Venkatesh Rao
Writer and consultant; founded the blog Ribbonfarm and now writes the Contraptions newsletter on technology, history and organizations.
City of Fortune by Roger Crowley
I read that last month, and visited Venice while I was reading it, and I was struck by the extent to which medieval Venice was a well-oiled political economy machine.
on contraptions.venkateshrao.com · 3 Jan 2025
Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber
I don’t know about you, but I personally feel starved of ambitious sensemaking frames for recent history that aren’t quite as silly as say Friedman’s World is Flat or Harari’s Sapiens, or quite as ideologically compromised as Graeber’s Debt.
on contraptions.venkateshrao.com · 17 Jun 2023
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
I don’t know about you, but I personally feel starved of ambitious sensemaking frames for recent history that aren’t quite as silly as say Friedman’s World is Flat or Harari’s Sapiens, or quite as ideologically compromised as Graeber’s Debt.
on contraptions.venkateshrao.com · 17 Jun 2023
Slouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong
Slouching Towards Utopia offers one thought-provoking answer to the question that is worth taking seriously, and integrating into your thinking.
on contraptions.venkateshrao.com · 17 Jun 2023
The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
I don’t know about you, but I personally feel starved of ambitious sensemaking frames for recent history that aren’t quite as silly as say Friedman’s World is Flat or Harari’s Sapiens, or quite as ideologically compromised as Graeber’s Debt.
on contraptions.venkateshrao.com · 17 Jun 2023
Everything Venkatesh Rao recommends — not just books — on rcmnd →