Recent reading

I usually have a couple of books on the go at any one time. I recently finished “Abundance” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson which I’d recommend. It looks at why the modern state has struggled to deliver basic services, from housing to economic growth. Written from a US perspective it certainly makes sense when you look around the UK, exploring how California has struggled to build housing or high speed rail. I certainly agreed that regulations developed with the best of intentions have increasingly blocked or at best increased the costs of infrastructure developments (think the £100m bat tunnel for HS2 in the UK).

On a different note I finished Ruchir Sharma’s “What went wrong with capitalism”. Like Klein’s book I found parts I agreed with and other sections I didn’t, which is probably a good thing. Its important to reflect on ideas one doesn’t normally agree with.

Which takes me to my current reading – “The ideological brain” by Leor Zmigrod, which explores the extent to which our minds accept different perspectives. It strikes me this research is important when thinking about messaging on issues like climate change – and how we talk to people who have different perspectives.