I hope you had a happy and productive 2025!
Normally, I like to end the year with two posts, one sharing my favorite books and one sharing my favorite essays from the year before.
However, since so much of the last year was devoted to my Foundations [1] project, which occupied much of my writing and included brief reviews of the 102 books [2] I read as research for the project, I decided to merge the two lists this year.
Five Books I Liked
While I did mostly read books on the twelve foundations [3] I decided to cover, I did manage to sneak in some other reading. Here were five of my favorites:
1. Proto [4] by Laura Spinney
Long before the Buddha taught the sutras or Homer recounted the Odyssey, there was a language that eventually became the words spoken by both. In riveting style, Spinney tells the tale of how Proto-Indo-European, a language that was never written down, became the seed for the mother tongues of almost half the human beings on Earth.
2. Power, Sex, Suicide [5] by Nick Lane
Why do we have sex? Why do we age and die? Why are there two sexes and not one, three or ten thousand? Why haven’t we met any alien life? Biochemist Nick Lane argues that the answer to all of these questions is mitochondria [6]. In this fascinating book he argues that these powerhouses inside cells are more than just batteries: they are a deeper explanation for many of the seeming mysteries of the universe.
3. Food Intelligence [7] by Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall
Most popular nutrition books are not worth reading. However, Kevin Hall and Julia Belluz manage to serve up one that is. In this book, they tackle the rise of ultra-processed foods (whose notoriety today is mostly owing to Kevin Hall’s original experiments) as well as the history of nutritional science (and nutritional quackery) itself.
4. Breakneck [8] by Dan Wang
Wang offers a lens for understanding China, as compared to the United States. In the US, government is run by lawyers. In China, government is run by engineers. Wang extends this analysis to many facets of life, from China’s impressive economic growth to its challenges with population control and zero-COVID. Part political theory, part travelogue, I greatly enjoyed the book even though I don’t usually find broad generalizations of whole nations very helpful.
5. A Deepness in the Sky [9] by Vernor Vinge
After Foundations [10] finished, I was happy to slip into some fun science fiction. Space fascists and capitalists plot against each other in the shadows as a spider-like alien race recreates the technological progress of the latter half of the twentieth century. Set thousands of years in the future, Vinge manages to make the humans feel alien and the aliens feel human.
Five Essays You Might Have Missed
- Just Trust the Experts [11] – Contrarian beliefs are overrated. Most of the time, you’ll be smarter if you just believe what the experts tell you.
- What’s Still Worth Learning in a World with AI? [12] – What will AI do to the future of human capital? How can we prepare for a world where machines may do our jobs better (or at least much cheaper) than we can?
- The Attentional Junk Food Hypothesis [13] – TikTok is empty calories for your mind.
- Focusing on Your Strengths Isn’t Always Good Advice [14] – A 200-year old economic theory explains when you’re better off doubling down on the things you’re good at.
- 102 Lessons from 102 Books I Read Last Year [2] – Facts and ideas that surprised me when I read them during my recent Foundations [1] project.
I’d like to end with my heartfelt thanks to everyone who read my writing this year. Being able to learn and share what I find with you is an immense privilege, and I don’t take it for granted. I look forward to sharing more with you in 2026!