Book Title: Secrets of Sand Hill Road.

I wanted to learn more about venture capital, so I picked up the book Secrets of Sand Hill Road written by Scott Kupor of Andreessen Horowitz. The following are some of my notes grouped (loosely) by themes.

I. The Tyranny of the Power Law

One cannot understand the behavior of a venture capitalist without first grasping the mathematical reality they live in: the Power Law. In most walks of life, outcomes follow a bell curve. In venture capital, returns are heavily skewed. As Kupor illustrates using a baseball analogy, VCs aren’t looking for a high batting average (getting a “hit” every time); they are looking for “at bats per home run”.

The math is stark: VCs expect >50%? of their investments to return nothing. To offset those losses and generate the massive returns their own investors (Limited Partners) demand, they need the winners to return 10 to 100 times the invested capital. This is why a VC might pass on a perfectly good business that has a high likelihood of becoming, say a $50 million company; it simply doesn’t move the needle for a fund that needs to return hundreds of millions.

Understanding this helps to realize that when a VC pushes for hyper-growth, they are simply trying to survive the math of their own industry.

II. The Structural Foundation: C Corps and Stock Classes

Everyone knows corporate structure isn’t just paperwork; it’s strategy. Kupor emphasizes that while the LLC or partnership model might seem tax-efficient for a small business, the C Corporation is the non-negotiable standard for venture-backed startups. This is largely because the Limited Partners (LPs), the endowments and foundations funding the VCs, are tax-exempt entities.

And if a tax-exempt entity receives income from an active trade or business (like a startup) through a “pass-through” entity like an LLC or partnership, that income is classified as Unrelated Business Income (UBI) and is subject to tax. This creates a “tax penalty” for the LP, effectively eroding their tax-free status for that investment. By investing in a C Corporation, the tax liability remains contained within the corporation itself, blocking it from passing through to the LPs and preserving their tax-exempt standing.

Furthermore, the C Corp structure facilitates the necessary hierarchy of ownership: Preferred Stock vs. Common Stock. VCs require Preferred Stock to secure specific economic and governance rights (like liquidation preferences), while founders and employees hold Common Stock.

Take liquidation preferences, it ensures that in a “downside” scenario (e.g., the company sells for less than hoped), the VCs get their money back before the founders see a dime. Conversely, if the company is a massive success, VCs can convert their Preferred shares to Common and participate in the upside. This structure protects the investor’s capital in failure while allowing them to share in the “home run,” aligning their risk profile with the high-stakes nature of the bet.

III. Misaligned Incentives, Fund Cycle, & “Ruling from the Grave”

One critical factor Kupor highlights is the Fund Lifecycle. Most VC funds have a 10-year lifespan. If a VC invests in your company during year 8 of their fund, they may be under immense pressure to force a liquidity event (like a sale) sooner than you would like, simply to return cash to their LPs before the fund expires .

Startups must also watch out for the “Zombie Fund” scenario. If a VC firm has performed poorly and is unlikely to raise a subsequent fund, they may lose the ability to “reserve” capital for future rounds. This can leave startup stranded without the follow-on capital they expected. Knowing where VC stands in their own fundraising cycle is just as important as them knowing startup’s financials.

This ‘alignment’ discussion also extends to governance. Kupor introduces the somewhat macabre but critical concept of “ruling from the grave”. This occurs when a founder retains a board seat purely by virtue of being a founder, even after they have left the company. To prevent a former operator from holding the company hostage, board seats should be tied to current service (say, the CEO role) rather than the individual person.

IV. The Art of the Pitch and Early-Stage Decision Making

When early-stage VCs decide where to invest, they are often operating with very little hard data. Consequently, their decision-making heuristic relies heavily on three pillars: People, Product, and Market. Of these, market size is paramount because of the aforementioned power law, a great team in a small market will still fail to return a venture fund.

A successful Pitch must therefore articulate a narrative around these elements:

• Market Size: convince the VC that the opportunity can generate billions in value.

• Team: Specifically, “founder-market fit”, why this team is uniquely qualified to solve this problem.

• Product: Is it a vitamin (nice to have) or an aspirin (need to have)?

• Go-to-Market: A plausible strategy for acquiring customers.

V. Valuation: The “Dark Art” and Convertible Debt

Valuation is often more art than science. How does a VC conduct valuation of startups? Kupor outlines a few methods, ranging from Comparable Company Analysis (looking at public comps) to the Option Pricing Model (OPM). However, for early-stage startups, it often boils down to a “what do I need to believe” analysis, calculating what the company must look like in ten years to generate a 10x return.

On a related subject: In earlier rounds, founders often use Convertible Debt. This allows them to raise capital quickly without setting an explicit valuation immediately, “kicking the can” down the road to a priced equity round. While efficient, founders must be wary of valuation caps. A cap sets the maximum valuation at which the debt will convert into equity. If your company grows wildly and raises a Series A at a valuation far above the cap, the debt holders get to convert at the lower cap price. Effectively, you have priced the round, you just set a ceiling on it, giving early investors a guaranteed lower price relative to your future success.

VI. Protecting the Cap Table: Vesting and Transfers

The “prenup” elements of a startup are vital for long-term health. Founder Stock Vesting is essential not because partners don’t trust each other, but to align incentives over the long haul which is typically a four-year period with a one-year cliff.

Equally important are Transfer Restrictions and Rights of First Refusal (ROFR).

ROFR: If you want to sell your shares to a third party, you must first offer them to the company (and often the investors) at the same price. This creates a “chilling effect” on buyers, who don’t want to negotiate a deal only to have it snatched away by the company.

Transfer Restrictions: These are even stricter. They dictate that you cannot sell your shares at all without the company’s consent. This ensures that the founders remain “locked in” and aligned with the long-term vision, preventing them from cashing out early while the VCs are still holding the bag.

Finally, regarding exits, Kupor champions Double Trigger acceleration as the industry standard for fairness. Single Trigger means your unvested stock immediately vests solely upon the sale of the company (Change of Control). Acquirers hate this because they are often buying the company to get the talent. If you fully vest the day they buy you, say, you have no financial incentive to stay. Double Trigger, on the other hand, solves this tension. It requires two events: 1) The sale of the company, AND 2) Your termination without cause (or leaving for “good reason”) . This protects the acquirer by keeping you incentivized to stay, but protects you from being fired right after the acquisition and losing your unearned equity.

VI.

There is so much more discussed in the book than highlighted here, including a detailed examination of Term Sheets. For those interested in venture capital, it seems this is one of the oft-recommended books, and I enjoyed reading it.

Subscribe now

I.

I first read Deep Work in 2016, at the start of grad school, and it remained one of the most impactful “productivity” books I read during that period. I decided to revisit it now as I prepare to embark on another major project, mainly to set the right ambience, the kind such projects demand. I’m well aware of the common critiques of books like Deep Work, that they “could as well be just a long blog post.” But such takes often miss the point. Sometimes you read not for novelty, but to create a particular atmosphere, a cognitive aftertaste if you will, that hopefully sets you straight. And that effect isn’t necessarily summoned by reading 600 bullet points of cold facts that you already know, but by stories woven carefully around those salient ideas.

II.

Cal Newport argues that integrating deep work into a professional life requires adopting a specific scheduling philosophy tailored to one's circumstances. He presents a spectrum of four distinct approaches. The most extreme is the Monastic philosophy, which involves minimizing shallow obligations to the barest minimum to maximize deep focus, as practiced by figures like Donald Knuth. It's suited for individuals whose work value is tied to a single, well-defined goal, and are privileged enough to do without the social media ‘networking’, and other things of sorts, that mere mortals like us have to endure to get our ideas out. A more balanced option is the Bimodal philosophy, where time is divided between long, intense, monastic-style deep work sessions and periods left open for everything. For those needing consistency, the Rhythmic philosophy turns deep work into a regular habit, removing the friction of deciding when to focus. Lastly, the Journalistic philosophy, he says, involves fitting deep work into any available free moment, a method best suited for those adept at quickly shifting their mental state and not for deep work novices.

For most serious knowledge workers, a rhythmic strategy might be the most reasonable, for example my recent deep work scheduling is between 5:30am and 11:30am, and getting rid of your smart phone during this period can only do you good.

III.

He also adapted ideas from the book titled “four disciplines of execution” as a framework for making deep work stick. The first is focusing on the wildly important, choosing one or two ambitious goals rather than vaguely promising yourself you’ll “work more deeply.” The second is acting on lead measures: instead of tracking only the final outcome, like a published paper or book, you track the hours you actually spend in deep concentration working towards that goal. The third is keeping a compelling scoreboard, something visible and concrete, even a simple tally card, so that progress feels tangible rather than abstract. And the fourth is creating a cadence of accountability, a regular rhythm of looking back at what worked, what didn’t, and what you’ll commit to next.

This stuff is really powerful stuff if you get to actually act them out. I have implemented a version of it, even long before reading the book.

IV.

In the chapter Embrace Boredom, Newport reminds us that the ability to concentrate is not an inborn gift but a skill, and like any skill it must be trained. The training, however, runs against the grain of our distracted age. We don’t build focus by taking occasional “internet sabbaths” while remaining tethered to distraction the rest of the week. Instead, we train it by scheduling our distraction deliberately, and refusing it outside those pre-allotted windows. Over time, the mind learns it can be content without constant novelty.

On this matter of training the mind, one of the most helpful (yet least used) subscriptions I have is Freedom, and the irony isn’t lost on me. Whenever I fall into a rut, say, binging politics new on YouTube or (doom) scrolling tech news on X, I only need to be strict with myself for about a week, using Freedom. After that, I rarely need it again.

He also offers a few practical drills. One is the “Roosevelt Dash”: set an artificially tight deadline for a meaningful task, then attack it with full intensity. The compression forces an almost athletic level of focus. Another is “productive meditation”: using walks, commutes, or other moments of physical routine to circle a single well-defined problem, returning to it again and again when the mind drifts. Such exercises don’t just improve concentration; they often yield insights that surface only under sustained attention.

The larger point is clear. Focus is a muscle, and muscles grow through deliberate strain. If you don’t practice being bored, it’s hard to develop the depth of attention that serious work requires.

In addition to books, I’ve been thinking about bringing radios back into my late-night routine. I’ve mostly cut off social media after 6 p.m., the damage those late scrolls do at night is hard to ignore, even when you start with good intentions. And don’t get me started on YouTube. I had to abandon my feeds altogether. These days, for the most part, I use an AI browser and LLM workflows to surface the specific content I want, where I want them such as to my email inbox.

V.

Now, talking about social media.

Newport’s advice is bracing: quit social media. However, to grasp just how successful social media platforms have been at capturing attention, you need only note some writers he cites (e.g., Malcolm Gladwell, J.K. Rowling) who once proudly avoided them. I suppose things has changed since then. There is a sense in which once enough of us jumped on the train, it’s compels others to join, even if the train is net bad business for many involved; and there is plenty of argument to be made on that front.

Anyways, there’s value in his call to quit (or at least sharply minimize) our use of social media. He critiques the common “any-benefit” mindset, where even the slightest upside is enough to justify adopting a new tool. The result is a cluttered digital life that fragments attention and weakens our ability to do meaningful work. His alternative, the Craftsman Approach to Tool Selection, is simple but demanding: identify the core factors that truly drive success and happiness in your life, and only use a tool if its benefits clearly outweigh its costs. Most platforms fail that test, he argues, and I agree.

To put this into practice, he suggests a 30-day experiment: quietly quit all non-essential social media, then afterward ask yourself two questions—would the month have been better if I had used it, and did anyone notice I was gone? If the answer to both is no, the verdict is clear.

Subscribe now

VI.

One of the most striking ideas in the book is fixed-schedule productivity. The practice is simple: set a hard, non-negotiable end time for your workday and refuse to work beyond it. At first glance, it feels like an arbitrary constraint, but that’s precisely the point. By creating scarcity, you are forced to strip away shallow tasks, organize your priorities, and channel energy toward what actually matters.

Abundance is good, but it often leads to wastage, and when it does, it’s probably not a good thing.

Immortal Souls by Ed Feser

I recently read AI 2027, an impressively detailed, heavily foot-noted, month-to-month AI scenario projection (You can read my review here), and I left with more questions than when I started. Long story short, while reading the scenario, I couldn't help myself but to do all these pondering in the background (e.g., how does the projected AI agency differ from human agency; what is really agency; what does it mean for a substance or a thing to reason? etc.)

Then I became smart enough to quickly realize my knowledge of philosophy of mind & metaphysics of human nature is indeed poor. You see, I have had Immortal Souls (by the brilliant Aristotelian-Thomistic philosopher, Ed Feser) on my to-read spreadsheet since it was released last year; and this was just a perfect excuse to read it. All it took was reading the aforementioned scenario, $35 and a couple days wait period for delivery.

It turned out to be a very detailed book, far more detailed than I have envisaged, but unsurprising given the subject matter. I don’t have a philosophy background, but my guess is that the book could be a legit textbook for higher level undergrad (or graduate level) class on the metaphysics of human nature – it’s that detailed and long, standing over 500 pages.

So, I have decided to focus solely on the chapters on the philosophy of mind (What is Mind?), and relevant chapters on machine learning/computers. I will most likely be writing about the subject matter either on this blog, or my AI blog.

The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist

One book that has been taking me forever to read, partly because it’s a door stopper, partly because I can’t help myself from being distracted with other less dense books, is the masterly work by Iain McGilchrist, The Mater and His Emissary. In brief, the book explores how the brain’s two hemispheres (left and right) differ in how they perceive and relate to the world, and argues that Western culture has become dangerously dominated by the narrow, analytic worldview of the left hemisphere, neglecting the more holistic, contextual understanding of the right.

I have added it to my list of books I am reading this summer hoping to knock out more than a few pages and at least complete the first part of the book.

So far, one of my favorite bits in the book: “The kind of attention we bring to bear on the world changes the nature of the world we attend to, the very nature of the world in which those 'functions' would be carried out, and in which those things' would exist.”

Subscribe now

All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot

Admittedly, the two books above are quite dense, and sometimes after a protracted run you get bored from reading them, so I thought I would add something light that will allow me to continue reading, hence All Things Wise and Wonderful, the third installment in the All Creatures Great and Small Series.

My introduction to the book series came in the form of this nice PBS series about the book, which I highly recommend. After watching a few episodes, I immediately ordered the entire book series. I have read Book 1: All Creatures Great and Small, and Book 2: All Things Bright and Beautiful. Leaving me with Book 3.

And what is it about the book? It’s a memoir-style book that recounts the humorous, heartwarming, and often poignant experiences of a country veterinarian in rural England, capturing the richness of life through stories of animals, farmers, and the countryside during and after World War II.

Papers

some papers I plan to read in-depth.

• The AI Scientist-v2: Workshop-Level Automated Scientific Discovery via Agentic Tree Search [Link] [Code]

• Code Scientist: End-to-End Semi-automated Scientific Discovery with Code-based Experimentation [Link] [Blog]

• Towards an AI co-scientist [Link] [Hugging Face]

• And at least a few papers on LLM interpretability.

Causal Inference by Paul Rosenbaum - Book Review

In scientific inquiry, nothing beats the quest for causal understanding. While statistical associations may offer intriguing glimpses into relationships between variables, they fall short of establishing the coveted cause-and-effect relationship. This is where the field of causal inference steps in, providing a rigorous framework to navigate the intricate web of causality. My interest in causal inference, as a field of study, dates back to grad school, when I was building machine learning models to discriminate kidney cancer patients from healthy controls using metabolites in their urine. I couldn't stop myself from thinking - as I should - about the different ways these patients could be different other than the disease factor. I ended up applying a method called propensity score matching (more on this later), and I concluded my paper by stating:

"We have shown the potential utility of a urine assay in the clinical setting for RCC (renal cell carcinoma) detection. This study, like others of its kind, has the limitation of numerous potential confounders that could impact biomarker discovery results. While randomized control trials (RCTs) are gold standards for epidemiology research, observational studies remain inescapable for studies like this as randomizing the intervention (RCC) is impossible. As such, to argue for the reduction in selection bias, we adjusted for five potential confounders in the study: age, BMI, gender, smoking history, and race. [...] Going forward, a much larger cohort, representing the diversity of race and geographical locations would be required for the validation of our biomarker proposals."

Many of the concepts mentioned in that excerpts were covered very clearly in the book

In "Causal Inference," Paul R. Rosenbaum masterfully distills the essence of this field, presenting a concise yet comprehensive overview that is accessible to a wide audience. With numerous motivating examples, Rosenbaum illuminates the key concepts and methods that underpin causal inference.

I. The Essence of Causal Effects

At the heart of causal inference lies the concept of a causal effect, which quantifies the difference in an outcome for an individual under two alternative scenarios: receiving the treatment versus receiving the control. This seemingly simple notion is fraught with challenges, as we can only observe an individual under one of these scenarios, leaving the other outcome forever hidden from view.

To illustrate this point, Rosenbaum recounts the historical example of George Washington's demise. In 1799, Washington fell ill with a sore throat, and his doctors, in their wisdom, decided to bleed him profusely. Washington succumbed to his illness the following day, leaving us to ponder whether the bleeding hastened his death or whether he would have met the same fate regardless. This question, like many others in the context of causal inference, involves comparing what actually happened to what might have happened in a counterfactual world, a world we can never fully access.

II. Randomized Experiments

The gold standard for causal inference is the randomized experiment, where a truly random device, such as a coin flip, dictates whether an individual receives the treatment or the control. This random assignment ensures that the treated and control groups are comparable prior to treatment, minimizing the risk of confounding factors that could distort the true causal effect.

Rosenbaum highlights the importance of randomized experiments with the example of the PALM trial, a clinical trial that compared two treatments for Ebola virus disease. In this trial, patients were randomly assigned to receive either ZMapp or mAb114, two drugs derived from antibodies. The random assignment ensured that any differences in survival rates between the two groups could be confidently attributed to the treatment and not to pre-existing differences between the patients. But, we don't always have the luxury of randomized experiment. Case in point is my study from grad school, that I briefly outlined earlier.

III. Observational Studies

In many cases, we are stuck to observational studies, where the assignment of treatment is not under the control of the investigator. This lack of control introduces the risk of bias, as the treated and control groups may differ in ways that affect the outcome, leading to spurious conclusions about cause and effect.

Rosenbaum illustrates the challenges of observational studies with the example of smoking as a possible causal factor for periodontal disease. Smokers and nonsmokers differ in numerous ways, including age, gender, education, and income. These differences could account for the observed association between smoking and periodontal disease, even if smoking itself has no causal effect.

IV. Measured Covariates

As such, to mitigate the risk of bias in observational studies, researchers often adjust for measured covariates, such as age and gender, that could confound the relationship between treatment and outcome.

One such technique, known as propensity score matching (PSM), stands out as a powerful tool for adjusting for measured covariates and creating comparable groups for analysis.

In essence, PSM involves pairing treated individuals with control individuals who share similar probabilities of receiving the treatment, based on a set of observed covariates. This probability, known as the propensity score, is typically estimated using statistical models which take into account the measured covariates that could potentially confound the relationship between treatment and outcome.

Beyond this point, I didn't have a great deal of understanding of Causal inference as a field, and this is exactly while I picked up the book.

V. Unmeasured Covariates

I gave a talk at Morehouse School of Medecine a few weeks ago, and one of the professors who attended kept asking me these questions, multiple times, same question, but different flavors each time - while using the word ' bias' alot, and rightfully so. He was speaking to unmeasured covariates. As Rosenbaum stated in the book, "an observational study is met with objections not applause."

While adjusting for measured covariates can help reduce bias in observational studies, it cannot eliminate it entirely. The challenge of unmeasured covariates, those lurking variables that remain unobserved and unaccounted for, casts this long shadow over causal inference. These unmeasured covariates could be genetic predispositions, personality traits, or any other factors that influence both the treatment and the outcome, potentially distorting the true causal relationship.

In the context of smoking and periodontal disease (the example used in the book), unmeasured covariates could include dietary habits, oral hygiene practices, or even genetic factors that affect both smoking behavior and susceptibility to gum disease. These unmeasured covariates could create a spurious association between smoking and periodontal disease, even if smoking itself has no direct causal effect.

To address the challenge of unmeasured covariates, researchers turn to sensitivity analysis, a technique that quantifies how much bias would need to be present to explain away the observed association between treatment and outcome. In essence, sensitivity analysis asks: "If the observed association is not due to a true causal effect, how strong would the influence of unmeasured covariates need to be to create this association?"

The answer to this question is typically expressed in terms of a sensitivity parameter, which quantifies the magnitude of bias that would be required to overturn the causal conclusion. If the sensitivity analysis reveals that a large amount of bias would be needed to explain away the association, then the causal claim is strengthened, as it suggests that unmeasured covariates are unlikely to be driving the observed relationship. Conversely, if even a small amount of bias could account for the association, then the causal claim is weakened, as it raises the possibility that unmeasured covariates are playing a significant role.

VI. Quasi-Experimental Devices

In some cases, researchers can exploit the so called quasi-experimental devices, which are tools used in observational studies to address potential biases and strengthen causal claims. They involve adding elements to the study design to investigate and potentially invalidate anticipated counterclaims. Quasi-experimental devices furnish new data intended to advance a claim by undermining specific grounds for doubt.

Rosenbaum discusses several quasi-experimental devices, including natural experiments, discontinuities, and instruments. Out of these three, I have only read about natural experiments before, and it was in the context of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics which was awarded to David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens for their groundbreaking work on natural experiments in economics. Card demonstrated how natural experiments can be used to study labor market issues, while Angrist and Imbens developed methodological frameworks to draw causal conclusions from such experiments, revolutionizing empirical research in economics.

In brief, in natural experiments, researchers capitalize on naturally occurring events that resemble randomized experiments. For instance, in the study of the effects of winning the lottery on financial well-being, an example used in the book, researchers might compare the outcomes of winners of large vs. small amounts to assess the impact of cash infusions on financial stability, exploiting the random nature of lottery draws to approximate a randomized experiment.

Another quasi-experimental design is the discontinuity design, which exploit abrupt treatment cutoffs along a continuum, creating a natural experiment near the point of discontinuity. For example, researchers studying the effects of a scholarship program might compare the outcomes of students who barely qualified for the scholarship to those who barely missed the cutoff, exploiting the discontinuity in scholarship eligibility to approximate a randomized experiment.

Instrumental variables, another quasi-experimental device, are variables that influence treatment assignment but do not directly affect the outcome. In other words, they are used when the treatment of interest is not randomized, but some form of encouragement to accept the treatment is. For example, imagine a study where some people are encouraged to quit smoking, and others are not - the encouragement is the instrument. The encouragement is randomized, so it affects who tries to quit. However, note that, it is the act of quitting smoking, not the encouragement itself, that is thought to improve lung function. The effect of quitting on lung function can be estimated among compliers, people who quit smoking only if encouraged to do so. And why is it useful? It is because it allows researchers to get closer to estimating a causal effect when true randomization is not possible. It allows researchers to focus on the effect of the treatment on people whose treatment status is affected by the instrument, i.e. the compliers

In sum, the beauty of quasi-experimental devices lies in their ability to provide insights into causal effects even when randomized experiments are not possible. By carefully selecting and analyzing quasi-experimental settings, researchers can gain a deeper understanding of causal relationships and inform policy decisions in a variety of fields, from economics to public health.

VII. Replication and Evidence Factors

We have all heard about the replication crisis in so and so field. Replication is a cornerstone of scientific inquiry, as it helps to ensure that findings are not due to chance or bias. However, simply repeating the same study with a new sample is not always sufficient to establish causality.

Rosenbaum emphasizes the importance of varied replication, where studies are conducted in different settings, with different populations, and using different methods. The goal here is to have studies/analyses that are inevitably flawed, but in different ways, converging on the same causal claim. This leads us to the idea of evidence factors, which are multiple, independent sources of evidence that converge on the same causal conclusion. The more evidence factors that support a causal claim, the stronger the claim becomes.

Subscribe now

VIII. Uncertainty and Complexity

Causal inference is often fraught with uncertainty and complexity, especially in observational studies. It is important to acknowledge these limitations and to be cautious in drawing causal conclusions.

Rosenbaum concludes the book with a discussion of the ongoing debate about the health effects of alcohol (or the lack thereof), highlighting the uncertainty and complexity that surround this topic. He discusses the conflicting evidence from various studies, as well as the challenges of disentangling the effects of alcohol from other lifestyle factors.

If you have read this piece thus far, and enjoyed what you read. You should definitely give the book a try.

Book Title: Development in Progress

I have always had my clear-headed suspicion on how we do go about deploying technology as a civilization in this modern dispensation – perhaps I was jolted into that state because of social media, and its innumerable negative externalities. But one of the things I haven’t done is take time to meditate on the subject matter critically, and preferably write up essays to articulate those meditations. But maybe none of that is necessary if I can pick a good book on the subject and read. The latter is what I ended up doing, by happenchance.

In the annals of human history, progress has been an intoxicating elixir – one could say –  fueling our relentless pursuit of technological advancement and societal growth. But what if this very notion of progress, with its narrow focus on material wealth and technological prowess, is leading us towards a precipice? That's the unsettling question posed in “Development in Progress,” a meticulously researched and compellingly argued feature article published by The Consilience Project. (While this piece is technically called a feature article, it is a material of a mini book length hence my inclusion in this book review section of the blog)

The article, a tour-de-force of interdisciplinary analysis, dissects the prevailing narrative of progress – what they call naïve progress –  revealing its inherent flaws and devastating externalities. It challenges our comfortable assumptions about improvements in life expectancy, poverty reduction, educational outcomes, and even the decline in violence, revealing a more nuanced and troubling reality. Through meticulous examination of case studies, most notably the invention of synthetic fertilizers and the rise of social media, the authors illustrate how even seemingly beneficial innovations can have far-reaching and often unintended consequences.

Share

I couldn’t stop thinking about iatrogenic while reading the article – a word I first stumbled on while reading one of Nassim Taleb’s book. Iatrogenic which means harm caused by the healer, was extended to other domains such as economics in his writings. There is a similar motif in this critique of technology development and deployment, simply put – negative externalities.

To be clear, the author’s argument is not simply a rejection of technology, nor would I be remotely in such WhatsApp Group. Instead, they offer a powerful critique of our current approach to technological development, highlighting the dangers of narrow optimization at the expense of holistic well-being. They argue that our current system, driven by perverse incentives, prioritizes short-term gains and externalizes costs onto future generations and the natural world. We are, in essence, borrowing from the future to fuel our present, leaving a legacy of environmental degradation, social unrest, and even existential emptiness. And on the point of existential emptiness – one of the things I was quickly shocked by when I moved to the United States many years ago is the fact that more people commit suicide in the United States than in countries in West Africa, say. I know technology isn’t the whole story here, but let’s face it, at the very least, those kinds of stats points to the fact that technology, while important might be overrated in the context of having a good, happy life.

Subscribe now

Also, the article is particularly incisive in its analysis of the psychological underpinnings of our unwavering faith in progress. The author draws parallels between our relationship with the current world system and Stockholm syndrome, suggesting that many of us, despite experiencing the downsides of “progress,” cling to the narrative because we feel powerless to change it and fear acknowledging its flaws. This cognitive dissonance, fueled by a constant barrage of hypernormal stimuli – from addictive social media feeds to the endless pursuit of material wealth – keeps us distracted from the deeper questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives.

But the article offers more than just a sobering diagnosis – which is why I particularly like the piece; it also outlines a path towards a more mature and sustainable form of progress. Drawing on concepts such as prudent problem-solving, yellow teaming, and synergistic design, the author proposes a framework for developing technologies that internalize their externalities, prioritize long-term well-being, and promote a reciprocal relationship with nature. Regenerative agriculture, with its focus on restoring soil health and promoting ecological balance, is presented as a compelling example of this mature approach in action.

The takeaway from the article couldn’t be more straightforward: as the pace of technological change continues to accelerate, we must confront the limitations of our current model of progress and embrace a more nuanced and responsible approach to innovation. The alternative, the author warns, is a dystopian future marked by environmental collapse, societal disintegration, and a profound loss of what it means to be human.

To end, I will pay a lot of money to watch Daniel Schmachtenberger and Stephen Pinker (or say Marc Andreesen) debate, as they seems to be on two extreme ends of this debate.

Book Link

In "Brave New Words," Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, offers a measured yet enthusiastic exploration of AI's potential to revolutionize education. Khan, who famously democratized learning with free online resources, argues that AI's true power lies not in replacing teachers, but in empowering them (I am not sure about this, we live in a world where the economic incentives are quite huge to replace anything replaceable with a machine).

Khan's personal journey from Wall Street to pioneering online education provides compelling context for his vision of AI as a "super tutor," capable of personalized instruction, addressing learning gaps, and fostering self-confidence. He addresses concerns about cheating too - I will only add that Khan's argument on reliance on AI to detect cheating might be overly optimistic, the false positives are going to break the system.

The book also delves into how AI can bring history and civics to life, for example, facilitate collaborative learning, and even offer mental health support. 

I think the potential for AI in education is simply huge, I for one have been able to read - and effectively learn - so much more today than I did in say 2020. I am able to use chatbot to delve into complex topics, ask it for analogies to speed up my learning process, I learnt how to use a python web framework over a chat (while waiting for a friend in the car on a recent trip),  I recently tried Google’s illuminate which allows me to turn computer science papers into a nice podcast I can listen to on my walk to the lab. You can take concepts and morph them into music for students (say trap music for algebra), there is so much here.

That being said, as I have hinted in this short review, care has to be taken with addressing negative externalities (not merely the first order effect, but the second and the third) - an area we are largely inept at, as a civilization.

For example, I think if care is not taken, younger folks are going to lose writing abilities, to which an AI maximalist might reply, who cares? (I am no maximalist) If that happens the following might follow: diminished critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

I have always made the point elsewhere that there are two kinds of writing: 1) you can write as a way/mode of learning (impossible to automate); 2) you can write about what you already know e.g., report writing (probably fine to semi-automate, depending on the context). 

I am not certain about many things, but this I am quite sure of: AI will be unleashed on education, and about everything else in our society. 

Subscribe now

[Previously: 2021, 2022]

Talent

Talent is an excellent read for those interested in learning how to spot and nurture talent, and by extension, those who want to be spotted. Written by Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross, individuals whose job (or at least an aspect of their jobs) concerns the book's subject.

They start with arguments for why talent matters and then hop around various topics such as how to engage people online, how to interview and ask questions, personality psychology, the impact of various disabilities on talent, and a host of others.

It’s quite an eclectic list. I initially picked up the book because I wagered it would potentially improve my work for my microgrant program, but the book turned out to be more valuable to me well beyond that. It was a great bet.

Longevity Diet

This is perhaps the most reasonable book I have read so far on aging and nutrition. The book presents a diet called the Longevity Diet, aimed at slowing aging, together with occasional fasting.

In brief, it is a (mostly) plant-based (does not exclude meat), low-protein, fast-mimicking diet. The diet is built upon five key pillars: basic research, epidemiological studies, randomized and controlled clinical trials, centenarian studies, and studies of complex systems.

Saving Capitalism

I figured out a while back that the oft-framed free market, capitalism vs socialism arguments can be unhelpful, and in many cases, make public debates counterproductive.

If anything, Saving Capitalism did solid justice to how we can have this debate by really homing in on the structural problems of (American) Capitalism – without the interference of vague economic terms – and hopefully without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Subscribe now

Behave

I typically do not include books I haven’t finished in my list of books, but Behave is really good. It feels like reading five books trapped in one. I am in the seventh chapter some two hundred pages in.

The book is about the science of human behavior primarily through the lens of neurobiology. Topics addressed include such things as effect of childhood adversities, stages of child development, adolescent risk-taking, memory, neurogenesis, stress and the brain, temporal discounting, and a host of others.

Aristotle for Everyone

I have not encountered an introduction to philosophy that does not start with or include Aristotle. Burying one’s head in the original works, for some, might be akin to a fool’s errand. As Adler himself stated, “Aristotle’s books are much too difficult for beginners.”

Hence, Aristotle for Everybody. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on motion (change and permanence), Aristotle’s theory of causation (formal, material, efficient, & final causes), his philosophy of happiness, time, and his notion of eternity.

This book is about as dumbed-down as these things could get, and it’s beautifully written.

Black Rednecks and White Liberals

Sowell, in this book, argues against many prevailing ideologies, notions, and assertions as they relate to racial and ethnic studies. Consisting of six essays, he touches on the history of Germans, Jews, African Americans, “black education” in America, and occasionally even references the Igbos in Southern Nigeria (in his treatment of middleman minorities).

The book concludes with the following sentences (admonishing that illogical sentiments rarely solve any problem; they only extend the duration of such problems):

“Where beliefs are not checked against facts, but instead facts must meet the test of consonance with the prevailing vision, we are in the process of sealing ourselves off from feedback from reality. Heedless of the past, we are flying blind into the future.”

An Orchestra of Minorities

Perhaps because I am acquainted with the traditions and cultures of the peoples depicted in this work of fiction, I find the book somewhat less fascinating. Two, I felt the story was too drawn out, leading me to abandon the book three-quarters of the way through. So I will say, 3 stars.

In other words, I didn't particularly enjoy reading it. However, this might say more about me as a reader than about the book itself.

1984

I've heard that, even though the book is a work of fiction, it actually isn't. I had to see for myself; plus, I might just be the last person on earth reading it – everyone I spoke with said they read it in High School.

I 'enjoyed' reading it.

Simple Path to Wealth

Mr. Collins offers a simple path to wealth, and it isn’t sexy.

Avoid debt, buy broad market index funds, and so forth. For readers considering reading the book, the investment examples are US-centric.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

This book is great in the sense that it tells you what you already know about worry, but with innumerable examples and illustrations that will most likely leave you dubious about your worry.

The Pathless Path

My takeaway: The narratives you have installed in your head matter way too much. How you think the future will be different from the present is a constraint you actively impose on yourself.

This shouldn’t be mistaken for a call to ‘think big’, whatever that might mean; it's a call to think deeply – to think from first principles. Mr. Millerd shows us an example of such thoughtful living in this memoir.

GPT-4: Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence

I read this paper back in April, and now, several months later, we can clearly see the advancements GPT-4 (and genAI in general) has brought us. It's truly exciting.

What I find particularly intriguing is the ongoing application of the base model, transformers, to various domains in science and biomedicine. I highlight some of these developments in my AI newsletter, ε Pulse:

The Epsilon

A scientist's (illustrated) guide to machine learning.

By Olatomiwa Bifarin

(Talking about AI, I am also currently reading Understanding Deep Learning by Simon Prince, I knocked out a few chapters this winter break. I strongly recommend for folks interested in the technical treatment of the technology behind modern AI.)

Have a nice 2024, and happy new year, in advance.

[Previously: Summer Reading 2022]

Subscribe now

I typically start a new year by compiling a reading list, but I almost never follow through with all the books because, new train of thoughts, new things to investigate; Afterall I am no robot. This year is no exception, I can’t find my original list, but this is what January to May looks like:

Also, I have been fairly aggressive and intentional on consuming AI content (books, essays, courses, products), because, the world is changing, and will continue to change in ways that are at least as disruptive as the invention and adoption of electricity. As I normally do, I plan to write a summary of my learnings at the end of the year.

In the meantime, here is what I am reading this summer.

[Fiction]

1984 by George Orwell

I have had this on my shelf since 2018. I needed a break from a bit too much non-fiction, so I picked it up. Quite a read! After reading it, I came up with a new personal taxonomy for fiction: 1) fictions that read like fictions, and 2) prophecies disguised as fiction. 1984 is an example of the latter. I am currently taking notes.

[Personal Finance]

Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins

I came across this video on YouTube the other day, I kind of like the vibe of the speaker so I figured I should give the book a read. I am no financial expert (I am not a novice either), but the book is about pretty much what I have learnt some years back. But there is an argument to be made for regular re-reading for these kinds of writings.  

In brief: get out of debt (if you are in debt), save 50% of your salary (that’s going to be hard to sell to a post-doc ), and buy index funds like your life depends on it. I am not done yet; I am still reading.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

It is the beer: The actual operating business of which we can own a part.

It is the foam: The traded pieces of paper that furiously rise and fall in price from moment-to-moment. This is the market of CNBC. This is the market of the daily stock market report. This is the market people are talking about when they liken Wall Street to Las Vegas.”

[…]

While this makes for great drama and television, for our purposes it is only the beer that matters. It is the beer that is the real operating money making underlying businesses, beneath all the foam and froth, that over time drives the market ever higher.

[…]

But it’s all just so much foam, fluff and noise. It doesn’t matter to us. We’re in it for the beer!

[Artificial Intelligence]

Understanding Deep Learning by Simon J.D. Prince

Deep learning is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses multi-layered artificial neural networks to learn from large amounts of data, thereby simulating aspects of the human brain's functioning.

Each added layer, or "depth," in the neural network enables more complex patterns and relationships to be recognized and learned. It's a crucial part of AI's ability to process intricate, multidimensional data and glean insightful information, mirroring facets of human cognitive processes.

With the ongoing AI revolution there is little need to write about deep learning capabilities. We now have AI system that can see, talk, write, draw, make music, and the list goes on. Underneath, it’s just maths and code – and this book is about the mathematical concepts.

The book is written by Simon J. D. Prince, a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bath. And it’s not even out yet, but you can read a full draft here for free (that’s what I am doing.) Since it’s a very dense book, I plan to knock off a few more chapters this summer.

[Chemistry]

Mass Spectrometry: Chemistry Primer by James McCullogh and Neil Oldman

Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique used to identify the amount and type of chemicals present in a sample by measuring the mass-to-charge ratio and abundance of gas-phase ions. The process involves ionizing chemical compounds to generate charged molecules or molecule fragments and measuring their mass-to-charge ratios.

The resulting spectra of information can be used to deduce the elemental or isotopic signature of a sample, the masses of molecules, and to elucidate the chemical structures of small molecules, peptides and other chemical compounds.

I plan on starting a chemistry side project later this summer, and my chemistry will use some cleaning up.

[Energy]

A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History with an Energy Mix by NJ Ayuk

This one I picked up because a friend and former boss would like my opinion on the subject. Here is a summary of the book’s summary on Amazon:

In "A Just Transition," Cameroonian author NJ Ayuk argues that the International Energy Agency's green energy policies have unintentionally damaged Africa's energy economies. When a rigid requirement for adopting green energy was established, investment in Africa's potential oil and gas projects dwindled. Ayuk suggests that while renewable energy is crucial, it cannot solely drive the transformation for African countries, and they should leverage their oil and gas resources as well. The book discusses topics like energy poverty, the role of natural gas, harmful impacts of foreign aid, technology adoption, and creating opportunities for women, proposing that with careful governance and an understanding of local realities, a prosperous transition to renewable energy is feasible for African nations.

[MBB grant updates: The application was supposed to close on December 30, 2022, however, I am yet to read nearly as many high-quality applications as I would love to, so I will keep it open for a little while, maybe a week or so. If you have access to clusters of brilliant young Nigerians, please send the grant information their way.]

[Previously: 2021 Books]

Instead of writing about all the books I have read this year, a few of which I have reviewed here, I decided to ask myself this question: “if you could read only five books in 2022, what would you read?”

Here is what I would read. 

I.

I came across Thomas Sowell’s work at the beginning of the pandemic and was very impressed, to say the least. I wondered why it took me so long to discover his works. It turns out that the answer lies in the nature of his works and how the mainstream media works in the West today. Anyways his body of work is astounding, so I decided I would be reading two Sowell books per year.

I started with Intellectuals and Race and Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy. This year I read Economic Facts and Fallacies and Discrimination and Disparities, with the latter being my favorite.

The book's thesis in 1 sentence: 

There are discriminations, and there are disparities; and the two things need not be the same – disparities shouldn’t automatically imply discrimination without justification (i.e., justification other than citing the disparity itself).

II.

At the number two spot is Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To by David A. Sinclair.

Lifespan is a general audience, solid biology text that explores the science of aging, arguing quite convincingly that aging is a disease. The author, David Sinclair, has become a science rock star over the past decade or so.

In the book, he started by explaining why we age (this has to do with epigenetic instability, according to the information theory of aging) and, of course, what can be done about it.

For the latter, his story comes in three flavors. One. What you can do now (e.g., eat less, exercise, or, if you are adventurous, take supplements like nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and Metformin (yes, the drug for diabetic patients)).

Two. The innovation that is coming in the manner of democratizing digital health, DNA monitoring, precision medicine, and the like are bound to maximize health span and lifespan.

Three. Make old cells young again (a.k.a. cellular reprogramming), and/or kill senescent cells with senolytics, etc.

Finally, he concluded the illuminating book with some socio-economic commentary on a world where everyone lives long like crazy because, according to the author, it is inevitable.

I have written a few essays on (related) subjects raised in this book. See Why We Age, Go Hungry, and The End of Breakfast.

III.

Next up, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell.

A part memoir, part startup book, he explores the following questions (just as a good mentor would):  What should I do? Where should I work? How to manage teams, What you should work on, How to make decisions, building profitable businesses, product management, How to spot great ideas, and many more. 

If you are considering reading it, see my long review here. 

IV.

At No. 4, Modern Computer Vision with PyTorch by V Kishore Ayyadevara and Yeshwanth Reddy.

A while back, I got my hands on some nice, hard-to-get image data and wanted to play. This book allowed me to play.

If you are interested in computer vision, read my bite-sized review here.

V.

At No. 5: The Art and Science of Frugal Innovation by Malavika Dadlani, Anil Wali, and Kaushik Mukerjee.

While being quite tedious to read at times, this book educated me thoroughly on the philosophy that ought to undergird innovation in the world's poorest places. 

The philosophy of frugal innovation inspired me to launch a microgrant grant program that is currently open for applications.

To get a feel of what frugal innovation entails, you can read my essay on the subject and the numerous examples of the philosophy played out in various fields.

Here is penguin’s summary:

“The Art and Science of Frugal Innovation comes at a time when the world is grappling with unprecedented issues, including the Covid-19 pandemic that has left all humanity in the eye of the storm. In this book, Malavika Dadlani, Anil Wali, and Kaushik Mukerjee deftly explore the scientific underpinnings and social gains of frugal innovations. They also explain how these frugal innovations can help the world overcome a variety of obstacles. While differentiating between frugal and low-cost innovations, this straightforward book also picks the common thread between the two and demonstrates how durable solutions to problems can be found through scientific planning and systematic testing. All in all, The Art and Science of Frugal Innovation is about breaking boundaries and sharing knowledge, expertise and ideas that can lead to sustainable development for all.”

Have a nice 2023 and a happy new year in advance!

Book Title:

Modern Computer Vision with PyTorch: Explore deep learning concepts and implement over 50 real-world image applications

After I learned the basics of machine learning a few years ago and put it to good use for detecting and staging kidney cancer and an explainable AI application, my interest swerved a bit into computer vision.

About two years ago, I decided to work on a small side project, a soccer game scene object detection, just to get the feel. I picked up a few things working on the project, but I quickly figured there was a lot to learn, so this year I picked up Modern computer vision with PyTorch, another one of my favorite machine learning books I read this year (Another is GPT-3 I reviewed recently).

Standing at over 800 pages, it's clearly not a beach read - more of a coffee table book (if we are allowed to switch fancy photographs with PyTorch codes).

The authors covered a large swath of topics, including, but not limited to:

Image classification: categorizing a given image into one of a number of predefined classes. It is a type of supervised learning where a system is provided with a set of labeled images, and the task is to predict the class of new images.

Techniques: convolutional neural networks (CNN), transfer learning with VGG and ResNet architecture.

Image segmentation: ‘dividing’ an image into different regions or segments. It is used to identify objects and boundaries in images.

Techniques: Mask R-CNN and UNET

Object detection: finding and identifying objects in an image or video. It can be used to detect objects such as people, cars, buildings, furniture, animals, and more (anything you want to detect, really). It is a major component of many computer vision tasks, such as video surveillance and autonomous driving.

Techniques: R-CNN and YOLO.

Image generation: creating new images from existing ones. This process typically involves applying a set of algorithms and techniques to create synthetic images that resemble the original ones.

Techniques: Autoencoders and generative adversarial networks (GANs).

At my first parse of reading the book, I focused on the basics of neural networks, building neural networks with Pytorch, convolutional networks, image segmentation (Mask R-CNN and UNET), and Autoencoders. And I have kept it at arm's length for any future computer vision projects.

In summary, the book is a great way to learn PyTorch (for deep learning and computer vision). Afterward, you can go deep (no pun intended), as much as you want, into the over fifty real-world applications of computer vision using state-of-the-art deep learning architectures.

Subscribe now

Book Title:

GPT3: Building Innovative NLP Products using LLMs  

This book is about a (model) technology that marks an important milestone in the history of AI. It's called generative pre-trained transformers (GPT), a type of large language model. It can write essays, code, and everything in between.

More specifically, it is a deep learning-based natural language processing model that is trained on a large corpus of text data in an unsupervised manner.

Only in the field of AI can a book be outdated the same year it was published. While this book is not outdated per se, it could use some additional chapters on, say chatGPT which did not exist at the time the book was released.

It's an excellent, solid book nonetheless to get you started. You will get a gentle work through the model and various ways you can make use of GPT, either as a developer or non-programmer.

So rather than writing more about the book, I think it’s befitting if I merge an ‘around the web’ GPT-3 special with this micro book review.

Here are some of the contents I have read and metabolized in the past few days.

Subscribe now

Around the Web GPT-3 Special:

[I]: EdTech and GPT

Deep analysis of the state of EdTech and the impact of GPT via Reach Capital.

[II]: Building an AI Chatbot.

Dan Shipper, CEO of Every built an AI chatbot for the Huberman Lab podcast, using mostly code from OpenAI cookbook.

“On the personal side, if you're trying to remember an idea from a book you read, or something a colleague said in a meeting, or a restaurant a friend recommended to you, you’re not going to dig through your second brain. Instead, you’re going to ask a chatbot that sits on top of all of your notes, and the chatbot will return the right answer to you.

On the organizational side, if you have a question about a new initiative at your company, you’re not going to consult the internal wiki or bother a colleague. You’re going to ask the internal chatbot, and it will return an up-to-date, trustworthy answer to you in seconds.

On the cultural side, if you want to know what your favorite podcaster says about a specific topic, you’re not going to have to Google them, sort through an episode list, and listen to a two-hour audio file to find the answer. Instead, you’ll just ask a chatbot trained on their content library, and get an answer instantly.”

[III]: Historical analogies for large language models

How will large language models (LLMs) change the world?

“No one knows. With such uncertainty, a good exercise is to look for historical analogies—to think about other technologies and ask what would happen if LLMs played out the same way.”

[IV]: How to Get the Most Out of ChatGPT

Learn to leverage the most disruptive AI of the year

This essay contains many, many GPT use cases.

“We shouldn’t qualify ChatGPT as more or less intelligent (the concept doesn’t even apply to it) but as more or less suited for a given task. As an autocomplete system with a high component of randomness, pure creativity, inspiration, ideation, etc. are the tasks for which it’s best suited.”

“Besides creativity, ChatGPT is also viable for tasks that enter the “factual quer[y]” territory—as long as the user has the knowledge to fact-check it afterward. If you manage to save time with ChatGPT, then that’s a great use case you got there.”

[V]: Hidden uses of ChatGPT

Nothing hidden about it, but here you go:

[VI]: PubMed GPT: a Domain-Specific Large Language Model for Biomedical Text

The dataset used for training the model “contains around 50B tokens and spans a collection of 16 million abstracts and 5 million full-text articles from the biomedical literature, as curated by the National Institute of Health.”

“The total training time for Pubmed GPT was ~ 6.25 days. Using placeholder pricing of $2/A100/hr, the total cost for this training run on MosaicML Cloud was ~ $38,000.” 

Here is their code: stanford-crfm /pubmedgpt

The researchers “demonstrates the capabilities of industry-specific large language models—specifically for the field of biomedicine. Using the MosaicML Cloud platform, CRFM trained a 2.7B parameter GPT on biomedical data from PubMed that achieves state-of-the art results on medical question and answer text from the US Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) — highlighting the promise of domain-specific language generation models in real-world applications.” 

Subscribe now

Book Title:

Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master by Robert Barron.

I have been attempting to read more about Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy. It is something I have wanted to do for several years, but I kept pushing it.

I am finally getting some mileage here.

I have read some parts of Ed Feser’s Aquinas – which is really good, by way – but then I figured out I need to go a little bit lower in terms of the technicality of the content, before stepping it back up again. Bishop Barron’s Thomas Aquinas turns out – amongst some others – to be very beginner friendly.

Bishop Barron started the book with a light introduction to the life and writings of the Saint. St. Aquinas was one of the most influential thinkers of the medieval period – he was also a Dominican friar and priest.

Aquinas was born in Italy in 1225, and he completed what we can call his undergraduate studies in philosophy at the University of Naples. He joined the Dominican Order – not without many hindrances from his family –  and continued his studies at the University of Paris.

His signature style was the amalgamation of Aristotle’s philosophy and Christianity.

Here is the book:

Aquinas is well known for his book, Summa Theologiae (ST), where he sought to provide a comprehensive summary of Christian theology. He produced several other important works, including the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard and the Disputed Questions on Truth. On his way to the Council of Lyon in 1274, he fell ill and died on March 7 in the Cistercian abbey at Fossanova.

In this book, Bishop Barron discusses Aquinas's mode of theology, his most potent (spiritual) critiques, and, of course, his exegesis of various subjects. Including but not limited to the incarnation – the belief that God became man in the form of Jesus Christ; divine simplicity – the doctrine that God is a being without parts; theodicy – the aspect of theology that deals with the problem of evil; happiness; beauty; and many others.

All of these, in just 130 pages. What else could one ask for?

The book is a fine introductory text to Aquinas's thought, much easier to read than the actual ST (format). Another thing to add is that it has a more Christology (and spiritual) flavor.

Book Title:

Formation: The Making of Nigeria From Jihad to Amalgamation.

A good friend of mine sent me a copy of this book from the UK just around the time I was starting to get neck-deep into writing my Ph.D. Thesis last year. I had promised myself I would read less of other materials so I could focus on writing, but I couldn’t fulfill that promise.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Formation, occasionally setting up a timer to make myself stop reading so I could go back to writing. Anyone interested in either modern Nigeria or the making of Nigeria will find this book enjoyable.

Formation tells the story of pre-colonial Nigeria from 1804 to 1914. As such, it covers Dan Fodio’s jihad that had a massive impact on the Niger-area states – an impact so mighty that we continue to feel its pulse in 21st-century Nigeria.

In the 19th century, the jihad sacked many Hausa kingdoms and also catalyzed the dissociation of Ilorin from the Old Oyo Empire, which in turn led to the continued disintegration of the Oyo empire. That century also saw several internecine warfares amongst the Yorubas.

Amid this furor, Abeokuta was birthed, and the need for an alliance with the British State to materialize its progressive and liberal ideas. There is also the Clapham Sect Era, which saw a fruitful and progressive collaboration with the locals in Southern pre-colonial Nigeria. This sect pushed for education and trade in commodities, moving away from the dastardly international trade in human bodies in the previous years. This era saw the likes of Jaja of Opobo and Bishop Ajayi Crowther.

Next is the post-Clapham Sect Era, where power indeed changed hands. This period kick-started with the scramble for Africa (Berlin conference), of which pre-colonial Nigeria was not left out. Needless to say, it was an era of imperialism and subjugation. This era also saw the sale of the Nigerian territories to the British State by the Royal Niger Company for £865,000 in 1899. The acquisition led to the consolidation of various protectorates, which they administer via the indirect rule.

One thing led to another, and you have the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate in 1914, in which the authors state:

More than a century later, such asinine amalgamation had led to such an umbrageous debacle in the polity, with activists now springing up demanding the end of the country. And for those who have not yet resigned all hope, they wait restlessly for a messiah to steer the wheels of the poorly managed country.

Subscribe now

Book Title:

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau.

$100 startup is about starting a side hustle, a microbusiness. This book is somewhat outdated largely because there is little available marketplace infrastructure at the time of writing (2012) to enable revenue from side hustles (so the author did not cover this). Today the creator’s economy is mature. With platforms like Coursera, YouTube, Kajabi, Roll, Circle, and the like. Nevertheless, this book is still pretty good. In fact, very good for anybody new to entrepreneurship.

It follows the follow your passion (skillset) model because you have very little to lose if things don’t eventually work – which is usually the case. And the author, rightfully, quickly added:

“In the rush to pursue a passion, a number of things tend to get left out. First, you can’t pursue just any passion—there are plenty of things you may be passionate about that no one will pay you for. Remember the all-important lesson of convergence we’ve been looking at throughout the book. You must focus continually on how your project can help other people, and why they’ll care about what you’re offering in the first place. I like to eat pizza, but no matter how passionate I am, it’s doubtful I could craft a career around my love for mushrooms and black olives. Instead, I had to find something more interesting to the rest of the world.”

And for the ‘$100 part’ of the title, it indicates an extremely low startup cost model. The writer emphasizes that this is not about starting the next great startup on the block but the ability to put your resources to use and do good for yourself financially if you choose to. The book - in spite of its publication date - has good startup tips.

Things you would expect ‘everyone’ to know, but that isn’t always the case in practice. For example: “a good offer has to be what people actually want and are willing to pay for,” “price on the basis of value, not time,” and “you must learn to think about value the way your customer do, not necessarily the way you would like them to.”

I also liked his emphasis on making the value proposition extremely clear. If this is not clear, and you go and start a business, good luck to you! It is easy to get carried away with UI and flashy screens these days that you might run the risk of forgetting what the hell you are doing in the first place. Very easy.

Finally, another thing I liked about the book is the lovely little templates for getting the interested reader started: a template for drafting a mission statement, a pager for a business plan, an instant consulting business template, steps to market testing, and a product launch checklist. All of which are still available on the book’s website.

Book Title:

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Make Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell

I bought Build almost as soon as it was released. I know of Tony Fadell, but only remotely.  But the folk who was wholly involved in the production of the iPod, iPhone, and Nest. Indeed, whomever Tony was, he must have a long story to tell. There goes the Amazon 1-Click.

And, of course, nobody comes out of the blue and starts popping up great products like the iPod and the iPhone without the requisite experience. To quote Charly Munger, the world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.

Build is a part memoir, part start-up book. You can read about Tony’s impressive career here, and I will briefly go over my main takeaways from the book in this blog.   

I once read a while back that one of the hallmarks of a good book is its impregnability to summarization. If such proclamation holds, which it does, my summary will be incomplete.

What should I do?

“The best way to find a job you’ll love and a career that will eventually make you successful is to follow what you’re naturally interested in, then take risks when choosing where to work.”

This sounds straightforward enough, but not really when you are in the driver’s seat. There are a couple of models for identifying fulfilling careers. Cal Newport seems to have a competing model in his book ‘So Good They Can’t Ignore You,’ where he argues that passion comes after you have already put in the hard work to become valuable. Afterward, Cal argues it will follow that you will find your career fulfilling.

Tony didn’t spend any time discussing his philosophy in-depth; however, I find Tony’s model much more intuitive because there is just a natural way interests drive the hard work needed to garner the right skillsets to eventually make a career fulfilling. But there is something to be said for Cal’s model: sometimes you will know what you are interested in until after trying it and putting in some decent work.

And then the risk part. Here is another quote from the book: “The only failure in your twenties is inaction. The rest is trial and error.”

Most people would agree with this. Life gets busier (and more challenging) as you grow older, primarily because of more responsibility and, at some point, lesser energy as you grow older.

But a complementary and much broader point here is that one should choose an impactful and challenging goal to reach such that even if you fail, you can hardly call it a failure.

Where should I work?

“You could go to Google, Apple, Facebook, or some other giant company, but it’ll be hard to maneuver yourself to work closely with the rock stars. And you should know you’re not going to make a real impact. Not for a long time. You’re a pebble bouncing off an elephant. But you’ll be a well-paid pebble-eating free kale chips, so if you do go that route enjoy the paycheck while working on your tiny piece of some vast and endless project. Then spend your ample free time getting a feel for the structures and divisions, the micro-disciplines, the processes, the research, the long-term projects, and the long-term thinking a company can do when shipping tomorrow isn’t critical to its survival. That stuff is good to know.”

First, he advises finding a business/field on the verge of (or starting) a revolution: a novel, emerging field so you can ride the tide of the wave. And then you work with your heroes in the field, preferably in a small company with “30-100” people, which will give you a great deal of contact with people you really want to learn from. And hopefully, that will get you started in building a career.

Subscribe now

Managing teams.

Once you have picked up things that will allow you to thrive in your career, you can stay on as an independent contributor, or you could become a manager. If you want to become a manager, there are six things he advises you to know.

One, if you are doing it solely for money and prestige, there are other alternatives that promise a similar paycheck. Two, being a manager means stopping what made you successful; now, there will be more meetings, hiring, mentoring, and the like.

Three, management has to be learned. It is not a talent. Four, your number 1 job is that your team produces high-quality stuff. Five, telling your team the truth at all times is more important than your leadership style. Six, train at least a person on your team that will replace you. You shouldn’t worry about being outshined.  

How to make decisions

There are two kinds of decisions. Opinion-driven and data-driven decisions. Knowing the difference and when to use them is the key to good decision-making. An opinion-driven decision is a decision ultimately impervious to facts on the ground and numbers aggregation – you just have to follow your guts. As opposed to a data-driven decision. However, properly viewed, a lot of decisions are driven by both kinds, but with a predominant class. Again, knowing the difference is critical. I really loved this simple model. It qualifies as a first principle of decision-making.   

What is your product?

“Your product isn’t only your product. It is the whole user experience.”

There is something called brand, and it does have a meaning. Your brand is your product, and your product is the entire customer journey and touchpoints. 

Tony strongly advises that you draw pictures, make models, and think it through in detail. A customer sees your ad on YouTube, say, so what happens next? Every touch point has to be mapped entirely, even after buying your products, everything in detail.

Use analogies

Tony said one of the things he learned from Steve Jobs is that analogies give customers superpowers. In 2001, in a small press conference, Steve used the analogy “1,000 songs in your pocket” to describe the iPod.

This immediately gives the customer a contrastive framework with the status quo, i.e., CDs and tapes, that will only let you do one album at a time with ~ ten songs. What a significant improvement!

I still remember the first time I used an iPod; it was far away in southwestern Nigeria. It felt like magic. It was so small. So many songs, and it sounds so well. If I could afford one then, I would have bought it the next minute.

Almost two decades later, even while the product has been discontinued, I still have one.

On deadlines.

“You need constraints to make good decisions and the best constraint in the world is time. When you’re handcuffed to a hard deadline, you can’t keep trying this and that, changing your mind, putting the finishing touches on something that will never be finished. When you handcuff yourself to a deadline—ideally an external, immovable date like Christmas or a big conference—you have to execute and get creative to finish on time. The external heartbeat, the constraint, drives the creativity, which fuels the innovation.”

When I was in grad school, I tracked the time I spent working on my Ph.D. projects every day. When I analyze my data each year, something is always difficult to ignore – a spike in focus time close to the summer conferences. While conferences have its many benefits. An added benefit for me and so many grad students is that it allowed us to make good decisions and finish our projects. 

Profitable business

There are three, hopefully, progressive stages in profitability. With the first version of your product, you are still trying to find your fit, finetuning your products, and shipping out prototypes.  This is the stage where you outsource many things because your team is still small. Essentially, this is the stage where you have achieved some level of product market fit. Your customers at this stage will be the early adopters and innovators, folks who are okay with a few things being buggy. At this time, you are not profitable.

The next stage is when you have your “V2” ready. This product is adopted by the ‘early majority.’ In addition, you should have a profitable product, i.e., making a gross profit on each product sold. Some of the operations being outsourced are now being brought in-house.

You should have a refined product at the last stage, where your customers are mainly the ‘late majority and laggards.’ The main expertise for your operation is in-house at this point, and you should have (or aim for) a profitable business.   

“Until you optimize the business, not just the product, you can never build something lasting.”

In summary, you create a V1 product, scale it for V2, and then optimize the business in V3.

Spotting great ideas.

“The best ideas are painkillers, not vitamins.”

If you can, you want to build what people need. Badly.

Building et al

“Fifty percent of marriages fail, but 80 percent of startups do.”

The latter part of Build discusses Tony's advice on starting companies: you want to get quality experience by working in a startup first, and later in a big company. You need great mentors. Find a complementary cofounder, and build a founding team starting with seed crystals: folks who can bring extraordinary talents to your company.

His advice on cofounders:

“But be careful—even if you have a cofounder, there can only be one CEO. And if you pile on the cofounders, you’re asking for trouble. Having two founders works well. Three can work sometimes. I’ve never seen it work with more.”

On a founding team:

“When you close your eyes, you should already know exactly who your first employees will be. You should be able to write down a list of five names without a second thought. If you don’t have that list of names ready before you start, you probably shouldn’t be starting.”

On VC:

“Remember, once you take money from an investor, you’re stuck with them. And the balance of power shifts. A VC can fire a founder, but a founder can’t fire their VC. You can’t divorce them for irreconcilable differences… Typically, a VC needs between 18 and 22 percent to make their model work—step carefully if they begin asking for more. And don’t assume they’re the only game in town—if your gut is telling you to keep looking, then keep looking.”

Speaking of VCs, there is another excellent book I read on venture capital about a year ago: (Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It by Scott Kupor. It’s really good)

Coda

Build is a book that guides the reader from starting out, deciding on what to do, to starting your company, raising money, building companies, selling your companies, and everything in between. The breadth of the domain covered is impressive. The insights are gold, for anyone who wants to build anything in our world today. I certainly enjoyed reading it.

“In the end, there are two things that matter: products and people. What you build and who you build it with.”

Book Title:

A Shorter Summa: The Essential Philosophical Passages of Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica by Peter Kreeft.

Subscribe now

If you don’t know him for some reason, Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican friar and priest who lived in the thirteenth century. He is one of the most influential theologians in Christian history with his signature approach of synthesizing Aristotelian philosophy and Christianity principles. 

One of his signature works is the Summa Theologica, which means the Summary of Theology. Though it was unfinished, standing at over 5000 pages, the question is, what hope does an ordinary person have to read the book? And the Summa isn’t a romance novel in your local bookshop. The ideas are as deep as they could get.

Here comes the Shorter Summa, and as the subtitle says, it is the essential philosophical passages of Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. The book is written by Peter Kreeft, a professor of philosophy at Boston College.

It's a little book at 165 pages compared to the 5k pages of the original set. Another thing is that, as I stated earlier, Aquinas is not easy to read. However, successfully engaging with his work can be very impactful. Here is Dr. Kreft:

“There are three kinds of philosophers: those who at first seem clear, but upon further readings become more and more obscure; those who at first may seem obscure but become clearer and clearer upon each reading (St. Thomas is the prime example of this kind), and those who seem obscure at first and remain obscure.”

The second point I will make is that Summa would be unintelligible if you are not very familiar with the basic concepts and technical terms in Aristotelianism. Reading Shorter Summa has made me realize, for example, that I really need to bone up more on my Aristotle.

My third point will be to state that reading Aquinas feels different (and can be dizzying) because of the way he structured his writing.  The main building block of the summa is the “Article,” which takes the form of a question with a Yes or No answer. An example of an “Article” is “Whether Sorrow Is the Same as Pain?” or “Whether God Exists.”

Each Article then has five structural parts: 1) the question. 2) several objections to the answer Aquinas will ultimately present. This second part is quite exciting and impressive because he basically steelman an argument (helps the folk at the other end of the debate to construct the strongest form of their argument). This was why Dr. Kreft, in the book, stated,

“One who is seeking the strongest possible arguments against any idea of St. Thomas will rarely find any stronger ones, any more strongly argued, than those in St. Thomas himself.”   

The third part of the Article is his own position on the issue at hand. The fourth part is his justification for that position, and finally, the fifth part is where he addresses the objections raised in the first part.  Talk about rigor!

The summa, in general, concerns itself with the ‘cyclic nature of the cosmos,’ starting from the birthing of the material universe from God, culminating in the creation of humans, and the procession of humans back to God via Christ and the religious rituals.

In summary, the book is just a super short snippet of Aquinas's full story. In it, Dr. Kreft chooses related articles in ethics, Aquinas epistemology, and psychology, proofs for the existence of God, the nature of God, Aquinas Anthropology, et cetera.

Rating (over 5): ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The somewhat low rating, more than anything else, represents my insufficient understanding of the underlying Aristotle’s philosophy.

In addition to my essays and ‘around the web’ posts, starting soon, I will be attempting a new blog session on book reviews which will come in two flavors: bite-size reviews and long reviews. For the former, the goal is to write something you can read in only four minutes; and see for yourself if it’s a book you will enjoy. If you have been following me on Instagram, these upcoming blog posts will be an extension of what I post there, book-wise, but now with more word counts.

For the long book reviews, this will be ideally a book I really enjoyed and want to write a couple of thousand words about (I will assume this will be rarer than short versions)

And if you are new here, my interests are transdisciplinary, so you can expect book reviews from the following subject areas: philosophy, biomedicine, psychology, theology, sociology/anthropology, startups, chemistry, statistics, machine learning, etcetera.

In the meantime, this is what I am currently reading:

A Shorter Summa: The Essential Philosophical Passages of Saint Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica by Peter Kreeft

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making - The New York Times bestseller by Tony Fadell

Subject Area: Books

Summer is here, and I have a few suggestions if there is still some space in your summer book bag or if you are looking for a rejig. At least half of the books here are somewhat heavy reads, but I guess that’s fine. It covers several domains, including philosophy, data science, start-ups, anthropology, and biomedicine.

Hopefully, you will find something you will enjoy.

[Biomedicine]

Lifespan: Why We Age - and Why We Don't Have To by David Sinclair

Lifespan is the most important book I have read so far this year. The author champions an information theory of aging. Simply put, we age because of something called the ‘epigenetic noise,’ which alters gene expression patterns that, in turn, lead to a decrease in tissue functions and overall aging. Notably, the book discusses what an average folk can do today to potentially increase her lifespan plus what the future will look like in terms of lifespan extension. The author thinks lifespan extension is inevitable.

Read my essay Why We Age. To see if you would like to read the book.

[Philosophy]

Aquinas (A Beginner's Guide) by Edward Feser

I have tried to read Ed Feser’s Aquinas multiple times, but I haven’t been patient enough to pull it off. Finally, I am making some headway this summer. So, I will say it is not a beach book. You will need to be more invested. If you are interested in Thomistic philosophy, natural theology, and the like. This is a great book. The book starts with a mini-biography on Aquinas, Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics, natural theology (the five ways), and the like.

I have an essay on St Aquinas you can read to whet your appetite. St Aquinas on Trial.

Subscribe now

[Data Science]

The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect by Judea Pearl

A robot (AI system) can't tell the difference between correlation and causation. For a robot to be endowed with this capability, the mathematization of causation and causal inference must be straightened out. This is the story the book shares - the algorithmization of causation. The authors started with the history of correlation and causation. (And the suppression of the latter in the statistical field.) This suppression led to the unnecessary obfuscation in the identification of smoking as a cause of lung cancer, which led to many deaths. Dr. Pearl introduced the ladder of causation, which is effectively the spine of the book: 1) observing (this is the realm of machine intelligence today), 2) intervention (What ifs questions), and 3) counterfactuals (imagination: What if I had done X). The book carefully climbed up this ladder introducing Bayesian networks, confounding and deconfounding, back door adjustment, front door adjustments, paradoxes burst with casual thinking, structural causal models, etc. Finally, Dr. Pearl ended with an audacious prophecy about machine intelligence - Al systems that can think and be self-aware.

[Start-ups]

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell

I am currently completing Build; it is a part memoir, a full exposition on building products in the 21st century. Written by the creator of the iPhone, iPod, and Nest, it is quite an exciting story, and it’s more than that – Farrell gives his take on building a career. This is an excellent book for anyone remotely interested in start-ups.

[Anthropology]

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World by Rene Girard

“Things Hidden” is one of the most important and challenging books I have read. So, this book (and Girard) is potentially a summer project on its own, especially if you are unfamiliar with the world of Girard. Girard’s theory of mimesis explains quite a lot of things – one is tempted to say it explains everything. Why are humans violent? Why does it seem many of us never get satisfied by anything? What explains our obsession with prestige? What is the origin of culture, religion, and political institutions? How does Christianity destroy myths?

If you are thinking about whether “Things Hidden” will be worth reading, you can start by reading these essays of mine: We are all Copycats, Prestige as an Illusion, and Twins, Mirrors, and Taboos.

Happy reading!

[MBB grant updates: applications are now closed, reviewers are reviewing applications. The plan is to release the result and award the grant money before the end of January 2022.]

This year, I didn’t read many books partly because I was busy writing one (my Ph.D. thesis), but mostly because I read more technical and longer books. My favorite is Girard’s Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, hands down. Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics will come next. Then, Formation: The Making of Nigeria by Fola Fagbule and Feyi Fawehinmi.

These are some of the books I read in 2021.

Interpretable Machine Learning

by Christoph Molnar

Perhaps it will be befitting to start with a confession: I have not read many machine learning texts that are well written like Christoph’s book. It is technical, and at the same time, not very technical.

I am a biochemist who works in a field that uses morbidly old Interpretable Machine Learning (IML) method(s), and to read the book feels like taking in large quantities of very cold water after a wild soccer game on a merciless hot (summer) day.

It feels like I have just read ~30 recent papers(!) in IML – papers that I wouldn’t have had the time to read, which is what a good book should get you. The book started with a friendly introduction to the field, followed by intrinsically interpretable models, model agnostic models, neural network interpretations, and some prophecy on the future of I(ML).

Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives

by Benedict XVI

I understand that this is the third entry in The ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ series by Ratzinger, but I decided to start with the 3rd anyways.

Very much like Ratzinger, this work is insightful, and it left me enlivened (and in thirst) about the subject. It probes the theology of the birth of Christ: starting from the genealogy to the double annunciations (John the Baptist + Christ), all the way to the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple.

Intellectuals and Race

by Thomas Sowell

A professor thinks and writes clearly about race; and its contemporary politics.

The Elements of Investing: Easy Lessons for Every Investor

by Burton G Malkiel, Charles D Ellis

If you want to start investing and are unsure where to start, this is an excellent place to start. And expectedly, it starts with 1) ‘get out of debt,’ and 2) ‘save.’ Followed by the ‘gospel’ of index fund investments.

The Song of the Bird

by Anthony de Mello

This is a short book of stories, parables, and tales revolving around religious truth, religious life.

Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It

by Scott Kupor

Secrets of Sand Hill Road is a pretty informative book to explore the world of Venture Capital (VC). Scott describes what VC is, how they chose startups to invest in, their limited partners, what to think about when forming your startup.

Significantly, he went through the details of VC term sheets (which I gracefully left for another day, if I will need it.) And the two scenarios of a good exit (Acquisition and IPO.)

Hands-On Gradient Boosting with XGBoost and scikit-learn: Perform accessible machine learning and extreme gradient boosting with Python

by Corey Wade

The book builds up carefully from decision tree learning, one of the simplest machine learning algorithms (ML) out there, which takes the form of a literal decision tree.

Decision trees can then be bagged into other ML algorithms such as random forests, gradient boosting, and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), all covered in the book. A strength of the book is its emphasis on hyperparameter tuning.

The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and the Blockchain Are Challenging the Global Economic Order

by Paul Vigna, Michael J. Casey

Paul and Michael’s book is slightly outdated but still very relevant as an introductory text. The very basic idea of the blockchain, specifically in finance, was unpacked.

They work the reader through the history of money (metallism, chartalism, that kind of thing) and financial institutions, contemporary banking system, and then how the blockchain tech can lead to the next evolution in the series – many of which we are beginning to witness.

The critical point is to unhinge your grandma’s currency from the idea of money – i.e., money qua chartalism. With the blockchain solution being: 1) an inviolable universal public ledger and 2) an incentive for users to keep the ledger up to date. The rest are details. And, of course, one must add the keyword: decentralized. They also briefly touched on other use cases of blockchain tech, i.e., dAPPs.

Formation: The Making of Nigeria From Jihad to Amalgamation

by Fola Fagbule, Feyi Fawehinmi

A good friend of mine sent me a copy of this book from the UK just around the time I was starting to get neck-deep into writing my Ph.D. Thesis. I had promised myself I would read less of other materials so I could focus on writing, but I couldn’t fulfill that promise.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading formation, occasionally setting up a timer to make myself stop reading so I can go back to writing. Anyone interested in either modern Nigeria or the making of Nigeria will find this enjoyable. Here is a fairly long review.

Formation tells the story of pre-colonial Nigeria from 1804 to 1914. As such, it covers Dan Fodio’s jihad that had a massive impact on the Niger-area states – an impact so mighty that we continue to feel its pulse in 21st century Nigeria.

In the 19th century, the jihad sacked many Hausa kingdoms and also catalyzed the dissociation of Ilorin from the Old Oyo Empire, which in turn led to the continued disintegration of the Oyo empire. That century also saw several internecine warfares amongst the Yorubas.

Amid this furor, Abeokuta was birthed, and the need for an alliance with the British State to materialize its progressive and liberal ideas. There is also the Clapham Sect Era, which saw a fruitful and progressive collaboration with the locals in Southern pre-colonial Nigeria. This sect pushed for education and trade in commodities, moving away from the dastardly international trade in human bodies in the previous years. This era saw the likes of Jaja of Opobo and Bishop Ajayi Crowther.

Next is the post-Clapham Sect Era, where power indeed changed hands. This period kick-started with the scramble for Africa (Berlin conference), of which pre-colonial Nigeria was not left out. Needless to say, it was an era of imperialism and subjugation. This era also saw the sale of the Nigerian territories to the British State by the Royal Niger Company for £865,000 in 1899. The acquisition led to the consolidation of various protectorates, which they administer via the indirect rule.

One thing led to another, and you have the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate in 1914, in which the authors state:

“The Southern Protectorate was to be merged with its much less financially buoyant and landlocked Northern neighbor. This was considered especially shrewd by the pinny-pinchers in London, given the high cost of achieving and maintaining military conquest in that country.”

More than a century later, such asinine amalgamation had led to such an umbrageous debacle of the polity, with activists now springing up, on almost a daily basis – demanding the end of the country.    

Metabolic Phenotyping Meets Machine Learning: Detecting Renal Cell Carcinoma in Urine

by Olatomiwa O. Bifarin

Since I wrote this and read it, I might as well put this here. This is a thesis I wrote towards the completion of my Ph.D. degree at The University of Georgia.

In summary, I merged chemistry (metabolites detection and identification) with computer science (classic and explainable machine learning) to detect and stage kidney cancer in urine. It is still under embargo, but you can read the full abstract here.

I have published two papers from the work, which is about 70% of the thesis content. I hope to publish the last major work of the thesis early in the next year.  

Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

by Howard Schultz, Dori Jones Yang

I focused on the early days of Starbucks in this very readable memoir. First, it had an interesting (and intricate) founding story. The company started as Il Giornale, founded by Howard Schultz. Il Giornale acquired Starbucks in 1987 (Starbucks Coffee Company was initially founded by Jerry, Zev, and Gordon), together with the right to the name ‘Starbucks Coffee Company.’

Howard had worked with the original founders of Starbucks before leaving to found Il Giornale after an irreconcilable business operations preference (selling coffee beans vs. selling coffee beans + selling the actual drink, ‘fast drink’).

In the book, Howard wrote about his journey building Starbucks into a giant corporation; he spoke to what made Starbucks unique, its employee-focused business philosophy, aggressive vertical integration of operations, quality-driven business model, and the like.

Principles: Life and Work

by Ray Dalio

Ray’s book is nice. The first part (his autobiography) is simply fantastic, but the second session (the actual principles) is a little redundant and turgid - which is not to say they aren’t useful ideas, they are. It’s just a rather boring read. So, I came across an app by Ray the other day, which goes by the book’s name. I have yet to try it out, but it might be a useful resource to metabolize the book’s content.

Building Your Book for Kindle

by Kindle Direct Publishing

If you look to publish your book on Kindle, this is a great resource. I wrote a Ph.D. Memoir, which was initially intended to be published on Kindle, and this resource works you through every bit of the process to have a well-formatted Kindle publication.

Wander: An Abridged Ph.D. Memoir Essay

by Olatomiwa O. Bifarin

Again, since I wrote this and read it, I might as well put this here.

Wander is a memoir written by Olatomiwa Bifarin about his Ph.D. experience in the United States. In this 5000-plus-word essay, he tells his story of completing a Ph.D. program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Georgia.

His tales highlight the surprising benefit of wandering and the counterintuitive – and no less potent – benefit of how being less competitive can improve one’s odds of success.

These lessons apply not only to folks who want to get a Ph.D. but even more so to anyone who engages in any kind of knowledge work. As he has stated in the essay, his memoir will benefit equally “prospective graduate students, local novelists in your hometown, or even actors in Hollywood.” You can read it here

Themes and Variations

by David Sedaris

Short and funny essay. I picked this up because I wanted to do something different: it turns out to be too lewd for my liking.

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

by Thomas Sowell

Basic Economics got to be one of the clearest books I have read on the free market and economics in general. He discussed the many ways in which economics and politics can be incompatible. To quote Thomas Sowell: “The first lesson of economics is scarcity, the first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” My only quibble is that, at 700 pages, it’s bloody long. But really, who cares? Even if it’s a thousand-page. One of the best books I read this year.

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World

by René Girard, Stephen Bann (Translator), Michael Metteer (Translator)

Girard delivers on his promise; if one can take such an appealing book title, as one. And he had his foot in so many ponds - fundamental anthropology, literary criticism, biblical theology, psychology, et cetera. His theory of mimesis explains quite a lot of things - one is tempted to say it explains everything. Why are humans violent? Why does it seem many of us never get satisfied by anything? What explains our obsession with prestige? What is the origin of culture, religion, political institutions? How does Christianity destroy myths? In my estimation, there is a small price to pay for such deep insights like Girard’s: “Things Hidden...” is a difficult book to read. One of the best books I have read and definitely one of the most difficult. Some chapters just went right above my head - I will read it again.

Escape From Reason

by Francis A. Schaeffer

Escape from Reason is a book on philosophy and Christianity that explores how the former, at least in the contemporary definition, shadows the latter. If you will, it is a history of philosophy book that details the evolution of modern humanism via philosophers like Kant, Rousseau, Sartre, and the like. My only critique of the book is the situation of St. Aquinas at the root of this evolution, which is detailed in my essay, St Aquinas on Trial.

Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies

by Geoffrey B. West

How do the properties of things change as the size changes? In this brilliant book, Prof West investigated what (and how the) properties of organisms, cities, and companies change as the size changes. He gave stimulating scientific explanations for closed-ended growth in biological organisms and open-ended growth in cities. And then he closed with the subject of sustainability: is the open-ended growth (that we see in cities) possible forever? I wrote an essay inspired by the ideas in this book titled: Why we die, but cities don’t.

Have a nice 2022, and happy new year, in advance.