211–220 of 282 posts
I really enjoyed reading Build by Tony Fadell. It's about building startups, but the stories embedded throughout the book really makes it. He speaks about pouring his heart into little details highlighting his experience designing the iPod, iPhone, and Nest. Lot of inspirational motivation balanced with practical examples and reality checks. One of my favorite examples of a seemingly tiny, yet delightful experience w…
Non-Fiction / Self-Help: No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model IFS for short. Written for normal people, not psychologists/psychiatrists. It has a very valuable core philosophy/teaching about who we are underneath all the masks of our personality(s). It closely resembles something I experienced during an Ayahuasca retreat in 2018, about the soul / inner child/god…
on a similar topic, people might like The Body Keeps The Score, by Bessel van der Kolk. although it's written at a high level for both practitioners and well-educated normies which might fit HN.
Fiction - I started reading the Cosmere universe by Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn Trilogy, Stormlight Archives, and Warbreaker. Pick 1 - Start with Warbreaker or Mistborn. I'm new to fantasy fiction and his writing totally hooked me. I think of "hard" fantasy as a puzzle. The world has a unique physics and the plot of the story is based around characters figuring out how to operate inside of those physics... what are t…
> What I've loved about Sanderson is the plot turns are never Ex Machina. Every new development fits inside the rules of the world and deepens your understanding of what can be.
YMMV. I quite like Sanderson's books and magic systems, but IMO, the typical situation where key rules of the world are unknown to the reader and the characters until the end, when they are revealed in order to facilitate the ending, runs pretty close to Deus Ex Machina (in some cases literally). See conclusion of Mistborn 1 and 3.
more spoilerful commentary: Mistborn 3 - main characters all die. We learn that the main character suspected to be the hero of prophecy was not in fact the hero of prophecy, and the side character left standing is the real hero. Ok so far. Then we learn that the side character is not just a hero, but in fact is able to become a literal god and remake the world however they want, and this new god resolves all the problems just by wishing that they were resolved.
Piranesi was a comforting other worldly read that really helped with escapism.
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I read the trilogy, which is actually named “Remembrance of Earth’s Past”, with “The Three-Body Problem” being the first, and IMO the weakest of the books. Great read, but I can’t see how anyone would be optimistic about humankind after reading them: a group of humans who think we should be eradicated and invited aliens to do it, or at the least enslave us; collaborators when that eventually happens; and then as you…
I read the first book during the pandemic and Barely finished it. It seemed confusing until I realized the plot, but even that plot seemed incoherent. I couldn’t find any reason to pick up the second book. Your comments about the negative/pessimistic finale make it sound unworthy of continuing. Is there any reason to continue reading? Would you advise against it?
To answer your question, I think it's worth reading them. I enjoyed them both. There are some smart ideas in there, the Dark Forrest Theory being probably the most famous, and one in particular that is overlooked: an interesting (fictional) explanation for dark matter. There are some good characters too. Also, they're better written (or maybe better translated?).
The story progresses faster into the future, with some characters remaining present throughout the books (cryonics FTW), and there are some ups and downs, so it's not all dark and gloomy and pessimistic. But overall, I maintain that the story is one of pessimism.
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on a similar topic, people might like The Body Keeps The Score, by Bessel van der Kolk. although it's written at a high level for both practitioners and well-educated normies which might fit HN.
+1 for The Body Keeps The Score. This book had a big impact on me and led me to focus on the physical components of past trauma. I started doing yoga daily and after a few months suddenly started having a huge release of emotions during the session. It only lasted for maybe 6-7 consecutive sessions, but left me with less daily anxiety and my panic attacks essentially disappeared. I highly recommend this book.
- Elon Musk biography was interesting (just finished before acquisition) - it’s amazing how close to failure his companies were. - So good they can’t ignore you — some interesting takeaways - Atomic habits - only takeaway I remember is habit stacking - I’m almost finished with Well of Ascension - I think the use of metal is a creative source of super powers
The one by Ashlee Vance?
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Not sure I personally understand the point you're making. Are reading and deploying to production activities that are mutually exclusive in your life?
Time spent reading books is time not spent deploying. The only thing that matters is deploying.
Hopefully your state is transitory and you will find balance again.
I've just finished Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman. It provides a lot of strong evidence for an optimistic rather than cynical take on human nature.
* Clean Architecture by Uncle Bob * So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport * Deep Work by Cal Newport * The Freelance Manifesto by Joey Korenman (even though I am far from being a motion designer, it still has a lot of good principles)
Having read Newports work, I feel his books are mostly in the category of books-that-could-have-been-blogposts. What are your thoughts on this?