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Denver Cowan
Books
A collection of books I have read. (Psst click the title for my key takeaways)
Worldview
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
by Eric Jorgenson — ★★★★★
Hackers & Painters
by Paul Graham — ★★★★★
Math
Arithmetic
by Paul Lockhart — ★★★★★
Finance
The Intelligent Investor
by Benjamin Graham — ★★★★★
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Key Takeaways
Play positive sum games — if you play the right games then others don't have to lose for you to win.
Try to find work with leverage where your output isn't strictly tied to the hours you work.
You escape competition through authenticity; no one can be better at being you than yourself.
Follow your curiosity —
"Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now,"
"Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity… It can't be taught, but it can be learned."
— Naval Ravikant
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Key Takeaways
Math is often seen as the most rigorous subject, but it also has significant historical context which is largely missing in modern curriculumns which can make it feel like learning a bunch of disparate facts instead of a beautiful story.
Math is very much a creative endeavor just like painting, sculpting, writing, or any other creative activity.
I thought it was interesting how well arithmetic naturally flows in discrete math, combinatorics, and topics in probability, though this books only briefly touches on some combinatorics towards the end. (combinations, permutations, factorials)
If you have ever wondered "why?" certain aspects of math are what they are, this is probably a good book for you. it reveals some of the history and origins around the ideas that shaped math into what it is today. You'll see that like many other fields math to some degree is still man made.
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Key Takeaways
A greater appreciation of the shift in software distribution, particularly the challenges that server/web based software solved.
The beauty and challenges of LISP.
Being focused on the user above all else when building a company.
Much more I don't have space to put; definitely worth a read if you like the intersection of software, business, and philosophy.
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Key Takeaways
Price and value can diverge in the short run —
"In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine."
— Benjamin Graham
Always invest with a
margin of safety
— buy assets at a meaningful discount to their intrinsic value to protect yourself from errors in judgment.
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