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 -- All The Worst Humans, Doppelganger, Woke, Creation Lake, How the Universe Got Its Spots, Neurotribes

01 October 2024

  • All The Worst Humans by Phil Elwood. What a great look behidn the scenes of the PR industry. I know some people don’t like the fact that the author participated all those years in supporting some bad actors, and only now tries to make amends, but it is a great look inside. Very hard to trust any media!
  • Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein. An interesting journey into identify and the many ways we see ourselves and others see us. There were some intriguing parts but needed an editor.
  • Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam by Vivek Ramaswamy. I kind of had to ignore the author name as I read this book. It is better written and argued than I expected. However, there are 3 fundamental issues with the book. First, the author complete conflates human venality and corruption with being “woke”. Humanity has abused power forever, humans are venal and petty and self-interested and will grasp at tools to expand and abuse their power. That has been going on forever, there is nothing new about it. Of course in the current world, some will grab the levers of “woke” and use that to their advantage, but it would be some other lever if not that. So I too get enraged about abuse and corruption, but I don’t lay it on the doorstep of “woke”. Secondly, the author confuses “woke” and “a\(hole". There are plenty of a\)holes in the world, and some of them will be for and against some elements of social justice. It is not an indictment of social justice concepts that there are a\(holes involved with part of it, nor is it a refutation of social justice if anti-"woke" a\)hole faces some consequences. Finally, he is very critical of corporations having political views, and critical of money in politcs, but never touches the Citizens United ruling and its implications. I too might wish that corporations had no politcal voice and that money did not equal speech but that is not the system we have created. You can’t demand that one behaviour stop while ignoring the root cause.
  • Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner. Yet again a Booker prize nominee that I don’t like. Perhaps it is cleverly and uniquely written, but it is just dull.
  • How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin. A very very high level introduction to cosmology and topology. And a nice introspective tale of the author’s life and growth. Very enjoyable.
  • NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman. A very interesting look at the history of autism and the many ways it has been treated and understood. We have come a logn way from treating autistics as mentally ill.