The author spends ~80% of the book outlining her experiences in SV, from a graduate role to funding her own startup in the space. The other 20% is laying out, in an axiomatic manner, the ideal tech sector so that it works for the benefit of the worker and the society as a whole.


Overall not a fascinating read, but there are some interesting points made sporadically and the dump ofideas at the end of the book do provide food for thought to the reader.

If you're in your 20s, enthusiastic about programming, hacking or whatnot, look no further.

If you're older than that, still, this book still be enjoyable, and you'll probably also learn a thing or two about the technologies used across the web today.

In any case, this has been a great listen overall!

Witten on 2008(!). This is even more impressive considering how relevant its content is today.

It was a great book all in all! I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I was younger, during my early hacking years in uni.

This should be a great first book for my kid when he grows uo., hopefully it will prove inspiring 

  • It's interesting how well written, how nice, pleasant expressions, and descriptions of places Tolkien includes
  • Some of the things I didn't like
    • No mourning at all after Gandalf fell in Moria? That was bizzare.
    • Boromir's arc wasn't great - at least not as magnificent as it was presented in the movie. I suppose that goes towards how great of an adaptation the film was and how amazing Sean Bean's performance was.
    • Andy Serkis' reading is compelling!



  • Εκτυλίσσεται το 995 μ.Χ. Περιγράφει την ηρωική πράξη, και συνολικά το ταξίδι ενός νέου ανδρόγυνου Βυζαντινών να μεταφέρουν ένα γράμμα στον δυνάστη του Δυρραχίου, για λογαριασμό του Βυζαντινού αυτοκράτορα Βασιλείου του Β'.
  • Άκουσα την ανάγνωση του βιβλίου από την Penelope, στο librivox. Είναι καταπληκτική και σε βάζει αμέσως στο κλίμα της εποχής και του βιβλίου συνολικά, τη προτείνω ανεπιφύλαχτα 
  • Το βιβλίο είναι μικρό και σύντομο. Περιέχει ωραίες περιγραφές βουκολικών τοπίων, καθώς και της Κωνσταντινούπολης. Επίσης περιέχει αρκετά γλαφυρές περιγραφές της ζωής των ηρώων των κακουχιών που αντιμετωπίζουν καθώς και των συναισθημάτων που τους διακατέχουν καθ' όλο το ταξίδι.


I finished the audiobook version. The narration about ~21hours long.

I can't tell it wasn't excited most of the times. The voice actors did a pretty good job conveying the emotional state and intention of each one of the main characters, although, it was a bit confusing when the same character was played by different voice actors at different intervals. Some notes on the plot and overall book:

  • Paul's growth into being the prophet for the Fremen does work better than in the movie.
  • Stilgar's character, at least in the first ⅔ of the book was amazing. I particularly loved how he explained the difference between the mob and the people (spoiler, it's the existence of a leader)
  • After reading the book I have a much better idea what sort of, and why the movie took different turns at certain times. Some of the points in the book (Chani being happy as the concubine and going along with anything that Paul was doing, characters like Hawat, and count Fenring's arcs not really going anywhere until the very end) didn't really make much sense, esp. in a movie adaptation in 2025.

Quite informative and easy to follow, overall.
I wasn't really aware of Gate's and Microsoft's story and it was interesting to discover it.

The author also comes out quite hunble and down to earth despite the success he has had in the industry (hard to see other modern billionaires show the same attitude in their future biographies (looking at you, Elon))

Hay libros que lo que realmente quieren decir cubre uno o dos capitulos maximo, y por eso el autor añade muchos capitulos más, completamente innecessarios solo para llegar a un limite minimo de páginas. Pero este libro no es así.

¡Me pareció como cada uno de los capitulos sí tuve algo para decir!

La información sobre un enfoque a la empatía, hacía tu niño/a, la manera en que  debemos definir limites, el lenguage y el vocabulario que los padres deben usar (en lugar de lo que deben omitir) creo que van a ser muy útiles para nuevos padres. Ademas hay muchos ejemplos y ellos ponen en practica muy bien lo que el autor quiere decir.

Ten en cuenta que el contenido sobre limites y su comportamiento hacia el bebé es muy parecido con lo del libro “Good Inside” de Becky Kennedy, así que si ya has leido el uno, quizas puedes omitir leer el otro.

The content is quite informative and the pace is good to pick up stuff while listening to the audiobook but overall a bit boring

Three first half of the book is super informative and easy to read, the rest is the exact opposite unfortunately

Meh, some of the tips were interesting but overall not impressed. You should be opting for books such as atomic habits for better understanding.

Quite succinct and easy to read book. If you, like me,  already know some stuff on game theory you'll get the foundations and a clearer understanding of the whole picture and basics. 

Να πω εκ των προτέρων ότι εκτιμώ και τρέφω ιδιαίτερο σεβασμό για τον Τάσιο. Πέρα από αυτο όμως, αχρείαστα δυσκολοδιάβαστο το βιβλίο. Ο στόχος του είναι ενδιαφέρον αλλά η γραφή του δε βοηθάει καθόλου.

- Αχρειαστα περίπλοκο λεξιλόγιο που δε προσδίδει έξτρα πληροφορίες, παρά μόνο δυσκολεύει την ανάγνωση.

- Άσχετες λέξεις στη μέση των προτάσεων με κεφάλαιο το πρώτο γράμμα, λέξεις που θα περίμενες στη γενική, τις βλέπεις στην ονομαστική, άλλες με όλα τα γράμματα κεφαλαία. Μάλλον έχει κάποιο λόγο ο συγγραφέας βγια αυτό, αλλά δεν τον εξήγησε πότε

- Ο συγγραφέας δεν φαίνεται να έχει μια σαφή δομή και στόχο εντός της κάθε παραγράφου και μερικές φορές απλά πάει προς κάποια άλλη κατεύθυνση εντός της παραγράφου ή πετάει κάποια δική του παρατήρηση, άσχετη με τη προσωπικότητα που αναλύει

- Περίεργο formatting λέξεων σε πολλά σημεία (βλ. συναίρεση, σελ 130)

- Ο συγγραφέας κάνει αναφορές σε ονόματα, και καταστάσεις από τις ζωές των προσώπων που αναλύει κάνοντας την υπόθεση ότι οι αναγνώστες ξέρουν για ποιο πράγμα μιλάει. Θα πόνταρα πώς οι περισσότεροι ξέρουν μεν το βασικό πρόσωπο του κεφαλαίου (π.χ., Καζαντζάκη) αλλά όχι όλους τους υπόλοιπους στη ζωή του και, αν δε ξέρεις αυτά τα πρόσωπα, ή αν ο συγγραφέας δεν βάλει λίγο χρόνο να σου πει τουλάχιστον ποιοι είναι αυτοί και γιατί πρέπει να σε ενδιαφέρει, η αφήγηση χάνει μεγάλο μέρος του νοήματος της

Listened to the summary by Ninjareads.
Pretty descent. Follows the footsteps of Holiday's other stoic related works.

[English version]

Straight 5! The author very clearly and succinctly explains the fundamental building blocks, the why and the how of today's market societies and offers alternatives to the problems they create.

A really great read, making it even more appealing to dig into the rest of Varoufakis' writings

What a book!! From the day-to-day struggle to survive, to the sadness, pain, desperation, suffering that the war brings with it. And all this during the greatest greek disaster of the 20th century.

A classic and rare gem in greek literature

3/5. Pleasant and must of the time hopeful for what's next but other than that not much else there.

[audiobook version] Excellent and quite enjoyable to listen to. I found the descriptions of the the runs and competitions the author went through quite rich both when describing the technical elements of the race as well as his mental and physical condition during it.

The transitions from the running to other parts of his personal life, like writing or managing the bar, quite elegant and smooth

All in all, an excellent work

I can't overstate how awesome this book is!
With very simple, common language, goes through 3,000 years of historical and mythological events. From the prehistoric era to the great battles of the Peloponnesian war and finally to the Roman conquest and the assimilation of Greek values and ideas. And it does show giving both the historically important facts dates etc as well as personal stories gossips and legends of the eras at hand.

All in all such an amazing read!

Went through the audiobook version.

The audio version was quite enjoyable, the content though wasn't super interesting.
The author was repeating himself quite often and all in all the book was quite shallow especially if you consider the subject it's dealing with

  • Easy to read and digest. That being said, you can probably get away just by
    reading the main points at the end of each chapter.
    * What the book says is not something groundbreaking. One interesting thing to
    keep in mind is the exercises at the end of each chapter. Maybe they can be
    used in meetings to identify the aforementioned thieves of time and to
    increase productivity
    * See chapter 2.7 for a list of useful board designs to keep in mind (multilevel
    boards, Done vs Done Done, PDCA, Home Project

I managed to read until chapter 8, right at the point where Dan Brown starts talking technical, about cryptography, algorithms etc.

If you have a sense of what cryptography is about, or of what's the difference between a program and a mathematical algorithm as such, just don't pick up the book.

This review sums up my thoughts quite well, no need to repeat them here:

https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2007/4/19/digital-fortress-stranger-than-fiction/

P.S. Maybe I would enjoy it more if I was willing to ignore all the technical inaccuracies altogether.

It was OK, skipped many of the chapters, most of the stuff was trivial

Awesome book.
Based on solid research and taking into account individual and family preferences

Easy simple and straightforward book to read. Just spend 1h of your life and read through