The Golden Age of Literature: Why Books from 1870–1930 Still Predict Our Future

Marc Andreessen, in 2024, claimed in an X post that there is "so much alpha" in books written between 1870 and 1930. Is he right? In this episode, I explore one of the most extraordinary periods in literary and intellectual history - a time that gave us Dostoevsky, H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, Nietzsche, Freud, Thorstein Veblen and many others. From artificial intelligence and social media to status signalling, consumer culture, morality, ambition and technological disruption, these writers wrestled with many of the same questions that define our lives today. Why do books written more than a century ago still feel startlingly modern? And what can they teach us about navigating an increasingly chaotic world?