[Book of the Week] The Charge of the Young Forty and More

The Rules of Unbeatable Investing

Barry Ritholtz argues that before developing techniques to beat the market, it is more important to reduce the mistakes that cause us to self-destruct in the market. This is why he puts Charlie Munger's phrase, "Be less stupid rather than more clever," at the forefront. The book relentlessly explores how most investment failures stem not from a lack of information, but from overconfidence, impatience, herd mentality, and excessive conviction.

What stands out is the author's attitude. He does not speak like a prophet foretelling the future. Instead, he dissects familiar investor illusions such as convincing expert forecasts, the authority of numbers, the lure of breaking news, and the fantasy of insider information, showing how to become a long-lasting investor. The message that breaking bad habits that amplify losses is more important than aggressive techniques to boost returns is simple but weighty.

Ultimately, "The Rules of Unbeatable Investing" is less a book of secret money-making tricks and more a survival manual that organizes what to be wary of in order not to lose money. The more volatile the market becomes, the more we tend to seek out information, but what is really needed may be restraint in judgment rather than the sheer amount of information. This book brings that old wisdom back to the surface, reminding us that investment wisdom is not about grand predictions, but about the process of reducing our own foolishness. (Written by Barry Ritholtz | Influential)

Future Changers

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." This book is not a collection of dazzling success stories of those who proved this saying, but rather focuses on the times when those who foresaw the future could not persuade the present, and the process of enduring repeated failures and doubts.

The most representative figure is Alan Kay of Xerox PARC. In the 1960s and 1970s, he already conceptualized and implemented the Dynabook—a prototype of laptops and tablets—and a GUI-based computing environment, but Xerox management failed to recognize their value. Later, Steve Jobs adopted these concepts and applied them to the Macintosh, and only then did the world recognize their revolutionary impact. Kay's famous words, "We invented the future but failed to persuade the present," run through the entire book.

The book covers leading figures in technological innovation like Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, Amodei, and Hassabis, but it does not simply praise their achievements. Instead, it focuses on the times when no one believed in them, the moments when they wavered, and the reasons they did not stop despite everything. In hindsight, success may seem inevitable, but their actual journeys were filled with uncertainty and perseverance. This book reconstructs that "time before the applause," prompting readers to reconsider what it means to create the future. (Written by Taekkyun Kim | Aboutabook)

Homo Carbo

"Homo Carbo" is not a book about the climate crisis. More fundamentally, it asks how deeply human civilization is addicted to carbon itself. Professor Shin Iksoo of Soongsil University redefines humans not as "Homo sapiens" but as "Homo Carbo," beings who have prospered by consuming carbon, and diagnoses that the progress since the Industrial Revolution has been the result of indiscriminately exploiting the carbon stored on Earth. The prosperity of civilization, he argues, is a debt passed on to the planet.

The book does not stop there. It takes a step beyond viewing carbon dioxide merely as the cause of the climate crisis and suggests it could become the source of new diseases for humanity. It weaves together thermodynamics, energy systems, the renewable energy industry, and environmental economics to track why our carbon civilization has reached its limits. Ultimately, it raises a single question: Can this civilization endure?

Though nearly 800 pages long, the book does not relentlessly press on like an academic paper. It unpacks complex science through examples, analogies, and historical narratives, drawing in readers. "Homo Carbo" goes beyond being a popular science book on climate, serving as a report dissecting the structure of human civilization and questioning the choices facing Korean society. (Written by Shin Iksoo | Teumsae Books)

The Charge of the Young Forty

At the intersection where youth frustration meets middle-aged anxiety, generations blame each other while structural issues remain hidden. This book does not treat "Young Forty" as an internet meme or a language for mocking generations, but examines the societal structures in Korea that lie behind the term. The transformation of "Young Forty" from "youthful forty-somethings" to symbols of "middle-aged people trying hard to look young," "old-fashioned," or "hypocritical" reflects deeper connections to the conditions of the times rather than individual character.

The book does not target the true nature of a particular generation, but rather addresses how asset gaps, reduced opportunities, restructuring of the labor market, and the platform environment cause young people's anger and middle-aged anxiety to clash. Structural problems keep being personified and manifested as generational conflict. By tracing this mechanism, the book is less about criticizing the "Young Forty" and more an analysis of the social structures that have engineered generational wars. (Written by Soo-Hyun Lim | Davan)

I Buy Jewels Instead of Gold

The era of viewing jewelry merely as pretty and expensive luxury items is coming to an end. This book encourages readers to see jewelry not as mere decoration for tastes, but as assets shaped by time and discernment. The value of jewelry is not determined solely by its inherent properties, but rather by a combination of origin, treatments, distribution channels, brand, auction history, and accumulated stories—all of which together create true value.

The book's strength lies in not approaching jewelry as a vague fantasy or an exaggerated investment narrative. While helping readers understand market trends and price structures at a macro level, it also provides micro-level criteria for making real choices. It breaks down what to buy and why, what factors influence prices, and how to approach jewelry depending on budget and purpose. Thus, the book serves as both a guide for appreciating jewelry and a realistic introduction to understanding wearable assets. (Written by Sungwon Yoon | Gimmyoung Publishers)

No Bad Intentions

Son Wonpyung's new short story collection, "No Bad Intentions," directly addresses the face of our era in which people end up leaving scars without overtly harming anyone. Spanning ten stories set in spaces such as cultural centers, hotels, luxury stores, social media, offices, and post-disaster cities, the author sharply captures the erosion of modern people's inner lives and relationships within the order of capitalism. In a world where money shakes the boundaries of choice, relationships, and dignity, characters teeter between survival and conscience.

The titular phrase "No Bad Intentions" is the coldest line that runs through the collection. It is less an apology and more an excuse of the times that shifts responsibility behind the system. Son Wonpyung uses this familiar phrase to tenaciously illuminate a world where there are no villains, yet no one is completely innocent. This collection incisively dissects contemporary life, where goodwill, indifference, responsibility, and avoidance are all entangled. (Written by Son Wonpyung | Changbi Publishers)

Judges of the Market

The Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act is not a distant or difficult system, but rather a set of market rules that govern our daily lives—like the price of ramen, delivery apps, platform algorithms, and apartment management fees. This book explains the unfamiliar world of the law not through abstract theory, but through real-life cases such as collusion, monopolies, big tech abuses, and chaebol regulations. It vividly shows, through the lens of journalists, how market foul play is created, and how the Fair Trade Commission tracks and sanctions it.

The strength of the book lies in its approach: rather than simply explaining law and economics, it presents the actual scenes. While translating complex competition law into easy language and apt metaphors, it does not miss the tension between corporate power and market order that underlies these issues. Ultimately, this book is less an introduction to the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, and more a practical primer on how Korean capitalism has been shaken and endured under these rules. (Written by Song Byungchul, Lee Dahee, Chae Heeseon, Yang Youngkyung, Minjung Kim, and Kim Sehoon | Pakyoungsa)

In the Age of AI: The ESG War Between Trump and Lee Jaemyung

The current confusion over ESG is not the disappearance of a trend but rather a shift in the battleground. Amidst Trump 2.0, the U.S.-China power rivalry, and the AI transformation, ESG is no longer a slogan for "good management," but has become a strategic language dividing the interests of countries and companies. While apocalyptic narratives seem to be spreading, the book keenly observes that, in reality, supply chains, labor, human rights, and energy standards are being reorganized as weapons to pressure competitors. The challenges facing Korean companies become even clearer in this context. The key question is not whether to engage in ESG, but how to survive under the new rules.

The book does not view ESG and AI separately. It connects the massive power demand of AI data centers, the competition to secure carbon-free energy, and the rearrangement of nuclear and renewable energy—pointing out that technology, norms, energy, and security are already intertwined as one issue. By examining changes in Korean policy and industrial strategy, the book reframes ESG, once consumed as a moral discourse, as the language of a harsh survival strategy. It urges readers to see ESG not as a matter of good or evil, but as an issue of hegemony, industry, and technology. (Written by Tae Han Kim | SayKorea)

British Garden Diary

This is an essay that overlays the experience of putting down roots in a foreign land onto the small world of a garden. The record of a Korean gardener in London tending trees and flowers through the seasons goes beyond the joys of growing plants to also show how to endure loneliness and time as an outsider. While each season is led by different plants such as clematis, fig trees, cyclamen, and roses, what remains central is not information about the flowers, but an attitude that does not rush through life. Unlike the fast-paced world demanding quick results, here, blooming and withering coexist, and even pruning becomes a lesson in balance.

What is valuable is that the garden is not reduced to a simple hobby or a metaphor for healing. Scenes such as a jacket smelling of earth, sharing sesame leaves with a child for dinner, or laughing about leaving 20% of the fallen leaves uncollected, accumulate to reveal that what helps life endure is not grand insight, but the rhythm of repeated care. Even with a topic easily given over to nature worship, this book instead more clearly traces the texture of human time. Though it tells the story of cultivating a garden, it ultimately prompts readers to consider how to take root in their own lives. (Written by Minho Kim | Panmidong)

No One Reads Anymore

A world where there are too many manuscripts, so sorting is left to AI, and eventually, humans simply give up on reading altogether. The premise is funny, but too accurate to just laugh off. "No One Reads Anymore" is a black comedy that starts from the automation of menial publishing work and pushes to the extreme the reality of outsourcing production, consumption, evaluation, reaction, and even judgment to AI. The process by which machines that once picked bestsellers now dominate creation, distribution, and appreciation may seem exaggerated, but it is only a small twist away from our current platform reality.

Interestingly, the book does not preach AI fears in a heavy-handed way. While the frantic mishaps of rookie editor Oio are light-hearted, beneath the surface lies a chilling insight: it is "humans who do not read" who collapse first. The pain comes not from being dominated by technology, but from surrendering our own judgment to convenience. The book is cheerful and funny, but by the end, the lingering question is, "So who's reading now?" (Written by Sangwon Kim | Hwanggeumgaji)

Nostalgia

"Nostalgia" is not a novel that beautifully revives the past, but a work that shows how the sensations of time that has already passed still cling to the present. The five stories, from "Roulette Gambler" to "Architect," are not directly connected, yet loosely share emotions like childhood memories, wounds, fears, and longing. Here, nostalgia is not a cozy reminiscence, but rather an emotion that becomes all the more vivid because it cannot be reclaimed.

The scenes where reality and fantasy, memory and anxiety mix prevent this work from being a simple tale of recollection. The past is not portrayed as a uniformly beautiful time, but reemerges as something strange, unfamiliar, and sometimes unsettling. As a result, "Nostalgia" goes beyond being a novel about longing for bygone days, quietly and clearly revealing the texture of memories that people cannot let go of for a long time. (Written by Mircea Cartarescu, translated by Hansook Han | Minumsa)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.