The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb was my favorite read this quarter. Although probably the most well-known book in the Incerto series, it was the last one I read. I learned a lot. I was a little disappointed to learn that Nassim and I would not walk well together (I’m a fast walker), and that I resemble “non-Brooklyn John” (the antithesis of Fat Tony). Beyond that, the book left me inspired to find more ways to expose myself to positive Black Swans.

Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne is a great read about the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful of the Native American tribes. Beyond the part of American history that was new to me, I appreciated most learning about three main characters: Quanah Parker, John Coffee Hays, and Ranald Mackenzie.

How to Know a Person by David Brooks was pitched to me as “a high IQ How to Win Friends & Influence People”. Brooks’ The Road to Character hit me like a freight train when I read it in 2017, and I got value from Dale Carnegie’s work…so I was in. In one of our potential futures, AI takes over a lot of knowledge work—in which case the value of EQ & relationships increases. This is a sound reason to keep those skills sharp.

Red Rising is a sci-fi novel my college roommate recommended to me. It was so fun that I purposely took the long way walking to places so I could continue listening to the audiobook. It reads like 1984 meets Dune meets Hunger Games—on Mars.