Dealing with FOMO: Tech, Stocks, Cryptocurrency & Future of Information with books
We may not be able to predict the future. But we can certainly build it. Through understanding next-gen tech, and learning from our past.
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Staying curious has its pros and cons. Fine line between being curious and learning along the way vs. being FOMO. But that’s what the last 2 months have been for me (and maybe for you too).
You would have probably heard about the rise in value for cryptocurrencies in December and January, reaching an all time high in February 2021, propelled further with positive news such as Tesla buying 1.5B worth of Bitcoins. And then hits the end of Feb with what you might call ‘correction’.
And if you’re trying to make sense of the world, and what all these discussions around decentralised finance, blockchain, and digital currencies — I turn to books to keep my curiosity engaged, to learn, to be better informed and not fall into the trap of acting on something I am not entirely familiar with, and risk making a wrong (financial) decision.
Four Books To Cope with Tech FOMO
There are four (4) main books that come to mind for me, and they are not directly relevant to my opening above, but you’d see the connections through these different, but similar underlying topics.
- The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg
- Deep Thinking by Garry Kasaparov
- How To Avoid A Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff
Book #1: The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg
A book that was published in 1997, before the invention of Google Search. The year of the first iPhone. Bitcoin and blockchain was yet to be invented. But in many ways, the book forecasted the development of all of the above.
Book #2: Deep thinking by Garry Kasaparov
If you’ve watched Queen’s Gambit, you’d love this. Or if you’re secretly a grandmaster in your own ways — or are excited about the future of Artificial Intelligence and what it means for all of us humans: be it jobs, automated life, efficiency and the future wonders of AI, this is a perfect book.
However, my specific draw to the book goes a little more surface than the content itself. Which had to do with the title of the book: Deep Thinking. Something I have actually been reflecting a lot. Hence, even the title of this newsletter, is about thinking through things — just being able to sit with an idea, think it through, making sense of it, and finding other perspectives that supports or discards, through books, reading, articles, and conversations, have been incredibly liberating
Book #3: How To Avoid A Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
If you’ve seen Bill Gates’ warning about how we are not ready for a global pandemic back in 2015 — you’d want to be cautious about what occupies him now: climate change. And particularly, the fact that he has divested from oil & gas companies, and focuses his efforts to raise awareness & investing in potential solutions for clean energy technology opens up even more of our ideas around what blockchain technology can offer.
There are lots of discussions around how much energy it takes for bitcoin transactions today, with all the mining equipment. However, Bitcoin isn’t everything you need to know about Crypto. It’s broader, and there are many new alternative coins that are being developed, to address efficiency, saving more energy, and making it more secure. And while you’re at it, might be worthwhile to now also think about what roles can each of us play in saving our world.
Book #4: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff
The book discusses how tech & digital companies today have to balance between creating real value to it’s users vs productizing them through ‘surveillance’.
And with the recent US election that saw new precedents such as suspending and banning Trump’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, makes you wonder, albeit a little ironic — that free speech has its terms and conditions.
How much do we want centralised social networks vs a decentralised. Ones that you own the content, and are directly responsible for it. Without an algorithm defining the scope of your attention and audience. And how do we balance? It’s a great thesis to sit through, think, and form your understanding of what feels right — and how mindful you want to be as you’re adopting all of tech in today’s age!
That’ll be all for this month’s newsletter!
Disclaimer: These are purely my thoughts, and do not represent the organisations I work for. The links above are affiliate links to Amazon — I consume 90% of my books through my Kindle e-Reader
