Life Force – Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis

·      Speculative Communities – Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou (dense and interesting)

·      Scary Smart – Mo Gawdat (helped shape my view on AI)

·      Good to Great – Jim Collins (how to run great businesses)

·      Shoe Dog – Phil Knight (a great story, the good times and bad)

·      The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond – Chris Blackwell (I’m light on music bios this year!)

·      Bitcoin Billionaires – Ben Mezrich (I love Ben’s writing; easy read)

·      The Anti-Social Network – Ben Mezrich (so, so good and now a major film)

·      This is How They Tell Me the World Ends – Nicole Perlroth (cybersecurity is fucking terrifying)

·      Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire – Brad Stone (super interesting)

·      Elon Musk: Tesla, Space X, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – Ashlee Vance (going deeper down the Musk rabbit hole)

As you can probably tell, I’ve read quite a lot this year. I always find it interesting to look back and take stock of what I’ve read. Contrary to other years, in 2023 there’s been a distinct lack of my usual music and travel bios. Clearly am not in a very relaxed state of mind… I’ve also read ZERO fiction, which again shows that my mind is somewhere else. Just about everything I read was centered around deepening my understanding of subjects I think will expand my investment views (or wellness), which is really quite unlike me. Usually I am far more eclectic, however, it shows that I sense a massive opportunity is on the horizon and I want to learn as much as I can in as little time as possible! 

The list doesn’t end there though… in addition to reading the books above, I also devoured countless hours of content to increase my knowledge too. 

Outside of Real Vision, my go-to podcasts are: 

·      Lex Fridman

·      Huberman

·      Tom Bilyeu

·      Tim Ferriss

·      Bankless

I hope all this learning bloody pays off!! And I hope you find the list useful as you go about your own learning journeys. 

Enjoy the summer everyone!