Notes on books and their screen adaptations. Dates below refer to when each post was published, not when I finished reading.
36 notes
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Project Hail Mary: Worth Watching, but I Prefer the Novel
After reading Project Hail Mary and watching the film, I compare the scientific reasoning, storytelling, and the spectacle I had hoped for.
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Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
Notes on genes, behavior, free will, and the circular causality that makes biological and social outcomes difficult to predict.
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A Little History of the World
A clear, humane world history for children and adults, shaped by a distinctive European perspective.
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The Hungry Golden Age: The Gains and Losses of the Qianlong Era
A review of The Hungry Golden Age on imperial expansion, property rights, the Macartney Embassy, and the decline hidden beneath Qianlong-era prosperity.
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The Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty: A Restudy of the Opium War
A reflection on the people, policies, institutions, and inherited narratives surrounding the Opium War and China's difficult path toward modernization.
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Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
Notes on Skin in the Game: asymmetric risk, accountability, decentralization, and why survival comes before elegant theory.
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The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
Reading The Bitcoin Standard through scarcity, stock-to-flow, monetary history, and sound money.
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The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
Reflections on Fei-Fei Li, AI history, immigration, scientific progress, and the American dream.
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Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Reading Why Nations Fail through institutions, critical junctures, innovation, and long-term growth.
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Business Cycles: History, Theory and Investment Reality
Notes on the history and theory of business cycles, market psychology, and investment reality.
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The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972
Reading American society from 1932 to 1972 reframes crisis, division, media change, freedom, and tolerance through a longer historical lens.
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Shi Nan Zhi Tu by Ma Boyong
A reflection on Shi Nan Zhi Tu, where food, a Nanyue mystery, delayed justice, and an immigrant's memory of home meet.
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Deep Simplicity: Chaos, Complexity and the Emergence of Life
A reflection on chaos, the three-body problem, and the limits of prediction across the universe, life, and society.
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A Matter of Degrees: What Temperature Reveals about the Past and Future of Our Species, Planet, and Universe
A science reading journey that uses temperature to connect the universe, the Sun, Earth, life, and human civilization.
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Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Notes on Antifragile and its lessons about randomness, experimentation, redundancy, and real life.
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Tai Bai Jin Xing You Dian Fan by Ma Boyong
A review of Ma Boyong's playful deconstruction of Journey to the West, where celestial bureaucracy, blame shifting, suspense, and compassion meet.
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Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
Notes on multidisciplinary thinking, inversion, reading, and decisive action inspired by Poor Charlie's Almanack.
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The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness
Notes on wealth, happiness, classic reading, and long-term consequences, connected with Atomic Habits, The Psychology of Money, and personal experience.
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Liu Shen Lei Lei Reads Tang Poetry
A romantic journey through Tang poetry, compassion, and criticism through the past, questioning the equation of criticism with hostility.
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Liu Shen Lei Lei Reads Jin Yong
Notes on Liu Shen Lei Lei's humorous cross-reading of Jin Yong: heroes, minor characters, compassion, modern analogies, and satire through the jianghu.
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Hou Hei Xue by Li Zongwu
A reading of Hou Hei Xue as enduring social satire about official rhetoric, human nature, and criticism of orthodoxy rather than a success manual.
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The Times: Countries, Society, and Individuals Under Cyclical Fluctuations
Notes on accessible macroeconomic storytelling, hindsight-based explanations, and the danger of oversimplifying causality.
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Hua Shan Explains The Art of War
Notes on winning before fighting, knowing oneself, and waiting for the right moment—strategic ideas that extend beyond warfare.
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Thoughts on Netflix's The Three-Body Problem: Question Cheng Xin, Understand Cheng Xin, Become Cheng Xin
A decade after first reading the trilogy, I reconsider its characters and my own shift from ruthless rationality toward human empathy.
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Just Keep Buying: Proven Ways to Save Money and Build Your Wealth
An evidence-based look at market timing, diversification, housing, luck, and why steady investing compounds over time.
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Elon Musk
Notes on a biography that inspires through rockets and electric vehicles while raising doubts about extreme cost cutting, rapid testing, and human cost.
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Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
A journey from Greek philosophy and classical physics to loop quantum gravity, alongside a personal reflection on a childhood love of physics.
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Programming Pearls
Rereading Programming Pearls after a decade, and finding durable engineering insight in algorithms, memory limits, disks, and simplicity.
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The Gains and Losses of Economic Changes in the Past Dynasties
Notes on recurring economic reforms in Chinese history and the tension among state power, private markets, institutions, and lasting prosperity.
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Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is
Notes on redefining problems: separating stated requests from real needs, and deciding when to help or step away from the source.
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The Details of Democracy
Reading notes on freedom, public opinion, institutional details, and why stories written fifteen years earlier still retain value.
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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
A geographic and ecological account of how agriculture, diffusion, and continental structure shaped long-term social development.
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Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
Notes on six reincarnations, three generations, social upheaval, rural hardship, satire, and finally letting go of hatred.
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A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century
A reflection on global history and how modernization, technology, intellectual freedom, and institutions shape long-term national development.
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Sword Stained with Royal Blood: The Peerless Statesman Yuan Chonghuan
A review of Yuan Chonghuan's biography that examines late-Ming institutions, imperial decisions, corruption, and the cost borne by ordinary people.
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Effective Modern C++
An index page linking to the author's review of Effective Modern C++ and its approach to modern C++ practice.