Books
Notes from Dune
December 03, 2008
Dune reminded me in many ways of Anathem, as it is set in a world with 20,000 more years of history. It’s interesting to read stories of intelligent societies that have lived for hundreds of generations, especially since we have...Continue reading...
Notes from The Silmarillion
October 22, 2008
When I read The Lord of the Rings, I was endlessly intrigued by the references Tolkien made to the ancient history of Middle-Earth. What had really happened there? Why was it called Middle-Earth? How did the events of LOTR fit...Continue reading...
Notes from Anathem
October 13, 2008
Neal Stephenson’s Anathem was inspired by a Long Now Foundation request for designs of a clock that would measure time for 10,000 years. Stephenson’s idea of a societal, rather than mechanical, system was not chosen, but did turn into his...Continue reading...
Notes from 1984
October 09, 2008
1984 is a favorite of mine; I read it at least once every couple years. I think it’s the questioning nature of Winston that gets me, feeling the same emotions myself on a smaller scale. Interestingly in London this summer,...Continue reading...
Notes from Better Off
October 08, 2008
This book tells the tale of two successful city-dwellers, Eric and Mary Brende, who choose to live in an Amish-like community for 18 months. It goes pretty much as you’d expect: they struggle to get going but eventually love the...Continue reading...
Notes from A Brief History of Time
September 07, 2008
Let’s start at the beginning: these notes are 8 years old. On my European train tour in 2000, I ran out of books to read in Nice, France. At an English-language bookstore there, I found A Brief History of Time...Continue reading...
Notes from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
August 28, 2008
Given my recent interest in the contemplative life and observing nature, a friend recommended I read Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. It chronicles the author’s adventures and observations while living and exploring the Tinker Creek area of Virginia’s Roanoake...Continue reading...
Notes from The Honourable Schoolboy
August 24, 2008
As part of an effort to read more fiction (to better appreciate the creative side of writing) and in honour of our trip to London, I read The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carre. It was fun to read it...Continue reading...
Notes from A Technique for Producing Ideas
July 31, 2008
A tiny book lent to me by a friend, which can be summarized in far fewer words still. The insights, however, are as strong as any. The book is a 20-minute read, and someone even typed it out online. It’s...Continue reading...
Notes from Subject to Change
May 12, 2008
Perhaps more aptly titled “Things Adaptive Path has been thinking about”, Subject to Change doesn’t really hold together as a book but offers good, concise, somewhat-related essays about design practices. The book offers some good descriptions of the research and...Continue reading...
Clay Shirky at Berkman Center
April 10, 2008
Just a few notes on Clay Shirky’s talk at the Berkman Center last month (David Weinberger’s notes): [With the internet] Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly are all the same thing.” - 3:45 Within 3...Continue reading...
Notes from The Ten Faces of Innovation
July 30, 2007
Tom Kelley’s book The Ten Faces of Innovation defines ten personas (thankfully not “named”—Bob, Sally, etc—just titled) that exemplify roles in an innovative team. They aren’t job titles or exclusive positions, and people can work across roles as well....Continue reading...
Notes from The 4-hour Workweek
June 25, 2007
Tim Ferriss thinks that you can work your job four hours a week, from anywhere in the world, still make enough money to live luxuriously, and do it for your entire life. Sound good to you? Me too. His book,...Continue reading...
Notes from God's Debris
June 15, 2007
Scott Adams rambles all over the philosophical world in God’s Debris, his first non-Dilbert book, which attempts to slaughter most of the world’s sacred cows. This book of philosophy surprised his fans when published in 2001; after all, most...Continue reading...
My Netflix-inspired reading plan
April 25, 2007
Learning from Netflix, I’m changing how I read books. Netflix sends movies one at a time from a list you choose on Netflix.com, but you only ever have two or three movies at home. This works because people can only...Continue reading...
Notes on Creativity
February 12, 2007
"Innovation" seems poised to become the business buzzword for the next few years, just as "design" has been for the last few. But for all its hype, it's clear that, as was the case with design, there is no real...Continue reading...
Notes from Blink
December 11, 2006
(not polished, but something…) Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Blink, had a lot to live up to. After an incredible debut with The Tipping Point, Gladwell has been criticized for a schizophrenic approach that contradicts itself in places. Certainly it is...Continue reading...
Notes from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
December 18, 2005
David Foster Wallace gave a magnificent commencement speech where he noted that the most important thing an education gives you is the ability to think for yourself, instead of just being on an autopilot that someone else programs: I submit...Continue reading...
Notes from Learning to Love Africa
I bought this book for my girlfriend, who studied Latin America for years before being assigned to work with Africa. I thought that a story by a native African would be an interesting contrast to her experience coming from the...Continue reading...
Notes from The Paradox of Choice
The Paradox of Choice has been on my radar for a long time (over a year), but I just recently read it. What took so long? Well, I had so many books on my shelf waiting to be read…and because...Continue reading...
Notes from Player Piano
October 09, 2005
Continuing my recent dystopia kick, I read Vonnegut’s Player Piano based on his Luddite-ish comments in an article in Inc. Technology: Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with nothing. We’re dancing animals. How beautiful it is to get up...Continue reading...
Notes from The HP Way
October 08, 2005
David Packard’s memoir about Hewlett-Packard’s growth is notable mostly for its consistency. The book’s “rah-rah” tone is consistently upbeat, so much so that I often doubted he was telling everything about the story. But the examples of his and Bill...Continue reading...
Notes from The Man in the High Castle
I was a fan of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the inspiration for Blade Runner, and thought his idea for The Man in the High Castle, a dystopian vision of a world where Germany and Japan...Continue reading...
Notes from Three Scientists and Their Gods
July 24, 2005
It took me a long time to track down a copy of Robert Wright’s first book, Three Scientists and Their Gods, but the wait was worth it. Turns out his first book is also the most applicable to my work...Continue reading...
Notes from In the Beginning was the Command Line
July 09, 2005
Notes from Neal Stepheson’s In the Beginning was the Command Line. HTML as a telegram; one-way and non-interactive (obviously written before AJAX…). Anyone can learn HTML and many people do. The important thing is that no matter what splendid multimedia...Continue reading...
Blink
February 20, 2005
Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Blink, had a lot to live up to. After an incredible debut with The Tipping Point, Gladwell has been criticized for a schizophrenic approach that contradicts itself in places. Certainly it is a different type of...Continue reading...
Web Site Usability
August 26, 2004
The first book read from my book binge, and the only one related to my current job, Web Site Usability seems at first glance to be an obsolete volume on web design. Published in 1997, before I even knew how...Continue reading...
Book Binge 2004
August 25, 2004
I went a little nuts at the used book store today, finally took a chunk out of my gigantic Amazon wishlist, and simultaneously assured myself that no, I will never finish my unread books pile. New on the stack...Continue reading...
Prey
December 13, 2003
Prey is the first fiction book I've read in a while; a welcome change from having to take notes on every page of similarly-themed scientific works. It explores a nanotechnological disaster, with self-replicating machines working as swarms to overwhelm their...Continue reading...
Weird Ideas That Work
November 24, 2003
this is a book
Continue reading...The Experience Economy
November 22, 2003
A book I talk about incessantly but have yet to read and have finally read. The progression of the economy: Commodity -> Product -> Service -> Experience -> Transformation. We are currently transitioning from service to experience; I am interested...Continue reading...
Flow
A book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, about controlling your focus and energy to enjoy the optimal psychological state. Happiness is a choice we must make, not an entitlement or a side effect of anything....Continue reading...
Sync
November 12, 2003
A book by Steven Strogatz, professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University....Continue reading...
The Tipping Point
September 03, 2003
By Malcolm Gladwell, a fascinating look at the way ideas and social practices act like viruses, especially in the way little things can cause them to spread at inordinate speed....Continue reading...
Code-Name: Ginger
August 29, 2003
A great book about the process of conceiving of, designing, and manufacturing the (in?)famous Segway scooter Human Transporter....Continue reading...
Nonzero
August 18, 2003
Robert Wright's followup to The Moral Animal, one of my favorites and a life-changing read. This, too, has vast implications and is exhaustively researched and annotated....Continue reading...
The Culture of FEAR
August 06, 2003
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." President Dwight D. Eisenhower April 16,...Continue reading...
Love is the Killer App
July 29, 2003
I picked this book up for the first time in the Stanford Bookstore because of its interesting cover design. Orange is the new black, you see...I read it that day in near-entirety, and returned to do so twice more before finally purchasing it. It was $22, after all, and I really don't buy books until they come out in paperback...