Naval Ravikant's Review of The Beginning of Infinity

“We are not running out of resources. Sustainability is an emotional argument easily countered by history, physics and knowledge but it has become a virtue-signaling religion and people refuse to educate themselves. Read “The Beginning of Infinity,” rewrite your brain, and become…

““Baruch asks, if I were to write a protocol for myself, what would it be to become enlightened? The first thing I would do is start meditating, and then I would read, concurrently I would read Objective Knowledge by Karl Popper. The reason for that is because this journey could… pic.twitter.com/oIYEgHKIj0

“Read “The Beginning of Infinity” and “The Fabric of Reality” first. If you do it right, it should take a year or two. Then we can talk about the rest of the list.

“I was pleasantly surprised a couple of years back when I opened an old book that I’d read a decade ago called The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch. Sometimes you read a book and it makes a difference right away. Sometimes you read a book and you don’t understand it; then you read it at the right time and it makes a difference. This time I went through it much more meticulously than I had in the past. Rather than reading it to say I was done reading it, I read it to understand the concepts and stopped at every point where something was new. It started re-forming my worldview. It changed the way that I think. I credit this book as being the only book in the last decade—except maybe a few of Nassim Taleb’s works and maybe one or two other scattered books—that made me smarter. They literally expanded the way that I think. They expanded not just the repertoire of my knowledge but the repertoire of my reasoning.

“Nobody agrees on what the right philosophy is and they contradict each other. So I would say read Deutsch / Popper and leave it at that.

“The Beginning of Infinity pic.twitter.com/C8VZTnh74t

“The Beginning of Infinity.

“"The Beginning of Infinity."

“Depends what you want. Science or philosophy or...? Beginning of Infinity, Rational Optimist, Skin in the Game are all amazing. If you want more eastern philosophy, try Siddhartha, I am That, Jed McKenna.

“The implications of Popperian / Deutsch philosophy - optimism, uncertainty, and unbounded growth - are unacceptable to the chattering classes.

“Study the basics, so you won’t have to take anyone’s word for it. Read the first few chapters of “The Beginning of Infinity” as many times as it takes until you have a clear understanding of how knowledge works. Test against nature and free markets, as they can’t be fooled.

“The Beginning of Infinity.

“Science: • Independently verifiable • Falsifiable • Makes risky and narrow predictions (read Popper / Deutsch)

“Haven’t read Bacon, huge fan of Deutsch - one of the most important books that I’ve ever re-read.

“[I recommend] The Beginning of Infinity Skin in the Game Siddhartha Direct Truth Snow Crash

“The books that I can read quickly, I don’t recommend. The books I recommend are ones that I savor, so the list doesn’t change much. Read and re-read everything by Deutsch, Taleb, Feynman, and Ridley. Come back when you’re done 😉.

“There are also many notable exceptions - Feynman, Deutsch, many who worked on the Manhattan Project. There’s no trend that more science makes them more left. In fact, it’s the opposite. Faculties move from left to right as you move from social sciences to natural sciences.

“Deutsch, Taleb, and Feynman mainly. Also Bohr, Schrödinger, Mandelbrot, Chait, Gödel, Rovelli, others (I know, some are mathematicians and some have never written a formal book on philosophy). On the non-physicist Western side, currently reading Schopenhauer.

“Depends how intense of a book you want. These days I mostly read math, science, science fiction, eastern philosophy, and philosophy written by scientists. My favorite recent discovery is “The Beginning of Infinity,” but resist the urge to go through it too quickly.

“Matt Ridley, Neal Stephenson, Taleb, Borges, Ted Chiang, Anthony DeMello, Osho, J Krishnamurti, Harari, Asimov, Bradbury, Greg Egan, Feynman, Schrödinger, Bohr, Chris Alexander, the Durants, Darwin, Adam Smith, David Deutsch, Karl Popper, Douglas Hofstader, Douglas Adams

“Yes. You can make a falsifiable claim without providing a good theory or explanation as to why that claim is true or false. Deutsch convincingly expands on Popper’s criterion in “The Beginning of Infinity.” Or listen to @ToKTeacher

“Popper, Deutsch, Schopenhauer, Osho, Krishnamurti, DeMello, Seneca, Kapil Gupta, Taleb, there are too many...

“The foundation of science is doubt. It is all about falsifiability. David Deutsch, who’s kind of one of my current modern living physicist heroes, is a Popperian. He subscribes to Karl Popper’s philosophy. And he basically says that if it’s not falsifiable, it’s not scientific.

“I wouldn’t waste time, honestly. Read Taleb or Deutsch instead.

“Start with The Beginning of Infinity. Then read Matt Ridley, Nick Szabo, David Deutsch, Nassim Taleb, Schopenhauer, Peter Thiel, Popper, Feynman, Art DeVany, Scott Adams, Jed McKenna. Recognize them when they challenge socially enforced mass-delusions with science and logic.

“David Deutsch, “The Beginning of Infinity.” Matt Ridley, “The Rational Optimist.” Nassim Taleb, “Skin in the Game.” Richard Feynman, “Six Easy Pieces.”

“Everything by David Deutsch, Nassim Taleb and Matt Ridley.

“It’s a big universe and our resources are essentially infinite, limited only by human ingenuity. Read “The Beginning of Infinity” by @DavidDeutschOxf

“Current reading list. Most into “The Beginning of Infinity” and “What is Life?” at the moment. pic.twitter.com/L1JncsXiIL

“Deutsch for sure. Please recommend starter books for the other two.

“Explores the nature of knowledge and its implications.

“A transformative book that aligns with Naval's thinking.