Reddit mentions of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power

godel escher bach, an eternal golden braid by douglas hofstadter

edit : some other favs

The Prize by Daniel Yergin

Anything by Steven Pinker

Seed magazines monthly book recommendations

The Prize

The Prize, Daniel Yergin

http://www.amazon.com/The-Prize-Quest-Money-Power/dp/0671799320

Also work Energy field, long read but fantastic.

>I'm surrounded by people who can barely be referred to as aware.

You're frustrated because you do not think, not because of others.

Do you honestly believe that running out of mass is going to be a serious worry for humanity? If so, you have very little conception of the total mass of the earth v. the number of people living on it. In any case, if mass is the issue, what's so difficult about acquiring it from the solar system?

You might try reading to help your problem with not thinking. I'd recommend you start by reading the Pulitzer-winning history The Prize to learn about how often peak oil has claimed to have been reached, and what the real problem has always been in re: oil supplies.

Standard Oil is an interesting subject. One of the biggest pieces of it when it was broken up eventually became Exxon.

The wikipedia section on successor companies hints at just how influential parts of Standard Oil have been.

The book The Prize is an interesting read about the history of oil.

Edit: forgot a word while typing. (I'm a slow typist)

Well these people have proven that they have no idea what they are talking about when talking about energy, specifically oil. Big thing going around now is that gas prices were less than $1.80 a gallon before Obama took office. This is 100% true. Was it because Republican policies were so good and Obama's were so bad? Absolutely not. You guys remember gas prices in the summer of 2008? National averages around $4.10 a gallon. Demand after that plummeted.

I believe production dropped during Obama's first 6 months or so to meet demand, but overall since 2008 domestic oil production has gone up 10%, net imports are down, albeit just slightly, and peak oil in the US has not nearly been realized. This all according to Daniel Yergin, the preeminent scholar and author on oil.

Fuck these guys and their fucking lies and fuck all the people that believe them. And they think a great way to bring gas prices down is by creating more unrest in the middle east by sanctioning and ultimately invading Iran.

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> Hi again, time is up! =P I've been reading some more of your posts and genuinely enjoy them

I’m glad you enjoyed them! A lot of my views and positions are quite far outside of the “mainstream views” so that naturally means any discussion I get into with someone is most likely going to have to involve a lot of back and forth. It obviously can be quite tedious so you will notice how some days I’m more patient than others, lol. Sometimes I do wonder whether my time is best spent talking to people on Reddit about these things or whether it’s best spent just focusing on my own life and letting the passage of time determine how right or how wrong I am on many of these things and let the chips fall as they may. I do feel like I’ve spent a lot of time reading and thinking about many of these topics though so I usually find myself being pulled (in a good way though… though my own volition) into trying to discuss my ideas with others. I do also think that discussing one’s ideas and putting them “out into the open” is the best way to force yourself to defend them and test their validity and soundness. Sound ideas ought to be able to survive intense scrutiny and I feel to the extent one doesn’t allow their ideas to be scrutinized than they’re likely holding poor or incomplete ideas in their head. In many ways I feel that the internet is likely to create a “battleground of ideas” which will allow the soundest and strongest ideas to win out like never before.

> was wondering if you could also provide some context of you such as job/age/location/education/anything you wish to add.

As for my age and location, I’m 23 years old and live in the incredibly beautiful country that is Canada. I love this land and hope to always have a place here that I can call home.

As for my education, I did well in school growing up (elementary and high school) and ended up being put forward two years in math and science and one year ahead in everything else. I feel my strongest subject was mathematics and think that my strong reasoning/logic skills have translated very well for my study of economics. Due to my advancement in school when I was young, I ended up graduating from university a year early with a degree in mining and mineral process engineering.

My true love however would be in studying the subjects of economics, monetary theory, philosophy and military and financial history. I believe that the attribute that has allowed me to learn so much in a relatively short period of time is that I read a ton. I currently just picked up this book, which I’ve just started but is going to be a fantastic read. It goes over the history of the 20th century but looks at it all through the lens of oil.

As for my job, while going to university in the summers I worked at an underground gold mine for a very large Canadian gold mining company. Upon graduation I joined a Canadian investment bank to work on a very well respected mining mergers and acquisitions deal team. Our team is small (there’s only 6 of us) and tight-knit but we are known all over the world in our space and our deals range from around $250 million on the smaller end to $4.5 billion on the bigger end. I love working in M&A in the mining space because it allows me to use my mining/mineral processing engineering background but also allows me to develop investment analysis skills which I’m planning on using later on in life.

My goal is to be “on my own” and self-employed by 28. That specific target is based off trying to mirror the likes of Jim Rogers who started up his hedge fund at that age. I would like to do equity financings for mining-related projects, food production/farming-related projects and decentralized energy projects. Equity financing simply means that instead of debt financing where you provide funds and get an interest-based return (a loan), you provide money and get an actual equity stake in the company (you become a part owner). In a perfect world I would have enough money at that time where I could be using all my own funds in these projects but we’ll see how it goes. I don’t bother sorting out “the details” as I’m not there yet anyways and no matter what, over the next few years my time is best spent growing my capital and learning as much as I can about topics that will prove helpful.

> As for me I'm 2/3 of the way through an econ degree in Australia so still have a lot of learning to do before I develop a more concrete opinion, however certain aspects of the Austrian school particularly appeal to me.

Rock on. My best friend just moved to Australia (Brisbane) and I’ve vacationed there for three weeks during a graduation field trip.

I agree with 99.9% of the Austrian school’s thoughts although do disagree with them on the idea that the best monetary arrangement is the gold standard. I was first drawn to the Austrian school by their explanation of business cycles; the Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT). I also enjoy their capital-based approach to economics. My view is that most schools make great errors when they begin to get too focused on mathematics and money, specifically when the money we use is of the nature it is today.

The Prize - The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power

Daniel Yergin effing rocks. First, you should read his book The Prize. It will blow you away with how well it is written (i.e., actually fun to read), but also informative. Seriously, you can get it for like $0.50 on Amazon.

After you read it, you might have a different perspective on this piece. First of all, I believe Yergin is a consultant on energy issues, but he's not a mouthpiece for some oil company. I've read his book and I read this article as the facts of life, pure and simple. Through engineering, we have developed other sources of oil. So, as this technology develops further, that could potentially drive down the price of oil (increased supply would lower prices). Also, I don't understand how this is necessarily band for the US economy: He discusses how it has reduced unemployment in ND. Lastly, the main thrust of the article is that these new sources of oil will change the balance of oil power in the world, and he clearly says in the end that Arab oil will still be important, just less so.

Whether you agree or disagree with me, read the book. It is seriously that good.