I set a goal to read a book a week in 2019 and pushed past that goal around November. I took a leaf out of Bill Gates’ book in taking a ‘think week’. I loaded up the Kindle and went to Portugal to walk the Fishermans trail. This was hugely…

Readings Sarah Chayes, Thieves of State (2015) Rory Stewart, “The Irresistible Illusion” in London Review of Books (2009) Based on long experience in US-occupied Afghanistan, Sarah Chayes argues that corruption fuels violence. But who will take responsibility for ridding the world of corruption, and how could it be done? Rory Stewart…

Readings: Alexandre Kojève, Tyranny and Wisdom (1950) in On Tyranny Leo Strauss, “Restatement on Xenophon’s Hiero” (1959) in On Tyranny Why not have a world government? If there is a single rational way to rule, why shouldn’t rationality rule the world? Progressive Russian-French emigré Alexandre Kojève, who helped lay the…

The original article was written by Anthony H Ratcliffe on the 5th March 2019. In June 2016, the UK’s economy was the fastest growing of the G7 countries. Today it is the slowest. In June 2016, 450 of the 650 Members of Parliament were for Remain; all the western democratic…

Week 2 Notes Continuing on from week 1, here are my notes on Thiel’s course on Globalisation. Readings this week were much more holistic and interpretations were varied, some very interesting conversations came from what sets up for a very interesting continuation in week three. The readings: Meaning in History…

I have been following the Russell Berman and Peter Thiel class at Stanford with a collection of Londoners who have all come together fortnightly to follow the readings. Globalisation; Prophecy versus History. Readings: Francis Fukayama; The End of History? (1989) Kishore Mahbubani; Has the West Lost it? (2018) Stephen R. Platt; How Britains First Mission…

I’ve written this to document my ideas for where autonomous driving is heading and what companies and regulators need to focus on. For those unfamiliar with autonomous driving I make reference to the 5 levels of autonomy, these are graphed below, the rest should be pretty self explanatory. I will…

AI superpowers - Kai-Fu Lee ✅ 11/18 This is a great read for anyone who is interested in AI. A strong historical and future perspective presented throughout the book. It is very bullish on China, which I agree with. Fascism: A Warning - Madeleine Albright ✅ 11/18 Madeleine Albright is the first woman to serve as Secretary of State under Bill Clinton. A great personal…

I’ve been much more methodological about my reading material this year as well as diligent about the consumption of it. …