Five Links for December 2024
Every month, the five most mind-expanding links to read/watch/listen. If you find these interesting, please do share with your friends.
Book Review: The Rise Of Christianity by Scott Alexander
“In 40 AD, there were maybe a thousand Christians. Their Messiah had just been executed, and they were on the wrong side of an intercontinental empire that had crushed all previous foes. By year 400 AD, there were forty million Christians, and they were set to dominate the next millennium of Western history.”
The world population is set to peak at 10 billion, but the earth could support 10x that number while maintaining quality of life. (If you need more convincing that 100 billion is possible, start here)
How Good Are American Roads? by
Americans like to complain about the lack of mass transit, but we actually have something to be proud of: the largest and arguably the best road network in the world.
The blue cities must be fixed by
The bluest cities in the country shifted right in the last election. Noah makes the case that in order to be credible leaders, Democrats have to fix the cities they’ve been solidly in control of for over 20 years.
The Social Network Was The Most Important Movie of All Time by
Art Criticism for Tech Nerds: the tech industry relies on founders and engineers, and The Social Network meaningfully increased the supply of both.
Bonus (Behind the Curtain): Mistakes from my Failed Startup in Scalping Concert Tickets by
Everyone agrees that the concert tickets market is totally broken, but fixing it is much harder than it looks (especially when 95% of tickets pass through the hands of bots)
Bonus (Listen): Morning Brew founder Alex Lieberman: what B2B marketers get wrong on World of DaaS podcast
Morning Brew’s Alex Lieberman, who built a business newsletter with 4 million+ subscribers, explains why B2B marketing is so far behind B2C, and what B2B marketers can do to catch up.
Election Bonus (Listen): Vivek Ramaswamy: Leadership, Innovation & Ideology on World of DaaS podcast
A very candid, in depth talk about fixing the government and jumpstarting the American economy. Vivek also talks about the little known forces that drive the pharmaceutical industry and what’s holding it back from greater innovation.
Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts or watch on YouTube
Election Bonus (Listen): Daniel Lurie, Running for Mayor of San Francisco on World of DaaS podcast
Daniel Lurie will be the next mayor of San Francisco. Earlier this year, he outlined his plans for dealing with crime and reforming the city’s massive $700 million homelessness budget.
Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts or watch on YouTube
More reading links at https://twitter.com/AurenReads
Recommended book of the month:
Note: in the past I listed all the books I read in the previous month. But most of them were not very good. So from now on, i’m just going to recommend the one book worth reading.
Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
20 years after releasing the Tipping Point, Gladwell comes out with the sequel.
Recommended TV/movies:
Eighth Grade (2018)
If you are looking for a great comedy.
buying the smallest house on the block has been the absolute worst advice that financial planners give
don’t put yourself in a position to keep up with richer Joneses
Auren Hoffman is CEO of NQB8, Chairman of SafeGraph (geospatial data on physical places), and GP at Flex Capital ($200M VC firm). Engage on X: @auren
and please share Five Links with your friends and allies.