End of the World Is Just the Beginning
2019 was the last great year for the world economy. For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days – even hours – of when you decided you wanted it. America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going. Globe-spanning supply chains are only possible with the protection of the U.S. Navy. The American dollar underpins internationalized energy and financial markets. Complex, innovative industries were created to satisfy American consumers. American security policy forced warring nations to lay down their arms. Billions of people have been fed and educated as the American-led trade system spread across the globe. All of this was artificial. All this was temporary. All this is ending. In The End of the World is Just the Beginning, author and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging. The list of countries that make it all work is smaller than you think. Which means everything about our interconnected world – from how we manufacture products, to how we grow food, to how we keep the lights on, to how we shuttle stuff about, to how we pay for it all – is about to change. A world ending.
Stats for nerds
19recommend
38mentions
35people
2022–2026years
53% recommend45% neutral3% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Zeihan is wonderful if read as a post-modern, historical fiction novelist.
The characters and plots are obviously all exaggerations and fabrications of reality but there are many interesting themes in his novels.
Of course, reading him like he is Edward Gibbon would be pretty foolish but The End of the World is just the Beginning is a great book.
- > It cannot be understated that we are getting front row seats to the end of Pax Americana. In a world where countries can no longer enjoy reliable trade for commodities, we are going to revert to a world of imperialist land grabs and violence.
I don't agree with everything Peter Zeihan writes, but he did a good job of capturing this in "The end of the world is just the beginning"[0].
It feels like it is going to be a rough couple of decades.
- A dissenting voice that might of interest here is Peter Zeihan. He claims that the US is one of the few places that won’t collapse in the coming decade. I do claim here is right, but his analysis is, if nothing else, interesting. His book, The End of the World Is Just the Beginning, is an easy enough read.
- Most of the books I read are influenced by similar threads on HN. This year has not been good overall and it impacted my reading. I need to finish writing the post https://brajeshwar.com/2023/books/
“How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question” by Michael Schur is a fun book that opens with a good question, “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?”
I have been meaning to and this year I finally read The Diary of a Young Girl.
For 2024, here are some of the ones from my list (sorry for the formatting, copied Markdown from my notes);
- [Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_War:_The_Fight_for_the_Wo...) by [Chris Miller](https://www.christophermiller.net)
- [First Principles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Principles_(book)) by [Thomas E. Ricks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_E._Ricks_(journalist))
- [Greenlights](https://greenlights.com) by [Matthew McConaughey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_McConaughey)
- How Asia Works: Success and Failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region by Joe Studwell
- [Poor Economics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Economics): A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by [Abhijit V. Banerjee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhijit_Banerjee), and [Esther Duflo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Duflo)
- Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child The Heart of Parenting by [John Gottman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gottman), and Joan DeClaire
- [The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read](https://www.amazon.com/Book-Wish-Your-Parents-Read/dp/198487...): (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) by [Philippa Perry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippa_Perry)
- [The End Of The World Is Just The Beginning: Mapping The Collapse Of Globalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_World_is_just_t...) by [Peter Zeihan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Zeihan)
- [The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation](https://www.amazon.com/Tatas-Family-Built-Business-Nation/dp...) by [Girish Kuber](https://mr.wikipedia.org/wiki/गिरीश_कुबेर), and English translation by Vikrant Pande.
- [Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming](https://www.amazon.com/Windfall-Booming-Business-Global-Warm...) by [McKenzie Funk](https://www.mckenziefunk.com)
- [Dieter Rams: The Complete Works](https://www.amazon.com/Dieter-Rams-Complete-Klaus-Klemp/dp/1...) by [Klaus Klemp](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Klemp)
- For a related but MUCH deeper dive into this subject, check out the book "The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization" by Peter Zeihan.
- I find he continues to make solid arguments though and including his most recent The End of the World Is Just the Beginning.
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