2020 H1 Reading Reviews and Book List

Time flies and the first half of 2020 has already passed. It is such a volatile half year that nobody would predict. Quite a lot of crisis happened: from the pandemic still raging the world, BLM protests and riots, persistent US-Sino disputes, to the unprecedented market turmoil. Many things have changed the world systematically and structurally, but many would only cause temporary disrupts.

For me, 2020H1 is also very unique and mindset refreshing. I luckily took the advantage of the pre-pandemic time slot, January and early February, visited some countries and had a wonderful time, which turned out to be a luxury in the coming years as the virus still raging and  the vaccine still seems to have a long way to go. The world shelter-at-home time also turned out to be a good time to read books since people has to settle down and turned down nearly all the social activities. For this time being, I have read 20 books, some of them are carefully read and others are only scanned for the essence and the key parts for my curiosity and future use.

Here below are my personal summaries and marks for them. I also divided them into 4 sets: Psychology and Cognition, Social and System, Investment, History and People.

Psychology and Cognition:

1. Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman（5.0）

It would be the most recommended book. It is a little bit academic and hard to read, but it is certainty worth a careful read. As a world famous Nobel prize winner, Daniel Kaheman led us a way to understand how human form cognition and why there are so many misunderstandings. And for us, value investors, Daniel also gave a clear academic study of why decision making always irrational and some of the basic economic hypothesis are wrong.

2. Influence, Robert B.Cialdini (5.0)

This is another book Charlie Munger highly recommended and gave many copies to his friends as gifts. After the reading, I see clearly why. This is a very insightful book, and the problem this book is trying to solve is the fundamental of nearly all the social and economic models. Some of the summaries and my understandings are shared at BEDROCK previous publications: Review on ‘Influence’ (1) and Review on ‘Influence’ (2).

3. 社会心理学，David G.Myers (4.0)

4. 津巴多普通心理学，Philip G.Zimbardo (4.0)

The above two books are text books alike. I only scanned through very quickly and searched for what I needed. I also shared some of my thoughts on: 每个人都应该多读一点心理学 and 巴普洛夫效应、预期管理与暴雷.

Social and System:

5. 控制论与科学方法论，金观涛（5.0）

This is a fansinating book which wrote nearly 40 years ago. This book is about cerbernetics and systems theories and was used to be a text book in college but without all the troublesome formulas. The idea of which kinds of systems can last and which kinds are short lived is quite insightful and also helpful for our understanding of the world. 

6. 蚂蚁的社会，Bert Holldobler（5.0）

The fact that the ants world functions as a brain and an individual ant functions as a neuron is extremely mind boggling. Bert Holldnoler gave us a vivid picture of how that would even be possible and how the ants world functions. I believe that, If extended, the scenario can also be viewed in many more complicated social societies, even in our human world. 

7. 我们为什么会生病，Randolph M.Nesse（4.5）

8. 大流感，John M.Barry (4.0)

The above books are clearly worth reading especially in the current pandemic period. One is about the mecanism of the diseases and how our body deal with and co-live with them. And the other tells the horrible history of the great 1918 influenza, which once again proved how delicate our lives can be and that only the science is the right way to conquer the virus.

Investment:

9. Competition Demystified, Bruce Greenwald (5.0)

I believe this is the best book I had read about competition and competition advantage, even though this book is not as famous as the author’s another book -- Value Investing. This book may be a little bit academic and clearly not a popular and best selling type, but it delves deep into how competition advantages develop, how to evaluate them and what are the optimal strategies. These are all very inspiring my further thoughts and studies.

10. Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A.Moore (5.0)

This book has a long last reputation among VCs as it described how people get involved with an innovation and how its impact spread across different people. Besides I believe this book is not only a great book on business and innovations but also a great book on social structure and how social proof influences our lives.

11. 穷查理宝典，Charles T.Munger (5.0)

Poor Charlie’s Almanack is the must read for every one who claims to be a value investor, as to learn from the master is a short cut for success. The book shares the wit and wisdom of the great investor Charles Munger. After read this book, I used to wrote an article and revisited the insights and considerations of the investment analysis of Coca Cola: 从芒格谈可口可乐投资案例学习消费品投资.

12. Big Money Thinks Small, Joel Tillinghast (5.0)

Before reading this book, I don’t know much about Joel Tillinghast, sorry for my limited knowledge of these great investors. I believe the this book has so many ideas and methods in common with BEDROCK that is like a perfect text book for BEDROCK. Joel is a perfect guy to learn from because that he is a true believer of value investing, that he has run fund investment since 1989, that the fund he has run is focused in small cap and growth stock which is very different from other value investing gurus as Warren Buffett, that his 30 years performance beat the index massively, and that the legendary Peter Lynch acclaimed him as the greatest investor of all time. My review on this book: Big money thinks small- Thoughts on investment.

13. The Little Book That Builds Wealth, Pat Dorsey (5.0)

As its name, this is a little book, yet Pat Dorsey shared a great view and an approach of value investing. Similar to Warren Buffett, Pat Dorsey also centered the analysis around the business moat, but apart from Buffett, Pat Dorsey has many more exploration into growth stocks, e.g. tech companies. 

14. Value Investing from Graham to Buffett and Beyond, Bruce Greenwald (4.5)

This is another great work of Bruce Greenwald. I am not a big fan of what are the masters’ strategies different and how they are developed. This book is more about history than insights and analysis.

15. The Warren Buffett Portfolio, Robert G. Hagstrom (4.5)

I believe a detailed study of the portfolio of the greatest investor is worthwhile. It is shocking to find out how concentrated a portfolio Buffett owned back then (sometimes more than 40-50% in one name). I still would be amazed of how Buffett stood strong in his belief against draw backs and also resisted from all the other tempts.

16. 解密对冲基金组合基金，聂军 文芳（4.0）

As a fund manager myself, it is a quite a fun trip to discover how FOF manager, normally our LPs, analyze and pick funds and what are the key considerations when making decisions.

History and People:

17. Stress Test, Timonthy F.Geithner (5.0)

Of course there are quite many books and movies about the financial crisis but I believe this book Stress Test is still very special as it is an autobiography of the key decision maker: Timonthy Geithner. This book gives us a window to have a look of how this crisis developed and how the decision made at that time. Buffett once commented this book as ‘sensational’!

18. 我曾走在崩溃的边缘，俞敏洪（5.0）

Normally I do not like reading autobiographies since most of them are full of praises and biases. However, this book wrote by teacher Yu is extremely candid and sincere. I have learned quite a lot from not only the success story of the New Oriental Education but also the setbacks and failures of it. Teacher Yu also disclosed many thought process and details of how decisions are made and what are reactions everybody took during those chaos periods. I have also learned a ton of the education industry and management strategies.

19. The Mamba Mentality, Kobe Bryant (5.0)

I am so sad my hero has gone… The mamba mentality is the key for his success and is also essential for anybody in any occupation if he or she wants to accomplish something. Besides, this book is really a great read. RIP my hero…

20. Dealing with China, Henry M.Paulson (4.0)

I may admire what Paulson sacrifised during the crisis and also his wisdom and humor. And this book may be a good pathway for outsiders who are intrested in modern China. But for me there are too many cliches and ass kissing but not really any inside stories. Surprisingly, even with that, this book is also banned in mainland…

Schedules for the 2020H2?

When I look back my last annual reading review and schedule for 2020: 2019读书笔记汇总及书单, I am surprised by the fact that how few books I have read during the first half of 2020 are according to my scheduled book list… which is fine actually, since I have constantly gained my understanding of the world and got attracted by the new ideas and knowledges along the way, which I can never foresee by the old myself. I believe constant learning and improving is a much better way of self-adaptation or evolution, thus I would not list a schedule for 2020H2 this time but I would keep sharing my thoughts and understanding regularly.

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