November Book Club

Note: All the upcoming books and those that we didn’t select are listed at the bottom of this section.
November: On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything by Nate Silver
The Instant New York Times Bestseller
In the bestselling The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver showed how forecasting would define the age of Big Data. Now, in this timely and riveting new book, Silver investigates “the River,” the community of like-minded people whose mastery of risk allows them to shape—and dominate—so much of modern life.
These professional risk-takers—poker players and hedge fund managers, crypto true believers and blue-chip art collectors—can teach us much about navigating the uncertainty of the twenty-first century. By immersing himself in the worlds of Doyle Brunson, Peter Thiel, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sam Altman, and many others, Silver offers insight into a range of issues that affect us all, from the frontiers of finance to the future of AI.
Most of us don’t have traits commonly found in the River: high tolerance for risk, appreciation of uncertainty, affinity for numbers—paired with an instinctive distrust of conventional wisdom and a competitive drive so intense it can border on irrational. For those in the River, complexity is baked in, and the work is how to navigate it. People in the River have increasing amounts of wealth and power in our society, and understanding their mindset—and the flaws in their thinking— is key to understanding what drives technology and the global economy today.
Taking us behind the scenes from casinos to venture capital firms, and from the FTX inner sanctum to meetings of the effective altruism movement, On the Edge is a deeply reported, all-access journey into a hidden world of power bro-kers and risk-takers.
Steve A. will be moderating this month. Hope you can join us for some thoughtful discussion.
Upcoming books:
December: No book club.
January: Book Selection Month: Please bring a book to recommend.
January: The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center by Rhaina Cohen (Jim)
February: The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth (Pat)
Not selected this time:
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson