Best Reads of 2013

I am constantly besieged at the end of the year with the "Best Books of 2013" on most of my favorite websites and blogs. That is all fine and good but why not recap books read in 2013 but not necessarily released that year. If someone reads Plato's "The Republic" for the first time it doesn't matter that it was published in 380BC, its new to that reader. And I am sure it is new and useful to a lot of other people as well.

Also, I am attempting to keep alive De Todo which was sorely neglected this year. Not sure why it was forgotten. Life is busy for certain but I cannot say it was any more jammed than 2011 or 2012. That's ok. I'm sure with baby #3 coming and my wonderful wife still in residency I will have plenty of time and motivation in 2014. :)

The Best Reads in 2013 (in no particular order):

Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of al Qa'ida since 9/11-Seth Jones
This book was excellent. Even though I've spent almost my entire professional career in SOF I don't follow the day-to-day blows in the fight against Al Qaeda and violent extremist organizations. I am more interested in the overarching struggle and trends than in the bloody (literally) details. Seth's book was exactly that. In narrative fashion he walks the reader through the West's war against Al Qaeda highlighting some major themes of the last 15+ years. He cobbles together this story describing it in terms of waves (ebb and flow) and how Al Qaeda adapts and deals with internal struggle. It was so good I sent it to one of my closest friends who is an intel officer and heavily involved in this war. 


Cocaine: White Gold Rush in Peru-Edmundo Morales
Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug-Paul Gootenberg
The Politics of Cocaine: How U.S. Foreign Policy Has Created a Thriving Drug Industry in Central and South America-William Marcy

Coming to US Southern Command in Miami this year I wanted to get smarter about the War on Drugs. Many thinkers whom I respect are coming out against our effort to stamp out the illegal market for narcotics. Morales is no Cervantes or Shakespeare but you won't find a better account of the cocaine trade and why this has been an Achilles heel for the US. He's Peruvian, indigenous, and did his graduate work in the US. He can straddle both worlds and translate for Westerners.

The other two books were good as well but if I had to pick only one it would be Morales' book.

The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought-Jerry Muller
The best book I read all year. There is nothing new under the sun. All these fights about Obamacare, budget deficits, regulations, etc. are simply a repeat of the arguments regarding markets since there were markets. Muller spends each chapter discussing a different thinker/writer/economist's worldview and the conflict between liberalism, freedom, change, security, government control, etc. faced at that time. There are chapters on Voltaire, Smith, Marx, Hegel, Burke and more. Completely non-partisan. Safe for work and parties.

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead-Sheryl Sandberg 

Excellent read. Very pragmatic advice on what women need to do (and not do) in the workplace. Sheryl is up front when she admits that of course women face structural labor challenges but there are behaviors/attitudes/perceptions they need to adopt in the meantime. Also highly recommend for husbands of working women and fathers of girls. 

Bleeding Talent: How the US Military Mismanages Great Leaders and Why It's Time for a Revolution-Tim Kane
Absolute must read for all officers. Tim Kane wrote the book I wish I could write. He absorbs all the ideas in "Air Force Policy for Advanced Education: Production of Human Capital or Cheap Signals?" but goes much further to take on everything from pay, to assignments, and retirement benefits. It's a build on his Atlantic article "Why Our Best Officer's Are Leaving" but more holistic. Easy read and great defense of a more market based mechanism for employing our human capital. 

YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary):

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One-David Kilcullen

This was a good read but I'm not sure where to put it in all the great works on counter-insurgency that have come out in the last decade. His thesis is that many guerrilla wars are really about local politics and less about trans-national ideological-religious struggles. Well written.

The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I-Stephen King

I loved it and am growing to appreciate King more and more. Great story which blends together Western and fantasy settings very well. Short read but not for everyone.

The Irony of American History-Reinhold Niebuhr

Short, but not an easy read. Apparently important to Andrew Bacevich and Barack Obama and many others. Written in 1952 as a warning to America that its power and virtue are not limitless and should not be squandered. It is clear that Niebuhr's warning went unheeded. 

 Unimpressed:

The Life of the Mind: On the Joys and Travails of Thinking-James Schall

Being a Chicago-Common Core product I thought I would like this more than I did. Schall receives quite a bit of praise as a scholar and educator but I found this book to be underwhelming and hence did not finish it.

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics-John Mearsheimer
On the plus side Mearsheimer wrote a very accessible book explaining the realist theory of international relations. Having taken two of his classes I hoped that I would enjoy Tragedy of Great Power Politics but I did not. I found his journal publications on this topic to be more educational and interesting.

The Bonfire of the Vanities-Tom Wolfe

Well written, great prose and deserves its status as a great American novel. However, I wasn't in the mood to live through 1980s NYC. Having seen Wall Street and read Liar's Poker each several times I didn't find much new ground to cover and abandoned Bonfire.  

To Read in 2014:

Here is what I have tee'd up to read next year. Now that Air War College is out of the way I think the probability of finishing most of this pile is going way up.

Knowledge and Decisions-Thomas Sowell

Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present-Max Boot

Thinking in Systems: A Primer-Donella H. Meadows 

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions-Thomas Kuhn

Influence: Science and Practice-Robert Cialdini

The Division of Labor in Society-Emile Durkheim

Airpower in Small Wars: Fighting Insurgents and Terrorists-James Corum and Wray Johnson

Achieving Our Country : Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America-Richard Rorty

Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla-David Kilcullen

Nobel Tribute: Sargent and Sims

I'm not a huge macro guy. This statement can be confirmed by either my classmates or my grades in macroeconomic courses, (undergrad A/B-, grad school C+/B). But I think my general ignorance to this aspect of the "dismal science" can actually help in providing a decent blog as to why the 2011 Nobel Prize winners in Economics, Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims were so deserving of the honor. Reading the press reports confirms that reporters haven't the foggiest clue as to why Sargent and Sims' contributions were gigantic...
Bloomberg here
BBC here
UChicago news here. (we are always quick to claim a Nobel as our own but this is really a Minnesota coup)
Excellent but probably inaccessible write up on Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen: Sims here and Sargent here. Alex Tabarrok's words here.

Probably the best layman read is on the nobel.org webite here. They provide a good 5 page explanation with pretty pictures. But even that would be difficult without having recently taken a macroeconomic and econometric course. Why is macro so opaque?

Why I almost tore up my diplomas and went to work for Frito-Lay....

Shortest De Todo blog ever, EVER! I've recently been downloading and listening to Econ Talk by Russ Roberts. There are some fascinating interviews of about one hour in length with some of the most important economists alive. The most recent interview was with a true economist, that is to say someone who actually practices economics instead of studies it. Russ Roberts interviews Brendan O'Donohoe(http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/08/odonohoe_on_pot.html), a Frito-Lay mid-upper level manager about supply chain, marketing, competition, theory of the firm, innovation, and on and on. The entire conversation was impressive. Brendan knew everything about his market and basically everything I know about economics. At one point I felt like tearing up my two degrees in economics. Next time I think about needing an MBA, I'm just going to listen to this podcast again and save 100K.

One of the most poignant couple of minutes comes towards the end of the interview. Brendan talks about the tremendous pressure and culture to improve and innovate, despite being the top chip producer in the USA and the World. Competitive economic market pressure leaves Frito-Lay constantly fighting to stay on top by producing more with less, satisfying their customers in new ways, and finding new ways to process information...even though Frito-Lay is the best it never rests on its laurels. Amazing testimony to how capitalism improves our lives seen through a small example of something like chips/snacks.

The contrasts with the military, and really all government actions is so clear. Because we have no internal competitor, no pressure to slash costs, no pressure to do more with less, we are constantly seeking more resources. There is always something more we could buy, more people we could use, more expensive technology we want....in order to do the mission. While Frito-Lay is figuring out how to maximize production and minimize costs, the military and the rest of the government do not have that later restraint. Instead we are only seeking to do the mission, maximize mission effectiveness, maximize security. We will take and ask for any and all resources available, regardless if the marginal benefit exceeds the marginal cost.