A Little Ludwig Goes a Long Way

A smattering of opinions on technology, books, business, and culture. Now in its 4th technology iteration.

Recent Books -- Seveneves, War On Cops, To Be Taught, Dark Horse, Code Breaker

07 April 2022

  • Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. A ton of interesting ideas. A long book. Maybe spend more of this length really digging into some characters and society and the impact of the ideas on both?
  • The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe by Heather MacDonald. The premise of this book is that our police are under attack by largely black activists which makes us all less safe as it leads to more crime. The book explores both police activity and the limits activists seek, as well as incarceration and the limits activists seek. The book fails completely for multiple reasons:
    • It is not a serious attempt to inform or influence. No citations, no raw data. False strawmen, ad hominem arguments. Inflamatory language. The book is designed to trigger emotional responses, not rational discussion.
    • The causes of crime are way upstream from policing or incarceration and the author doesn’t dig into any of that.
    • The author conflates race and culture and economics and muddies the waters.
  • To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. A compact story about the promise and challenges of space exploration. A quiet story.
  • Dark Horse by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz. OK Reacher-esque tale, tho I would probably just read a Reacher.
  • The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson. Kind of interesting to read the background on the people involved in the developemnt of CRISPR but I would have liked more technical explanation of how CRISPR actually works.