These are the books I read in 2011, roughly in the order listed. The ratings and tags are mine. They don’t represent a consensus of opinion. Best Novel of the Year: A Fan’s Notes by Frederick Exley Best Non-Fiction of the Year: Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb My Library at LibraryThing Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Books
Angry Illiterates Shouldn’t Work at Bookstores
There’s no one behind the customer service counter at Barnes and Noble but there is a woman doing something with the books in front of the counter . . . “Do you work here?” I ask. “Yes,” she says, but not in a friendly way . . . more like yes, I work here but I regret it. ‘I’m looking for The Book of Holiday Awesome,” I say. “I’ve never heard of that,” she says. I don’t care if she’s heard of it. I just want to know if they have a copy of it on hand. “Do you know the author?” she asks. “No.” She types a couple of things into the computer. “Nothing is coming up,” she says. It’s a popular book so something should be coming up, even if it’s just to say they don’t have it in stock. I lean over the counter to see what… Read more →
We Need Better Parents
Kids can’t do well in school unless their family has a lot of money, according to an op-ed in the New York Times, which goes on to argue that massive intervention by “policy makers” is needed to confront this issue head-on. The authors, Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske, are a husband-and-wife team of academic researchers. Education reform in a nutshell: First thing, let’s kill all the academic researchers. Helen and Ed cherry-picked the results of a Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study to show that students with lower economic and social status had far lower test scores than their more advantaged counterparts. But they didn’t actually link to the PISA results, because if they had, people would see that Helen and Ed just ignored the three main findings, which are: Fifteen-year-old students whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school show markedly higher… Read more →
A Christmas Tree Made With Books
Problems
If you tolerate it, you insist on it. If you insist on it, it will be supplied. If you see a problem, you own it. If you ignore a problem, you’ll see more of it. — Jim and Michele McCarthy, Software for Your Head Read more →
The Best Measure of Truth
If you act as if something is true, you will shortly find out whether it is or isn’t. Any reduction of effort or increase of abundance you enjoy as a consequence of your new belief is the best measure of its truth. — Jim and Michele McCarthy, Software for Your Head Read more →
What You Say You Believe
What you say you believe isn’t as important as what you believe. And, obviously, you don’t believe what you don’t enact. Although describing, proselytizing, or otherwise articulating your beliefs in media other than your own acts can be fun, it is seldom very useful to you or anyone else. Babbling on about a value is a distraction from attaining it. — Jim and Michele McCarthy, Software for Your Head Read more →
If You Tolerate It, You Insist On It
Whenever you perceive that a virtue is missing or that a vice is present, you either tolerate the situation or try to change it. If you cannot “fix” it, you can at least withdraw your participation. The problem with tolerating the absence of virtue or the existence of vice is that this choice summons them into your life. You might tell yourself stories about the problem you perceive and your tolerance of it: That’s just the way it is in the real world. Others will not listen even-handedly to your perceptions and advice. It’s not your place to say truthful but difficult things. The problem lies in another department. You are not reading the situation correctly. You may not be able to discern beauty from ugliness or efficiency from waste, and your ignorance will be exposed. You’ll be rejected or ridiculed. You will look dumb if you ask for help… Read more →
Race Against the Machine
We don’t believe in the coming obsolescence of all human workers. In fact, some human skills are more valuable than ever, even in an age of incredibly powerful and capable digital technologies. But other skills have become worthless, and people who hold the wrong ones now find that they have little to offer employers. They’re losing the race against the machine, a fact reflected in today’s employment statistics. . . . There is no economic law that says that everyone, or even most people, automatically benefit from technological progress. — Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, Race Against The Machine Read more →
In a Conference Room
Stop being false just because you’re in a conference room. Start actively engaging. For example, when you think an idea someone states, or one a group adopts, is a poor one, investigate it. Either you don’t understand it, or it is a poor idea. Stop everything, and find out why someone would say such a thing at this time. What was the purpose? What is the meaning of the contribution? Your teammates will have to live with your inquisitive engagement. You will be present, and you will engage them. You will see them. You will hear what they say. You will seek information about their emotional states, beliefs, plans, and skills. You will connect with other team members to the maximum extent possible. They will have to adjust to your strategy and its results or else not invite you–which would be fine. — Jim and Michele McCarthy, Software for Your… Read more →
Dennis Ritchie, 1941-2011
Dennis Ritchie was the inventor of the C programming language and a major contributor to the UNIX operating system. He died last week at the age of 70. His brilliantly clear tutorial on C, written with Brian Kernighan, was affectionately known as “K & R” by those of us for whom it was an integral part of learning to be programmers. R.I.P. Dennis Ritchie. Read more →
3 Laws of Usability
Don’t make me think! It doesn’t matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice. Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left. — Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think Read more →
5 Questions for Improvement
What is your target condition here? What is the actual condition now? What obstacles are now preventing you from reaching the target condition? Which one are you addressing now? What is your next step? (start of the next PDCA cycle) When can we go and see what we have learned from taking that step? — Mike Rother, Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results Read more →
Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. — Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
In real life, as in Grand Opera, arias only make hopeless situations worse. — Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake
How Are Things Going?
You go up to a man, and you say, “How are things going, Joe?” and he says, “Oh fine, fine — couldn’t be better.” And you look into his eyes, and you see things really couldn’t be much worse. When you get right down to it, everybody’s having a perfectly lousy time of it, and I mean everybody. And the hell of it is, nothing seems to help much. — Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan Read more →
A Labyrinth of Illusion and Doubt
Indeed, you will see that the whole history of the spirit of religion is only the history of the errors of the human mind, which, placed in a world that it does not comprehend, endeavors nevertheless to solve the enigma; and which, beholding with astonishment this mysterious and visible prodigy, imagines causes, supposes reasons, builds systems; then, finding one defective, destroys it for another not less so; hates the error that it abandons, misconceives the one that it embraces, rejects the truth that it is seeking, composes chimeras of discordant beings; and thus, while always dreaming of wisdom and happiness, wanders blindly in a labyrinth of illusion and doubt. — C.F. Volney, The Ruins, or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature Read more →
Monkeys on Typewriters
If one puts an infinite number of monkeys in front of (strongly built) typewriters, and lets them clap away, there is a certainty that one of them would come out with an exact version of the Iliad. Upon examination, this may be less interesting a concept than it appears at first: Such probability is ridiculously low. But let us carry the reasoning one step beyond. Now that we have found that hero among monkeys, would any reader invest his life’s savings on a bet that the monkey would write the Odyssey next? — Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness Read more →
The Effect of Your Practices
And you, credulous men, show me the effect of your practices! In so many centuries, during which you have been following or altering them, what changes have your prescriptions wrought in the laws of nature? Is the sun brighter? Is the course of the seasons varied? Is the earth more fruitful, or its inhabitants more happy? If God be good, can your penances please him? If infinite, can your homage add to his glory? If his decrees have been formed on foresight of every circumstance, can your prayers change them? Answer, O inconsistent mortals! — C.F. Volney, The Ruins, or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature Read more →
The Thousand-Mile Road
Step by step walk the thousand-mile road. Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men. — Miyamoto Musashi, The Book Of Five Rings Read more →