Books

Hillbilly Elegy

A kid grows up in a poor, dysfunctional family and somehow makes it into Yale. 

My wife, a devoted memoir reader, read this when it came out and hated it. The only books we’ve ever mutually loved have Harry Potter in the title, so this was a positive signal for me. 

Turned out there wasn’t much to love nor much to hate in my experience. The writing was respectable but not remarkable. The story was familiar for those of us who grew up in socioeconomically analogous communities. Same with its insights—nothing too surprising. That is, unless you’re a coastal elite in a bubble, and then it apparently blows your mind. 

For a directly comparable masterpiece of the genre, read The Glass Castle. For a similar story with different textures, read Angela’s Ashes or This Boy’s Life. 

Three stars for its class, mostly unexceptional.

The Wealth of Nations 

Adam Smith invents modern economics at a glacial pace. 

This was a grind. Even with the benefit of knowing what to look for, it’s exhausting to extract the core theses from the interminable illustrations of silver prices and pin factories. 

It’s one of those enlightenment works that felt zero urgency and zero obligation to cater to its reader. It’s a degree of authorial selfishness that’s inconceivable in 2025. 

And you’re going through all that just to mine out a handful of economic ideas that come to modern readers with mothers’ milk. 

Despite what the other book says, reading Adam Smith will not change your life, except that it’ll wipe out forty hours. 

I guess it’s a five star book as a historically influential work, but don’t bother reading it unless you’re consciously courting the clout. 

As an actual reading experience, it’s a two. Read Basic Economics instead, which is more entertaining, more edifying, and less demanding.

What do you recommend for basic economics?

Day three: Basic Economics 

Ok, banger. 

I read this on the strength of its appearance at the top of https://danromero.org/books/ and I loved it. 

Its North Star is “Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses.”

Even the genuinely basic parts felt refreshing and instructive. 

But the application of the fundamental principles to real life cases like rent control had me going “yeah… yeah!”

It’s strongly pro-market, and part of why I liked it is that it deftly confirmed my priors. 

But I think even a flag waving socialist would have to concede that it’s well crafted (even if they believe that it’s ultimately misguided). 

I gave copies as gifts last year to friends and family. I’d recommend it over Wealth of Nations by a mile (reading Adam Smith didn’t change my life lol). 

5 stars, strong recommendation

Basic Economics is the title, heh

https://warpcast.com/7858.eth/0xaa74b308