There’s some diaries from early settlers which have been made into books which are ok but limited in scope as they follow one man’s journey. John Batman’s journey is well documented, Charles Sturt was interesting but I haven’t read books on him, just bits and pieces.
Can’t link my review because Nostr.band has been down for like 2 weeks now but Durkheim’s book is an exploration of Aboriginal religion (and thus culture) essentially from a praxeological view.
Aborigines had the most primitive religion/culture on earth at the time so it will give you a good idea of where they were at when the Brits began colonisation. I personally found this book most revealing as you understand just how underpowered the Aborigines were. It’s said the Māoris in NZ knew of them and thought of them as backwards cavemen even - they were warrior cannibals with seafaring capability and they left the Aborigines be, and when you read Durkheim you can understand why.
My first review for #bookstr in 2026 is the thoroughly enjoyable “The National System of Political Economy” by Friedrich List.
Written in 1841, it provides an excellent snapshot of thought in his day. His background (itself very interesting) shines through his ideas, and reading his thoughts on the future of the new nation of Texas, matter-of-fact views on slavery, talk about cloth manufacturing like people discuss Nvidia today, international competition, and his disputes with Adam Smith’s laissez-faire is very interesting.
List belongs to the Historic School of Economics which no longer really exists in Western thought since the Methodenstreit out of which Menger birthed the Austrian school.
Book One is List’s history of a bunch of important nations and I found this particularly fascinating. His discussion of the Hanseatic Leagues and the interplay with a burgeoning England is super interesting, and about the ebbs and flows of Portuguese, Dutch and French power, and his The Germans section is simply excellent. History buffs with an interest in economics would enjoy Book One as a standalone, it’s truly excellent.
If I was to sum up List’s main arguments I’d say it’s twofold. One, he takes issue with Adam Smith not differentiating between agricultural and manufacturing productions. Smith’s classic example of Scotland growing grapes for wine says List, is stupid; no-one thinks they should - they should trade for agricultural products their nation is unsuited for. But they should make that trade by developing higher order manufacturing, not by trying to trade commodities for commodities. He focussed a lot on this split.
Which brings us to his second point that nations are at different stages of development - it’s fine for Britain (and Smith) to argue for free trade because they stand to benefit most from it being the most developed country on Earth at writing, but if other nations hope to compete then they must protect infant industry by way of tariffs and balancing trade such that they can develop enough to eventually compete.
This thinking is what has dominated Asian economics; it’s why China are where they are, it’s why Worst Korea and Japan have conglomerates like Hyundai and Mitsubishi.
And it’s also behind Trump’s hard-ons for tariffs in 2025 (albeit Trump’s influence is from American thinkers influenced by List; not List himself).
So just from an understanding of what’s happening in the world today, I’d highly recommend this book. You’ll gain an appreciation for the economic thinking influencing modern policy makers on protectionism, and a more nuanced way to think about laissez faire which I think is well worth considering.
If you want to read beyond Austrian school economics and broaden your perspective, this would be worthwhile to at leash challenge your own notions.
Watching my baby girl grow and develop every day, whilst my old dog struggles more every day, is such a weird mix of emotions.
I’ll go in one room and be absolutely lit up, then go in another and feel immense sadness; and I equally want to spend time in both.
Feels good and bad man.
What’s a “stonk portfolio”?
#Bookstr Recap of 2025 Reviews
I thought it might be interesting for nostr’s bookworms to recap my 2025 reading list.
My first two books “Peak” and “Ultralearning” were both on the subject of expertise, harnessing talent, and methods for learning. If you’re interested in getting better at learning (a skill itself), either of these would be worthwhile (also checkout “Moonwalking with Einstein”) but Ultralearning has helped me more because of its discussion on language learning which gave me some practical insights as I tackled studying Vietnamese this year.
This year I read quite a bit of historical law and philosophy too. Plato, Aristotle, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Bastiat, and ~half of The Federalist Papers. That took me down some YouTube rabbit holes too all in trying to better understand the interplay between peoples, language, culture and politics.
As I keep reading more on this topic, the more I realise humanity has seen all this before. Modern humans aren’t special - we tell ourselves that we are but the echoes of history show that many smart people have already discussed all the issues we face today.
Gustav Le Bon’s book “The Crowd” gave me a really useful lens to think about this - that one is a must read in my opinion. Excellent book. Durkheim’s analysis on the fundamentals of religion is really useful context (and will help dispel any notions you might have of “the noble savage”), albeit quite dry. Parvini’s primer “The Populist Delusion” can help you understand the reality behind ‘The Purpose Of A System Is What It Does’ and would be good for anyone steeped in Austrian/AnCap literature to extend their understanding more practically which is a problem I see amongst many #Bitcoiners.
Prince Han’s-Adam’s “The State in the Third Millennium” (recommended by nostr:npub1gdu7w6l6w65qhrdeaf6eyywepwe7v7ezqtugsrxy7hl7ypjsvxksd76nak)
is a good counterweight to think forward on these concepts. Glad I finally read this one.
Hoppe’s “A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism” and Molyneux’s “Peaceful Parenting” were both decent modern philosophy books, more on the junior understanding end but with highlights for everybody.
Dartnell’s “The Knowledge” was a good interlude read but don’t waste too much time on civilisation scale apocalypse scenarios.
“A Mathematician’s Lament” by Lockhart and “The True Believer” by Hoffer were two short books I really enjoyed - highly recommend these, just knocking over a 2 hour book and coming away learning something is really worthwhile. Particularly Lockhart’s book, it was way out of my regular wheelhouse and has inspired me to read Euclid’s “Elements” in 2026.
Now time for some awards 🏆
🍋 Lemon Of The Year: “The Psychology of Totalitarianism” by Desmet. This was the book which during Covid seeded the idea of “mass formation psychosis” to the public. It starts strong by tearing down modern academia and peer review and then goes, absolutely nowhere.. Completely ignoring the Communist-Dictator-Elephant-in-the
-Room in favour of heavily lifting from Hannah Arendt and reiterating Hitler demonisation - it’s a total bore. Just read “The True Believer” by Hoffer if Desmet’s title interests you, it’s 1/4 the length and 10X better.
🏅 Most Educational Book Of The Year: “The Rise of the West” by William H. McNeill. The way this was structured, it will fill in big gaps for Western-focussed history buffs. Since finishing, this one has sat really well with me and opened up some new areas of interest, helped me better contextualise a whole bunch of other stuff I’d learned previously, and gave me a much better appreciation for The West as part of The World in the context of history. It strikes a good balance between density and surface-level, giving you enough to understand a point without getting bogged down, but giving you launch points to go learn and contextualise a bunch more. One of the best history books I’ve ever read with how much ground it covered and how coherent the broad narrative weave is.
🥇My Book of the Year: “Critical Path” by Buckminster Fuller. A fantastic book. Inspiring, it re-awoke that drive in me that we could have a better future despite my own cynicism. Fuller was a #Bitcoiner decades before #Bitcoin existed and it was the book that had me wanting more, the most. It’s a pity he was wasted on the Boomers. Definitely recommend all Bitcoiners put this on their reading list though.
🎖️That Reminds Me Award: Not read this year, but the book that came back to me the most in my 2025 reading was “Propaganda” by Edward Bernays. I’ve recommended it before on #nostr but it just kept coming back over and over again this year. If you haven’t read this one, make it a goal for January - your understanding of the world will change more with this one book than any other I listed.
In 2026 I’ll be approaching reading differently with Euclid’s “Elements” and Carroll Quigley’s “Tragedy & Hope” both on deck (I just read Tragedy & Hope 101 by Joseph Plummer which is a condensed version extracting key ideas). I can’t just churn through a list willy nilly and hope to get the most out of these two books.
A takeaway this year was I needed more flexibility in my list as I went in oversubscribed. I think a tighter list of must reads supplemented by whatever comes out of that, and out of life, will be a more rewarding approach for me than trying to drawdown my reading list which only ever expands; I just have to deal with that and put my OCD aside.
Join me getting some books into ya in 2026! #HappyNewYear Nostr!
Yeah your setup would be fine by me, I grew up in the country and prefer solitude. But my missus is a city girl and would go stir crazy in a week, she loses it when the power goes out 😂
Yes, absolutely hands down.
Vietnam doesn’t have a welfare system (no NDIS rorting here) as westerners would understand it and yet ~1% poverty rate compared to Aus at 14%.
Instead they heavily subsidise energy/petrol and maintain a huge military (people have said that’s partially a jobs program but you can also understand that they want to defend themselves given their history).
Much much lower income, business and land taxes, very little regulation - it’s way more free market here which is weird to think about.
Don’t have the government here trying to displace their people with foreign labour or imposing lunatic net zero policy.
You have much less interaction with the system here and generally peoples lives are improving due to the lack of interference. Karenism seeps into every aspect of your life and brow beats you while doing so.
$100k is the average salary in Aus now which sounds insanely high, but
An average couple on $200k combined takes home about $13k per month - at 1/3 on a mortgage, that’s $3,900 per month - that means borrowing capacity of $530k-$637k for a 25 year mortgage.
That means only Darwin is in range for a DINK couple. They’re nowhere near able to buy anything in major cities but it’s not gonna change.
True the people are more chill up there.
But you’re still subject to Canberra’s karenisms; can’t escape what net zero policy will do to Australian’s energy bills by moving interstate.
Difference is price to income is far worse in Aus. US has some bad cities, every city in Australia is unaffordable to impossible.
Some people thrive in the cold and are sharpened by it, they tend to get sluggish in heat.
I’m warm blooded. Give me 32-35 celsius + 75% humidity and I’ll be full of energy, I’m sluggish in the cold.
That you did.
My work relied on my network in Melbourne and once I was ready to leave that, I wasn’t going to stay in Aus; I needed out of not just the cold, but the Karen-dominated/prison warden culture.
The effect your location has on you is far greater than people give credit to.
I can’t stand cold weather, every year for 5-6 months in Melbourne I would just not be mentally right because of the cold. People would mock me for wearing scarfs and gloves and heavy jackets (considered overkill in Melbourne) but I didn’t care because it made something I personally found intolerable, slightly better. Come summer, my general mood and well-being would always be much improved and what I realised to be normal for me.
You need to understand yourself to be able to properly grapple with this, but a change of scenery/location can be very reinvigorating.
If someone is going to be in charge - do you want it to be a self-selected managerial elite, or do you want it to be your people?
See you’re probably right, but given the choice of being under the yoke or holding the whip, I’ll take holding the whip.
By becoming the government.
Sovereign individuals already exist - they have diplomatic passports and the leverage to not have them removed.
Study history. Prussia is a good one.
The Cham people if you’re interested in Asia/religion.
Without a nation, you are going to get runover by someone with a nation.
Fedimints/ARKs/Trusted Providers.
The only way to scale to 8B+ is via trust. The base layer can’t handle it even with secondaries on top. You’re going to need third layers with trusted humans in the loop (federations to minimise trust is best)
The sooner we accept that, the sooner we can all pull in the same direction.
#Bitcoin can’t fit everyone on the base layer, it doesn’t need everyone on Lightning, it could never achieve either. But it can scale with humans if the systems are designed with the correct incentive alignment.
It’s not what purists want to hear, but it’s reality and we need to accept it for what it is.
I’ve seen all sorts washed up on the beaches of Da Nang in #Vietnam
A whole cooking school washed away in a flood, a 60lb eel, life jackets, floats of course, but this has to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever found on any beach anywhere.
Yes, that’s a bowling ball 😂
