Sett
I enjoyed this one. As far as pop philosophy/psychology goes, it's an easy and engaging read. As another reviewer pointed out, Paul Bloom's writing is conversational in tone. But he's also an accomplished professor so his discussion points are insightful and well backed up by loads of citations and references (almost a third of my kindle book is the bibliography).
The book dives into the role that suffering has in our lives. How it relates to pleasure, meaning and even morality. It gave some very pragmatic insights into how one could live a good life – but to be clear, it's a philosophy essay not a self help book.
Bloom takes a “pluralistic” stance to everything, which means that he argues any points very gently and tries to give a lot of consideration to alternative views. This might be read as a lackadaisical, shallow walkthrough of the topics presented. But judging by the sheer count of highlights and notes I made, it's exactly what I appreciated about it
If ever there was a piece of literature that could make any programmer feel seen, this would be it.
Ellen Ullman is a writer and she's damn good at her craft. If you're unsure, consider this quote that's attached to her name:
> “We build our computers the way we build our cities—over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.”
This line hooked me when I encountered it by chance online. It compelled me to seek out her books.
Ullman is also a veteran programmer, who worked as a consultant in San Francisco during an era that exemplifies our modern software industry: databases, networked computers, services were the new standard and thousands of new systems, millions of lines of code was being birthed into the world.
It's in this context that she sets her memoir that is extraordinarily honest (she doesn't hold back on being vulnerable and candid). Her musings about the work, situations and people she interacts with are familiar and offer a kind of comfort.
In a way, just by sharing so authentically, she's managed to say: “it's okay to be human (and also a programmer or whatever else you are)”.
A collection of advice based on the author's experience in engineering management at hyper-growth startups.
A decent book to keep as reference for those who find themselves inadvertently having to make management or leadership decisions, however some of the advice is somewhat shallow and difficult to apply unless you're in a hyper-growth startup.
I'd argue the author's blog (https://lethain.com) has been more helpful than his book. I ordered a physical copy based on his consistently good writing.
However, the physical book itself is beautiful and displaying it on your bookshelf grants you membership in to the exclusive club of “tech workers who want to flex their disposable income on fancy Stripe Press books”.
Immense in Scope
From the first chapter set in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the book marches forward at a steady, unrelenting pace towards profound destinations. Along the way we're invited to reflect on the philosophy of and history of science, threaded by human elements both personal and on the scale of society and civilization.
I read it in four sittings.
I can see why it was so deserving of the Hugo award. This is “hard sci-fi” at it's finest - a heartfelt ode to science itself.
Unfortunately, the sequel to Annahilation takes a break from the telling of direct experiences of any expedition members in Area X and the supernatural horrors they may face beyond the border.
Instead, it follows a new protagonist, John a.k.a. Control, a government agent sent the Southern Reach by his handler-mother (apparently from a career-family of government spies and operatives). Tasked with getting to the bottom of whatever is going on at the dysfunctional facility and investigate the disappearance of the previous director, as well the re-appearance of the biologist from the last expedition into Area X.
And because of this new scope of story world-building, Authority doesn't quite have the same tonal quality as the first book. The horror and mystery have been replaced by the confounded and cynical musings of a reluctant spy-turned pencil-pusher. Which isn't to say that Authority wasn't enjoyable, just a different sort of read to Annahilation: a tad more “noir” than psychological horror/thriller.
Jeff VanderMeer is a good writer. He has an uncanny ability to make you immerse yourself in the inner worlds of his characters - their hopes and fears laid out with the flourish of his craftsmanship. He can really make you understand the world of Control and empathise on some personal level. But sadly Control is not as interesting as the biologist, nor is the agency known as Southern Reach as compelling as the mysterious Area X it's tasked with studying.
However, I'm still excited to read the next and final book in the trilogy.
A rigorous academic work that strives to identify general principles and characteristics of collapse. Extraordinarily well researched and somewhat dry (it's certainly not written for a general audience), Tainter enumerates and explores in great detail existing theories and case studies from history.
As a fan of ancient history, I really appreciated the section on the political and economic history of the Roman empire and its slow, grinding inevitability to collapse.
On the phenomenon of collapse itself, Tainter's theory argues that it is an economical process which occurs when the investment in organisational complexity reaches diminishing returns, so societies revert to a lower state to regain a better return on investment. A very simple and familiar model to to those of us who work in software, but with wide applicability.
On its implications for our current society, Tainter declines to speculate and offers only comparisons to previous models of “competing polities”.
A difficult read due to the technical, academic tone of it, but an excellent book overall.
Shaken and stirred, in the tradition of Roadside Picnic
Ever since I caught the widely misunderstood Netflix film based on this book, I knew there was something special here. This proved to be a grave understatement as I was compelled to finish it in just two sittings.
A mysterious space full of odd unnatural phenomena called Area X, an expedition of four, referred to only by their roles and professions (biologist, surveyor, anthropologist, psychologist – all women. The book shares some elements with the likes of Roadside Picnic and Solaris — in a good way — but the first person account and the author's masterful writing brings piercing level of intimacy to the unfolding mystery that's utterly gripping and at times terrifying. Some experiences of abstract, impossible horror and ineffable were so brilliantly conveyed, it felt like first hand memory or fever dream.
Read it now. All at once – you wouldn't be able to help yourself anyway.
Fascinating, highly informative and easy reading
It's clear from the onset that the author is extremely passionate about the subject of his book and this never wanes until the very last page. Matthew Walker is a sleep scientist who wants us to better our sleep and get more of it. And to make his case, he takes us through the most current scientific understanding around the phenomenon of sleep. From the fundamentals of what it is in a neurological sense, to it's cultural significance. The book is also loaded with much practical advice and debunking of a lot of myths around sleep that gave me a lot of insights into my personal sleep hygiene.
My only gripe is in his treatment of evolutionary process, which I found too emotionally charged to the point of inaccuracy. Based on how he writes, you could be forgiven for thinking that there's some kind of intent or agency behind natural selection's outcomes and not simply a stochastic phenomenon.
Overall a great book from a foremost expert with immediate practical use.
Disclaimer: I don't like self-help books.
But Cal Newport's been on my radar since the success of his “Deep Work” hypothesis and book (I have yet to read). An idea, which on the surface has always seemed rather obvious to me and will probably be quite familiar to other programmers/knowledge workers (I'm guessing it's not dissimilar to flow state). So I wanted to start with this book before diving into “Deep Work” just to go in order.
The book pretty much falls squarely in the sub-genre of “career advice” under the self-help category. It's a collection of anecdotes and stories people of that Newport interviewed who either ended up in their dream careers or failed. To make it easy for the reader, as if it wasn't obvious enough, Newport guides you through his interpretations and analysis of why he thinks they either succeeded or failed, with a healthy dose of confirmation bias.
He (rightfully) starts by debunking the “follow your passion” advice, which is ridiculously naive. Instead, he proposes a much more pragmatic approach of acquiring skills, applying them where they stick and give you traction. The problem is that it isn't really a radical idea at all - it's common sense.
One of my gripes is that he approaches every scenario with a very distinct confidence of a highly focused overachiever with matter-of-fact tone. If he has truly had any real hardship, doubt or vulnerability, it doesn't show. But I guess such is the price of having things all figured out. I'm also not entirely comfortable with the entire career-hacking, achievement/goal oriented outlook that seems to me very American. Surely, there's a lot of value in making mistakes and the entire story of a person as a whole even if it didn't lead to achieving goals.
The book is easy and quick to read because it's unfortunately quite shallow. It's not very rigorous - it's clearly written for the most general audience - and sadly there aren't really any deep insights that are eye-opening. Still, I found some of the more practical advice quite valuable, particularly about how he structures his time and information for various parts of research work and his “mission” pyramid.
I'm hoping “Deep Work” which I want to read next will cover some more of these practicalities.
In which Richard Sennett, investigates the nature of craft and the craftsman mindset. He does so by comprehensively regarding all aspects of skilled work through history and social process. As a point of departure, the concept of animal laborans(man as mindless labourer) is contrasted against homo faber(man as the maker). Extremely relevant in the modern context in which the application of skilled work and making things well is seemingly devalued in favour of unfocused productivity.As expected, he covers the medieval guild system, the nature of virtuosity and practice, tools and tool-making, glass-blowing as well as the role of mechanisation or automation. But then he goes much deeper. Into the essence of tools, how they came to be and their intrinsic nature (general purpose or single purpose). He methodically unwraps the process of learning and instruction - a section I personally found to be so insightful I ended up reading repetitively. The nature of intuition and “inspiration” is treated too, with rigorous dissection to expose the underlying processes.It's almost comprehensive to a fault though. Sennett's dogged style of writing (undoubtedly well-crafted) can be tedious at times. But that's not to say the writing was as dense and repetitive ala [b:Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies 1842 Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies Jared Diamond https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1453215833s/1842.jpg 2138852]. Sennett is just very methodical in the way he communicates, so how much value you get as the reader is entirely dependent on you.Overall, this is an important book. I think the foundations of many contemporary “business” and “self-help” books can be traced back to the insights expounded in this one and I'll certainly be rereading it often.
I wanted a guided introduction into the field of economics to better understand the various schools of thought in the “dismal science”. Having skimmed through Piketty's “Economics of Inequality” with only rudimentary understanding accumulated from various internet resources, I thought it would be best to obtain a better conceptual grasp before tackling the tome that is “Capital in the 21st Century” that's been sitting on my shelf for years.
Richard D. Wolff is known to be an outsider in the field, being a Marxian economist, which puts him a good position to explain the various contending theories. I was wary that it might contain rather ideology-heavy writing but thankfully Wolff keeps it strictly in the realm of the explanatory “how” things work.
The book was adequate in what it sought to do (explaining the three contending theories) and I can see it being used as a first-year supplementary textbook. It's worth a read, if only just to understand the implicit theoretical frameworks that people may unwittingly commit to when forming opinions about economic matters: mininum wage, role of taxes and welfare etc...
The book that Stalker – Tarkovsky's well-known film masterpiece – is based on is an enjoyable, short read. Written in the 70s – the golden age of sci-fi – this little novel snubs its nose at the science fiction tradition of grandiosity and anthropocentricity.
The characters are ordinary folk, rendered without cynicism or sentimentality - supposedly a feature of Soviet literature. Redrick “Red” Schuhart, our protagonist, is presented deftly with all his flaws and questionable decisions but it is what makes him relatable and likeable. We can't help but project and romanticise about the life of a Stalker and we're shown, very subtly, that neither can the Stalkers themselves.
What's so great about your Europe? The eternal boredom? You work all day, watch TV all night; when that's done, you're off to bed with some bitch, breeding delinquents. The strikes, the demonstrations, the never-ending politics ... To hell with your Europe!”
Xenology is an unnatural mixture of science fiction and formal logic. At its core is a flawed assumption–that an alien race would be psychologically human.
It didn't even cross our minds that the issue had nothing to do with ideology. They, those quintessential “bloody fools”, actually did think this way: that language must be as colorless, smooth, and glossy as possible and certainly shouldn't be at all coarse.
Fortuna smiled upon me today and permitted me to complete this infamous, comedic novel. I found it rather good, despite being almost plot-less.
The trauma of having found employment had affected his valve negatively, and he was waiting until the warm water in which he wallowed like a pink hippopotamus had a calming effect upon his system.
“Just as I suspected,” Ignatius said angrily. “In other words, you want to become totally bourgeois. You people have all been brainwashed. I imagine that you'd like to become a success or something equally vile.”
I did, however, succeed in thwarting her every attempt to assail the castle of my body and mind.
Obviously continual response to the music had developed within them an almost Pavlovian response to the noise, a response which they believed was pleasure
Peter Welch(programmer, blogger who wrote “Programming Sucks”) recounts that time he did LSD, stopped sleeping and went crazy, culminating in having full blown psychosis and getting institutionalised. Entertaining and fascinating, Welch offers a look into the mind of an insane person as his misadventure takes him through various activities through his hometown, ranging from hilarious to almost deadly. He offers some rather pragmatic insights and little bit of personal philosophy on the whole ordeal from a sober, and slightly analytical, perspective.
The book begins, as its title suggests, as a clear critique against obtuse, uncritical application of tech solutions to development problems (ICT4D industry). However, it turned out to a comprehensive look at social development of which Toyama has had much exposure. He was assistant founding directory of Microsoft Research India and has a prominent research career in the ICT4D space.
A large portion of the book are the author's anecdotes, of working in various capacities in the non-profit and development space. That's not to say it's some kind of autobiography. Toyama, uses his experience backed up a lot of research (more than half the book consists of footnotes and references) to argue what can really be described as common sense: technology and prepackaged solutions are not real solutions and offer very little improvement over holistic, qualitative approaches that require time, effort and empathy.
This is a must read for anyone in the ICT4D industry and NGOs.
A collection of vignettes from the author's life in South Africa, particularly in Joburg, mostly through the past 3 decades until early 2000s. And though it is impossible to speak of life in SA without qualifying it through the lens of social class, it is not the focus of the book. Nor is it a memoir or anything like that. It's a compelling, honest “portrait” of middle class South African life, garnished with some damn good prose from a talented writer.
Cliché as it might seem, there is no place quite like South Africa which is equal parts unforgiving, funny and bizarre - and full of contradictions. Although this is something you only realise fully when you've lived somewhere else. Joburg is complex, and Vladislavic animates it through vivid anecdotes and observations through a writer's eye. But most importantly, it is never saccharine nor gritty like you've come to expect.
Like the author, I grew up in Pretoria and moved to Joburg in my adult life. I found myself chuckling at the familiar, the good and bad. It gives a sense of catharsis, through shared experience and I am compelled share it with strangers, foreigners. But I don't know whether any of it will be understandable, except by fellow South Africans.
I read this book over the course of a year upon recommendation from a friend. It is a good book to read whilst travelling, because of its format.
“The urban poacher is a romantic figure. In unequal cities, where those who have little must survive somehow by preying on those who have more, the poacher scavenging a meal from under the nose of the gamekeeper may be admired for his ingenuity and daring.”
“Pretoria children were hard and brown and bristly; Joburg children had floppy fringes and soft freckled hands and looked as if they never went outside. Yet all the fun we had riding bicycles and kicking soccer balls counted for nothing because they were in here working, wearing paper hats and striped aprons as if they were in an Archie comic. They were already kids and we were still children.”
“[Sean says:] ‘It was fucked when I was a kid, in an Afrikaans sort of way. It was fucked when I was a teenager, in a more Portuguese sort of way. And now here I am, fully grown, surrounded by Angolans and Nigerians - and guess what, it's still fucked. It's just a different shade of fucked.'”
In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond sets out to explore the ultimate causes of disparity between human societies as we see them today. In doing so, he has written a fantastic historical narrative of human civilisation from its beginnings as hunter-gatherer to the nation-states of modern times.
I found this book to be an enormously informative read that gracefully reconciles human history with that of natural history, geography, anthropology and biology. The only reason this gets 4/5 stars is because Diamond's writing can be repetitive at times but the wealth of knowledge and sound arguments he provides is definitely worth the read.
“I awoke to the oxygen alarm in my suit. A steady, obnoxious beeping that eventually roused me from a deep and profound desire to just fucking die.”
Mark Watney is a “smart alec” botanist/engineer who gets left behind on Mars during an emergency mission abort because his crew thought he was dead. What follows is a series of log/diary entries by Mark detailing his survival, basically using high school science. Worry not if you're not a hard science fiction fan because Mark(subsequently, Andy Weir) as a writer makes it very entertaining, using the power of wit and sarcasm that becomes a kind of infectious optimism.
While it may not have the gravitas and scope of conventional hard sci-fi, Watney/Weir spends a lot of time detailing every solution that he comes up with and backing it up with science that anyone could follow. I had a lot of fun reading this book.
In this book, acclaimed sociologist Erik O. Wright has mapped out a framework for thinking about alternative possible societies and social mechanisms. Societies that are more “just and humane” than the world in which live today. He does so in such a sharp, concise fashion, it could almost be described as scientific precision[1].
Despite coming from a strong Marxist tradition (but ultimately deeming Marxist alternatives “unsatisfactory”), Wright has written the book with a “broad, relatively popular audience in mind”. You don't have to be familiar with academic writing, sociology or have had any previous exposure to so-called leftist literature at all to appreciate this book.
Wright acknowledges that we now live in a world where radical visions are “often mocked rather than taken seriously”. He says that the belief in the possibility of radical alternatives is what shaped the gains we have in contemporary society. To expand on that point he begins the book by offering examples of “Real Utopias”, microcosms within society that are radical alternative institutions: Wikipedia, Participatory Budgeting, Mondragon and Unconditional Basic Income.
The rest book itself is divided into three parts:
Part I presents a basic diagnosis and critique of the current system, capitalism. I felt like simply reading Part I was rewarding enough as Wright has probably written the most powerful concise critiques of capitalism - 11 of them.
Part II discusses the problems of proposed alternatives: statist-socialism, associational democracy, social capitalism, participatory socialism, and so forth. For someone with zero background on sociology, this was absolutely fascinating and empowering to have the tools to think about this.
Finally Part III deals with the issue of transformation, and covers the different strategies that can be employed to bring about these utopian alternatives. In this part he explores different models of transformation from revolutionary communist (“ruptural”) to anarchists' (“interstitial”) and social democratic (“symbiotic”).
I view the book itself as a comprehensive set of tools with which we can understand social conditions and phenomena in the present and by understanding, consciously choose strategies for the future.
[1] “Emancipatory social science, in its broadest terms, seeks to generate knowledge relevant to the collective project of challenging human oppression and creating the conditions in which people can live flourishing lives.” (http://p2pfoundation.net/Emancipatory_Social_Science)
A personal account of the situation surrounding the creation of Biafra and the subsequent conflict. Although something of a memoir, there is a tone of marked detachment throughout the book as Achebe describes, in painstakingly detail, the events unfolding in a bigger political context rather than some personal stories.
It's a good book if you want to familiarise yourself with the context surrounding the creation of Biafra, although by no means is it truly objective. Not so great if you're expecting a true personal account: Achebe's allegiance to the Biafran cause is very clear but he seems to be hiding some passionate stories behind lacklustre accounts of names, dates, events.
A compendium of different aspects of systems and ways to think about them. Ranging from the more concrete, “stocks and flows” model to more general discussions/food for thought. Makes for a decent primer and reference book to seed some thoughts one might be grasping at when framing a problem.
However, most of it is perhaps a bit too general to be immediately useful.