My Reading List

My favorite books, newsletters, and podcasts on technology, national security, and investing

I love to read. In many ways, my love of reading has only grown since becoming a national security focused venture capitalist almost two and a half years ago. As I’ve learned, there is no rule book to read or class to take to learn how to invest in national-security focused companies. We’re in pretty uncharted territory – never before in modern history have privately-funded startups played such a large role in an increasingly geopolitically unstable world. So instead, I’ve turned to books, newsletters, and podcasts (and of course conversations with people much more experienced than I) to try and learn how to think about the role of technology and startups in today’s national security landscape, and how I as an investor should navigate this landscape.

I wanted to share a list of my favorite books, newsletters, and podcasts on technology, investing, and national security that have been particularly influential in shaping my view of the world and how I approach my work.

Books

Technology and National Security

• The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare by Christian Brose: Often playfully referred to as the “defense tech bible,” this book does a great job giving an overview to the current state of technology used by the U.S military and the current state of our adversaries’ capabilities. It outlines what kinds of acquisition and technology reforms the U.S. will need to make in order to stay competitive in future conflicts. If you are already familiar with this space, you can probably skip this book, as it covers a lot of familiar ground, but if you’re new to the space, I highly recommend reading this book to get a good lay of the land. The author Christian Brose was previously the national security advisor to Sen. John McCain and now serves as the President of Anduril.

• Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition by Jeff Ding: This book is extremely academic and a bit of a slow read, but the content is high quality. Ding explores the history of how technological revolutions have caused international great power shifts. His overall thesis is that technological invention is less important for great power shifts than technological diffusion – that is, the societies that adopt technology quickly tend to rise to great power status due to improved productivity, even if they did not invent the technology themselves. He examines the factors related to technological diffusion that caused Britain’s rise to preeminence in the First Industrial Revolution, America and Germany’s overtaking of Britain in the Second Industrial Revolution, and Japan’s challenge to America’s technological dominance in the Third Industrial Revolution, and finally examines the current state of technological competition between the U.S. and China in AI.

• Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller: Chip War provides an excellent overview of the history of the semiconductor industry, particularly as it relates to competition between the U.S. and China. It also provides a great history of Silicon Valley and its work with the U.S. military.

• Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War by Raj Shah and Chris Kirschoff: Of course I have to include this book on the list. Raj and Chris tell the story of standing up the Defense Innovation Unit. This was one of the first books I’ve read where I personally knew many of the major “characters” involved and is overall a fun and interesting read.

• Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better by Jennifer Pahlka: Jennifer Pahlka served as U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer from June 2013 to June 2014 and helped found the United States Digital Service. In this book, she tells the story of standing up the U.S. Digital Service and explores how technology can make a real difference in government operations. One of her major conclusions is that technology alone cannot solve all of the government’s problems – many of the challenges in government today are policy problems, not technology problems. In order to improve the way our government operates, policy makers and technologists will need to work together.

• When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach by Ashlee Vance: In this book, Vance tells the story of four early space startups: Astra, Firefly, Planet Labs, and Rocket Lab. He dives into the business models of the space economy and what it takes to build a successful space startup.

• Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II by Arthur Herman: Freedom’s Forge tells the story of how the U.S. government enlisted top talent and resources from private businesses in order to quickly scale defense manufacturing in the lead up to the U.S. entering WWII.

• Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway: Material World dives into the history and importance of six major raw materials that are essential to civilization today: sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. Today, we are more reliant than ever on the physical world as we seek to build out digital and energy infrastructure.

• Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War by Paul Scharre: Published in 2018, at this point this book is a bit data, but I wanted to include it, as it was one of the first books I read on the role of autonomous systems in warfare back when I started working at NATO in 2020. Scharre presents an excellent overview of the challenges and opportunities of deploying autonomous systems in warfare.

• Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson: While this book is not directly related to national security, it explores the role of technology in building a more resilient America. In order for the U.S. to remain competitive internationally, we must rebuild our infrastructure and manufacturing base and support domestic technological development and innovation. The U.S. government has a role to play in improving the state of American technological competitiveness both through regulatory reform and through public-private partnerships to encourage innovation and development in high priority sectors.

Technology Investing

• Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez: This book is a highly academic review of the role of financial capital in technological revolutions. While the book is not an easy read, it is short, and the content is excellent. Perez breaks technological revolutions into two major periods – the installation period and the deployment period – and discusses how investors make (and lose) money during technological revolutions and how these revolutions disrupt existing socio-economic orders. Perez analyzes five major revolutions: the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel, electricity and heavy engineering, the age of oil, automobiles, and mass production, and finally the age of information and telecommunications.

• Engines That Move Markets: Technology Investing from Railroads to the Internet and Beyond by Alasdair Nairn: This book provides a comprehensive history of major technology developments and their impact on investors, covering everything from the lightbulb to the automobile to the Internet. Nairn analyzes investment bubbles around technological hype and how to make (and lose) money during those bubbles. Certainly relevant history to be studying in today’s market.

• eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work by Randall Stross: eBoys tells the story of Benchmark Capital’s famous first venture fund (one of the best performing VC funds of all time). Even though this book was written 25 years ago, it’s amazing how similar many of the discussions venture capitalists were having in 2000 are to discussions we have today (turns out VCs have always complained about high valuations).

• The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future by Sebastian Mallaby: The Power Law provides a comprehensive history of the venture capital industry. The primary thesis of the book is: venture capital is a power law industry. The top 10% of investments make up the vast majority of venture capital returns. VCs need to be focused on taking big swings and maximizing upside rather than minimizing downside when they look to invest, as ultimately, most of their money will come from just a few critical investments.

China

• Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? by Graham Allison: Destined for War explores whether the U.S. and China are destined to go to war due to Thucydides’s Trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress that results when a rising power challenges a ruling one. Allison analyzes past historical examples of Thucydides’s Trap (ex: Athens and Sparta, the U.S. and Japan, the U.K. and Germany) to understand why countries did and did not go to war, and he discusses what the U.S. and China must do to avoid war.

• The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower by Michael Pillsbury: While it may feel somewhat dated today, The Hundred-Year Marathon was one of the first books to really sound the alarm on China as an increasingly aggressive power on the world stage. Pillsbury analyzes China’s secret strategy to supplant the United States as the world’s dominant power, and to do so by 2049, the one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic.

• Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGee: Apple in China tells the story of Apple’s increasing reliance on China for its manufacturing. Without Apple, China may never have become the consumer electronics powerhouse it is today. Truly a fascinating story if you want to better understand China’s dominance in manufacturing today and what it will take for the U.S. to rebuild its manufacturing base.

• Party of One: The Rise of Xi Jinping and China’s Superpower Future: Party of One recounts Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rise to power and the history of China’s turn to increasingly authoritarian activities.

Newsletters

• Stratechery by Ben Thompson: I read almost every piece Stratechery puts out. Ben Thompson does a phenomenal job breaking down what is happening in the technology industry. He is extremely knowledgeable about a wide range of tech sectors, covering everything from social media to semiconductors to defense.

• Interconnects by Nathan Lambert: Nathan Lambert is an AI researcher at the Allen Institute for AI, and he does an amazing job analyzing and breaking down major events in AI. I highly recommend reading Interconnects if you want to get into the technical nitty gritty of what’s happening in AI research.

• Import AI by Jack Clark: Jack Clark is the Head of Policy at Anthropic, and each week he rounds up and explains the most important pieces of AI research in Import AI.

• Not Those Shades of Gray by Austin Gray: Austin and I are not related, but I still love reading his Substack. Austin writes about the intersection of technology, startups, and maritime. He and I have written together before.

• The World in Brief from the Economist: I’ve been reading the Economist since I was 13 (I was a hard core Model United Nations nerd), and I still love it to this day. I read the World In Brief, their daily news round up, most days in order to stay on top of what’s happening in international news (it’s easy to get bogged down only in U.S. news).

• ChinAI by Jeff Ding: Jeff Ding is an expert in China tech policy and tech diffusion. In ChinAI he writes about China’s role in the global AI landscape.

• ChinaTalk by Jordan Schneider: ChinaTalk covers China policy, with a focus on technology and U.S.-China relations. They often post translations of Chinese news articles and speeches which I find particularly interesting.

• Frankly Speaking by Frank Wang: Frankly Speaking analyzes the cybersecurity startup industry.

• Defense Tech and Acquisition News by Pete Modigliani and Matt MacGregor: A good weekly roundup of the most interesting articles on defense tech and military acquisitions. Pete and Matt also occasionally post their own analysis.

• Clouded Judgment by Jamin Ball: A weekly newsletter analyzing trends in cloud and SaaS companies.

• It Can Think! by Chris Paxton: Chris dives into deep analysis of the robotics industry from both an academic and startup perspective.

• Other newsletters I enjoy, but don’t read religiously: Next Big Teng, Aspiring for Intelligence, Tanay’s Newsletter, Derek Thompson’s Substack, Noahpinion, Tectonic, Payload Space, SemiAnalysis

Podcasts

• Acquired: I listen to every episode that comes out. Released monthly, each Acquired episode tells the story of the world’s most impactful businesses – covering everything from tech giants like Google and Microsoft to companies like Standard Oil, Costco, a16z, and more.

• The Daily: A daily podcast from the New York Times that covers major current events. I listen to almost every episode that comes out. This podcast is my main source of political news.

• Invest Like the Best: In this podcast, Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviews some of the best investors and entrepreneurs. I think Patrick is a great interviewer, and I always learn a lot about investing and building businesses from these episodes.

• Darknet Diaries: I don’t listen to this podcast as much anymore, but I used to listen to it all the time, and this podcast is one of the things that got me so interested in cybersecurity in the first place. Each episode tells the story of a major cyber incident. Jack Rhysider is an excellent storyteller. If you’re looking to learn more about cybersecurity, this is a great way to do it.

• Planet Money: A podcast from NPR that dives into all kinds of fascinating and sometimes esoteric economic topics that you wouldn’t typically come across. They do a great job of explaining complex economic topics clearly.

• 20VC: I don’t love every episode of this podcast (and I generally don’t like the episodes without an interview guest), but I’ve enjoyed Harry Stebbing’s interviews with other venture capitalists and startup founders. He asks good questions that get at the heart of understanding how to identify talented entrepreneurs building big companies with tremendous market opportunities.

• Other podcasts I enjoy, but don’t listen to religiously: The President’s Inbox, Lawfare, Valley of Depth, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Global Dispatches, the Dwarkesh Podcast

Please let me know what else I should be reading and listening to! I’d love suggestions for more content to consume to help me to continue to learn about the world of national security technology investing. And, as always, please reach out if you or anyone you know is building at the intersection of technology and national security, or if you’d just like to meet up to talk more about the space.