Seattle Intellectual Book Club

• What is an AI anyway? (~22min Video)

Think I am missing a great article or video on theme? Please suggest it through the event chat or on our discord (linked below).

• The book of the month is "The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma" by Mustafa Suleyman & Michael Bhaskar.

This is the event for you if:

• A book is too much of a commitment, but you still love discussing ideas.
• You just wanted an excuse to hang out with like minded people.
• You were busy and missed the monthly book club.

Come grab a drink, discuss and hang out.

Agenda:
6:30pm - 7:00pm Arrive & please buy drinks/food to support our venue if able
7:00pm - 8:30pm Group Discussion

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for upcoming books for the group to read, venues to meet at or any other constructive feedback on the format.

Here is the link to our Discord (text or voice chat rooms) to discuss anything book club related.
https://discord.gg/dRHj5ssaAy

Like what we are doing and want to chip in? Please consider donating. Donations will help cover the cost of the meet up registration. (about $400/year). Venmo is @Seattle_Intellectual_Bookclub

Here is the link to our Discord (text or voice chat rooms) to discuss anything book club related.
https://discord.gg/dRHj5ssaAy

Like what we are doing and want to chip in? Please consider donating. Donations will help cover the cost of the meet up registration. (about $400/year). Venmo is @Seattle_Intellectual_Bookclub

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Here is the book description from Amazon:

""A terrific book...Powerful and persuasive.” —Fareed Zakaria

“Spectacular…Offers a comprehensive indictment of the current problems and a clear path forward…Klein and Thompson usher in a mood shift. They inspire hope and enlarge the imagination.” —David Brooks, The New York Times

From bestselling authors and journalistic titans Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to renew a politics of plenty, face up to the failures of liberal governance, and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life.

To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, America has a national housing crisis. After years of limiting immigration, we don’t have enough workers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built anything close to the clean-energy infrastructure we need. Ambitious public projects are finished late and over budget—if they are ever finished at all. The crisis that’s clicking into focus now has been building for decades—because we haven’t been building enough.

Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next gener­ation’s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the problems of the 1970s often prevent urban-density and green-energy projects that would help solve the problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.

Progress requires facing up to the institutions in life that are not working as they need to. It means, for liberals, recognizing when the government is failing. It means, for conservatives, recognizing when the government is needed. In a book exploring how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and pre­serves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and propose a path toward a politics of abundance. At a time when movements of scarcity are gaining power in country after country, this is an answer that meets the challenges of the moment while grappling honestly with the fury so many rightfully feel."

• Atlantic Podcast (~1hr 18min listen or read)

Think I am missing a great article or video on theme? Please suggest it through the event chat or on our discord (linked below).

• The book of the month is "Abundance" by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson.

This is the event for you if:

• A book is too much of a commitment, but you still love discussing ideas.
• You just wanted an excuse to hang out with like minded people.
• You were busy and missed the monthly book club.

Come grab a drink, discuss and hang out.

Agenda:
6:30pm - 7:00pm Arrive & please buy drinks/food to support our venue if able
7:00pm - 8:30pm Group Discussion

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for upcoming books for the group to read, venues to meet at or any other constructive feedback on the format.

Here is the link to our Discord (text or voice chat rooms) to discuss anything book club related.
https://discord.gg/dRHj5ssaAy

Like what we are doing and want to chip in? Please consider donating. Donations will help cover the cost of the meet up registration. (about $400/year). Venmo is @Seattle_Intellectual_Bookclub