Book: Blockers by Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis is one of my favorite non-fiction writers. I’ve written about Boomerang and Flash Boys here before. Lewis builds his stories, and the points he’s going to make, around a deep exploration of individuals. Sometimes the entire book is focused on one person, like Sam Bankman-Fried in Going Infinite, or built around one, like Billy Beane in Moneyball. In Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State, he goes deep on six. Colin O’Brien, the chief security officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace, who locked DOGE out of his building. He lasted eight weeks. DOGE had no legal authority over the institute, and he refused to hand it over, so on March 17, 2025, police escorted him out, and he was fired along with most of the institute’s staff. Tim Curry, a deputy associate director at the Office of Personnel Management, who refereed disputes between federal managers, their employees, and the unions. He lasted about five weeks. After 36 years in federal human resources, he retired in late…

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