Second Group of Books I Read in 2024

Reading Period: May 24 - Present

1. Discrete Mathematics and its Applications (P), by Kenneth Rosen

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1800803.Discrete_Mathematics_and_its_Applications

    In preparation for a placement exam, which if I passed I would have tested out of a Discrete Math course at the University of Chicago, I ended up reading a majority of this book. Unfortunately, the exam did not work out and I ended up having to take the course anyway, during which I re-read nine of the thirteen chapters multiple times. This meant that I did hardly any other reading over the summer, and also that I now have a pretty good handle on the topics covered in discrete mathematics. I would categorize this book as tough, but fair. The material is fairly challenging, but it is clearly an excellent introduction into the world of computer science. I would guess that there aren't any "better" books on the subject, but I also think it is clear that there are better ways to learn the subject than through a textbook. 

2. Situational Awareness (P), by Leopold Aschenbrenner

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214290546-situational-awareness

    Probably the most thought-provoking book I have read in quite a few years. Leopold is clearly intelligent, and in general I share his outlook in broad strokes. I think he is too overconfident, as it seems fairly likely that scaling LLM architecture is not going to result in AGI. I listed to a podcast recently with Francois Chollet, the creator of Keras, who insists that LLMs struggle to generalize regardless of scaling. Leopold strongly disagrees, without proof, and claims that AGI by 2027 is the most likely scenario. Leopold claims to be in the "inner circle" of AI capability development, and he that he knows everyone of importance in the AI race, or at least is separated by no more than one mutual connection. He sees his previous investing prowess (longing NVIDIA in 2023 and shorting the market before COVID) as proof of his ability to call events, and he leans on his one-year tenure at OpenAI on their superalignment team for insider credibility. Leopold was let go by OpenAI and is now starting his own investment fund, at the ripe age of 22. He is too brash and overconfident, to a degree that I think harms his greater points. I don't trust someone who worked at an AI lab for a year when draws a straight line on a few data points and tells me that a curve is exponential, and I would guess that readers not ingrained in the same quirky social groups as Leopold won't buy many of his claims either. Personality quirks aside, what Leopold did with this book is extremely impressive.

    First off, I think he legitimately changed my opinion on a few things, especially his points about the importance of avoiding a close AI race between the US and China. Leopold states that "superintelligence is a matter of national security, and the United States must win." Also, he rightfully points out that AI research will be the first main target of automation. Once we get AGI, why waste time with any area of development in the world except AI research, if more AI research will make smarter models that have better judgement? In addition, Leopold find the idea of Silicon Valley CEOs deploying superintelligence as rightfully ridiculous, and has extremely insightful views on the competitive dynamics within geopolitics and how history will likely repeat itself. I find his views as innovative as they are terrifying, but I think he is more or less correct. He is also fearful of AI use by totalitarian regimes, as he states:

"A dictator who wields the power of superintelligence would command concentrated power unlike any we’ve ever seen. In addition to being able to impose their will on other countries, they could enshrine their rule internally. Millions of AI controlled robotic law enforcement agents could police their populace; mass surveillance would be hypercharged; dictator loyal AIs could individually assess every citizen for dissent, with advanced near-perfect lie detection rooting out any disloyalty."

    Leopold is a geopolitical realist, and he has his head firmly grounded in the history of war and competition we have seen play out over humanity's lifespan. I think perhaps the only downside of this book from a utilitarian perspective is that it could "wake up" China to the race dynamics happening, but it is probably more important that the dynamics of the new cold war be realized by those in the US early, even at this risk. What I find strange about this book is that I think Leopold might have crazy foresight. Sure, it could all be brash, youthful arrogance, but some of these ideas make almost too much sense. I am not going declare this book prophecy. But if Leopold is as smart as he thinks he is, he might as well be a prophet. 

First 10 Books I Read in 2024

 Reading Period: January 1 - May 24

1. The Well of Ascension (A), by Brandon Sanderson

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68429.The_Well_of_Ascension

    In a tragic start to my year, I read the first Brandon Sanderson book that I really did not like. Granted, I listed to the entire audiboook during an ultramarathon, and frankly I wasn't in the best mood during the 36-hour race in which I did not sleep a second. Still, I am certain that I would have disliked the book regardless. The plot was slow, the characters were not interesting, and Brandon breaks his own rule: characters should be smart and act in logical ways that don't endlessly frustrate the reader.

    Historically, many television romances with poor writing fall victim to the same tropes over and over again. The most common one that frustrates me is some easily-fixable miscommunication that is dragged out endlessly in order to create conflict between characters. Every time, this simple mis-communication could be solved with ten seconds of dialogue (example: "oh that was my cousin that you saw at my apartment! Not my ex-girlfriend! I get how you were confused, but here's a picture of her as proof). Horror genres often offend me for similar reasons. Often a main character will shoot a "bad guy" once in the stomach, and, without any checking or proof, the main character will walk away and assume that the bad guy is dead. Of course, they are never correct. Still, the worst horror-trope is when characters trust obvious villains that anyone with a single brain cell would be suspicious of. I find myself screaming a the screen, yelling "the guy literally looks exactly like a vampire! His fangs are dripping with blood!" Still, from time to time I enjoy this. Especially if the intent of the writers is to provoke such a reaction. The audience is supposed to be "in-on-it" for most horror films, expecting dumb characters who communicate horribly, make terrible decisions, and trust obviously untrustworthy people. But frankly, I expect more from Brandon Sanderson. 

    A microcosm of my dislike of this book is displayed clearly in relationship between Vin and Zane. Zane is the worst character Brandon has ever created, and this character dynamic is easily the most unbelievable and frustrating idea of his as well, for all of the lazy "trope" reasons listed above. I don't honestly have a lot to say positive about the book, except for the fact that the ending was executed well. But a good ending cannot sway my opinion of the 80% of the book that didn't resonate.

2. Never Finished (A), by David Goggins

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63079845-never-finished

    Also tragic. Simply not a well written book, and there was no content in here that wasn't already covered in much more impactful fashion in Can't Hurt Me. Honestly, David comes off very poorly in this book, seeming like more of a braggart and injury-prone masochist than before. Unfortunately, I feel like his character display in this book makes his previous book worse and less psychologically impactful.

3. Warbreaker (A), by Brandon Sanderson

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1268479.Warbreaker

    Thank the God Emperor! An actually great book, and Brandon Sanderson back in true form! Words cannot express how happy I am to read a very solid addition to the Cosmere, especially after my last read. The worldbuilding is well executed, the characters are engaging, and everyone acts logically! Sure, the characters make pretty grave mistakes that are hammed up a bit, but these mistakes are in character and certainly more interesting than frustrating. The romance is great, the mystery is intriguing, and man do I love Lightsong the Bold. Excited for the next read.

4. The Coming Wave (A), by Mustafa Suleyman

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/90590134-the-coming-wave

    Awesome book. My central disagreement is regarding Mustafa's insistence that the superintelligence-related risks of AI are overdone and not really worth worrying about. Also, he is fairly dismissive of AI consciousness and general alignment issues, and he is much more focused on near-term risks and the eventual power struggle that will cloud AI development. I strongly agree with the magnitude of AI progress that Mustafa insists will happen. He claims, "over the next ten years, AI will be the greatest force amplifier in history." Still, he sort of sees a path towards decentralization, as many of the current AI products (such as Chat GPT) are in the hands of millions of users. According to Mustafa, everyone has access to the best smart phones in the world, and everyone has access to the best chatbots. He extrapolates from here that this trend will continue, and people will continue to maintain somewhat equal access to the smartest AIs. This, in my opinion, is  clearly wrong. The idea that everyone will have an AGI in their pocket, and thus small actors will be able to attack the state with cyberattacks and drones, is in my opinion the wrong issue to think about. In reality, all roads lead to centralization, as there are winner-take-all dynamics at play with whoever controls the smartest AIs.

    Let's take a look at China. If Alibaba developed ASI, and it was swiftly controlled by the CCP, it is hard to see how individuals will maintain access to AIs that in any way rival the ASI. If the CCP is willing to curb the human rights of millions of people, why would they not do the same for billions? Or trillions? Mustafa seems to think AI progress is going to be fairly linear, in that biomedical advances and other technologies will play a huge role in this "coming wave." As Yudkowsky says, AI is not the "new electricity," its something smarter than you. In my opinion, AI is really the only relevant driving force of the future, all of Mustafa's other points pale in comparison to anything that gets past the point of AGI.

5. The Yellow Wallpaper (A), by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/286957.The_Yellow_Wall_Paper

    Interesting read, although very short. I wanted to kickstart my reading again after taking a lot of time off for studying, and this was a good window back into good fiction.

6. A Guide to Starting Your Hedge Fund (P), by Erik Serrano Berntsen

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25180966-a-guide-to-starting-your-hedge-fund

    Not really that great of a book for many reasons. This book is a technical guide to starting a hedge fund, complete with detailed legal instructions and various marketing/management guidelines. Starting a hedge fund is basically the same as starting a mutual fund company, and there is a huge overlap between the two (performance attributions, marketing material, legal structure). The main difference is simply the strategy implemented, and the way in which risk is measured. As I figured, the greatest obstacle is fundraising, a part of the business most would love to avoid.

7. The War on the West (A), by Douglass Murray

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58838847-the-war-on-the-west

    Eh, really not worth the read. Douglass sets out to defend the West's honor and crush the silly liberal opposition to Western history, culture, and progress. I think he makes a lot of valid points, but his argument style is needlessly confrontational in order to steer off the reader's boredom. He also has some bad arguments. For example, in his discussions of BLM and hate crimes, he lists out an extensive number of anecdotes of hate crimes that were faked. This is to point out that racism is overblown and that white liberals suck, which may or may not be true. But Douglass doesn't have the numbers and/or evidence to back any of this up. His anecdote-based-argument is destroyed by a single example, such as the racist attack in Charlottesville where a white supremist drove a car through a crowd, killing someone. All it takes is a few of these sort of examples and Douglass's credibility evaporates. He just needs better arguments or a more interesting topic.

8. The Hero of Ages (A), by Brandon Sanderson

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2767793-the-hero-of-ages

    Honestly, not my favorite Sanderson novel but miles better than the previous book in the series (The Well of Ascension). The end nicely wrapped up the Mistborn series, a series that I found pretty lackluster start of finish. Still, this endpoint to the trilogy was certainly the best in the series, and there are a few moments that stick out as really cool. The action was great, and some of the bad plot points were wrapped up in the previous novel, so we didn't have to sit through any more of the horrors of the Vin and Zane romance. 

9. The Secret History (P), by Donna Tart

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29044.The_Secret_History

    Donna is a very good writer. Still, this book is entirely too long for what it was. I read the first 250 pages about a year ago, and for the life of me could not bare to attempt the next 250 pages. I finally mustered up the courage to power through, and after all was said and done I felt pretty underwhelmed. The book follows a group of college students who study classic literature and language under the wing of a professor named Julian. Julian says things like "I'll tell you what the classics are. Wars and homos." and "Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming." The students are all really weird, and from an outsiders perspective I was hoping the whole time that  they all got hit by a bus. The drama is sort of interesting, I just wished the book was way more fast paced. There are some good throwaway lines I liked a lot, such as "Love doesn't conquer everything. And whoever thinks it does is a fool." But overall I just don't think this was that good of a story, and I wouldn't recommend the book.

10. When Breath Becomes Air (P), by Paul Kalanithi

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25899336-when-breath-becomes-air

    Similar to The Last Lecture, this book follows a man who has a terminal illness and decides to chronicle his life and his thoughts on life and death before he passes away. Paul is a decent writer and his story is moving, but I wish he had a more completed book that had more philosophical musings. The prologue, for example, is excellent. The next part of the book chronicles his life and career as a doctor, and the end section is meant to chronicle Paul's diagnosis and his outlook moments from death. Unfortunately, I don't think he really had time to write anything super insightful at the end, and the book is thus mostly full of tales of Paul's life as a doctor (which are interesting and made me confident that I would never enjoy anything in the medical field). Maybe I demand too much from the terminally ill, but I think there are many ways these sorts of books could be made more powerful and thought-provoking.