Cleaning up the bookshelf during the pandemic — a little eclectic. What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian by Martin Thielen. I was raised Presbyterian but…
Author: john
Cleaning up the bookshelves while we are shut in… Planet of Adventure by Jack Vance. If you like Burrough’s Mars books, then you will like this. I read the Burroughs…
Range by David Epstein. Strong argument that creativity, invention, excellence are driven by breadth of knowledge, not depth. Important to read, learn, use tools outside your focus area. Lost in…
Narconomics by Tom Wainwright. They may be criminals, but they have all the same economics and behaviours of commercial enterprises. Good insight into why attempting to eradicate narcotics at the…
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. A woman murders her husband and is found insane, and a therapist digs in to get the truth. Very twisty and fun. Underground Airlines…
Circe by Madeline Miller. Excellent retelling of the story of Circe, making her the central and most human part of so much of Greek myth. Very good. The Future of…
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I am ambivalent. Certainly the story is creative, and much work was done to plot it out. But I am not really convinced the…
Red Mountain by Boo Walker. Outside my normal interest range and for good reason, this is horrible. A Hallmark movie. Cloying, ridiculous. The Wanderers by Chuck Wendig. Post apocalypse, zombies,…
Noumenon and Noumenon Infinity by Marina Lostetter. A space exploration trip returns to Earth after centuries away and can barely relate to the evolved human culture. And so on. Fun.…
Three articles worth reading: The Tesla Model 3 Invaded My Neighborhood — But It’s Bigger Than That (GM President Mark Reuss Take Note) GM president: Electric cars won’t go mainstream…
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. Whew what a tough read. We have been so fortunate to always have access to housing and family in…
Eggshells by Caitriona Lally. An odd woman in Dublin tries to connect with the world, or escape the world. Tiring. Misterioso by Arne Dahl. Another Swedish mystery. Characters seem very…
We get to spend two days with strategy consultants this week. I spent the first four years of my career as a strategy consultant and I have some perspective. Strategy…
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden. Started out great with some novel characters and South African setting, kind of sputtered out. The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson. OK…
Tesla is just kicking ass in car apps — https://electrek.co/2019/09/15/tesla-v10-first-look-release-notes-features/. They made an investment in a UX and data architecture and it is paying off. Most carmakers are targeting…
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. In the late 1800s in NYC, a golem and a jinni struggle to fit into human society and become human themselves. Very…
So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Very helpful coverage of a very tough topic. Horrific recent news stories about personal attacks on the author. Say Nothing…
Writing software for cars is hard. Processors are generations behind mobile phones. Compute/network platforms are byzantine and fractured within/across OEMs. OS environments/toolchains are clunky/archaic. Internet connectivity is unavailable, intermittent, and…
Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart. Great story based of a budding female detective in the early 1900s. Based on a real person, this is a great retelling. How…
The Old Man by Thomas Perry. A lazy suspense novel, unimpressed. The action moves along ok but the characters are tissue thin. And when I see a character arrive in…