Kevin Simler
Writer and engineer behind the blog Melting Asphalt, and co-author with Robin Hanson of The Elephant in the Brain.
Kevin Simler did not write this page. What is this?
It collects the places they publish and what they have said there, each linked to the source. They have no account here. Is this you? Claim it, correct it, or ask us to remove it from ppll.
Where they publish
Recommends rcmnd
What they recommendrcmnd 19 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Every Cradle is a Grave Liked
Sarah Perry, Every Cradle is a Grave. More unsettling to my worldview than anything else I've read in the past few years. Not sure how many of Perry's conclusions I agree with, but they're extremely thought-provoking.
PBS Space Time Recommends
I recommend PBS Space Time (astrophysics), 3Blue1Brown (math), and Caspian Report (geopolitics).
3Blue1Brown Recommends
I recommend PBS Space Time (astrophysics), 3Blue1Brown (math), and Caspian Report (geopolitics).
Show 16 more
EconTalk Loved
Also not "reading" material, but there's some truly amazing content out there — in particular, Hardcore History and EconTalk. These two podcasts have both been around for a while, but for some reason I didn't start listening to them until just recently, despite many recommendations. Well, let me add one more voice to the chorus: these are both excellent.
Hardcore History Loved
Also not "reading" material, but there's some truly amazing content out there — in particular, Hardcore History and EconTalk. These two podcasts have both been around for a while, but for some reason I didn't start listening to them until just recently, despite many recommendations. Well, let me add one more voice to the chorus: these are both excellent.
Big History Loved
David Christian, Big History [audible.com lecture series]. Probably my favorite Audible lecture series to date.
The Story of Human Language Recommends
John McWhorter, The Story of Human Language [audible.com lecture series]. Awesome lecture series. A more accurate title might be "The Sociology of Language." Discusses the way languages are used and how they evolve in human populations. Also, McWhorter is an excellent lecturer, one of my favorites. His sentences are precise, dense with information, and spiced with a nice, dry wit and colorful turns of phrase. Highly recommended.
Scale Mixed on
Geoffrey West, Scale. I'm strongly ambivalent about this book. On the one hand, the topics he covers are extremely important, and he brings a fresh/deep perspective to them. On the other hand, the book is poorly-written. It suffers from long-winded digressions, weird jabs against non-physicists, and (most disappointing of all) a surprising dearth of explanations for the phenomena he describes. Also I think he overstates the case for some of his big claims.
Sapiens Mixed on
Yuval Harari, Sapiens. Read half of it, then lost interest. I'm ambivalent about this book. On the one hand, it provides a useful, somewhat contrarian perspective on human history. (For example: the agricultural revolution probably sucked for the people who went through it.) On the other hand, it's full of sweeping pronouncements that I can't fully endorse.
Master of the Senate Loved
Robert Caro, Master of the Senate (HT: Kevin Kwok, Alok Singh). I made it about two-thirds of the way through, so given my track record, I'll count this one as "finished." It was great!
Rational Ritual Liked
Michael Chwe, Rational Ritual. Read half of it, then got distracted — but it's very good.
The Gene Disliked
Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene. See tweetstorm. Bottom line: not recommended.
The End of Alchemy Disliked
Mervyn King, The End of Alchemy. Not recommended.
The Beginning of Infinity Loved
David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity. Even better than Fabric of Reality (thanks Mills, David, Andy). Deutsch offers the most compelling left-brain worldview I imagine it's possible to construct, given our current understanding. Of special note are (1) his emphasis on knowledge as a physical phenomenon, and (2) his ideas on the evolution of creativity. Probably going on the all-time greatest list.
Algorithms to Live By Loved
I wanted to hate this book. I expected it to be a vapid popularization of trivial ideas from computer science. Mostly, I was jealous that the authors had identified such a great idea for a book, and I was hoping they would botch the job. Buuuuut they didn't. The book was great.
On Tyranny Loved
Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny. Great (and short!) book. Probably preaching to the choir, but it's a great sermon.
Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life Disliked
Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life. One of the most disappointing books I've read in a long time.
What others say about Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life →
The Dictator's Handbook Recommends
The Dictator's Handbook. Very good, highly recommended.
The Machinery of Life Recommends
David Goodsell, The Machinery of Life. Spectacular book for developing intuition of what goes on inside a cell. The text is OK but the illustrations are absolutely stunning and make the book worthy of a strong recommendation.