Reading trails

For

It starts from empirical evidence and real problems, such as inequality, climate and crises, from the first chapter. And it is free.

Against

Long and academic; liberals criticise the weight it gives market failures and intervention, and readers after pure theory find it informal.

For

Clear, short and memorable; it teaches you to see costs that don't show up in the first calculation.

Against

It oversimplifies: it treats almost every intervention as a mistake and barely discusses empirical evidence or market failures.

For

An 1850 text you can still read in one sitting, with clear arguments about law and property.

Against

More rhetoric than analysis; its notion of "legal plunder" is broad enough to condemn almost any public policy.

For

Accessible and tightly argued; a good bridge before tackling Human Action.

Against

Mises rejects empirical testing in economics, which puts off most economists; the tone is absolute.

For

Influential and well argued on dispersed knowledge and the risks of planning.

Against

The prediction that the welfare state would lead to authoritarianism did not come true in European democracies, as even sympathisers admit.

For

Pragmatic and constructive, with ideas that became public policy.

Against

Critics point to too much faith in self-regulating markets and the social cost of adjustments inspired by monetarism.

For

Systematic and consistent from start to finish.

Against

Written in 1927, it has dated passages, and its consistency sometimes turns into dogma.

For

Historically essential; it shows marginalist reasoning being born.

Against

Dry and technical; it is worth more for the history of ideas than as an introduction.

For

The most ambitious work of the Austrian school, from value to the business cycle.

Against

Over a thousand pages, an a priori deductive method and a polemical tone; many economists read it as philosophy rather than economics.

For

A structural diagnosis of deindustrialisation, interest rates and debt, with proposals tied to the diagnosis.

Against

Stronger on diagnosis than on political feasibility; liberals question the central role of the State in the strategy.

For

It thinks of the country as a project, with an emphasis on competition and productivity.

Against

It is a party programme: it details the transition and its costs less than it promises.

For

A rare analytical honesty; virtù and fortuna are still useful for thinking about what you control.

Against

Without the context of Renaissance Italy it turns into soundbites; the chapter on being loved or feared is one of the most misread.

For

The only political treatise Machiavelli published in his lifetime; a bridge between military strategy and politics.

Against

The technical military detail has aged, and the dialogue format makes it drag.

For

Plenty of real history behind each law, and the "reversal" sections show where each one stops working.

Against

Long, repetitive and cynical; critics point to the amoral tone and examples picked to confirm the thesis.

For

It organises strategy into principles that work outside war.

Against

The same formula as The 48 Laws; some examples seem forced to fit the rule.

For

An analysis of archetypes and social dynamics, rich in historical and literary references.

Against

Easy to read as a manipulation manual, and the book's ethics are widely questioned.

For

Based on experiments; it teaches you to spot the principles in sales, in products and in yourself.

Against

Repetitive in its examples, and part of the social psychology it rests on has been revisited since the replication crisis.

For

Simple, practical and human.

Against

Some stories feel dated, and applied without sincerity it becomes polite manipulation.

For

It places clean code principles in the JavaScript ecosystem.

Against

Far less known and reviewed by the community, and some of the content ages fast along with the language.

For

It gives you the language to separate business rules from details: database, framework and UI.

Against

It presents layers as if the cost were always low; in a small system they turn into ceremony.

For

It joins the practice of code with the responsibility of whoever writes it.

Against

A prescriptive tone, and the case for strict TDD is far from a consensus.