Bakunin > Recent Status Updates

I am a little disappointed by the author. I've read his other works and found them to be a valuable guide to how to build important routines. They helped me clarify my thinking on certain issues. Here Cal is attempting to discuss burnout and how the idea of productivity as busyness is the reason for burnout. Instead one should do fewer things, work at a natural pace and obssess over quality. This seems a bit trite.

I am struck by Bergmans incredible work ethic and how he from very early on (when he was 20) already started directing theatre plays which got reviewed in a national newspaper. Bergman later became a theatre manager which makes highly practical demands on a person. According to Timm, Bergman wanted to play all sorts of plays in order to please as broad an audience as possible. He even directed children's plays!

We only read stories of successful startups but rarely do we hear the psychological stress which is incurred in the process of creating something entirely novel. I now realize the ex-CEO and VC Ben Horowitz intention here is similar to what the ancient greeks attempted to do with theatre i.e. to portray the psychological difficulties in choosing between a rock and a hard place.

Great (as always with Paul Graham) but I wish there were more essays on society rather than just hacking. Paul is a contrarian who has started companies and been pivotal in the startup scene. His thinking is often concise and outlines novel (and big) ideas which are well worth reflecting on.

So far interesting. It does provide a summary of common problems that founders go through (based on a sample size of 10,000 startups). I read this book to find inspiration for a creative project I am working on.

So far great!

Interesting portrait from a sons perspective. Tage Lindbom was an eccentric thinker in Sweden. He became an influent member of the socialdemocratic establishment in the 40s but became disillusioned by certain strands of socialist thought. He eventually converted to islam and became a religious conservative.

Interesting but too long. Too many details. The author should cut to the chase.

Prokofievs memoir gives the reader an insight into how he was taught and also his early musical intuition. I also found it interesting that he was homeschooled for so long.

Her characters complain an awful lot. Some of these short stories are more memorable but I wish that the characters would adopt a more stoic demeanour.

Interesting hypothesis. States did not spring up automatically after human adopted a more sedentary life. The author tries to upend the traditionally enlightened view of how society evolved.

I don't know what the fuss is all about. I must be missing something in my reading of Borges.

Funny but not as interesting as I would've hoped.

Really funny. I was surprised that I could laugh so much from reading a picaresque novel from the first century AD. Bawdy, rowdy and fastpaced.

I'm a little disappointed. I don't know why but I thought that there would be more reflection on the part of Jake Tapper. Rather than blaming the election on Biden I thought he would analyze the power structure and go into more depth as to why both the media and the democratic establishment tried to hide Bidens dementia.

Much better than I had thought! This story centers around a girl growing up in Albania during the fall of the Soviet Union. Very well-written. Lea grows up not knowing that her intellectual parents are against the regime.

Alright so far. A bit tedious.

Interesting book on programming for linux. It has two metaphors for how to organize work: either like a Cathedral (i.e. one master architect and the rest just implementing the vision) or a Bazaar. I found many of the insights applicable to areas outside of programming (which I know very little of myself, only programmed a little for an class I took at uni on statistical analysis).

Well written. This is a family chronicle of three generations growing up in Russia. I especially like the parts about the grandfather whose chief interests are art, science and music.

Interesting portrait of the rise of the alt right. I was surprised to read about ex white nationalists meditating in India.

Enthralling.

Really funny. The book follows Harold - a creative kid from the 3rd grade whose surreal thoughts are both hilarious and thoughtprovoking.

Fascinating read. Gurris thesis is that new technologies make it possible for the public, i.e. persons who are interested in an affair and can affect it only by supporting it or opposing the actors - to have massive consequences for the political arena. Another way of putting it: the conflict between hierarchies and networks. Traditional institutions no longer have a monopoly on information.

Good so far. Explores how traditional institutions come under question once new technologies are introduced and how this affects the elites in a given society.

Live dangerously - carefully. That is the motto of Maye Musks family. Her adventurous upbringing makes this an entertaining read. I also enjoy her entrepreneurial thinking and ability to take responsibility despite tremendous challenges in her personal life. At times however the memoir is a bit too self-centered whereas I am interested more in the culture she was brought up in.