Federico
The author walks you through how he became a writer and what he thinks is the role of writers in modern society. There's no self-promotion in the book, quite the opposite: he clearly states that he was only able to build a career thanks to passion and long-term consistency. These short stories echo (and, sometimes, overlap) with “What I talk about when I talk about running”.
I found it at times inspiring and at times a bit repetitive, thus 3.5 ⭐️
Wow, that was a blast: I accidentally learned about Zátopek this summer and decided to read this book. By doing that, I learned about an athlete who redefined modern running training, turning himself into an Olympic champion through sheer determination and effort, enjoying life and facing whatever adversities came his way.
The biographer is admittedly a big fan of his, but doesn't for that reason portray him as a saint: he points out his merits as well as his flaws, and does not shy away from talking about his controversial, alternating relationship with the Communist regime that ruled Czechoslovakia at that time.
The resulting portrait is that of a charismatic person trying his best to live up to his own ideals, but occasionally failing to do so.
I occasionally found it going into too many details, but I enjoyed its content nonetheless, so 5 stars.
Piacevole lettura ma non all'altezza di altri suoi libri (La casa della moschea, in particolare)
The book contains 5 short, cute fables: I enjoyed most of them, but was not impressed. It's the author's debut book, so I'd say “well done, keep going!” and I'm hoping he'll write even better ones in the future.
3.5⭐️
Merged review:
The book contains 5 short, cute fables: I enjoyed most of them, but was not impressed. It's the author's debut book, so I'd say “well done, keep going!” and I'm hoping he'll write even better ones in the future.
3.5⭐️
“Fifteen predictions, seventy years in the future. By 2084 the world we know is gone. These are stories from our world seven decades later.”
Interesting concept & good stories
Mildly interesting, few interesting points, but overall just a quick read for a couple of evenings.
I read it in a single sitting: very interesting and concise.
What I found most interesting is the authors' (37signals, the creators of Ruby of Rails and the company behind Basecamp) point of view, which is antithetic to many other books about running a business. Among other things, they value serving a niche of customers really well over making compromises to accommodate a bigger audience; they value organic, sustainable growth over explosive, VC-funded growth.
Stile autobiografico (o autobiografia vera? difficile da dire), una serie (troppi, forse) di grandi temi in primo piano, ma non messi molto a fuoco. Lo stile è riconoscibile e scorrevole (l'ho letto in una notte).
I really enjoyed the book's take on the idea of humans making contact with other, “alien” cultures. I listened to the audiobook and found it very well written and narrated.
Entertaining narration, interesting problems, and a nice refresher about math in general: a very nice read.
4.5 ⭐️ Binge-read it over the weekend.
I really liked the touching story and the narration style; moreover, the game references made me think back of my childhood days.
I struggled to go through a couple of chapters, though.
Short, to the point, delivers what it promises: finally a concrete and complete example of implementation of a ZK!
A solid accompanying read to “How to take smart notes”.
I got skeptical about the book when reading the introduction, which mentioned “revolutionary scientific discoveries”. Unfortunately, reading it confirmed my first impression: I was looking for concepts, but I found very few of them and instead a gazillion of stories to support them.
In a nutshell:
- the quality of a skill is determined by the thickness of a neural insulator called myelin around the nerve fibers in the brain circuits
- myelin wraps but doesn't unwrap, which is why to break bad habits we have to form good ones instead
- deep practice creates new myelin layers, improving the skill
- motivation can be ignited using cues
- great masters have deep knowledge, recognize where they pupils are struggling and are able to guide them
Read cover-to-cover, I simply couldn't put it down! Best sci-fi book I've read in the last few years!
4.5 - 5 ⭐️
A very refreshing view on humanity as a species, which is something that I can really appreciate these days. The author took stories and experiments that have been used to prove that humanity tends to evil, researched their sources and historical documents, and figured out that reality was quite different and we're not “evil unless controlled by institutions”.
The book does just what its title suggests: explaining how innovation happens. I enjoyed the first 50-60% of the book, not so much the rest of it; it felt to me that it could have been more concise.
This collection of short stories confirmed that I prefer Ken Liu's short stories over his long ones.
Some of the stories in it take existing technologies and push them just a bit into a possible future, creating a world that is (at times disturbingly, as intended by the author) not too far fetched from reality; some veer more towards fantasy; some touch existing world problems and imagine futures where they've been solved by technology (creating, in turn, other problems).
I listened to it on Storytel and I found it very well narrated!
Very entertaining book: a jump into a world inspired by ancient Greece, a plot with several twists (some predictable, some less so), and interesting characters. Well narrated by HarperAudio, I listened to it in almost a single sitting.
Skimmed through it, since I had already read, heard of, or even experienced parts of the suggested organizational changes described in this book.
Thirteen books in this series and I'm still hooked to it! Though I'm starting to look forward to its conclusion...
What I hoped to find in this book: some short stories about parenthood that I could relate with, have a good laugh or two, and perhaps get emotional about. What I actually found: overly-exaggerated stories which didn't make me laugh nor feel emotional (and I do usually laugh at poop stories).
Very enjoyable book, I read it in a single session! The author uses the metaphor of “Slaying a Hydra” to talk about uncomfortable topics such as fear of uncertainty, procrastination, and inaction caused by fear, using the point of view of an adventurer setting out on an ambitious, risky journey.