Andrej Karpathy's Review of Narconomics

“Once in a while you read a book that shatters your preconceptions and updates your world view. In the wonderful "Narcoeconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel", Tom Wainwright (an editor at The Economist), explores the narcotics industry through an economic lens. You'll see how drug cartels are much more like McDonalds or Walmart than you previously thought: optimizing their supply chains, competing, forming mergers, colluding, worrying about human resources, public relations and brand building, offshoring, franchising, investing in R&D, dealing with rise of disruptive online marketplaces, diversifying (kidnapping, prostitution, human trafficking). You'll see flawed prison systems much more as recruiting grounds, jobs fairs or networking events. You'll see full-body tattoos as an employee retention strategy. By the end of it, you'll emerge with a more complete and coherent picture of the narcotics industry and its dynamics, understand why Nixon's war on drugs has been so ineffective, and ma