Gregor

This book confirmed a few suspicions of mine when it comes to multitasking and the importance of reading code well. There were some useful stats on the productivity cost of getting interrupted whilst programming which I highlighted. I enjoyed the final chapter on onboarding new developers, as I have never seen this topic addressed before, and the author's recommendations seemed sensible. Overall this was an enjoyable read that served more to confirm some of my thoughts than introduce new ideas.

I read this in one sitting which is usually a good sign! I thoroughly enjoyed the author's comparisons between himself, his father, and his grandfather at different points in life and the similarities and differences in their views on farming. I would have liked to hear even more about the attitudes towards college-trained farmers and how they have disrupted the local balance. All in all, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

The prose is certainly flowery which can make it hard to penetrate at times but I assume the translation is staying faithful to the original Japanese. Mishima's fascination with the last writings of a Japanese "suicide squad" was particularly interesting considering his own ritual suicide. Overall I enjoyed this short read but did not find it quite as impactful as I had expected.