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#1 Complex System: As someone fascinated by complex systems, I found this essay fun to read. The author discusses “leverage points” within complex systems with real world examples and their counterintuitive behavior: “Counterintuitive. That’s Forrester’s word to describe complex systems. Leverage points are not intuitive. Or if they are, we intuitively use them backward, systematically worsening whatever problems we are trying to solve.”
#2 Vagabonding: If you’ve ever thought about traveling for extended periods, this book from Rolf Potts was a fun, light read about the history of travelers and stories from vagabonds throughout history.
#3 Reinventing Organizations: This book has been recommended to be about 5-10 times over the last year. I enjoyed the authors framing of the evolution of organizations and the emergence of what he calls a “teal” organization based on self-management. I think these types of organizations are ahead of where our culture is and doesn’t fit well with our modern concept of work, but it was great to learn from some organizations that have tried to question every assumption about an organization. Grab it here (gift economy model)
#4 Ethiopia: Tyler Cowen compares Ethiopia to China and predicts that it may become a global power: “But to understand its recent success, you have to go beyond policy — it is also a matter of their history, their confidence and, above all, their ideas.”
#5 Podcast/Prohibition: Good podcast series on Prohibition from American History Tellers. I learned a lot of crazy things here about the unintended side effects of prohibition as well as the weird political coalitions that united to make it happen in the first place.
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