I couldn’t help but think when listening to Brief Answers to Big Questions by Stephen Hawking that we’re doing ourselves as a society a disservice by failing to inspire more young children to pursue careers in the sciences. The evening before reading this I sat at home explaining to my stepdaughter the basics of the big bang, the ongoing expansion of the universe and the theoretical concept of time travel through wormholes. The conversation kept her far more engaged than I’ve seen any of her school studies do.

I must confess I was left quite torn by the end of Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber. It starts with Graeber’s article of the same name and by the end I couldn’t help but feel that a series of articles to accompany the main could have satisfactorily made the point to sufficient detail. In the end it felt like he laboured a bit too much on length and repetition. As a result, the latter part of the book somewhat meanders towards a bit of a struggled end.

As I See It was one of the increasing number of autobiographies I came across through the Founders podcast. I’m always interested to learn more about successful figures both past and present and must admit that I knew little about J. Paul Getty until the podcast introduced me to him.

I’ve read a number of books on monetary history however Debt: The First 5,000 Years went in a slightly different direction to what I had originally expected. I purchased the book based on the title without even checking the synopsis and was expecting it to be a history on monetary debt and the consequences when debt levels get out of control. What I found when I started listening though was pleasantly surprising as it took a different lens to the topic of debt, credit and money to books I’d previously read.

At 13hrs 32 mins in audiobook form or 448 pages in physical this is a substantial commitment. Is it worth it? It really depends on how deep your interest lies in not just Apple but supply chain dynamics affecting US companies leveraging Chinese manufacturing. There are many books written on the rise of Apple both as a company and more directly focused on Steve Jobs. This isn’t one of those, instead this focuses more on the Tim Cook era and the shift towards the company leaning more heavily on Chinese supply chains to drive down the cost of production.

For anyone unfamiliar with Ross Edgley, bluntly putting it; he’s a beast! He has several books out now which in my opinion are all worth a read however Blueprint was the latest one that I’ve listened to. Ross is both as student of the body as well as a practitioner in pushing it to it’s limits.

Nick and Zak’s Adventures in Capitalism could be considered a memoir in discipline, conviction, patience and complete comfort with inactivity. The last part may require qualifying unless you have any existing familiarity with Nick, Zak or Nomad and their investing approach. As successful investors Nick and Zak excel in a trait that is almost counter to most people’s human nature, which is their completely comfortable in ‘doing nothing’ in the sense that if their investment thesis is working, they’ll continue as is without the need to interfere with the beauty of compounding just for the sake of ‘doing something’.

This will probably be one of the rare instances where I review and recommend a book and podcast in the same post however given the nature of Richer, Wiser, Happier by William Green and the accompanying podcast it makes sense to combine into one.