Risk Reading for the Holiday Season

Happy December! I’d like to try a risk reading experiment by sharing my risk-focused and risk-adjacent reading list. If you want to read along with me, email me about books you’ve read and share your own favorite risk reads, or even hop into a Substack chat about risk books in the last week of the year, please do! I’m game for all of the above.

For now, here’s what’s on my list: 

Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control by Stuart Russell - A layperson-friendly, non-philosophically-weird introduction to AI risk, explaining why so many people are concerned about it. It’s notable that the author is also co-author of the canonical textbook Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (which is truly great and worth your time if you’re into programming and/or logic, but is dense!). For those who prefer video, here’s Stuart Russell giving an OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) presentation on AI and how he thinks it should be regulated:

This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends by Nicole Perlroth - Another cheery title, it’s about cyber-weapons. This one I keep opening up and then closing because, “I can’t handle this right now.” (I had the same reaction to David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth.) But cybersecurity is an important topic, the book has great reviews, I am going to read it, and I expect it to be excellent. 

Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy by Claire Provost and Matt Kennard - This book is a UK production from Bloomsbury (I’m not sure it would have been published in the US!). It’s also pretty obscure, and I’m uncertain how I found it. I’m hoping it’s a grounded, well-researched history of corporate growth and talks a lot about lobbying, but I have no idea what to expect. 

Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell - On my list for a while, this book has finally risen to the top of the queue. It’s billed as a detailed, well-evidenced, nuanced exploration of how various factors contribute to differing economic outcomes, how policymakers have gotten it wrong, and what might work better. 

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman - Because we all need hope. I bought this on a recommendation from

Nick Coccoma

about a year ago, and it’s finally queued up and next in line. 

If any of these spark your interest, reach out and let me know which ones! I love the idea of reading a book or two as a group, and I’ve always wanted to experiment with a risk book club. The end of the year, as work slows down and there’s a window to relax and enjoy a good book, seems like a promising time to try it. 

Thanks for reading,

Stephanie