Constantin
This book felt like an oversized editorial on Los Angeles Times. The story itself is very interesting, it's a good thriller and definitely a page-turner, but instead of focusing on the tons of people Theranos hired and fired, I think the author should have focused on Elizabeth and Sunny, building their characters more and also a few key employees at Theranos. I would also split the book into 2 story lines: one of Theranos and Elizabeth (her biography, deals and trials and investigations at Theranos) and the second about people working at Theranos and how it all happened from the inside.
I'm giving 3 stars for the writing, 5 for the story and 5 for John Carreyrou's professionalism and the courage of his sources and the first Theranos whistleblowers.
Dureroas?? carte, de??i nu ar trebui s?? fie neap??rat. De fapt, e un singur aspect dureros, ??i anume divor??ul ??i tot ce urmeaz?? dup??. Descrierea anumitor st??ri, felul ??n care decurge via??a dup?? acest eveniment, visul de la sf??r??it, toate mi-au p??rut extrem de familiare, de parc?? Haruki-san ar avea o linie direct?? c??tre mintea mea ??i ar fi v??zut tot ce se face ??n ea. Cel??lalt fir narativ, chiar dac?? pare un pic ciudat (tipic Murakami), makes perfect sense.
??i totu??i, unde-s pisicile?
A very well documented biography and didn't feel like the author was taking any sides, although he was clearly assuming many things about how Ross might have felt. All in all, I think it's quite a sad book and the Escobar of the dark web wasn't by far as smart as he thought he was, neither were the agents who pinned him down with a simple google search. As much as I can see the damage Silk Road brought to the world, I'm still convinced that an Amazon on the dark web (at least for drugs) is way better alternative than buying unknown quality drugs from thugs on the street.
Nici nu ??tiu cu ce s?? ??ncep..
Mi-am adus aminte de at??tea lucruri de care uitasem, le credeam disp??rute pentru totdeauna, dar uite c?? nu e a??a. Mi-am adus aminte de vecinii ??i prietenii mei din copil??rie, ru??i, rom??ni, ucraineni ??i evrei. De sticlele reciclate de ??ampanie la 25 de bani, cele de vin la 15 bani, cele de bere, votc?? sau coniac, 10 bani. De ??nghe??atele ??n con, de apa la sifon, de hainele care odat?? ce nu mai puteau fi purtate ajungeau la sp??lat podele, de fra??ii de cruce, de biletele compostate ??n troleibuz care erau transmise din m??n?? ??n m??n??, de covoarele scuturate ??n curtea blocului, de un Polkovnik care lupta cu nem??ii ??i-n ‘90, de v??nz??toarele rusoaice care nu acceptau s??-??i v??nd?? ceva dac?? nu le vorbeai ??ntr-o limb?? ???omeneasc?????, de confuzia general?? a acelor ani ??i disperarea oamenilor care au avut ceva economii ??n ruble ??i s-au trezit c?? ele nu mai valoreaz?? nimic peste noapte.
Apoi e ??i experien??a din Rom??nia:
???C??nd ??mi spune toanta de Floricica c??t de mi??to i se pare c?? ??tiu limba rus?? ??i ce noroc am avut noi, basarabenii, c?? am ??nv????at-o de mici... M?? ??ntunec.??? Asta a fost ??i reac??ia mea de fiecare dat?? c??nd auzeam asta ??i am auzit-o de multe ori. Mai t??rziu am realizat c?? limba ??n sine nu poart?? nicio vin?? ??i cu siguran???? e un avantaj s?? o cuno??ti, dar ???norocul??? nostru de a o ??nv????a de mici, nu a fost nici pe departe noroc.
Chiar ??i experien??a de a nu mai apar??ine vreunei ????ri: ???E destul s?? treci diminea??a un prag ca ceilal??i s?? spun?? c?? e??ti plecat. Dar s?? treci o grani????? ??n Moldova sunt plecat??, ??n Rom??nia sunt venit??. Uneori ??mi pare c?? tr??iesc doar la mine ??n cap, ??i acolo cu chirie.???
Firul narativ ??i ??ntreaga experien???? mi se par veridice, chiar dac?? e fic??iune ??i personajele sunt mai mult sau mai pu??in fictive.
“Instan??a de judecat?? re??ine, c?? Colegiul civil ??i de contencios administrativ al Cur??ii de Apel Chi??in??u, prin decizia din 12 iunie 2018, nr.3a-1074/18, a constatat faptul c??, concurentul electoral Andrei N??stase, ??n apari??iile sale din ziua alegerilor a ie??it cu ??ndemnuri ??i lozinci electorale pe pagina facebook, similare celor dinperioada campaniei electorale.”
1* pentru “facebook” in loc de “Facebook”
Am r??s la glumele cu gust, uneori pline de umor negru ??i amintiri din epoca de “aur”. Am suspinat la fiecare pas pe ultima sut?? de metri, fiecare jaf parc?? desprins din filmele lui Tarantino ??i fiecare demon care-l urm??rea ??n iadul alb (celula de ??nchisoare sau polul nord). E impresionant cine a ajuns ??n ciuda trecutului. O autobiografie de nota 10.
It was touch and go with this book. I was halfway into it and ready to put it aside, funny curiosities about what people search on Google or what Facebook data says about us simply doesn't cut if for me anymore. I think Yuval Noah Harari set the bar too high in Homo Deus, by covering most interesting findings big data has to offer in an elegant and concise manner.
However, the second half of the book covers a bit more of human behaviour, data misrepresentations and the extent to which big data can be applied. I found that to be unique and informative enough to do some research on my own.
Although Big Data is no longer considered to be the new kid on the block, it is still very important (Google and Facebook are definitely making a hefty profit out of it), but the sooner fields like psychology, sociology, anthropology are going to embrace it, the better for us as human beings.
I finished this book and couldn't let go of it for what seemed like ages. A story that I would typically devour in a few hours turned out to be a very overwhelming and difficult book to read. It struck a chord from the very beginning and I often found myself unable to continue reading without a break. Both Paul and Lucy did an amazing job, concerning this book and their life together. As horrible as this experience must have been, mortality and the awareness of its immediate presence turned the last chapter of his life into something many of us can only dream of.
Tedious, self-contradictory and generally disappointing autobiography. It might be that the intended audience of this book are young people in India, but even so, I had higher expectations. Recommended read for anyone who regards him as a saint and not merely a mortal who learns from his mistakes, experiments with several practices and fights for an idea (or a few actually).
Gandhi (the 1982 film), though it's from a different perspective and captures only a certain stage of his life, does a much better job at depicting his character and his fight for freedom than does Gandhi in his own words.
Impressive personality, poor writer.
One of the most difficult books I have read in my life. It's not that it's hard to read, quite the opposite actually, the author has a very eloquent and captivating style of writing.
The difficulty lies in the subject of the book. Although it is a very thorough and all-encompassing book on depression, knowing thy enemy does not give you an advantage, at least not in this case. There is no Achiles' heel when battling with depression. You might seek a way to circumvent it, but as the author explains with countless examples, this endeavour is pointless, unless you've resigned yourself to suicide, which is nothing but a permanent solution to a (somewhat) temporary affliction. You learn to live with it, notice your triggers, become humble, let go and be grateful for the sunny day in an otherwise grim English summer.
My only regret is that the author focused a lot on medicine (antidepressants, ECT) and not enough on therapy and alternative medicine. There have been a few drugs and rituals that he has indeed tested on himself, but by far not all and not the most important ones.
I would rate this book at 4.5, but since some of his memories triggered some of my long-forgotten memories, both pleasant and unpleasant, and for that I'll give it 5 stars.
The book is actually quite poorly written in my opinion. I'd say it's like an extended Daily Show where he talks about growing up in South Africa. It's quite funny to notice how many things we had in common, though we grew up at different times and in opposite parts of the world.
His view on apartheid I would describe as a sequel to Nelson Mandela's “Long Walk to Freedom”. Mandela's book concludes with the first major victory against apartheid and Trevor Noah describes what followed, not from a politician's perspective, but that of a coloured boy, teenager, and later adult.
A book that would normally fall into ‘just-another-self-improvement-book' turns to be strikingly painful at times, when you realise you've been chasing the wrong gods. The things our inner selves really need, like.. “serene inner character, build a solid sense of right and wrong -not only do good -but be good.. love intimately -sacrifice self in the service of others to live in obedience to some transcendent truth, to have a cohesive inner soul that honors creation and one's own possibilities.” tend to be last in our list of priorities.
In essence, the idea is to make sure you kick the bucket at the right time, otherwise you have a high risk of getting the ODTAA syndrome (One Damn Thing After Another), some your friends and family members will die before you do, your frail body starts failing in ways you would've never imagined, you have to make tradeoffs that will be hard to endure and sooner or later you will become a burden to your close ones (given you have any) or get sent off to a nursing home where death lingers at every corner. The book is actually about more than that, but this is the most important conclusion I can draw from it at this point.
I ??can write the saddest lines tonight.??
Write for example: ???The night is fractured??
and they shiver, blue, those stars, in the distance?????
The night wind turns in the sky and sings.??
I can write the saddest lines tonight.??
I loved her, sometimes she loved me too.??
On nights like these I held her in my arms.??
I kissed her greatly under the infinite sky.??
She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.??
How could I not have loved her huge, still eyes.??
I can write the saddest lines tonight.??
To think I don???t have her, to feel I have lost her.??
Hear the vast night, vaster without her.??
Lines fall on the soul like dew on the grass.??
What does it matter that I couldn???t keep her.??
The night is fractured and she is not with me.??
That is all. Someone sings far off. Far off,??
my soul is not content to have lost her.??
As though to reach her, my sight looks for her.??
My heart looks for her: she is not with me??
The same night whitens, in the same branches.??
We, from that time, we are not the same.??
I don???t love her, that???s certain, but how I loved her.??
My voice tried to find the breeze to reach her.??
Another???s kisses on her, like my kisses.??
Her voice, her bright body, infinite eyes.??
I don???t love her, that???s certain, but perhaps I love her.??
Love is brief: forgetting lasts so long.??
Since, on these nights, I held her in my arms,??
my soul is not content to have lost her.??
Though this is the last pain she will make me suffer,??
and these are the last lines I will write for her.
A book that is definitely not a self-help book and definitely not about how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. The author must have probably chosen this title to filter from the start the kind of people who are looking for a self-help book and also the kind of people who won't read a book just because it's called “How to get Filthy Rich ....”. Not an easy read, but totally worth it.
This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.
This is real freedom.
The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.”
After reading a few pages I was thinking that this book is far too good to read when you sufffer from insomnia and desperately need a good night's sleep. Turns out I was wrong. The beggining was a bit misleading. Closer to the middle of the book it actually got quite intriguing and kept me awake till the end.
Here are two short quotes that I liked. I would attribute them to Plato, but I'm not sure I would be right in doing so, since after all this piece is Plato's version of the speech Socrates delivered in his defense.
“For the fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Is not this ignorance of a disgraceful sort, the ignorance which is the conceit that a man knows what he does not know? And in this respect only I believe myself to differ from men in general, and perhaps claim to be wiser than they are; that whereas I know but little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know.”
“For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person. But if any one says that this is not my teaching, he is speaking an untruth.”
???I can't really justify my love of Murakami. As far as I'm concerned, he writes novels specifically for me to read them. It would probably save us both a lot of time and trouble if he'd skip the publishing process and just slip his finished manuscripts under my door. So I'm biased, you could say.???
