The Curious Engineer

All blogs / Essays / personal

Ben Casnocha

casnocha.com

A blog about entrepreneurship, books, current affairs, and intellectual life.

Essays / personalGeneral

’05’10’15’20’25
Posts
2,937 from 27 Jun 2004 to 23 Aug 2026
Posting
monthly (6 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog
Feed
https://casnocha.com/feed

Latest

August 2026

  1. What I’ve Been Reading

July 2026

  1. The Three Ways to Express Disagreement with a Colleague

January 2026

  1. Remembering Steve Armstrong and His Dhamma Wisdom
  2. What I’ve Been Reading

November 2025

  1. Lessons from Village Global
  2. Book Notes: Good Material by Dolly Alderton

October 2025

  1. Book Notes: Either/Or by Elif Batuman

July 2025

  1. Book Notes: Splinters by Leslie Jamison

May 2025

  1. Adapting to People in Pursuit of Interpersonal Connection

February 2025

  1. Forming Conviction and Talking About It on an Investment Team

January 2025

  1. AI Medical Assistants and Pain

December 2024

  1. Book Review: Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative

November 2024

  1. Book Notes: Love Undetectable and Stay True

October 2024

  1. Recent Appearances and Interviews

September 2024

  1. Vipassana Meditation Retreat July 2024 with Joseph Goldstein and Kamala Masters

July 2024

  1. The Optimal Amount of Early Success for Maximum Long Term Success

April 2024

  1. “The Cult of Smart” and “How the Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement”

March 2024

  1. How to Network at an Unstructured Happy Hour
  2. Team Player vs. Me Player

January 2024

  1. Impressions from a Longer Stay in Tokyo (2023)
  2. Starting Over Again

December 2023

  1. Non-Fiction Writers Who Throw Heat
  2. Your Last 90 Days at a Company

November 2023

  1. Book Short: Klara and the Sun
  2. Village Global III

October 2023

  1. Book Review: Vladimir by Julia Jones

September 2023

  1. Book Review: Henry Kissinger by Walter Isaacson
  2. Impressions of Singapore

August 2023

  1. Marginal Revolution’s 20th Anniversery

July 2023

  1. Relaxed Concentration Unlocks a Secret to Winning: Not Trying Too Hard
  2. Fintech Preferences from the Unbanked of Cambodia

June 2023

  1. What I’ve Been Reading (June, 2023)
  2. Arriving in a New Place: Bolivia

May 2023

  1. Hiring Superstars is Different

February 2023

  1. Thinking Clearly about a Person’s Substance Amidst Stylistic Differences

January 2023

  1. Sitting Around the Fire
  2. On Intentionally Vague, Mystique-Infused Explanations of Talent
  3. Book Notes: Lost & Found by Kathryn Shulz

September 2022

  1. What I’ve Been Reading (September, 2022)

July 2022

  1. Startup of You: The Podcast

June 2022

  1. “Mindfulness of Consciousness” Meditation Retreat

May 2022

  1. Book Notes: The Mind Illuminated
  2. 10 Year Anniversary Edition of Startup of You

March 2022

  1. The Interdependence of Animals and the Human Kingdom

February 2022

  1. Book Review: Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

January 2022

  1. Book Reviews: The Sweet Spot and 4,000 Weeks, on Happiness and Meaning and Time Management

October 2021

  1. What I’ve Been Reading (September 2021)

August 2021

  1. Are Covid Restrictions the New TSA?

July 2021

  1. The Future of VC and Lessons from Village Global
  2. Brad Feld on Nietzsche and Entrepreneurship

May 2021

  1. The Code Breakers

April 2021

  1. Planet of Cops
  2. Two Podcast Interviews: Michael Balaoing (Public Speaking Coach) and Elliot Shmukler (Legendary PM)

March 2021

  1. Book Review: Ron Chernow’s Biography of Ulysses S. Grant
  2. Breath Work and James Nestor’s “Breath”

February 2021

  1. Clubhouse and Continuous Partial Attention

January 2021

  1. What I Read Over the Holidays
  2. Setting Up a Home Sauna and Cold Plunge

November 2020

  1. What I’ve Been Reading
  2. What Kinds of People Prefer In-Person vs. Zoom?

October 2020

  1. The More Success You Have, The More You Can (and Should) Hire Appropriately-Rated People
  2. Book Reviews: Killing Commendatore and Americanah

September 2020

  1. What I’ve Been Reading (September, 2020)
  2. Podcast Interview on the Full Ratchet About Village Global
  3. Questions Worth Pondering

August 2020

  1. What I’ve Been Reading (August 2020)

July 2020

  1. What I’ve Been Reading (in Quarantine)
  2. My Fireside Chat with Mark Pincus

May 2020

  1. Confidence Placebos
  2. Nothing in Life is Perfect, Permanent, or Personal

April 2020

  1. Most VC Firms Are Fragile Partnerships, Not Institutions
  2. “Founder Bets”

March 2020

  1. Book Review: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
  2. What I’ve Been Reading

February 2020

  1. Light Suppression vs. Strong Suppression

January 2020

  1. Book Notes: The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath
  2. Sauna Culture in Europe Over the Holidays

December 2019

  1. Thinking About People Who Have Less Than You Before Writing/Bragging About It

November 2019

  1. What I’ve Been Reading

October 2019

  1. Venture Capital Scout Programs: FAQs
  2. Book Review: Our Man by George Packer

September 2019

  1. Lessons and Impressions from T-Group Retreat on Interpersonal Dynamics

August 2019

  1. Burning Man 2019
  2. My notes from leading a session on Oral Communication
  3. Keen on Resurfacing Interesting, Old Articles? Paid Internship

July 2019

  1. Bill Gates at Village Global
  2. Scuba Diving in Roatan
  3. Book Review: The Second Mountain by David Brooks

June 2019

  1. What I’ve Been Reading

May 2019

  1. The Sacred Valley of Peru
  2. Why Do So Many VCs Say They’re Introverted?

April 2019

  1. Village Global: Hiring, Network Catalyst, Founder Retreat
  2. How I Officiated a Wedding
  3. Book Review: An American Marriage

March 2019

  1. Smart Is Not Enough: What Marc Benioff Taught Me When I Was 15 Years Old
  2. I’ve Been Off Instagram in 2019 (and Book Review: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport)
  3. The Wisdom of Eric Ries
  4. Book Notes: The Point Is by Lee Eisenberg

February 2019

  1. Book Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

January 2019

  1. The Wisdom of John Donahoe
  2. Impressions of Vietnam and Taiwan
  3. Book Review: My Struggle – Book 6

December 2018

  1. What I’ve Been Reading

November 2018

  1. Friendships: Frequent Quick Hits vs. Infrequent Deep Dives
  2. The Wisdom of Eric Schmidt and Tyler Cowen
  3. The Wisdom of Bob Iger

October 2018

  1. Remaining on Nodding Terms with Chile
  2. Book Review: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

September 2018

  1. 10 Day Samadhi (Concentration) Retreat at Spirit Rock
  2. Lessons from Village Global Luminaries

July 2018

  1. Book Review: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
  2. What I’ve Been Reading
  3. “Happiness Is Just Like This”
  4. Book Notes: Motherhood: A Novel

June 2018

  1. Trying a Gut Cleanse Diet
  2. The Americans TV Show

May 2018

  1. The Perils of Having an EA Schedule All Your Meetings
  2. What I’ve Been Reading

April 2018

  1. Lessons on Confidence, Criticism, and How to Thrive as an Underestimated Founder from Sara Blakely
  2. Lessons from Ben Silbermann, Founder of Pinterest

March 2018

  1. The School of Life Conference
  2. “That Doesn’t Surprise Me”

February 2018

  1. What’s the Reward for Uncovering Truth?
  2. Hiring a Head of Content

January 2018

  1. What I’ve Been Reading
  2. Musings on Philanthropy After Hosting Refugees
  3. Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef

December 2017

  1. Do You Love Making Connections and Thinking About Networks?

November 2017

  1. Learning to Scuba Dive
  2. Book Notes: Shantaram
  3. The Quarterlife User Manual

October 2017

  1. My Struggle: Book 2 by Karl Knausgaard
  2. Small Example of Cultivating Awe

September 2017

  1. Village Global
  2. Bob Wright’s Why Buddhism is True

August 2017

  1. Emergent Order

July 2017

  1. Samatha Meditation Practice
  2. Time Simply Slipped Away Without Any Meaning
  3. Book Notes: The Undoing Project

June 2017

  1. Stop Asking Busy People to “Catch Up” With You
  2. Book Notes: My Struggle by Karl Knausgaard
  3. Leap When You’re Almost Ready

May 2017

  1. “The Stale Tenement Air of Married Life”
  2. Book Review: The Intel Trinity

April 2017

  1. John Stuart Mill’s Life, In a Sentence
  2. Book Short: The Complacent Class by Tyler Cowen

March 2017

  1. What I’ve Been Reading
  2. How Romeo Stevens Improved His Life
  3. Low-Pressure Requests for Intro

February 2017

  1. Asking Acquaintances About Mutual Friends

Every year

2026 42025 72024 102023 172022 82021 122020 192019 252018 252017 272016 362015 482014 542013 762012 872011 692010 1942009 3232008 3312007 4972006 6092005 3292004 130