BOOK · [2263]
From Third World to First
History
Lee Kuan Yew's memoir of building Singapore from a resource-poor city-state into a prosperous, well-ordered society in a single generation. Balaji holds it up as concrete proof that a small, well-run polity can outperform large legacy states — a founding-era data point for the network-state argument.
Endorsed By
3 People-
Balaji Srinivasan
“Lee Kuan Yew wrote a book. From third world to first. Back then he admired San Francisco. But today, history is running in reverse. Going from Singapore to San Francisco… …is from first world to third.”
Tweet from September 16, 2023 contrasting Singapore's ascent with San Francisco's decline.
- Patrick Collison
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Network School Reading List
Political case study: the firsthand account of building Singapore, the curriculum's model for a startup society that worked.