Intellectual Infrastructure

The Library

The books and ideas that built my operating system. Not a comprehensive reading list — a curated set of texts that actually changed how I think and act.

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

Buckminster Fuller

The book that rewired my brain at 22. We're all crew on this ship — there are no passengers.

The Doors of Perception

Aldous Huxley

The original map of consciousness expansion. Still the most elegant articulation of what psychedelics reveal.

Finite and Infinite Games

James P. Carse

Finite players play within boundaries. Infinite players play with boundaries. I try to be the latter.

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

The satisficer vs. maximizer framework changed how I make decisions. I'm a satisficer — and proud of it.

The Master and His Emissary

Iain McGilchrist

Left brain vs. right brain isn't what you think. This book is about the crisis of Western civilization.

Dune

Frank Herbert

"The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience." Business advice disguised as science fiction.

The Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu

The water that wears away the stone. Patience as strategy. Emptiness as fullness.

Key Concepts

Satisficing— Choosing the first option that meets your criteria rather than exhaustively searching for the optimal one. My operating system.

Hedonic Engineering— The deliberate design of experiences that maximize well-being. Applied to business, health, and relationships.

Rolling Close— Never stopping. Every conversation is a potential collaboration. Every problem is a potential product.

The Glitch— People are the glitches in the system. The beautiful, unpredictable, irreducible anomalies that make everything interesting.

Radical Transparency— Say what you mean. Show your work. Let people see the process, not just the product.

“I read the way some people eat — compulsively, omnivorously, with no regard for what's 'appropriate.' The best ideas come from the strangest intersections. A mycology textbook next to a payments whitepaper next to a Sufi poem. That's my bookshelf.”

The Lesson

Your bookshelf is your autobiography. The ideas you return to aren't just preferences — they're the scaffolding of every decision you'll make. Curate ruthlessly. The wrong book at the right time can change everything.

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