Bookshelf

This section covers the information I consume, including books, newsletters, and podcasts. I am always eager to learn from diverse perspectives across various fields, my direct messages are open for suggestions.

As a guiding principle for books, I prefer timeless classics over new releases that are SEO-optimized, with catchy titles and flashy covers. In line with the Lindy Effect, books that have been around for 500 years are likely to remain relevant for another 500. Read these first.

📚 Books

Spanish:

• El Passo Honroso: The story of Suero de Quiñones, a knight who engaged in battles to prove his valor. The Spanish version of the pas d’armes.
• Amadís de Gaula: Frequently referenced by Don Quijote. It establishes the canon of chivalric virtues like courage, loyalty, and courtesy.
• Don Quijote de la Mancha: Read it in Spanish. Learn the language if necessary. It’s a dense and lengthy book, but at least read Don Quijote’s tips. Listen to this with your eyes closed. He may be delusional, but ethically, he is profoundly sane.

Sociology, Economics, Game Theory, Human Coordination:

• Why Nations Fail: Classifies institutions as inclusive or extractive. Loved the concept of critical juncture and examples like the Glorious Revolution.
• Proof of Stake: The story behind Ethereum and its Proof of Stake mechanism, which replaced energy-intensive mining. I closely followed this transition and was part of it to some extent.
• A Fine Mess: A great book on taxes, exploring their purpose, ideas for fairness, and the concept of a broad base, low rate.
• The Bitcoin Standard: Bitcoin is just a pretext here. It’s a great book to understand money, its origins, and potential future.
• Meditations on Moloch: A metaphor for coordination problems. Understand how your actions impact collective outcomes.
• Poor Charlie’s Almanack: This summary is also excellent. Offers valuable life tips.
• The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money: A classic by Keynes advocating for active fiscal policy.
• The Wealth of Nations: A classic by Adam Smith arguing against active fiscal policy, suggesting markets allocate resources efficiently.
• Still seeking more perspectives here, open to feedback. Pending: Views of Karl Marx and Hayek.
• John Locke is also pending: Possibly Two Treatises of Government, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
• Structure in Fives: Pending. Understanding organizations through their structural elements.

Startups:

• Getting Real: Once read, everything seems obvious, but in my career, I’ve seen these rules frequently broken.
• Zero to One: Disruptive technologies, moving from 0 to 1 versus 1 to n.
• The Lean Startup: Pending.
• The Power Law of Venture Capital: Ongoing.

Religion, Spirituality, and Morality:

• Though I haven’t finished them all: Old and New Testament, The Quran, The Torah, Analects, Talmud, Dhammapada, and Meditations. Some were challenging to digest, so summaries or companions might be helpful.
• How Much Land Does a Man Need: Great short stories. The best one truly answers the question of how much land a man needs.
• Meditations:
• The Psychology of Optimal Experience:
• Siddhartha: Pending

Technical Books:

• Computer Networks:
• Discrete-time Signal Processing:
• Introduction to Algorithms:
• Cryptography and Network Security:
• Understanding Cryptography:
• Communication Systems:

Tech and Open Source:

• The Cathedral and the Bazaar: The story of Linux. Gift culture as an economic model. Open source from a more pragmatic perspective than Stallman’s.
• Free Software, Free Society: A bit more radical than The Cathedral and the Bazaar, but interesting.

Risk Management:

• The Killing Zone:
• The Checklist Manifesto:
• Living with High-Risk Technologies:

Miscellaneous:

• Permanent Record: Useful for understanding privacy and surveillance. No need to wrap your room in foil paper and live under the constant fear of being watched, but be aware.
• Outliers: Explores extremely successful people and their hidden advantages, cultural background, timing, and opportunity.
• The Culture Map: How people from different cultures communicate, lead, make decisions, and trust each other differently. A must if you work with people from different cultures.

Short Pieces:

• On Exactitude in Science: A great piece by Borges on abstraction and complexity.

🎙️ Newsletters and Podcasts:

• Work in Progress: Highly curated articles on relevant topics.
• Sifted: News and stories about European startups.
• Hacker News: News from YCombinator covering technology, startups, programming, and entrepreneurship.
• IEEE Spectrum: Tech news from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
• Money Stuff: Bloomberg newsletter by Matt Levine, focused on finance.
• Kapital: Spanish newsletter and podcast featuring great guests, covering economics, finance, and philosophy.
• Itnig: Spanish podcast about Spanish startups and founders.
• The Generalist: Venture capital and technology that are changing the world.
• Lex Fridman: Podcast featuring insightful discussions on intelligence, consciousness, love, and power.
• La Fórmula de la Sustentación: Spanish podcast about helicopters.
• Aerovía: Spanish podcast about aviation.
• Aerotime: Newsletter about aviation in general.
• Dealflow ES: News about the Spanish startup ecosystem.
• Ethereum Research: A forum with in-depth research on distributed systems, cryptography, and the Ethereum ecosystem.
• Seeds of Science: Newsletter about science in general.
• TLDR Newsletter: Latest technology news.
• Eugenio Monesma: Documentaries about traditional trades, festivals, customs, legends, food, and rituals. One of Spain’s largest ethnographic archives.