Naval Ravikant's Review of The Rational Optimist

“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.”

“Start with thoughtful overviews like “The Lessons of History,” “Sapiens,” and Matt Ridley’s books.

“The Dark Forest Hypothesis also assumes that communicating with a civilization is harder than destroying it. It’s a fun hypothesis but hardly a steel trap explanation for the Fermi Paradox. As you say, the Rational Optimist shows the more likely outcome.

“To answer your question - shortcut to Munger, M Ridley, Harari, Feynman, Darwin, J Krishnamurti. It'll be different next year ;-)

“The Rational Optimist

“Getting into the more evolution, science kind of books, Matt Ridley’s The Evolution of Everything. I recommend everything by Matt Ridley. I think he’s great. I really highly, highly recommend picking up Genome, The Red Queen, Origins of Virtue, The Rational Optimist, and The Evolution of Everything.

“"Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari is the best book I've read since "The Rational Optimist" (@mattwridley). Both orthogonal and deep thinkers.

“@ericingram Have you read "The Rational Optimist?"-Trade is the basis of pretty much everything, including language, society, & virtue.

“@pkedrosky "The Rational Optimist" by Matf Ridley

“@kul Better. Black Swan is one (very important) idea that may have been better as an essay. Rational Optimist is worthy of a book.

“Fantastic. Also read Matt Ridley. 🙏

“I also read his book The Rational Optimist, which helped me realize that it was rational to be optimistic, because of the technological and scientific advancement that we’ve had as human species since we first came across the stone ax and basic tools.

“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 😉.

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

“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

“Depending on your mood, either The Sovereign Individual, Sapiens, Siddhartha, Total Freedom (JK), The Untethered Soul, or the Rational Optimist. Books are cheap, buy all and skim them for the one that grabs you.

“Feynman, Darwin, J Krishnamurti, Hitchens, Ridley, Harari, Aurelius, Seneca, Lao Tzu, Newton, Munger, Borges, D. Adams, Hesse...

“Reminds me of hypothesis in "Rational Optimist" that trade and exchange precede language, not other way around.

“Before that, [I gifted] The Rational Optimist, by Matt Ridley, [most to others]. In fact, anything by Matt Ridley I thought was really provocative and eye opening.

“"Books that just make me smarter about the world: “The Rational Optimist” by Matt Ridley is #1" via @jaltucher

“@pkedrosky Poor Charlie's Almanac, Black Swan, & Rational Optimist Most self-proclaimed business books are anecdotes presented as tomes.

“@djay75 exactly - that's Adam Smith and Matt Ridley (Rational Optimist) right there...

“Matt Ridley's "The Rational Optimist" is the most brilliant and enlightening book I've read in years. He has written 4 of my top 20

“The most brilliant and enlightening book I've read in years.