Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
Debt, the first 5,000 Years (David Graeber) - Learned that most of history has been communist (eg. hunter gatherer societies), shops of the past were run on credit (eg. tally sticks), money&#x2F;capitalism tended to emerge with the rise of the state, taxing to feed soldiers for war, and that the drive to pay off one&#x27;s debt fueled a lot of the cruelty of mankind (eg. Hernan Cortez, Casimir).<p>21 Things they don&#x27;t tell you about Capitalism, Bad Samaritans (Ha Joon Chang) - Learned that free trade is generally bad for developing countries, countries need to build out high productivity industries to grow their economy in the long term and avoid a balance of payments deficit (unless blessed with oil or something), manufacturing is vital to a country&#x27;s economy and its service sector, &quot;free markets&quot; are a constantly evolving political definition with numerous inherent double standards, the only reason most of us in first world countries are paid well has nothing to do with our own superior ability (eg. bus driver in India vs. Norway), but due to immigration control and the institutions we inherit.<p>Also looking for more book recommendations, so feel free to send some my way!