The Pragmatist's Guide to Governance

From High School Cliques to Boards, Family Offices, and Nations: A Guide to Optimizing Governance Models

By: Simone Collins, Malcolm Collins

Narrated by: Malcolm Collins

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Any group of people expected to work synergistically needs a system that structures their interactions. That system is “governance.” The Pragmatist’s Guide to Governance takes a first principles approach to exploring the ways governance structures affect the humans living under them (and vice versa), with a special focus on how human psychology interacts with the structures that facilitate our interaction with other people.

Originally written as a thought experiment in forming a family office that won’t ultimately fizzle out, incite inter-family conflict, or undermine descendants, this book explores governing structures ranging from states to religions, online forums, middle school cliques, and family units.

This book will be uniquely useful to anyone:

• Scaling a company
• Setting up a nonprofit
• Establishing a family office
• Trying to win a power struggle or overcome bullying
• Instigating a revolution with the goal of building a new nation-state
• Navigating an organization in which they’re forced to operate (e.g., a business or university)

©2023 Malcolm Collins (P)2023 Malcolm Collins

These guys are the best!

If you like the Collins’, this book gets into some of the details on their approach to governance and muses about current set ups. Nice read!

A Gold Mine

This book is a gold mine for any Sci-fi author looking for governing concepts that are novel yet well grounded in plausibility to add to their next work.

I also appreciate that it isn't just a regurgitation of their podcast, as often happens with many podcasting authors. It goes much deeper and is more concise than the free episodes, to the point where they often reference the books.

In addition, there are a ton of asides that Malcom adds just for the audiobook readers so it's great even if you already have the book.

My only suggestion is that Malcom should read the book in a more natural, conversational style instead of the rushed, sterile reading voice he uses. I suppose it's faster and more efficient but the text is so information dense already that comprehension would probably benefit for a slightly slower reading speed. It's especially evident when he adds his asides that are more natural because he's not reading from the book anymore.

Overall I really like it and I support their grand vision.

Good and Debatable

The authors are genuine and genuinely interesting, and I appreciate the content of this book and the research behind it. The structure of the book and delivery come off like Cross Examination debate (perhaps Parliamentary). More details, stories, and analysis of governance systems would make the book seem less like a string of evidence cards. That said, if you want a big return on your investment of time, this book delivers. Fluff is minimal, analysis is good (if occasionally attenuated), and the vision is compelling.

a thoughtful and earnest unpacking of governance

opinionated but also research based and open minded to many different governance systems... at least enough to discuss them. does great also balancing being broad and high level enough for a casual listener while being detailed enough to be intellectually satisfying.