If you want to understand the rise of alt-right and Trump's popularity in silicon valley, start with this. It's the real story of a billionaire actingIf you want to understand the rise of alt-right and Trump's popularity in silicon valley, start with this. It's the real story of a billionaire acting in the shadows and bankrolling the takedown of the once (in)famous gawker media group. But it's much more than that; it's a raw slice of the society we live in. It's a story about personal identity and political identities. It's a story about the right to privacy in the era of sextortion and revenge porn, and the balance we have to strike with free speech. Ultimately, it's a story about the invisible hands at play and how we are all susceptible to the games that the powerful play....more
Absolutely loved it. As with all Brandon's books, it does take its sweet time to get going. But once it gets going, it's a force to be reckoned with. Absolutely loved it. As with all Brandon's books, it does take its sweet time to get going. But once it gets going, it's a force to be reckoned with. The insights and wit in the last few chapters were jaw droppingly good. If you're new to Sanderson, start with this one....more
This book is one of those symphonies that start out mellow and slowly increases in crescendo until the final act, where everything comes together to aThis book is one of those symphonies that start out mellow and slowly increases in crescendo until the final act, where everything comes together to a climax of epic proportions. I loved it. There is darkness and there is light. There is a reality amidst the magic. And there is a fantastical place that reality cannot quite touch. These are the kind of books that inspire me to write. ...more
The origin story of a legendary witch (or a childless cat lady as they are called these days). From start to finish, Brom had my attention. There's hoThe origin story of a legendary witch (or a childless cat lady as they are called these days). From start to finish, Brom had my attention. There's hope in this story, but also darkness. Not the kind of darkness that is irrational, but the kind of darkness that makes sense. Yes, there are a few two dimensional characters - but it doesn't take away from the overall realism. Can't wait to read more of his work. ...more
There's a lot of things to like about this book. Even if you don't think Jeff's ideas are original and even if you don't like the reductionist approacThere's a lot of things to like about this book. Even if you don't think Jeff's ideas are original and even if you don't like the reductionist approach to "solving" the problem of consciousness (yeah I'm calling out the ridiculous reviews on goodreads), there is still value in reading books like these - because it gives a glimpse in to a personal story - the story of technologist who reinvented himself just so he could study the inner workings of the brain. Although I wish the author could've gone more into detail about how reference frames allow us to create models of the world (with solid examples rather than just abstract thought), I understand this exercise may be too complicated for a popular science book.
Tldr; don't buy the book for the hype or expecting some grand epiphany. Buy the book to experience an arguably brilliant mind grapple with an age-old problem that we might be close to solving. ...more
I really want to give this book 5 stars because it made me radically change the way I eat. And no book has ever done that. :) But I have a few issues.I really want to give this book 5 stars because it made me radically change the way I eat. And no book has ever done that. :) But I have a few issues. So let's do some pros and cons:
Pros: 1.) The book will give you a lot of motivation, about eating healthy and avoiding processed food. 2.) It will give a breakdown of what ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) are.. For instance, I knew emulsifiers were questionable, but I didn't know the softness of the food engineered to increase rate of intake was inherently bad for the digestive system. 3.) It'll help you literally "trust your gut" more. And realize the dangers of flavor extracts and flavor enhancers. 4.) The book is sprinkled with British humor. YMMV of course, but I love the ridiculousness mixed with serious topics, so this is a pro for me. 5.) Gives you insight into the food-industrial complex and conflicts of interest in science. 6.) Gives you insight into food corps aggressive marketing and exploitation of rural communities that are not equipped to make rational decisions for themselves.
Cons: 1.) The author claims if you eat 80% UPFs for a week, you will be converted and see the danger of UPFs. I mean yeah - if you eat 80% broccoli for a week, you'd probably feel that way too. The dose determines the poison, so it's kind of false experiment. 2.) Processed food have reduced world hunger to a great extent, and have literally saved lives. This version of history needs to be told alongside the dangers of UPF. I felt like that was touched upon but not elaborated. Without that context, some of the babble seems like outright doomerism. 3) A moderate amount of rambling, and beating around the bush. But hey, that's typical non-fiction in the 21st century for you. 4.) Equating activists working with the industry almost akin to working with the devil. Yes, as a rule of thumb big corporations are bad. But there are humans working inside those corporations that are genuinely working for change. Why not work together - rebellions can come from the inside too.
Growing up in an age where "personal is political" was used as a device for guilt and shame, this book did make me question my own beliefs. Although mGrowing up in an age where "personal is political" was used as a device for guilt and shame, this book did make me question my own beliefs. Although most of the focus is on gender/sexuality based shame, the same principles can be applied to any kind of of systemic shame. The only thing I wish the author could've done was to include a chapter on practicing moral responsibility in the age of systemic shame - it would've made the message more balanced and more recommendable. Still, a worthwhile read....more
This book collects a lot of great ideas and presents them in a digestible format, peppered with plenty of personal stories, famous cameos, and downrigThis book collects a lot of great ideas and presents them in a digestible format, peppered with plenty of personal stories, famous cameos, and downright clever epiphanies that will delight the avid non-fiction reader. I would go far as to say this is probably one of the best non-fiction books I've read since "Thinking fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman.
But� the ideas presented here will take time to sink in. And I imagine a lot of you benefit from reading the book twice or thrice, at various stages in your life. Here's a little summary/cheatsheet that might help you build some structure into the insights the book provides.
Diminishers vs Illuminators
Diminishers usually can't see past their own anxiety, or their own ego and make assumptions about people by generalizations. They also reduce other people to static mind-sets and think that everyone else has lesser minds than them. They have a naïve realism that can't penetrate other's subjective realities.
Illuminators on the other hand are receptive, have an active curiosity, and have an aura of tenderness and affection about them. They have are generous with their time and have a more holistic attitude that prevents them from classifying people's traits (kind, wicked, energetic, apathetic etc). Strive to be an Illuminator.
Constructionism vs naïve realism
Naïve realism is the idea that reality is what we see. Constructionism, on the other hand is the idea that even though there is an objective reality out there, what we see is a construct of that reality and not necessarily a direct one to one relation. Constructionism therefore gives value to subjective experience - "People don't see the world with their eyes. They see it with their entire lives.". To understand other people, we have to step into that subjective experience, however unreal that may seem to us.
Conversation as an act of exploration
Getting to know someone is like floating in a river and feeling the river run through you. It's not about winning, it's about playing and being present, being the accompaniment and complimenting the score instead of trying to rise above other instruments.
Somebody floats a half-formed idea. Somebody else seizes that idea, plays with it, offers their own perspective and subjective experience and floats it back so the other person can respond.
What are the practical things you can do to facilitate such a conversation?
1.) Pay attention - sit up, lean forward, ask questions, acknowledge the speaker (nod and keep eye contact, be a loud listener) 2.) Keep others attention by focusing on the familiar. There's a novelty penalty to pay if you bring in a new subject to the conversation. Make sure to bring novelty only when it makes sense. 3a.) Ask small questions. Loop back around and see if you got what they really said. 3b) Ask Big questions. Ask open ended questions. Don't be afraid to look dumb. 4.) Don't fear the pause. 5.) Midwife the conversation. Be there as she gives birth. You are only there to support. 6.) Don't be a topper - "I know exactly what you mean" might not be the flex you think it is. 7.) Disagree with grace. Always assume good intentions. Find the disagreement under the disagreement. 8.) See the difference between the official conversation and actual conversation. The words you say about current events are the official conversation. The emotions underlying it (being threatened, disrespected etc) are the actual conversation. 9.) People like to tell their life stories. Give them the chance.
Navigating Identity politics
Unhappy societies create the politics of recognition. Identity politics (both on the left and right) usually arise because someone is trying to affirm their identity, against a seemingly judgmental society, and wants to regain status and visibility. While this is not always done in bad faith, it will lead you to sadness and loneliness. One researcher claims that mass shooters are not loners; they are failed joiners. "Love rejected, comes back as hatred." and "victimhood turns into villainy".
How do we bridge this gap? Learn to have hard conversations. Realize that when we meet people, we meet them in a landscape of distrust and disconnection, in a landscape where people see each other as members of opposing groups and with all the baggage that has been historically inherited in those groups. You might not subscribe to those ideals (slavery, elitsm, sexism, bigotry, etc) but realize that you inherit these group prejudices in the eyes of the other person. It's in that context you have to establish conversation and connection.
Don't be afraid to clarify and assert your own experience but also be ready to reach across the aisle and understand the other persons grievances. Be ready to have a difficult conversation, be ready to ask questions, be ready to respect the other persons activism by letting them stay in their frame.
The other part of identity is that, people go through transformations where they want to transcend their group. Understanding that not everyone at every moment in their lives identifies with their demographic is another important point to consider.
Navigating Depression
Depressed people usually don't have the desire to do things. So giving them ideas on how to fix their depression will go no where and likely lead into them think you just don't get it. It's not your job to cheer people up. Instead acknowledge the reality of the situation, show respect and love and show that you haven't walked away from them.
"Depression is the malfunction of the instrument we see reality with." No amount of intellectual reasoning can bring that back.
There's a lot more in the book about a personal tragedy, that I'm not summarizing here.
Navigating the terror of being abandoned
The neurons in our brain that we use to feel love for others is the same ones we used to love our parents in early childhood. If we received conditional/anxious love as a child, we would anticipate the same in adulthood. "If I didn't have that uneasy ache, that prickly anxiety around someone, how would I know it's real love?"
The manifestation in being abandoned comes in many ways: 1.) Avoidance - Since emotions in relationships hurt, people try to shy away from them. They overintellectualize and avoid their own emotions. 2.) Deprivation - The "I'm not worthy" excuse. Blaming themselves for the harm that others cause. 3.) Overreactivity - seeing neutral faces as angry faces. Interpreting ambivalent situations as menacing situations. 4.) Passive aggression - someone who fears conflict and hasn't dealt with emotion in a healthy way, will resort to self-pity and passive aggression
These defenses are not necessarily bad. They help people navigate a fraught past. But such defenses are not controllable. They control you.
The author argues that one should be empathetic (mirror, spot emotions, and co-regulate) towards such individuals. This is probably the one area that I disagree with the author. Compassion without empathy is a better solution. But that's a conversation for another time.
Navigating Grief
Grief is one of the strongest emotions that someone could go through. The author paints a compelling picture with vivid examples and argues that to really know someone, you have to go through how they have processed loss in their lives. The process of excavation - going back into the past and reinventing the stories of your life - can bring people together. These are some actionable ways to achieve that.
1.) Ask questions about the deep values that were embedded in childhood. What were they allowed to do? What were they not allowed to do? 2.) Write a first person narrative of the past year of your loved one's life. And then let them read it. 3.) Fill the calendar - walk through periods of the others life. 4.) Free form writing about your own emotional experiences. 5.) If you've lost someone close to you, tell stories about that person to your friends.
The 5 big traits
Extroversion, Conscientiousness, Neurotism, Agreeableness, and Openness can predict many things about a person. Spotting these features in other humans will help you navigate the conversations you have with them and avoid pitfalls.
Integrity vs Despair
Types of Consciousness in development psychology: lantern consciousness, imperial consciousness, interpersonal consciousness. These evolve with each stage of our life, and it's important to realize where we are in the journey. Even people who have not succeeded in imperial goals (career, life achievements) or interpersonal goals have a chance at redemption in later life generative acts of mentorship.
"An infant believes I am my parents, then they realize I am not my parents. A teenager may believe that I am my friendships, but then they realize they are just a person who likes friendships."
The problems we create cannot be solved at the same levels of consciousness that we created them.
Tl:dr: Read the book. You'll not only learn to know a person, you will learn to know thyself. If I was non-fiction writer, living a different life, I could certainly see myself writing this book. I say this not as a cheeky jab, but because my subjective experience thinks it's the highest form of compliment I can give. :)
There is so much nonsense in the review section for this book. I get it, some people think they already know the answer to the question in the title aThere is so much nonsense in the review section for this book. I get it, some people think they already know the answer to the question in the title and they come here to whine about the author not understanding it. If you are one of those people this book is not for you! If you do want to understand the intricacies of what goes behind the scientific process - especially the battles fought between strong ideological fronts regarding consciousness and animal cognition, this might be the book for you. The book shines light on the prejudices inherent in the science establishments and goes through the new experiments and the work of researchers who have tried to course correct it. It shows the reader that scientists are not infallible, but the scientific process is. I do think the author could've expounded a lot more on animal cognition experiments and spent a little less time on making it an opinion piece - but that's a minor complaint. I enjoyed it overall, and learnt quite a bit about the surprising political power struggles of apes, facial recognition of crows, language sensitivity of elephants, meta cognition in rats, playfulness of octopuses, the altruism of chimpanzees, and many more....more
Solid read. Loved the huge plot twist at the second stage of the book where all the alien interactions had to be looked again through a new light. TheSolid read. Loved the huge plot twist at the second stage of the book where all the alien interactions had to be looked again through a new light. The human parts of the book were kind of drag, and might possibly be intentional on the authors part. Loved how the moon born human culture was explained and described. It's realistic enough to get you back on ground and start dreaming about all the potential cultural explosions that might happen with space colonization. ...more
Good solid science fiction. Although the main story is woven around alien-human sex, it's not graphic. The book dwells into the power struggles betweeGood solid science fiction. Although the main story is woven around alien-human sex, it's not graphic. The book dwells into the power struggles between captive and captor and let's the reader think hard and fast about subjects like sexual consent, conscious leadership/manipulation, evolutionary programming and xenophobia that drives very close to home. What I really like about the book is that the author doesn't blatantly point out what's right and wrong. She gives the opportunity to the reader to ask such questions.
One of the main points that I found fascinating about the alien race (without giving away too much spoilers), is that their singular drive towards the benefit of evolution. The psychedelic sex was awesome too, but as a species they are able "think objectively" without getting entangled in human emotion which in contrast seems so puny, childish and even insignificant. Again, the author doesn't explicitly say this because she's writing from the human narrative, but for the inquisitive reader, it's pretty darn obvious....more
Felt more like an essay than a science book. The author has some good points but the evidence for most of the claims he makes are so-so. It was intereFelt more like an essay than a science book. The author has some good points but the evidence for most of the claims he makes are so-so. It was interesting reading the various real life examples of humans/chimps/bonobos in the wild and that was probably the only thing that kept me going. Even those examples however are interpreted through the lens of the author who tries hard to drive the point of uniqueness of humans that are supposed to have special moral traits like shame and conscience.
If the book was more objective in it's approach and focused more on case studies and trying to forcefully drive a point, I would've enjoyed a tad bit more. ...more
The one thing that I dislike about the book is perhaps the long winded (but playful) narration that seemsFinally, a book worth reading and reviewing.
The one thing that I dislike about the book is perhaps the long winded (but playful) narration that seems to be an overkill. Simple concepts that can be explained in a sentence or a paragraph goes on to be chapters. But since Dennett is a philosopher it's all forgiven. If you don't like this playful elongated writing style, and prefer concise and direct communication, it may ruin a perfectly good book.
There are several things I found fascinating about the thinking tools. I won't list all of them, but there seems to be a few major points he tries to paint with stacking several intuition pumps together. And those messages are worth mentioning.
1.) There is no wonder tissue that makes us humans unique. We're simply chemical machines. The deliberate wanting to place a hidden mystery to the workings of the brain is merely an attempt at convincing ourselves that we are special.
2.) The meaning of life and the intentions that we have can probably never be deciphered. We Sorta know our inner programming, but really we don't. The only programming that makes sense is the narrative of the Selfish Gene. The one that wants to propagate itself towards the future by beating all the odd balls that the environment can throw at it.
2b.) Genetic Engineering is perhaps one of the most important things that humans have created. It's a revolution in evolution.
3.) Consciousness and Self are illusions, but effective and useful illusions. Kind of like the concept of a center of gravity or axis of rotation. There is no such physical thing as a center of gravity but having a concept of such a point makes the physical world easier to explain.
4.) There can be free will in an in-deterministic world. From all the things that Dennett describes in the book, this was news to me. And I loved the way he walked the reader through his thinking process.
But I think beauty of this book is not necessarily in the conclusions but in the philosophical discussions that lead to the said conclusions. The thinking tools that are required to comprehend these truths are not necessarily straightforward. It requires sitting down, wrapping your head around intuitive concepts and then extending what you've learnt to other problems. That's where the book shines, and that's possibly why you should read it.
This should've been a short read. But it took me forever to finish the book. Not because it's bad. But because it stirred up in me some childhood memoThis should've been a short read. But it took me forever to finish the book. Not because it's bad. But because it stirred up in me some childhood memories. There were moments that I put the book down and wept for hours.
Don't get me wrong. This book will not be emotional for everyone. Nor will it strike a chord with the majority of people, but for those who have triggers in their childhoods, this will be quite a transformational read. I found a part of myself all over again again by reading this. I was able to look back lucidly at the memories I've forced myself to forget. Neil Gaiman weaves a beautiful fantasy land where in the end, everything comes together in the end.
The stranger, acclaimed by many to be the epitome of Existentialist literature, was kind of strange to me. Instead of finding a protagonist who takes The stranger, acclaimed by many to be the epitome of Existentialist literature, was kind of strange to me. Instead of finding a protagonist who takes existence one step at a time, I found a man who's lost in very fleeting thoughts that the mind creates at a given instance. A slave to his own bodily functions. Is this really existentialism? Many a time while reading the story I wondered why the protagonist couldn't escape his reality. There was a distinct lack of hope, lack of internal dialogue that the hero lacked.
I guess historically, this book changed the perception of the society it was written in. And for that I am grateful. But there has to be better existential literature out there. Maybe crossing over to the Absurdism regime..I can only hope. ...more
Loved it. I think this is a great introduction to Taoism, and also a refresher for those who are already initiated. I enjoyed the way it compared the Loved it. I think this is a great introduction to Taoism, and also a refresher for those who are already initiated. I enjoyed the way it compared the other characters of Winnie the Pooh, to the various personality disorders that's common in modern life. I also realized that Buddhism was kind of a bitter take on life (when compared to Taoism) and Confucianism was a rigid and conformist take on life.
While reading the book, it also dawned on me that I've played all the characters of Winnie the pooh in real life; the wise-owl, anxious-piglet, OCD-rabbit, depressed-Eeyore, the existential Pooh and positive-psychology tigger! And what's more, I can bring each of these characters to life with a snap of the finger.
I don't believe the ultimate premise of the book though: that we should all strive to be existential Pooh bears. I think it's more important to build an awareness of the character that you're playing right now, and be able to change it through the power of will. Or drugs or exercise or a social life; whichever floats your boat at the time.
So yeah, read the book. It's certainly a joy to read. But come to your own conclusions. ...more
Splendidly fun and a great follow up to the Great Guide. The audiobook by Martin Freeman was an excellent hearing and a welcome distraction through a Splendidly fun and a great follow up to the Great Guide. The audiobook by Martin Freeman was an excellent hearing and a welcome distraction through a long-distance drive. The ending would seem anti-climatic to most, but I thought the compromise that Author made for the promise of a great lay was hilarious and does justice to the existential nature of the Adam's philosophy of the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Even if the series ended on this note, I would've been completely content. ...more
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