No doubt about that Nietzsche produced the climate in which Fascism and Hitlerism could emerge. Alexander the Great, Robin Lane Fox. Also though, everybody has bad luck and those who survive long enough to get good luck are very perseverant. If you havent read it dont read another modern book until you have. E.g his few pages on maths and economics which few economists seem to know about! I googled recently after getting no reply to an email and learned to my dismay that he died of cancer last year. Complexity Economics, Beinhocker. This excellent short book introduces quantum mechanics using A Level maths. Follow Julia Galef. Next week I'll write something for subscribers only on 'Some basics of how to do regime change'. Although Nietzsche despised nothing more than the radical left, he became extremely influential on it, perhaps because nobody else so thoroughly demolishes the foundations of liberal democracy, although, in a further twist, few of the left realise the extent to which they are influenced by him. The cynicism/realism remains shocking. . Number, Dantzig (1930, updated 1953; new edition 2007). And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. , Burton. Almost anything good you read on strategy and conflict is based on ideas you see here. Behavioral Genetics, Plomin. Almost no MPs or senior officials study him or are even midly interested. I really liked this classic but a lot was beyond me. The Story of Mathematics, Marcus du Sautoy. A Boyd ally wrote about his time in the Pentagon dealing with the extreme nightmare of procurement. The point that Producers didnt want to make a Renoir picture even if it was a success is really important. You can learn from him about how to get very hard things done without admiring his character. For this unprecedented project in world history Groves had no huge central staff, he worked with a brilliant woman and a tiny staff with truly extreme decentralisation. The best modern subject for those interested in how political decisions are taken and effective action in politics/government is Bismarck. Its crucial to remember both aspects of this genius-monster without whom probably no World War I, Lenin, Hitler etc summed up by Salisburys two comments: One misses the extraordinary penetration of the old man and he will do things of which it would be absurd to suspect any other statesman in Europe. I applied his basic ideas in the euro campaign, in the 2004 North East referendum, in thinking through education reform and trying to get the Department for Education to do what I wanted, in the Brexit referendum, in solving the 2019 impasse, in No10, and to removing this PM since spring 2021. We look back on history and abstract over decades or centuries, judging the ideas that held sway for a few decades and sneering at how formerly all the world was mad as Nietzsche put it. I should have read this, havent, will. Those who think very fast timetables are plausible, because (partly) they worry about the effects of their comments. Mindstorms, Seymour Papert. Its fascinating both for getting hard things done and how to reform science funding. but most do not realise the last chapter is about Nietzsche and the Last Man, and this chapter is the most relevant today. Re Clintons 1992 campaign which influenced the Blair 1997 campaign. Also cf. Highly recommended. On Renoir and Hollywood: It would be ridiculous to be bitter about Hollywood. E.g Introduction to Strategic History, Modern Strategy, Strategy and Defence Planning (reading now). I don't like to say it in front of my wife, but I did sort of neglect her sometimes; I needed to study. With Bismarck you can follow the twists and turns of a true (and monstrous) genius in great detail and learn an extraordinary amount about how politics, government, war and diplomacy truly work. Most educated people remain unaware of how little home environment affects IQ/education nor that modern analysis of DNA has confirmed the data from decades of twin/adoption studies. A good biography of Dirac. In all of these struggles I tried to follow Boyds advice such as, and in all of them, as the opponents OODA crumbled I observed what Boyd said would happen: it starts to feel like your opponent is working for you, the more they try, the worse it gets (e.g when Cameron called the press conference to denounce lies about the fact that Turkey was in the process of joining the EU!). Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) / Twitter One of the most critical lessons? A reader with no more than GCSE Maths can read this introduction to maths from Greece through the birth of calculus. Innumeracy, John Allen Paulos (1988). If hed run the Hillary campaign in 2016, no Trump as President. You have to neglect things if you intend to get what you want done. (Planning to see some classics Ive missed: Intolerance; Tokyo Story; Bicycle Thieves.). Steve Jobs advised Obama to do the same but it didnt happen. , very relevant to discussions on things like drones and AI in Ukraine. Welles dismissed the French auteur theory as not relevant to the old Hollywood where the producers called the shots, not the directors. Most of the world is not like this! , Robin Lane Fox. A big problem for UK political discussion is people focus obsessively on the immediate interest of the London media rather than trying to think about, . Dominic Cummings has hit back at Boris Johnson's partygate defence, accusing him of spreading "further misinformation". Collison has a webpage summarising responses to this. On connections between quantum physics, computation and information theory. A striking thing: notice how they take regulation and speed extremely seriously because they have direct experience of it, in contrast to most professional economists who influence media debate on regulation who have no idea of how government really works and how destructive it is to make simple things take years, how it drives people away, rewards the worst people and companies etc. People who climb to the top of the science system tend to defend the system rather than support change, even when they realise how bad it is. by Lee Kuan Yew. By Andy Hayes, news reporter Thursday 27 May 2021 06:28, UK Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson, Carrie Symonds and even Dilyn the dog have been the focus of numerous explosive claims from Dominic Cummings It is by far the best insider book Ive read on modern UK politics and the only one that realistically and honestly faces a) the failures of MPs as managers and systems thinkers, and b) the failures of the civil service. What are the books Dominic Cummings told aides to read? The insider account of the Manhattan Project by its legendary leader. . , Leonard Susskind (2013). Much (mis)quoted, rarely read. Two of the most important documents on the computer revolution by two of the critical figures in ARPA/PARC. Re Clintons 1992 campaign which influenced the Blair 1997 campaign. Dominic Cummings: What is the scandal about? - BBC News This excellent short book introduces quantum mechanics using A Level maths. Also see Nietzsche on the pre-Socratics. David wrote some of the breakthrough papers on quantum computers. Two of the most important documents on the computer revolution by two of the critical figures in ARPA/PARC. Theres no question about this. His. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith. There are fields like professional mathematics and equity investing where institutions mean the best people are recognised over time. It amazes me how many scientists and economists know nothing or almost nothing about it. Michael also wrote the textbook on QCs, one of the top ten cited physics books ever written. that will prove false like the British navy rules the waves (true and a useful heuristic for many decades then suddenly and drastically not true) and values that will seem evil/comical. Work for Dominic Cummings at your peril, but his take on the state's Book accompanying an OU course. Expert Political Judgment, and Superforecasters, Tetlock. What does it say about the West that their newspaper propaganda was much higher class than most elite philosophy now? 406. He opted out of the traditional science funding system early. His. The best book on politics. Remember that approxmitately no MPs and few in Congress are aware of these facts or ideas yet they speculate confidently about Putins thinking on nuclear weapons. The main biography of Buffett, The Snowball, is also interesting. Will. I put * next to 7 which is a guess at what people 100 years hence will find most interesting on this list. ), genetics, expert judgement, finance and many other topics with the focus on how education policy has to cope in order to train problem solvers for the coming challenges. LKY, Boyd, Groves all say the same). This will also show you why high performance is so hard it is totally hostile to normal bureaucracies dominated by large numbers of middle managers. E.g rapidly speeding up construction/housing/infrastructure, how to accelerate scientific discovery and technological development. Pentagon Wars, Burton. Great DVD documentary too. David Deutschs books. Cowen & Collison handed out fast grants to researchers during covid and at my request advised UKRI on how to speed up in spring 2020. What does it say about the West that their newspaper propaganda was much higher class than most elite philosophy now? Dynamics of 2024. Plato. Solving Mathematical Problems, Terence Tao. I did pinch ideas from how Bismarck dealt with the Prussian constitutional crisis.). 121. If one could observe a discussion between Bismarck and one politician from the 20th Century, he might be the most interesting choice. Dominic Cummings Dec 13, 2022 40 94 #4 Regime Change, America 2024 Trump's disastrous error. While No 10 was trying to get a grip on the pandemic, news came in . Elite polarisation, Cicero & fishponds. The insider account of the Manhattan Project by its legendary leader. Ditto for the Johnson volumes (Ive not read) when Caro publishes the last. Two adjacent questions: 1) what signals of memes/news predict that X is likely to emerge from the noise and become one of the few stories/memes thats significant e.g the process of the Wall falling has started with small events which are detectable but almost nobody notices or realises what a big deal they will be in a few weeks, how soon can we detect X is happening then predict X is Y% likely to be a big story, with what confidence? The Federalist Papers. Twitter Web App Retweets This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. Dominic Cummings substack | Substack Groves (fired), Bob Taylor (fired), George Mueller (not funded to push on to Mars after the moon), Renoir The list goes on and on. The river was also burning. The main biography of Buffett, , is also interesting. ): how much was the. In War and Peace, you see a world historical genius skip between vast scales of time and space, connecting tiny things happening this moment to the biggest things affecting decades or centuries to come. Fascinating. Dominic Cummings Pearl led a revolution in thinking about causation from inside the then tiny field of AI. Many ideas you see from others (e.g Taleb) derive from Mandelbrot. Non-fiction books on politics fail to give you this crucial sense. A history of ARPA-IPTO and Xerox PARC: how the internet and PC revolution was created. RT @zebulgar: Step aside Andy Grove, I believe @chughesjohnson has written the new bible for managers Took me a while to work through my reading list so I could start this, but the writing is phenomenal, let alone the content Must-read for any founder, but especially after your Series A . 19 Apr 2023 07:47:58 Someone should run a prize for the best 10,000 word essay summarising the fundamental lessons of this book (which I havent read in full, just skimmed, because of time not a judgement). is considered a classic but Ive not read. Dominic Cummings: Key points from his evidence to select - Sky News So a philosopher simultaneously prepared the ground for Hitler, deeply influenced todays Left, and personally hated Bismarck and anti-semites. There's a big bad enemy out there, possibly with superior weaponry but. Most educated people remain unaware of how little home environment affects IQ/education nor that modern analysis of DNA has confirmed the data from decades of twin/adoption studies. A scholarly history of maths, not for a general reader. , which was unpublished for many years and seems to be generally unknown, is super-useful. You and your research, Hamming. The Selling of the President 1968, McGinniss. It is, therefore, practically unknown in SW1. I know some of them. In the meantime Ill post another tomorrow. Like Hoskyns (below) genuine rare insight and almost totally ignored. Like LKY, crucial if you really are interested in practical planning for high performance government. , Frank Close (2011). Very very telling that in a recent interview with Tyler Cowen, the recent head of the CIA was clearly unaware of this work, which includes results showing that his own agency is routinely bested by people like unemployed grandmothers in a hut in Central America. Youll understand more of how SW1 really works than from all PM memoirs of the last 30 years combined (PMs never face why they dont control much of Whitehall even after theyve gone). Jean Monnet created the ECSC and EEC/EU. Ask Me Anything, Friday 10th - Dominic Cummings substack The Power Broker, Robert Caro. He also wrote a, A great textbook by the worlds leading scholar on the subject. NB. Six months later tens of thousands died for the lack of such skills. One must not be squeamish about admitting this (Strauss). He understood politics and government in a way I think almost nobody in 20th Century politics did and influenced it more than almost any elected leader. (Dostoyevsky was Nietzsches favourite novellist! 2h It is not a forecast & says explicitly 'this is not a forecast' 2 1 Governments find it very, very hard to fund such ventures. On typical problems dealing with statistics, Bayes Theory, and how to improve understanding of probability. Likes. In particular Ill add textbooks, history and philosophy which Ive largely left out. Dominic Cummings Quotes - BrainyQuote Thinking, fast and slow, Kahneman. Some of the unpublished stuff in Gdels Collected Works is extraordinary, e.g his secret search for the truth about Leibniz. The most interesting intelligent person writing on American politics who a) really knows a lot of history, b) understands the rationalists but is not of them, and c) whose version of regime change includes ending democracy, is Curtis Yarvin. Below is a summary of the main ideas. Please post questions below. northwood dominic cummings About Robert Mosess grip on NYC. Interesting how some fields (e.g airlines, surgery) have significantly improved performance while others have not, and the barriers to improvement. I started like everyone young assuming those at the top of politics must be smart, interested in policy and great at organising things. The critical meta-lesson is the same for all the below: practically nobody has any interest in extreme performance and all governments in the west will try to stop you applying these lessons. Man-Computer Symbiosis, Licklider, 1960 and The Computer as a Communication Device, Bob Taylor, 1968. (I used this to argue for checklists and transparency over the repeated failures of social services with child abuse when in the Department for Education 2011-14. , Gershenfeld (MIT). In 2018 I asked some academics to consider this and we built a crude tool. Partly accessible to a non-specialist with some maths already, though very challenging for most including me. Gawande. Ive only read a few excerpts of these but reading them all is a project for later this year. Those who think very fast timetables are plausible do not talk about it publicly because (partly) they worry about the effects of their comments. This shows the critical meta-lesson again: those in power have no interest in high performance. ), Notes from the Underground, Dostoyevsky. ), , Waldrop. Our impression was there is valuable low hanging fruit for governments, hedge funds, campaigns, Thucydides. , biography by John Sugden. Influence, Cialdini. People who climb to the top of the science system tend to defend the system rather than support change, even when they realise how bad it is. Working Backwards, by Amazon alumni. While some lessons are specific to time/place (e.g how the Senate works in 1950) the most important lessons from all such books are quite abstract and common and I assume this will be true of these classics. Pearl led a revolution in thinking about causation from inside the then tiny field of AI. Considered by many in Silicon Valley to be the best book on the details of management. , Hardy. On connections between quantum physics, computation and information theory. It would be ridiculous to be bitter about Hollywood. My essay on an 'Odyssean' Education - Dominic Cummings's Blog The Book of Why (general reader). In 2018 I asked some academics to consider this and we built a crude tool. Fascinating. I blogged a series on this great book starting here; if you only read one of these blogs make it this one on the most important issue, great people (NB. , Sipser (2005 edition). , Ben Rich. Pflouffe ran the Obama 08 campaign and 2012 re-election. the word strategy is a) used differently in military books, b) used differently over time, c) constantly misused in politics.). Youll see its very similar to Grovess principles (above). Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72, Hunter S Thompson. There is a great Commentary by Gomme and Andrewes, two of the great 20th C classical scholars. Rationality, Vernon Smith. While some characters from the ancient world, such as Themistocles or Alexander the Great, would be as interesting to study in minute detail we dont have the sources. A short companion book to his famous lecture series. , Franzen. Cummings has also instructed the advisers to read High Output Management by Andrew Grove, the former chief executive of computer-chip manufacturer Intel, who "warns that success breeds. Keynes essay on Newton is great: He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than10,000years ago Why do I call him a magician? Dominic Cummings Jul 15, 2021 39 66 Last week I wrote re: Why I went to No10 in summer 2019. Dominic Cummings E.g Around 1848 nationalism was an elite opinion held by educated liberals who thought of liberalism and nationalism as naturally, and morally, connected, while uneducated peasants were less nationalistic. Oppenheimer is better known but Groves was his boss. I did pinch ideas from how Bismarck dealt with the Prussian constitutional crisis.).
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