Wisereads Vol. 98 – The Magic of Code by Samuel Arbesman, Daniel Pink on finding purpose, and more
Last week, we featured an exclusive excerpt of Brad Feld's recent release, Give First: The Power of Mentorship. This week, we're excited to share a preview of The Magic of Code, a love letter to computing by Samuel Arbesman.
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Most highlighted Articles of the week
I Deleted My Second Brain
When creative director and Signalvs founder Joan Westenberg boldly deleted her entire repository of thousands of Obsidian notes one random evening, she felt a sigh of relief. "In trying to remember everything, I outsourced the act of reflection. I didn’t revisit ideas. I didn’t interrogate them. I filed them away and trusted the structure. But a structure is not thinking. A tag is not an insight. And an idea not re-encountered might as well have never been had."
The New Skill in AI is Not Prompting, It's Context Engineering
The latest key to unlocking AI’s power lies not in the prompt, but in the context, explains Philipp Schmid, Senior AI Relation Engineer at Google DeepMind. "Building powerful and reliable AI Agents is becoming less about finding a magic prompt or model updates. It is about the engineering of context and providing the right information and tools, in the right format, at the right time."
My 4-Stage System for Learning Anything New
Tiago Forte, the author of Building a Second Brain, breaks down his strategy for learning new things. Essential steps include creating something: "Building reveals the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. This gap is where real learning happens," and finding a mentor: "One focused teacher is worth more than twenty scattered resources. Use your mentors as filters to cut through information overload."
Most highlighted YouTube Video of the week
How To Find Your Life's Purpose
Drive author Daniel Pink poses seven fresh questions—far beyond the tired "what is your passion?"—to help viewers uncover their life's purpose. Among them: "What made me weird as a kid?... As kids, we gravitate toward the things we love. We don't worry too much about if they're cool or normal. And those early fascinations can be important indicators of what drives us. The problem is that somewhere along the way, we lose touch with these instincts. High school and college and life itself teach us to be practical and to fit in. We start doing what we're supposed to do instead of what once made us weird and joyful."
Most highlighted Twitter Thread of the week
Stripe's CEO never studied finance
It wasn’t formal degrees but relentless curiosity that led Patrick Collison and his brother to found a $95 billion company in their early twenties. Fernando Cao compiles their setbacks and key lessons: "Patrick's learning method was deceptively simple: 1. Reverse-engineer everything obsessively 2. Question every assumption 3. Talk to insiders who built the system 4. Build rapid prototypes from first principles."
Most highlighted PDF of the week
The Builder’s Playbook
ICONIQ Capital's 2025 report, The Builder’s Playbook, shifts focus from adoption to execution, offering tactical guidance on creating and scaling AI-powered products. "AI has entered a new chapter: from hype to hands-on... For AI-enabled companies, around 20-35% of their product roadmap has been focused on AI-driven features with high-growth companies dedicating closer to 30-45% of their roadmap to AI-driven features."
Hand-picked book of the week
The Magic of Code
Samuel Arbesman, author of Overcomplicated and Lux Capital’s Scientist in Residence, returns with The Magic of Code, a love letter to computing. Written for readers with no programming background, it traces the history and nature of computing and its bond with humanity, empowering us to master technology rather than serve it. The book unfolds in three parts—Code, Thought, Reality—each widening its scope and impact.
"In the same way that science fiction is not just about whiz-bang gadgetry or swooping starships but also about engaging with mind-boggling ideas and thought experiments, the wonder of computing is not just the cool technologies we see around us. The wonder is that learning about computers—their nature, their history, and the snaking tendrils of their impact—leads to marveling at basically everything around us. Understanding computers and code and computation—in all their weirdness and delights, features and implications—can lead you to think about so many aspects of our world, from biology and life itself to how we use language and how we think. It is the ultimate connector."
We're thrilled that Samuel is sharing the introduction to The Magic of Code, a bold reframing of our relationship with tech that presents code as "a universal force—swirling through disciplines, absorbing ideas, and connecting worlds" (Linda Liukas). If you enjoy the preview, order the full book from the publisher, PublicAffairs, and get 20% off with code "ARBESMAN20" (US only) until July 15.
Handpicked RSS feed of the week
Age of Invention
Venture down the rabbit hole with historian Anton Howes, who offers satisfyingly thorough deep dives into the causes of the British Industrial Revolution and the history of innovation—from salt to coal briquettes. From Age of Invention: All Fired Up: "So why did the coal ball keep failing to catch on in London? Ironically it was Plat who gives us a hint, by having recommended the manufacture of coal balls as a means to provide gainful employment for thousands of wounded veterans. Although he extolled this as a benefit, it also shows that coal balls required a great deal of extra labour to make. And as such, they would have been at their most attractive to Londoners at times of both severe fuel scarcity and high unemployment."