Hi there, I'm Bennet. I love to build things and explore the world intellectually. History is my favorite method of exploration. This is my personal website — where I document projects, write down the stuff I want to get out there, and other personal-website things.
Books I've read / am reading
- Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society by Paul Goodman
- Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
- The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
- Churchill by Paul Johnson
- The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant
- Letters to a Young Creator by the Steve Jobs Archive
- The Book of Elon by Naval Ravikant
- Invention: A Life of Learning Through Failure by James Dyson
- Raise a Genius! by Laszlo Polgar
Books I really want to read
- The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya
- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volumes 1–6, by Edward Gibbon
- Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick
- The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
- Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger
- American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird
- What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman
- John Adams by David McCullough
- History Matters by David McCullough
Daily podcast reel
- Founders
- David Senra
- Hardcore History
- Acquired
Fascinating People
- Richard P. Feynman
- Alexander the Great
- J. Robert Oppenheimer
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Wilbur & Orville Wright
- Edwin Land
- Jesus
- Will Durant
- Bill Gates
- John D. Rockefeller
- Abraham Lincoln
- Patrick Collison
- Winston Churchill
- Isaac Newton
- James Dyson
- George Washington
- Elon Musk
- Palmer Luckey
Life philosophy
- Be kind. Make somebody's day better. Treat them better than anybody has ever treated them before.
- Be default happy. There is absolutely no upside in being miserable, and there is only gain in being happy.
- Be useful. Do or make something that would improve the life of somebody, somewhere.
- Be different. Stop copying the crowd. Introduce a new, unique way of experiencing life. It makes you special.
- Think independently and reason into belief. Just because the herd is jumping off a cliff doesn't make it right.
- Conform. It is important to be harmonious on a minimal foundation with society, or else society doesn't work.
- Be curious. Be curious. Be curious. Being curious about everything widens your understanding exponentially.
- Read! Read a fucking history book. You do not know anything about life unless you've read history books.
- Focus. Focus on the important things in life. Focus on your goal. Limit what you pursue to just three goals.
- Family. One of those goals should be your family. There exists no better experience in life than a loving family.
- Purpose. Have a purpose in life. People with no purpose slowly wither away a miserable and useless existence.
- Help. Always help anybody and everybody when you can. It is both self-fulfilling and improves a person's life.