Recommended books — Adrián A. Davín’s website

A few books I would recommend, in no particular order. I hope this list grows to at least 1000 books one day. Note to my future self: categorize into topics!!

Gods, Graves and Scholars: An almost novelistic account of some of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries. The book I recommend to anyone who wants to read about archaeology for the first time
Little History of Religion: Written by a former bishop, this is a beautiful description of the different religions of the world, equally enjoyable for atheists and believers. A book I normally recommend to many people and it has never disappointed.
Sea people: The Puzzle of Polynesia: The Polynesians are one of my favourite civilizations. This is an introduction to the topic with a focus on how the Western world came to know them and discover many of their extraordinary feats.
The Mystery of Capital: I read this book to better understand the economy of Peru when I was traveling the country and marveled at the uncountable unfinished homes that were everywhere. Hernando de Soto provided me with a framework to think about the economies of developing countries that has been very useful over the years.
1491 An excellent book that made me better understand the Americas and the peoples that inhabit them. Before reading this I underestimated the complexity of the societies and civilizations that once peopled the Americas.
The Case Against Education If you see that the education system is failing but fail to articulate what exactly is happening, search no more. The title is misleading though: this is the most pro-Education book that one can read. It is just against the education system, two different (and one could dare to say, opposite) things.
The Dawn of Everything: It might be beating a strawman at some point, but it is a very readable introduction to many of the discoveries coming from archaeology in the last decades. I find it an excellent point of departure to go explore different worlds.
From Peasants into Frenchmen: Until well into the 19th century (so in history terms, yesterday), you did not have to go to exotic islands or remote jungles to find cultures and people very different from you. This book explains how the modern nation-state colonized the people who lived in the villages and towns with very little contact with the big cities in France, like Paris or Lyon. These people had to be taught that they were French and that they belonged to a country. This is a very (very) detailed description that explains how that happened and abstains from moral judgements.
Fossil Future: This is a book that has grown on me over time. At first I was a bit dismissive of some of the arguments and I found it unfair at times. Now I think it is mostly correct, not only the scientific part but the moral framework he proposes.
Galileo’s Middle Finger: Alice Dreger was a rationalist before the modern rationalists (LessWrong adjacent) were a thing. This book is a very compassionate story about how she joins forces with an intersex person with the goal of changing some brutal medical practices that were popular until very recently.
The Dictator’s Handbook: This is a framework to think about politics, not only dictatorships but also democracies. Instead of thinking that governments are a single agent, we need to model them as concentric layers of different sizes and political power; the balance of these layers determines what sort of government we end up with.
The Identity Trap: A very compassionate explanation of why the ideas of the Identity Synthesis (a.k.a. the woke ideology) became popular. In hindsight, I found the explanation from Hanania’s “The Origin of Woke” more convincing, but this one was a good philosophical complement and probably a better starting point if you feel mostly neutral about these ideas.
Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud: This is a vast book in scope that discusses the most important ideas produced by humankind, starting with inventions like fire or Palaeolithic art: bear in mind that “idea” is defined very broadly. It might not contain a revolutionary new perspective but it covers so many cultural manifestations of so many cultures that it is impossible to read this and not end up with the feeling that one understands the world a bit better.
Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck: I think Yudkowsky is just plainly wrong about the AI dangers, but he is also a very original thinker: when he speaks, it is better to listen. In Inadequate Equilibria he identifies at least 3 aspects that explain why civilizations get stuck for some reason or another. This is a book that any Austrian economist could appreciate.
The Last Days of the Incas: One of the most entertaining history books on the conquest of the Americas. Kim MacQuarrie provides an excellent narration on the Inca and how they found their demise at the hands of the Spanish conquerors. Surprisingly well balanced, presents a fair account of both sides.
Who we are and how we got here: This book made me momentarily leave my career in bacterial evolution and switch to physical anthropology for a couple of years. David Reich is one of the fathers of the ancient DNA revolution and this is an information-dense summary of some of the most important discoveries in the field.
Economics in One Lesson: I would struggle to find a book in this list that had a bigger impact on me than this one. Before reading Hazlitt’s work, economics was a field shrouded in strange assumptions that seem to be applied arbitrarily. This book made me understand what economics really is (or should be) about.
Who’s in charge?: From the scientist who made research on split brain patients popular, this book forces you to reconsider some of the most basic aspects of our perception of the world.
Why Nations Fail: The book that got me thinking about how progress occurs. Although now I find Acemoglu and Robinson’s views a bit simplistic, I think Why Nations Fail is a work that can be read by anyone and that at least points in the right direction and conveys some important messages. It is certainly the best book in the trilogy (Why Nations Fail? - The Narrow Corridor - Power and Progress).
The Modern Mind: Peter Watson is one of my favourite authors. I read this book many years ago and it is one of the best introductions to the many sides of intellectual history, ranging from art to science, covering economics, philosophy, politics and an endless stream of authors and thinkers.
The Origins of Woke: An excellent explanation of the origin of one of the most damaging ideologies of our time. The emphasis is put on legislation and not so much on the philosophy: by trying to enforce with agencies and laws the ideas of Martin Luther King, the state ended up accomplishing the opposite of what it intended to do.
How the World Really Works: If you are interested in knowing how the world works, this is a good starting point. Vaclav Smil focuses on the main sources of material and energy that underpin our civilization.
The Armchair Economist: A jewel of a book that taught me to see the world with an open mind and that economic mysteries are everywhere. I love the neat description of economics in 3 words (people follow incentives), the defense of a priori knowledge in the field and his criticism of modern environmentalism.
Defending the Undefendable: A modern classic in which various people and professions (like the blackmailer, the pimp, the prostitute) who are normally stigmatized are in fact contributing in one way or another to a good society. You do not have to agree with all arguments to appreciate the fierce contrarianism and love for freedom of Walter Block
The Elephant in the Brain: Robin Hanson and Kevin Simler put together this absolute no-bullshit guide to psychology that describes how good humans are at hiding from themselves the real reasons for their behaviour.
The Origins of Political Order A monumental work from Fukuyama, summarizing the evolution of politics in different parts of the world. It has a second part that I have not read yet. There is a lot of information to be digested very slowly, covering the political evolution of civilizations as different as China, India or the Ottoman Empire.
The Scout Mindset: This is the book I normally recommend to people who could end up being good rationalists. There is barely a better introduction to it. The Sequences is just too harsh and too nerdy. Julia’s words resonate with a much larger audience.
Sex, Science and Profits: A terrible title and a very disorganized book. Geez, even the subtitle is bad and misleading: Why humans evolved to make money. And yet, it is full of interesting anecdotes and I think that the core thesis of the book (that public funding is not accelerating progress) is correct.
Guns, Germs and Steel: A book that has received in my opinion too much negative criticism from many sides; the main ideas are essentially correct and Diamond does a great job of integrating many different sources of information to provide one of the most readable big history accounts written in the last decades.
The Statues that Walked: If you are fascinated by the archaeology of Easter Island, as is the case for me, this book is a good starting point.
The Evolution of Everything: Matt Ridley covers a wide range of separate topics and offers a refreshing libertarian view of progress and science.
Medieval horizons: Why the Middle Ages Matter: “The Middle Ages” is obviously a terrible name, a product of bad historiography. Although many are already familiar with this, Ian Mortimer does a great job at explaining why the Middle Ages were not that boring time when nothing happened and instead a period of many societal and technological changes that still resonate today.
Imagined communities: If Economics in One Lesson changed me forever in economics, Benedict Anderson did the same in politics. After reading this I realized that I had been living in a dream and I had to wake up to the transparent ideology I was surrounded with.
The Enigma of Reason: This is the book that made me change my mind (again) on human rationality. For the longest time I just operated within the framework proposed by Kahneman (Thinking fast and slow). Now I think that Hugo Mercier presents a more convincing explanation of the strange behaviours that we humans exhibit.
Blueprint: For some reason, most people I know (even scientists) still think that most traits are mostly environmental. This is the book I point out to them when I want them to reconsider.
Chimpanzee politics: Some people think of specific politicians or parties, when they think about politics. Well, that’s the wrong approach. The same way that economics is not “about money”, politics is not necessarily about this or that other party. Politics is a universal field that appears when you have multiple agents competing for power. Chimpanzee politics is useful to understand that humans are not that special, not even socially; and that chimpanzees are incredibly brutal and sophisticated at creating coalitions.
Inca Apocalypse: To be read in combination with Kim MacQuarrie’s book. This is the more scholarly version about the fall of the Inca Empire. It summarizes the results of decades of scholarship and provides a well-balanced account of the Inca Empire, with a systematic comparison with the Spanish Empire that ended up subjugating it. I found the description of Spanish mythology particularly interesting. A good starting point to understand “narratives”.
The French Revolution & What Went Wrong: It is no secret that the French Revolution is one of my favourite topics. This book excels at presenting this period of history mostly from the point of view of Louis XVI, explaining at great length the events that led to the disastrous events that took place in Paris at the end of the 18th century. It made me feel very compassionate towards the monarchy and understand that real efforts were made to prevent catastrophe.
Order without design: Human beings have a terrible bias that makes them find intentional agents behind any complex structure. This book dispels the myth that the complexity of cities is (or has to be) the product of a single all-knowing agent. Cities that ignore markets will become just bad places to live in.
Bernoulli’s Fallacy: It contains an interesting summary of the development of statistics and probability ideas, and a fierce attack on the frequentist approach to statistics.
Triumph of the City Urbanism is incredibly interesting: it connects with art, history, economics, moral dilemmas… This book seemed to me like a great introduction to the topic. I would read it again.
How the World Became Rich: A superb summary on all the theories that analyze the reasons why we have had sustained economic growth for the last 200 years. A very good departure point for studies on development and a very valuable guide to discover other books exploring the topic.
A Brief History of Intelligence: This is an impressive book, in both ambition and breadth. The author describes in great detail how brains have evolved and how the machine learning algorithms that are becoming more and more powerful these days are very often solving problems that had already been solved by nature. Fascinating.
The Coddling of the American Mind: This is the book I would recommend to someone who wants to understand the damage that some of the most popular ideas in recent times are doing to society. The three ideas are: “what does not kill you makes you weaker”, “us against them” and “always trust your feelings”.
The World Until Yesterday: Jared Diamond’s very personal description of different traditional societies around the world. It starts (in Diamond’s normal style) a bit slow with some personal anecdotes but then becomes a very interesting “big anthropology” overview of the diversity of human cultures.
The Sequences / Rationality: From AI to Zombies: Yudkowsky has lately become better known to the general public due to his very vocal position on AI. But before that, I knew him as the author of a wonderful collection of blog posts that were wildly creative, arrogant and enlightening; it is almost impossible to read the Sequences and not suffer a major shift in your attitude towards understanding the world. This book, with all its flaws, had a great influence on me.
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: I struggled for years to understand modern art. I did try by reading other books such as “What are you seeing”. Then I had a realization: Modern art is not something to be understood from the inside, but from the outside. Read about economics and psychology and you will be better served than with any review from the most eloquent art critic.
Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan’s Skyscrapers: A very detailed description of how Manhattan went from being just a normal place with swamps, grass and forest to becoming one of the most interesting places in the world (yes, I am a big fan of Manhattan).
The Road to Serfdom: Hayek is one of my personal heroes. The most misunderstood of all of them. So going to the original sources is essential. If you do, you discover a Classical Liberal in the tradition of David Hume, allergic to dogmatism and surprisingly compassionate.
Philosophy of Science: Very Short Introduction: A Very Short Introduction: It is obviously “very short”, but still does not disappoint. Samir Okasha is a very interesting character whose books on the Price Equation and Agents are on my shelves waiting to be read.
Historia del Pensamiento (colección completa) de Jesús Mosterín: Sadly, it remains untranslated into English. The Historia del Pensamiento de Mosterín is a monumental work on the history of philosophy, including Chinese and Indian philosophies. I appreciate the no-bullshit straightforward approach of Mosterín.
The Art of Happiness by Epicurus: Epicurus is one of the most influential thinkers in history… Or he was for a while. That might not be our perception in this specific time in history, only because history was rewritten with the advent of Christianity and most of Epicurus’ manuscripts were lost. These are the only 4 surviving letters from him, and they are all worth reading.
Heresy: Jesus Christ and the other Sons of God: The uniformity of beliefs in Christianity is just the product of rewriting history. Long before the nation-states did this, the Catholic church was already perfecting the art. Heresy is about those beliefs that existed in the first centuries after Christ and how they were silenced and (almost) erased from the collective memory.
Los peligros de la moralidad: Only in Spanish so far (sadly). An excellent exposition of what makes morality dangerous. It is probably the best book I have read on the topic. It introduced me to some more recent ideas in the field such as the Dyadic morality theory, which seems to me more convincing than the theory of moral flavors. To be read in combination with “The Righteous Mind” and “The Identity Trap”.
Seeing like a State: I do not think it is particularly well written and I tend not to agree with some of the mechanisms that Professor James Scott uses to explain the behavior and failures of the states. However, I think it still contains valuable examples and stories about how top-down solutions to human problems are mostly harmful.
Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman: A biography of Richard P. Feynman, another of my personal heroes. I aspire to be as alive and full of curiosity as him.
Thinking Physics: This book is marvelous. Is it possible to understand physics without using equations? Just by developing an intuitive understanding by thinking about many different problems in the world? This book contains just that, a collection of problems that require no math. The problems are complex, but all of them can be solved by just thinking about them. It is much more enjoyable to read this book with someone and solve the problems for hours without looking at the solutions.
The Vital Question: Nick Lane does a great job at making metabolism a field that can be understood and not simply memorized. Biochemistry teachers across all high schools and universities should read this and take note. They seem to have forgotten Dobzhansky’s principle: “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”
The Pillow Book: A Japanese classic, written by a lady that served the Empress around the year 1000 in the Court of Kyoto. This is her diary in which she narrates her most intimate life, with all the intrigues, the lovers, the competitions with other ladies. In spite of the 1000-year distance, her worries and thoughts feel so relatable that it seems it was written yesterday.
The Last Lecture: This is a very moving book, written by a professor of computer science who received a fatal cancer diagnosis and had very few months to live. It is full of wisdom and motivation to go act now. Sad but important.
Just babies: A good introduction to things that we know are innate vs learnt, from studies with babies. I find it fascinating that many biologists I know still refuse to believe that some things are just written in the genes just because that “feels” bad.
Battle hymn of the Tiger Mother: I found this book hilarious. Above all, I like the honesty and the absolutely non-bullshit style of Amy Chua, who I find very brave for writing such a personal book. If anything, I think this could be a warning so that you do not become a “tiger mother” (or parent, or mentor), but even if I do not agree with her worldview, I found it very entertaining.
[Radical uncertainty]: This book contributed to waking me up from my Rationality slumbers and moved me onto the correct pathway, which is the path of rationality, written like that, in lowercase. It made me understand that the world is “large”, and nothing like the simplified Bayesian models we often use to understand reality.
Material world: I would consider this a book complementary to Vaclav Smil’s “How the world works”, but focused exclusively on the material aspect and on a reduced number of fundamental resources. Very entertaining and full of information.
What do you mind what other people think This was the first book I read by Richard P Feynman and, although not so good as “What do you mind what other people think”, it is also very relatable and very moving.
Rich dad, poor dad: In a list like this with many entries that are highly academic books, this one could be one that would raise more than one eyebrow. It is however a great book and I stand by it. It does teach something that very few books on economics or finance would do, something that is probably more important than many other things: it teaches a specific attitude towards money which I think is also the correct one.
Private truths, public lies: Probably one of the best defenses I have read on the importance of why it is
The WEIRDest people in the world:
Inventing the Renaissance
[A Conflict of Visions] Thomas Sowell presents two antagonistic ways of looking at the world: the constrained vision and the unconstrained vision. He does it in a way that presents them in very neutral terms. Though I am not convinced that this is a
Coming of Age in the Milky Way I
[The Righteous Mind] One of the key books to understand morality as a product of evolution and based on instinctive feelings. I think many ideas in the field have moved beyond Haidt’s ideas
[The Chrysanthemum and the Sword] This book was commissioned by the US Office of War Information from the anthropologist Ruth Benedict during World War II, with the goal of better understanding the mentality of Japanese people. I remember enjoying this reading very much, but I read it when I was 18 or 19, many years before I visited or lived in Japan. I do not know if I would find it as relevant today.
Thinking fast and slow
Factfulness
How the immune system works
Blood and Thunder