OVERLAP · 15 SHARED BOOKs
Books both Balaji Srinivasan and Network School Reading List recommend
Balaji Srinivasan and Network School Reading List both positively recommend these books.
Shared positive books
15 BOOKs-
[001]
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
History
Balaji Srinivasan“Dalio's video is good. Worth watching. But he doesn't model the effects of tech. Yes, China is rising & US state capacity is in decline. Yet US corporations still wield phenomenal digital power, and BTC/web3 are rising, as is India. So it's more complex.”
Tweet from March 13, 2022 recommending Dalio's framework while flagging its blindspot on digital power.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Rebuilding reading mapping the long cycles by which reserve currencies and great powers rise and fall.
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[002]
The Sovereign Individual
James Dale Davidson, William Rees-Mogg
Politics
Balaji Srinivasanbalajianthology.com · balajis recommended reading
“The most prescient thing in the world. You can take one page and turn it into a Ph.D thesis.”
Balaji recommends it as the foundational text for understanding how cryptography will replace territorial sovereignty — the direct intellectual predecessor to his Network State concept.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Crypto reading: the 1997 forecast of how digital money would let individuals escape the nation-state.
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[003]
How Innovation Works
History
Balaji Srinivasanbalajianthology.com · balajis recommended reading
Listed in Balaji's For Founders section of recommended reading; he points founders to Ridley for the bottom-up, recombinant view of innovation.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Rebuilding reading on why innovation flourishes under freedom and incremental trial, not central direction.
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[004]
Who We Are and How We Got Here
Popular Science
Balaji Srinivasanthenetworkstate.com · fragmentation frontier fourth turning future is our past
“history is a boneyard”
Cited by name in The Network State, chapter on Fragmentation, Frontier, and the Fourth Turning, to argue that current geopolitical arrangements are transient.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Macrohistory reading using ancient DNA to rewrite the deep story of human migration and population mixing.
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[005]
AI Superpowers
Technology
Balaji Srinivasan“Kai-Fu Lee's book AI Superpowers holds up very well today in key ways.”
From a tweet by Balaji Srinivasan recommending the book.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Tech reading on the US–China contest to lead the AI era and its geopolitical stakes.
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[006]
From Third World to First
History
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.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Political case study: the firsthand account of building Singapore, the curriculum's model for a startup society that worked.
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[007]
Seeing Like a State
Politics
Balaji SrinivasanLinked in the show notes of Tim Ferriss episode #506 (March 24, 2021) where Balaji discussed centralized-planning failures.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Political case study on why grand schemes to engineer society from above so often fail.
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[008]
The Knowledge
Popular Science
Balaji Srinivasan“It's not easy [to rebuild after black swan events] but may be easier...”
From a tweet by Balaji Srinivasan referencing the book.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Rebuilding reading: a practical guide to reconstructing civilization's technology from scratch.
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[009]
Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA
History
Balaji Srinivasanbalajianthology.com · balajis recommended reading
Balaji credits it with teaching him how regulatory capture works at the bureaucratic level, directly informing his arguments for pro-biotech and longevity-science reform.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Regulation case study of how a single agency accumulated and wielded power over an entire industry.
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[010]
Stalin's War
History
Balaji Srinivasan“Sean McMeekin's latest tour-de-force makes a strong case that Stalin...”
From a tweet by Balaji Srinivasan recommending the book.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Macrohistory case study reframing the Second World War around Stalin's aims and the remaking of the twentieth-century order.
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[011]
The Fourth Turning
History
Balaji Srinivasanthenetworkstate.com · fragmentation frontier fourth turning future is our past
Cited extensively in The Network State as part of Balaji's cyclical-history trio (with Turchin and Dalio) forecasting Western instability.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Macrohistory reading on the generational cycles that drive societies through crisis and renewal.
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[012]
The Gray Lady Winked
History
Balaji Srinivasanbalajianthology.com · balajis recommended reading
“10/10 recommendation. I put this up there with The Sovereign Individual.”
Quoted in The Anthology of Balaji's recommended reading archive; Balaji has repeatedly elevated this book on his podcast and Twitter appearances.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Macrohistory selection on how the dominant media narrative has shaped — and distorted — the historical record.
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[013]
The Truth Machine
Technology
Balaji Srinivasan“More and more frequently, I point people to Paul Vigna and Michael Casey's book...”
From a tweet by Balaji Srinivasan recommending the book.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Crypto reading on how blockchains create trust and could rewire economic institutions.
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[014]
War and Peace and War
History
Balaji Srinivasanthenetworkstate.com · fragmentation frontier fourth turning future is our past
Cited in The Network State for Turchin's timestamped, quantitative predictions of US elite overproduction and instability.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Macrohistory text applying Turchin's cliodynamics to the cycles of imperial cohesion and collapse.
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[015]
Where Is My Flying Car?
Technology
Balaji Srinivasan“Read this after you read the Sovereign Individual. The future we will fund after correcting the fiat deviation of 1971.”
Tweet from March 16, 2021, pairing Hall's book with The Sovereign Individual as the next foundational text for builders.
Network School Reading ListBalaji's Network School Curriculum
Regulation reading on how stalled technological progress traces back to risk aversion and regulatory drag.