Darkø
"If you want to build a boat, don't order people to gather wood and assign tasks and work, but instead teach people to long for the boundless immensity of the sea."
A Mathematician's Lament is more of an extended essay than a book - one man's problems with mathematics education without a viable solution. While I agree with him that the current state of mathematic in schools and unis is a travesty, the kind of “solution” he's recommending is not the real solution. We all know what most of us thought about the math (and many other fields) in ES and HS, and leaving it all to the student is not an excellent solution.
“Mathematics is the art of explanation. If you deny students the opportunity to engage in this activity - to pose their own problems, to make their own conjectures and discoveries, to be wrong, to be creatively frustrated, to have an inspiration, and to cobble together their own explanations and proofs - you deny them mathematics itself.”
I suppose that for the reader to truly appreciate Ringworld they would have to mentally backtrack fifty years. This book won both the Hugo and Nebula award in 1970/71 for best novel, but the sci-fi landscape was much different then than it's today, and I believe that, at that time, Niven's world/story building was brilliant and fresh, but it's bland and not that interesting for modern readers, or at least for me.
The ringworld, in general, is a really cool idea, and I've been playing Halo games for years, which are based on this book. I was expecting an awesome experience but all I've got is a mildly interesting story, poorly written characters, and weird science.
One of the rare books where I had to take notes about who is who because the character scene gets crowded very fast. This is probably the main reason why I'm not giving it five stars; characters are introduced into the story really fast, and it can be overwhelming at the times.
Death of Adjunct Lorn was really unexpected, I felt like her character was really promising. Also, the end was a bit confusing, Azath kinda came out of nowhere to handle the Jaghut Tyrant.
Anyway, a nice introduction to the series, I hope that the story would get even better.
This book is worth it just because of the insane list of resources I've bookmarked and books I've added to my reading list. A rabbit hole in its own, and I will definitely come back to some of the book sections.
Swyx gives some really good (yet, common sense) advice on what steps we developers should take to market and improve ourselves, and it could be a useful read for both junior and senior developers.
Some things I didn't like:
* the marketing of the “Second brain course” for which I still have no idea what's about, and the course price is whooping $1.5k. Some examples of how this looks like would be much appreciated, as I'm definitely not giving any money to shady courses.
* a lot of links throughout the chapters, it can be a bit distracting sometimes. There are parts in the book that are assuming that we've read some article or book, which usually is not the case, and readers can feel like they are missing on a true understanding of something because they haven't read it.
Overall 4.5/5 Highly philosophical themes, with great storytelling and (mostly) well-built characters.
“THE MERCHANT AND THE ALCHEMIST'S GATE” 5/5 - Beautiful story with (science?) fiction elements, which, while interesting, is not the story's focus but still a key aspect. Through the lens of speculative fiction, Chiang delves into philosophical questions about the nature of time and the human condition. It's a captivating and intricately woven story about humans and how far they would go to save and protect those they love.
“EXHALATION” 5/5 - The titular story of the book; it is a science fiction masterpiece that explores profound themes related to consciousness, mortality, and the nature of existence, from the viewpoint of a mechanical self aware being, living in a world with physical laws different from our own.
“WHAT'S EXPECTED OF US” 5/5 - The story raises thought-provoking questions about the nature of free will and whether knowing the outcome of our decisions influences our ability to make choices. The story revolves around a simple yet profound thought experiment involving a device called a Predictor, which is able to predict a person's next action.
“THE LIFECYCLE OF SOFTWARE OBJECTS” 4/5 - The story follows the protagonists, Ana Alvarado and Derek Brooks, as they create and nurture digital beings known as “digients”. The narrative explores the challenges of raising and educating intelligent entities in a virtual environment, addressing issues of morality, responsibility, and the evolving nature of relationships between humans and artificial intelligence. While the story's overall theme is nice and thought-provoking, I felt like the characters are too much in the black and white spectrum regarding some of their decisions. The end of the story also felt anti-climatic because it seemed like there was a lot more to the story.
“DACEY'S PATENT AUTOMATIC NANNY” 4/5 - Interesting story about coming up with new inventions and testing their implications, no less than on your children. It's a rich and nuanced exploration of the intersection between technology and humanity and the ethical and moral consequences of progress.
“THE TRUTH OF FACT, THE TRUTH OF FEELING” 5/5 - Probably my favorite story from the book. It explores the impact of a technology called Remem, which allows individuals to record and review their memories with perfect accuracy (lifelogs). The narrative is structured with parallel storylines set in different times and places, one happening in a near-future where the protagonist uses Remem to revisit and analyze past events; the other is set in the 19th century, exploring the encounter between European colonizers and a tribe in Africa.
The story raises thought-provoking questions about the nature of memory, the reliability of personal narratives, and the ways in which technology shapes our understanding of truth and reality. It explores the philosophical side of human communication and how different ways of communication change society. I never knew that simple question such as “What is a word?” can be so profoundly complex to grasp and explain.
“THE GREAT SILENCE” 4/5 Sentient Parrots
At a halfway through book, I've recalled that I've already read this a long time ago, but it seems that I forgot a lot of pieces of the story.
While written quite some years back, it's depicting the reality well enough with the issues we currently face, and I guess improvement we would like to go through in our self-development. The end was sad, definitely, but in a way that you are both satisfied and happy for it. What is the end if not a new beginning?
“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
For those of you who've heard the phrase “Orwellian” and never knew what it means, this book is a good place to start. Way better than modern-day dystopian novels, this book gives one hell of a dystopian vibe it creeps me out a bit, but I absolutely loved the book, nevertheless.
This is one book that I believe everyone should read.
In general, I finished it, so it means that I've enjoyed it on some level. The story is interesting, but that's where interesting stops and cliche starts. Characters are so predictable and naive sometimes that it hurts how stupid it is. Naive, that's a single word that can describe this book, because character relations are naive, the story is naive, there are quite a bit of events happening in the book that would never happen in the real world or if this was a serious write-up. A few characters, such as the spymaster, Trynde, and her boyfriend, are in focus in the first half of the book, but they either die or are pushed from the scene later in the book, so it makes me ask: why? Why even introducing those characters, if they don't have any meaningful purpose?
In the end, this might be an okay book for YA, but if you are looking for some serious story, don't bother, and look somewhere else.
Just the way pop-science should be, intriguing, interesting and thought-provoking. Algorithms are increasingly impacting our lives, often in ways that we don't know. This book shows how they are being used and misused in retail, medicine, our justice system, in cars, and art. Hannah has taken a very complicated subject and made it understandable to anyone. Highly recommended.
This is, by far, one of my favorite Kindle Unlimited finds... Started reading, having low expectations, and the story captivated me so much that I finished reading this in just two days.
The story, in general, is a little bit cliche, and there is a lingering of familiarity in the back of my head of another book I've read but can't remember which one, but other than that, it has an interesting story and characters. Overall the story was inundated with emotions and the inner thoughts (some really deep ones) and feelings of the main characters.
I enjoyed the mix of a period piece with fantasy, which included minor elements of steampunk without making it the central focus. The magic system is still a bit mystifying even by the end of the book. It seems to be a mixture of science and willpower, but hard to say how much of a role it has yet to play in the series. The fine line between societal success, acceptance, and ruin is startling. Also, I find myself most curious about resolving the more paranormal aspects of the story and feel a bit disappointed that I didn't see more of those.
Can recommend
Can't believe that the same author has written the Book of Malazan. I've read it till the end just to see if gets, better. It doesn't.
Like some of the other people that read this mentioned: this is an interesting premise wasted by Erikson using the book to preach his own brand of politics and wokeness.
Dark Gods is a good (and short) collection of horror tales written in a Lovecraftian style but placed in a more modern context. It's consisting of four mostly brilliant novellas that really go for the slow-burn horror.
My favorite was Children of the Kingdom with Pettey closely after it.
Good, some interesting study on the effects of reducing calories for repeated short time frames for various health conditions. The emphasis on eating well (but not much), predominantly plants, and regular practice are all throughout the book. The bottom line is that we all should practice calorie restriction to minimize the risk for major killers.
Some things I didn't like:
- Anytime you're trying to sell me something, I lose trust in the science you're preaching. It's not an in-face advertisement, and there is a claim that Longo doesn't profit from Prolon, but still...
- FMD post looks hard. I'll give it a go, but fasting for eight days with 800 calories per day, doesn't sound welcoming.
- A lot of animal studies, but I feel that there is not much information (from a time scale perspective) related to human response to the diet
What stands out in this book is the seamless blend of hard science with the human element, intertwined with a philosophical exploration of what it means to be human and the ethical quandaries that can arise from scientific progress. This mix allows us to connect with the characters on a human level while contemplating the profound scientific ideas at play.
The further I went through the book, the weirder the story became - the story's climax is a thrilling and mind-bending experience, where the consequences of the noocytes' evolution come to the forefront in a way that challenges understanding of reality and existence.
I really liked this book, the story really grips your curiosity, and the characters are believable and well developed. My only issue was with the last quarter of the book, which is really, really strange compared to the rest - I'm not sure if this is actually a bad thing, but with all biology and genetics' scientific terms and explanations, discussions with noocytes, and abrupt introduction to the Information mechanics, it became a bit hard to follow. I've found the ending to be too abstract and lacking in a definitive resolution, but it was an interesting experience and definitely thought provoking.
This book shifted it's focus on asking and discussing philosophical questions and focused a bit more on the story, more precisely Jane. Like the other books, it's pretty enthralling and opens up the type of moral and philosophical issues that probably have entire sections of the library dedicated to understanding them. Some people will likely find some stuff discussing in this book offending, but hey, this is just a fiction.
Quara and Novinha have continued to be really annoying tho, and Enders role in the book was really weak. Besides that I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or satisfied with the ending, I guess a little of both.
Not great, not terrible. There were some interesting ideas, but most of this stuff is common sense.
I cringed. This series started really good, but somewhere on the way to the final book, this slipped from SF to the romance with the Neanderthal genre...
Interesting story overall, but poor execution in my opinion.
Review for a whole trilogy:
Interesting plot, but really badly written. Tons of cliches, and filler scenes, I've felt like I was reading a book written by a teenager (been there, done that). The story just drones on and the plot is often overly-detailed and your attention tends to drift while reading it. There is very little action. The author knew where he wanted to take us but did a poor job of taking us there. It's hard to avoid noticing inconsistencies in the plot, character development, and the world the author's built as the intertwined stories are brought to close with a bit of a struggle (and really poorly written epilog).
Wow! What a crazy ride. This probably one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read (listened to). It's hard to comprehend how the author came up with some of the concepts explored here, which are both abstract and wonderful but also grounded in and based on the fundamental laws of physics. And there are so many of them(!), originally and carefully woven into the story, not unlike any other sci-fi book I've read before.
I never thought a science fiction book could make me feel such deep existential terror or marvel at the possibilities of the future to come. Romance, politics, philosophy, space battles, and an inconceivable number of plot twists characterize this tightly written narrative. It makes one ask - how do we judge the past? How do we plan for the future? Are we able to unify as mankind or we are doomed because of our differences?
I found the ending quite painful. It's beautiful, and there is a sliver of hope. It's a very, very small sliver though. That aside, it was a satisfactory ending for such an epic.
