Federico
De voedingsindustrie maakt ons ziek door veel suiker, zout, en vet aan ons eten toe te voegen.
Ten eerste verdienen bedrijven geld met ongezond voedsel die goedkoop is om te produceren, ten tweede verdienen ze geld met medicijnen die ons laten afvallen.
Bedrijven blijven zeggen dat “de consument wil het” en de Nederlandse overheid doet niet genoeg om ze onder controle te blijven: wij als samenleving draaien uiteindelijk op voor de kosten.
The book contains 5 short, cute fables: I enjoyed most of them, but was not impressed. It's the author's debut book, so I'd say “well done, keep going!” and I'm hoping he'll write even better ones in the future.
3.5⭐️
Merged review:
The book contains 5 short, cute fables: I enjoyed most of them, but was not impressed. It's the author's debut book, so I'd say “well done, keep going!” and I'm hoping he'll write even better ones in the future.
3.5⭐️
The author walks you through how he became a writer and what he thinks is the role of writers in modern society. There's no self-promotion in the book, quite the opposite: he clearly states that he was only able to build a career thanks to passion and long-term consistency. These short stories echo (and, sometimes, overlap) with “What I talk about when I talk about running”.
I found it at times inspiring and at times a bit repetitive, thus 3.5 ⭐️
4.5 - 5 ⭐️
A very refreshing view on humanity as a species, which is something that I can really appreciate these days. The author took stories and experiments that have been used to prove that humanity tends to evil, researched their sources and historical documents, and figured out that reality was quite different and we're not “evil unless controlled by institutions”.
I read it in a single sitting: very interesting and concise.
What I found most interesting is the authors' (37signals, the creators of Ruby of Rails and the company behind Basecamp) point of view, which is antithetic to many other books about running a business. Among other things, they value serving a niche of customers really well over making compromises to accommodate a bigger audience; they value organic, sustainable growth over explosive, VC-funded growth.
This collection of short stories confirmed that I prefer Ken Liu's short stories over his long ones.
Some of the stories in it take existing technologies and push them just a bit into a possible future, creating a world that is (at times disturbingly, as intended by the author) not too far fetched from reality; some veer more towards fantasy; some touch existing world problems and imagine futures where they've been solved by technology (creating, in turn, other problems).
I listened to it on Storytel and I found it very well narrated!
Wow, that was a blast: I accidentally learned about Zátopek this summer and decided to read this book. By doing that, I learned about an athlete who redefined modern running training, turning himself into an Olympic champion through sheer determination and effort, enjoying life and facing whatever adversities came his way.
The biographer is admittedly a big fan of his, but doesn't for that reason portray him as a saint: he points out his merits as well as his flaws, and does not shy away from talking about his controversial, alternating relationship with the Communist regime that ruled Czechoslovakia at that time.
The resulting portrait is that of a charismatic person trying his best to live up to his own ideals, but occasionally failing to do so.
I occasionally found it going into too many details, but I enjoyed its content nonetheless, so 5 stars.
By the same author as the “Learning how to learn” online course, the book delivers its contents with simple language and provides strategies to improve how we learn. Each chapter explains one aspect of learning and then offers exercises to test it in real life. The techniques explained in the book include:
- recall as much as possible what you studied right after a learning session
- “enlist” the help of the brain's diffuse mode, avoiding cramming
- solve a problem using different approaches, rather than sticking to one
- interleave subjects
- use cues to change habits and avoid procrastination
- use spaced repetitions and memory techniques (e.g. the memory palace) to consolidate memories
I got skeptical about the book when reading the introduction, which mentioned “revolutionary scientific discoveries”. Unfortunately, reading it confirmed my first impression: I was looking for concepts, but I found very few of them and instead a gazillion of stories to support them.
In a nutshell:
- the quality of a skill is determined by the thickness of a neural insulator called myelin around the nerve fibers in the brain circuits
- myelin wraps but doesn't unwrap, which is why to break bad habits we have to form good ones instead
- deep practice creates new myelin layers, improving the skill
- motivation can be ignited using cues
- great masters have deep knowledge, recognize where they pupils are struggling and are able to guide them
The authors' point of view is that effective thinking is not an inborn trait and can instead be learned.
It's compact and provides exercises to get you started with the strategies explained in it.
The book presents 5 strategies to trigger effective thinking:
- build a solid foundation
- use mistakes to gain new insight and avoid getting stuck
- build a habit of asking yourself good questions and answering them
- understand how concepts relate to each other, instead of learning isolated facts
- be open to constantly change yourself