Great year of reading. From witnessing a mad man’s philosophical journey , discovering the fantasy genre with awe, reliving wars in Ilium and Guatemala, navigating the mysteries of consciousness, adventuring 300 feet underwater and 250 million miles above, to deepening my stoic roots. This year was filled with diversity and richness.
3 Key Lessons from 2019 Books:
- Joy is being Telemachus or Patroclus, not Odysseus or Achilles — “I have conquered the need to conquer the world”
- Tranquility is the only thing under my control — “The only zen you will find at the top of the mountain is the zen you take up within you”
- Prospect theory and Stoicism share a common theme — “The reference point matters in decision making, philosophy and finance”
Top 3 books of the year:
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
Pioneering Portfolio Management
When breath becomes air
49 Books this year: (in reading order)
- Bad Blood. John Carryefour. Recommend.
- Pioneering Portfolio Management. David Swensen. Re-read
- Unconventional Approach to Investing. Davind Swensen. Recommend
- Kids are worth it! Barbara Corruso. Re-Read.
- The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Re-Read.
- Fooled by Randomness. Nassim Nicolas Taleb. Re-Read.
- Shadow Divers. Robert Kurdo. Recommend.
- Let my people go surfing. Yvon Chouniard. Recommend.
- The Wandering Earth. Liu Cixin. Recommend.
- The Rational Optimist. Matt Ridley. Recommend
- The Song of Achilles. Madeline Miller. Re-read.
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Agatha Christie. Recommend.
- Look to Winward. Iain M Banks. Recommend.
- Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts. Shane Parish. Recommend
- The Way of Kings. Brandon Sandersen. Re-read.
- Cribsheet. Emily Oster. Re-read
- The Outsiders. William.Thorndike. Re-read
- Expecting Better. Emily Oster. Re-read
- Words of Radiance. Brandon Sandersen. Re-read
- Exhaltaion. Ted Chiang. Recommend
- Circe. Madeline Miller. Re-read.
- The Courage to be Disliked. Ichiro Kishimi. Recommend.
- Edgedancer. Brandon Sandersen. Skim.
- Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideaz That Reveal The Cosmos. Priyamvada Natarajan. Recommend.
- Treating your own back. Robin Mckinzie. Re-read.
- Thinking fast and slow. Daniel kanehman. Re-read
- Dethroning the King. Julie Macintosh. Re-read
- Range. David Epstein. Recommend.
- Zen and the art of motorcycle maintainance. Robert Pirsig. Re-read. Favorites.
- Oathbringer. Brandon Sandersen. Reread
- Ubik. Phillip K Dick. Reread
- DIY Financial Advisor. Wesley Gray. Skim.
- A Guide to a good life. William Irvine. Reread
- The Complete Direct Investing Handbook. Kirby Rosblock. Skim
- Structuring Joint Ventures for Real Estate Investors. Abhi Golhar. Skim
- Into the wild. John krakauer. Recommend
- Investing in Real Estate Private Equity. Sean Cook. Recommend.
- Dark Age. Pierce Brown. Recommend
- Conscious. Annaka Harris. Re read
- I Wonder. Annaka Harris. Recommend.
- Rocket Men. Robert Kurso. Re-read.
- PB Success. Mario Overall. Re-read.
- Tiempos Recios. Mario Vargas Llosa. Recommend.
- The Daily Stoic. Ryan Holiday. Re-read.
- Ender’s Game. Orson Scott Card. Re-read
- When Breath Becomes Air. Paul Kalanithi. Re-read.
- Sum: forty tales of the after life. David Eagleman. Recommend.
- The End is Always Near. Dan Carlin. Recommend.
- The Forever War. Joe Haldeman.
So here are my takeaways and verdicts (Pass, Skim, Recommend, Re-Read), ordered from first read.
- Bad Blood. John Carryefour. Recommend.
This is the type of story we will are look back to saying “it was just so obvious VC was in a bubble at the end of the decade”. Great story on on how even ventures with bluechip backers and top quality board members can be a scam. Beware of “name investing”.
2. Pioneering Portfolio Management. David Swensen. Re-read
Great timing to read Swensen and understand the Endowment Model. After further diving into understanding the model and its pillars (mostly through FinTwit) I am highly convinced that the model is highly apt for Family Offices.
My biggest takeaway was not that the model is heavily reliant on alternative investments (as it is typically forseen), but rather on the importance of the economics objectives of an endowment and how it translates into a spending policy that cascades into asset allocation. The endowment needs a 10% return, 4% for spending policy and 6% to fight university inflation; its objective IS NOT to maximize returns, but to rather minimize its risk while attaining its minimum viable objective return.
This is directly transferable to a family context: a family could set its target return based on: a) spending policy to sustain an X expenses or to gain independence from legacy source of annual flows, b) fight family spending inflation, c) fight family population growth, and d) portfolio growth. What levels are appropriate for each of these return components depends on many variables, including: 1) Size of existing portfolio, 2) Other income unrelated to portfolio (ej. dividends from family business, career, etc.), 3)Expenses being covered (ej. healthcare, education, security, lifestyle, etc.), 4) time horizon of coverage (ej. policy of only covering health insurance for perpetuity to all family descendants, vs policy to cover education for next generation only).
It is only after defining the return objective based on the spending policy that it makes sense to talk about asset allocation and risk minimization. For example, a family portfolio with no additional source of income for the family that needs to cover living expenses of current generation and grow might need at least 8% return, hence heavy focus on equity would be required. On the other hand, a portfolio with an independent source of income (dividends) seeking to only cover health insurance for perpetuity might only need a 2% return to cover it and could pursue a 5% target, growing at 3% annually with a low need for equity.
3. Unconventional Approach to Investing. Davind Swensen. Recommend
Great book following the endowment bible. Key insights (which I put to practice personally): 1) asset allocation is THE most important portfolio decision, 2) rebalancing is THE most important execution item given a) at any given point, the expected value for returns should be the same given the high level of chaos and complexity in markets, and b) rebalancing between negatively correlated assets (treasuries and equities) will most likely lead you to sell the highest performance asset and reinvest in the lowest performance, positioning the portfolio for mean reversion, 3) ETFs rule, 4) avoid corporate fixed income, you can get the same expected return with a higher mix of equities and treasuries while avoiding tail risk (Eg. better to have 90/10 equities and treasuries than 60/40 equities and bonds to reach the same return). Much in line with Taleb’s barbell strategy.
4. Kids are worth it! Barbara Corruso. Re-Read.
As parents we are guides to our children in enabling them to become self aware and independent. Be smart: a) instead of no use “later” or “yes but” or “convince me”, b) Give them options early on to foment the self (blue pijama vs red pijama), c) Give them nudging options instead of commands (blue or red pijama to go to bed, vs go to bed), d) don’t open options when we don’t intend to give it to them (its time to go to bed, vs would you like to go to bed now).
We want to guide them to be independent selfs, so we need to be patient and guide them rather than make them want to do what we want.
Before saying something to someone: a) Is it the truth, b) Is it necessary, c) Is it kind? It must pass all 3 filters!
5. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Re-Read.
Consciousness is like a flashlight in a dark room trying to find where the light is, it will think all the room is light (while it is mostly dark).
Amazing book to re-read, I much enjoyed the analysis of consciousness changes from the illiad to the odessy. I keep wondering how consciousness is constantly changing and how it will evolve in the future.
6. Fooled by Randomness. Nassim Nicolas Taleb. Re-Read.
I think the market will most likely go up but I’m short. Why? Expected Value is what matters. High probability of light bull vs low probability of strong bear = negative view on the market.
7. Shadow Divers. Robert Kurdo. Recommend.
Want to start diving all over again. This is great story teller telling a great story.
8. Let my people go surfing. Yvon Chouniard. Recommend.
Tribe X had a representative of the future 8th generation present for all group decision making. This is not only beautiful but applicable to family businesses.
Repair! Buying Patagonia and repairing is the most sustainable and higher quality.
9. The Wandering Earth. Liu Cixin. Recommend.
Amazing short stories. Mountain probably my favorite and a reread, specially after the coincidence of perito moreno story where the moon creates a giant static wave over lago general carrera.
10. The Rational Optimist. Matt Ridley. Recommend.
Hayek vs Malthus revisited.
11. The Song of Achilles. Madeline Miller. Re-read.
Amazing new author and book. Incredible story through Patroclus eyes, seeing that Achilles could have been a lot more joyful (albeit not live in legends forever)
12. The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Agatha Christie. Recommend.
Inaugural Hercule Poirot book. A lot harder to follow, but love this character.
13. Look to Winward. Iain M Banks. Recommend.
Banks is a scifi wizard. Amazing how he played with the supernovas, but most amazing how a culture agent was placed as a second conscious being inside the mind of another agent.
14. Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts. Shane Parish. Recommend
Looking forward for the rest of series, this did inspire me to think my own list of mental models.
15. The Way of Kings. Brandon Sandersen. Re-read.
Amazing. Really got me into fantasy and took away my discomfort with +1k page books. I loved the characters and how well they are developed through the multiple POVs.
16. Cribsheet. Emily Oster. Re-read
Oster, about to take her daughter on an international trip, anxiously asked the pediatrician what would happen if her daughter was stung by a bee while they were away. What if she’s allergic? What if something bad happens? You know the script, what if, what if, what if?
The doctor’s reply: “I’d just try not to think about that.”
17. The Outsiders. William.Thorndike. Re-read
Capital allocation is the CEOs #1 job.
18. Expecting Better. Emily Oster. Re-read
Re-read this book this year, it really helps decision making during pregnancy.
19. Words of Radiance. Brandon Sandersen. Re-read
This is the book from WOK I enjoyed the most. It is amazing how after building on the characters in WOK, Sanderson really brings synchronizes the story and magic with each of the characters.
20. Exhaltaion. Ted Chiang. Recommend
It was hard to beat Story of Your Life, still there where many great stories. The two that stood out the most were the first on time traveling mirror, with the big insight that even if we can’t change the past or future, time traveling still changes what we know and experience from a single moment, which changes everything! The second story was on the quantum tablets, which after listening to a podcast on the many worlds hypothesis, the story is really brilliant.
21. Circe. Madeline Miller. Re-read.
This book made top 5. Really loved it, and the biggest take away was how Telemachus rejects Athena’s call to subsitute his father, saying that he would be more joyful living the rest of his life with Circe than going out and making a name of himselfs like his father did, which ended with him glorious and in depression. Biggest insight is how Circe is the opposite of Song of Achilles.
22. The Courage to be Disliked. Ichiro Kishimi. Recommend.
Seperation of tasks!
And having the courage to be disliked is the embodiment of freedom, given that we like to satisfy ourselves rather than fulfilling other’s desires and having them like us.
23. Edgedancer. Brandon Sandersen. Skim.
Complements WOK, but I do not like the character.
24. Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideaz That Reveal The Cosmos. Priyamvada Natarajan. Recommend.
Great history of astronomy, I found it amazing how less than 100 years ago we did not know there were other galaxies!
25. Treating your own back. Robin Mckinzie. Re-read.
Really changed how I live and helped me come back from a really bad episode.
26. Thinking fast and slow. Daniel kanehman. Re-read
Second try on reading the book. It was tough on audiable, definitely worth rereading. Although I knew the key insights from Kanehman, reading the book really clicked on how the starting reference point matters so much in prospect theory and how similar it is to stoicism.
27. Dethroning the King. Julie Macintosh. Re-read
Second time reading it. Really enjoy the story!
28. Range. David Epstein. Recommend.
Great book for anyone trying to convince himself that being a generalist is the way to go.
29. Zen and the art of motorcycle maintainance. Robert Pirsig. Re-read. Favorites.
There are so many ways at looking at this book. This fist time reading it I took away that we ourselves control our perceptions of the world, and that is the only thing that really exists to us.
30. Oathbringer. Brandon Sandersen. Reread
Worth re-reading along with first 2 books before the next one.
31. Ubik. Phillip K Dick. Reread
This is the first PKD book I read and i loved it, it is very strange and surreal. Ready to read more from him
32. DIY Financial Advisor. Wesley Gray. Skim.
“Let every man divide his money into three parts, a third in land, a third in business and a third let him keep it in reserve” — Talmud
Asset allocation can be simple.
33. A Guide to a good life. William Irvine. Reread
Great intro to philosophy and stoicism.
What really got to me is that religion is a philosophy to how to prepare for a good afterlife, while Stoicism is a philosophy of how to live this current life joyfully.
34. The Complete Direct Investing Handbook. Kirby Rosblock. Skim
Not much new, although the system approach to analyzing a family office really stood out.
35. Structuring Joint Ventures for Real Estate Investors. Abhi Golhar. Skim
Confirmed that waterfall structures are typical for JVs.
36. Into the wild. John krakauer. Recommend
I had been waiting years to read this. Really enjoyed it, and surprisingly the author’s story on mountain climbing is what I most enjoyed.
37. Investing in Real Estate Private Equity. Sean Cook. Recommend.
Great overview of the space.
38. Dark Age. Pierce Brown. Recommend
Great comeback for the series following Iron Gold. Really loved the Mercury wars and also Alexander’s Minds Eye.
39. Conscious. Annaka Harris. Re read
Panpsychism!!
40. I Wonder. Annaka Harris. Recommend.
Great concept to introduce to kids.
41. Rocket Men. Robert Kurso. Re-read.
Amazing author, again with his story telling. Apollo 8 was the first time men got away from earth’s gravity.
Mateo love’s watching the Apollo 8 liftoff! And I enjoy rewatching their Christmas message.
42. PB Success. Mario Overall. Re-read.
Very detailed story on CIAs involvement. Great to read along side Tiempos Recios.
43. Tiempos Recios. Mario Vargas Llosa. Recommend
Very controversial, but a great read!
44. The Daily Stoic. Ryan Holiday. Re-read.
Great daily sip of stoicism.
45. Ender’s Game. Orson Scott Card. Re-read
“It is only until I understand my enemy that I can defeat him, and in order to fully understand him I have to be like him, and hence love him”
46. When Breath Becomes Air. Paul Kalanithi. Re-read.
“Everyone succumbs to finitude. I suspect I am not the only one who reaches this pluperfect state. Most ambitions are either achieved or abandoned; either way, they belong to the past. The future, instead of the ladder toward the goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present. Money, status, all the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described hold so little interest: a chasing after wind, indeed. Yet one thing cannot be robbed of her futurity: our daughter, Cady. I hope I’ll live long enough that she has some memory of me. Words have a longevity I do not. I had thought I could leave her a series of letters — but what would they say? I don’t know what this girl will be like when she is fifteen; I don’t even know if she’ll take to the nickname we’ve given her.
There is perhaps only one thing to say to this infant, who is all future, overlapping briefly with me, whose life, barring the improbable, is all but past.
That message is simple: When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing.
Kalanithi, Paul. When Breath Becomes Air (p. 198). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
47. Sum: forty tales of the after life. David Eagleman. Recommend.
Fun book!
48. Forever War. Joe Halderman. Recommend.
Love reading classic scifi. This is the first military sci fi that a read and now looking forward to Storm Troopers.
