161–170 of 223 posts
For those interested, C. S. Forester's Hornblower book(s) became a pretty good TV series[0] starring Battlestar Galactica's own Jamie Bamber! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornblower_(TV_series)
My personal picks as I continue to try to understand global economic trends since the 1980's through the prism of the 2008-crash: The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy by Yanis Varoufakis [1] The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future By Stiglitz, Joseph E. [2] The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War by Ro…
Yanis gave a good endorsement of "How Will Capitalism End?: Essays on a Failing System" https://www.amazon.com/How-Will-Capitalism-End-Failing/dp/17... Also you might like Dean Baker's latest book. You can get it free from his website in all formats, or via Amazon "Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer" http://deanbaker.net/books/rigged.htm
"Infomocracy" -by Malka Order.
+++ some other favorites:
When Breath Becomes Air. -by Paul Kalanithi.
Arkwright. -by Allen Steele.
The God's Eye View. -by Barry Eisler.
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley. -by Antonio Garcia Martinez.
Ego Is the Enemy. -by Ryan Holiday.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting story; thanks. I have a few reactions to it: First, it seems like a marketing photo-op for the CEO. In your opinion, is the author trying to make Rockefeller relatable? You can see how it works with HN readers. These days his success is attributed to business acumen and notorious practices, not engineering, but I haven't read much about him. What impression does the book give? Also, I would argue that the…
It's certainly a PR piece. The story may even be apocryphal. But there is a rational reason for him to take such a small action. Promoting such a story within the company spreads the word that a good way to impress the boss is to question processes and look for improvements. Especially if he asked similar questions frequently. People could start to think, what if the boss comes by, is there anything inefficient in my…
It depends on how the author represents the story. If he represents it as an example of Rockefeller's leadership technique and skill, that's one thing.
If the author represents it as Rockefeller's exceptional efficiency and engineering acumen, or is trying to show how relatable Rockefeller was, then the author is doing PR too.
The latter half of the book, however, was by far the weakest. There he attempts to recommend fixes for the issue from a libertarian perspective. His beliefs are not surprising given his current employment in a Thiel hedge fund. This part of the book had little insight and seemed to be an ideologically driven argument by, ironically, a newly minted financial elite that his own community distrusts.
This list took a credibility plunge when Thomas Friedman was spotted on it.
This list took a credibility plunge when Thomas Friedman was spotted on it.
- Grit - I can see why it's caught on, it's pretty well-written and informative, but it's not one of the stronger books in the genre and I don't think it will stand the test of time. I recommend The Willpower Instinct - by Kelly McGonigal and Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise - by Anders Ericsson in its place.
- The Rent Is Too Damn High - Matt Yglesias is an intellectually dishonest pundit and I recommend staying away from anything he publishes. He's a leading representative of what Nassim Taleb calls the Intellectual Yet Idiot[1]. He deleted 3000 tweets praising Obamacare that look bad in retrospect[2][3]. He's also mentioned directly in the Podesta emails as a pundit to be "cultivated."[4] This article from 2011 [5] points out numerous examples of his sloppy reporting and intellectual dishonesty where he doesn't own his mistakes, deletes critical comments, etc.
1. https://medium.com/@nntaleb/the-intellectual-yet-idiot-13211...
2. https://twitter.com/BuffaloBlueBear/status/79120869059868262...
3. https://twitter.com/JimmyPrinceton/status/791127776388583424 (check the whole thread)
4. https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/31954
5. http://www.chequerboard.org/2011/02/matt-yglesias-the-one-ma...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Didn't both of those publications vigorously oppose Trump? Yes. >The "conservative intellectual" niche may be the most politically irrelevant group in the country. Trump won the Presidency, not the Movement. The rest of the GOP, though shell-shocked, has not suddenly ditched conservatism and embraced Trumpism. The vast majority of the GOP members of the House and Senate, and those in state governments, are conservat…
Please don't take this personally, but I think the "obstruction" comment illustrates why political topics tend to degrade into something bad. It's a subcase of "blue team criticizes red team for action X, but conveniently ignores blue team performing action X". Problem is this accusation gets thrown constantly by both red and blue teams. And it's probably true most of the time: teams are partisan. It's also hard to o…