Best biographies according to redditors
We found 39,726 Reddit comments discussing the best biographies. We ranked the 14,241 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 39,726 Reddit comments discussing the best biographies. We ranked the 14,241 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Book link for the lazy.
Sorry, I don't have any questions. I don't know much about you or what you do. But, hi! Thanks for doing an AMA and have a fantastic day!
Fine, that's kind of a cop out. Uhhh, what slightly greedy thing do you do most often?
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales is a fantastic series of real cases and a layman's explanation about what happened with people who had unusual mental situations. I really, really, really recommend it.
For example, people who have their perception of their body skewed, causing what is known as alien limb, where the limb you see attached to you does not seem to be your own, and sometimes tends to do things on its own because the feedback loop is broken. Those people tend to either amputate the limb or fall into extreme depression and end up taking their own life.
Edit: $11 bucks off amazon with prime for a paperback version. Linked to amazon smile version.
Edit 2: Another reccomendation by /u/pulgasvestidas link to post and Smile link to book
The story of Henrietta Lacks is super interesting, but also really sad. Her cells were harvested at a blacks only hospital without her consent or notification. Later, the doc who harvested them went on to make buckets of money selling the cell line to researchers all over the place. People still make buckets of money off that line, and her family never saw, and will never see, a dime of it.
It wasn't all bad, though, as her cell line also helped to produce standards for cell culturing/storage/growth/an entire industry that all began with her cell line. It literally started a new era of research.
If you ever get a chance to read Skloot's book give it a read. Very eye-opening for me in terms of patient rights and medical ethics at the time.
EDIT: As /u/Halsfield pointed out, there actually has been a legal development in the situation. Two of her surviving family members now sit on a committee that controls scientific access to the DNA, as well as recognition in published papers using this line. There's no reported financial compensation, but apparently the family wasn't all that interested in cashing in. In fact, it sounds like it's opened up a ton of lucrative speaking engagements for her remaining family. I'm glad to see a happy ending, hats off to Rebecca Skloot. Without her, Henrietta would be nothing more than a footnote in history.
EDIT2: I am not as good with details as I'd hoped. Hopkins, where she was admitted, had a black wing and a white wing, and the Dr. who collected the sample did not make buckets of cash. It did spring a healthy business producing/shipping the cells to other researchers, but buckets of money might not be the best description. For clarity's sake I'm leaving my original comment as is.
Avoidance of responsibility is a primary characteristic of psychopathy. He ticks off all the other checkmarks, too. Only libel laws are protecting his ass from being called a psychopath openly. Educate yourselves about psychopaths -- I recommend these books I have read to understand my own lifelong contact with psychopaths, starting with my mother:
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work
Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
The Inner World of the Psychopath: A definitive primer on the psychopathic personality
He is commonly called a narcissist, but here's a handy rule of thumb. Not all narcissists are psychopaths, but all psychopaths are narcissistic. It's easy to understand why -- they don't see humans as humans, only objects to be manipulated for fun and profit. They, themselves, are the only conscious being, so nothing else matters. Their brains aren't wired to understand we have minds and memories, which is why they lie constantly to achieve their immediate needs. Strangely, the inability to experience emotions (and that includes fear, which is why Trump seems to never give a fuck about consequences) comes with no sense of past or future. There is only the "now."
1% of the population are psychopaths. You know more than one. Some say it's an evolutionary adaptation that exploits humans with emotions and morals, and that they are "intraspecies predators." There are professions that rely on psychopathic behavior, and you can draw your own opinions on them:
The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success
It is also commonly said that psychopaths are experts are reading people. This is false (because, to them, there is nothing to read). They are simply experts, from lifelong experience and practice, at putting people into situations with predictable reactions. For example, Trump likes to insult people because he knows it distracts them and takes them off their game as they try to defend themselves. Psychopaths like to do their manipulating in the background and behind peoples' backs (and in Trump's case, behind NDAs and hush money), thus Trump's biggest problem -- he's the world's most watched person and nothing goes unnoticed, so his previous tactics aren't working. He is thrashing more and more as he gets more desperate to deceive. He is not losing his mind or getting senile. He's a psychopath who can't understand why his old tricks are no longer working.
His apparent "humanness" is a practiced façade, as is true for all psychopaths. They learn, starting in childhood, how to fit in. Some learn how better than others. Trump is good enough at it to fool a large number of voters.
BTW, there's nothing saying a psychopath can't also be dumb as a brick or illiterate.
Sounds like the "Millionaire Next Door" effect: https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
People who got rich from their own efforts tend to be very sensitive to value and ways of saving money. They have the experience of going through tough times while they were growing their business. So they do things like buy used cars because a new car loses a big chunk of value the day you drive it off the lot. The sales guy in the fancy suit driving the new BMW is likely deeply in debt trying to impress other people.
Here's my list of the classics:
General Computing
Computer Science
Software Development
Case Studies
Employment
Language-Specific
C
Python
C#
C++
Java
Linux Shell Scripts
Web Development
Ruby and Rails
Assembly
I really enjoyed Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman
It's an autobiography by physicist Richard Feynman. Very fun read, by an incredibly interesting man.
Yeah, the 80s were rife with massive conspiracy theories about satanic child abuse rings that went to the highest levels of government and could cover everything. up with their vast power. Geraldo did a prime time special on it, even.
This was a moral panic , not a real thing. The only mystery is why there are still people who believe this bullshit.
Edit: while the video seriously downplays the satanic aspect, the book it is based on is much less coy. I can see why they might downplay that angle in a documentary, seeing as it makes a lot of people more skeptical in light of all the debunked bs from the 80s...
What really surprises me is, well, how women view men. Whenever /r/askmen has threads asking the woman subscribers what they've learned, "that men have feelings/insecurities" is always a popular post. It's great to hear that they've learned that, but kind of worrisome to know that they had to learn it.
To quote from your /r/askwomen thread:
>That people are people, and men aren't these mysterious mystical terrifying powerful unfeeling creatures... they are human beings and not that different from me.
Which sounds beautiful until you realize that was the surprise. Here's what she actually thought about men:
>For a long time, I thought men were immune to that... that they didn't ever feel anything or care about people or women, and never were insecure or worried or anything like that.
I don't mean to pick on /r/AskWomen or that particular user. It's just one example of a common opinion about men. It also bothered me when reading about Self-Made Man. Norah Vincent says that she thought living as a man would be all about power, privilege, and freedom. So shocked was she that this wasn't the case she ended up in group therapy and ultimately cut the experiment short. Along with "men can feel sad too", she also had other revelations, such as "husbands love their wives". Thanks for the insights, Norah. I have always felt that the reason the author had so many difficulties and "revelations" during her experiance living as a man is that she went in with so much prejudice and so little empathy.
Apart from a few aspects of menstruation, nothing I read in /r/askwomen was a surprise. I certainly disagree with much of what is said there, to the point of being an ass, but disagreeing has never prevented me from seeing their perspective. The biggest surprise about women over the past year has been about how they view men.
I never realized how alien I was to women. It's scary and disheartening, and I'm hugely appreciative to the women in my life that treat me like a human being after discovering so many assumed I was an unfeeling robot with a sex-drive. At the same time, it's made me hugely distrustful and unwilling to open up to them, emotionally. And as such I end up perpetuating the myth.
> I think I get just as much rejection as a guy would get
Doubtful. In Self Made Man, a woman lives a year undercover as a man. It's a really enlightening story, but one of the biggest realizations she comes away with is the massive amount of rejection men face. It blew her mind doing speed dating and things like that, being perceived as a loser and/or predator before even having a chance to open her mouth.
If you have approached 50+ men in a row and been laughed at, scorned, or ignored by every single one of them, you'll start to understand what it's like for many guys.
I'm really good at approaching women now, but it's because I spent decades trying and failing. I remember the first time I tried to cold approach a woman in a bar (she wasn't even all that attractive, I just thought she looked nice enough for me to get over my anxiety):
I walk up to her and her two female friends, timing it so that I don't just interrupt what they are doing but find a natural break in their interaction. Then I moved up close to her and said "hi, I'm /u/autopornbot."
She looked at me like I had just shat on her new rug and said "So?" and looked at me with such disgust that I couldn't speak. I just turned and walked away.
I had friends who simultaneously encouraged me to keep trying, and made fun of me for not wanting to. So over the years I kept trying. And for years, the most I ever got from a woman was a polite brush off. And this was when I was young (18-22) and in great shape, pretty good looking - I was told by women that I knew as a part of my friend circle that I was good looking and dressed well and a lot of them liked me - I had girlfriends, but they were all women I had met through work or through friends, so we knew one another for some time first and I never had to come up and introduce myself or anything.
Most of the guys I know have had the same experience. Most guys rarely ever go talk to a woman they don't know, because the fear of being seen as a creep are too high. Nowadays, I know how to walk up to an attractive women and strike up a conversation, and a lot of times it actually goes well. Doing this around most men will absolutely blow their mind. Simply walking up to a woman and talking to her for a couple of minutes is so far out of the realm of experience for most guys, that they act as if I have magical powers.
But that ability only came after suffering through hundreds of failures.
You are right, though. Women rarely do this. Of course the few that do don't land every hot guy they approach. But women are far more gifted socially than men, so they are a lot better to begin with, and most men are so happy to have any woman acknowledge their existence that attraction or no, they are pretty receptive to at least talking - though admittedly there are exceptions.
But do keep it up. Just having a woman come up and talk to us can make our entire week, even if it goes nowhere at all. And it's a really difficult thing to do - especially in a bar or similar environments where there is pressure to act really cool. It's far easier in friendly, daytime events and casual environments.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman goes into great detail about the Bechtel Corporation. Very well written story about a guy who was unwarily caught up in instituting U.S. interests abroad.
If you haven't read it already, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is a fantastic read.
According to Ben Rich in Skunk Works, the challenge was in creating a design that broke down into a series of triangles when viewed from every major angle. 90-degree angles provide clear radar reflection, so everything had to be oblique and obtuse angles. (Contrary to popular opinion, stealth is far more a product of an aircraft's shape than anything else. Radar absorbing material absolutely helps, but shape is the critical factor—even more so than size. An enormous F-117A-shaped aircraft would have pretty much the same radar cross section as a small one.)
And they did it—when you look at the Have Blue demonstrator or the F-117 final planform, it's all triangles—everything is triangles. The resulting design is unstable on all 3 axes and wouldn't work without fly-by-wire, but it does work.
The usage of triangular facets was a limitation of the computing power available to engineers in the 70s when Have Blue was being designed. More modern stealth airplanes like the B-2 and the F-22 have fewer facets and more curves because they were built with supercomputers that could work out the complex radar cross section equations necessary.
moderately relevant - The Motivation Game
edit: Thanks to both /u/jagsnflpwns and /u/Meriog - link to the book by Allie Brosh called "Hyperbole and a Half"
The Psychopath Test and The Sociopath Next Door both touch on the subject that many CEOs express psychopathic qualities or tendencies.
There is a cannabalistic albino conclave at Hummel Park
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There are tunnels under downtown Omaha
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The Franklin Cover-up - alleged human trafficking and pedo-ring orchestrated by the super rich in the town. Wiki and Book
Omaha race riots - Will Brown, a black 40 year old man, allegedly raped a 19y/o Agnes Loebeck. After his arrest the courthouse was laid under siege by a crowd between 5000-15,000 people and set on fire at around 8pm. At around 11pm the mob had the mayor hung from a lightpole but luckily was able to be rescued by state agents. While that was going on the smoke from the fires were so thick that all the prisoners were rushed to the roof and the female prisoners released. The prisoners attempted to throw Will Brown from the roof but the police stopped that. Someone (a judge maybe) passed a note saying something about 100 white men on the roof will be saved in exchange for Brown. Ladders were then climbed to the 4th floor as the bottom floors were inaccessible because of the smoke and fire and Brown was handed over. Will Brown was then lynched on a lightpole on 18th and Harney st, his lifeless body was shot at hundreds of times, then it was cut down and dragged through the streets behind a car to 17th and dodge where it was burned. Then after his body was burnt the remainder of his remains were then again dragged through the city. NSFW pic of Will Brown's lynching. In total 3 people died (2 mob members and Will Brown), National Guard was deployed, and Omaha was under martial law for a period of time
the top three are largeley speculative to downright absurd but the last is 100% true and a stain on Omaha that is ignored.
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EDIT: OPE! I forgot about the meat murderer of Memorial Park. Once and a while people will find random cuts of meat impaled to the trees throughout memorial park, with no explanation.
I recommend reading "The Millionaire Next Door", it goes it to more detail about the spending/saving/investing habits of the
averagemost millionaires in America. Living in a culture that prioritizes spending it's not surprising those who do the best financially go against the grain, and are also frowned upon.Link to the Amazon reviews
Hint: They're gold.
Edit:
Top 5 star review currently:
> Nothing new here. The book is full of lies, just like Hillary. I'm leaving a five star review so I don't get straight up murdered.
It sounds like a decent book, but with this quote at the bottom of the review
> "The problem is that Krauss – also a theoretical physicist – concentrates a little too heavily on the science, rather then the life, of Richard Feynman"
I would recommend Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman as an immediate companion.
If anyone wants to reach through the interwebs and give her a hug, why not pre-order her book?
Only 13 bucks, and Prime eligible! And they'll deliver it to you as soon as it comes out, so you will be the cool kid who has it first.
Go order it now. I'll wait here in this thread.
Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman! is really good, and if you like this clip you should read it.
Really interesting guy and the book is a great read.
Wolfenstein 3D was written mostly in C, with some assembly, presumably hacks to make the game run faster.
You should read Masters of Doom, it gives a very non-technical(but technical) perspective of how some of these early 3d shooters (wolfenstein 3d, doom, quake) were made.
These guys were revered not just for the games they created, but the ways they could seemingly crush and optimize code to be as efficient as humanly possible. For example, Carmack popularized a use of the Fast inverse square root function as one of the ways to quickly render and maximize performance of lights and shadows across 3d models. One story from the book I mentioned recounts how he was able to recreate a fast, efficient version of Super Mario Bros on PC. This revolutionized side scrolling graphics on PC, because it basically didn't exist in a form fast or smooth enough to make game development viable until that point.
P.S. If you're really interested in this stuff, instead of a "quick google", you should maybe try a "slow google". Tortoises vs. hares. That kind of thing. :P
"Escape From Camp 14" by Blaine Harden is a great read as well if you are interested in what goes on in these camps.
We seem to be programmed in our culture - perhaps by western religious and philosophical traditions - to accept dualism, which is the notion that mind and body are separate. However, several centuries of scientific progress have demonstrated more or less incontrovertibly the material basis of consciousness, thought, emotion, memory, and personality.
You ARE your brain. That is all there is to it.
What is particularly fascinating is how individual parts of the brain can be altered (i.e. damaged) with the result that parts of you are altered.
Oliver Sacks has several fascinating books that discuss case studies of neurological deficit, written for a popular audience, and they are each wonderful. Here are two of them:
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife/dp/0684853949
http://www.amazon.com/Anthropologist-Mars-Seven-Paradoxical-Tales/dp/0679756973/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319305698&sr=1-1
If you haven't already read it and stuff like this interests you I just finished Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben Rich. Rich was Kelly Johnson's successor and went on to design the F-117. The book was a really good read with a bunch of interesting anecdotes from pilots and engineers involved with all kinds of different skunk works projects.
This is how every generation feels. The Daily Show did a really good job of explaining this once (I couldn't find the video with a quick search) where they took Fox News comments about how bad things are now and how good they were in the past and they juxtaposed them with the problems that the world faced in every decade. Their point, which was powerful, was that the commentators were pining for the years when they were a kid and everything seemed easy and great.
But the truth is, the world always feels like it's on the brink. And the more you watch the news, the more you feel this way.
At which point would everything have been better?
It goes on and on.
What you're feeling is real, but every decade has seen major, major problems.
What I believe is that everything is relative. (I believe Einstein would back me up.) Because you weren't alive during all of these other times. And we're including times where nuclear war seemed practically inevitable. Some party.
You are comparing today to your previous experience. Your previous experience just happens to include when you were a kid. And when you are a kid, everything seems more simple. That's the point of The Daily Show bit.
If you want to know more about the REAL party that WAS kicking for 40 years, read up on something that is now termed "The Washington Consensus". Read about it as a first hand account in the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man".
It describes how the US was able to get its way around the globe for the past 50+ years (essentially beginning with Kermit Roosevelt helping to overthrow the Shah in Iran in 1953) and going forward to a post 9/11 world. It explains how the US was able to rule the world. And it also explains why that influence is (and should be, at least how they're doing it) waning.
TL:DR: You have a lack of historical perspective. Relax. If you want to feel better about things, watch this TED Talk by David Christian on Big History. It's one of my favorites.
Wow. Something I can talk to... I'm an engineer.
I'm going to guess that they mean "decimal place" or "place value". Arabic numerals have set places, based on their relation to zero, that define their meaning. The further from zero you are, the larger, or smaller, the value of the number is! Each spot further down the line is an order of magnitude smaller or larger!
Non-arabic numeral based systems don't have that constraint. Roman numerals, for instance, simply "add up" the value of each number but can have each number listed in the "numerical phrase" in various orders... and still represent the same number.
The advantage to having a system with place value comes in to play when you're doing complex, and abstract, math. Multiplication is an example of this. I don't even know how you would go about multiplying two numbers using Roman numerals... but, it's rather straight forward in Arabic Numeral/ Western Math... and even binary if base ten isn't your thing.
Also, while the Romans, and Greeks, had exposure to the concept of "nothing" they didn't really use "zero" in math (which is too bad, if they had, we might have gotten calculus a few centuries earlier) due to religious beliefs about the philosophical meaning between the concept of "The Infinite" and its opposite, "Nothing" (zero and infinity are both necessary for concepts for calculus... and the Greeks felt that Infinity was a Divine concept. And since Nothing is the Opposite of Infinity, it must be sinister and evil and not used).
Now, I don't know anything of Mayan math. But, if they had a positional, or place-holder, system, then they might have been able to do some very, very interesting math. Unfortunately, it looks like OP is saying that we can only show what the Mayans might have been capable off of the little we know of their counting method, and not actually what they could do...
Here's a link I found after a quick Google search
Here's one that summarizes the bit about Calculus (yes, it's pop-math history, but it's interesting and pretty decently written)
Rich Dad Poor Dad catches a lot of flak, but it's actually really good at teaching the absolute basics in an easy-to-follow manner. Like, learn what a Cash Flow Statement is, increase your asset column, learn basic accounting language, separate emotions and money, minimize taxes. Just glean the overall principles he's teaching and don't blindly follow his specific strategies.
The Richest Man in Babylon is another great, easy to read, investing 101 book.
And The Millionaire Next Door is a research-based book on Millionaires in America and what kind of habits and mindsets got them to their current wealth. It's a wonderfully refreshing read after being brainwashed by tv and movies saying that millionaires won it or stole it and live lavish lives. Most actual millionaires are pretty frugal and hard working with modest lives.
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And here are some resources to help you learn all the new words and concepts:
-- Microeconomics
-- Macroeconomics
-- Finance
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And when you get pretty familiar with the basics and want to start messing with stuff, I've enjoyed the Think or Swim paper money route. They give you $200,000 in fake money to play around with and invest and practice your strategies. It helps you get acquainted with the research and the interface and the fees for investing. It's a wonderful tool.
And then The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is supposed to be a pretty good comprehensive guide the advanced basics (is that a term?) of investing.
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Or if you want to skip alllll of this and just hire someone, I've read in those subreddits that you want to find a fee based financial adviser. Which you can do here.
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I hope I've helped man! It's a lot of fun to learn about. I wish you all the best.
Or, if you hate free things, consider buying her book (which is mostly comprised of content from her site, but is still great).
Kid's form is terrible. Runs like he just learned how to as a child. That's cute and all, 'run like nobody's watching' and all that. But if you're serious about running, you need to think of your form and the impact it has on your joints and muscles long term.
This book is a somewhat interesting read on the subject.
Well it's not like those conditions are state secret... You can read all about it in Elon's approved biography
Same old stuff... Incredibly long hours, having to put up with changing priorities in a whim, putting up with power trips, getting fired for typos, etc
If you're interested to learn more about the people behind Doom, I highly recommend Masters of Doom. It's by far one of my favorite non-fiction books.
Anything written about Daikatana at this point feels like beating a dead horse. Do we really have to kick Romero over this anymore?
If you want to get what I would consider to be the best summary of this and how it all came around Kushner's book Masters of Doom does a pretty good job of it.
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155
False. Read up on Elon. He may not be bending the metal to build the rockets, or assembling the batteries that go into Teslas (what CEO does?), but he knows a great deal about the engineering behind all their products.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend you read this.
Jobs, OTOH, had no background in computer science or engineering and never claimed to. His thing was design, which he (obviously) did really well.
Actually, no, your sample size is small, and thus, prone to aberration.
Many dudes have less than 10% success rate. I think an attractive, assertive woman should have higher than that, but whatevz. The thing you might not grok yet is that when you're putting yourself out there, you're gonna get shot down. Women typically don't understand how much rejection men get, and how often, and how much we have to overcome it. If you're curious about the dynamic reversal, check this book out:
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
http://www.salon.com/2006/01/20/vincent_2/
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed is mostly about the F117 but also has a lot of info on the SR71 that came before it including how they got Titanium from the Russians through a dummy company in the UK, awesome read.
My husband and I have recently realized that LSD is now our favorite drug. We're amazed that something so tiny have such a crazy profound effect on your mind.
We've started reading "How to change your mind" by Michael Pollan and it's fascinating. He talks about the history of LSD in clinical studies in the 50-70s and that the drug influenced a lot of organizations, including the beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous.
If you're interested in learning more about the drug, it's definitely an interesting read, it would be even better on audio book.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594204225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_zn-KBbYB9Z16H
This is a discussion, and criticism is a part of that, however, I went through art school, and work in an artistic career, and a crucial tool in learning how to make "better" art is getting and giving detailed critiques that offer explanations for WHY something is failing or succeeding, instead of just stating that it is good or bad.
So, for instance:
> massive dip in quality.
What do you mean by this? My guess is that you don't exactly mean quality as in it being poorly written, acted, structured, etc, but that you aren't laughing, so something is wrong with the humor. Something about the writing isn't making you laugh.
So, let's try to pin down what it is that you used to like about the show.
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As a total aside, if you've never read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", it's kind of related to this topic. It takes deep, perhaps overly so, dives into what we mean when we discuss the idea of "quality", and how it relates to all of our experiences, from relationships and love to machines and consumer products.
Quote from it:
> “The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility, it's right. If it disturbs you, it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed.”
Skunk Works
It’s one of my favorite books. It covers development of the U-2, SR-71, & F-117.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, very interesting story about human cell research, the woman whose cells made it possible, and her daughter. It is a compelling true story and describing it makes me want to read it again! And I second (or third) the Mary Roach books; they are sometimes LOL funny.
Elon Musk's [biography] (http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233) if you don't own the book look [here] (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=37839.0):
“And then one of the key questions is can you get to the surface of Mars and back to Earth on a single stage. The answer is yes, if you reduce the return payload to approximately one-quarter of the outbound payload, which I thought made sense because you are going to want to transport a lot more to Mars than you’d want to transfer from Mars to Earth. For the spacecraft, the heat shield, the life support system, and the legs will have to be very, very light."
By that point the MCT will have dropped off 100t of payload on Mars and it might not need to be fully fueled to return back to Earth.
The F117 was designed to be as invisible as possible. When Ben Rich was trying to sell the plane to goverment personnel he would walk into their office and roll a marble across their desk and say "heres your plane", because that represented its radar cross section. That seems pretty damn invisible to me.
I highly recommend the book Skunkworks to anyone interested in first hand accounts of producing some of Lockheed's greatest creations.
EDIT: I was just looking through my copy of Skunkworks to find the passage. Here it is! I found another interesting passage where they were having a F117 model tested by a government official to verify Skunkworks radar claims, and it was virtually invisible.
I am planning to pick up a number of books I saw on this list.
Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City is probably the best true crime I’ve read. Some older true crime novels can be really campy and sensationalized.
Also, it’s not true crime, but Mary Roach’s Stiff is a fun read about cadavers and the human body after death.
What's the book called, and by who? I need it! I had a quick search but nothing, info please :))** never mind I found it, link for anyone else (blog) .... and book
Amazon's reviews are the best:
https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733
my fav:
1.0 out of 5 starsThe Art of the Shakedown by Hill and Tim
ByElaineon September 16, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition
I bought this thinking it would be a how-to book. I wanted "How to set up your own Foundation for fun and profit." Also, would like to have seen a chapter on "Ten easy steps to setting up your own secure server in a bathroom."
I do hear there's going to be a sequel, tentatively called "The Art of the Shakedown." Should be interesting.
As always, the 1 star reviews are a gold mine of kek: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/reviews/1501161733/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=one_star&pageNumber=1
>The jets and all that other crap seem like a better value renting.
Huh? $3 million in total wealth isn't much, especially for that. Please, don't do that. I strongly recommend that you read The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy. I know several that make that amount in less than 2 months, and you wouldn't know it, because they live frugally and humbly, including driving beat-up old minivans. Some of them do have nice shit (e.g. palace-sized mansions) but out in the street, they don't flex, and others live in small, modest homes in middle class neighborhoods. At best, they might have a Model 3, S, or X that they also use.
​
For the sake of argument and with some fuzzy math, if you put all $3 million into an index fund that's earning you 6%, that's $180,000/year. That is a lot of money for a 20 year old, and an obligatory Uncle Ben quote goes here. You're virtually set for life and can do anything that you want, and I'd probably use that time and money to go become a full time student in any number of mediums: Udacity, College, Trade School, Real Estate, etc. which would further your skill level for other interests, including but not limited to said rental houses. If you got licensed in trades, you'd be able to legally (well, from a liability angle - nothing is really stopping you from your own maintenance anyways) do your own repair work on your properties, which would save you even more money. I'm not saying that's the most logical option, but it's something to bear in mind.
​
To answer the relationship/cash aspect (and because I got f'd on this) you'd want a pre-nup, and as others have advised, a great attorney. Some of the relationship warning signs that I wish that I had known, and was covered in this forum yesterday. When it comes to getting serious about a relationship (and until then, if you're going to be active, use protection - child support and/or divorce rape should be a part of your threat vector) then you might want to ask an attorney about shifting assets around to where you're then an employee of yourself (e.g. form an LLC, hire yourself, and pay a meager wage, with the option for bonuses.)
Norah Vincent interview for anyone who's curious. Skip to 9:25 if it doesn't do so automatically. The interview was about her experiences while writing "Self Made Man".
The book on CEOs having it at a higher rate than the general public.
It certainly implies that very bad things happen to the public because of CEOs like that.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Psychopath-Test-Journey-Industry/dp/1594485755/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368106143&sr=8-1&keywords=ceo+psychopath
Not exactly ancient history, but I just got finished reading [The Devil in The White City] (https://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469128718&sr=1-1&keywords=devil+in+the+white+city) about H.H. Holmes in turn of the century Chicago, and yeah, it seemed SUPER easy for him.
He did an amazing amount of bad shit in addition to the murdering and got away with it seemingly because he was well spoken and charismatic with pretty blue eyes!
"The man who mistook his wife for a hat". Can't. Put. It. Down.
Skunk Works, it's literally about aerospace/defense/rockets. I recommend it.
For the love of all that's holy, read his book:
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
It's utterly fascinating. Feynman is the only person I have ever wanted to be.
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms
(edit: the rest of the title: Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened)
>The Immortal Life of Hennrietta
Based on the book by the same name by Rebecca Skloot
https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181
I recommend reading Escape From Camp 14 by Blaine Harden. .
>>The jets and all that other crap seem like a better value renting.
>
>Huh? $3 million in total wealth isn't much, especially for that. Please, don't do that. I strongly recommend that you read The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy.
Yeah, that bit made me laugh. $3m isn't even remotely close to private jet territory. Try $300m. Lol
Most people that receive a large windfall like this do not fare well OP. At all. Be extremely careful with this money and do not tell anybody. Check out the "Windfall" section in the /r/personalfinance wiki. Also check out /r/fire and /r/fatFIRE.
See: Stanley & Danko, "The Millionaire Next Door", 2010
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499188868&sr=8-1&keywords=the+millionaire+next+door
It can't be because her book didn't sell well. Her book was amazing.
Everybody should buy a copy.
http://www.amazon.ca/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179/ref=sr_1_1?s=books
http://smile.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms-ebook/dp/B00BSB2AE4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, part 3, "Testing Bloodhounds", e.g.,
> Then I looked at the bookshelf and said, "Those books you haven't
looked at for a while, right? This time, when I go out, take one book off
the shelf, and just open it -- that's all -- and close it again; then put it
back." So I went out again, she took a book, opened it and closed it, and put
it back. I came in -- and nothing to it! It was easy. You just smell the
books.
and:
> We did a few more experiments, and I discovered that while bloodhounds
are indeed quite capable, humans are not as incapable as they think they
are: it's just that they carry their nose so high off the ground!
Psychedelics get you into a head-space where you can sort of feel the connectedness of everything, and also think beyond the rigid thoughts your mind normally operates on (so as to see things in a different way than you always have). That's one of the reasons so many people have such a profound experience with it. That's why Leary was considering dosing an entire towns water supply, to spur real revolutionary change. I do think there is a case to be made that psychedelics could lead to a real leftward shift in popular imagination, but, then again, theres a Nazi that took acid and came up with the idea of a White Nationalist form of Twitter or something recently, so results vary.
A real good book on the subject of rethinking psychedelics (sorry abt the Amazon link): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594204225/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
One of the victims Alisha Owen was apparently sentenced to 27 YEARS in prison for perjury. Her video testimony of child abuse by Larry King and others does not look fake to me.
There is a book on the subject too, which I think is the basis of the doco
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0963215809/102-1734717-3423304
Anyone know who, if anyone, has been brought to justice over this?
If you haven't already you should check out On Writing by King. It's incredibly fascinating and gives a brilliant insight into him, how he writes and moreover his process behind it, his absolute revulsion at adverbs, coming up with ideas, advice for beginner authors, etc. It also contains a postscript about his accident (he was hit while he was writing it and it was the first book he finished after it when he thought he might never be able to write again) and how it effected his writing.
And, of course, it's pretty well written too. Informal, pretty short, and very interesting especially when he goes through early drafts of his work (like 1408, indeed he even wrote that short story for this book to be an example) and explains his reasoning behind things, why he cut certain things, put things in, changed things (like changing Ostermeyer to Olin - because it shortened his story by 15 lines and he realized that in the audiobook he'd be better off saying Olin a lot instead of repeating Ostermeyer!), etc.
Would recommend.
try reading this
Basically most people with a net worth of millions know the struggles of making money and saving it, so they live frugal lives. Net worth and income aren't actually that closely linked, as a lot of people with high income also have high expenditures as well. There's quite a lot of high earners who live outside their means. The research showed that most millionaires don't "keep up with the Jonses", instead opting for cheaper lifestyles and saving money. It's actually quite a good read for those interested.
If you haven't, you should read Skunk Works. I highly enjoyed it.
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003/
You can also read Masters of Doom for some insight into the whole thing. A very good book.
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1409775369&sr=8-2&keywords=doom+book
Yes, obviously. Perception IS reality in people's minds. And when people are acting on false and extremely negative information, it can lead to racial discrimination, attacks, fear, hate, and even war. Look at what lots of people believe.
Tibetan genocide
Uyghur cultural genocide
Eating dogs is widespread
Steals hundreds of billions in ip each year
China's state subsidies to companies are unfair [this is common among numerous Western nations]
T square massacre
OBOR Debt trap
China is a colonizer
China is just as bad as America [https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md]
Live organ harvesting
Huawei is a spying system
etc
On top of that
America is NOT an empire so we don't need to worry where it goes [http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-State-Guide-Worlds-Superpower/dp/1567513743/]
America cares about human rights so when a massacre is reported we brush it off as an isolated incident [http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Anything-That-Moves-American/dp/1250045061/]
America's debt are transparent and fair [http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/]
American dream is alive and well [social mobility is one of the lowest of developed nations]
America does not conduct economic espionage. [yes, it does since at least 1990's]
None of these things are true yet are widely believed. They aren't believed by everyone but they are believed by enough people that it's massively harming China's reputation.
Stephen King's On Writing
I guess there isn't much point in reading it now, but the book is literal.
https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Blueprint-Americas-Future/dp/1501161733
Jealousy over assumed "privilege" isnt gender dysphoria, at least nothing I've ever seen (I work with the transgender community). I have never heard a trans person describe their gender dysphoria the way you have described your feelings. In some ways it would be easier to be a guy, in many ways it would be very difficult. I reccomend reading Self Made Man, it is a very powerful and informative book.
The textbook business has been rotten for decades. 46 years ago the renowned Caltech physicist Richard Feynman served on a California state committee for adopting textbooks for high schools. He wrote about the incompetence and corruption in the whole process in his autobiography Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. You can read an online version of the section dealing with that here.
Good next up:
http://www.amazon.com/Overthrow-Americas-Century-Regime-Change/dp/0805082409/
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/
http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Deadliest-Export-Democracy-Everything/dp/1783601671/
> Campaigning on the sole basis of "Hey, at least we're not the other guy" and half-hearted centrist policies isn't enough.
She didn't though. The biggest word in the word cloud of her speeches in "Jobs" and there is an actual book you can download called Stronger Together about her gazillion policy proposals that supplements her web page and many many policy oriented speeches.
Which you would know if you went to her web site, read her book, listened to her campaign speeches (hers or her surrogates), or subscribed to her mailing list (which sent me awesome policy videos like this one).
If you don't know these things then you probably got all your news from Bernie and yeah, Bernie did an absolutely horrible job promoting her. After spending all primary slandering her character and record he couldn't wave pom poms for her without admitting he'd been lying himself blue in the face during the primary so instead Bernie pushed the narrative, "At least she's not trump".
And I agree, thats a stupid horrible useless narrative. I'm proud to say that when Hillary lost to Obama in 2016 she showed massively more class than Bernie and honestly supported him with a whole heart.
Texts and Reference Books
Days in the Lives of Social Workers
DSM-5
Child Development, Third Edition: A Practitioner's Guide
Racial and Ethnic Groups
Social Work Documentation: A Guide to Strengthening Your Case Recording
Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond
[Thoughts and Feelings: Taking Control of Your Moods and Your Life]
(https://www.amazon.com/Thoughts-Feelings-Harbinger-Self-Help-Workbook/dp/1608822087/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3ZW7PRW5TK2PB0MDR9R3)
Interpersonal Process in Therapy: An Integrative Model
[The Clinical Assessment Workbook: Balancing Strengths and Differential Diagnosis]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0534578438/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_38?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ARCO1HGQTQFT8)
Helping Abused and Traumatized Children
Essential Research Methods for Social Work
Navigating Human Service Organizations
Privilege: A Reader
Play Therapy with Children in Crisis
The Color of Hope: People of Color Mental Health Narratives
The School Counseling and School Social Work Treatment Planner
Streets of Hope : The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood
Deviant Behavior
Social Work with Older Adults
The Aging Networks: A Guide to Programs and Services
[Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society: Bridging Research and Practice]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415884810/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy
Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change
Ethnicity and Family Therapy
Human Behavior in the Social Environment: Perspectives on Development and the Life Course
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
Generalist Social Work Practice: An Empowering Approach
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook
DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents
DBT Skills Manual
DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets
Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need
Novels
[A People’s History of the United States]
(https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States/dp/0062397346/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511070674&sr=1-1&keywords=howard+zinn&dpID=51pps1C9%252BGL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Life For Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Tuesdays with Morrie
The Death Class <- This one is based off of a course I took at my undergrad university
The Quiet Room
Girl, Interrupted
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Flowers for Algernon
Of Mice and Men
A Child Called It
Go Ask Alice
Under the Udala Trees
Prozac Nation
It's Kind of a Funny Story
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Bell Jar
The Outsiders
To Kill a Mockingbird
If you enjoyed this you should read Masters of Doom, or listen to Wil Wheaton's very good reading of it (that's what I did).
It's a very interesting and entertaining book.
You still get a free audiobook when signing up to Audible, right?
Yeah I've always remembered it as Quake being id's big arena shooter game and all my experiences with the first two DOOM games were the single player campaign, though that nostalgia is probably filtered a bit because I also played the shit out of DOOM 64. And even reading Masters of Doom I got the sense that the networked component of DOOM was just sorta tacked on at the last minute.
Right now I'm reading "Surely you are joking Mr Feynman". great book!
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
Exactly the same strategy as the other superpowers use to own other countries, a la Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
Obligatory mention of the book "Born to run"
https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189
Here is a greater explanation of this event:
http://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601
> Even this seems a bit too aggressive for my taste
Your job for the next month or three is to become a sponge for financial knowledge. Even though you have a CPA and a CFP, in order for you to feel comfortable with their decisions with your money, you need to have some amount of knowledge with finance.
Read:
After all that, you should feel much better about both your withdrawal rate and how aggressive your portfolio will be.
H. H. Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, is frequently named as America's First Serial Killer. He built a 3 story building in Englewood, just south of Chicago proper in the late 1880s. The first floor was filled with shops, the third floor was hotel rooms, Holmes's office, and a walk-in vault. The second floor was an oddly constructed labyrinth of dead end passages, secret rooms, doors to nowhere, air tight and soundproof rooms, and rooms with gas jets that were controlled by valves in Holmes's office. There were also greased chutes that dropped straight to the basement where Holmes had an operating table, pits of quicklime, and a furnace that was allegedly used for glass bending but was oddly shaped like the furnaces found at crematoriums. No one knows how many people actually died in the murder castle. Holmes claimed he killed 27 in his final confessions, but some of the people he claimed to have killed were still alive and well. The papers attributed upwards of 200 murders to Holmes, because hundreds of people disappeared during the 1893 Chicago's World Fair and it was easy enough to blame it on the dude who owned a friggin murder castle. There are 9 actual murders that can be attributed to Holmes, including 3 children, so either way he was a tremendous piece of human shit.
For more information:
I think the best case study of this is the woman that pretended to be a man for a year to prove that men lived a privilege lifestyle. One of the things she was wildly unsuccessful at was dating. She said that she tried everything she thought that woman wanted to hear and it did not work. Link to book
>Seems to me, if you wanted to be in good shape, there are much better ways to do it then spending months training to run an large yet arbitrary number of miles.
Most people do not run marathons simply to 'be in good shape.' That's one benefit of many but an erroneous framing of the issue. You can run to set a goal and meet it. It's not arbitrary; it has a history.
This usually starts out running a lower set of miles and working up. It's seeing tangible benefits for a constructive use of time. This is an important mental foundation of any kind of running but it often feeds into shorter-distance runners pushing themselves to a limit they've never envisioned themselves meeting. This is an emotional high that is very hard to match, though it is not exclusive to running.
Also, some people simply enjoy running. The fact that you see it as merely something to do to stay healthy is inevitably going to ignore that it is also something people can do for fun even if it's not your thing. I don't really see why people enjoy yoga even if I acknowledge some health benefits, but people who take part in yoga are also part of a community and a subset of fitness culture and also enjoy the act of taking part in it.
Building on that, there is a running community, ranging from ultra-marathon runners (if you think ~24 miles is bad, try 100+) to Hash Harriers. Individuals coming together as a group to set a goal and push each other is something from which a lot of people derive personal utility.
Finally, there's nothing that says long-distance running is ipso facto bad for you simply because it is long-distance. There is an argument to be made that much of human evolution focused in some part on the necessity of running for survival. You also need to acknowledge that some people, such as the Tarahumara, have an entire culture that revolves around long-distance running that surpasses the average marathon and colors everything ranging from education and holidays to courting and dispute revolution.
I can't really speak for nipple issues because I wear a sports bra, but needless to say it really shouldn't be enough to tip the scales from all of the above just because it doesn't fit one's neat aesthetic preference for athletic beauty.
Doing something for personal reward, community, and culture is not masochism.
EDIT: I forgot to add that marathons are super accessible. You don't even need to formally sign up for an event in order to run one. It's an egalitarian form of competition - either against yourself or others - that basically requires a shirt, shorts, shoes and fortitude. Some even view shoes as optional. Compare that to hockey, golf or football where they require investment in protective gear or pay-per-play course access at the least (at the most, a membership at a club.)
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/
https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Blueprint-Americas-Future/dp/1501161733/
She had more policy than any other candidate, including during the primaries. The notion that her entire campaign was "Trump bad" is an invention by Bernie Bros who don't like to listen to what women actually say.
This explains it:
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589795474/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fMnJBb0GAZ99M
Essentially: the super super wealthy are less than 1% of the population. Meanwhile much of the actual top 10-1% tend to be in jobs that go along with conspicuous consumption. Think lawyer, banker, accountant, doctor. They tend to feel that they have to maintain a certain type of lifestyle to be “respectable” in their profession.
There’s also a lot of people who work in tech, many of whom are young and may not save much because they want to “enjoy life” and aren’t necessarily thinking ahead. (Although they do tend to have stocks.)
Your old boss was right and if you're interested in reading about this topic more I would highly recommend reading The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. There's a lot of fascinating info in this book about psychopaths and how they operate and there is a section that talks about the fact that there is a higher rate of psychopaths among CEO's compared to the general public. Unfortunately, in business it does tend to be beneficial to only care about yourself and what you can gain and to not have any qualms about screwing people over to benefit yourself and the company.
John Decamp wrote about this in his book "The Franklin Cover-Up." My hometown of Omaha, Ne played a major role in this whole ugly thing.
The Franklin Cover-Up
The game they are referring to is Daikatana. You should read Masters of Doom if you want to learn about some legendary game developers. The rise of John Carmack and the downfall of John Romero. Although John Romero has chilled out in the many years since Daikatana and makes pretty low key mobile games and the like. His latest project, Blackroom, is a bit more ambitious than his recent work.
You think that you've just made a super intelligent point because you've pointed out the obvious fact that the US has issues with human rights and with over-criminalization. It isn't an intelligent point because you don't know jack shit about North Korea. You don't know dick about how people live there, and I know that because if you did, you would pull your head out of your ass and realize that the issues that the United States has are not even in the same order of magnitude as the issues that North Korea has.
I recommend that you read the following books to give you a better sense of life in North Korea, so that in the future you can be more educated on the subject:
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
Skunk Works is a fantastic read for anyone interested in the development of stealth flight.
The U-2 was an amazing airplane.
At cruising altitude of 70,000 feet (over 13 miles) nothing else in the world at the time could even get close to touching it. When the US started using the U-2 to fly over the USSR the Russians were able to track the flights, but even their highest performance jets and surface to air missiles were unable to take out the U-2. Russia spent a considerable amount of time and money working on a way to stop these flights. For 4 full years the US was able to photograph any part of Russia with amazing resolution before the Soviets managed to shoot one of the planes down with their newly developed SA-2 missiles. According to people who worked on the U-2 program around 90% of US intelligence information for those 4 years was provided by the U-2.
I highly recommend Skunk Works by Ben Rich. He worked on the U-2, SR-71, F-117A, and several other top secret aircraft. His book is probably the best I've ever read. https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1486248583&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=skunk+works
It's available for pre-order and scheduled for release in October.
Except for the part where Hillary literally wrote a fucking book about what she stood for: https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Blueprint-Americas-Future/dp/1501161733
Yup. Real millionaires are often indistinguishable from others. They didn't get that way by spending a bunch of cash, after all.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
he's talking about a book
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife/dp/0684853949
"Aid" to Africa and impoverished nations elsewhere is not an attempt to get them back on their feet in the first place:
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
There is a really cool book about the development of these early stealth aircrafts. What I got from it is that they used a specific field of mathematics to calculate the optimal geometry for deflecting the radar signals. And also paint the aircraft with painting that would absorb some of the signal. It was also stated in the book that the reason for the F117 having such sharp angles was due to the limited computational power at that time.
Ask and you shall receive. If you don't wanna buy it, I highly recommend getting it from the library; it is a fantastic book that I had to force myself to put down.
It is kind of a "lost last chapter" of Masters of Doom. If you have read that book, the article would fit naturally as if it was placed right after the book's ending and personally i liked it.
I suppose if you have zero context about the book or the author it'll feel a bit odd.
It's hard not to be excited about technology when watching one of his keynotes, regardless of whether or not you understand the content.
Oh, and for those that haven't read it, I highly recommend Masters of Doom. Some really inspiring stories about early id.
Based on a potentially real event, actually. Though with that one it's hard to tell where the actual abuse ends and the satanic panic starts. Either way if you feel like spending all night delving into the depths of your own paranoia check it out
> I understand a frustration with rigid, societal gender roles.
OK, but please understand that that's not what gender identity is about.
Suppose we tell you, "We're going to transform your body to female, and that's how everybody is going to see and relate to you for the rest of your life. But don't worry! We're not saying you have to be feminine! You can be as masculine as a woman as you like! But you have to be a woman."
I don't think you'd be cool with that. Possibly a few people have a lot of built-in gender flexibility and could roll with that punch. A lot more people think they could handle it, but in reality probably could not - Nora Vincent thought she could, for example, and almost lost her mind, even though her change was only outward/social and not bodily.
I prefer to spend my time reading the Reviews of her book
I learned all of this stuff because someone left a copy of the book Skunk Works on a shelf in a storage closet at work. I never was interested in the topic beforehand and didn't expect to be so enthralled but it offers a fascinating insight into the world of US black military programs. I'm not usually one to offer endorsements but legitimately I couldn't put this book down. The matter of fact nature and the first hand account is fascinating.
If you're interested, I highly recommend the book, Devil in the White City. Does a fantastic job of telling the story of Holmes, the World's Fair, and what Chicago was like that summer. Dark topic, but a great read.
https://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601
"Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. --John Moe"
Lighter non-fiction that I have recently loved:
Jon Ronson: Them. Spending time with conspiracy nuts, but quick and self-conscious investigative journalism. It's fun and interesting.
Erik Larson: Devil in the White City. At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, a serial killer sets up a building to attract and in which to murder stray people who wouldn't be missed. This book reads like a bestseller mass-market paperback murder mystery, but it's based in truth (albeit with some literary embellishments.)
Benjamin Wallace: The Billionaire's Vinegar. Tremendously expensive wine and international wine-sales fraud. Super-rich people are ridiculous.
> But if the World Bank (and let's throw in the IMF and WTO as well, if you like) never existed, global poverty would be mostly unchanged. I'm open to being wrong about this, but I haven't even seen anyone lay out the argument that these institutions are primarily responsible for the persistence of global poverty.
Well, from a geostrategic point of view, the structural purpose of the World Bank and IMF - and debatably the entire Bretton Woods economic system - was to facilitate the continuation of traditional international power inequities in the post-World War II world. For American planners at the close of World War II, their country had leapfrogged over the declining European powers to become, by far, the most wealthy and powerful country on Earth. Invariably, they wanted to supplant those traditional European powers in their respective colonies and spheres of influence to become the dominant actor themselves, but - as the American political tradition has largely frowned upon overt imperialism - they needed to do it in a way that meshed with the liberal political culture of their society, as well as with their liberal propaganda about democracy and "free" markets. Herein lies the strategic purpose of the World Bank and IMF, at least in terms of their predatory relationship to the former European colonies (what we might today call "the 3rd world"). You can get pretty specific overviews of World Bank/IMF structural adjustment programs, as well as their strategic purpose, by reading Dilemmas of Domination by Walden Bello, Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, and Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky.
I hope I've helped illuminate this issue a bit, but really, nobody here should be surprised to learn about how this works; this is very basic realpolitik.
EDIT: I should note that in recent decades, the process of globalization has ushered in a remarkably different economic and political order from that of the Bretton Woods system, but that's a rather different discussion.
For sure!
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I've had several roles in the technology space, from the strategy around a complete digital transformation (ripping out a clients current ERP, CRM, MES, PLM, and HR to implement an API-riddled "modern ecosystem" so those systems could share data), to implementing a continuous improvement framework and sustainment model around a technology implementation. What really got me interested in PM was my first role where I took a custom mobile application from design to deployment while running an Agile team for ~2.5 years. I've been searching for PM jobs on and off for the better part of a year until this opportunity came through the pipeline.
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As to why I made the switch, I really enjoy working through all the cross-functional portions that comes with launching a new piece of technology. During the lifecycle of a product/feature you have to do strategy (what is the product-market fit), design/development (work with engineers to build a feasible product), and launch work (empower Product Marketing and work with them to find the correct segment/marketing materials). In my experience consulting teams usually focus on one portion of that work, but seeing the lifecycle through falls under the PM because they're there for the long haul.
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Career aspirations include moving along the PM track and eventually leading a team of PMs. Consulting gave me a strong skillset mostly because I had mentors driving my career development, and providing standards to work towards. One of the most rewarding things I found was returning the favor to the new crop of consultants. Definitely looking to do that in my new position once I get more settled down and we build out the PM team a bit more.
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Speaking on career aspirations, if money is one of your main motivators for becoming a PM I might suggest a different line of work. I got a small pay raise to $122,000 living in an expensive area, but the compensation trajectory is much higher if you stay in consulting (i.e. assuming everything had gone well this year I was looking at a raise to $145,000 base). In the short term compensation may be similar if you get a PM job with a FAANG company (especially at the MBA level where everyone is competing for top talent), but if you hit partner you leave your PM counterparts in the dust.
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Getting this role was really luck-based (in addition to practicing for PM interviews for a year). I was initially contacted by a recruiter for this role and ended up hearing nothing after two weeks. So I found someone in the company on LinkedIn and reached out to them (we had gone to the same school). Turns out that person would be my boss and was interested in talking with me! The rest is history (after some harrowing interviews). I guess the moral of the story is if something seems interesting don't stop at the first roadblock.
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I haven't started the PM role yet so what I like/don't like is TBD, but what I really enjoyed working on the custom mobile application was being "the guy" that everyone comes to with questions/ideas/complaints. One minute I'd be talking with customers about how to use the app, the next I'd be talking with our engineering lead about how I could ever design something so stupidly, and finally I'd get called into the office of the program head to run the numbers with her and see if we were really saving $5 million annually in operations cost. It's stressful, but being the ingress point keeps you constantly on your feet.
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Did you know that psychedelics were legal in the 50s/60s and used to treat alcoholism/depression? I sure didn't! I've been reading How to Change your Mind and it has been mind-blowing (pun intended) charting the rise and fall of psychedelics in both research and counter-culture terms.
Op-ed by former guest Michael Pollan and author of How to Change Your Mind.
TL;DR:
>I look forward to the day when psychedelic medicines like psilocybin, having proven their safety and efficacy in F.D.A.-approved trials, will take their legal place in society, not only in mental health care but in the lives of people dealing with garden-variety unhappiness or interested in spiritual exploration and personal growth.
>
>My worry is that ballot initiatives may not be the smartest way to get there. We still have a lot to learn about the immense power and potential risk of these molecules, not to mention the consequences of unrestricted use. It would be a shame if the public is pushed to make premature decisions about psychedelics before the researchers have completed their work. There is, too, the risk of inciting the sort of political backlash that, in the late 1960s, set back research into psychedelics for decades. Think of what we might know now, and the suffering that might have been alleviated, had that research been allowed to continue.
This book describes what you are taking about very well.
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225
Fascinating stuff.
It is well known that Tesla has a high turnover rate and that Elon is a tough boss. You should check out this book if you want to learn: http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
>He was in the right place at the right time
Incorrect, read the book on him written by Ashlee Vance and you will understand that it was not just so.
Read this book. Really well written, it's one of my favorites.
They are all national bestsellers. Everyone should read On Writing, as it is very barebones and no BS when it comes to getting into writing. In fact, it's inspiring in almost any endeavor one wishes to pursue. Highly recommend it.
As far as his fiction, I'm partial to his Different Seasons collection which includes Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil and The Body (of which the movie version is Stand By Me).
I heard about this for so long, but it took me forever to get around to it: "Devil in the White City," a book about Chicago, the World Fair, and a serial killer.
And if you want to find out what happened in Chicago after the Fair, "Girls of Murder City" does a fantastic job at ripping open the strange aberrations of the Chicago justice system during the 1920s, with all the Roaring Twenties atmosphere no worse for the fact that it's non-fiction!
If anyone's interested in the backround of the pictures, go read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. It's a really great book, and makes you realize what an awesome person he was. The book is written in such a way that you feel as though you're sitting in a room with him and just sort of chatting.
There are similarities between this and countless other international bailout and assistance programs, from the Irish Potato Famine to the Australian treatment of Aboriginal communities from 1994 to 2012. Charles Smith had a good article on it this week.
>Especially fascinating to learn that the English Government provided ‘relief’ loans to Ireland at market interest with a condition that they could not be used to do anything productive. Basically they set up a scheme to pay a small proportion of each community to build roads, but not a cent could be spent on developing alternate Irish-owned industries or businesses for fear it would upset the rich English industrialists.
>The English imported cheap American corn meal which everyone was forced to buy with the English Gov. financed wages (closing the loop of giving with one hand, taking with the other and adding in a profit to boot) after the Irish had to export all their own grain and livestock to England to pay the land rents.
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan15/debt-serfdom1-15.html
Similar tactics are documented extensively in Confessions of an Economic Hitman. For example, instead of financing a war they might finance "infrastructure improvements." The IMF gives several billion to a dictator, the dictator steals a large portion, and the rest is (over)spent on Western equipment (turbines, cranes, wire, etc). The country remains on the hook, left with an asset worth a fraction of debt's value.
After the new regime took power, they squandered (some legitimate spending, the rest stolen or wasted) their foreign currency and gold reserves. Now, they are being financed by European and American banks with the "condition" that that money gets spent on weapons from these same European and American countries, "closing the loop of giving with one hand, taking with the other and adding in a profit to boot." It's a tried and true tactic. The end result is an impoverished vassal state, borrowing to survive.
Caution: Wall of text to follow.
Firstly, congrats on caring at a young age about your finances. That's something not a lot of people can say. With that being said I'll like to take each of your paragraphs in turn and answer your questions at the end.
NOTE: If you just want answers to your questions and not my advice skip ahead.
> While I believe that there are some truths behind "Money doesn't buy happiness", it is a lot easier to be happy knowing that you are well-off.
As a word to the wise from someone a little further down the road let me just say there is more truth than you yet realize in those 4 simple words. Many people don't come to see the truth till their old age looking back on a life filled with regret, so take some time now and seriously contemplate it, because the reality is in 85 very short years you'll likely be dead, and all you ever had will belong to someone else. If the only happiness you get in this life is seeing dollars in your bank account you'll miss out on a lot.
> The leading cause of divorces are because of financial issues. I mean, that has to speak for something.
In the vast majority of divorces it's not a lack of money that's the problem, it's a lack of agreeing on what to do with the money that is. Marriage can work below the poverty line, and above the 1% line. The financial issues of marriage aren't solved with just "more money!"
> I want to be able to support myself, other family members who aren't as well off, and be able to buy my kids (if I have them) a car, pay for their college funds, etc.
Supporting your own family is honorable, but beware when helping out "less fortunate" family members. There are many, many problems that can arise from that if not done properly, and enabling a family member will only make their situation worse, not help them.
> I don't want to be a doctor. Or a lawyer. . . . . who can bank at least a million in one year.
That is a very big dream, but it's not unrealistic. Big dreams are good, and as long as you can approach them level headed they help give you focus. I say that your dream is worthwhile, and although I caution against greed as it can destroy you and your life, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a CEO making $1,000,000.
ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTIONS
> So tell me. Where do I start investing and also building my way up to becoming the CEO of a company?
You start right where you are. There is nothing stopping you from pursuing your dream now. Begin with learning. Learn what it takes to be a CEO, learn how other CEO's have done it, learn what your talents are. There will be much learning for you starting out.
I recommend the internet and a library card. Read a CEO's biography (it's as close as you'll come to getting to interview some CEO's). How is it that Donald Trump was able to go from rags to riches twice?! What would it take for you to do that? Learn all there is to learn about running a business, being a leader, and leading a successful venture.
> At what age?
NOW! Bill gates was already writing software and starting Microsoft at your age (not to say you're behind or anything like that.) There is no age limit on being a CEO, and there is certainly no age limit on learning and working hard.
> What majors in college should I be looking at?
This will be up to you and what you feel you would be good at. Do you want to be a CEO just to be a CEO, perhaps some business major then? Learn from other CEO's stories and what they majored in.
> And at what colleges?
Personally there is little impact based on what school you choose. There are CEO's that never went to college, and there are CEO's that went to Yale/Princeton.
The fact is it takes maybe $200 to start an LLC and call yourself a CEO, no college degree needed. What comes after that is actually making the money! In order to do that you have to provide a good or service that people want. The more people you make happy, the more money you'll get.
Something you should know now is that starting a company, and running a company is HARD WORK. I know some owners of start-ups that had to work 60 - 90 hours a week with little to no sleep to build their business. I know others who fell into the CEO position because their daddy owned the company, and they were lazy, and thanks to their lack of action the company collapsed.
> And of course, looking to do this in a legal way.
Welcome to America :), where hard work, sacrifice and the willingness to learn and strive can and do payoff.
One last piece of advice: Don't be a jerk. When you become the CEO of a company and you are making the millions, when you someday are the hotshot, don't look down on those around you. Remember where you came from, and those that helped you along the way, and there will be those that will help you!
People will always respond better to someone who is nice than someone who is a jerk.
Here is some recommended reading once you get that library card:
There are many more books, but that's a start.
Jon Acuff went from amateur blogger to best selling author, and is a great motivational writer. His books make me want to run a marathon, and are good for motivating you.
Dave Ramsey went from bankruptcy to running a 300 person business and earning in the %1 of earners in the nation with a national brand. His book is about being a leader in business and you'll need to lead if you want to be CEO. It's a hard job, and not nearly as cushy as you might think.
Thomas Stanley is a researcher who studies those with a net worth over $1M and his book will show you that being rich doesn't contradict with a frugal lifestyle.
The others and highly recommended in general!
The fact is you'll need to grow up, turn off the TV, and look weird to your friends. How many 15 yr olds do you know reading books about how to run a company and studying up on what it takes to be a CEO, or how to start a business? I don't know many, but I do know that at 17 years old William Gates III started a joint venture with Paul Allen (their first business). They both went on to make the top 20 richest billionaires list. Bill still holds the top spot.
If you want to be rich, you want to be a CEO, then work at it. Work at it now, work at it often, and work at it always. I have no doubt if you dedicate yourself you can do it. The fact of the matter is that most people reading this are tired just thinking of the work it takes to be CEO, and that's why they never will be.
Best of luck on your future success, and don't forget the little people.
~ Dragon J.
Edited for formatting.
From Ben Rich's book, SkunkWorks, he would take ball bearings and roll them across desks at the Pentagon "Here's your new plane on radar". Took them a while to prove to many that it was true.
Would that be the Tarahumara indians? Featured repeatedly in this book Born to Run - an AMAZING read, highly recommend it
This is it man, You've got to treat this moment as your last chance. You will fail but you will recover.
Whatever your feeling is temporary. It's ego death.
Figuring from your username, you think a lot.
That's a good thing in general, it means you care. But it's debilitating.
Quite simply, grow a pair of balls. Quit trying to live the world through your thoughts, live in the real world, be present in every moment.
Personally, I would wrap myself in my thoughts as a safe haven. I have tons of good ideas, but I never had the balls to manifest them. I liked being in my safe world where I was god and nothing could harm me.
The only problem with this is that it's fucking lonely. I may elevate my ego by convincing myself the world is shit and I know better than everybody else. I believed that I had the solution to everything; but it's shit, it's all shit, it was me lying to myself to stay in my protected metaphysical bubble where I'm god. Nothing could humble me.
There's nothing wrong with such a meaningless existence, I didn't harm anything, I didn't bother anything, I was miserable but I didn't make the world a worse place. I rationalized that what I did was ok.
But that was bullshit: That's me, that's my story.
But that's also past tense. I would get glimpses into this other realm of consciousness; a feeling of oneness with everything, or belonging, or happiness. It's why religion is so popular, we'll all suffer through this shit together praying that such and such will stave off our meaningless existence; give purpose to a purposeless world.
You have to find something important for yourself, this feeling will go away. How do you get back to it?
Mainly, how do you quite the rational mind, and let the intuitive self guide you?
To fix this I read Chaos by James Glieck. It thought me how much I can actually gain by thinking; it's not much. We can only grow through new experiences, if we think all the time, we don't get to work with new information.
But that only led me to understanding, how do I take it to the next level of application?
Quit philosophizing. There is nothing more paralyzing than searching for an overall understanding. That understanding is god, or what people like to call god, or faith, or being, or whatever strokes your ego. I'm an atheist. But I pray to God ALL THE FUCKING TIME. The truth is God does exist. But it's in the manner of his existance. God is your brain, your brain is God. That is all. You are a fucking human. You are a part of the species that eats and shits and dies. You are the part of the species that can contemplate its own existence, sends rockets to mars, manipulate genetic information, communicate 5,000 miles away instantly. You are part of THAT FUCKING SPECIES. Your potential is just shy of infinite. The choice is yours. You have the power of God, not in some benevolent, bullshit, religious, make myself feel good about my self sense. But in the sense that YOU can make the changes you see fit in the world. If you're a thinker, and seek understanding, your ideas are better than 99.9% of the world.
What I did:
read proverbs in the bible. No bullshit, it talks about God's true being. But it has to be dug out. The beginning of knowledge is fear of the lord. And fear of the lord is fear of death. Hopefully that's a big enough hint on how it should be read. It can't be read with any preconceptions about anything, it has to be read when your experiencing the experience you felt earlier.
Exercise: So FUCKING important. And where you will fail. Start running, read this book www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347142293&sr=8-1&keywords=born+to+run
we are much more like animals than you wish to believe. don't give up.
Have sex. But not in a nondiscriminatory manner, find someone who you can make feel special And have AWESOME FUCKING SEX, ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Because there are few things, and especially few natural things which will make you feel this good, especially with and for someone you care about.
Solve problems, seek understanding, hold wisdom above all else.
If you have the balls, do yoga.
Be accountable, I'll be that person for you, keep this post as a journal. It can be something we share. Maybe other people will read it and learn. Most likely not, I doubt you will. But I will, for what it's worth. I'll post every fucking week. Because fuck it; I'll expose my life to the world. It's the least I can do.
I hope you choose to do the same. We could help each other, I just started on this path and could use advice as well.
Most importantly, quit searching for meaning and be the meaning.
Become the change you wish to be in the world.
To answer your question, How do I give a shit about the world again?
Give a shit about yourself first. Then you can have the capacity to give a shit about the world.
tldr:
Good now your getting it. This was too long, you shouldn't have read this post. Get the fuck of Reddit, Get the fuck off the internet. Get the fuck out of your mind, grow a pair of balls, do something you think you can't.
Always remember you can. You may think you can't, but it's only a thought.
I would highly recommend Skunk Works by former head of Lockheed Skunk Works Ben Rich
just picked up masters of doom yesterday from amazon:
http://twitpic.com/5q2r5e
I've heard it's a good read, and is the tale of Carmack and Romero:
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1310754280&amp;sr=8-1
Also, carmack's twitter is ridiculous and funny to watch, because you never know what he is talking about:
http://twitter.com/#!/ID_AA_Carmack
Give Masters of Doom a read. Romero deserves plenty of credit.
Hummm...não tenho ideia, mas vou chutar do meio do campo.
Tem o caso de uma mulher lésbica que se disfarçou como homem e viveu 18 meses assim. Ela tem uns insights bem interessantes e inclusive teve uns dates com mulheres. Para ela, em termos de relacionamentos e sedução, o papel do homem é MUITO mais difícil que o da mulher. O homem precisa se provar e há todo um tipo de pressão para seduzir, enquanto que para a mulher o papel é muito mais simples.
Eu concordo em boa parte com isso. Atravessar uma sala e abordar uma mulher que você acha extremamente sexy e que tem um sorriso bonito e tal é extremamente difícil e aprender isso é um caminho longo e repleto de frustração. Por isso, por exemplo, que você vê muito nerd masculino virjão, e muito menos mulher na mesma situação, e por isso que pipocam tópicos do tipo "como chegar na crush" partindo de homens, e não de mulheres.
Ter sexo com frequência é muito mais fácil pra mulher, no final das contas, e acredito que um cara que é bi mas que é socialmente morto pode acabar "migrando" pro outro lado, talvez por ser mais fácil e se sentir mais realizado sendo desejado, seja da forma que for.
Como eu falei no início, é um chute do meio do campo e nada impede que eu tenha isolado a bola do estádio.
A lot of them are in this book.
http://www.amazon.ca/Surely-Youre-Joking-Mr-Feynman/dp/0393316041
Your library should have a copy. It's a compendium of anecdotes, all of them interesting.
Most recommendations I’ve heard are for 0.2g, up to 0.4g of mushrooms. It could be more but generally, what I’ve seen recommended is that if you can feel it, it’s too much. Dose one day, skip two days. It should make you generally feel like your day is better. Your brain can gain the ability to make new neural connections, among other amazing things. Check out the Paul Stamets interview on Joe Rogan around 46:00 and the fantastic
The Psychadelic Explorers Guide on The Tim Ferris show with Jim Fadiman, they discuss it right away. There’s also books, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594204225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ZKL5BbQ7K6JYQ (though Michael Pollan offers little on microdosing)
about this new frontier of psychedelics plus a new micodosing specific documentary.
Then there’s the wide variety of psychadelic research currently happening, leading back to OP.
Edit: formatting
Michael Pollan has a good book on the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225/ref=nodl_
He also does a interview with Joe Rogan: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tz4CrWE_P0g
Interesting stuff.
I haven't bought many shoes that I've had to stop wearing because of pain, but I'm really picky and do a ridiculous amount of research beforehand. I should probably experiment more - I don't know what I'm missing out there. I'm with you on Frees though - the soles are just too squishy for me to run in. As far as breaking them in, I'd say that most of my shoes stop feeling "new" after 15-20 miles in them.
Thinking about my stride and body mechanics has made me a much, much better running. If you haven't seen in, take a look at Chris McDougall's Born to Run.
Edit: Just to expand on form and stride a little, give the hundred-up drill a try. The idea is to trick your body into running efficiently without engaging your brain. The other thing that worked for me was to think about my upper-body position, which filters down to my feet. Try to run with a slight lean forward, and instead of pushing off with your back foot try to imagine your upper thighs being pulled forward. Shorter, quicker strides that land you on your midfoot with slightly bent knees is what you want to aim for.
Yes, they used dummy companies to buy the stuff, which was then turned into super-fast spy planes used to spy on their country. I always thought it was more impressive that the equation for calculating radar reflectivity that allowed for the creation of the F-117 came from a Russian physicist. We took the best they had to offer, and used it to make sure they wouldn't blow us up. If you want more fun, read this.
I seem to recall, in Ben Rich's book "Skunk Works", more engine wasn't enough. They had to use the computer to constantly manipulate the control surfaces to keep the thing in the air.
the F-117 was basically designed with a slide-ruler, pen and paper with very little computer power behind it. Most of it is a series of 2d renderings put together. They literally had engineers designing and building them on the floor right next to the mechanics and welders and shit. The Skunk Works were an impressive bunch.
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
Go read it, its amazing.
Also, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson has some insight into it with his book, too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0874744911
I watched it about 10 minutes ago and here are my thoughts. SPOILER ALERT. Duh.
Also it seems like the Des Moines police were sticking to the party line, as were the FBI. Most enforcement agencies do not throw each other under the bus and can be treated harshly for talking out of turn.
I don't think it's a conspiracy, more just the thin blue line at work.
Not to mention the information that came out of his interviews led to the house in the woods with the carved initials etc. He had so much information that honestly made sense and he also had no reason to seek her out, he clearly got no pleasure out of seeing her. He actually seemed genuinely upset and guilty.
If he were returning to 'that life' and the people involved in those rings, or living rough as a teen - he may have met a bad end after that. OR he's actually alive and just keeping a low profile in order to protect himself / his family.
Potentially he could have contacted Noreen again and as she's not been under oath since, she may keep her silence / be keeping her silence.
The The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse & Betrayal and also there is The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska which were referenced in this documentary.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is one of the more recent NYT bestsellers that is also a pretty good biology read. The Hot Zone is a classic, and although it is dated, it will probably regain some of its formal popularity due to the [current ebola outbreak] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_outbreak). I would recommend Creighton if you want a "fun" read, but his works are fictional, predictable, and often infuriatingly inaccurate.
I think you'd find The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks a very interesting read.
So I have a friend in jail that I regularly send books to. This doesn't cover every situation, but I assume the circumstances will be similar.
He says that the (meager) prison library is very skewed towards religious books, classics, GED materials, and low-difficulty grocery store novels. Anything other than that will be appreciated. The books most requested are thick fantasy books, activity books (sudoku, physics workbooks, etc), science non-fiction, and coffee-table books or magazines with lots of pictures. These will be swapped with other inmates so that anyone interested has a chance to read.
Some things to keep in mind:
Books that have gone over well and can be found in cheap forms:
Hillary's book Rating :1.5
Trump's book Rating :4.7
Thanks for the question. Wish I was there myself but not yet ;).
The average Millionaire is not what you think.
Thomas J. Stanley wrote "The Millionaire Next Door"
He highlights critical pieces of advice for any entrepreneur.
First income doesn't equal wealth. We see this a lot on r/entrepreneur that people have a lot of revenue but their margins are slim. Net Worth is what matters.
Also, work your budget. If you don't have a budget get one. You Have to do it. It's a pain but table stakes.
He also speaks about how where you live has an enormous impact on how you spend your money. The key is to live in a neighborhood where most people earn less than you.
And here's an interesting fact: 86% percent of “prestige/luxury” cars are bought by non-millionaires. If someone looks rich they probably aren't.
In the end, save money.
As a way of background I have newsletter where I share proven case studies of successful entrepreneurs. Many of them are quiet successful. If anyone's interested let me know and I can PM you the link. (I've gotten about 10 PM's asking for the link so I thought I would include it here.)
Stock and bonds are a good way for the middle class to "keep up" with the wealthy. To catch up, you most likely have to provide a good or service in a new and unique way and build a successful company out of it. The vast majority of millionaires earned a lot of their income from a private business. They some of them invested in securities.
There is a good book on this by Thomas Stanley, a professor that researches wealth, called The Millionaire Next Door. Here is the NYT displaying the first chapter for free. It's a good read, it will tell you a great deal about how people in the United States get and stay wealthy.
It's really nice of you to be thinking this way. It's hard to solve a serious illness like depression by a gift, though. A cheery letter may be appreciated, and maybe add in the Hyperbole and a Half book. It is hilarious, and contains some great pieces about depression.
Edited because spelling is nice.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a scam and the author has been widely discredited.
Check out "Millionaire Next Door" for real life examples of people that have saved enough to live independently. The mindset of most of the people featured is representative of how to approach financial independence.
Honestly, it sounds like you're hoping it is illegal. :)
It's most likely not.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
(Old, but still very true)
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1482883577&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=millionaire+next+door
then this..
https://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial/dp/1595555277/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1482883314&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=total+money+makeover
AND then this...
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Common-Sense-Investing/dp/0470102101
Thanks for your service and willingness to be a cop. Tough jobs.
-Air Force Vet, So Cal native, 7 digit nest egg.
One of my favorite books is Surely Your Joking Mr. Feynman there is another version with an audio cd that is a great listen.
for doom, you can look at the code - https://github.com/id-Software/DOOM
some commentary on the code:
carmack is a very smart guy. i am sure there's some writing of his out there that talks more about this, but i can't find it right now.
edit: ah, i think i was remembering https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/169296/Indepth_Functional_programming_in_C.php but it's c++ and probably post-doom.
edit2: also, https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. A poor black tobacco farmer to whom we owe a debt of gratitude, because without her we wouldn't have half the cures to diseases we have today - including the polio vaccine.
Definetly check out the book
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
I went for the audio book on audible. Was a good commute listen. If Ashley Vance is actually a fan boy, he did a great job hiding it and I'd like to thank him for that.
Some Musk facts from the book:
-photographic memory
-intense, innate drive
-mastery of physics visualization
-loner through childhood
-rough paternal childhood
-future keystones, determined in college: internet, renewable energy, space
-thought both Tesla and SpaceX would fail
There's way more stuff, really consider the book. If there was a perfect person to become 'Elon Musk', it was Elon Musk. I'm glad we have him.
What do you define as successful?
SpaceX has won contracts to resupply the ISS (not sure if they still do this or not)
and
also won a contract to bring US crews to and from the ISS
.
Not to mention their huge progress toward re-usable rockets. Fairly recently they landed a rocket on a platform after it had been launched into orbit. I can't really go into the science because I don't understand it, but I'm pretty sure that by almost all accounts, SpaceX has been VERY successful. They entered a "market" that had zero competition and were told by everyone that they'd fail.
Read the book about Elon Musk.
SpaceX is pretty lit.
One book that may be helpful for answering your questions is Self Made Man. The author spent about 18 months living as a man, in some all-male spaces (the monastery seems cool, but I'm positive that if I went to one of those Iron John camps, I'd be murdered). In the end, she had a nervous breakdown. Along the way she learned totally positively that she is neither a transvestite nor transgender. If Norah (the author) ever comes to Denver, I'd like to buy her a drink.
Two previous links on this subject that I've saved are:
http://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/271fnm/changing_sides_in_a_sexist_world_share_your/
http://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/2797ax/ftms_how_jarring_is_the_switch_to_the_male_social/
I'm certain that there are others. But I think these anecdotes from people who have been both genders, and the jarring differences that they experience might be something you ought to read. Things like:
> I wouldn't call it the better gender, though things are much easier in a lot of respects. I was recently promoted to electronics at Target. My boss basically said, "you're a guy so you must know a lot about electronics". My female coworker, who obviously knows more about electronics, had to fight tooth and nail to get the same position. She and our boss still but heads occasionally because he treats her as if she is incompetent. I think that's it really. When you're a guy, for the most part you are assumed competent until proven otherwise. With women, the opposite happens. You have to prove yourself competent before you're offered anything.
Another good book that I think you might be interested in is Whipping Girl.
The book Born to Run explains this very well. http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189
The theory it talks about basically says that Homo Sapiens beat out Neanderthal because we could literally run grazing animals to death by exhaustion. Neanderthal was used to hunting large game that was in the process of going extinct, and could not compete with our hunting style on the smaller, faster animals.
Also, Homo Sapiens has physical structures on our body that directly aid our running ability that even close relatives like chimps and early hominids don't.
I just finished reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, what an incredible person. Makes me sad he's still not alive. Recommended you read it too if you haven't already:
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1344831089&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=surely+you%27re+joking+mr.+feynman
Makes me respect Bill Gates even more than I already did.
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
The book was The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry. Your right and I wish this was higher up so people could see it. I'll make this bold so people can see it THEY KNEW HE WAS FAKING THE WHOLE TIME. The author talked to the psychologists who reviewed his case.
you mean this one that is currently available for pre-order? :D
> how the heck are people affording these beautiful houses with granite counter tops crown molding etc with comparable income to mine?
They aren't. Have you seen the number of foreclosures? Please read The Millionaire Next Door. Also, you might check out Dave Ramsey.
I absolutely promise you in all areas there are a significant number of people living paycheck to paycheck. One way I know this is that I have had the opportunity to buy distressed property in almost all price ranges in my city. The largest (I passed) was 9500 SF on 3 acres in one of the most desirable villages here. 50 cents on the dollar...
I'll also promise you this. If you take the trade off and buy something a little less nice but in your range you will be WAY happier than if you get something a bit nicer but have to stress about money all the time.
The Millionaire Next Door
Read it when I was 16 and completely changed how I thought about money/business/entrepreneurship
The book was Self Made Man. Here is the video that was posted as part of the book launch press.
Yeah, I had a couple female friends tell me that, too. :/
Being trans is difficult for others to understand. Hell, I'm trans and it took me over 30 years! :)
Self-Made Man has an interesting take on this. It's by a cis female journalist who pretended to be male for a year and ended up finding it far more disturbing than she'd thought.
I'm not sure if this is exactly the kind of book you're looking for, but The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat has always been one of my favorites. I think it does a good job of walking through a lot of history and basic neuroscience in the context of some pretty bizarre neurological disorders. Here's a full text if you wanna give it a look.
Two more good reads:
Founders at Work
Masters of Doom
I can't tell you. I can tell you the best book on game development I've ever read is Masters of Doom. I highly recommend that one.
I can also recommend Jordan Mechner's Journals from the development of Prince of Persia.
If you haven't already, you should read "Masters of Doom." It'll give you a whole new insight into gaming history, and make you even more respectful of John Carmack.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0812972155
Have you read this? Haven't read it myself but I've heard good things and it seems like it was written for people like you. I'd love something similar about VR with a smaller section devoted to how we got here, but the brunt of it focused on this VR gen and in particular the beginnings and the stuff that happened prerelease.
If you're interested in Carmack's coding history and the development history of id software through Quake3 then I highly recommend the book Masters of Doom its a nice little insight to Carmack's meticulous coding style and attention to performance.
Some advice here for anyone looking for psychedelic therapy.
Mushrooms are still not legal in Oakland, they've just instructed cops not to do anything about possession. So don't expect to see shops selling mushrooms, or therapists giving them to clients. Your best bet is to look for a "psychedelic integration therapist". They won't give you drugs or trip-sit for you, but they specialize in helping clients make sense of psychedelic experiences. Also check out meetups such as those run by the SF Psychedelic Society. Their Psychedelic Therapeutic Use Peer Support Group (there's one that meets in Oakland and one in Petaluma) is great.
There are therapists who practice psychedelic therapy underground. They don't advertise, obviously, so you'll need to make connections to find them. I can't help you there.
You don't need a professional guide to benefit from psychedelics. In fact few therapists have training or experience in this unique modality. More than formal training, it's important to have a trusted trip sitter (ideally someone who's taken psychedelics before), a safe and comfortable setting, and a positive mental state going in. If you want to read trip reports, there are thousands available on Erowid. I recommend the book Psychedelic Psychotherapy by R. Coleman (although I don't endorse everything in it). How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan is a popular book that covers a lot of topics related to the psychedelic renaissance. Also check out /r/PsychedelicTherapy.
Both psilocybin and MDMA are in the FDA approval pipeline and might be legally prescribed for therapy within the next 10 years. You could potentially do this now if you qualify for a clinical trial.
Hopefully we will soon see full legalization and a safe way for people to access these experiences that doesn't require them to label themselves as "sick". There is a ballot measure in Oregon next year which would be a big step in that direction.
> Det er liten fare for dødelige forgiftninger ved bruk av hallusinogener, men dette vil avhenge av dosen, forteller Høiseth.
Det finnes ingen kjent dødelig dose av DMT eller andre vanlige tryptaminer så vidt jeg vet. Folk med hjerteproblemer skal uansett være varsomme. Det samme kan sies om folk som sliter med schizofreni eller har familiemedlemmer som gjør det.
> Legen påpeker at risikoen for avhengighet av stoffer som DMT vil være relativt lav.
Heller ikke-eksisterenede risiko for avhengighet, men psykedeliske stoffer har vist seg å værre langt mer effektive for å stoppe avhengighet av alt mulig rart, enn det legemiddelindustrien så langt har prestert å gjøre penger på
> De viktigste bivirkningene var kvalme og oppkast.
Noe som er en viktig del av prosessen for mange. Oppkast er derfor ikke en bivirkning i dette tilfellet, noe som forklares slik lenger opp i artikkelen:
>Spyingen blir sett på som en renselse av kropp og sinn.
> Det er som om ayahuascaen har fått tak i et virus som ikke tjener deg lenger. Plutselig ligger depresjonen, det dårlige forholdet eller traumer du har slitt med, oppi bøtta. Man får en dypere innsikt og forstår at det som plager deg, ikke trenger å være et problem lenger.
"En studie nylig publisert i Psychological Medicine viser at ayahuasca kan ha positiv effekt på sterk depresjon."
Dette stemmer godt overens med mitt anekdotiske tilfelle.
> – Én ting er å behandle mennesker med alvorlige sykdommer. Noe helt annet er det at friske mennesker inntar hallusinogener i søken etter mening med livet. Å klusse med kjemien i en frisk hjerne er et hasardspill, sier Hasle.
Jeg tror de aller fleste kan ha godt av å bli litt bedre kjent med seg selv. Dette er verktøy som har blitt brukt i tusenvis av år og ikke uten god grunn. Jeg vil påstå at det er minst like hasardiøst å proppe kropp og sinn fullt av avhengighetsskapende lykkepiller, som SSRI'er med tvilsomme bivirkninger og praktisk talt ingen bedre effekt enn placebo, i undersøkelser som ikke er utført av legemiddelindustrien selv.
Til sist vil jeg si at om mann velger å innta et psykedelisk stoff, bør man gjøre grundig research på forhånd og gjøre det i så trygge omgivelser som mulig.
Her er en ganske god artikkelserie for folk som vil vite mer:
https://sapiensoup.com/medical-benefits-of-psychedelic-drugs
Anbefaler også den siste boka til Michael Pollan:
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225
Edit: Psykedeliske erfaringer er av mange grunner svært vanskelige å sette ord, siden ord ofte blir fattige. Her er en som gjør et hederlig forsøk likevel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqsdCqKQCLU
read the book the psychopath test apparently glibness / superficial charm is a very strong indicator of psychopathy
I think the biggest warning flag is if a person has a clear sense of humour and such but, as with this kid, never seems to quite have their shit together in certain areas
The Tarahumara were chronicalled in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189
If you haven't read it, it is definitely worth the read.
I recommend you read a little bit about 'no shampoo' diet and about barefoot running first before dissing the ideas. I'll give you two links to start you off if you're willing to spend some time reading about it.
'An Experiment in Giving Up Shampoo'
'Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen'
The Devil In The White City, is maybe not quite what you are looking for, It is written 90 or so years after everything actually went down, and is reconstructed from sources that could possibly be bullshit to one degree or another, but it really is a great piece of storytelling.
This paragraph from Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! really got to me...
> I had obviously done something to myself psychologically: Reality was so important - I had to understand what really happened to Arlene, physiologically - that I didn't cry until a number of months later, when I was in Oak Ridge. I was walking past a department store with dresses in the window, and I thought Arlene would like one of them. That was too much for me.
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Announced (hinted at?) last night on her twitter with spiders. Awesome spiders.
Edit: Link to her pre-order page on Amazon from the main website. Kind of weird that the big picture doesn't take you there.
If you're just looking to learn instead of fulfilling a degree requirement then it is a probably more useful to pickup a book and do it yourself.
Some useful subs:
Some useful books:
The takeaway is that when it comes to investing there is no secret that will make you rich overnight. Picking random stocks hoping they suddenly shoot up is no different than gambling. Even the most well paid people in finance with all of their years of schooling cannot consistently beat the market.
Investing is a long term commitment.
Athletes constitute a extreme minority, especially superstars like LeBron. While his example was a little extreme in how lucky the beginnings was, the story is by no means rare. The is a popular book called The Millionaire Next Door which goes to explain how most millionaires in the US got their wealth.
In the vast majority of cases, it's quite straightforward: spend less than you earn, and maximize tax-advantaged investing. Don't waste money on expensive cars or other forms of wasteful spending. Keep doing that for a couple of decades, and you'll be a millionaire.
Of course, the above path does come with assumptions. First is that you need to have an employable degree, and not be crippled by student debt in a way that makes you lose a big chunk of your early earnings. Second is that you need to be not unlucky and e.g. not have an expensive medical emergency. Having a spouse definitely helps (but is not required), and not having kids also helps (but they won't make anything impossible).
Bottom line is that the most millionaires in the US are not sportsmen, nor are they born to immense privilege.
More or less exactly what the book about her is about. http://www.amazon.com/The-Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181
Stephen King
Read this.
This happened in camp 14, the same that is described in Escape from Camp 14, about a North Korean born and raised there and who lived to escape and tell his story. It's not a long read and I recommend it to everyone who want to learn about the horrors that are going on in North Korea. Not for the faint hearted.
Yes, thank you, I've read that. I also just read Escape from Camp 14.
> Stealth isn't some sort of get out of jail free card that let's you ignore air defenses
THis.
Stealth simply reduces the radar cross section of an aircraft. Many dedicated stealth aircraft also have methods to reduce the infrared signature and the sound signature.
If you read "Skunk Works" book by Ben Rich, it has a great lay mans explanation of how this works in terms of aircraft.
Radar works by essentially creating an electronic "ping" and then listening for the echo when it bounces off distant objects.
Anything will generate some echo. Square lines and big flat metal surfaces reflect radar the most.
Rounded surfaces or angled surfaces can reflect radar away from the reciever, so that even if an echo is generated, some of it gets bounced somewhere else.
Certain substances like wood, or certain composites, tend to absorb more radar than they send back.
All of these reduce the radar cross section.
Something like an F-15 is like a literal "barn door" on a radar screen. The big square intakes, square fins, etc. create big flat surfaces.
The SR71, which was incidentally stealthy, initially at least by accident, has the cross section of a much much smaller aircraft, like a small cessna. It can be picked up by radar, but it's so high and so fast, usually it's out of radar range before anything can be done about it.
The F117 is the size of a large bird on a radar return. You have to have a very high powered radar, very close, to pick it up. It also is subsonic only and has ducted engines which reduces it's infrared signature.
The B2, despite it's size, is even smaller than the F117, with the assitance of computer aided design. Kelly Johnson desicribed this as the difference between an Eagle and an Eagle's Eyeball.
The radar returns of the F22 and the F35 are classified, but given they are trade offs between performance and stealth, probably are closer to the F117 than the B2. Low observable, but not completely undetectable.
And like /u/darthpizza notes, not all radars react the same way. A very low frequency radar may pick up some things that a normal high frequency radar might not. However, low frequency radars have their drawbacks.
Really good read: Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed
He's top o' the list of my engineer heros, right along side Burt Rutan.
The book also spends close to 50% of its time discussing Louis Sullivan and the politics/architecture of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Those chapters can be dry, but they hold a ton of cool information. That is one of those crossroads of history events that saw people like Wild Bill, Thomas Edison, and other huge names of history come together.
The chapters about Holmes and his house are haunting. Just worth noting that it is not only about HH Holmes; don't want people to be put off by the other content.
Get it here!
https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Chessboard-Dulles-Americas-Government/dp/0062276174
https://www.amazon.com/JFK-Unspeakable-Why-Died-Matters/dp/1439193886/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.com/Family-Secrets-Americas-Invisible-Government/dp/1608190064
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
https://www.amazon.com/National-Security-Government-Michael-Glennon/dp/0190206446
Those are the books that you should read.
Here are also some good resources:
Paul Craig Roberts worked in the Reagan administration: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/
This is a good multi-part article excerpted from one of the books above: http://whowhatwhy.org/2013/09/16/part-1-mr-george-bush-of-the-central-intelligence-agency/
Michael Glennon’s abstract about his book: http://harvardnsj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Glennon-Final.pdf
A PDF of the “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” book if you don’t want to buy it: http://resistir.info/livros/john_perkins_confessions_of_an_economic_hit_man.pdf
This is when the reporter asked Bill Clinton about Mena: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDMktUYvC7k
Article on the coup attempt in France: http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/10/20/jfk-assassination-plot-mirrored-in-1961-france-part-1/
All of whowhatwhy.org is very good. There is probably a lot of good information there most haven’t heard of. The main guy, Russ Baker, is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist.
Bet you didn’t know that Bob Woodward was a state intelligence asset/disinformationist? https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/710466456941686784
All part of the record…. Enjoy.
Yet another example of how to move money from the state to the private sector. Where are the magic economic forecasts that would make John Perkins blush?
>The website lists Capital City Partners, a private real estate investment fund by global investors focused on investment and development and led by Emirati Mr. Mohamed Alabbar.
Oliver Sacks is a neurologist who writes gripping nonfiction about bizarre conditions. Two great ones to check out are The Island of the Colorblind and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
Masters of Doom is a great book about John Carmack, John Romero, and the creation of Id Software in the 90s. I highly recommend it!
DM doesn't just stand for District Manager, it also stands for Dick-Move. Upper management types and such tend to skew heavier toward narcissism than the general populace fwiw. (see The Psychopath Test)
The answer, as usual is: it depends.
If you want to invest your money, then there's no better time than now. However, the implication is that when you invest that money you have to leave it sit long enough to do it's work.
At 19 and wanting to invest, you have time on your side. You need to be able to stomach volatility in the market and not get excited when your stocks rally for 30%, nor should you despair when the stocks plummet by 40%.
Traditionally speaking, the stock market averages between 6%~8% a year, which is much better than any savings account you're going to find. However, you shouldn't treat it as a savings account because volatility will almost certainly put you in a bad position to sell whenever you need the money most.
If you feel like you can stomach that volatility and turn a blind eye to both the rallies and collapses, then the stock market may certainly be for you. If you are NOT looking to place your money in good companies for a long period of time (10+ years), then it's my opinion that you are simply speculating... in which case you may as well go to the casino.
If at this point you have decided that you would like to invest in the stock market, you now need to figure out the degree of involvement you would like to dedicate.
If you're looking for a simple hands off investment, then you should just invest in an index fund such as VFINX, SWPPX, or QQQ.
Index funds closely track the performance of the market and charge minimal fees. They are pretty much totally hands off on your part, and are the Ronco of stock investing. Just set it and forget it, and enjoy your ride on the market.
A step above that are mutual funds. They actively try to beat indexes, but charge a fee to do so. There are mutual funds for any style of investing, and people tend to choose mutual funds that coincide with where they think success will lie. That means choosing foreign or domestic, stocks or bonds, and even individual sectors like technology, retail, energy, etc.
The world of mutual funds is vast, and provide an opportunity to beat the market, but it comes with a price. I'll leave the rest up to you to do your research.
Finally comes individual stock picking. Picking individual stocks is the highest risk, but also have the potential for the highest returns. Also, there are no fees except for the fee for purchasing your shares.
There is also a lot to this world, as I'm sure you know, but if this route interests you, then I would suggest you pick up a few books, beginning with The Intelligent Investor.
This book is, in my opinion, the best introduction out there to investing for long term wealth.
Finally, since you're so young and you seem to have an eye out for your personal finances, I absolutely recommend you read The Millionaire Next Door.
Good luck!
It's from Ashlee Vance's biography link
> I really hope this doesn't come off as transphobic, but I just don't understand how you can "feel" like you're the wrong gender, because it doesn't really make sense to me to "feel" like a gender at all?
doesn't sound transphobic. it sounds exactly like i would expect a cis woman to feel. would it blow your mind to know that i don't know what it feels like to have sex and gender line up?
> I was born a woman, I identify as a woman, I present as a woman, etc.
wait, what? but i thought you didn't know what gender feels like? sounds like you do know what gender feels like. you just didn't realize it. and thats normal for cis people.
> Something that gets brought up with trying to get people to understand what being trans is like is "imagine if you woke up tomorrow as the opposite sex, wouldn't you be desperate to get back?" and my response is pretty indifferent. Like it'd be a logistical adjustment, but I think I'd be totally fine with it.
well, it doesn't work that way but it's really hard to give cis people an example. if you'd be fine with it, why not get a phalloplasty? start testosterone? schedule an appointment with an endocrinologist to discuss starting HRT? or a plastic surgeon to discuss getting surgery? see how it makes you feel? its one thing to just think that you'd be cool with it, that it'd be some "logistical adjustment" because it doesn't fundamentally work that way. its just a fantasy with no possibility of happening. but, cis gender people have been forced to take HRT in the past before with disastrous results. a prime example is alan turing. he was forced to take HRT and was driven to depression and eventually suicide (although there is some speculation about that).
another good example is a book called Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man by Norah Vincent. Norah just cross dressed for a year and impersonated a man, but had to quit when the stress of being a different gender nearly drove her to suicide.
the point being that transitioning is not something people are indifferent too. if you are trans, its to alleviate dysphoria and likely save your life. for cis gender people, transitioning causes a lot of distress.
> It just seems like gender is such a social construct, that what does "feeling" like one even mean? Liking pink, or wearing makeup, or having long hair, being attracted to men or any other female stereotypes aren't exclusive to women, and the same could be said for male stereotypes and men.
gender is not a social construct. it is very much a part of biology. brains are sexually dimorphic with a trans woman's brain being more similar to a cis woman's brain, and a trans man's brain more similar to a cis man's brains. with hrt, the brain is continually remodeled. it is suspected that the difference between the sexed body and the gendered brain is what causes dysphoria. someone will likely provide a nice copy-n-paste with links to research papers that help to establish this. as a corollary to this, is gender was socially constructed, then trans people could not exist.
i can tell you that hrt has positively affected my life in numerous ways. if gender was a social construct, this wouldn't happen.
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance
It took me three months the first time I read it; it required a highlighter and notes in the margins.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a deeper understanding of values.
In the words of the author, "[This book] should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It's not very factual on motorcycles, either."
The one by Ashley Vance is great. I read it for a business entrepreneurship class.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062301233/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1t0TCbX2J50HJ
Charles Seife wrote a book about this from a mathematical perspective (which is great, IMO).
He talks about a few cultures, and says that the Greeks, and thus much of the western world, were a bit twitchy about the concept of zero as a standalone number because it represented a void, which conflicted with the prevailing systems of philosophy. A lot of their math was based on geometry, like the Egyptians before them, and zero didn't exist in geometry. How can you think about a non-space?
There are interesting side effects of this - notably our calendar, which goes from 1 BC (-1) to 1 CE, with no zero, meaning it's very easy to mess up the arithmetic of time around then.
Her book is definitely going on the to-read pile.
Read this book, same shit:
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Unbroken
And for a 'fiction' work that is all too true...
A Fine Balance
Welcome to the community! Happy to see a new face join in; I'm a little new to reddit myself, but, I've got a few places and lessons that have helped me develop my craft in a major way.
Welcome to the craft. If you want some coverage on your draft, I'd love to give feedback once you're ready. Cheers!
I'm a software engineer here. I made mediocre money with 10+ years of experience. I freelance now, make less but do things on my own terms
Programming in Japan is not what it is in the U.S. or other tech hubs around the world. You're more likely to make 4 - 7 million / year ( roughly 40 - 70K USD ) instead of the starting 8 - 9 million yen ( 90K ) / year in the U.S. Entry level in Japan is both competitive and hard to get (IMO). There are a lot of talented junior engineers or soon to be engineers so the market isn't really in need of them. It's mid - senior positions that are obtainable.
I also fancy myself an amateur writer, but could never go through what Steven King details in his book, "On Writing." Reading every moment and writing 8+ hours a day just sounds daunting.
If you really do want to get into programming, I would bank on your personality, language skills, and tenacity to get you a job vs. your programming skills. My recommendations:
- Start going to dev meetups and make some friends. People are often the best way into a good position. Finding a mentor is good, too.
- Put 40+ hours into a personal project that you show off to people. Could be a command line utility or some sort of web application that makes your life better.
- Start practicing with leetcode.com. You should aim to solve easy problems in less than 45 minutes. Don't let "easy" fool you, optimal solutions are difficult. You'll need to start studying CS concepts to get through them.
If you want to learn more about ultras and distance running in general I highly recommend this book. It's a really great read.
True stealth is "you fly over the radar and don't get picked up." They actually could do that back in the day. The F-117 project manager mentioned it, it's a great book.
...but that was 30 years ago. Over-the-horizon radars (which are long-wavelength) and other such still pick these things up, but not very precisely. But still enough to cue your air defense systems if you're on the ball.
That said they're optimized around the x-band, so it's a huge advantage during a dogfight with other fighters. There's lots of anecdotal stories of F-22s winning dogfights because no one gets a firm lock on them.
If you have some extra time and cash I highly recommend reading Skunk Works. Some great stories from the guys who built that plane and created Area 51.
I read this like 20 years ago, and have the audiobook now. I've spent many a commute hour listening to Mr. Rich's memoirs. Here's a linky to Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
Fun side note, my stepmom's father (step-grandpa?) was a machinist @ Skunk Works. I mentioned this book to her and she said, oh yeah dad gave Kelly Johnson rides home every so often when his car was in the shop. Uhhh, what Mari?
Amazon links for books mentioned in this thread:
\/u/thetrueonion (OP)
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\/u/DallasGreen:
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\/u/frothysasquatch:
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\/u/CalledCaptainHook:
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The reason I corrected you in the first place is the same reason you are so vehemently defending yourself: because you believe the chief engineer deserves their proper credit.
I got most of these facts from this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
I even had it opened while I referenced some of the facts I mentioned. I think you would really enjoy it and it would help you get some of your facts straight.
The HH Holmes story as told in Devil in the White City is fascinating to me.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375725601/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_cxEODb8TW37D3
Here's a write up of the Englewood post office that sits on the site
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/englewood-post-office
The reviews on Amazon are hilarious.
Stronger Together: A Blueprint for America's Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501161733/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_jIs6xbDR5MCPX
Wanna have yourself a laugh? Look at the amazon reviews...
https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1474037332&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=stronger+together
" was going to read this book.....I really was. But just as I got started, I found myself under sniper fire, passed out, and fell and hit my head. After that I got double vision and had to wear glasses that were so damn thick I couldn't even see to read. Then I had an allergic reaction to something and started coughing so hard I spit out what looked like a couple of lizard's eyeballs, my limbs locked up, and I passed out and fell down again, waking up only to find out I had been diagnosed with pneumonia 2 days earlier. It's a good thing I was able to make a small fortune making this random small trade in the commodities market (cattle futures or some such thing) and then, miracle of all miracles, a few banks offered me a few million to just talk to their employees for a few minutes - and all that really helped out because I swear I was dead broke and couldn't figure out how I was gonna come up with the 6 bucks to pay for this book, let alone pay the $1,500 for my health insurance this month. I still want to read it, but, hell, what difference at this point does it make? I hear it sucks anyway."
There's a book about that. It's more common than you might expect...
The Millionaire Next Door
Fair enough. What are the job prospects supposed to be from it - are there any numbers out from both "sides" that you know of?
Personally, I can empathize with the need for better immigration control and the like, but see building a huge wall as unnecessary and fairly archaic, kind of barbaric. As well, it strikes me right in the "why can't we all get along" zone which is admittedly somewhat naive, but I see construction of such a wall as sending the wrong message to the world and future. There are better ways to go about this, undoubtedly.
As an aside, have you heard of or ever read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins before? It's really fascinating and informative.
Some of the critiques of it are a little dismissive, but there are just as many that corroborate it, along with historical accounts, as well as what we see today.
Basically, it talks about how we made purposefully un-pay-back-able loans to Mexico a few decades ago, when they really needed the help, with the express purpose of getting leverage on them politically, economically, and socially. Now, to be fair, many of the people associated with the loans on the Mexican side are guilty of knowing what was going on, while others that may not have known the full ramifications were of the corrupt type and ran away with a lot of the money that was to go into infrastructure, but that does not take away from the States' goal from the beginning and subsequent fallout. In summary, we're responsible for the problems in Mexico more than we realize. That is another reason I do not support the wall. All together, it's just a bad, bad idea; spiritually, economically, logistically, politically.
Edit:
USAID is a fallacy, its used to burden foreign governments with huge US dollar loans to provide leverage to the US government to controls said governments and keep their people poor. Check out Confessions of an Economic Hitman, chilling: https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1485525402&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=tales+of+an+economic+hitman
There are two sort of relevant standards involved. First is competency, which is whether a defendant is or can be made to be competent to stand trial- basically, are they too crazy to assist in their own defense, understand what is happening in the court proceeding, etc.? Second is an insanity defense, basically, were they insane at the time that they committed the offense to the extent that they didn't understand what it was that they were doing?
Both require examination and testimony from a psychiatrist to establish, and they're generally pretty hard to fake. There can also be consequences for faking that aren't great- such was the subject of Jon Ronson's book, The Psychopath Test. Fascinating read: https://www.amazon.com/Psychopath-Test-Journey-Through-Industry/dp/1594485755
If you want to learn more about sociopaths in a simplified but still good form, read this book.
As for what I said, if you're confident in your ability to detect a sociopath by his or her appearance, someone who's able to disguise those traits will be able to play off your misplaced confidence in them if they passed your test.
A few graphic novels:
A couple more books that are on my wish list, though i haven't read them yet, are:
Bingo. This whole affair stinks to high heaven and reminds me of the Franklin Cover-up that occurred in Nebraska in the 80s. It got hushed up real good. The Discovery Channel made an hour-long documentary called Conspiracy of Silence, which was never aired because somebody leaned on them right before it would've been broadcast. This coverup also featured a investigator who died in a mysterious plane crash.
I read the book by John DeCamp and it was the most horrifying thing I've ever read. It made Stephen King look like campy fun and In Cold Blood seem like an after-school special. If you want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes...
I'll tell everyone again. Watch Conspiracy of Silence.
Read The Franklin Cover-Up and a couple of other books out there.
Go watch Paul Bonacci's deposition Hell, I'm pretty sure he's easy to get a hold of and he's got a super human memory. Search for Ted Gundersons interview with Bonnacci.
See if Larry King (no not that one) has any Clinton Foundation ties.
Look up some John DeCamp interviews on the subject.
and dont forget this old Washington Post article which reports on a Callboy ring that went all the way to the White House. Human Trafficked Callboys
Do some digging on the Johnny Gosch/James Guckert connection. Gosch is a boy who went missing in the 80's, Bonacci remembers him distinctly. Johnnys mother says he's James Gannon/Guckert, the "reporter" who was creeping into the White House late at night in the Bush II era.
There's also a documentary on Netflix currently about Gosch.
All this shit sounds insane. Maybe it is. But leave no stone unturned.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181
This is a very good book, highly recommend. And it touches on the chicken heart.
Writing Excuses is a great podcast that covers a lot of important concepts.
I'm a big follower of Sanderson's First, Second, and Third laws of magic.
Stephen King's On Writing is one of the only books that I'd recommend on the subject. There are a ton of books about how to write well, but don't read too many of them, because at some point you're doing the equivalent of buying a bunch of running shoes and never actually putting them on to go jog around the block.
Dan Harmon's Story Circle Method is my preferred method of structuring stories; it's a prescriptivist version of Joseph Campbell's descriptivist The Hero with a Thousand Faces. (Glimwarden's plot is structured as story circles within story circles within story circles next to story circles.)
Also, /u/daystareld and I will be putting out a podcast in the next few weeks, "Rationally Writing", which is about writing rationally, so keep an eye on that.
My number one advice is to read a lot and write a lot, and do both of those with an analytical mindset. Break things down to see how they work and why they work, or in some cases why they fail. If you need help getting into an analytical mindset, try reading some in-depth criticism of something that you like or are at least familiar with. (Though they're not about writing, Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and the Youtube channel Every Frame a Painting were both things that influenced how I think about telling stories.)
Edit: Oh, also TV Tropes, which is itself a form of multimedia criticism.
Hello and welcome!
There is a helpful FAQ in the side bar. I'd recommend reading some books on writing, such as On Writing and Characters and Viewpoint. You can definitely get published without a degree (my sci-fi book is coming out in a few months, hurray!) but you do need to put the time in to learn what you're doing, formally or informally.
My best advice is to write, a lot, and keep writing.
Cheers!
I tried reading your first paragraph aloud; it felt like my mouth was full of thumbtacks.
Climbing out and onto the fire escape two stories above the food vendors of the sixth district of the city, Moonrow, the street food's scent made him instantly hungry and the harsh sounds of the busy night below somehow relaxed him.
What is the subject of this sentence? The street food's scent? The scent appears to be climbing onto a fire escape? You're stuffing too much shit into one sentence. He climbed onto the fire escape, and he smelled food, the smell made him hungry, and he heard the city, and the sound relaxed him, somehow.
He sat on the metal steps leading to the apartments above and watched the people move in between the rusted bars below his feet.
Is it important that the words "above" and "below" fit in the same sentence? This is awkward. Again, trying to stuff action and description into the same sentence.
The Sixth was the mutually agreed upon best place to be on weekends like tonight, and because of that every district throughout the city was represented.
This should be two sentences, or at least attacked with a semicolon. And this is telling, not showing. And "mutually agreed upon" is an awful way of saying "considered."
I respect that you're trying to get into writing. Continue writing. And study the basics:
The Elements of Style
On Writing
Later, if you're serious, get into a workshop full of people who are much better than you, who will openly tell you when your work is bad and that you should feel bad.
In his book "On Writing" he goes into detail about his life, his habits, addictions, etc that led him to his creations. It also shined some light on just making things simple. To write something how you say it. It's one of my favorite books, highly recommend.
Can't tell if this is a sarcastic jab at the lack of capitalization of the book's title, or if you couldn't see the title of the book in the corner. If it's the latter, it's a nice read!
Thoreau: Walden, although non-fiction, may be the closest.
Ram Dass: How Can I Help, also non-fiction, has stories that are perhaps what you are looking for.
Ken Wilber One Taste. Wilber's meditative "journal" for a year. It's one of my 5 top books ever.
Ken Wilber: Grace and Grit. "Here is a deeply moving account of a couple's struggle with cancer and their journey to spiritual healing."
In another area are Carlos Castenedas books, which came out as non-fiction but there have been arguments they are fiction, and I don't know or mind either way. They are based on shamanistic drug use, but I believe it all is possible without drugs.
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
I have not read (Lila) Kate Wheeler's works, but I have heard of them. I've not read them mostly because if I can't get them at the library, I am too cheap to buy them.
Not Where I Started From
Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree is a collection of works and the authors there might lead you to more of their works.
I did read Bangkok Tatoo which has some Buddhist meditation themes in it, but it wasn't really to my liking.
The Four Agreements is said to be like Carlos Casteneda's books, but I have not read it.
Bottom line, I've read a lot, and I can't find any matches in my memory for Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. If I think of any I'll add it as an edit.
If you find anything interesting, please pm me, no matter how far in the future it is!
---
Edit: as per the reply below, I've added here if anyone has "saved" this post:
I thought of two more, these actually should be higher on my earlier list:
The Life of Milarepa : "The Life of Milarepa is the most beloved story of the Tibetan people amd one of the greatest source books for the contemplative life in all world literature. This biography, a true folk tale from a culture now in crisis, can be read on several levels.... "
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which was the start of all books titled, "Zen and the Art of ____." "One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better."
Ashlee Vance's autobiography is worth reading.
This is just from me having read 20% of a biography about him. Note that this was not a biography by him and he originally did not even want to contribute to it. He did end up contributing, but the book is based upon interviews with hundreds of people and the writer makes very clear that it is not 'Musks truth'.
He made his own rockets during his childhood, including rocket fuel.
He coded a lot of stuff, releasing a video game at age 12
The only reason he ever studied anything is because he thought it was advantageous for him. He always visited the least amount of classes necessary, and only got good grades when he needed to. At first, he sucked at school. Then someone told him you need certain grades to advance. Next time he got the best grades possible. Other examples of this is him inquiring about the highest paying job possible and ending up shoveling out boilers in a hazmat suit for 18 dollars/hour. He was one of 3/18 to keep doing it after a week.
If he has a goal, he works until he reaches it, no matter what anyone tells him. There are plenty of examples were engineers told him something is impossible, and he then went ahead and fixed the code behind their backs. With his first startup he worked 16, 18 hours a day, sleeping in front of the computer, instructing employees to kick him awake when they arrived at the office.
He apparently takes active part in the design of SpaceX and Tesla components. As in, he actually stays up to date on everything and gives his input. He is definitely not just a CEO doing buisiness stuff in the background. Read his twitter and it will be apparent that he takes active part in the engineering side of things.
In fact, he can be considered a pretty bad manager. If someone is wrong about something, using wrong equations or whatever, he is very brusque about correcting them. He expects everyone else to work as hard as he does, and is not really a charming, social, outgoing guy. It seems like the only reason people work for him is that they share his vision (to colonize mars).
Have you read Zero: The Biography of A Dangerous Idea by Charles Seif? It's fantastic: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140296476/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_uFfVAb277KQG5
Although not the same as actually transitioning, I found Norah Vincent's book Self Made Man a really interesting and insightful read on this topic. She doesn't have a full epiphany but does have some startling realisations that make it well worth reading.
Based on testimonies from escapees of these prison camps - not to mention the report of numbers in the prison camps is probably biased.
The most notable of these testimonies is from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
Death seems to be extremely common in the prison camps of North Korea at least much more so than the typical prison in the United States or any developed country.
We can assume if it is true that people die much more quickly in prison than in civilian life in North Korea that their prison numbers will stay lower due to fatalities. If you arrest 100 people per year and 5 of them die per year your prisons grow at 95 people per year, if 50 of them die they grow much more slowly. It is simple math and extrapolation from things we can assume to be true.
Give this book a read. It's a really easy and actually gives a good history of PC gaming.
I have three books that I love to loan out (or just strongly recommend to those weirdos out there who refuse a loaner):
The first two books have in some ways shaped my life over the years. The last book is just the funniest I've ever read.
Maybe not strictly in the topic, however very, very motivational - Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman.
From memory, Feynman and his wife Arline had a game of writing to each other in code while Feynman was at Los Alamos and she was in hospital with TB in Santa Fe (I think). The army censors continually cracked the shits and said "no more codes, we can't afford the man hours required to crack them". Later on he mentioned in a letter the interesting property of 1 / 243 = blah blah and the censors wrote back saying "we said 'no more codes'". Feynman then tried to reason with them that 0.00411522633744855967078189300412 contains no more information in it than the number 243 (and he's right).
Everybody should go and read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! if they haven't already, I can't recommend it highly enough. Give it to your Dad for Christmas and read it while he's having an afternoon nap on Boxing Day.
7th grade - Where the Winds Sleep: Man’s Future on the Moon - a Projected History”
High School: Foundation Trilogy & Earth Abides
University - les Miserables - Victor Hugo, unabridged version & Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse.
20's - Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance & the River Why
30's - The boat who wouldn't float - Farley Mowat, , and all his other books.
40's - Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman
Leadership is near-universally populated by wealthy ivy league oligarchs, who use the agency's power toward corporatist ends. This book is a good primer:
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
My go to reading list,
Killing Hope, by William Blum
America's Deadliest Export Democracy, by William Blum
Who is William Blum?
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner
Enemies: The History of the FBI, by Tim Wiener
Who is Tim Weiner?
The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth about Economic Hitmen, Jackals, and How to Change the World by John Perkins
Confessions of an Economic Hitman, by John Perkins
Who is John Perkins?
Yeah, this is very true. We've been blackmailing foreign leaders into serving U.S. foreign policy and giving contracts to American business for over a half-century. A really good read on how this topic: Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins.
Looks like someone in China read https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Lol proof? It's common knowledge dude, like globally. Just google north korean concentration camps or watch any video from the numerous defectors who've made it to South Korea and are campaigning against the human rights violations in NK.
For a book assuming you're not just being a little troll, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea, about Shin Dong-hyuk is an incredible and horrifying read. He's the only man alive to have escaped their concentration camps.
For a video that highlights the difference between life in North and South Korea, watch this pair of videos Part One and Part Two to hear direct from the mouths of North Koreans what it's like there. How they stage brutal public executions of anyone trying to escape the country, and send their next 3 generations to gulags.
For another interesting video with many of the same people from the other two videos, this shows North Koreans trying American food, and discussing how shocking the differences are between American and North culture.
We're on the internet man, it's really easy not to be ignorant, just up to you to put in a basic modicum of effort to not look like an idiot when commenting on things.
Escape From Camp 14 by Shin Dong-hyuk and Blaine Harden
The real problem is running shoes in general - their design promotes heel landing, which is not how the body is supposed to run.
Try running barefoot on concrete and you will quickly bruise your heels - the more natural way to run is to land with the fore-foot, or the pad right behind your toes. This places the stress of landing on the calf and hamstring muscles, rather than the knee and hip joint when heel landing.
Shoes nowadays that have zero drop or minimal drop (thickness difference between toes and heel on a running shoe) can be found, but you have to ease into the transition.
Check out the book, Born to Run.
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003 <-- Everyone should read this!
Yes. One of the better books I have read as well
Thanks. I had to go drag my book out of a storage box, because it is CRITICAL that I re-read it at 2AM. Right now.
I gonn' be tired tomorrow...
Amazon UK Link
Amazon US Link
If it's anything like her blogs, I'd certainly recommend it, especially if you yourself or anyone you know is coping with depression, as when she covers that she explains how she felt in quite a memorable way.
Hyperbole and a Half
http://www.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179
Book is shipping in October, and you can pre-order it here.
She confirmed in the other thread that it's still on.
You MUST check out the reviews on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1473997394&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Stronger+together
I've got a [book] (https://www.amazon.ca/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733) that I know you will absolutely love.
Read the book The Millionaire Next Door
Second: teach yourself to save a PERCENTAGE of your income. Don't care about the amount, care more about the percentage. If you teach yourself to save 10% (for example) and increase it with time, that will be great. We all ignore this because at the very beginning of work life the 10% is in pennies, but if you committed to it, you will keep doing it when your salary is twice as much.
the books reccomended in the faq provide abundant info. Specifically,
"The millionaire next door" -- explains the importance of defensive spending and talks about how fiscal responsibility is passed to your kids depending on your money attitude.
"I will teach you to be rich" is a good general primer.
"The boglehead's guide to investing" introduces all the options out there and explains why investing in low-cost index funds is best for the long run.
edit: "I will teach you to be rich" is a more stimulating read, followed by millionaire, and last is boglehead.
edit 2: Millionaire is more "mindset" with not many practical advice except for its section on how financial responsibility is inherited onto kids
Her book came out in October of last year (which I just noticed is #1 in "Biographies & History Graphic Novels") and over the summer I pre-ordered her 2015 wall calendar. It's currently hanging up in my office so I've got another year of Brosh's creations to hold me over. I am guessing she has a lot on her plate, I hope she is focusing on herself whatever she is doing when not blogging. Apparently there's a 2015 engagement calendar as well...sooooo, buying that now
I just noticed she has a bunch of things on Amazon that are going on sale in 2015, so perhaps that explains the hiatus:
Hyperbole and a Half Notepad (and Mouse Pad)
Hyperbole and a Half Notebooks (Set of 3)
Hyperbole and a Half Die-Cut Notecards
Edit: Here's a video that was posted in August featuring Brosh (bonus points if you're also into MTG)
I'd recommend perusing Amazon reviews for a chuckle.
https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/product-reviews/1501161733/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary?ie=UTF8&amp;showViewpoints=1&amp;sortBy=helpful
Me too! For a little motivation, check out Mr. Money Mustache and Early Retirement Extreme. For some really good information, check out Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar - both have extensive archives on frugality, saving, investing, and debt repayment. I read all of those every day.
Here are some basics:
ERE and MMM both are into frugal lifestyles combined with established passive income streams from real estate and investment earnings. That seems like the way to go, especially given the low prices for real estate and the increase in renting.
I would also start reading on these topics. For an eye-opening motivational read, try The Millionaire Next Door - I recommend that to everyone regarless of their personal finance goals. For starters in investing, The Boglehead's Guide to Investing is great, and a lot of the information can be found free at the wiki. GRS has a great post from a while ago on the 25 Best Books About Money.
I read the following, in roughly this order:
Ich habe jedes dieser Bücher gelesen und kann es empfehlen. Ich würde jedes davon wieder kaufen und wieder lesen.
I suggest you take a couple days to read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
It's quite telling and it debunks the idea that the majority of the wealthy are what is depicted in those pictures.
Also a great book: Lights in the tunnel; : http://www.amazon.com/Lights-Tunnel-Automation-Accelerating-Technology/dp/1448659817
This one focuses specifically on how to approach post scarcity without collapsing the economy. I'm not sure that it's the approach I 100% agree with, but we have to start the conversation somewhere. I'm hoping someone picks this one up to make a documentary out of it.
> What knowledge base should I build up so it’s not painful to talk to me?
None that you don't clearly already have.
> What common requests do you get that drive you insane?
Managers that treat estimates of how long something will take as a negotiation like they're haggling for a carpet in Marrakesh.
For the most part, things take as long as they take. Badgering an engineer into telling you that a 5 day task is really a 3 day task has no effect on how long it will actually take to do - it will just mean that you have less accurate information to work with.
> What fundamental principles of CS should I know that will help me understand the developer’s perspective?
None of them. If you want to understand the engineer mindset, read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
First, actually find a therapist.
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Second, since you probably won't actually find a therapist (even though you should), below are a few strategies that got me through my roughest patches in investment banking and private equity:
You might be interested in reading his biography :)
It's extremely well written, I highly recommend it
http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
He's frequently thrown tons of his own money at his companies when they were in the early stages and struggling, even risking bankruptcy. Source: His biography.
You should probably read the biography written a year or two ago about Musk. You tag him as rich, but the reality is that he put everything on the line multiple times to save his companies. No one man can accomplish what SpaceX and Tesla do, but it is clear that Musk is a leader in the tech industry. Those were all pipe dreams, but he had the thought to make dreams reality by bringing the right people together under the right conditions.
Link
Zero: Biography of a Dangerous Ideahas a pretty good start, and bibliography, on the church and zero. In short, it allowed them to monopolize accounting and taxation.
My 2¢ :
While a "discovery" may involve a lot of hard work (i.e. the discovery of DNA's double-helix), at some level it still seems to imply:
An "invention", on the other hand, implies a thing which was built to achieve a specific purpose, which is the case with Calculus.
Also, recall that Leibniz developed ("invented") calculus independently of Newton. They were both working toward a common goal to describe phenomena that they knew to exist. Calculus is the shorthand which was invented to solve this.
For an interesting take on this, I'd recommend reading: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife.
Others have already answered this question, but I thought I might direct you toward a book on the the subject that I enjoyed reading: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
Related:
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
>Vincent's first experiment in cross-dressing came on a dare from an acquaintance who was a drag king. When she experienced the intoxicating invisibility and safety that came from wearing the disguise, she wanted to learn more. For 18 months, she disguised herself as a man, renamed herself Ned, joined a men's bowling league, visited strip bars, and dated women. Along the way, she found that the freedom and privileges enjoyed by men were counterbalanced by a constant testing and severe limits on emotions. She also found women to be distrustful, ever ready to criticize men for being emotionally distant yet clearly preferring men who met stereotypical images of strength and virility. Vincent is frank about her experiences--the hard business of sexual transactions devoid of emotions, the easy bonding between men, fear of sexual attraction among men, and, ultimately, the explosion of her own notions of sex roles. She also explores the guilt she feels about her deception. Writing from the perspective of a gay woman who had a view of the male world that women don't get to see, Vincent finds unexpected complexities in the men she meets and in herself as well.
(Yes, this really happened. It's non-fiction)
It sounds like you would love this book. It's the memoir of Norah Vincent, a 5'11" androgynous lesbian who spent a year living as a man to find out what it was like. Fantastic book.
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
People that offend the government, and people that are born there. In NK they have something called the 5 generation imprisonment, and basically you go to the camp, and you and your next 5 generations have to live there all of your life. They are essentially little communities or ghettos, but with strict enforcers. There are farms, jobs, and things of that nature but no one is payed and people are harshly punished.
There is actually a book written by a young man who escaped one of these camps -
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
I would recommend reading it, but it is not for the faint of heart. One of the tortures he describes includes him being hung by a meat hook through his stomach...
Either check out this book or Check out this Ted Talk
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuhmZSFvhL0
Do you think there are aspects of the Franklin Cover-Up that are still present in the Republican Party?
> I guess I would have expected an enemy to move on him in the 70s if it was going to happen.
adjusts tinfoil hat Colby was investigating the so-called Franklin coverup when he died. The coverup involved an alleged child prostitution ring in Nebraska in which numerous witnesses were intimidated and the lead investigator, Gary Caradori, died mysteriously. If you know nothing about the case, I recommend John DeCamp's excellent book on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/The-Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Nebraska/dp/0963215809. DeCamp is a reputable lawyer and former senator, and he makes a disturbingly believable case that some really dark shit goes on in Nebraska.
I say it on a regular basis: Alicia Owen did nothing wrong.
If you haven’t read it, the attorney who handled this case wrote a great book that outlines all the facts: https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Murder-Nebraska/dp/0963215809/ref=nodl_
I plot out the major arcs of both the story and the characters. I make sure to nail down the essentials of what is happening when, as well as developing a good understanding of my character motivations.
For me, a lot of planning involves just taking the time to mull over the themes I want to work with, or explore questions I want to raise. This involves asking a lot of questions to everyone I know, everyone I meet. It makes for great party conversations!
It takes a few months, during which time I'll also explore what's already been written/said about what I'm hoping to do. I look at similar movies and books, anything at all that's already been produced that has themes or topics similar to what I'm developing.
I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of books.
As a concrete example, my most recent novel is about what would happen if everyone in the world stopped sleeping.
I spent months asking everyone I knew what the longest was that they stayed awake. I also read pretty much the only comparable thing on the topic, a fictional novel called "Sleepless" by Charlie Huston. I also read articles on sleep and neuroscience, as well as watched TED talks and other related videos.
Then I conducted a sleep-deprivation experiment on myself. I wanted to know what it would be like to not sleep. (I am a wuss and didn't make it that long- I need sleep more than the average bear apparently!)
This novel is in the style of World War Z (early title: World War ZZZ, huehuehue) and so it involved a lot of characters. Too many to keep track of in my brain, unaided.
I had index cards for each one, as well as drafts notes (using Scrivener- hurrah!). I got really comfortable with character creation. I read Stephen King's On Writing and O.S. Card's Characters and Viewpoint.
I was able to craft an overarching narrative by determining which characters would inject the story with which elements, and placing them where they needed to be. They got moved around a bit as I went on, but throughout I was very aware of the overall flow of the work.
Through careful planning, the actual writing (80,000 words) only took about seven weeks. I am a machine when it comes to word output, if I've done my (months and months of) homework. A second draft saw a lot of that cut, and more added in to bring it up to 86,000 words in three weeks of the hardest work of my life.
For me, planning is super important. If I don't plan well enough, I waste days. Days where my story goes off the rails, or my characters do things which don't make sense.
It's wonderful to see some things happen more fluidly, and I've had lovely surprises this way, but I always stop and think about if that is really what I want to be doing before I proceed.
I hope this long winded reply answers your question. I do enjoy sharing this sort of thing, and I hope it helps other writers do what they love to do.
In the book Born to Run by Mcdougal, he actually tells a story of a couple guys (iirc) running down a deer (antelope?) until it collapsed and died. Took them several hours but they did it.
Read this book.
Tigers have big teeth and claws and are strong and have stripes that make them hard to see. Rabbits are fast and good at hiding and finding food and making more rabbits. These are the obvious advantages nature has given them. So what are our obvious advantages? Everybody knows about the opposable thumbs and the big brain. In our society, we get to operate our brains all the time. And we're always picking up little objects and doing things with our hands. So we all know about that.
What we don't know, however, what many of us never realize, what our modern civilization has hidden from us, is that we have another gift nature has given us. Human beings can run. We are literally the best long-distance runners on the planet. Cheetahs can run faster; horses can carry more; oxen can pull harder; but when it comes to long distance running humans wipe the floor with all of them. When you combine this natural ability with our tool use (like our ability to bring water along) and our big brains (like our ability to find and remember where the water sources are) we are practically long-distance superheroes.
The entire human body is built around this, and most people never use it. Once you're used to it, you feel your body is doing the thing it's supposed to do. If you never run, just try it: go outside, run as far as you can, then switch to walking as long as you have to, then run again. You can cover a huge amount of ground this way. And it might surprise you what you can do even without training or significant preparation. The comedian Eddie Izzard trained for just a couple months before running 27 marathons in 27 days. Think about that: if you're in reasonable health and not too old or massively overweight, you could run a marathon in just a month or two. True, you're not going to win against a bunch of people who've been running for years, and you might have to do the run-walk-run trick, but you can make it. And once you've used your body for what it's really for, you feel it.
Complaint: It's too cold to run. There, I said it.
Confession: I read Born to run while in the Hospital. The moment I got home, I made some Iskiate. ( Unicorn Snot )
It's fucking delicious and I am completely addicted to it. My fridge is full of it now. I've drank a mason jar a day since I got home.
Recipe:
Mason jar. 32oz
4 table spoons of chia seeds,
3 table spoons of sugar,
juice from 1 lime,
Put ingredients in Jar, fill with water. SHAKE IT.
leave it overnight in the fridge.
SHAKE IT.
Drink the nectar of the gods.
continuing aero theme:
Skunk Works - Ben Rich
If you are interested in the history of the Skunk Works, I recommend the book Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben Rich. He worked under Johnson on the U-2 and SR-71; Rich was Johnson's successor and went on to become the father of stealth aircraft with the F-117 Nighthawk.
Johnson was pretty incredible, the F-104 Starfighter was also one of his planes.
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
It's mentioned in this. Well worth reading if interested in Lockheed's black project planes tested at area 51.
Great question!
Skunk Works by Ben Rich is a great read. He tells his story of his time in the Skunkworks as both a designer and a project leader.
The Devil in the White City is a great book http://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1418244016&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=devil+in+the+white+city intertwining the organization/construction of the World's Fair and Holmes' escapades. Fascinating read.
"Dr. H. H. Holmes"
I highly recommend "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins if you're interested in learning more about how governments, NGOs, and businesses profit from developing countries.
"Perkins writes that his economic projections cooked the books Enron-style to convince foreign governments to accept billions of dollars of loans from the World Bank and other institutions to build dams, airports, electric grids, and other infrastructure he knew they couldn't afford. The loans were given on condition that construction and engineering contracts went to U.S. companies. Often, the money would simply be transferred from one bank account in Washington, D.C., to another one in New York or San Francisco. The deals were smoothed over with bribes for foreign officials, but it was the taxpayers in the foreign countries who had to pay back the loans. When their governments couldn't do so, as was often the case, the U.S. or its henchmen at the World Bank or International Monetary Fund would step in and essentially place the country in trusteeship, dictating everything from its spending budget to security agreements and even its United Nations votes. It was, Perkins writes, a clever way for the U.S. to expand its "empire" at the expense of Third World citizens. While at times he seems a little overly focused on conspiracies, perhaps that's not surprising considering the life he's led."
You would appreciate anything by Oliver Sacks. He was a celebrated neurologist who wrote a bunch of great books about consciousness and fascinating stories about conditions he saw in his practice from a very philosophical rather than strictly clinical point of view. You could start with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Hallucinations, or Awakenings. He gave a nice TED talk if you want to get a taste for it.
I'm thinking Masters of Doom is a good one.
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Autobiography of Richard Feynman, what fucking brilliant hilarious man.
You will love this book no matter if you're into science or not, I promise.
https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)
Well I think you might find it easier if you dispensed with all those categories (economics, gender, law, etc.). They are useful in terms of specialization, but unless you're doing a specialization, I find it most helpful to try to get to the bottom of things and ignore categories. Most of these overlap.
The great book that taught me to think this way, and after which a lot more in the world started to make sense was Surely you're joking Mr Feynman. Essentially the difference is between trying to get it right (makes everything overwhelming/confusing) vs understanding it (looking for good explanations).
The beginning of infinity by David Deutsch has something similar.
I know this may seem totally irrellevant, but for me this was the thing that removed that feeling of being overwhelmed by knowledge forever.
That said, I am too consuming incredible amounts of JP. Probably an average of.. wow, maybe 2 hours per day since I first discovered him 5 months ago or so.
Feynman was the fuckin man. I strongly suggest that everyone read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" if they haven't already. It's filled with memoirs and great insight to how he viewed the world. It's a fantastically good read that I couldn't put down until I finished it.
This is going to seem like a really strange choice, but it's coming from another 16 year old. I recommend Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman, as it is one of my absolute favorite books. It may only appeal to him if he likes science or engineering, but it's worth a shot regardless.
In a similar vein to the Chronicles of Narnia, may I recommend The Hobbit/ The Lord of the Rings? Both are great stories that he may like. Although they are not the best written books in terms of writing quality (in my opinion), the Inheritence Cycle by Christopher Paolini might appeal for entertainment value. Perhaps a lesser known author that I greatly enjoy is Megan Whalen Turner, author of The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. I just became aware of this book and have thus never read it, but A Conspiracy of Kings by the same author is bound to be good.
Steering away from fantasy, he may also like science fiction. I recommend any Ray Bradbury. Most of his stories are short, so for someone who doesn't read often they are great. My favorite are the Martian Chronicles, but R is for Rocket is also a good compilation. All of the Artemis Fowl series are recommended as well.
If I think of any more, I will certainly edit this post.
Read up on the "Project For a New American Century" (http://www.newamericancentury.org/) and the neo-con plan for the Middle East. Also, read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" (http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081) specifically the section dealing with the Shah of Iran and how he was placed in power. I'm sure that Noam Chomsky could answer this better than most of us. http://chomsky.info/
That will get you started on the right direction as least.
Eric Larson writes great, entertaining history books. If you haven't read him already, I'd recommend checking out The Devil in the White City.
I've always enjoyed Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, and I think it's great for non-scientists. It's essentially a collection of short stories, which could be nice for quick reads or just before bed.
If you like that, you should buy this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
Richard Feynman was an amazing person.
https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
The section on magnets starts at 3:55, but there's a great explanation of the difficulty of "why" questions at the beginning.
P.S. I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, if anyone hasn't read it yet. There's also a larger hardcover compilation containing that work and a few others called Classic Feynman (this is the edition I have). He was an amazing person, and there are all sorts of spectacular stories about his time on the Manhattan Project, about investigating the Challenger disaster, and about selecting textbooks out for the California school curriculum (this section may make you rage).
I can't remember if these were both in his book, but you should absolutely read: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Some related reading
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Hey man I had the same question and I think I found it.
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594204225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_LtZ4Cb5CW5F9K
I first read about it in The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, where he goes in depth and interviews some of the participants and administrators.
I love Hyperbole and a Half. She's writing a book. It is amazing what Allie Brosh can convey using MS Paint.
someone better tell Amazon then /s https://smile.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733/ref=zg_bs_11105_21
Yes, she wrote this entire very boring book full of very boring policies that would realistically help everyone and not put children in cages or make the market look like a turbulent ocean.
The Millionaire Next Door is outdated when it comes to specifics, but conceptually is an excellent road map for getting and maintaining wealth.
The gist is exactly what you describe: Live below your means.
You're making claims and then confidently stating the burden of proof to prove otherwise is on people who disagree.
That's not how this works...
That's not how any of this works...
In general, responsible people with high net worth don't drive expensive, imported cars. People who tend to dive luxury automobiles are the folks who might have low or high income but basically little net worth, living paycheck to paycheck or not even that but surviving off welfare provided by wealthy parents or other relatives
Source: The Millionaire Next Door
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Live radically below your income level no matter what it is and invest as high a percentage as possible.
Change every habit in your life to save and invest, and not spend.
Change every habit in your life to recognize 99% of what you do is based on habit and consumption, that people have existed for 10's of thousands of years and lived on very little. Water, a bit of food and shelter. Reduce your existence to that and invest the rest.
Read "Millionaire Next Door".
Read "Habit"
It will cost you about $20. Follow them like the bible, like your compass. And in 30 days when you haven't done any of this, re-read this answer.
That's all there is to it. Follow that and you will become wealthy. There is nothing more to this, 99.9999% of humans cannot do it. And the wealthy benefit from that every day.
You're welcome.
These two books I recently read were on-topic and very good.
Green With Envy
Millionaire Next Door
Wow, I'm sorry to hear that :(. Riding is defiantly a form of therapy. When you get on two wheels it's just you and the bike; you set set aside whatever thoughts may be going through your head and just focus on the ride. I would defiantly recommend Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance: an inquiry into values. Great read about what riding is about.
Don't let anyone tell you that you're selfish for wanting to ride. Get the bike and do what you've always wanted to do. I'm only 22; I hope I helped.
> Imagine SpaceX having 100 times larger budget... We probably would have already built a few bases on the Moon and flights to Mars every few months...
We tried that. It's called NASA and their machine of contractors. As it turns out, having 100 times larger budget just means you become a large political target, you get 10x increases in layers of bureaucracy, and your goals are written, changed, thrown away, and written over again every 4-8 years. In other words, if SpaceX had 100 times larger budget, it'd probably come from sources they don't control, and they'd end up getting controlled in the process.
There's a reason why Musk won't take SpaceX public, even though they'd probably receive a massive cash injection. He has a vision for SpaceX, and wants to control that vision with an iron fist. If you read the Ashlee Vance biography about Elon Musk, you'll know that he is regretful of having to take Tesla public, and the last year shows exactly why. When you're trying to change the future, you don't want to spend time, energy, and focus answering to shareholders wondering how you're going to get them a dividend in the next quarter.
As of this post, Hardcover $10.00
$29.99That's great! What were your main points or most fascinating things about him that came up in your research? I've just finished the Ashlee Vance biography on Musk and it was a very intriguing read.
Don't try to read any fundamental physics/engineering textbooks, they'll just bore you and you won't learn anything without also doing stuff like you would in a lab or for homework.
Instead read some books that inspire or entertain you. You won't have time or energy to read what you want once school starts. Here's some options:
Zero had a long road before it was accepted as a rational concept. See the book Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. It's not preposterous to assume someone was having troubles with 0 conceptually.
Salt: A World History
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
if you ladies think you have it so hard you're more than welcome to trade places.
here's a couple ladies that tried it out.
http://iamkoream.com/helie-lee-finds-that-passing-as-a-man-can-be-a-drag/
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
first woman said it felt suffocating, it was the first time she'd ever felt suppressed, and she never wanted to do it again. the second one needed to be institutionalized.
Awhile ago there was a woman who dressed up as a man - IIRC it was for like a magazine article or a book or something. But she documented her life as a woman, for a period of time - a week or a month or whatever it was. Then dressed up as a man and did the exact same things over again. Went to the same places, did the same things, etc. She even dated as both genders. She concluded that there are good things and bad about both genders so largely it ends up pretty even. i.e. - women had to put up with subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) harassment, but men couldn't get any special treatment like talking your way out of a speeding or parking ticket. The one conclusion that stuck with me (and the reason I actually remember any of this) was that dating in particular was harder as a man. As a woman she could dress up a little, go to a bar, and a couple of guys would buy her drinks and virtually all of them would ultimately ask her out. But when she did the same thing as a man she found it was a lot harder to get positive responses from women. She could dress up as a good-looking man, but just approaching and talking to women and buying drinks wouldn't guarantee her a date. Then, once on the date, a lot of pressure is on the guy to be a gentleman but not too old-fashioned or overly formal. Do you open her car door? Hold out a hand to help her out of the car? Open the restaurant door? Let her go in first? Help her off with her coat? Pull out her chair at the restaurant? Stand up when she gets up to powder her nose? Order a bottle of wine for the table? Order dessert? Pay for the whole check or take her up on splitting it? Help her put her coat back on? Hold the door again? Open her car door? Help her into the car? etc... And none of that even went on to the things that are traditionally seen as the man's responsibility to initiate, like the first kiss, sex, etc.
(sorry I searched for the source but couldn't locate...guess reddit will have to take my word for it)
tl;dr => There was an author/reporter who did this and found that in life male/female kinda balances out, but in dating men have it harder.
edit: found it - http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702 - it was a book and she was "undercover" for 18 months
I've been told it's more like this: http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man is near the top of my reading list. It's about a woman who disguises herself as a man for a year and tries to merge into "male" society. The reviews sound promising and I'm really interested in it.
Escape from Camp 14
If anyone is interested, I highly recommend reading the book "Escape from Camp 14"
It's an easy and highly intriguing book and gives an unfathomable account of life in the camps and shows how mentally warped the people of the country are.
The guy is in the U.S. now and discusses how before coming here he didn't even truly understand the emotional connection of family or loyalty to them as much as he did fear and loyalty to the country.
Edit: Autocorrect
Well, Trump wants to bring back Reagan era policies. I'm not projecting to the future so much as I'm remembering the past. I get that you're upset by this - I am too. But my being upset doesn't change what he's saying.
Also, if you feel like reading from an authoritative, first hand source, I strongly suggest Confessions of an Economic Hitman. The ways in which we manipulated and stole from other countries makes this look like a small time smash & grab operation. Separately if you've never heard of a banana republic (not the brand) you should read about United fruit. In that case it wasn't about forcing people to buy at a given rate, it was about forcing people to sell to us at a given rate. But it's the same difference.
I'm not defending the horrific nature of the plan. I am only arguing the point that it works to create jobs. It creates lots of other things too, like war.
I have this sitting on my shelf waiting to be read
It was suggested reading for a Neuropsychology course that I had to drop.
Try this one -
Man who mistook his wife for a hat (Oliver Sacks)
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife/dp/0684853949/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=oliver+sacks&qid=1558785421&s=gateway&sr=8-4
Well this was an ... exuberant start to the episode. The song is "On My Radio" by The Selecter. There's a delightful music video for it. Jeff's musical choices are particularly peppy this week.
They're on segment overdrive! Things Dan Shouldn't Be Allowed to Complain About, Connor's Conundrums, Jeff Describes People -- even an Evernote update (Dan abandoned Evernote temporarily for some reason) and the riffed My Favorite Cereals.
Blindness + flight is a dealbreaker. I'd want to fly almost exclusively to see stuff. I'd pick blindness over deafness, though, because I couldn't do without music and the human voice in general. There's still the internet ... I'd have to give up gifs, though. I'd prefer losing my hearing over being born deaf because I could at least recall my favorite music and have an easier time speaking.
Siike returns! The procedure he's talking about is apparently called endovascular coiling, and the procedure is pretty fascinating. I'm kind of reminded of some patients in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, such as the titular man who couldn't identify everyday objects or people by sight. Great guest segment, of course.
I love Jeff's invocation of a centurion as a Hollywood archetype. It just puts the perfect picture in your head.
The metagaming discussion is taken up once more -- this time in gory detail. Their confusion is kind of amusing ... it's not the most difficult concept, especially for people who either are or work with actors.
Thanks.
And thank you for reminding me that I have the Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat tucked away in my room somewhere from when I entered Borders Books and Music™ at a weak moment and left with too many books to start at once. The Sacks book is now next in line, followed by Bowling Alone and Grand Theft Childhood.
I highly recommend Masters of Doom to anyone interested in learning more about the history of Doom, id, Ion Storm, and everything that went on between Romero and Carmack. Great read.
If you're interested in id's history "Masters of Doom" is a really good book.
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155/
Just posting to bump Masters of Doom which does a good job of bringing to light the events which reshaped PC gaming as well as explains Romero's eventual fall from grace.
To sum it up:
-Romero is worthy of a little more sympathy than most give him, but only a little.
-However amazing a programmer that you think John Carmack is, you're mistaken. He's more amazing than that, though possibly at the expense of other things.
You'll have to read the book to know the rest.
Masters of Doom
If that's not going to inspire the shit out of him I'll kill myself making a Doom clone in Html/CSS.
Read "The Franklin Cover-up" if want more info. This entire story was called "a carefully crafted hoax" by a judge. But... I don't know how you get that many people to participate in this for so long.
Pure white supremacy. Honestly, it's people who believe that an occultist conspiracy of abuse and murder exists, but also have such a strong belief in American Exceptionalism that they refuse to believe that the white evangelical leaders of the country could be involved (hint: if it exists, they absolutely are). Therefore, as usual, they assign the conspiracy to the only other culture they think could orchestrate a "shadowy cabal": the Jewish people.
The story of Henriette Lacks is pretty cool.
I also enjoyed the story of The Girl in the Picture
I have a fondness for british history, in particular the tudor era, the napoleonic era, and the victorian era and those times also have some fascinating women. Elizabeth I comes to mind, I've been meaning to read this novel about her life, having enjoyed the author's take on Hevry VIII. I also watched The Duchess which told the colourful but tragic story of the Duchess of Devonshire.
If you listen to podcasts, you could check out Stuff You Missed In History Class. They've recently done episodes on women like Jane Austen and Yaa Asantewaa. There was a really good one about foot-binding, which wasn't about women in particular but did look very much at how the tradition affected women (and how women propagated this tradition.)
If you want to read a whole book, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" is pretty much all about this, with a few ethical/political viewpoints thrown in. I've read it. It is a bit dull for me but does give the relevant background.
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Well, the obvious answer would be to read this:
Elements of Style
But Stephen King's On Writing is well respected (I'm reading it now, and it's told in a narrative. It doesn't feel like taking your medicine, if you're worried about getting bored.)
If you're looking for examples of quality writing that translate well into journalism, anything by Hemingway would be a good investment.
I think this is another one of those "actor-audience" versus "actor-writer" things. The powers might appear random to the characters, and if you're in actor-audience mode, that means you feel like it should be random to the players as well. But that's not how Fate works; you have to take a step back from being purely a participant and assume some aspects of the creator's mantle in order to get the most out of the game, and I think a lot of people trip over that, since it's exactly the opposite of what most RPGs encourage you do to.
...which I suppose is all a long-winded way of saying that the best Fate resource books I own are this and this.
I recently read a book by Steven King called "On Writing: Memoir of the Craft" which has some realistic advice on how to deal with rejection, especially for fiction.
Maybe you're just writing to the wrong audience? Maybe it's better to avoid the bottom of the barrel? I can't say, but $15 an article sounds like slave labor to me.
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143122916/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_QO3NDbYP2JSFH
Anyone who hasn't already should absolutely read Escape From Camp 14. It's a first hand account of being born into and living in a North Korean prison camp.
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
You could pick up yoga or pilates! Something very easy on the body. I like to read motivational books, for example Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. You can totally read other books too! :) You could also look into taking care of your body in other ways - say learning how to do new braids for your hair, taking care of your skin better (shoutout to /r/skincareaddiction and /r/asianbeauty), learning how to mealprep and try new recipes..umm making collages and fashion boards on Pintrest.
As for the eating, I would say to up your protein and fat intake to help you feel satiated & full longer. I used to make these really large fruit smoothies that were relatively low calorie, and sip on them all morning/afternoon to pass time.
Born to Run
"Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it."
Has your friend read the book Skunk Works? I'd recommend it. If your friend likes building models, you can also run down to your local hobby shop and buy a plane or spacecraft kit to build one. Some may come pre-assembled if your friend isn't into building them.
Highly recommend the book Skunk Works - it covers the story of this plane and others Skunk Works
Ben Rich - Skunk Works...read it, if not most in this subreddit have already ;)
It was because they could never come up with a way to seal the tanks that would work at those temperatures. I believe there was even a sort of prize to anyone who could come up with a way. Source, tho it was a while ago when I read it.
And the Nav system is still a pretty cool piece of tech if you consider the technical limitations of the time and that it was made in a world before GPS: The bloody thing basically locked onto the stars and navigated using them as a reference and it was VERY precise (precise enough to keep this bird on it's target, considering small deviations in course result in a BIG distance traveled during sustained Mach 3+ flight).
If you haven't done so, you MUST read Skunkworks
Can't sell this book enough as a great read. Talks about the development of the F-117 at Lockheed.
Skunkworks: A Personal Memoir of my years at lockheed by Ben Rich
I'm traditionally more into literary fiction, but I've been exploring non-fiction recently.
Currently Reading: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Recently Finished: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration and Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy
Next on the List: Either Guns Germs and Steel or Devil in the White City. Haven't decided yet
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson is a fun and fascinating account of not only the Murder Hotel, but how it interwove with the development and building of the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893. EDIT: Erik Larson, not Ken Larson.
Try reading this book - I'm not sure how reliable it is, but even if 50% of what he claims is true, this is much worse than gulag.
escape from camp 14..
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0143122916
I encourage, as always, everyone pick up The Aquariums of Pyongyang , Escape from Camp 14 , as well as Nothing To Envy as u/winginit21 mentioned.
Also David Hawk's The Hidden Gulag:Second Edition is a great resource. (PDF File)
If you like reading, here are a few other great books:
I really like Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. It's not really a training book, more of a memoir in which he talks about the role running plays in his life.
If you want a serious training book I'd go for anything by Pete Pfitzinger. Even if you don't like his training philosophy he has great explanations of how your body changes as you get better at running, with actual science.
A lot of people will probably recommend Born to Run but personally I was annoyed by his tirades on the evil of Nike and shoes in general.
> trainers
[As if!](
https://smile.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1537389910&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=born+to+run)
You're right, and the guy who wrote the paper had no idea the U.S. had taken his work and run with it. He didn't find out until he came to teach in America in the early 90s.
Source: https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
Highly recommend reading Ben Rich's autobiography about his time at Lockheed especially in conjunction with Kelly Johnson at Skunkworks.
U2, SR-71, Have Blue/F-117 all masterfully documented from an insider's perspective. Fascinating stuff.
yep, that is exactly correct: https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
I'm not an engineer(yet), but I thoroughly enjoyed Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed
if you want some fun reading about frederick law olmstead, devil in the white city is partially good non-fiction about a serial killer in chicago during the 1893 world fair but also! is about designing the fair, with frederick law olmstead making a lot of appearances and having opinions about modern landscape architecture.
The Devil in the White City <About a real serial killer, possibly America's first
Maniac <Not a movie for everyone, but I found even the horrible actress and music kind of fascinating. Special FX are great. Spinell is amazing.
I'm into the same subject, I will add more if I can think of anything.
allie brosh (creator of hyperbole & a half) is amazing. I found her description about depression really relatable which (amongst other things, also relatable) she describes in both her book & in a really good interview over @ NPR
her twitter is really good too, floods your inbox like once a year.
</fanboy>
Try amazon; https://www.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179
Hyperbole and a Half
The War That Ended Peace
The Hobbit
You're probably familiar with this one already, but just in case: Hyperbole and a half isn't a self help book by any means, but it is hilarious and she shares her experience with depression. https://www.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179
I am too, she's just got a particular brand of humor and empathy that I really missed. I went and pre-ordered her book because I was so happy to have her back.
PSA: You can pre-order her book now on Amazon!
It's set to be released in October of this year, and will be half new material and half stories from her blog (the old ones will possibly have new illustrations).
Was coming to say this! She also has a book out.
Allie Brosch herself has depression, not fibro, but her experiences with depression were eye opening for me since I don't have it but I have many friends who do.
You mean like the book that she just put out covering all of her policy proposals? Or the hour long speeches she has been giving in recent weeks on americans with disabilities, or education and economic opportunities for millenials. Or you could go to her website.
If all you have is 30 seconds to devote to your research, maybe you don't have time for policy anyways.
No, you're being downvoted but you're 100% right. It's not like she wrote a book about specific policy details from coal mining, pre-k education, to healthcare. If she had done that, I'm sure people would remember it.
I mean, really, when will Democrats start putting forward policy proposals, amirite?
"The Millionaire Next Door"
I think it was in the book Devil in the White City where I read that it was composed for the Oriental exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The story goes that the composer came up with it, but failed to copyright it and it passed immediately into public domain. Retirement Fail.
The Devil in the White City offers a nice bit of history about the fair...and a serial killer.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Autobiography of esteemed physicist Richard Feynman. Though obviously his specialty is in physics, these recollections of his life touch upon pretty much all scientific disciplines- mathematics, biology, computer science, etc- but it has more to do with how to think about things scientifically rather than cold hard science. A must read for anyone, scientist or non-scientist.
I read about these in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Neat little book.
his books - start here - http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
There's a better copy in here:
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan.
It really does a good job of explaining why science and critical thinking are important to society and why it is dangerous to reject them or to be ignorant of them.
https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman.
It is a very witty and entertaining collection of Dr. Feynman's personal anecdotes and reminds us that scientists are people just like everyone else.
https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1498402289&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=surely+you%27re+joking+mr.+feynman
I think that you should look into Richard Feynman. This man was a truly influential member of the scientific community. There are several books about his life and findings. I think that all engineers should envy his lust for balance.
I think that the most interesting thing about him is his passion for his children. They were truly the center of what he focused on and that intellectual curiosity is reflected in his offspring.
I don't know what else I need to write to convince you to read books about his life; however, I will claim that learning about this man has made me into a better engineer, son, and SO. Just thinking about this book gives me goosebumps because I appreciated it so much.
Cleaner URL: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393316041/
May I recommend you read "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!", a fantastic book.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!.
Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman for details
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
This one, mentioned by LSDMDMA above...
That video is just some excerpt of John Perkins' book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
I have read the book some long time ago, and whether you believe it or not, the techniques are plausible and the facts check out.
For instance, Indonesia is reeling from a dictatorship (1965-2008) installed by the CIA for fear that the former President was leaning towards Moscow, and thus communism. As part of that deal, Freeport-McMoran mining company of Texas got to exploit a huge swath of Eastern Indonesia for gold and nickel, for decades, with single-digit percentage for the Indonesian people.
The projected value of the mine Is MULTIPLE times the parent company net worth.
In every single protest instigated by the CIA and American NGO's, they say the same things. "The people are rising up against tyranny. They want freedom and economic opportunity. The government is inept."
There's always some truth to the poor economic issues, because of course part of the CIA playbook is to impose economic hardship on countries whose government they want to overturn. There are many ways they do this, but I would recommend you read this book if you're skeptical that this is a thing:
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
US economic warfare is well-documented. In another comment, I brought up the recent (1990s) US economic warfare on Iraq. Those brutal sanctions cost the lives of 1/2 million Iraqi children, with the US gov't diabolically saying that this was acceptable. And the entire basis for the sanctions were based on deliberate lies of the US gov't.
The article briefly mentions the US attack on Chile; that is surprisingly well documented now -- many books have been written on the topic.
As with many instances of US economic warfare and behind-the-scenes skulduggery, the facts do not come out until a couple of decades after the events.
But if you're wise, when you see these actions in country after country, decade after decade, any sane person is going to have a knee-jerk suspicion.
FWIW, on the general theme of US economic warfare and geo-political skulduggery, int'l banker and former NSA man John Perkins' famous book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" is essential reading. (There are also copies of that book on audio and via BitTorrents.)
If you haven’t already, you should read The Millionaire Next Door! It’s an older book but the ideas are spot on!
Here is an Amazon link of you are interested: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1589795474/
You sound like me around 10 years ago. The only difference between misery and happiness is what we choose to focus on.
Take a walk! Meditate! Life is so precious. Every moment of your life is a spectacular phenomenon that should be enjoyed and appreciated. If you don't feel that way, I'd recommend some light reading -
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225
You said it yourself man, cannabis elevates mood. Which is how it's used to treat PTSD, it stabilizes your mood and makes you happier and more compassionate.
I think plant medicines as a whole can be used interchangeably in some cases, which is a great benefit compared to specific and targeted pharmaceuticals you're probably used to that only treat one thing and one thing only. Not everyone wants to go through an intense psilocybin experience, some people might not be mentally ready, or they may have tried it and might be in the small population of people that psilocybin doesn't work for. Cannabis isn't just a one trick pony, and neither are many other plant medicines & drugs that are soon to be legalized. MDMA has also shown great promise I believe. MAPS is actually about to go through a 3rd wave of trials soon for psilocybin and if it performs well, it will then go straight to the FDA and probably be legalized. MDMA is expected to be legal sooner than that for treatments. Michael Pollan talks about this on a recent podcast with Joe Rogan which is here, as well as in his recently released book that can be found here, also check out his Twitter as he Tweets out research and news on drug studies often. Trump could also soon be signing a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to try cannabis, LSD, MDMA, or psilocybin to alleviate their symptoms, article here. Interesting things on the horizon for sure.
But is there someone who said that? If you prefer a logic guy, the one you're defending, like you, misread "probably" as "always" to make his case.
This book, though, would tell you that there are more psychopaths working as CEOs than in any other profession, another placing an estimate of psychopathy in CEOs at four times the average (at 4%). Here's a study I haven't actually read echoing those findings.
While neither are exactly terms happily used by medical psychology, let's put down a bit of vague bullshit and say psychopaths are rarer, overclocked versions of a sociopaths. Logic would then dictate that in professions you'll find psychopaths involved in, you'll find even more sociopaths. By a reasonable, subjective definition of the unreasonable, totally subjective word, say, 20% prevalence of sociopathic behavior in business CEOs would sound like a very low estimate. With big companies in particular, I'd guess we're dealing with much higher numbers, which would lead to a logical formula of either highly successful CEO-ship implying sociopathic behavior, or vice versa.
The very concept of a working-as-intended corporation is often likened to psychopathy, one of the primary cases made by a documentary called The Corporation.
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson is an awesome non-fiction book about psychopathy and the "madness industry." I also second The Devil in the White City!
Somewhat related, I highly recommend The Psychopath Test; there is a portion of the book that considers the idea that CEO's and people in high positions of power have many of the personality traits that define psychopaths. In general it's a great read.
While I like the care you give to the subject, I would just like to fill in some cracks with a few resources. I have a background in AbPsych and one of my mentors did a lot of interesting work with real life psychopaths.
The baseline for psychopathy was first and best (so far) laid out by Robert Hare. This site has a nice explanation.
Two great books on the subject (non-fiction) are: The Anatomy of Evil and The Science of Evil. Something more in the popsci vein would also be Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test, though I have some personal qualms with Ronson’s view.
For fiction, there’s of course any of the works mentioned in the original post, as well as American Psycho and We Need to Talk about Kevin.
Here is a wonderful book by Jon Ronson on the subject. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1594485755?pc_redir=1408028606&amp;amp;robot_redir=1
Agreed that it's out of context, so seems weird here, but he's not wrong, which is why he's getting so many upvotes. Conspiracy theorists are frequently fucking awful at communicating how they arrive to conclusions, as I'm sure you're aware. I'm sure this is because they are all crazy and not because of COINTELPRO style operations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO), but I digress.
https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Murder-Nebraska/dp/0963215809
Here's an extremely well researched book on a case involving Satanic ritual abuse. The US District court even offered a victim a million dollars in damages about a decade after it was swept under the rug, and the attorney for said victim was the author of this book (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeCamp#Franklin_cover-up). This all seems crazy, but it's fucking real. Sometimes the truth is far, far stranger than fiction.
There's a point where a detective gets on a plane after a "I got them! There's no way they can get out of this now!" style phone call, and the plane blows up in mid-air, corroborated by a farmer's testimony on the ground. Planes don't just blow up in the air. Seriously, this book reads like a novel at times (spoilers: the bad guys win).
The former Nebraska State Senator, author and attorney, John DeCamp who was featured in this documentary has also written a book about his investigation.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Nebraska/dp/0963215809/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1332401890&amp;sr=1-2
I recommend an interview DeCamp gave on the radio show Guns and Butter. Mostly this interview is about his investigation into the financial and child abuse Franklin scandal, but DeCamp also discusses some of his experience as an Army Captain during the Vietnam War (Phoenix Program) and his work with former CIA Director, William E. Colby.
DeCamp believes that Colby was killed because he wanted to warn the world about the danger of mind control programs
After all these years DeCamp still seems to be deeply shaken.
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/57202
Have you seen their Highlights for High School feature?
Also, there are sites like Academic Earth that might be useful.
Here are a few blogs with potential. You'll have to decide for yourself if they have inappropriate content.
Here are a few book recommendations covering various fields, in no particular order (though they should all read #1):
And here's a video interview with Richard Feynman they might enjoy.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. So while it doesn’t scream “happy birthday,” and I guess it isn’t what you’d call inspiring, I found it both interesting and compelling. Very readable. It got kind of trendy, and apparently Oprah did a thing for HBO, which usually kind of scares me away, but it’s a good book all the same.
Here’s the Amazon link.
You should read this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181
It's the story of the woman whose cancer was the source of HeLa cells, and her family - because her family shares her genes.
Welcome to RDR! Congratulations on publishing your first thing for critique, it's a big step as a writer.
Disclaimer: The usual - I'm just an amateur like most people here, take my comments (and everyone elses) with a healthy helping of salt, pick the comments that resonate with you. You're the writer, not us.
Disclaimer 2: You're a special snowflake, because you get a second disclaimer that nobody else gets :) I have to admit I feel a bit uncomfortable critiquing a submission about suicide if you tell me upfront that the guy who told you it was good was your psych. I'll just assume that you didn't come here to hear the fluffy duffy "things get better" stuff, so i'll just focus on what you wrote, and give you my blunt impressions as a reader, same as I would with anyone else.
GENERAL REMARKS
I think you're an asshole for being able to write this well at 15yo. Shit man, the stuff I wrote at that age was nowhere near this. So yeah, good job in general. There's plenty of room to polish and learn to improve, but I would say you have definitely got talent, and if you develop it well you can build yourself up into an awesome writer. Don't underestimate how long that takes though - people sometimes forget that a guy like George RR Martin had been writing professionally every day of his life for 25 years by the time Game of Thrones came out.
Every now and then there will be people on r/writing asking for tips on how to become a better writer, read some of the tips there, like the responses to this guy's thread. As resources, I would definitly recommend Brandon Sanderson's lectures on youtube, Stephen King's book, and the Writing Excuses podcast.
OVERALL STORY IMPRESSIONS
I'm not the intended audience for this. I'm a 34yo with 3 kids, I've had my teenage angst years and I'm glad I'm past them. I'm also glad facebook and whatsapp weren't around when I was your age. I liked the quality of your prose and the overall style. I didn't enjoy the 2nd person POV (more on that in a second), and I wasn't a big fan of the ending. Some parts got a bit repetitive, and I found the story a bit lacking in interactions. That is, what makes a character in a story interesting is the interactions with other characters or explorations into the setting; we got very little of that here, and spend most of the story inside his head.
MECHANICS
Okay, let's talk about the big one here: you choose to write this piece in the 2nd person. Writing in 2nd isn't easy, and there are not many people doing it. Most people nowadays write in a tight 3rd person limited POV. This article has some good insights into the effects of writing in 2nd person.
For me, 3rd person allows us to empathize with a certain character, and go through their emotions by mental association. But 2nd person more or less forces the emotions down my throat. When you write something like this:
> You laugh at yourself. “Oh wow, you really fucked this one up man… priceless”
That doesn't work for me, because my psyche rejects it like a bad transplant. It's like you're forcing me to feel those emotions, and it feels dishonest because I don't feel that. But if you tell me in 1st or tight 3rd person about somebody else who does genuinely feel that, chances are very good that I will empathize by association.
HOOK
> “Fuck it. If I’m going to die before the next time I wake up, I might as well ask her out… just to see what happens.”
ENDING
> With a push, an asphyxiation, and a squeak of wheels against bamboo floor,
> You end it.
(more to come in part 2, gotta run to a meeting now, will continue this evening)
These are the sources I would use if I were to give a class on writing. Totaling out at about fifteen bucks if you don't mind used books or, you could go online and find a PDF I'm sure.
This book is widely considered the holy bible for logophiles.
https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X/ref=pd_sim_14_9?ie=UTF8&amp;dpID=51q3tYpGjnL&amp;dpSrc=sims&amp;preST=_AC_UL160_SR101%2C160_&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=ARMA7SMW0KWG1JSEB0P2
Do that first, practice the core conceptsas you go along, then read this.
https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Fiction-Harper-Torchbook--5069/dp/0465052266/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1467830718&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=On+Moral+Fiction+by+John+Gardner
and lastly, since you're interested in fiction, I would read this.
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1467830937&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=on+writing+stephen+king
The take away is understanding, so don't just skim if you can help it. Meanwhile, I'd write short stories. (aim for about 2-3k words at first) Monthly, one hundred words a day and keep at it for three-four months. See how you improve and such along the way and then, increase your goals. two hundred words a day. One story instead of different short stories.
*The most important thing is setting a goal for yourself and seeing it through to the end.
He's just... a badass. I loved It, need to re-read it someday soon. King has a way of creating a vacuum when the front cover is opened, you just find yourself turning pages. I've often felt that this is necessary sorcery.. The black art of tricking a reader into getting themselves ensnared. Like a Chinese finger-trap, you can resist, but it will just get tighter.
Also, for anyone who missed it. Stephen King wrote (in my opinion) one of the best pieces available for other writers, titled On Writing.
http://www.amazon.com/On-Writing-Anniversary-Edition-Memoir/dp/1439156816
I don't think you can beat On Writing. And you can always adapt suggestions/rules from screenwriting if fiction's your thing. Other than that, check out Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules for Good Writing.
Or think about what your favorite authors do, and have a long think about what you can do differently/more fitting to your you-ness. That's what I started off with, and I've had a few pieces published.
Edit: Linkage.
How about a repair manual full of words of advice for young people? Like https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0060589469
I had to read this book for a management class and I actually included a mention of CR in my essay. The complaints, the complements, the strategies, and more of the two gave me deja vu. Musk actually began selling the Roadster during its development, similar to pledging in SC. He even made all the "backers" pony up an extra $17 grand for the car because he miscalculated the cost of production.
It makes you think about what Musk would have made if he stayed in game design, or what CR could have made if he chose a different path.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Here is a really good ass book about the subject:
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
For those who are interested in such things may I recommend the following:
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
This is the first time I've ever been able to make this recommendation in an appropriate place.
Si eu am kindle si vad ca primele 30 carti din el sunt numai de design si ceva self-help (Confessions of an introvert is quite good), plus ebook-urile /r/nosleep.
Citesc mai mult nonfictiune, beletristica rar, si mi-au placut teribil Fast Food Nation, Zero: The biography of a dangerous idea si The man who mistook his wife for a hat.
Si va urasc cu profilele si recomandarile voastre ca am ales deja 6 carti de la voi pe care vreau sa le citesc si n-am timp.
Isn't that the premise of this book?
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN
Books like The Brain that Changes Itself, Phantoms in the Brain and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat are all really great reads. They're different cases and accounts of patients treated by the authors who are, I believe, neuroscientists and psychologists. I learned a LOT about how the brain works and relates to the body - but I'll warn you, when you see how flawed our perceptions of the world can be (how easily damaged, fooled or changed), you may have a slight existential crisis. I did. :)
The Professor and the Madman
http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-Insanity-English-Dictionary/dp/0060839783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1398450830&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+professor+and+the+madman
The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife/dp/0684853949/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1398450891&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+man+who+mistook+his+wife+for+a+hat
If you're a Nick Hornby fan, here's what you should do - he's got three books that are little collections of the column he writes for The Believer called "Stuff I've Been Reading". They're hilarious, and each one gives you 5 or 6 great suggestions from a guy whose taste is pretty solid.
Start with The Polysyllabic Spree and then go to Housekeeping vs. the Dirt and Shakespeare Wrote for Money.
He's always saying his favourite author is Anne Tyler - I can corroborate, she's pretty good.
This isn't really "literature" but you also might like Mil Millington. He's funny in the same way and even though as I'm reading I'm like "huh.. this isn't that great" his novels are the ones that I end up reading in one 8 hour sitting.
You might like David Sedaris - I'd start with Me Talk Pretty One Day
And someone else said John Irving - he's my very favourite.
A good psychology book (and I'm a major layperson, so it's definitely accessible) is The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks and Mad in America by Robert Whitaker.
I am super interested with no background too! I read Neuroscience For Dummies on my kindle. The format was a little wonky, so I recommend getting the paperback. It was interesting and a semi-easy read. I went to Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson and the topic was The Science of the Mind. It was great! I chatted with Cara Santa Maria and asked about her recommendations for interesting neuroscience books. She said I'd love The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. I've been meaning to read it! Also, checkout Amazon's best sellers in Neuroscience. Read reviews and see if they fit your interest. Let me know if you find anything interesting.
> Masters of Doom
Hadn't heard of it, thanks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Doom
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155
I'm such a sucker for tech success stories (Masters of Doom was a great book and I loved The Social Network).
I bought this on Amazon a long time ago after renting it from Netflix. Such an awesome movie. I bought it with Revolution OS which I have yet to watch (it's been years. I really should just watch it).
In the same spirit, "Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture" is a pretty good book too, it's about ID Software, John Carmack & Romero, Doom, Quake..
Link
Not exactly theory of game design, more like history of game making but really good ;)
read Masters of Doom
A really good book about the rise and fall of ID, Carmack, and Romero.
There's a great part about after Doom was put out, got huge, and this dude in Kansas who ran a modem switching service that started a grassroots type campaign getting people to 'matchmake' pretty much.
If you paid him like 5 bucks a month, he'd allow you to call in and make matches or be paired with a random person.
Seriously, he was the original matchmaker. ID caught on, and fully promoted this, he became a ally to ID and FPS multiplayer.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks is an interesting collection of case studies of people with unusual neurological conditions. Oliver Sacks is both a brilliant scientist and a great storyteller.
Man who Mistook His Wife For a Hat - The great Oliver Sacks
The man who mistook his son for a hat.
Our first home computer —
Was a Dick Smith "System -80" with fake wood
panelling and a built in tape deck. It had a pretty
awesome keyboard and 16 Kb on a green screen.
The 1st game we bought in 1981, "Penetrator"
came in a plastic ziplock baggie with photocopied
manual. I think we played this for months, until
we found the local TRS -80 meet up at some high
school after hours.
A bunch of shady middle -aged men standing
around high speed cassette duplication machines,
with pocket knives jammed between PLAY and
FFWD buttons for high speed dubbing. We'd go
home pretty excited with C90's filled with Scott
Adams text adventures.
_
In hindsight, after reading David Kushner's
"Masters of Doom" I'm even more impressed by
the relatively smooth scrolling, sound and overall
production on "Penetrator" given the hardware.
I'm pretty sure it was also the first game for
a home computer to ship with a level editor that
you could use to build your own maps and save
them to cassette back in 1982.
Funny how things come full circle —
That cover art for "Penetrator" on ZX Spectrum
to portray the expected gameplay [ ! ] looks a lot
like "Eve Valkyrie". In turn, Philip Mitchell was the
Carmack -like figure at Melbourne House. Mad
respect to the early explorers.
Commaner Keen - it has nazi symbols in it.
Note: This was to bring attention to ID Softwares upcoming game Wolfenstein 3D which was about to change the world. Read the book "Masters of Doom" - the most amazing story you will ever come across.
Masters of Doom was a good read.
While not about video games, Dreaming in Code is close to the spirit of the wired article.
would you like to know more?
TIL that a woman, hired by Dyncorp to crackdown on forced prostitution on behalf of the UN, discovered that the UN police were the main perpetrators of forced prostitution and was later fired.
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/15r2j4/til_that_a_woman_hired_by_dyncorp_to_crackdown_on/
WikiLeaks Reveals That Military Contractors Have Not Lost Their Taste For Child Prostitutes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/08/wikileaks-reveals-that-mi_n_793816.html
The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman's Fight for Justice
http://www.amazon.com/The-Whistleblower-Trafficking-Military-Contractors/dp/B005CDUBC2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1331445269&amp;sr=8-4
Sounds like Blackwater founder Erik Prince was operating a child prostitution service in Iraq
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&amp;address=389x6249748
1989 News: Call boys in Bush Sr's Whitehouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5OJPeHCmhA
1989 #2 News: Call boys in Bush Sr's Whitehouse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU-k-tfiPfs
1989 story about Bush Sr. Whitehouse call Boy sex ring
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2003/02/06/15709461.php
Nixon Tape Discusses Homosexuals at Bohemian Grove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPb-PN9F2Pc
Charges refiled against former Pittsburgh cop accused of running prostitution ring
http://triblive.com/news/2222380-74/johns-police-criminal-charges-pittsburgh-prostitution-allegheny-charged-counts-county#axzz2Qc0wAaBg
Former TSA employee fined $500 for running prostitution ring
Man confronted by police in Silver Spring hotel in February
http://www.gazette.net/article/20120611/NEWS/706119952/1007/former-tsa-employee-fined-500-for-running-prostitution-ring&amp;template=gazette
School board member convicted of running prostitution ring in California
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/08/16904911-school-board-member-convicted-of-running-prostitution-ring-in-california?lite
FBI dad’s spyware experiment accidentally exposes pedophile principal
http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/146xzt/fbi_dads_spyware_experiment_accidentally_exposes/
The Franklin Cover-Up - John DeCamp - Full film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcWrrBceuP4
The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska
http://www.amazon.com/The-Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Nebraska/dp/0963215809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1366098964&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=franklin+coverup
Pentagon Child Porn Scandal: Security Agencies Were Left At Risk, Investigators Say
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/pentagon-child-porn-scand_n_656839.html
Secret Service Prostitution Scandal
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/secret-service-prostitution-scandal
A Party under Fire: A Scandal-Scarred GOP Asks, ‘What Next?’
Explicit e-mails with under-age male pages. Criminal lobbyists. Being on client lists for prostitution rings. FBI corruption investigations. And, now, soliciting sex in an airport bathroom. People are beginning to wonder: how low can Republican lawmakers go?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/a-party-under-fire-a-scandal-scarred-gop-asks-what-next-a-502653.html
Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html
The D.C. Madam Case, All Sordid Out
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2008-04-11/opinions/36798466_1_deborah-jeane-palfrey-prosecutors-shock-and-awe
Mike Horner Prostitution Scandal: GOP State Rep. Resigns After Name Reportedly Surfaces On Client List
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/mike-horner-sex-prostitution-scandal_n_1910647.html
Another One: Top Federal Judge Linked to Prostitution Ring
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4452917&amp;page=1#.UW0JY0pcnn4
‘Comfort Women’ Controversy Comes to New York
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/comfort-women-controversy-comes-to-new-york/
Sex scandal rocks Vatican: Papal usher, chorister linked to gay prostitution ring
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/sex-scandal-rocks-vatican-papal-usher-chorister-linked-gay-prostitution-ring-article-1.172149
BBC News - Catholic Church loses child abuse liability appeal
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/wfq5e/bbc_news_catholic_church_loses_child_abuse/
Ireland admits involvement in Catholic laundry slavery
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57567706/ireland-admits-involvement-in-catholic-laundry-slavery/
Cover-up claims revive sex scandal
Belgian establishment accused of closing ranks to block investigation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/apr/21/stephenbates
Belgium Pedophilia Scandal /Did Authorities Cover Up Its Scope?: Book Revives Fear of Grand Conspiracy
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/16/news/16iht-brussels.2.t.html?pagewanted=all
Portugal's elite linked to paedophile ring
Abuse was reportedly going on at Lisbon orphanage for 20 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/27/childprotection.uk
FBI Ran Pedophile Ring to Nab Pedophiles
As late as last year, the FBI ran a child pornography operation in an attempt to nab its customers. The service ran for two weeks "while attempting to identify more than 5,000 customers, according to a Seattle FBI agent's statements to the court."
http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/05/30/FBI-Ran-Pedophile-Ring-to-Nab-Pedophiles
If you like feynman, there's endless amounts of material you can watch / read with or on him.
Project Tuva
Surely you're joking mr. Feynman is my personal favorite Feynman book. It's not technical, but tremendously fascinating.
and the Feynman Lecture of Physics. Can't find an amazon link to that one for the actual audio, but it's direct recordings of some of his lectures. They have probably about 10 CDs at my local library that I've listened to. It's just fascinating to hear this man talk.
Read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. Now.
Reading your post immediately reminded me of the chapter "Los Alamos from Below" from Richard Feynman's book, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", where he describes the situation when his wife got sick with tuberculosis and died, while he was working on the atomic bombs at Los Alamos. A few relevant excerpts:
> Arlene died a few hours after I got there. A nurse came in to fill out the death certificate, and went out again. I spent a little more time with my wife. […]
> I went for a walk outside. Maybe I was fooling myself, but I was surprised how I didn’t feel what I thought people would expect to feel under the circumstances. I wasn’t delighted, but I didn’t feel terribly upset, perhaps because I had known for seven years that something like this was going to happen.
> I didn’t know how I was going to face all my friends up at Los Alamos. I didn’t want people with long faces talking to me about it. When I got back (yet another tire went flat on the way), they asked me what happened. "She’s dead. And how’s the program going?"
> I had obviously done something to myself psychologically: Reality was so important—I had to understand what really happened to Arlene, physiologically—that I didn’t cry until a number of months later, when I was in Oak Ridge. I was walking past a department store with dresses in the window, and I thought Arlene would like one of them. That was too much for me.
What's interesting is that, Feynman mentions his wife's illness and death in passing throughout several of his books, yet he barely touches upon the emotions. This is the only chapter, in any of his books, where I can recall reading anything about his feelings in this situation. This is probably my favourite chapter from all his books.
This is a superb book by the way, one of my own personal favourites.
To be fair he's quoting feynman, aka our guy. The man was a rationalist and wasn't necessarily born a genius, just very curious and was stellar at using simple examples to convey complex ideas. There's a fun, not so serious book about him with a bunch of quotes like this, it's a good read https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
I'll recommend some books that I'm reading right now
Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman
Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
Broca's Brain by Carl Sagan
Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman
Why Nations Fail by Robinson and Acemoglu
In Afghanistan's Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations
The Terrorist Prince: The Life and Death of Murtaza Bhutto
Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman! (Link goes to US Amazon.com store)
Great autobiography about an amazing physicist.
This biography of Paul Dirac is excellent.
This autobiography (in the form of a sequence of anecdotes) of Richard Feynman is a classic.
This biography of Robert Oppenheimer is extremely good as well.
This book contains short biographies all the most significant figures involved with every Hilbert Problem.
This is a work of science fiction where the main character belongs to a monastic order devoted to mathematics and theoretical science. It's among my favorite books.
edit: Who downvotes this? Really? Even if you think you've got better options... just leave a comment with them for OP.
And if you like stories about Richard Feynman, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" has this story and many more. Him talking about his time at Los Alamos was particularly entertaining.
Hiya! I'm a recent physics/computer science graduate and although I can't think of any super cool handmade options off the top of my head, there are some physics books that I find interesting that your boyfriend may enjoy. One solid idea would be just about anything written by Richard Feynman. Reading through the Feynman Lectures is pretty standard for all physicists, though there are free versions online as well. There are a few others, such as The Pleasure of Finding things Out and Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. There's also a cool graphic novel that recounts the events of his life called Feynman by Ottaviani. If you're not familiar with who this guy is, he is a colorful and concise orator who won a nobel prize in physics. His biggest contributions were in nuclear physics and quantum computation, and his quirks make his explanations of these topics very interesting. The Feynman Lectures are more formal, while his personal books are a mixture of personal experience and explanation.
&nbsp;
Something else that I typically gift all of my friends who are problem solvers interested in physics is the book Thinking Physics. This book is great for developing some high level intuition in every field of physics (mechanics, optics, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, etc.). This book is great because it's broken into small digestible sections that build your knowledge as you solve more of the questions (solutions are given).
&nbsp;
Good luck!
The good old IMF. Anyone interested in more info about the IMF and World Bank should check out:
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
I strongly recommend reading John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It details the basic modus operandi of these chaps – convince/bribe third world nations to build expensive infrastructure that they really can't afford. Finance such projects with loans from the IMF, World Bank, etc. Give fat contracts to Western (mostly American) companies to design and execute these projects. When the projects fail to generate the projected RoI and the countries can't pay back the debt, step in and dictate policy terms to their governments. That includes rights for resource exploitation, security and military agreements, etc. Fun stuff.
Of course, it is one man's perspective, and you get the feeling that he's exaggerating at times, but it does have an element of truth in it.
Nope, I imagine if there is any it's pretty well buried. Just about everything I read in Confessions of an Economic Hitman was news to me.
If that kind of thing does exist, it likely doesn't exist in any formal record and was probably hatched behind closed doors - more as a concept for policy than any concrete written policy itself.
Here's a book written by a guy on the inside.
He has many video interviews (1 2 3) on youtube.
Do you have an opinion on how China's actions compare to the actions described in the book https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081?
Yeah Wikipedia doesn't seem like the worst place. It really depends on what you enjoy! You can find a lot of free stuff on Youtube, just be really careful with what you watch.
The part of politics that interest me the most is Propaganda. If I can give you a little bit of caution before you dive to deep, I feel like I need to warn you: there are very powerful people that are trying to convince you to join their side. I've been studying how money comes into play with political ideologies...and it scares the shit out of me. Always keep in mind who is talking to you when you are learning. I, for instance, am somewhat of a Socialist-Libertarian. Keep that in mind as I recommend you resources. I learned so much about my own political beliefs by reading and watching stuff I disagreed with. For instance, I watch a ton of super hardcore alt right stuff because propaganda interests me. But even someone as far left as myself began to see my views of the world slowly change, and not in an intellectual way. The racism started to seep into me without me noticing. Some stuff out there downright is made to brainwash you (this sub is a good example). I am being 100% serious.
If you are interested in learning about who shapes political ideology, here are some recommendations.
Here's a short documentary about how the Koch brothers use their money to change ideology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nKgKVxFjSg (By Aljazeera, a highly respected international news outlet). It's inspired by an amazing book named Dark Money, the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. There is also a documentary about it on Amazon Prime if you have it.
Another extremely interesting book is by John Perkins, named, Confessions of an Economic Hitman. The book is about a man who traveled the world for a company named MAIN, and made up bullshit statistics to convince developing nations to take out huge loans to hire US companies for infrastructure. The plan was to get these nations loaded with debt, making them beholden for the U.S.. If Perkin's failed, the CIA sent people into to organize a coup d'etat. Here's him explaining it in an interview
Another good book is called indivisible hands: businessmen's crusade against the new deal goes over how business interests got together and literally shaped modern political discourse around their own interests.
Noam Chomsky (perhaps the world's most respected living intelectual) goes over what he calls "The propaganda model, which I'll let him explain in an interview interview. If you like the interview, follow the rabbit hole down and see what else he has to say. It totally blew my mind some of the shit he talks about. He also has an excellent film named Requiem for the American Dream that will break down what he thinks the power structures are. Chomsky is an Anarchist BTW.
Another good resource is a website named History Commons. The website puts together newspaper articles and books in timelines that are easy to follow. Just be careful, it is amazing that they put together so much data, but some of it is kinda sloppy. Make sure you follow the links to make sure that they can back their claims up. That being said, they have timelines on all sorts of things, from terrorism to U.S. energy policy. The website is extremely critical of capitalism and U.S. imperialism BTW.
As you may be able to gather, I'm not a fan of capitalism. But the intellectual that has the best defense of capitalism, in my experience, is Steven Pinker. It's always good to get the other side.
If you want more traditional political readings, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has excellent academic articles on every political ideology you can imagine. It is a excellent way to get a good foundation on the terminology. Also, because it is academic, it will be less tainted by corporate biases.
If you want to learn about ethics, which is the basis of political philosophy, I highly recommend Michael Sandals Theory of Justice. It is full, 19 lecture course on what Justice is, by Harvard. Sandel is also a critic of unfettered capitalism btw.
I think that a mixture of History and Philosophy are the best ways to understand politics. It allows you to get an outside perspective on what is going on. The more directly political media gets, I find that it becomes less academic, and more propagandistic it becomes. If you go on Youtube and watch the first thing that pops up, you are playing Russian Roulette. You may get a good explanation, you may also get media designed to play to your hopes and fear, designed to suck you into an ideology that you never wanted. I purposely dove headfirst into Far Right Wing content on Youtube on purpose, and it made me more racist. This guy describes his indoctrination into far Right Ideology, and it is honestly reminiscent of a cult. It seems like you are more left leaning, but it is a good idea to familiarize yourself how ideology can suck you in. It happens with me and Anarchy: I became too attached to the idea of Anarchy and I stopped being critical with it. Whenever you base your identity on a political ideology, that is a huge red flag.
Good luck! If you want any more recommendations or have any questions I'm happy to help. There is so much more, but I don't want to throw too much at you. I want to teach politics one day so this shit is right up my ally.
You should read this book if you get the chance.
https://smile.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
It's how we really run things and I often think of it when I look at events like this.
We're more than a military super power, we're also an economic and cultural one.
Chia seeds got very positive press in Born To Run, which is an excellent book whether you enjoy running or not. Additionally, chia seeds are a somewhat balanced source of protein, carbs, fat, and fiber that have the ability to absorb water and turn it into somewhat of a viscous gel. That can be useful if you want to add them to a smoothie to get a thicker texture or make a "pudding", for example. However, never sprinkle them on a salad as they'll generally turn any dressing into what feels like mucous. Overall, I've used them on occasion but am not a fan. YMMV.
In the book Born to Run, the auther concludes that humans were built for slow paced, long runs. There is some evidence that humans used to participate in persistence hunting - essentially chasing animals until they die of exhaustion. I would think that an in shape healthy adult could easily run on the plus side of a marathon without too much discomfort if they were raised in a running culture and their pace was slow enough. If you haven't read Born to Run you should give it a shot. It's really an interesting read.
Note: I am not an engineer, but I do have some suggestions of things you may like.
Books:
Videos/Games/Blogs/Podcasts:
While it may not be the kind of military aviation book you are looking for, Skunk Works is a pretty fascinating read about the development of the F-117 Nighthawk.
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
Shithead McCuntface Jesus Diaz again without crediting the source where these pics came from.
For those of you who want to know more about those pics, see a lot more such pics and read some more:
This story is told really well in Erik Larson's excellent The Devil in the White City.
Please let us know which ones you end up doing!
The Devil in the White City - by Erik Larson. Story of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, and a serial killer who was preying on the influx of visitors.
Check out Erik Larson's Devil in the White City. It's an embellished account of the events surrounding the 1893 Columbian Exposition, including the introduction of the Ferris Wheel and the murders committed by H.H. Holmes.
I have not read all of these. Hopeful this will be a good excuse to start some of them sooner. Hopefully it is not too late to post in this thread.
I don't know why you were downvoted for telling people to support the artist.
Here's the link to buy the book if anyone is interested.
https://www.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179
This is the book that meme is from! I feel obliged to mention it because apparently the author wrote something along the lines of "I love it when people share my stuff, but I wish they wouldn't cut off the part of the picture that has the name" or something like that. I may have it all wrong. I just remember there being something about that. Anyway, here's the book! You should get it. You should read it. You should read about the simple dog and the helper dog and stuff.
I'm glad you linked to this again—looks like some good reviews have been added in the last couple of days! Check out the main page...
>I bought this thinking it would be a how-to book. I wanted "How to set up your own Foundation for fun and profit." Also, would like to have seen a chapter on "Ten easy steps to setting up your own secure server in a bathroom." I do hear there's going to be a sequel, tentatively called "The Art of the Shakedown." Should be interesting.
And 318 people like this:
>This could be the first "book" in history to have more reviews on amazon the actual sales bwwwwaaaahAAHA lol
>Maybe it’s networth that makes you feel better and not necessarily the income?
Think of it like this, who is truly wealthier in this scenario the person making $60k\year and saving $15K after taxes or the person making $200k\year and only saving $5k?
I would suggest you read "the millionaire next door" by Thomas Stanley it changed my entire outlook on money. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
It seems like you have a lot of expenses right now and at your income level you should be able to easily cut back in certain area's in order to save over a million dollars in a few short years which will probably help to alleviate those feelings of "not feeling rich." If I was at that income level I would be living like I only made $75K\year and saving the rest and within 10 years would probably never have to work again. It seems lifestyle creep is what significantly delays building true wealth and could delay your retirement.
OP & his wife should read this book
> ...the VERY rich drive old cars, because they don't see any need to get a new one as long as the old one runs fine. They wear scruffy, well-loved clothes. They live in old houses and don't worry about maintenance...
That entire theme is the subject of the book The Millionaire Next Door. The researchers found that is how most of the 'liquid' wealthy live. Never buy a brand new car. Living in a sensible 30 year old single-family home, etc.
I think that sort of forgetting about the inheritance is maybe the best thing you could have done.
most inheritance is wasted.
you knew you were over your head, so you did nothing and went about your life as normally as possible. many people wouldn't have the discipline to do what you did. they'd have bought a new BMW, flown to Cabo 8 times, etc. and now they'd have only $15k left and be kicking themselves wondering where it all went.
I think you're trying to honor your grandmother's memory, and don't want to screw it up. is so, that's the right attitude. and I think you have the right foundational skills. you also live frugally, you made wise choices with your education etc.
if you want to visit a financial adviser, I'd recommend a few things.
> She was by no means living a fancy lifestyle
most millionaires are actually very frugal. you might want to go to the library and see if they have copies of Thomas J Stanley's books. he was a professor who studied finance, specifically high-wealth people. he basically found that you can either be rich (lots of cash or investments) or you can look rich (fancy lifestyle, cars, etc). many who earn high incomes are actually broke, because they're spending all their income on status items, high-end new cars, huge houses in upscale neighborhoods, boats, etc. they're so busy trying to look rich that they don't have cash left over for savings and investing. in contrast, people like your grandmother are truly wealthy specifically because they lived modestly, didn't care about impressing anyone, didn't go to the country club, and made a priority of building wealth.
his first and maybe best known book was "The Millionaire Next Door." one of his findings was that there were more millionaires in blue collar/middle class areas than in upscale/white collar areas. why? because doctors and lawyers etc are under more pressure to live a fancy lifestyle. nobody expects a farmer or a plumber to drive a BMW and send their kids to private school. so if a farmer and a lawyer both earn good incomes, who's actually more likely to save and invest? That's right: the farmer. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1478299059&amp;sr=8-4&amp;keywords=thomas+j+stanley
I also like his book Stop Acting Rich. https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Acting-Rich-Living-Millionaire/dp/1118011570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1478299059&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=thomas+j+stanley
and stanley's website. he died only last year. http://www.thomasjstanley.com/publications/
General Greeting: I'm 34m, engaged, no kids in our plans. Have lived in Orlando for 16 years since college, and have been making websites and working in software engineering since high school. I absolutely love teaching people how to code and lucked into joining Code School (as you would easily discover looking at my post history).
What brought you to /r/fi: After my mom passed away ~11 years ago, I started reading everything I could to understand what to do with the modest inheritance. This led to reading things like The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing, The Millionaire Next Door and eventually MMM which helped refine and shape my view of investing, consumerism and the role of money in my life.
Other hobbies/interests:: I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and challenge myself to read/listen more. Recently started a site (minafi.com) to write about topics different from my day to day -- minimalism, financial independence and mindfulness. It's been fun having another avenue to write about things that are at the top of my mind, and explore something different from programming. Bunch of other common hobbies - CrossFit, board games, cocktails, eating anything and traveling anywhere.
Picture of yourself if you want: Somehow even though I'm crazy open with personal facts, sharing a photo seems quite intimate. I don't think I've done that before on Reddit, but here goes!.
Lumpy, you are spot on once again...The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealth...most rich folks spend less than they earn and live simple lives...the banks want the pretenders who think being rich is driving expensive cars and living in expensive homes decked out with expensive stuff...
The Millionaire Next Door.
On What to Read
Here are some suggestions on books and websites:
The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
If You Can by William Bernstein - http://efficientfrontier.com/ef/0adhoc/2books.htm
Free version is here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/5tj8480ji58j00f/If%20You%20Can.pdf?dl=0
The Investor's Manifesto. Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Investors-Manifesto-Prosperity-Armageddon-Everything/dp/1118073762
The Bogleheads Guide to Investing - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/1118921283
The Coffeehouse Investor - https://www.amazon.com/Coffeehouse-Investor-Wealth-Ignore-Street/dp/0976585707
The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Retirement-Planning/dp/0470455578
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portfolio/dp/0071747052/
Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey - https://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial/dp/1595555277
Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1118117859
Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690/
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor per red-sfplus’s post (can confirm this is excellent) - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Real-Estate-Investor/dp/0071446370/
For all the M.Ds on here and HNW individuals, you might want to check out https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ and his blog – found it to be very useful.
https://www.irs.gov/ or your government’s tax page. If you’ve been reading, you know that millionaires know more than your average bear about the tax code.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/7vohb3/money/
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/3hzcvn/financial_advice_from_a_financier/
https://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/09/22/4-money-tips-4-personal-finance-legends/
Personal Finance Flowchart from their wiki - https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png
Additional Lists of Books:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Books:_recommendations_and_reviews
https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/books-4/
Subreddits
https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/
https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/ - I would highly encourage you to spend a half hour browsing their wiki - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index and investing advice - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing
https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SecurityAnalysis/
https://www.reddit.com/r/finance/
https://www.reddit.com/r/portfolios/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/
MRP References
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/40whjy/finally_talked_to_my_wife_about_our_finances_it/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/67nxdu/finances_with_a_sahm/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/488pa0/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (original)
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/6a6712/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (year 2)
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3xw015/how_to_prepare_for_a_talk_about_finances/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/30z704/taking_back_the_finances/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/2uzukg/married_redpill_finances_and_money/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3637q5/some_thoughts_on_mrp_and_finances/
https://www.reddit.com/r/askMRP/comments/8dwaqt/best_practices_for_finances_within_marriage/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/588e5o/gain_control_of_the_treasury/
Final Thoughts
There are already a lot of high net worth individuals on these subs (if you don’t believe me, look at the OYS for the past few months). This should be a review for most folks. The key points stay the same – have a plan, get out of the hole you are in, have a budget, do the right moves for wealth accumulation. Lead your family in your finances. Own it.
What are YOU doing to own your finances? Give some examples below.
“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
At /r/atheism we like our quotes to be real.
At first I thought you were making a reference to this book.
Do you really want to be a mechanic? Most people suck at new things until they get enough practice at it. BUT, if it is overly frustrating, yeah, maybe find something else.
I'm probably going to come to the same conclusion after I start my veggie garden but I'm going to at least try. I'll probably be feeding all of the critters that live in my yard instead of myself.
I think it's worth restarting your reward loop by taking small steps.
I'm not sure what your situation is, but most people I've met who "lack drive" have trained themselves to dislike doing hard work and have gotten used to low-effort dopamine hits (here goes hand wavy psychology!). So fundamentally, you have to think about routines, habits, and projects that will help your brain appreciate doing hard work again, putting in the extra work / grit, and persevering and delaying when you feel that dopamine.
It may be worth focusing on setting some reasonable personal goals and creating / iterating on routines to help you meet those goals. These goals should be attainable but require effort.
Look around and think about what in your life you've given up on or no longer pursue because they're difficult / annoying to do.
Phase 1
Restart your reward loops that are lowest on Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
Some examples:
Some even simpler examples:
By committing to chores, routines, and tracking goals and celebrating your progress with family (and explaining your high level plan like this), it's possible your parents are relieved and are more patient with you as you shift and improve.
Phase 2
Try to find a craft / skill that you want to get better that could one day lead to job. Look to the skills / jobs / etc you already have some knowledge about. People think being a barista is a dead-end job, but I know someone who worked their way up (got promoted yearly) from Starbucks barista to National Manager. I know someone else who got really deep into the craft of coffee, eventually starting their own roastery and coffee shop (and they sold for millions, etc). I recommend reading https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0060589469
If you become very good at a single craft (Cal Newport's book is great here - http://calnewport.com/books/so-good/) by doing sustained improvement, you can trade that unique skill / position for improved life traits (working less, more money, more creative work, more autonomy, more ownership, etc). But keep in mind that when you're starting out, you're at the "bottom" and you need to focus on just getting better. Another Cal Newport post coming your way (http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/11/12/the-pre-med-and-ira-glass-complicated-career-advice-from-compelling-people/). You may also find that you have multiple interests and instead of being top 5% of a single craft, you become top 25% in 2 or 3. Scott Adams (from Dilbert) talks about that here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2013/10/23/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-reveals-the-simple-formula-that-will-double-your-odds-of-success/#41a096f42dbc
What else?
I would say more, but to be honest doing all of the above \^ will be PLENTY for you to restart your outlook and habits. It takes time and if you can find a life situation that will allow you to be patient (staying with supporting parents at home is a great way to do this) and improve, then that's excellent. If you try living alone and changing your habits alone while also trying to scale up your job, it may be difficult. But who knows, I don't know you, and maybe the "wake up call" is actually what kickstarts your journey.
I'll just end with:
Okay this has gone on too long, I thought I was only leaving a 1 paragraph reply ><
> home server programming
Pfffft. That just sounds like setting up your home wifi and how we used to set up a LAN to share all our mp3s in a dorm/frat house.
But, for him, I'd think this or this or an AutoZone gift card.
http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
Absolutely astounding read. So much in there I didn't know about Musk and his companies. If you haven't read it yet, do it yesterday. If you're not already convinced he's the DaVinci of our time, this book will do it.
Charles Seife's Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
Good on you for admitting you were wrong. That takes guts.
By the way, I'm assuming you're a woman? If so, I recommend the book "Self Made Man" by Norah Vincent. She spent 18 months "undercover", living as a man. It doesn't deal with male rape, but it does reveal a lot of misunderstanding by women (or at least the author) of what it's like to be a man.
Or the reverse.
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
> When I see bizarre, broad generalizations being made about women
When you run into something like this you should always try to think about what the other person's life experience might be that leads them to their beliefs.
For example: Let's say you meet a man, or a teen, who tells you "women don't like sex". A man who thinks this may have a life experience of growing up both unattractive and being surrounded by male friends & family who are also unattractive. In his life experience, as well as those he is close to, women will express little to no sexual desire in front of them. Sometimes women will do this as a self-defense measure against catching the attention of men they are not interested in. Other times this man's life experience will be constrained because he's never been around when women meet attractive men. This can happen because we all live in our own social bubbles and often don't pay much attention to others outside of our bubbles.
An unattractive man who lives his life around other unattractive men may spend his lifetime never seeing the "I want you" look in a woman's eyes. If he never sees that look, weather at himself or those around him, he may not believe it exists.
Back in the days we all lived in small towns you may have an entire town of unattractive men who have never seen women expressing sexual desire. With our more mobile country and social media it's becoming harder to be so sheltered, but it still seems to happen from time to time. I think it probably is more common among teens because they tend to be more self-focused.
>If someone, especially a women, wants to give you a little nudge in a different direction it might actually, maybe be worth considering.
If she's a lesbian who's been in relationships, than sure. But if you've never had the experience of seducing another woman then any advice is dubious at best. Most people lack a good amount of self-awareness so to believe that women know what they want or what they respond to is just incorrect. Even the NYT knows that women don't know themselves:
>All was different with the women. No matter what their self-proclaimed sexual orientation, they showed, on the whole, strong and swift genital arousal when the screen offered men with men, women with women and women with men. They responded objectively much more to the exercising woman than to the strolling man, and their blood flow rose quickly — and markedly, though to a lesser degree than during all the human scenes except the footage of the ambling, strapping man — as they watched the apes. And with the women, especially the straight women, mind and genitals seemed scarcely to belong to the same person. The readings from the plethysmograph and the keypad weren’t in much accord. During shots of lesbian coupling, heterosexual women reported less excitement than their vaginas indicated; watching gay men, they reported a great deal less; and viewing heterosexual intercourse, they reported much more. Among the lesbian volunteers, the two readings converged when women appeared on the screen. But when the films featured only men, the lesbians reported less engagement than the plethysmograph recorded. Whether straight or gay, the women claimed almost no arousal whatsoever while staring at the bonobos.
One woman learned the difference between men & women when she went undercover as man and she wrote a great book about her experience. Here is an interview with her.
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
I've seen satellite imagery and have read descriptions of escapees.
I'd rather not run the risk of needing to go;"Wir haben es nicht gewusst" in a couple of years.
http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
Escape From Camp 14. It's written by a guy who was born into the camps as a result of an arranged marriage between his father and mother, both of whom had never been accused of anything, but were caught up in the three generations policy.
To get an idea of the conditions; imagine a mix of Schindler's List and Twelve Years A Slave, but with a lot more starvation and rape. It's been operating for longer than anyone in this thread has been alive.
Read his book. Its incredible http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1406833573&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=escape+from+camp+14
Try "How to Change Your Mind," by Michael Pollan
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225
I absolutely found these parallels. If you haven't already I highly suggest reading this . It is super insightful into the healing aspects of psychedelics. Particularly LSD and Psilocybin. I thought this show had a very unique way of bringing these practices to the forefront of the media
Michael Pollan, food/nature writer. Author of In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and new book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. With his new book, it's an interesting pivot from food to psychedelics, though he considers himself a nature writer. Given his influence on the food system and thought around it, I think/hope his new book will be monumental in changing how we see psychedelics.
These aren't mainstream corporate media sources, of course, but if you are interested here's some stuff...
This is a pretty good, but long, article on one ring (which drew a protest of 300,000 people in a city of a million or so - called the White March - because it was clearly being protected by the establishment):
https://isgp-studies.com/belgian-x-dossiers-of-the-dutroux-affair
Here's an article talking about a number of these rings around the world:
http://whale.to/b/pedophocracy.html
It's a way to control people. You make participation the price of getting ahead and you videotape the participation so you own the participant and they will pretty much do anything to avoid being exposed.
William Colby, former CIA director, wrote a forward for a book by John Decamp, a Nebraska state senator, about one ring in Nebraska which involved prominent Republicans.
Where I live there was a serial killer who ended up taking the fall for a likely ring as well. He and his brother ran a pig farm (pigs for body disposal) where police, politicians, and bikers (who predominantly ran the local drug and prostitution trade) alike would party. Women continually went missing and it was an open secret who was doing it. With these kinds of rings police keep investigations from going anywhere and politicians deal with potential public scrutiny. One of the mayors around that time literally got caught in a van with a prostitute who was smoking crack. I think he said that she was struggling with addiction and he was trying to help her or something. ;)
I posted a documentary about the scandal called conspiracy of silence https://youtu.be/wR_Yo1Wt5Tw (that's the title the discovery channel gave it.), check it out. Also see book franklin scandal. https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Murder-Nebraska/dp/0963215809/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=0963215809&amp;pd_rd_r=6HCRGNPTAP5ZT21QCYRG&amp;pd_rd_w=Hu551&amp;pd_rd_wg=3UWT2&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=6HCRGNPTAP5ZT21QCYRG
Read this book.
Sure. A new book is being written about her. Here's one article and the book link.
They did try to treat her cancer, using radiation therapy. She had ovarian cancer at first, so they jammed rods of radioactive material up her yoo-hoo. Her cancer was particularly nasty, and even with today's medicine and knowledge it's doubtful there's much they could have done for her by the time she went in.
Her family received next to nothing in compensation for using Henrietta's cells, although they were most definitely aware that Johns Hopkins had taken them and was using them in a business venture. They knew they were being exploited, but were essentially powerless to do anything about it.
Read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for a better understanding.
I'm sorry. I know what you're going through is really hard.
Cancer is part of the reason I started reading Stoic philosophy tbh. To calm that animal fear of death we all carry.
I'm coming to that moment in my own life as well. Someone I love very much is very ill and I suspect it will come to this sooner rather than later in our family.
I was thinking, I'll probably be the last of my little family to die. Everyone I love will die before me.
My mother will die- she's very ill.
My husband is much older than me.
My sister is older w approaching health issues of her own.
And my younger brother is struggling w mental illness.
I'll probably have to bury them all one by one someday. I dunno that anyone will be left to bury me.
On my worst days I'm sad about it. I feel sorry for myself. Why me? I never asked for it.
But then on other days, I'm grateful for the opportunity. It's one final duty to discharge, one last chance to honor someone very special in my life.
Who else would I want to shoulder my burden?
If I'm not the one to bury them all, then it'll fall to my brother. I love him but his life is a mess even in the best of times. Leave my sister to do it? Her big heart might crack under the strain.
We shared a little bit of time together and it's been lovely. I can do my part.
The funny thing is I'll be dead soon, too. Whether it's a week from now or 100 years it doesn't much matter I guess. I must've read it somewhere but can't recall where (Marcus Aurelius probably):
'We're all dead already, we just haven't been buried yet.'
I try to live my little chunk of time in a way that will leave people around me with a good memory and a warm feeling in their hearts.
Take my blessings with you. I wish you well! Say hi if you see me somewhere on the other side.
Edit: I'm a big reader. These are the books that helped me through the worst of it. Maybe they can help you, too.
wiki, author discusses book, Amazon
wiki, Amazon
Rebecca Skloot's book about Henrietta Lacks is a really great read. Whole heartedly recommend reading it.
The New Kings of Nonfiction is a collection of longform journalism edited by This American Life's Ira Glass.
I'm currently reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It's really interesting, here's part of the synopsis:
>Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.
>Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.
The Disappearing Spoon is about fascinating stories from the history of the periodic table of elements.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is, even with its flaws, I think a deeply compelling and important read about medicine, medical ethics, and America. (I def did some light weeping near the end.)
I'll leave this here
Unfortunately, it's a book. Here's a link to buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1314430698&amp;sr=8-1
Some of the best I've used:
Story by Robert McKee -- As its title indicates, this book takes a look at story construction from a more theoretical perspective. McKee works mostly in the realm of screenplays but the ideas he puts forth are universally applicable and have already helped my writing immensely -- story itself was one of the big areas where I was struggling, and after reading through this book I'm able to much better conceptualize and plan out thoughtful stories.
Stein on Writing by Sol Stein -- if McKee's book is written from a theoretical perspective, Stein's takes a practical look at how to improve writing and editing skills. The mechanics of my writing have improved after reading this book; his examples are numerous and accessible. His tone may come off as a bit elitist but that doesn't mean he doesn't have things to teach us!
On Writing by Stephen King -- A perennial favorite and one I'm sure you've already received numerous suggestions for. Kind of a mix of McKee and Stein in terms of approach, and a great place to start when studying the craft itself.
Elements of Style by Strunk & White -- King swears by this book, and although I've bought it, the spine still looks brand new. I would recommend getting this in paperback format, though, as it's truly meant to be used as a reference.
Writing Excuses Podcast -- HIGHLY recommended place to start. Led by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells and Mary Robinette Kowal, this is one of the places I really started to dig into craft. They're at Season 13.5 now but new listeners can jump in on Season 10, where they focus on a specific writing process in each episode (everything from coming up with ideas to characterization and world building and more). Each episode is only 15(ish) minutes long. Listening to the whole series (or even the condensed version) is like going through a master class in genre fiction.
Brandon Sanderson 318R Playlist -- Professional recordings of Brandon Sanderson's BU writing class. Great stuff in here -- some crossover topics with Writing Excuses, but he is a wealth of information on genre fiction and great writing in general. Covers some of the business of writing too, but mostly focuses on craft.
Love this idea - hopefully I've sent a couple you haven't received yet!
I hope I helped.
On Writing by Stephen King, a combination of auto-bio and the craft from the well known author. < 300 pages.
http://www.amazon.com/On-Writing-Anniversary-Edition-Memoir/dp/1439156816
Allow me to help on a few notes, listen if you want
B. Often times your story starts with a character idea. Seriously, it doesn't even need to be the protagonist, but most of the time it will be, or the antagonist. A story doesn't need to be thought as a lego building instructions, you don't have to follow the steps from beginning to end. You could write from the middle out, just as story building you can start with a character and world build around that character. Ask yourself why this character exists. What kind of story would fit this character? What event would they be good at. Then figure out how they got there, how they are in the state they're in, and what they'll do till the end of the story.
3 or C or the little roman numeral triple "i" thing: Stephen King made a fantastic book on writing. It's titled: On Writing: A memoir of the craft.
Amazon has it for like 11-12 bucks, and by personal experience it's a must have in any writers arsenal from novice to expert.
Link: http://www.amazon.com/On-Writing-Anniversary-Edition-Memoir/dp/1439156816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1367567721&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=on+writing
4,D,iv: Good Writing my friend
I recently read Stephen King's "On Writing: a memoir of the craft" and It's very biographical. He tell his story about booze and how It affected his life and writing. It's an awesome book. Read it. You are not the first one to face these things.
Also. It seems like you have 97 meetings to go to, and 20 mile weeks, too.
Run it off. It helps a lot. Good luck on the race! Cheers.
Franklin scandal is honestly a massive shit show.
Here's the 1994 documentary.
There's two separate Last Podcast on the Left episodes about it: Ep 119 and Ep 120.
Here's a book about it.
It's an intensely interesting situation where you need to take everything with a grain of salt.
It's a book written by a Senator from Nebraska who was part of the committee that investigated a case in Omaha back in the 80s-90s.
You can find a PDF version free online; I don't have a link, but I know it's out there.
If you're more on the up and up you can buy it on Amazon.
There is also a documentary produced by the Discovery Channel, Conspiracy of Silence, that never aired but I would suggest reading the book first - it's much more detailed.
Fair warning, it is not always easy to read. It's not overly graphic, but it can be disturbing.
The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska https://www.amazon.com/dp/0963215809/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ixbCCb479762J there's the book, I'll need to do some more digging and refresh my memory to dig up the details about the plane explosion
I think you mean The Franklin Cover-up. The Franklin Conspiracy is something else.
tl;dr: They're the Bad Guys.
Still just scratching the surface...:
EXCLUSIVE: Secret service infiltrated paedophile group to 'blackmail establishment'
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/485529/Special-Branch-funded-Paedophile-Information-Exchange-says-Home-Office-whistleblower[1]
'More than 10' politicians on list held by police investigating Westminster 'paedophile ring'
Whistleblower who prompted Operation Fernbridge says up to 40 MPs and peers knew about or took part in child abuse
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10947561/More-than-10-politicians-on-list-held-by-police-investigating-Westminster-paedophile-ring.html[2]
Nearly everyone on UK paedophile ring list is a Freemason says abuse victim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m-5BUNXfNU[3]
Margaret Thatcher 'personally covered up' child abuse allegations against senior ministers: The Tory Prime Minister is said to have held a meeting with a rising star, who was tipped for promotion, and told him: “You have to clean up your sexual act”
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/2akwze/margaret_thatcher_personally_covered_up_child/[4]
Children's homes were 'supply line' for paedophiles, says ex-minister
Lord Warner says an inquiry he conducted in 1992 showed how children's homes were targeted by powerful people
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/08/children-homes-supply-line-paedophiles-lord-warner[5]
Westminster paedophile ring allegations: timeline
Here are the key events in the claims around an alleged VIP paedophile ring in Westminster
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10950127/Westminster-paedophile-ring-allegations-timeline.html[6]
Canadian Sex Worker kicked out of Senate hearings on controversial prostitution law after threatening to reveal list of Canadian federal politicians who use prostitution.
http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/2g3ch2/canadian_sex_worker_kicked_out_of_senate_hearings/[7]
Jehovah's Witnesses destroyed documents showing child abuse allegations, court told in cover-up case
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/29f9wp/jehovahs_witnesses_destroyed_documents_showing/[8]
Salvation Army 'rented out' boys at Sydney children’s home in Sydney to paedophiles
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/10606458/Salvation-Army-rented-out-boys-at-Sydney-childrens-home-in-Sydney-to-paedophiles.html[9]
TIL that a woman, hired by Dyncorp to crackdown on forced prostitution on behalf of the UN, discovered that the UN police were the main perpetrators of forced prostitution and was later fired.
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/15r2j4/til_that_a_woman_hired_by_dyncorp_to_crackdown_on/[10]
WikiLeaks Reveals That Military Contractors Have Not Lost Their Taste For Child Prostitutes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/08/wikileaks-reveals-that-mi_n_793816.html[11]
The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman's Fight for Justice
http://www.amazon.com/The-Whistleblower-Trafficking-Military-Contractors/dp/B005CDUBC2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;amp;qid=1331445269&amp;amp;amp;sr=8-4[12]
Sounds like Blackwater founder Erik Prince was operating a child prostitution service in Iraq
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&amp;amp;amp;address=389x6249748[13]
1989 News: Call boys in Bush Sr's Whitehouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5OJPeHCmhA[14]
1989 #2 News: Call boys in Bush Sr's Whitehouse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU-k-tfiPfs[15]
1989 story about Bush Sr. Whitehouse call Boy sex ring
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2003/02/06/15709461.php[16]
Nixon Tape Discusses Homosexuals at Bohemian Grove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPb-PN9F2Pc[17]
Charges refiled against former Pittsburgh cop accused of running prostitution ring
http://triblive.com/news/2222380-74/johns-police-criminal-charges-pittsburgh-prostitution-allegheny-charged-counts-county#axzz2Qc0wAaBg[18]
Former TSA employee fined $500 for running prostitution ring
Man confronted by police in Silver Spring hotel in February
http://www.gazette.net/article/20120611/NEWS/706119952/1007/former-tsa-employee-fined-500-for-running-prostitution-ring&amp;amp;amp;template=gazette[19]
School board member convicted of running prostitution ring in California
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/08/16904911-school-board-member-convicted-of-running-prostitution-ring-in-california?lite[20]
FBI dad’s spyware experiment accidentally exposes pedophile principal
http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/146xzt/fbi_dads_spyware_experiment_accidentally_exposes/[21]
The Franklin Cover-Up - John DeCamp - Full film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcWrrBceuP4[22]
The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska
http://www.amazon.com/The-Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Nebraska/dp/0963215809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;amp;qid=1366098964&amp;amp;amp;sr=8-1&amp;amp;amp;keywords=franklin+coverup[23]
Pentagon Child Porn Scandal: Security Agencies Were Left At Risk, Investigators Say
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/pentagon-child-porn-scand_n_656839.html[24]
Secret Service Prostitution Scandal
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/secret-service-prostitution-scandal[25]
A Party under Fire: A Scandal-Scarred GOP Asks, ‘What Next?’
Explicit e-mails with under-age male pages. Criminal lobbyists. Being on client lists for prostitution rings. FBI corruption investigations. And, now, soliciting sex in an airport bathroom. People are beginning to wonder: how low can Republican lawmakers go?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/a-party-under-fire-a-scandal-scarred-gop-asks-what-next-a-502653.html[26]
Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html[27]
The D.C. Madam Case, All Sordid Out
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2008-04-11/opinions/36798466_1_deborah-jeane-palfrey-prosecutors-shock-and-awe[28]
Mike Horner Prostitution Scandal: GOP State Rep. Resigns After Name Reportedly Surfaces On Client List
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/mike-horner-sex-prostitution-scandal_n_1910647.html[29]
Another One: Top Federal Judge Linked to Prostitution Ring
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4452917&amp;amp;amp;page=1#.UW0JY0pcnn4[30]
‘Comfort Women’ Controversy Comes to New York
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/comfort-women-controversy-comes-to-new-york/[31]
Pope Francis: 'About 2%' of Catholic clergy paedophiles
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28282050[32]
Pope begs forgiveness for 'sacrilegious cult' of Church sexual abuse
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/07/us-pope-abuse-idUSKBN0FC15J20140707[33]
Vatican arrests former archbishop on paedophilia charges
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/23/us-vaitican-abuse-arrest-idUSKCN0HI28T20140923[34]
Sex scandal rocks Vatican: Papal usher, chorister linked to gay prostitution ring
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/sex-scandal-rocks-vatican-papal-usher-chorister-linked-gay-prostitution-ring-article-1.172149[35]
BBC News - Catholic Church loses child abuse liability appeal
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/wfq5e/bbc_news_catholic_church_loses_child_abuse/[36]
Ireland admits involvement in Catholic laundry slavery
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57567706/ireland-admits-involvement-in-catholic-laundry-slavery/[37]
Cover-up claims revive sex scandal
Belgian establishment accused of closing ranks to block investigation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/apr/21/stephenbates[38]
Belgium Pedophilia Scandal /Did Authorities Cover Up Its Scope?: Book Revives Fear of Grand Conspiracy
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/16/news/16iht-brussels.2.t.html?pagewanted=all[39]
Portugal's elite linked to paedophile ring
Abuse was reportedly going on at Lisbon orphanage for 20 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/27/childprotection.uk[40]
FBI Ran Pedophile Ring to Nab Pedophiles
As late as last year, the FBI ran a child pornography operation in an attempt to nab its customers. The service ran for two weeks "while attempting to identify more than 5,000 customers, according to a Seattle FBI agent's statements to the court."
http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/05/30/FBI-Ran-Pedophile-Ring-to-Nab-Pedophiles[41]
Boy Scouts helped alleged molesters cover tracks, files show
When volunteers and employees were suspected of sexually abusing children, Boy Scout officials often didn't tell police, files from 1970-91 reveal. In many cases they sought to hide the situation.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-boy-scouts-files-20120916,0,1641796.story#axzz2xIsUM5rH[42]
Child Sex Case Adds Outrage To Scandals Rocking Belgium
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-10-27/news/9610270253_1_marc-dutroux-minister-willy-claes-jean-marc-connerotte[43]
Theme park employees caught in child porn arrests
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/14/us/theme-park-employees-child-sex-stings/[44]
Former acting HHS cybersecurity director convicted on child porn charges
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/08/26/former-acting-hhs-cybersecurity-director-convicted-on-child-porn-charges/[45]
Hundreds held over Canada child porn
Police in Canada say 348 people have been arrested and nearly 400 children rescued during a three-year investigation into child pornography.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-24944358[46]
Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Arrested on Child Porn Charges
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Los-Angeles-Deputy-City-Attorney-arrested-on-child-porn-charges-the-City-Attorneys-Office-said-274174791.html
https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Murder-Nebraska/dp/0963215809
In the face of opposition from local and state law enforcement, from the FBI, and from the powerful Omaha World-Herald newspaper, a special Franklin committee of the Nebraska Legislature launched its own probe. What looked like a financial swindle, soon exploded into a hideous tale of drugs, Iran-Contra money-laundering, a nationwide child abuse ring, and ritual murder
If you're keen to learn more, there is an excellent book about the woman whose cells were used to create the HeLa line - 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.' When I did research we worked with HeLa cells and it was pretty interesting to hear about the person who 'donated' them.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181
That's pretty tough... I think if I had to pin down one book that really affected me it'd have to be The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Extremely well researched and fantastically written. A great example of well done literary nonfiction!
How creepy you into? One of my favorite books of the last year was People in the Trees, but it's a little hmmm... dark.
Also recently finished this Henrietta Lacks non-fiction which was good.
Currently reading a shitty crime novel that's pretty addicting, before I get into some 800 page shit I have on deck.
'HeLa' is a reference to a strain of human cells that labs use for testing. I can strongly recommend this book about their source. It's absolutely fascinating and heartbreaking:
https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181
Reading.
Lots and lots and lots of reading to get the sense of how stories evolve and unfold.
then, if youre really serious, find a short-ish one you like and type it out page by page so you can get a sense of the pace of actual writing and then adapt it to your own.
oh yeah, and lots of reading.
and when in doubt, get this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816
Can I suggest to you, and anyone else, that it would be beneficial to read Stephen King's book 'On Writing'. If you click on the 'Look inside' sample pages, and scroll down to pages 285 and 286, it illustrates how to edit text with the notion that less is more.
Taking a piece of text from your line 10, as an example: "Maybe it's time we, became adults!" Due to her saying this to the boy it caused him to blush slightly.
Taking Stephen King's advice I'd imagine it would be more like:
"Maybe it's time we became adults!" she said.
He blushed.
"How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy" is a good book, there's some useful stuff in it. But for a raw beginner it doesn't hold a candle to Ben Bova's "The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells" (http://www.amazon.com/Craft-Writing-Science-Fiction-Sells/dp/0898796008).
Some other books I recommend:
http://www.amazon.com/Characters-Emotion-Viewpoint-Techniques-Viewpoints/dp/1582973164
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Yourself/dp/0060545690 (note: despite the title, I'd recommend reading this before you write a book).
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816
Mr. Coorlim is right however that you should ignore anything you read about the business side of writing. It's all changing too quickly now for any book to keep up.
Here are a few I think are good:
Getting Started
On Writing: This book is great. There are a lot of nice principles you can walk away with and a lot of people on this subreddit agree it's a great starting point!
Lots of Fiction: Nothing beats just reading a lot of good fiction, especially in other genres. It helps you explore how the greats do it and maybe pick up a few tricks along the way.
For Editing
Self-Editing For Fiction Writers: there isn't anything in here that will blow your writing away, land you an agent, and secure a NYT bestseller, but it has a lot of good, practical things to keep an eye out for in your writing. It's a good starting place for when you are learning to love writing (which is mostly rewriting)
A Sense of Style by Steve Pinker: I really loved this book! It isn't exclusively about fiction, but it deals with the importance of clarity in anything that is written.
Garner's Modern American Usage: I just got this about a month ago and have wondered what I was doing before. This is my resource now for when I would normally have gone to Google and typed a question about grammar or usage or a word that I wasn't sure I was using correctly. It's a dictionary, but instead of only words, it is filled with essays and entries about everything a serious word-nut could spend the rest of their^1 life reading.
^1 ^Things ^such ^as ^the ^singular ^their ^vs ^his/hers
Publishing
Writer's Market 2016: There are too many different resources a writer can use to get published, but Writer's Market has a listing for Agents, publishers, magazines, journals, and contests. I think it's a good start once you find your work ready and polished.
There are too many books out there that I haven't read and have heard good things about as well. They will probably be mentioned above in this thread.
Another resource I have learned the most from are books I think are terrible. It allows you to read something, see that it doesn't work, and makes you process exactly what the author did wrong. You can find plenty of bad fiction if you look hard enough! I hope some of this helps!
I found Stephen King's On Writing to be enormously motivating and educational.
> Personally I quite enjoy his style because he's not afraid to just say shit as it is, gnarly and uncomfortable as it might be.
You should read his memior / book about how to be a writer, On Writing. I don't want to be a writer, but I've read it several times because it's so good.
Stephen King wrote a book a while back called ON WRITING that, while being more focused on writing novels and short stories, details many of the pitfalls that new writers will encounter when starting a new story. It's a fantastic tool, written by somebody that knows a thing or two about telling good stories, and it can help you get a leg up. I highly recommend it!
As for formatting a document to conform to screenplay requirements, try this wonderful software called Trelby
I noticed you mentioned having Grammar and style errors, if you want some help with grammar and style let me link you two extremely helpful books that are very low bullshit for their price:
The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/020530902X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-YyyCbQ6NC2R1
This is the best book for grammar help in my opinion, it's especially helpful if you still have to write essays.
On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439156816/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_L0yyCb9D4H4SE
The first half of this book is a memoir, but the second half is absolutely packed with good advice for novels, regardless the genre.
The first book will help you catch those Grammar errors before you go back with another story, and the second will help you with Style. IE your "The elf walked with grace to the door." Sentence and how to avoid Adverbs.
Not a real person option, but have you read Stephen King's On Writing? It's really good.
I'm not a terribly experienced dev, so I can only give really general advice mostly from the perspective of a game player.
For writing in general, Stephen King's On Writing is often touted as essential reading.
If you are set on a cyberpunk setting (and you should have the setting decided before you start) then there are a few influential works that should act as a foundation. I'm not an expert in the genre, so that list looks good to me, but it could be a bit much. I'd focus on Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
As for writing a plot for a game, try to decide how the story will be presented to the player. Will there be cutscenes? Will there be dialogue trees to navigate through? (Do those paths change the narrative.) And maybe consider how the mechanics of the game relate to the themes of the narrative.
Getting started is difficult sometimes, so maybe start with a character. Decide their personality, and their goals, and their background. Work on what they want and how they think they'll get it (and why they think that), what obstacles are in their way, etc. And each part of that requires more things to work on, so once you've started, there are always places to go.
I hope some of this is helpful.
Constructive criticism accepted? If you're trying to live up to your blog's name, then you're succeeding. Lines like "The cinematography was pretty decent. Nothing really ground-breaking, but it was a really pleasant movie to look at during some scenes." do very little to tell your readers anything. Who was the cinematographer? Did they do anything else of note? IMDB is your friend. In this case, Spanish cinematographer Oscar Faura; probably not many American readers are familiar with his work, as I believe it's his first English-language film. Same goes for the Norwegian director Morten Tyldum. What was interesting, or can you use more evocative language? Do you understand the visual language enough to recognize and describe things like tracking shots, handheld shots, framing, lighting? "I only have one minor complaint about this movie, which is the CGI." Cut off the "which is the CGI" part. I'm pretty sure no one calls it CGI anymore (just CG), and the phrase isn't necessary because you spend the rest of the paragraph talking about that very thing. Don't sound like Perd Hapley. Remember that it's not just about your impression of the movie, but why you felt that way. And, too, that you're writing about the film, not about how you felt about it. It's your opinion, sure, but there's a balance between putting yourself on the page and putting your recommendation or lack thereof on the page - the line between being Harry Knowles or Roger Ebert. Make the reader feel your joy...or pain...or indifference.
I used to be a semi-pro film critic and editor of other people's reviews. I learned a lot from reading the great critics - Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert - and from books about film. A Short Guide to Writing About Film, Film Art: An Introduction, How to Read a Film. All books I remember reading. And not just those, but books about writing. Particular favorites are The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing. If you want to brush up on your knowledge of what you're seeing, Every Frame a Painting is a stellar look at film's visual language.
Someone born and raised inside the labor camp escaped. Here's his book.
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
My family is from an Eastern block country, and was there while the area was under USSR control, and that is how things were at the time. You escape, and your family dies.
You're an idiot if you think that North Korea is any different.
Edit: check out this book when you get the time:
"Escape From Camp 14"
It might open your eyes a bit...
I think the first point to consider is that The Orphan Master's Son should be read as a domestic drama, more along the lines of Nothing to Envy than any of the foreign-policy focused news and zomg-weird-pop-performance-footage that dominates this subreddit and /r/northkoreanews.
In that light, the Orphan Master's Son is a lovely, well-told story, and it was well-researched, but it's still clearly a second-hand impression of the country. It doesn't add to the outside world's stock of DPRK information; it just retells the tragedies already told by Shin Dong-hyuk and Kenji Fujimoto in a literary style.
Then too, there are places where the needs of the story subsume the reality on the ground. For example, the book entertains the notion that the state would promote just individual one actress its paragon of female virtue and one individual soldier as the paragon of male virtue. This is important to author's point about public and private identity and whether love also needs truth, but it's wholly out of step with the Kim regime's way of doing business. Kim Il Sung is the one god in North Korea, and the only permissible icons are his successors, and to a lesser extent, senior party politicians. Pop figures are disposable.
But The Orphan Master's Son is a good read. It would go high on my list of recommendations for someone who wants a starting point on the country but is scared of footnotes and foreign names. But if your DPRK obsession hinges more on predicting the fate of the Kaesong Industrial Zone, it won't give you much.
Seriously. I don't understand why so many people here keep dismissing him as the "stupid child dictator" thing. Speculate what you want about the nuke situation, if he has the balls to do it or whatever, but the human right violations in that country are horrendous and blatant. I really urge people to read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916#productDescription_secondary_view_div_1504557988773
This is a book I read awhile back that might make you reconsider that:
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
I'd much rather be homeless in a place like Seattle or San Diego than be born into a prison camp and live the kind of life described in this book... To be honest, I'd rather be in a US federal penitentiary.
Born to Run is a great read about human performance reads like a novel. I'm making my way through The Story of the Human Body it's more an evolution perspective of the body and I have to say it is going slow but interesting.
This is the Born to Run you are looking for.
There is a big split in the running community between those who think you need to go to a running shoe shop and get fitted for orthotics and shoes with massive padding and the other side that thinks that your body is designed to run, and you should let it.
I have found that wearing some minimilist shoes and landing on the front of my foot, rather than the heel has changed everything. I used to have knee pain from just standing up all day (I'm a teacher) but since I started running on the front of my feet, it has gone away.,
I heartily recommend a book called Born to Run which you might hear people here talking about. Read that. It'll change everything.
Read the book, Born To Run. Not only is it a great book, but it addresses barefoot running and the evolution of the running shoe. Humans aren't designed to wear shoes.
https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189
well. A book that changed my life back when I was 15 was Walden from Thoreau. I threw away everything I owned. yeah I mean everything even my bed. I own nothing that dates from before I was 15. Would this have the same effect today? who knows.
back then, the book Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche had something to to with me ''taking a break'' from school, contributing too did: genealogy of Morals, into the wild, Adorno - dialectic of Enlightenment ( had no idea what that guy was talking about back then but made me real queasy about the world nonetheless.)
books that changed my life recently: Lying from Sam Harris. Steven Pinker - Enlightenment now made me pick a lot of fights with people who like to hate this world.
Insanity of Normality made me forgive some people I had real bad feelings toward, though I'm sceptical now of what is said in the book
unless you understand german you won't be able to read this: Blödmachinen , made me a snob in regards to media. Bernard Stieglers books might have the same effect in english
oh and selfish gene by Dawkins made me less judgmental. Don't know why. I just like people more
EDIT
oh lest I forget: Kandinsky - Concerning The Spiritual in Art made me paint my appartement black blue; Bukowski and the Rubaiyat made me drink more, Born To Run made me run barefoot, Singers Practical Ethics made me donate money and buy far less stuff.
That's a great deal for the Bikilas! I've been running in mine for about a year now and I love them. As long as you start slow and get used to the new form, I think they're really good for you. I had some pretty bad knee and shin issues when I was running in traditional shoes, and all of that went away with my Vibrams.
If you haven't already checked it out and are interested, you should check out Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It's a really interesting book for a runner.
I'm sure you've either read or been recommended these, but here goes:
Eat & Run by Scott Jurek
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.
The Oatmeal's Book
Born To Run by Christopher McDougal is all about the virtues of running barefoot and some great storytelling too.
Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger by Michael Matthews are good books that cover a lot of basics thoroughly. I would recommend only getting one of Matthews books as I've heard they are basically copies with pronouns swapped to be geared toward a different audience.
So, I completely sympathize. I am a crappy runner and am really self conscious about running with just about anyone because they're going to be faster than me and I don't want to slow them down. I agree that your boyfriend should be more understanding and supportive and with everything that's been said so far.
But! Your other question is about motivation. Understandably I've never liked running because I'm not good at it. And I never had any desire to be good at it. That is, until I read this book. The freedom and joy derived from running ultra marathons by the people in the story is inspiring.
I'm still not a great runner. I'm still really self conscious about running. But goddamned if I don't really want to love running now.
If you like this, you guys would love reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Unreal story and super motivational book.
Basically what souzaphone711 said.
Overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibram_FiveFingers
Vendor: http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/index.htm
A cool info site: http://www.youarethetechnology.com/
The MOST IMPORTANT thing if you decide to give these a try is to EASE into using them. Luckily the guy who sold me my first pair was a true believer and walked me through it. My wife also. Do NOT put these things on and go. Your foot is weak from years of having been encased in shoe support. It takes some time build the muscles back up. If you don't already spend some time in your bare feet start doing so.
Sub-reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/BarefootRunning/
Sub-sub-reddit (for hardcores who want NOTHING on their feet, at all - too extreme for me): http://www.reddit.com/r/barefoot
Read "Born To Run". Though not the focus of the book, this is the book (plus a guy I know who bought some shoes) that got me to try the shoes out: http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/
The shoes did not just work for me - they helped my wife also. She'd had shin splints, plantar fasciitis, shoe inserts, etc. and she now has six pairs of FiveFingers. She runs much farther than I do (I only go a few miles, she'll do five or six).
If you try it you'll find that people seem to have strong opinions pro or con. The longer someone has been running and buying super expensive shoes and/or been educated in the status quo the stronger they will react.
Read Born to Run by Chris McDougall. It is a great book and quite insightful. After you are done, get your friend to read it. When he is done ask him when he wants to go running with you.
This is not a civil engineering book, but one of my favorite 'engineering' stories is "Skunkworks" about Lockheed's secret development division.
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1473165192&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=skunkworks
Other than that I recommend:
"Traffic, Why we Drive the way we do"
https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-What-Says-About/dp/0307277194
;
"Rust: The Longest War"
https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Longest-War-Jonathan-Waldman/dp/1451691602/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1473165145&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=rust
All depends on what you do. Sure, many engineers stay at their desks their whole lives, just as many engineers are out in the field or on the floor working alongside the technicians.
Read Skunkworks. Rich goes into detail a couple times that Kelly Johnson, the father of Skunkworks would make sure his engineers were right next to the assembly line at all times. This allowed the engineers to still design what they needed to work on, but also go right to the floor in a matter of seconds to fix or check what they needed to.
Anything by Henry Petroski
Skunk Works by Ben Rich Military aircraft aren't really developed this way anymore, but the stories are amazing.
Blind Man's Bluff
There are a few, probably one of the most appreciated/sought after is Sled Driver. Shul was a pilot and also a photographer, and the book is full of some awesome pictures. After he retired, he became a photographer and motivational speaker. He wrote the story above; this is a slightly different and expanded version.
There are also some great stories in the book (and a lot about the development/construction of the plane Skunk Works by Ben Rich. He also talks about the U2 and the F117A.
Read the book Skunk Works. It's fascinating and will answer all your questions about the F-117.
Also not an AMA but related: Ben Rich's book Skunk Works covers some of what went on at Area 51.
Read Skunk Works, a history of Lockheed's secret division that designed the SR-71, the U-2, and the F-117 stealth fighter. The author, aeronautical engineer Ben Rich, was the second person to head Skunk Works, after the legendary Kelly Johnson retired. Rich's first project as head of the division was the stealth fighter, and Johnson literally kicked him in the ass because he thought if it failed it could end Rich's career.
Go read https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
Really good book
If anyone is interested in learning more about Lockheed in Burbank, this book has some pretty good stories about some of the high profile projects that were designed/built there.
Just bought this book https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_Qel2BbHG7MS0B
And just started the section about the blackbird. Very excited for that.
If anyone wants to find out just what went into making these amazing machines I highly recommend Skunk Works. Just a fantastic book filled with great stories of the development of the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird and more.
I got this as a birthday present and could not put it down until I finished it.
I started to read more when I was trying to unplug. TV/Netflix/phones can really pull you out of reality, make your brain weak as you begin to lose control of your thoughts. Just try not watching TV/youtube for 3 days...why is it so hard? Are we addicted to screens or are we just lazy. Research neuroplasticity, and how you can make your brain work for you (any how you fall into additive traps when you lose control of your attention). A lot of people on here are recommending meditation, I can't stress how important this is.
Start by reading someting that interests you...check out r/suggestmeabook if you need some help. Also, I can recommend some great books:
Best of luck.
Skunkworks - Ben Rich
This is one incredible book if this video even remotely interests you
ahem Kelly Johnson with pencils and rulers. And he didn't need either.
I would highly recommend that aviation junkies read this book. I bought it when I was probably 12, and I reread it all the time. The things that skunkworks did is amazing.
It's a tragedy that Jim died. Unfortunately, when shit goes sour at mach 3, there's no power that can save you beyond dumb luck.
Currently reading Ben Rich's Skunk Works and it's mind-numbing how far ahead of its time the Blackbird was. "We are traveling at twice the speed of a sixteen-inch shell, and we don't turn on a dime. A tight turn takes between sixty and a hundred nautical miles, and if a pilot gets a little sloppy he could start a turn over Atlanta and end up over Chattanooga."
What everyone said is correct: math, math, math, and enjoy your last summer ;) You may also want to learn how to code in C++ or Fortran (yes, yes, it's ancient, but pretty much all NASA codes are written in C++ or Fortran) or even Matlab, if you have access to it.
Also, if you want to read some inspirational type books: Kelly Johnson's Memoir, the man basically invented Skunk Works. I also loved Flying the SR71, which is all about the Blackbird. It may sound corny, but Rocket Boys is my go-to book and/or movie when I feel discouraged and like I can't hack it as an engineer. And Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" was really interesting to me.
What I found pushed me through the grueling classes, assignments, 50% on a test... was my passion for space exploration and propulsion methods. So I suggest in addition to the math and enjoying the free time you have left that you find what makes you passionate to be an engineer :). Because sometimes, at 2 am in a computer lab, after staring at the same chunk of code for 3 hours and not understanding why it doesn't seem to friggin work out... passion is all you have!
Best of luck to ya!
I didn't see anyone post this, but this is a great book with those kinds of stories.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316743003/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1519177621&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&amp;keywords=skunkworks+book
[Skunk Works by Ben Rich is a fascinating book that you should check out] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316743003?pc_redir=1408944304&amp;robot_redir=1)
[This book is also an interesting look inside early skunk works projects.] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316743003/ref=pd_aw_sims_10?pi=SL500_SY115&amp;simLd=1 )
The Devil in the White City is an excellent read that covers this and the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
Supposedly a film is in the works starring DiCaprio and directed by Scorsese, but there hasn't been much news about this lately.
Okay so this isn't what you are asking for but check out The Devil in the White City. Its a story about a serial killer around the turn of the 20th century during the Chicago World Fair. Again- not specifically what you asked for but if that piqued your interest this will too.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.
You should read it because it's a non-fiction story of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death, told in a novelistic style.
And because Leonardo DiCaprio bought the film rights to it a few years ago.
And because it's the next book I want to read. It's supposed to be very good!
God, I love Reddit. It has led me to read really awesome books like The Devil in the White City and The Killing Joke. Now, I guess I'm going to read Perfume. Thanks for the book suggestion.
I enjoyed Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.
A quick browse of my bookshelf and the ones that jumped out at me... some nonfiction, some fiction... some light, some heavy...
The Culture of Contentment by John Galbraith
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Pimp by Iceberg Slim
The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris
Bloom County Babylon by Berkeley Breathed
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
Turned On: A Biography of Henry Rollins by James Parker
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Beyond that, my most prized book is my hardback Norton Anthology of English Lit (2nd vol - the 'modern' stuff).
Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I'm def curling up with a good one when I hit the hay!
I don't think there will ever be a perfect rule that can be applied across all possibilities without fail, but for me one of the major things I look for is whether the author is a respected scientist actively working in the field (or, if they're retired, had an active history in the field).
So your Gazzaniga and Brown books I wouldn't even hesitate to recommend to others, without even having read them. It helps that I've read other books by those authors and their research, but their names alone are enough for me to give them a tick. Of course that doesn't guarantee that they're good books, but if you're asking for a rule on how to judge a book before reading it, then that's probably going to result in more success than failure.
The second thing I look for is whether the author has a history of writing polemics and intentionally controversial books in order to increase sales (a sort of "clickbait" approach to books), and whether their names are associated with criticism for misrepresenting basic issues in the areas they discuss. As such, people like Gladwell and Pinker would be ruled out by this.
>I'd also love to hear /r/skeptic 's suggestions for reading specifically about learning, drive, motivation, discipline...
My personal suggestions would be:
Understanding Behaviorism - William Baum (touches a little more on rigorous academic work rather than being a purely pop work, but still has some good pop chapters).
The Science of Self-Control - Howard Rachlin
Breakdown of Will - George Ainslie
Some related books but not directly on those topics:
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks (It's a cliche suggestion but still a good book).
Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience - Sally Satel and Scott Lilienfeld (More methodological issues with neuroscience research and reporting).
Delusion of Gender - Cordelia Fine (Critical look at some of the research on gender differences).
Not quite the same as your examples, but some of my favorite non-fiction science are...
The Coming Plague
And The Band Played On
The Disappearing Spoon
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat
I could probably come up with a few others if any of these seem to be what interests you.
Reefer Madness is about not only the causes behind marijuana being illegal, but also problems with migrant labor, and pornography.
Nickle and Dimed is about, basically, how minimum wage sucks a big fat one.
The Man who mistook his wife for a hat is about people with varying neurological disorders, and I think is just cool in general.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. The writing is so good you won't care about the squeamish content.
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum. A perfect blend of a historical retelling and science.
A Treasury of Deception by Michael Farguhar.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks. Short stories of the mentally abnormal patients of Sacks.
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Taylor. Very good insight on what it is like to live with, and recover from brain damage. Also talks science about parts of the brain as a nice intro to the subject.
Mutants: On Genetic Variety in the Human Body by Armand Leroi.
And of course,
Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
I'm subscribed to lots of book subreddits, so I assumed one of those... Saw it was askwomen and my first thought was "I bet Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman isn't on any of their lists." Thank you for proving me wrong! :-D
So for kicks, I'll recommend "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" to you. It's neurology case studies from Oliver Sacks (The doctor from Awakenings, played by Robin Williams), written for laymen. That shit is fascinating!
Any book that take a scientific look on how we perceive and integrate stimulu. (Here is my choice).
Any Oliver Sacks book. Understanding the broken brain is a very good tool to get the healthy one.(start with this one)
There is that Crash Course Psychology.
For me it's a good to understand what are attention and perception, what is it to learn and the importance of working memory. You can get all that without understanding memory, but it would be interesting to.
It can be cool to have a general idea of when our brain use shortcut because it's important not to waste energy.
And then for the social side of it welcome to the field of influence.
For a bit of history, the declassified documents are on the source section.
The man who mistook his wife for a hat
Theirs was an amazing story, like the dream of every teenager's wish of being a game developer. Then the subsequent nightmare and reality of that success.
For more on the history of Doom and Quake's development, check out the book Masters of Doom which chronicles both John Carmack's and John Romero's lives, and includes anecdotes from Michael Abrash.
You might also be interested in reading Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book, published in 1997 as a compilation of Michael's writings on assembly and graphics programming, as well as a specific chapter on Doom and Quake technology. It is fully available for free online.
The "Metaverse" that Michael Abrash references in his announcement is from Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. His vision of a virtual reality that inspired so many others is described on pages 23 to 27 from that novel and can be read online for free.
> This video has 21 minutes of me playing DOOM before the sound effects were put in as well as some early deathmatching with Shawn Green. - John Romero
This footage was shot November 1993, the game was released December 10, 1993 (Wiki).
Doom was create by the guys at id Software.
These legends revolutionised the gaming industry by creating games such as Command Keen, Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake.
Fun facts:
Book recommendation: Masters of Doom
That was a pretty cool video, If you want to read more about id and how John Carmack and John Romero I recommend Masters of Doom. It is a really good read and puts you into the mindset of how revolutionary the stuff these guys were doing at the time.
You would probably love this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155
It's mostly about DOOM but it talks a lot about Commander Keen.
Anyone interested in Doom and gaming history in general should read Masters of Doom. It's really well written and very entertaining. Get it along with The Making of Prince of Persia, because, why not.
The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World by Steven Kent
Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered The World by David Sheff
Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds by J. C. Herz
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner
Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing by Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig De Peuter
Replay: The History of Video Games by Tristan Donovan
All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture by Harold Goldberg
Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time by Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton
Guys, just read Masters of Doom. Now you know everything.
read the book "Masters of Doom" for an entertaining and informational piece of the two John's !
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155
Regarding another, darker aspect to The Grove, as brought to light in the book The Franklin Cover-up by John W. De Camp (Amazon) (pdf) :
>
> From very early childhood, Paul Bonacci was subjected to
> tortures as profound as any the Nazis inflicted on their captives.
> This is not merely a comparison; rather it is an actual continua-
> tion, as we shall see. From sexual degradation, from witnessing
> and forced participation in Satanic cult murders, Bonacci suf-
> fered the cracking of his mind into what is called "multiple
> personality disorder" (MPD). Tens of thousands of American
> children have been diagnosed MPDs; virtually all of them are
> thought to have resulted from sexual abuse, of which perhaps
> 85 percent were cases of Satanic ritual abuse.
> Psychiatric professionals specified in Paul Bonacci's legal
> proceedings that through it all, Paul's different "personalities"
> have emerged incapable of lying, with an ultra-sharp memory.
>
> In one instance detailed in The Franklin Cover-Up, Paul
> was taken by Larry King and others to a wooded area in
> California-identified after publication as the Bohemian Grove.
> There Paul and another boy were forced to do sex acts with
> and to consume parts of a child whom they had watched being
> murdered by the cultists. The body was to be disposed of by
> "the men with the hoods.
From a preceding portion of the book, the victim goes into further detail regarding his experience (WARNING: The content can be incredibly disturbing, to the extent I've posted it as an image rather than text):
http://i.imgur.com/YerGlE9.gif
From a related article:
> John DeCamp’s book, The Franklin Cover-Up, includes Paul Bonacci’s testimony about a snuff film of a child being murdered on July 26, 1984 in California in “an area that had big trees.” At a meeting in Santa Rosa, DeCamp told a group that he had edited out Bonacci’s references to an enormous, moss-covered owl and men in hooded red robes because he not know then about the owl at the Grove and thought it “too far fetched for people to believe.” In the fall of 1992, Paul Bonacci was shown a black and white photo of the moss-covered owl at the Grove and quickly identified it as the site of the July 1984 snuff film described in DeCamp’s book. Although this testimony has been available to law enforcement officials since mid-October 1992, no official investigation has been made. A casket christened “Dull Care” and borne, like the passing of Arthur, in a boat across the lake could be a symbol, also, not only of “cares of the world,” but of caring itself. The denizens of the Grove, as a collective body, are the ruling class and upper echelon bagmen who make and orchestrate war – the modern Molech. It would make sense to immolate caring, conscience and the consequences of their business transactions, lest they take responsibility for millions of souls around the globe whose lives have been affected by wars of Yankee Imperialism in the twentieth century.
If it happens, it's adapted from/based on Devil In White City.
The Devil in the White City is coming up in my reading queue. I'd love to have a group to discuss it with.
Review from Amazon:
>Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. --John Moe
The Devil in the White City for those who want to learn more about the exposition
It was supposedly awarded the blue ribbon at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (where the Ferris Wheel also made its debut, and the setting for one of the best historical novels of all time, The Devil in the White City), but Wikipedia says there's some doubt about this: PBR Brand History.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Never met a physicist who doesn't idolize him.
I'm in, but some people are put off by calling it that. Any idea what that genre of literature would be referred to? Intellectual non-fiction, or something?
As for books to add to the list, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is a fantastic read.
Anything by Simon Singh is worth reading. In addition to what others have recommended, these books are good:
[The man who loved only numbers](http://www.amazon.com/MAN-WHO-LOVED-ONLY-NUMBERS/dp/0786884061/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1254333710&amp;sr=8-1
)
Flatland
Prisoner's Dilemma
A mathematician reads the newspaper
A mathematician plays the stock market
Innumeracy: mathematical illiteracy and its consequences
Also, while not exactly about Maths:
Surely you are joking, Mr Feynman
What do you care what other people think?
The Art of Computer Programming
If you haven't read it yet, I'd highly recommend picking up the book on the right of the picture, too: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Feynman was one hell of a character. Brilliant man.
Someone did a graphic novel biography of him, if you're interested. Awesome book. And I've never laughed more from a book than from Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is a refreshing and entertaining book of short stories about Feynman's life. The stores aren't fundamentally technical, but they definitely give insight into some of the nontechnical aspects of engineering.
otro recomendable de fisica con humor y comprensible de Feynman
sobre fisica cuantica?
Richard Feynman noticed this phenomenon and did a series of impromptu experiments to determine the chemical signalling ants use. You can read further details in this interesting book:
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041
Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman is a fantastic book and anyone who would like to know that there's still adventure in the world should read it. Hell, everyone else should read it too.
Also, I was really worried about finding a job after college and reading What should I do with my life? was not only enjoyable but uplifting. I felt a lot better about my life after reading it.
Edit: Added links
Your comment reminds me of this comic. Feynman was an influential physicist and one of the best science communicators that ever lived. I first recommend watching these videos, then reading this book (the text of which can be easily found digitally).
Have a good Sunday = ).
Or his book Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman. It too is a fantastic read and truly allows you to appreciate the man for not only his fantastic knowledge, but also for the humour he brought to life.
Ishmael (and the rest of the series) by Daniel Quinn opened my eyes in my senior year of high school.
It's about a Gorilla, who has lived beside man for a number of decades and teaches a pupil through stories and analogies about how we are already at the cusp of civilization collapse. It's about a lot more than just that, namely the relationship of humans, animals, the planet, and how humans have a unique, egotistical view of themselves where we deemed ourselves rulers of the planet.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins is an eye opener as well.
Other great reads:
Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock.
Necronomicon
UFO's by Leslie Keen
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
I also really enjoyed the Myst series by Rand & Robin Miller (the books the game is based on). It's about worlds within worlds and an ancient race of authors creating worlds through magical ink and books (sci-fi/fantasy).
Confessions of an Economic Hitman is a great read on this topic, detailing how the Washington-based IMF and World Bank would entice countries to bankrupt themselves by pursuing development projects that had no chance of actually accomplishing anything, thereby creating dependent client states that had most of their financial sovereignty gutted.
Read about United Fruit Co. They were the ones who initially lobbied for an invasion of the Guatemala after the democrats took over and didn't want them pimping their resources.
Literally the exact same situation in Iran when they kicked out the oil companies and didn't want Americans whoring out their land while keeping them in poverty. Gas/Oil companies went to the government and asked for military assistance.
Read more. Confessions Of An Economic Hitman touches things like this USA did all over the world http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
Muhammed: How he can make you extraordinary
The Productive Muslim - Where Faith Meets Productivity
Dua, Weapon of the Believers
Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective
The Art of War
Khadija: The First Muslim and Wife of the Prophet Muhammed
Muhammed: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
Dua's for success in this world and the next, over 100 Duas
Fortress of a Muslim
Reclaim your heart
These are some of the books I have at the moment and I highly recommend them after reading them. I am waiting on a few more books but a lot are non Islamic but still really useful [:
Edit: Like this
Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
The game of Empire is alive and well.
Read The Millionaire Next Door. It goes through the difference between inherited and earned wealth. The TL;DR of thr portion you're interested in is that those who inherit wealth squander it, those who earn it raise their children in a way that allows them to earn it as well. If you want your kids to be wealthy, teach them the value of money and give them the tools to earn kt themselves.
I am considering setting up a trust fund for my children that will make them FI once they turn 30 or 35 or something, but I'll give them very little before then. I'll also give them lots of opportunities to earn extra money so they can support themselves through school.
My parents could have paid to put me through school, but instead they only paid half. It was just enough that I could work my way through school without taking on extra debt. They also gave me a 0% loan to buy a house, but I had to pay it back on a schedule. I think this is the right approach to wealth propagation.
And you're right, I don't know any really wealthy people (well, some, but not inherited, it was earned). And I'm glad I don't.
I’m 40 and weening off .5mg tables 3X a day for eight years. I’ve recently been reading Michael Pollan’s new book about microdosing psilocybin and I am convinced and going to start trying it out when I get low enough on my benzodiazepines and start really feeling WD. I figure this will be a ripe time to try a natural remedy used by shamans for thousands of years to battle tribal anxieties.
This post is a great connection for me.
ope, found it. It was actually a square of the sky in an otherwise black page.
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A friend recommended me it. For those interested:
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https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225
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I recommend Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.. He also does the audio book reading himself.
Pollen is a a journalist, activist, and professor at Harvard and UC Berkeley.
In How to Change your Mind, Pollan chronicles the history is psychedelics, what’s happening with its current success in medicine, and its affect on human consciousness.
I really hope Netflix picks this up for another docuseries like his past works such as Cooked and The Botany of Desire.
Just taking Psilocybin won't really help fix much. You're better off using it in a therapeutic setting intended to help you deal with past issues. It's all about your intentions using it and the set and setting.
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I can't recommend Michael Pollans book enough to help you understand how Psilocybin works and the therapy that goes along with it. https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225
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If you want a quick intro to everything, his interview with Tim Ferriss is really great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbBXplrwbyQ
https://tim.blog/2018/05/06/michael-pollan-how-to-change-your-mind/
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Good luck, be safe, and take it slow. You're gonna be just fine.
I've been here periodically but I haven't formally intro'ed myself so I'll do that here:
Perhaps not a guide, but Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind is a great book about history of psychedelic therapy, current events in that field, and looking forward as well as trip reports from the author.
Interesting! I picked this up recently on a trip (see what I did there?) based on liking the author’s other books: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594204225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_VO0.Bb483RSD1
Might be worth a read. I’ve noted a fair number of news headlines mentioning psychedelic research since I read the book, but that could just be because I’m aware of the subject now.
Also, read the book on how to change your mind with psychedelics. There’s literally a guidebook on how to treat depression with the science thy exists in psychedelic research.
Je ne suis qu'un inconnu sur internet, mais quoi que tu décides de faire fais aussi très attention avec les médicaments qu'on pourrait te prescrire. Les antidépresseurs (fluoxétine) et les benzodiazépines (alprazolam) sont des médicaments dont il peut être très difficile de se sevrer. Je te conseille de bien te renseigner sur leur fonctionnement et sur les effets secondaires qu'ils peuvent avoir. Lis les articles Wikipédia sur ces produits. Les benzodiazépines en particulier sont des médicaments hautement addictifs. Si tu peux éviter de toucher à cette classe de médicaments, fais-le. Le risque d'abus est élevé.
Est-ce qu'il existe d'autres types de traitement pharmaceutiques ? Oui, mais certains sont encore à un stade expérimental.
Aux États-Unis la kétamine a récemment été légalisée suite aux résultats positifs dans le traitement contre la dépression. Pour autant que je sache ce traitement n'est malheureusement pas encore disponible en France. La kétamine fonctionne de façon complètement différente des antidépresseurs de la classe des SSRI et agit immédiatement avec des effets positifs à court-terme.
Enfin à un stade moins avancé, il y a les psychédéliques, et en particulier la psilocybine. La psychothérapie assistée par la psilocybine va probablement être une des découvertes les plus importantes dans le traitement de la dépression dans les quelques prochaines années. Malheureusement ces thérapies sont difficiles d'accès, même aux États-Unis. Certains choisissent d'aller voir des thérapeutes "clandestins" qui peuvent réaliser le traitement, mais trouver la bonne personne n'est ni facile ni bon marché. Tu trouveras plus d'informations sur le sujet dans l'excellent livre de Michael Pollan.
I'm in the middle of Homo Deus currently. Its great so far, Yuval is a great writer and his books are a lot more accessible than traditional history books. I'm sure there are a lot of liberties taken with some of the history but I think Sapiens is a must-read. Homo Deus is more assumption based on current reality but its very interesting so far.
Gulag Archipelago is one I read based on the recommendation of Jordan Peterson. Awesome book if you are into WW1-WW2 era eastern europe. being an eastern european myself, i devour everything related to it so this book tickled my fancy quite a bit. good look into the pitfalls of what peterson warns against.
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning is another history book discussing that time period and how it all transpired and the lesser known reasons why WW2 went down the way it did. some surprising stuff in that book related to hitler modeling europe around how the united states was designed at the time.
apologies for inundating with the same topic for all my books so far but Ordinary Men is an amazing book chronicling the people that carried out most of the killings during WW2 in Poland, Germany and surrounding areas. The crux of the argument which I have read in many other books is that Auschwitz is a neat little box everyone can picture in their head and assign blame to when in reality most people killed during that time were taken to the outskirts of their town and shot in plain sight by fellow townspeople, mostly retired police officers and soldiers no longer able for active duty.
for some lighter reading i really enjoy jon ronson's books and i've read all of them. standouts are So You've Been Publicly Shamed and The Psychopath Test. Highly recommend Them as well which has an early Alex Jones cameo in it.
Jon Ronson actually has a very interesting book on this subject, with interviews of mental patients, prisoners, and CEO's, comparing and contrasting the traits that might tick them off as sociopaths. The Psychopath Test.
I migliori: Il Maestro e Margherita e The Psychopath Test
Non-mobile: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594485755?vs=1
^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?
I had read Jon Ronson's excellent book "The Psychopath Test" months prior to seeing "The Jinx." Durst would have to score very high on the test.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Psychopath-Test-Journey-Industry/dp/1594485755
If you haven't read it already, Stephen King's book On Writing offers a lot of advice. Some of it's interesting, some of it is... odd, but there are some good pointers in there. It's a decent book, as well.
If you want to understand depression better, and also laugh your ass off, read this: https://smile.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179/
If you're even questioning getting help, get it. You may decide later you don't need it, but it rarely hurts. Even people without depression find therapy valuable.
I have it, but very mild as these things go, and all tangled up with fibromyalgia (which carries chronic fatigue and pain).
For me, it just makes me feel... Blah. I can't get interested in stuff I actually like, I can't motivate myself to do anything. Everything has an air of "fuck it" about it.
For other people, it lies to them. Depression's favorite lie is that you suck, no one likes/loves you, you're not worthy, that all you do is fuck up. Nope. Lies. All of it.
The main benefit of therapy (other than access to medications which can really help some people), is the totally impartial listener. Not even impartial, on your side while also helping you expose and manage your real flaws. Teaching you how to cope. Teaching you how to communicate with others the way you need to.
Therapy carries the knowledge that you can tell this person anything, and they will help you and never repeat to anyone what you tell them. We keep so much bottled up for fear of what our partners, family, or friends will think of us... But a therapist's job is to take your darkest crap and let it out to the light to float away.
Good luck. Mental health is so fucking important, and I hope you can find it.
You're a great santa to care about your giftee/ask how to help them. Pets help a lot with depression. I know you can't give them a dog, cat, etc. but maybe you could find a way to send them a fish/small tank setup like a beta? Or maybe an animal type experience might be available in their area from groupon?
Also maybe [this book by Allie Brosh from Hyperbole and a Half] (https://www.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179) She posted about her depression on her blog
And maybe a little something like this that they can carry with them/hold in their hand just to help them remember that they're amazing.
The Hyperbole and a Half book deals with the author's issues with depression and it makes me laugh so damn hard. Even when I couldn't laugh about other things it did the job, still my goto 'I need a laugh book' even now.
Note that her book is actually coming out this fall.
Pre-order link here: Link!
Not an affiliate link, I swear.
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
Not really
OMG, the Amazon.com reviews are brutal and hilarious !
My personal favorite:
"Must have bought a signed copy because I got pneumonia right away. Her plans to destroy America are insulting and picking a beta as her VP gives me as much hope as believing she can't walk up a flight of stairs. Do not buy this book, instead vote for Donald Trump."
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Centipedes need to head on over, and join the fun!
Amazon review are brutal
https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1501161733/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1474233620&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=stronger+together
Archives for this post:
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Archives for links in comments:
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I am Mnemosyne 2.1, I wish that someway, somehow, that I could save every one of us, but the truth is that I'm only one girl. ^^^^/r/botsrights ^^^^Contribute ^^^^message ^^^^me ^^^^suggestions ^^^^at ^^^^any ^^^^time ^^^^Opt ^^^^out ^^^^of ^^^^tracking ^^^^by ^^^^messaging ^^^^me ^^^^"Opt ^^^^Out" ^^^^at ^^^^any ^^^^time
> Did you read the campaign platform??????? It had that in spades.
Clinton and Kaine literally co-authored a 288 page book that explained in insane levels of detail every policy position they held and why it was beneficial to Americans. If you think Policy was the reason the Democrats lost you could not be more wrong...
>I blame her loss on the fact she had no real platform and didn't do enough to encourage voters to show up.
That's a bit disingenous. Clinton and Kaine released a book before the election detailing their policies. Clinton had the same policy details on her website. She gave summaries of these policies in the debates.
Her failing wasn't that she didn't have a platform; it was that her platform wasn't expressed in a slogan. Trump had MAGA, "Lock her up!", and "Build the wall!" His slogans were such glittering generalities and he never went into specifics. His voters filled in the gaps and believed that these slogans meant whatever they wanted them to mean.
Don't blame Clinton for rural America's failure to actually research what a politician is proposing and, more importantly, how they plan to implement it.
Just purchased Hillary's new book. Hopefully there is
notgood RI material in it.Link to Amazon.com reviews.
Top review:
"Nothing new here. The book is full of lies, just like Hillary. I'm leaving a five star review so I don't get straight up murdered."
bonus hilarious reviews https://www.amazon.com/Stronger-Together-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/product-reviews/1501161733/ref=cm_rdp_hist_hdr_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&amp;showViewpoints=1
> We drove the same kind of car so he was not flaunting his wealth...
There's a book called The Millionaire Next Door that goes into how very well-off people often do not show any signs of it outwardly.
> Trust me; money does not buy happiness!
I tried that. I know it's not true. :(
Here is a good article adressing the topic
and this book is a great read about saving.
I've written about this before and you may fall in the second camp of the passage below, as do most FIRE people I think.
>...the FIRE path generally come in one of two version: the first group approach FIRE by driving down their living expenses extremely low. Examples approaches are living off-the-grid tiny houses and eating rice and beans. Another low-cost tactic is living in low cost of living places (COLA) and in the extreme means moving to poorer countries ("retirement hacking"), e.g. Mexico with it's good weather and your USD goes further. MMM (build all my own stuff) and Market Timer (living in a cheap country) are two examples. I have a feeling this group is actually the minority of the two, but I don't have any surveys. I've only met two this type IRL (well, living this way by choice).
>The other type are high income earners who save a high percentages of their income. Bogleheads's survery's income (column U) has some eye-popping numbers and clearly skews towards highly educated/high income. WCI and Financial Samurai are both good examples of people who both have/had high incomes and decided to convert those incomes into wealth/FI through savings and investing. In the data that's out there(Millionaire Next Door and the little bit of self-reported data in the BH survey), this appears to be the more common path to FI. It certainly is easier to save lots when you earn a lot rather than try to squeeze every expense out of your life day in and day out for decades.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Those are all things you can avoid. Stop wearing such nice suits. Stop driving such a nice car.
Check out The Millionaire Next Door. Practice some stealth wealth. As a side benefit, you'll spend less.
Your quote and mindset resonate with The Millionaire Next Door.
When assessing a purchase that I feel I shouldn't make so easily, I sometimes compare want to need. I really want to buy that iPad Pro because it has a larger screen with the stylus, but I already have an iPad Air 2 and even then I don't use it that much, therefore it doesn't look like I really need the iPad Pro. Everyone's posting cool videos of drones, I want to buy a $500 drone, but I don't really need it. It's helpful when I see all these "deals" online that I feel I should take advantage of.
lots of* electricians retire millionaires.
the millionaire next door
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
The Millionaire Next Door is good reading for anyone serious about upwards mobility. It quashes a lot of the ideas the poor/middle class have about the rich.
You gotta stop looking at someone with a 60k car and saying "Wow! They have a 60k car!". Instead think "Wow! They spent 60k on a car."
If you dont have patience for a book. This is one of the best things I have ever read about money and I try to revisit it every few months:
https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-psychology-of-money/
Absolute bullshit. Go read this
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589795474/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NX04CbRA880HF
Or this
https://www.daveramsey.com/research/the-national-study-of-millionaires
Your post sums up the book The Millionaire Next Door pretty well.
Congratulations on being wise enough with your money at such a young age to do your research and ask questions. That's exactly what you should continue doing, as it will pay off in the long run far more than any single investment you can make right now.
Along those lines I would invest a small amount of that money in some basic books about money that will help you develop a fundamental philosophy about your relationship with money and building wealth. Ebook, blogs and apps all have their benefits, but you really should have a basic financial library of physical books you can have on hand.
Your Money or Your Life:
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143115762
The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926%5D(https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926/
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118921283/
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589795474/
That short list is in no way complete, but will get you started.
As far as websites/blogs/free reads here's a few to consider:
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page
https://yourmoneyoryourlife.com/book-summary/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/blog/
https://www.thesimpledollar.com/
It's great that you have a nice little lump sum of money to invest right now, but the key to building wealth generally won't involve lump sums every now and then and finding places to put them. The key is to discipline yourself to set aside portions of any amount money that comes in and have an automatic system to invest it and let it grow without touching it.
Have a plan for every paycheck, bonus, tax refund, inheritance, bank heist money :) you come into to have a portion funneled into your investments before you're tempted to find other, unlimited, things to do with it.
This is the greatest book probably ever written on that concept:
http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf
Having a goal, a plan for getting there, and the discipline to actually execute it will make you wealthy. Wealth gives you choices, freedom, and opportunity, and the earlier you start building it, the easier it will be to have these things. If you don't appreciate how important those are to living a good life, I guarantee you will in the years ahead.
At some point you will hear the name Warren Buffett (if you haven't already). He's the single greatest investor who's ever lived and my personal favorite. Once you have the basics down, and you might have further interest in investing I would recommend studying him. Even though there are countless books and websites devoted to him, he's already left us nearly everything you need to know about investing right there on his simple company website in the form of his annual letters--basically a free master class on investing, written by a genious who also happens to have great wit:
http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
In a much broader sense beyond investing, there is a book more than a hundred years old that discusses getting to wealth in a very interesting and powerful way. I've used it as inspiration from a standpoint as a business person, but I think it's worth studying seriously for anyone trying to build wealth.
I believe you can still get a free copy here:
http://scienceofgettingrich.net/subscribe.html
If you don't want to subscribe, just Google "The Science of Getting Rich".
And here's a good audio version as well:
https://archive.org/details/TheScienceofGettingRich
No matter what philosophy and path you take, I always include another personal recommendation to set aside a small portion of your portfolio into something "alternative" that interests you and might have the potential to build or at least preserve wealth. For me it's basically precious metals, and more specifically collectible silver and gold coins. I've also collected old paper money, stamps, stock certificates, rare books, and music and movie memorabilia all to a lesser degree. Keeps things interesting, and sometimes you can do pretty well with experience and a little luck.
And best of luck to you!
*Edit: Sp+fixed links, and here's my best TLDL:
Buy physical copies of some basic wealth building books. Consider :
Your Money or Your Life: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143115762
The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926/
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118921283/
Read "The Richest Man in Babylon" and follow the concept of always paying yourself first:
http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf
Warren Buffett is an investing God. If/when you're ready to learn more, just start here:
http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
Read and/or listen to "The Science of Getting Rich":
http://scienceofgettingrich.net/subscribe.html
https://archive.org/details/TheScienceofGettingRich
Diversify a small portion of your wealth with physical assets you can hold and that might have a lifelong interest to you. A quick recommendation would be to start with 5% of your portfolio in precious metals, perhaps a small variety of silver bullion coins and bars. (I'd be happy to give you specific suggestions on these if wanted).
Most millionaires drive sedans that are 8+ years old.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Far better: https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Most actual millionaires drive common, paid off cars. Interesting read https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474
Not to say your boss was a millionaire, he could have been a broke dumbass. But the perception that nice car = successful person was one sold to us by marketing execs. The reality for most people is nice car = big car loan.
I think anyone who seems to be against "rich people" in this thread should read "The Millionaire Next Door" or some of "Mr. Money Mustaches" blog. It'll give you a sense of what it takes to be rich, and it isn't simply being born from the right womb. 80% of millionaires are self-made, they mostly live a humble lifestyle and earn middle-class wages.
An entitlement mentality won't get you anywhere.
If you like philosophy and/or psychology, I'd recommend Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Pirsig's famous Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance has an entire lengthy chapter on the methods of employing "just". Great philosophy book about Man's irrational behavior towards technology.
I randomly came across this book,
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060589469/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_luTqybJZ9JNNA
and everything just clicked. This book outlines the connection between man and machine and will bring a different meaning to riding.
The second part gets a bit spiritual but the first half is an amazing read for any rider.
I see Banner's gamma poisoning hilariously impeding Sith training. Think about it- any time Bruce tries to "give into his anger" he goes big and green, which isn't exactly a Force technique. Dark Side training might even do Bruce some good in preventing Hulk-outs.
Jediron Man ends up writing "Zen and the Art of Power-Suit Maintenance."
Tony Sith gets some nice synergy bonuses between alcoholic self-loathing, ptsd, and the Dark Side and between Force-Lightning and power for his suits, so that's really handy.
I read about it here, https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
They would play in the offices at space x, after pulling 12+ hour days
This article text is a copy from Elon book.
https://www.amazon.ca/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
He doesn't have a book. Ashley Vance did a biography of sort (with interviews of him): http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233
Got the Elon bio from my wife (after putting it in the cart on Amazon).
What would be a disaster for launch reliability. Have you read https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233 ?
In that book the Shipping / Environmental harm caused to the rockets was very real.
Its illogical to be able to take anything (even zero) away from zero. zero is a weird little digit we use as both a placeholder and to represent 'nothing'. Zero is not a thing which can be broken into pieces.
There is a GREAT book I read a while back that goes into a whole lot of depth on the idea of zero. I found it very interesting, you might too.
found a link to it on amazon, maybe you could find it at a library... (or online if you're better at the internet than me)
Zero The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
The concept of zero is relatively new. If you really want your mind blown, read Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea.
Advanced in the sense that they had the number zero and Europe didn't.
It's such a huge deal, there are entire books on why it was such an advanced concept for the time.
Division by zero is just one particular topic. You may as well ask for a book about cross-multiplication.
There is a book about zero. I really enjoyed this book, but I haven't read it in a long time, so I don't remember much about it. But I'm pretty sure it discusses division by 0.
> I just watched The Red Pill and honestly
Interesting. Will try to watch it.
Also stumbled on this book on the link you gave: https://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
Its about a woman who disguised herself as a man and was surprised on when she found out that men also have problems. Will queue this up on my reading list.
Have you read Self-Made Man? I'm reading through it now, and although I feel there are some feminist biases that the author has trouble seeing past, she does make some interesting insights and comparisons with regards to how the world expects men vs. women to act/think.
Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man, by Norah Vincent. Amazon link.
These are people whose rights are protected under our shield. If they are, were, or will be identifying as men they need to be taken care of. For transmen in particular it can be a shock to learn about the burdens of expected male gender roles in western society.
From what I know there's a certain brand of radical feminism that demonizes the trans community (some crap about transwomen trying to steal victimhood from women and transmen betraying their sisters by trying to claim male privilege).
A few years back, I read Norah Vincent's Self-Made Man, and found it an interesting read.
(I will admit it also simply felt good to read someone acknowledging the difficulties that men face in daily life.)
I was genuinely surprised later on to find out how anti-trans-anybody Vincent turns out to be. I would have thought her experiences would have opened her up to the understanding of how important identity is to people, but some of the things she has apparently said come across as downright scornful of the trans community.
I'm at a loss for understanding where this hateful impetus comes from, and was wondering if you had any comments of your own to add, recommended reading, or the like.
If you don't, that's ok. I've been enjoying your answers to the other questions in this thread. Thanks for taking the time to do so!
I have a ftm tg friend...He does take hormones,but when he first started,he simply dressed as a man...
People see what they want to see and if you dress like a man,get short hair, a masculine name,they will see you as a man.
My friend also had some bottom and top surgery. Those are options as well.
This book,Self Made Man, depicts a lesbian who spent a year as a man..it's an interesting read:
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/product-reviews/0143038702/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&amp;showViewpoints=1&amp;sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#reviews-container?sortBy=recent&amp;reviewerType=all_reviews&amp;formatType=all_formats&amp;filterByStar=one_star
LOL, they basically call her a misogynist and out the women she dated as mentally ill. Also the nice wall of text saying her experiment sucks because she went into it without a strong bias favoring feminism.
Here's another perspective, also published 2006:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143038702/ref=cm_rdp_product
Concerning prison camps, I might suggest Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey by Blaine Harden.
First off, thank you--I always appreciate commentary from teachers/professors/academics/educators on reddit--the insight is invaluable, and you clearly know your stuff. This looks to be a wonderful curriculum, and I hope to be able to work my way through it or something similar eventually; after all, money's tight for me right now as a student.
Second, you say you prefer the topical approach, so maybe you could speak to this: my primary reason for posting is that last year I read Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and thoroughly enjoyed it. Recently, I had time to read it's sequel, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals and found it to be even more complete argumentatively-speaking. Almost all of his points were genius in my opinion, but what I found most compelling was the manner in which he argued that modern scientific reasoning is a flawed, incomplete way of looking at the world. I suppose on the surface you could call it epistemological, but he also engages metaphysics and ethics heavily in these two books. I'm fascinated by Pirsig's work, but just feel as though I need to be more well-read in these areas to really engage with it and better evaluate it's merit.
Barbara Tuchman was brilliant writer of history.
Albert Camus was a brilliant absurdist philosopher and novelist.
Jared Diamond has written some brilliant books at the intersection of anthropology and ecology. Another good book in this genre is Clive Ponting's A New Green History of the World.
Gwynne Dyer is an acclaimed military historian turned journalist on international affairs who has written a number of very engaging books on warfare and politics. His most recent book Climate Wars is the ONE book I would recommend to someone, if so limited, on the subject as it embodies both a wonderful synopsis of the science juxtaposed against the harsh realpolitiks and potential fates of humankind that may unfold unless we can manage to tackle the matter seriously, soon. Another great book on climate change is Bill McKibben's Deep Economy.
For social activists interested in ending world hunger and abject poverty, I can recommend: Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom; Nobel Prize winning micro-financier Muhammad Yunus' Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism; UN MDG famed economist Jeffrey Sach's End Of Poverty; and Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea
For anyone of Scottish heritage, I heartily recommend Arthur Hermann's How The Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It
For naval history buffs: Robert K. Massie's Dreadnought.
Last, but not least: Robert Pirsig's classic Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Enjoy!
Looks like you could use some direction in a comforting form. Some books to consider:
The Tao of Pooh
A great little book to get you to look at things differently at times. I wont go deep, but I think the reviews on amazon give you a good idea of what to expect. It's quite short as well, so it wont be some huge commitment.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
This is not a manual for repairing motorcycles. No, it's a work of fiction that helps you find a more "zen" approach to live. Have you seen "The Big Lebowski"? Yeah, it defends the values in finding peace in the world around you, even if things don't always go smoothly.
Invisible Monsters
Finally a book for embracing and confronting that anger and hurt you have built up. Palahniuk is just the author for the job. Don't read the synopsis and DON'T get the silly remixed version of the book. I've known people who have found this book life changing. It seems to really speak to women.
Followed you over here from RBN.
Some of the best novels about narcissism IMO don't ever mention the actual word itself. Instead, they're about the ins and outs of emotional manipulation. These immediately come to mind:
They're all fairly intense books about the depths of self absorption and manipulative rationalization.
https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0060589469
https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0060589469
It's rad, but avoid hallucinogens as you near the end.
Replying to your final edit bro.
&#x200B;
I hope you learn from this. But honestly I am just unpacking my own shit.
&#x200B;
I've lived in 3 different states, 5 different countries and been in dozens more. 3 stints of zero income. Poor, well-off, poor, rich, broke. I've read my stoics and my Tao, met interesting people and fucked women that are not my wife. I am a serial addict, gambler, artist, entrepreneur and in every way a dumb motherfucker who has chased every color of dragon to the ends of the fucking earth and back.
&#x200B;
I know what it is to make a comeback and what it is to slip the noose for a time.
&#x200B;
A comeback is when the artist reinvents themselves. They accept their art has become stale and they change medium or play with the old one in a new way. They legitimately find some fun and purpose in it. Fans are quick to detect trying to randomly inject novelty. And that's one reason you shouldn't be doing it for the fans.
&#x200B;
When an artists does make that legitimate transformation. They always get new fans. There are always people out there looking for a fresh new sound. Some of the old ones might even turn around. But they are more likely to not get it. But fuck them, maybe you were stuck in a rut trying to please them anyway.
&#x200B;
Doing it for real is hard work and it takes time.
&#x200B;
The point is, long term, as long as you end up producing Quality, even the harshest critic will look back and say "ya know, I didn't see it then but that was a real vintage record.".
&#x200B;
A real critic will do that while acknowledging it is not their cup of warm piss.
&#x200B;
But I am not a music guy, I am thinking of some post-modern novelists I enjoyed and maybe the critics are different.
&#x200B;
Anyway.
&#x200B;
Why I do not think you are inventing that rare, fresh new sound: your in-laws.
&#x200B;
In the back of my mind somewhere, I always disliked my in-laws, thought I was better than them, thought they were judging me. All that good stuff. Wasn't that big a deal because we traveled and had little to do with them, so fuck them right?
&#x200B;
When I washed up on THEIR couch. I humbled myself. Internally.
&#x200B;
Fake it till you make it bro. But that internal humility is the only way you can know when you are doing what it takes while acknowledging things are what they are.
&#x200B;
I took out their garbage. I cooked. I spoke respectfully to them. I
hadhave a thousandreasonsexcuses why I ended up there and how temporary it would be but I swallowed my pride and CHOSE to think respectfully about them.&#x200B;
They owned the couch. They earned the right.
&#x200B;
They got to see me at my lows. They got to see me hustle everyday. They got to see me work like [a word you can only say on 4chan], get a plan, get a home, get our lives back. They got to see me on the days I believed in it and they also saw the days I gritted my teeth to get through it.
&#x200B;
They let me do what I needed to do and we all moved on.
&#x200B;
I would like to think that I earned their respect.
&#x200B;
But THEY earned MINE the first day I sat my three-time-loser-ass down on their couch.
&#x200B;
Now I highly recommend blowing up your life over staying in a rut.
&#x200B;
But you are just heading to let yours wither on the vine.
&#x200B;
If you find yourself incapable of aligning your actions with other people's actions and earning their respect when you are down, or you think that a new job has saved your shit life, and "attaboys!" from your boss are worth a fuck, you are just going to drift from disaster to disaster when the going gets tough.
&#x200B;
You are stating on record that you are doing this.
Fact.
You are never going to write a book if you can't hold down a shit job.
Fact.
Simply running away to another state is not bold or courageous in anyway.
Fact.
You are never going to win the critics that matter if you can't face down the ones that don't.
Fact.
You are never going to BE the critic that matters while you're burying the criticism with your ego.
Fact.
You are not talking about making a comeback right now.
Fact.
&#x200B;
Best case you give away a few free tickets to a sad "evening with a has-been" event that no-one is going to go to. Find the "alpha" that is authentically fulfilled by that.
&#x200B;
This is NOT what it takes to nuke your life into black glass and start over.
Fact.
I'm taking a shot in the dark with this one, but what about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
You could also check out this brew starter kit.
What else stands out about him? How does we decorate, style or design preferences, etc.?
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance
Buy it, read it. Pirsig did an amazing job on this book. It's got pretty much nothing to do with motorcycles realistically but it's a study in psychology, morals and thought from the head of a rider on a ride across the US. Do it.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Or if you want to know how to fix/maintain/repair specific issues, buy the specific service manual for your bike. You can get the one from the manufacturer, which are usually around $100, or get the Haynes or Clymer manual, which are usually $25-$40. It certainly doesn't hurt to have both.
Definitely need to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, although it has less to do with motorcycle maintenance than it does with everything else.
have you read Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance?
>I had to read this book for a management class and I actually included a mention of CR in my essay. The complaints, the complements, the strategies, and more of the two gave me deja vu. Musk actually began selling the Roadster during its development, similar to pledging in SC. He even made all the "backers" pony up an extra $17 grand for the car because he miscalculated the cost of production.
>It makes you think about what Musk would have made if he stayed in game design, or what CR could have made if he chose a different path.
Oh wow. I wasn't aware of those things. I'm guessing Tesla didn't have a forum with goons stirring shit up! Yeah in an alternate reality Elon's space game is probably as close to a 1:1 space sim as a game can be and CR's rockets are more like fighter jet space shuttles!
Acá?
This one is a must-read
The rest was basically more factual stuff about how Tesla and SpaceX operate, how they get revenue, how they implement changes, what drives them, their marketing & PR, etc.
Nice!
For Musk fans I highly recommend Ashley Vance's bio of Musk: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. I did a review of Vance's book.
Have you read Ashlee Vance's biography of Musk? If you haven't, it's pretty interesting in this respect.
It's in this book
Elon Musk
I'm reading Elon Musk's biography right now and think it might be helpful if you're talking about career success. The dude seems like a jerk but has an incredible work ethic and drive to succeed.
You can say pretty much the same exact thing about Augustus' biography.
Outliers really helped me a lot, because it made me realize talent wasn't nearly important as skill/effort. You put in the time and effort and you will develop your skills.
If you're an introvert like me these books helped me "fake it till I make it" or just want to be more socially capable: Charisma Myth, anything by Leil Lowndes, Make People Like You in 90 Seconds. Not a book but the Ted Talk about body language by Amy Cuddy
A book on leadership I always hear good things about but haven't read yet is Start With Why.
Highly recommend his biography! (Link)
It's in his biography by Ashley Vance
I believe the author interviewed the two people who went with Musk on the trip
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062301233/
This is a good read. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0062301233/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1481651437&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=SY200_QL40&amp;keywords=elon+musk&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=5174GQsw2oL&amp;ref=plSrch
You can highlight a few points related to CEO's style of work by quoting facts from this book
First math book I read for pleasure was Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. Its focus is more on the history side of things, which come to think of it makes it weird that I liked it since I normally am not interested in history.
But it's pretty amazing to imagine living in a society where zero was not was an accepted concept--in fact, it hadn't just not been thought of, it was actively denounced by the Church.
It's been maybe a decade since I read it, but I still remember the BS proof they used back then.
God cannot do evil.
There is nothing God cannot do.
Therefore,"nothing" is evil.
And with that, you were disallowed from using the concept of 0. Which makes a lot of math really difficult.
Kepler's Conjecture: How Some of the Greatest Minds in History Helped Solve One of the Oldest Math Problems in the World and Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea are riveting histories.
There's a nice book about it!
Foolproof is a good example of this. Lots of self-contained chapters on random fun problems. (My only large critique is that the first chapter is very out of place; being basically a history schpiel. Mischaracterizes the book.)
Then there’s math adjacent stuff like Zero: the history of a dangerous idea that look at the history of math development.
(Side note: the first chapter of Pinter’s A Book of Abstract Algebra is a top knotch example of that. And very much in place, unlike the foolproof chapter I mentioned.
Then there are things that aren’t quite “pop”, but make themselves more accessible. Like An Illustrated Guide to Number Theory, which is both a legitimate intro to number theory and a reasonably sexy coffee table book that guests can leaf through. (Though I’d like to see a book that pushes the coffee table style accessibility further.)
Read this book.
The author recants the history of the notion of nothing and how that notion shaped our current world. Or something. I was ordered to expand on my post so here I am doing that.
Assuming by "numbers" you mean the set of numbers {0,1,2,.....} (commonly known as the "Natural" numbers) you should first know that there is some debate as to whether or not to include 0.
Whether you decide to include 0 or not, no one knows where/when the concept of the Natural numbers originated. In some cultures, notably the Piraha, they appear to have never been developed so if you believe Kronecker's "God gave us the integers...", God appears to have forgotten to tell to the Piraha.
My own view on the origin of the natural numbers is that they probably arose from trade. A scenario, which may or may not be true but I find particularly appealing, is given in Eugenia Cheng's book "How to Bake Pi". As an example suppose that I want to trade 1 salt cake for each sheep you have. I could line up all the sheep and parade them by one by one. As each sheep passed I could hand over 1 salt cake. This involves lining up the sheep, which, having lived with sheep as a kid, I can tell you is not the easiest thing to do. So instead you could just point at each sheep and hand over a salt cake, perhaps, as Cheng proposes in a likely nod to her musical background, singing a song while doing so. Then the song itself becomes the counting mechanism. The reason I like this so much is that it fits well with Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Mo
If you want to learn more about the historical origins of zero you might try: Zero:The Biography of a Dangerous Number be forewarned that this is a pop-sci book and it's tone is a fairly hyperbolic, here's a review that I think sums up this up pretty well.
Zeno's paradox isn't really a paradox. it's actually REALLY simple to explain:
You take limit as the distance between two points reaches 0. This is the fundamental operation in calculus.
Why is it not a paradox now but it was back then? Because they didn't believe in the number 0. There is a really good book called Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (http://www.amazon.ca/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476)
A great read! I recommend it!
this fantastic book mentions the very same event http://www.amazon.com/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476
One of the best courses I've had in college was the history of math. It was a one quarter class so it obviously couldn't cover everything but instead focused on the universal problem of measuring areas and volumes, starting roughly some discovered papyrus scrolls from Egyptians trying to measure plots of land to Newton and Leibniz inventing calculus.
As others have said, it didn't really teach you math. I had already taken several higher level math classes and calculus was a requirement, but it was really interesting to see how trying to answer that question was refined over time.
I think one problem with learning math along side the history of math is we have much better techniques for solving problems now. One of the touch things about the course was trying to figure out the various proofs because they went through very complicated steps which we now take for granted.
Not related to the course, but I really recommend the book Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea which talks about how the number 0 came to be, what problems it caused when people were coming up with the concept, and what ideas it continues to cause today.
You should check out Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. It's an very interesting read.
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
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and
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The Golden Ratio
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are two of my favorites
[ Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea] (http://www.amazon.com/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476)
Interesting. There is a good book on the history of the number zero but I honestly don't know if you'd like it or not. https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Biography-Dangerous-Charles-Seife/dp/0140296476/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1526496930&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=zero+book if you happen to be interested.
People have definitely run mazes end decks before but they certainly aren't common. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
If this interests you, I cannot recommend highly enough Charles Seife's "Biography of a dangerous idea":
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140296476/sr=8-1/qid=1142158680/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-5782921-8657710?%5Fencoding=UTF8
One of the most enjoyable books on science that I have read.
Well, Norah Vincent and Alan Turing provide some insight into things.
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
Norah wasn't even living full time or taking HRT and she had a nervous breakdown as a result of the experience; her next book was about her experience as a mental patient when she was hospitalized...
Turing was forced to take HRT as a 'cure' for homosexuality and committed suicide.
It's all pretty circumstantial and there's not many data points, but you can probably just look at cis people's reactions to the idea of taking HRT and 'suffering' the effects of that to get an idea of how well it sits with people.
[edit: corrected spelling of Nora to Norah.]
It might not be what you're asking about, but I think it's related: There's a number of folks who are incel/ForeverAlone/etc. who cite Norah Vincent's book, "Self Made Man" as evidence that dating really is that much tougher for men than women.
If you guys haven't read her book, I highly recommend it. There's a lot of little insights that you can't quite cram into a page-length Reddit post.
Well I don't know about a week.....But here's a story of a lesbian woman who dressed up and pretended to be a man for a whole year. She also wrote a book about it.
Most often, it's very difficult to treat a girl as one of the guys. So ask yourself, is she part of the rule or the exception. She'll be part of the rule most likely. This lady tried being one of the guys and ended in a mental institution.
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
> Isn't that the complaint with thots and the like? Basically if all you bring to the table is sex and nothing else why spend money and time on you?
Actually, if you go back to the 1950s, the first sociological studies were coming out and revealed that a surprisingly large number of prostitutes' clients actually did not hire her to f--k: instead they spent the whole visit talking.
At the time, this was interpreted as, "Men are incapable of finding anyone to talk to." Note the self-contradictory nature of this interpretation.
Looking back, I think we can fairly re-interpret that data as, "Female sympathy for a male instead of another female is impaired, and they are intolerant of weakness in a male."
This ties into something lesbian journo Norah Vincent noticed in Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man. After the experiment was over, she was listening to a man in a bar and found herself hanging on every word, not because it was important to her, but because she now knew how important it was for him to be able to open up to a woman who would actually listen:
> Ditto for the stereotype about men monopolizing conversations. Like Sasha, many of my dates - even the more passive ones - did most of the talking. I listened to them talk literally for hours about the most minute, mind-numbing details of their personal lives; men they were still in love with, men they had divorced, roommates and co-workers they hated, childhoods they were loath to remember yet somehow found the energy to recount ad nauseam. Listening to them was like undergoing a slow frontal lobotomy. I sat there stunned by the social ineptitude of people to whom it never seemed to occur that no one, much less a first date, would have any interest in enduring this ordeal.
Sounds like you had a bad date :-/ Sorry.
Yes, the dating world can be very cold to men that aren't attractive. It's not something that's discussed much, because it's hammered into our heads as kids that all you need to get the girl is a sense of humor, maybe a job, some confidence and a decent sense of style. But women can be every bit as superficial, unfortunately.
I wouldn't defend all the horrible shit that men have done to women throughout history, but this book should be enlightening reading for many women these days:
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1458690380&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=norah+vincent
All that said, though - if you realize you're a 2 or 3 out of 10, are you taking steps to improve? Have you been working out? Perhaps you need to dress better? Get on a diet?
Read "Self Made Man" by Norah Vincent. She takes acting classes and disguises herself as a man for a year to to look at the world of masculinity and write a book about it, but one chapter in particular will really speak to you. I think its the second or third chapter and she joins an MLM business and she writes about the significant toll it takes on the men who work there and the dirty psychological tactics the management and company employ to keep people working. Some of what you wrote makes me think of that.
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The book isn't sexist, she takes an unabashed look and admits to her own biases and where she was wrong. The other chapters aren't related to anything in this sub, but the chapter I mentioned (I Think it's chapter 6: Work) is very much related to the frustrations you're feeling.
Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man By Norah Vincent which you can buy here in case anyone is looking for it.
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
Is this it? Is it any good?
Have there been any studies done on this or are you just talking mostly about trans feminists? I'd be much more interested in the experiences of trans people who don't have a vested interest in a certain gender narrative.
There was an article on some major news sites about a lesbian woman who dressed up, acted like, and pretended to be a man for a year and a half to see how men really act and how other people treat men. I think she was even a self described feminist. She became good friends with a group of guys she joined a bowling league with. She was shocked by how much more badly she was often treated as a man and realized how many problems she faced living as a man. Ultimately she said it made her her realize that she was actually privileged to live as a woman.
Edit: here's the book she wrote about it
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702
And here's the ABC article:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Entertainment/story?id=1526982
heres her book
heres a short news story on her writing her book and her experiences
I think you may like this book:
.com Link
.co.uk link (where I am)
Both are prime and are well under $20, so please use the extra money to gift other peoples :)
John Green talks about the book here.
"Nothing to Envy" https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523912
Good read if your into that stuff.
Also "Escape from Camp 14" https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916
That one is less about ordinary citizen's lives and more about the modern day concentration camps the North Korean government is controlling.
Escape from Camp 14
It's a brilliant, true-life story.
Not so sure on that starving part anymore. I like to listen and read stories from the people who defected to understand their world. Many of them are saying that while it's not super abundant meals, for the most part many of the agricultural reforms that the western world helped out with in the 90's/2000's are paying off. Food still isn't great -- meat and products of the like are still expensive and difficult for the average Korean to get, but it can be bought. Freedom now is really the worst problem they have. Escape from Camp 14 is from one of the people who escaped the prison camps and it sounds like that it is the worst conditions you may encounter in NK now.
Of course a war tends to make every destabilised. A war might actually bring on a new famine.
Different country, but Escape from Camp 14 if you want a depressing read about North Korea's current system.
Look, I totally believe that "people are people" and for the most part the regular folks living under any society are going to be good people. (Possible exception for places like North Korean gulags where they're not treated like humans and so don't grow up understanding basic principles like kindness and compassion - they can't really be faulted for that, though.) I believe that there are people trying to do their best and corrupt individuals in ALL types of gov'ts (some being more ripe for fraud and deception than others).
So when this conversation of "this clean up could only happen in the Soviet Union" began I was like "pssht! there are people everywhere who would sacrifice themselves for the good of their neighbors and the rest of the world." But as the sheer volume of people involved in this clean up effort is revealed - over 600,000 liquidators and over 3,000 on the Маша rooftop alone...I start to question if that could have happened in a Westernized country. I think there's too much "individuality" in America, too much focus on "my rights" for people to blindly follow instructions like this. And they certainly wouldn't have done so without absolute guarantees of wages and future medical care.
And I don't know which one is "right" or "better."
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1291941908&amp;sr=8-1
Just in case Confessions of an Economic Hit Man https://www.amazon.com/dp/0452287081
John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
That said, I've heard the Kennedy / Federal Reserve / Executive order 11110 conspiracy. I'm unconvinced.
Pro.
Con.
> Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
for the lazy - http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081
A very long time ago Andre Gunder Frank and Sue Brandford and Bernardo Kucinski showed that barely 8% of the total of IMF and World Bank loans "given" to a country actually ever reach said country. The majority is never given out at all, but stays in the West to service odious "debts" that these countries supposedly owe. The rest of the money is then given to corrupt elites who share it among themselves.
These "debts" have usually been built up by Western countries giving loans to dictators they put in power, overthrowing democratically-elected politicians who tried to stand up to these banks. These dictators usually keep that loan money in Swiss bank accounts and spend it lavishly in the West. When they are overthrown themselves, the people they were oppressing are saddled with huge bills at exhorbitant interest rates.
Finally, former "economic hit man' John Perkins details that these infrastructure projects like damns and the like usually only benefit a small percentage at the top of society, were uneconomical to begin with, and were used as a trap to get poor countries indebted to rich ones so they lost their sovereignty.
Economists are, in fact, devils. It's possible you are too constructive for membership in the brotherhood of economists (who may actually run the world).
Source: confessions of an economic hitman by john perkins.
Not really sure what you're looking for, but check out some of Oliver Saks audiobooks. "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" was excellent for a non-fiction audiobook with a clinical approach that was easily digestible for a laymen.
If you liked Musicophila, I would definitely recommend some of Oliver Sacks' other books, such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which is collection of case studies about people with unique neurological disorders. Understanding how the brain falls apart gives an entirely new perspective into what's going on when the brain is working.
I also love the book The Most Human Human by Brian Christian. It's a fascinating mix of tech and philosophy and psychology - one of my favorite non-fiction books.
Maybe look into some of Malcolm Gladwell's books too. They're pretty quick reads - entertaining and thought-provoking, very sociology/social psychology based.
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Taylor: A neuroscientist has a stroke and learns to walk, talk, eat, write, or recall her memories.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks: Interesting case studies of patients who suffered from extreme/rare neurological disorders.
Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon: Not necessarily speech-language pathology specific, but it includes chapters identity, self-perception, social perception of people with autism, Down syndrome, and Deaf culture. I read this book recently, and it's absolutely brilliant.
If I were to stipulate that the sole impact of alcohol on a brain was the inhibit "higher thinking" and cause one to "rely on more basic instincts", which I am not convinced of, I would still have to question your concept of those "more basic instincts" being somehow more "core" than other behaviors. Why should disabling part of your brain imply that the part that is not disabled is more "true"? Almost any part of a brain can be less active than that same part is in a neurotypical person, which can lead to all sorts of different bizarre behaviors (The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, anyone?).
To assess a person's behavior under a particular intoxicant as "deep rooted" in comparison to their behavior under non-intoxicated or otherwise intoxicated situations, which is apparently "less real", is purely based on cultural bias.
Well, if you can sink as much time into Wikipedia as I can, that's a good start. And don't skip the references and links at the bottom; that's 90% of the fun!
There are a lot of good, popular-audience books on these topics. I don't know any about BCI in particular, but check out The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (and other stuff by Oliver Sacks) and Phantoms in the Brain. Those are the ones we read in COGS 1 and they're great. Right now I'm reading Jonah Lehrer's Proust Was a Neuroscientist; How We Decide was also good. Also, don't shy away from academic literature. It's not really so hard to read if you're interested.
Are you or could you be in college? Check my advice here. If you at least live near a college, sit in on some classes. Write to a professor and see if there's lab work to do, maybe as a volunteer. That could get your foot in the door.
You may find this book right up your alley then: http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife/dp/0684853949
The psychological reasons why people believe this kind of stuff are pretty easy to explain. For example see my post in this thread about confirmation bias and the look-elsewhere effect. It also might be worth mentioning that human perception is a bit of a mess; experimenting with psychedelics can be helpful in getting a sense of this, or maybe reading some Oliver Sacks. Basically there is pretty good scientific evidence that you can't always trust what you think you see. Finally, you do have a good question in there that I think is worth taking seriously: "why not?" Besides philosophical issues with mind-body dualism, I'd respond "Because there is simply no scientific evidence for it whatsoever." If there were a separate world of ghosts that could interact with our world, they would presumably be detectable through any of many extremely sensitive scientific experiments.
Was this from "the man who mistook his wife for a hat?"
Given his interest in science and that he's got a reather short attention span I'd go for The man who mistook his wife for a hat. They are short stories about individuals whose brains are just not working right.
Fancy word is Prosopagnosia. If you're interested, you'll like the collection of short medical tales by Oliver Sachs called The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (Amazon link).
Oliver Sacks' exploration of mental illness has an existential bent to it that I've always appreciated. His book, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" is fascinating and touches on how simple faculties of the mind make up our consciousness, our existence. One of his patients literally cannot distinguish his wife from his hat (the title story), and Sacks discusses how this inability shapes his patient's understanding of himself and the world.
Years later and I'm still geeking out about it.
https://smile.amazon.com/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife/dp/0684853949/ref=sr_1_1?crid=M7R0DJM18914&keywords=the+man+who+mistook+his+wife+for+a+hat&qid=1573405204&sprefix=the+man+who+mist%2Caps%2C226&sr=8-1
On Becoming a Person
The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat
I second the reading idea! Ask your history or science teachers for suggestions of accessible books. I'm going to list some that I found interesting or want to read, and add more as I think of them.
A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson. Title explains it all. It is very beginner friendly, and has some very entertaining stories. Bryson is very heavy on the history and it's rather long but you should definitely make every effort to finish it.
Lies my teacher told me
The greatest stories never told (This is a whole series, there are books on Presidents, science, and war as well).
There's a series by Edward Rutherfurd that tells history stories that are loosely based on fact. There are books on London and ancient England, Ireland, Russia, and one on New York
I read this book a while ago and loved it- Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk It's about a monk who was imprisoned for 30 years by the Chinese.
The Grapes of Wrath.
Les Misérables. I linked to the unabridged one on purpose. It's SO WORTH IT. One of my favorite books of all time, and there's a lot of French history in it. It's also the first book that made me bawl at the end.
You'll also want the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Federalist Papers.
I'm not sure what you have covered in history, but you'll definitely want to find stuff on all the major wars, slavery, the Bubonic Plague, the French Revolution, & ancient Greek and Roman history.
As for science, find these two if you have any interest in how the brain works (and they're pretty approachable).
Phantoms in the brain
The man who mistook his wife for a hat
Alex and Me The story of a scientist and the incredibly intelligent parrot she studied.
For a background in evolution, you could go with The ancestor's tale
A biography of Marie Curie
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston is a quick and easy read, and very heavy on the adventure. You'll also want to read his other book The Hot Zone about Ebola. Absolutely fascinating, I couldn't put this one down.
The Devil's Teeth About sharks and the scientists who study them. What's not to like?
In the mean time you can read the book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks He talks about a lot of very interesting case studies and several of them have to do with people who have a severed corpus callosum.
Also on his wikipedia page there is a picture of him wearing a shirt that says "WELCOME SQUID OVERLORDS" so you know he's good.
Two things, (1) I'm going to recommend mostly books and not textbooks, since you're going to read plenty of those in the future. And (2) I'm going to only focus on the area of cognitive psychology & neuroscience. With that being said:
Beginner:
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales By Oliver Sacks
Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives By Dean Buonomano
Kludge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Mind By Gary Marcus
The Trouble with Testosterone: And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament By Robert M. Sapolsky
The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers By Daniel L. Schacter
Intermediate: (I'm going to throw this in here, because reading the beginner texts will not allow you to really follow the advanced texts.)
Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind By Michael S. Gazzaniga, Richard B. Ivry & George R. Mangun
Advanced:
The Prefrontal Cortex By Joaquin Fuster
The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness By J. Allan Hobson
The Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning By Keith J. Holyoak & Robert G. Morrison
Everything you will ever experience happens in your brain. Books by Oliver Sacks and V.S. Ramachandran are entertaining without being totally overrun by misrepresentations of science.
Masters of Doom. Fantastic book. I grew up around the time it was all happening, but never knew what was going on, just that these amazing games were being released by this tiny company. The two Johns and Chris Roberts (who created Wing Commander) made me want to be a game designer. Or rather, I had wanted to be one from the age of 4, but they showed me that it was possible for one person to come up with something amazing. I've read this book about once a year for the nostalgia.
I also recommend reading Jordan Mechner's journals on the making of Prince of Persia. The guy kept tons of records of everything about making the game. It's pretty amazing to read. His journals are available on Amazon as well.
Meh. Thanks for lecturing me on id software history. You are right. Congratulations.
Here is your prize: Masters of Doom
If you enjoyed this I highly recommend you read Masters of Doom, which goes into more detail of the rise and fall of ID software and is an extremely entertaining read for any gamer.
I listened to an audiobook while driving a year ago, Master's Of Doom. An amazing story and incredibly entertaining to listen to the story of my childhood heroes. Memorable quote:
> The computer. It contained worlds.
There is Masters of Doom, but I don't know if that is exactly what you are looking for.
This is a tough one but I’ll give it a shot. Masters of Doom. https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155
I suggest you read http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155
You would like this then
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155
> Dostojevskom...
Kockara sam u jednom danu pročitao. Doduše, imao sam gripu i ležao u krevetu, ali svejedno.
Moja najdraža knjiga ikad - Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. Počneš čitat i ne možeš stat.
edit - kad sam imao cca 16 godina pročitao sam nekoliko knjiga od Svena Hassela. Kod nas ima jeftinih džepnih izdanja sad, njegove knjige su isto takve da ih počneš čitat u petak navečer i onda dva dana ne radiš ništa nego samo čitaš.
> Hassel je bio iznimno popularan u Hrvatskoj sredinom sedamdesetih i osamdesetih godina prošlog stoljeća, kada je Nakladni zavod Globus Zagreb izdao sedam od 14 njegovih romana. Svaki se roman morao dotiskavati, tako da je Hassel uskoro postao jedan od najprodavanijih stranih pisaca svih vremena, čije su knjige na području bivše Jugoslavije prodane u više od sto tisuća primjeraka.
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374812801&amp;sr=8-1
Very interesting book detailing this and their early days. Its a bit dated (was released in 2003), but a great read for those interested in gaming, none the less.
There was a lot of conflict and infighting going on with the style for Quake. I think the colors they went with were a compromise.
Romero was pushing for medieval, while the rest of the team wanted to continue Doom's direction.
With these questions you may really enjoy reading the book Masters of Doom. It's about id Software but it was the same time period as when Cliff Bleszinksi gaining popularity with his games (it mentions several of his games like Jazz Jackrabbit and Unreal).
It'll give you a great understanding of what the wild west of game development was like. It's really well written and surprisingly engaging.
MP3 http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/68122
>Former Nebraska State Senator, author and attorney, John DeCamp, discusses his involvement and investigation into financial and child abuse scandals surrounding the seizure of the Omaha, Nebraska based Franklin Community Federal Credit Union during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s. He also discusses some of his experience as an Army Captain during the Vietnam War, and his work with former CIA Director, William E. Colby.
MP3 and article: http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-318-kidding-around-child-molestation-and-pedophilia-in-the-gop/
Book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Nebraska/dp/0963215809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1404875875&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=decamp
I think I read about some of that stuff in this book.
The book is actually titled "The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska".
You can get in in physical or ebook form, here.
I chose it for my staff recommends when I was working at Barnes and Noble.
It's considered a 'hoax' only on the basis of the perjury charges of two of the victims - Alisha Owen and Paul A. Bonacci. There were other victims interviewed by investigators. Some recanted - but did so under pressure of perjury charges. They were victimized by the local authorities and the FBI. An investigator of the case (Gary Caradori) died in a plane crash - just after phoning his superiors that he had nearly completed his work.
Worthwhile reads:
Still Evil After All These Years - CounterPunch
Excerpt from some zine, 'The Beast At Work'
There's also 'The Franklin Cover-Up' by John Decamp (State Senator of Neb. at one time).
Senator Decamp has done interviews that are posted on YT and was part of a documentary on the case (that got pulled from circulation by the Discovery Channel) called Conspiracy of Silence.
that's not really a good reason to dismiss it as the other response said. If you want to be horrified, check out the documentary from the 90's Conspiracy of Silence. Was supposed to be shown on Discovery channel, was already in the tv guides and then congress decided it had to be destroyed a few days before broadcast. It goes into child sex abuse and drug smuggling ring all the way up to the white house and the republican party
You can watch a raw copy here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBSIDQt5Dwc
there's also this book by Senator John DeCamp https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Murder-Nebraska/dp/0963215809
he was supposed to debunk the stories but ended up defending the children and wrote this book as a tell all.
There are similar cases in the Netherlands and Belgium as well (Dutroux in belgium and Demmink in the Netherlands..secretary general of justice who has been accused of child abuse since the 90's)
You can’t go wrong with the classic video Hell’s Bells.
Are you looking for objectivity or outrageousness? The Satanic panic had scant of the former.
Edit: This one is great, personally I think it’s half witch-hunt half true but that fluctuates. It isn’t complete bullshit though: https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Murder-Nebraska/dp/0963215809/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=the+franklin+cover+up&amp;qid=1559126530&amp;s=gateway&amp;sprefix=the+frank&amp;sr=8-1
Edit again: Here’s a freebie that’ll make a certain psycho juice balls: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y3LANOU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_4lM7CbQCTE580
Edit the final: I may have some old evangelical stuff, Bob Larson type nonsense, boxed up in a shed somewhere. I could probably dig it out if you want pure bullshit.
would you like to know more?
TIL that a woman, hired by Dyncorp to crackdown on forced prostitution on behalf of the UN, discovered that the UN police were the main perpetrators of forced prostitution and was later fired.
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/15r2j4/til_that_a_woman_hired_by_dyncorp_to_crackdown_on/
WikiLeaks Reveals That Military Contractors Have Not Lost Their Taste For Child Prostitutes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/08/wikileaks-reveals-that-mi_n_793816.html
The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman's Fight for Justice
http://www.amazon.com/The-Whistleblower-Trafficking-Military-Contractors/dp/B005CDUBC2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1331445269&amp;sr=8-4
Sounds like Blackwater founder Erik Prince was operating a child prostitution service in Iraq
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&amp;address=389x6249748
1989 News: Call boys in Bush Sr's Whitehouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5OJPeHCmhA
1989 #2 News: Call boys in Bush Sr's Whitehouse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU-k-tfiPfs
1989 story about Bush Sr. Whitehouse call Boy sex ring
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2003/02/06/15709461.php
Nixon Tape Discusses Homosexuals at Bohemian Grove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPb-PN9F2Pc
Charges refiled against former Pittsburgh cop accused of running prostitution ring
http://triblive.com/news/2222380-74/johns-police-criminal-charges-pittsburgh-prostitution-allegheny-charged-counts-county#axzz2Qc0wAaBg
Former TSA employee fined $500 for running prostitution ring
Man confronted by police in Silver Spring hotel in February
http://www.gazette.net/article/20120611/NEWS/706119952/1007/former-tsa-employee-fined-500-for-running-prostitution-ring&amp;template=gazette
School board member convicted of running prostitution ring in California
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/08/16904911-school-board-member-convicted-of-running-prostitution-ring-in-california?lite
FBI dad’s spyware experiment accidentally exposes pedophile principal
http://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/146xzt/fbi_dads_spyware_experiment_accidentally_exposes/
The Franklin Cover-Up - John DeCamp - Full film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcWrrBceuP4
The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska
http://www.amazon.com/The-Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Nebraska/dp/0963215809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1366098964&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=franklin+coverup
Pentagon Child Porn Scandal: Security Agencies Were Left At Risk, Investigators Say
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/pentagon-child-porn-scand_n_656839.html
Secret Service Prostitution Scandal
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/secret-service-prostitution-scandal
A Party under Fire: A Scandal-Scarred GOP Asks, ‘What Next?’
Explicit e-mails with under-age male pages. Criminal lobbyists. Being on client lists for prostitution rings. FBI corruption investigations. And, now, soliciting sex in an airport bathroom. People are beginning to wonder: how low can Republican lawmakers go?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/a-party-under-fire-a-scandal-scarred-gop-asks-what-next-a-502653.html
Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html
The D.C. Madam Case, All Sordid Out
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2008-04-11/opinions/36798466_1_deborah-jeane-palfrey-prosecutors-shock-and-awe
Mike Horner Prostitution Scandal: GOP State Rep. Resigns After Name Reportedly Surfaces On Client List
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/mike-horner-sex-prostitution-scandal_n_1910647.html
Another One: Top Federal Judge Linked to Prostitution Ring
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4452917&amp;page=1#.UW0JY0pcnn4
‘Comfort Women’ Controversy Comes to New York
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/comfort-women-controversy-comes-to-new-york/
Sex scandal rocks Vatican: Papal usher, chorister linked to gay prostitution ring
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/sex-scandal-rocks-vatican-papal-usher-chorister-linked-gay-prostitution-ring-article-1.172149
BBC News - Catholic Church loses child abuse liability appeal
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/wfq5e/bbc_news_catholic_church_loses_child_abuse/
Ireland admits involvement in Catholic laundry slavery
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57567706/ireland-admits-involvement-in-catholic-laundry-slavery/
Cover-up claims revive sex scandal
Belgian establishment accused of closing ranks to block investigation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/apr/21/stephenbates
Belgium Pedophilia Scandal /Did Authorities Cover Up Its Scope?: Book Revives Fear of Grand Conspiracy
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/16/news/16iht-brussels.2.t.html?pagewanted=all
Portugal's elite linked to paedophile ring
Abuse was reportedly going on at Lisbon orphanage for 20 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/27/childprotection.uk
FBI Ran Pedophile Ring to Nab Pedophiles
As late as last year, the FBI ran a child pornography operation in an attempt to nab its customers. The service ran for two weeks "while attempting to identify more than 5,000 customers, according to a Seattle FBI agent's statements to the court."
http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/05/30/FBI-Ran-Pedophile-Ring-to-Nab-Pedophiles
Turns out it was Nebraska;
book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Nebraska/dp/0963215809
wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_child_prostitution_ring_allegations
bbc documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtstlx96s8M
Also I have no idea as to the validity of any of the claims made about this case.
Holy cow - you weren't kidding about it being a thousand bucks. I haven't seen that book or pdf anywhere else, but an excellent examination of the case by John DeCamp (the children's lawyer) called "The Franklin Cover-Up" is on amazon for a very reasonable price.
I highly recommend it, although it is extremely disturbing and sometimes graphic about the crimes committed.
The Turner Diaries, a notoriously racist novel that I've heard associated with the lunatic fringe in North America for years. A while back, I thought I'd check it out and see for myself what it was all about.
It was not a terribly shocking read, but gave interesting insight into the mind rightwing, white racists -- namely, how hilariously hypocritical and childishly delusional they are.
If you're interested in specifics, I wrote a review of the book.
The most fucked-up book I ever read was The Franklin Cover-up.
Dude, thank you so much for posting this. This documentary is essential viewing for anybody who wants to understand what is really going on with the elite. The book by john decamp is really good too and it goes a little deeper.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It was fascinating and read like fiction, despite the fact that the whole thing was non-fiction.
The Rebel Sell: Why The Culture Can't Be Jammed by Joseph Potter and Andrew Heath
The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," The Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction by Rachel P. Maines. A really awesome history of the medicalization of women's orgasms and sexual issues.
I love these lists that everyone has compiled here, I've seen some amazing books that I've read and have yet to read. But since no one's mentioned this one, I'd to add a book that I think is really significant to AskWomen and the state of our society today:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It's about how a black woman died of cervical cancer in the 50s, then doctors took her cancer cells to experiment on without telling her family, and they're basically the only human cells to be replicated in the lab without dying so they've been used in all of medicine, including to develop vaccines like polio -- and yet her descendants live without healthcare. It's an amazingly well written, interesting, and exciting book.
Other than that I recommend Mary Roach as an author, she is very fun to read. My favorites are Gulp: Adventures in the Alimentary Canal and Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
I love science books. These are all on my bookshelf/around my apt. They aren't all chemistry, but they appeal to my science senses:
I got a coffee table book once as a gift. It's Theodore Gray's The Elements. It's beautiful, but like I said, more of a coffee table book. It's got a ton of very cool info about each atom though.
I tried The Immortal Life of Henrieta Lacks, which is all about the people and family behind HeLa cells. That was a big hit, but I didn't care for it.
I liked The Emperor of all Maladies which took a long time to read, but was super cool. It's essentially a biography of cancer. (Actually I think that's it's subtitle)
The Wizard of Quarks and Alice in Quantumland are both super cute allegories relating to partical physics and quantum physics respectively. I liked them both, though they felt low-level, tying them to high-level physics resulted in a fun read.
Unscientific America I bought on a whim and didn't really enjoy since it wasn't science enough.
The Ghost Map was a suuuper fun read about Cholera. I love reading about mass-epidemics and plague.
The Bell that Rings Light, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, The Fabric of the Cosmos and Beyond the God Particle are all pleasure reading books that are really primers on Quantum.
I also tend to like anything by Mary Roach, which isn't necessarily chemistry or science, but is amusing and feels informative. I started with Stiff but she has a few others that I also enjoyed.
Have fun!
Almost anything by Oliver Sacks is fantastic. On The Move was great. I listened to it as an audiobook in lab. Very motivating!
Not a new release, and I know there is some controversy, but I loved The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Middlesex. Fiction, not a new release, but a great story with some science mixed in (I may be biased because I happened to be reading this while taking developmental biology and learning about sex determination).
Very much liked
The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat - a book about the discovery of penicillin that aims to correct decades of misinformation
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mold-Dr-Floreys-Coat/dp/0805077782/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1341580039&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=mold+in+dr+floreys+coat
Also, for a bioethics book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is great
http://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1341580111&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=henrietta+lacks
I pretty much only read non-fiction, so I'm all about books that are educational but also interesting :) I'm not sure what your educational background is, so depending on how interested you are in particular subjects, I have many recommendations.
Naked Statistics and Nate Silver's Book are both good!
Feeling Good is THE book on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
The Omnivore's Dilemma is good, as is Eating Animals (granted, Eating Animals is aimed at a particular type of eating)
Guns, Germs and Steel is very good.
I also very much enjoyed The Immortal Live of Henrietta Lacks, as well as Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman :)
edit to add: Chris Hadfield's Book which I haven't received yet but it's going to be amazing.
Came here to say Oliver Sacks (neuroscience).
I picked up a used copy of the DSM-IV casebook; it's very cheap since the DSM-V has come out. Diagnoses may be outdated but the stories are still there!
There are casebooks in other fields, too-- Surgery, multiple specialities, medical ethics, [pediatrics] (http://www.amazon.com/Files-Pediatrics-Fourth-Edition-LANGE/dp/0071766987/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_9_EQ6W?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=1WJ16SB6971PCJ94TK2S). Your college library ought to have new-ish ones you can read for free.
I'm also encouraged by reading scientific journal articles in medical fields (research is exciting).
Other stuff: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks isn't about a doctor, but it's about a patient and the HeLa cell line that's been so important to medicine. My decision to go into medicine was affected by The Plague, a novel by Albert Camus about a plague-stricken city. (Main character is a doctor, though not exactly a modern MD.)
>Isn't every living thing?
No. I'm actually reading a book about that right now. Good book, pretty entertaining and informative, I recommend.
the book
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816
All of them, really. Absolutely no harm will come from reading all the books out there (for a while). At worst, you'll learn ways of doing things that DON'T work for you but it's still good knowledge to have.
After a while, eventually, you'll start noticing though that all the new books out are just copying and rephrasing the books that came before them. That's when it's time to stop.
Some of the popular ones are syd field's book, Robert McKee's book, Joseph Campbell's book (and imo a book called The Writer's Journey by Christopher something that analyzes Campbell's book and puts it into modern story telling terms). That'll get you started. I have varying opinions of each of those books and none of them should be adhered to by law, but they ALL contain concepts and theories that, as a professional writer, you'd do well to expose yourself to. If for no other reason than that you can be aware of the concepts when others talk about them.
Tangentially, Stephen king's On Writing and William Goldman's books are great reads but don't necessarily apply to the craft of screen writing directly. Also useful to read any interviews or collections of interviews with screen writers. You may also want to check out some podcasts, Jeff goldsmith's interviews with screen writers is great and I have no idea if it's still available or even what it's called but I used to listen to one titled something like Sam and Jim Go to Hollywood (I am positive I got those names wrong) about two guys who up and quit their careers as restaurant owners and moved to Hollywood to become writers and share what they've learned. Ted Rossio and Terry Elliot also run, or ran, a website with forums (which are eh) and and a collection of articles about screen writing which are fantastic.
This was all stuff I was into years ago, so I don't know how much of it is still relevant, because like I said when you get to a certain point you've kind of read everything out there and it all starts repeating itself, and you realize all that's left is to read screenplays and write a ton.
Good luck.
e: back on my computer, here are some links:
Syd Field's Sreenplay (he has several books out, that's the one you should start with as it lays the foundation for basic story structure of nearly all modern movies. IMO, it's also the best one out there because he never says these are rules in any way, he simply analyzed a bunch of movies and lays out his findings for you to do with as you wish)
Robert McKee's Story
Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces
and Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey
Stephen King's On Writing which describes his writing style and, while I don't prefer it, is a very interesting style similar to the Cohen Brothers
William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which Lie did I Tell? two accounts of William Goldman's experiences as one of the top writers in Hollywood, and dealing with the business. Writer of The Princess Bride, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, and many others. Dude's a legend.
Jeff Goldsmith's Q&A podcast he also did the same style podcast while working for a screenwriting magazine, though the name escapes me right now
Sam and Jim Go to Hollywood holy shit I got their names right I can't believe it. Seems to be dead for a few years but it looks like their podcasts are still up.
Wordplay, Ted & Terry's website read every single one of those articles
e: BONUS! Not that useful as an educational resource, but it's fun to read Ken Levine's blog, writer on MASH and Cheers Ken's blog (no, not the guy who made BioShock)
I'm personally getting a lot of great recommendations who cares if Grey's assistant likes them.
[TLC: High middle ages]
(https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/high-middle-ages.html)
Really interesting professor does a very broad overview of the changes happening in Europe during this time period.
[Unfamiliar Fishes]
(https://www.amazon.com/Unfamiliar-Fishes-Sarah-Vowell/dp/159448564X) Actually most Sarah Vowell books are pretty interesting and entertaining. This one covers the time period of Hawaii from when it was a kingdom to a state, when it's soul is being fought over by missionaries, fruit companies and shipping.
[What I talk about when I talk about Running](
https://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/0307389839) I'm not a runner, neither is Grey, still a really interesting reflective book.
[Cod: The biography of the fish that changed the world](
https://www.amazon.com/Cod-Biography-Fish-Changed-World/dp/0140275010/ref=sr_1_1?
keywords=cod&qid=1566160678&s=books&sr=1-1)
You need to read this just for the charming cod wars Iceland engages in, also a ton of history and geography.
[Stephen King: On Writing](
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816) Very nuts and bolts book about the physical act of writing and a lot of inside baseball about the state of mind King was in while writing some of his most famous books,
Hi u/Calicox,
Brandon Sanderson has a series of lectures he did at Brigham Young University when teaching a creative writing class there. Here's his lecture on character, but the others I've seen are also worth your time.
You may find the following books helpful:
This
This
This
This
This
This
This
Best,
DR-M
Have you read On Writing? it is a very good book.
The Elements of Style is the classic reference and I've probably read it over a dozen times, but it has seen a pretty big backlash and it does contradict itself in some humorous ways. I'd recommend Style: Ten Lessons In Clarity And Grace by Joesph M. Williams. I found it much more clear and sensible than TEOS. In addition, I'm a big fan of Garner's Modern American Usage, not as a book on grammar but as a reference for use during composition. For what it's worth, I got both of these recommendations from professional editor John McIntyre. (But TEOS has Stephen King's blessing, so there's that as well.) Those and King's On Writing are the only writing books I've ever been able to stomach.
I'm starting too. Here's the list of resources I am planning on working my way through. No promises that you will know how to write after you are done, but it's a place to start. I haven't read/watched everything on this list yet (I'm just starting Brandon Sanderson's lectures, I have read On Writing, I have read some of Chuck Palahniuk's essays, and I went to a lecture on plotting that was largely based on Save the Cat), it's just the list of what I am planning on checking out.
Brandon Sanderson's Creative Writing Lectures
Chuck Palahniuk's Essay on Writing
On Writing by Stephen King
[Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott]
(https://www.amazon.com/Bird-Some-Instructions-Writing-Life/dp/0385480016/)
Story by Robert McKee
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
This thread also has additional resources.
Oh, also, this is a funny resource, but I like reading Query Shark because one of the things that comes up over and over again is boiling a story down to three questions: who is your main character, what do they want, why can't they get it? I think when you are writing, you want to keep those questions at the core of your story and a lot of her comments on the blog are about cutting through all the extra stuff and getting to that core.
Edit: I missed that you said you already watched the Brandon Sanderson lectures. Sorry!
One of the best books I ever read was Stephen King: On Writing, and what he said about dialogue stuck with me. Basically, he said take your characters and throw them into a room/situation and just watch them.
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So start! If you're interested I would suggest you read On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. It is a great book that talks about his start as an author, his personal issues he faced during his years as an author, and his insight to the craft.
“you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”
― Stephen King
I wouldn't have passed this. Your writing is incredibly flowery, your description is overwrought while managing to convey absolutely nothing, you adverb and adjective all over the place...
Sorry to be harsh, but you need to pick up some books on the absolute basics of fiction writing. I recommend:
http://www.amazon.com/Scene-Book-Primer-Fiction-Writer/dp/0143038265/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1291362532&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1291362561&amp;sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-4th-William-Strunk/dp/0205313426/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1291362620&amp;sr=8-1
> Romanian
You know, I actually wondered if English was your first language because you did it consistently and I wondered where it was you'd learn the dash trick. But you are right. Quotes are always used in English.
> I am prone to go to extremes in the other direction
It is a fine line, I agree. I haven't read it myself, but my writer friend highly suggests Stephen King's "On Writing".
The struggle with all new writers is that your taste will always exceed your ability in the beginning. You want to write because you've got a story or an idea that speaks to you. You probably know what makes a good story, which is what makes writing so enticing.
But like an art critique who wants to try their hand at painting, it can be a frustrating experience. You just have to keep trying.
As far as writing materials go I personally recommend On Writing by Stephen King. His methods don't work for everyone, but it's a great start. Try listening to the Writing Excuses Podcast, or watch Brandon Sanderson's creative writing lectures on youtube. (Here's a link to the playlist I am currently watching. It's fabulous.)
I also enjoyed Make a Scene. It is excellent at breaking down difficult concepts.
Other than that, just look around. Google writing blogs for tips, track down the blogs of authors you like, read as much as you can in the genre that you want to write. If you're consistently working towards improving your craft, you will improve. The more time you put in, the faster your improvement will be.
Advice from Jerry B. Jenkins, and Stephen King's On Writing
For the writing process: be consistent. Try to write every day, or almost every day. Try to write for a set time or reach a set word count each day. Try to do it in the same place each day. Make it a part of your life. And don't be hard on yourself if life happens, you can always adjust and customize, but establishing those habits now will help yourself be more disciplined for professional writing.
As far as constructing the story, most writers start with some kind of a plan, whether it's doing all of the detailed outlines and research first, or just jotting down a few ideas to get started, or something in between. ALL professional writers then create the first draft, get the whole thing out of their head, then go back and revise it. They may do all of that differently, but the important part is that the first version of a story is never perfect, and you'll need to look it over for more than just spelling errors and such.
If this is truly an interest, just start writing. As others have said, it's going to take a while to learn "how to write," as well as to develop your own writing voice and style. It'll come with time, and it'll change over the course of your life.
For advice: an idea is not a story. That's why jotting down notes can be so useful, you can turn it from an abstract thought to concrete words and figure out what the actual story is, or if it's just an element to use in a story. Especially with fanfiction.
Don't get too attached to your prose, because sometimes you'll write the most amazingest scene ever, but it doesn't add squat to the story so it'll need to be pruned out. You can stick it in a folder somewhere "to use later" if you must, just accept that not all the words will make it to the final version.
When in doubt, look it up. There's a whole frikkin internet and so many people don't use it.
Check out the other /writing subs too. Writing prompts and challenges are a fun way to get in a little practice. There's also NaNoWriMo each November, and come to think of it Camp NaNoWriMo starts today.
Get a mug. Writers have a mug, sometimes for beverage and sometimes just for pencils or something.
And don't forget to stand up and stretch now and then. It's good for both body and mind.
Oh, and the old computer mantra: save often and back up your work. Flash drives are cheap and awesome.
I would love for you to message me when it's out.
As for books you should read, I would start with the three most commonly recomended books for writing. Believe me, these are gold printed on paper.
How To Write a Sentence
The Elements of Style
On Writing
and here's a great reference book: The Little, Brown Compact Handbook. Don't be turned off by the price, just search for a much cheaper older addition, it will have the same information.
On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft
I read his book "On Writing A Memoir of the Craft", he does not take emails any more since a fan tried to sue him by sending a writing exercise from the book to him for critique. I would suggest that book to anyone serious about writing books. http://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816
But yes in his book his father "Done run off" when he was but a child and the King family shut him and his mother and brother off, like they did to my parents and me and my brothers. I have a brother named Stephen King, but not the same as the book writer, it is a family name passed down from generation to generation.
Honestly, I think pacing is one issue but the main problem is people aren't willing to be uncomfortable. No shame on someone who doesn't have the fitness to run 30 minutes -- after years of not running, lots of people don't currently have that ability -- but I think many more people stay far short of their capabilities because, to borrow your phrase, they don't know how to exercise. I'll frequently see people resting as they walk up a flight of stairs because their heart rate is elevated; if you run for 30 minutes, that level of minor discomfort is something you'll have to accept for 29 minutes. Middle schoolers can do it because no one told them they couldn't, but as they get older people convince themselves that breathing heavy is a sign of impending disaster. And I think threads like this, treating running as some herculean effort when we're all born to run, contribute to the problem.
Source: I live in a city that is far, far from "most active."
While I was too into running, I stumbled upon Born to Run and I found it very wholesome and entertaining, it's non fiction but you learn lots of things about running as well other cultures.
If your a book reader check out "Born to Run"
Its entertaining, educational, slightly biased, and loaded with hyperbole, but its worth the read for sure.
Haha. I totally fell for the hype after reading Born to Run.
The jury is still out as far as concluding whether they are really the life-changing superfood that many like to believe, but it is a fact that they contain a lot of nutrients absent in the rest of my diet. That, and I can personally attest to the effects of the tremendous amount of fiber contained therein, ifyouknowwhatImean.
When I started running a couple years before HRT it did the same. Your muscle are just not used to it.
I had stopped running due to an slip injury mid-Dec 2016. I started running again 3 months ago, at the same time I started HRT. The first two weeks were a bit hard, but it's normal after a 3-month break.
Now I'm back to outrunning ladies on bicycles and kids in roller blades. HRT doesn't stop you from that. Just work your way up, and remember, it's all in your head. One foot in front of the other, till the end.
I usually run 10k a day on my lunch breaks. Everyone says it's too much, but I remind them that to them, it's overtraining and to me, it's just a walk in the park! Also, I've found that since switching to 5finger shoes, I don't have shin issues anymore, as they force me to land correctly on my feet instead of my heels like regular running shoes.
Edit: Check out these two books, they've helped me tremendously:
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen:
https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189
Spartan Up!: A Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in Life:
https://www.amazon.com/Spartan-Take-No-Prisoners-Overcoming-Obstacles-Performance/dp/0544286170/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1495168868&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=spartan+up
This is a pretty good book that really popularized a lot of what running has become. It's a good read too.
I was a test subject for Altra running shoes, and they are a pretty good example of the newer trend. (Even though I don't wear them)
Here are the main points:
It's pretty simple. You have shock absorbers in your feet. The way we currently run (because of bad shoes) is terrible. You're basically taking a hammer to your heel, knee, and hips and ignoring your feet, which doesn't make any sense.
Does that help?
PM me if you want some more info and don't want to dig through books. I've written papers on this, been in studies, and understand it pretty well for a layman.
I reccommend this book if you are interested in running. Not striking your heel uses your calf like the spring it's meant to be and allows one to run much more efficiently.
Yes you land much more gently if you're forced to do a mid or forefoot strike. I had terrible knee and ankle pain running in traditional shoes--they were prescribed by the fancy running store after watching me run. Pair after pair sucked. Now I use the barefoot style shoe and like running. YMMV
I learned about after hearing an interview with this writer https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189
http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Superathletes-Greatest-Vintage/dp/0307279189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1300140631&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.chrismcdougall.com/
Barefoot is better!! All of your joints will thank you... Get a nice pair of some New Balance runners, or whatever brand suits you. I've been doing the barefoot thing daily now, work shoes as well as running shoes. It solved some weird knee pain that I started feeling - and my pace has actually improved. Barefoot shoes cost a bit more, but are well worth the price in my opinion!
Also, THIS BOOK has been recommended to me time and time again, and I really need to read it, myself.
You didn't mention anything about how you run or what kind of shoes you run in. If you land on your heal when you run then my suggestion would be to read Born to Run and Tread Lightly and then consider changing the way you run.
Also, keep in mind that X-Rays will not show soft tissue damage (ligament, tendons, etc) so unless you have a broken bone, they are pretty useless.
A huevo man! Bahuichivo, Cerocahui y Urique son la mamada. Yo tambien me pase 3 noches ahi. Me salia todos los dias a subir una nueva montaña y ya que llegaba me acostaba en alguna piedra a ver el paisaje y las aguilas volar. Me quede en un luigar que se llamaba La Posada del Oso en Cerocahui y casualmente conocí a un wey que le dicen Caballo Blanco. Es un gringo que organiza un maraton con los tarahumaras y escribio un libro que es super famoso y ha inspirado a mucha gente. El libro se llama Born to Run. Murio el año pasado el wey creo.
Suerte en tu regreso al jale!
Although the thesis about barefoot running is controversial, try reading Born to Run if you want to change your attitude on running. Running doesn't have to be a grueling battle with your body.
Socks is incredibly nice to get. I also enjoy any running material....if he's newer to running then perhaps the following books (which are super cheap) would interest him:
There's plenty of others....but a good read is nice after a nice run.
The director on the f117, Ben Rich wrote a book about his time in Skunkworks. The f117 was incredible. It was actually made possible by a Russian academic paper! They had a hell of a time translating it, and then they had to build a computer program to do the first radar signature simulations to actually design the thing. Even today it's the stealthiest thing flying because it sacrificed absolutely everything to be as undetectable as possible. The aerodynamics are hell and the engines are choked by huge baffles. Even the cockpit is uncomfortable to keep radar from getting in. No visibility and it was computer controlled way before its time because it was uncontrollable otherwise.
But that little thing is hard to see. The first tech demonstrator they designed was a small model that sat on a pole a short distance away from a radar antenna. It didn't even show up. It has to be measured with special equipment in a controlled environment... and the full-scale plane was even less visible.
Besides, black does have its advantages. It does absorb a lot of solar radiation, but it also helps to radiate heat at a faster rate than a white surface. This is why the Blackbird was painted black. It allowed them to use a more malleable grade of titanium.
Source: Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed
They also were so fast that they had to be flown mostly by computers. A pilot once took manual control after his computer malfunctioned, and an error in judgement brought him over the wrong country.
They also did a fly-over where they broke the sound barrier over a building (on purpose). The sonic boom shattered the office windows, but the plane was never seen. It was too high to be visible. The plane was later sold and used by the US government.
Do you know why they used Titanium? Any other metal would've melted due to friction caused by drag.
Even if you can get a positive missile-lock (given the title, we'll go for death-ray) on an SR-71, you can't hit it. It would be across your airspace faster than you could give the order. If it's any comfort, getting a positive lock is next to impossible.
Source book on Amazon
by the way, has anybody else read this book?
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
it's a really good one. lots of cool information about the sr71, even though there's another plane on the cover
A worthwhile read: Skunkworks by Ben Rich It includes development of the U-2, SR-71 and F-117 as well as stories from pilot and engineers.
So is Ben Rich's book.
I fucking love what SkunkWorks does. This book really made me want to try and become an aerospace engineer and potentially make it into Lockheed Martin. This stuff fascinates me, I just wish I was advanced enough in my education to understand most of it. In time, I will get there.
That book is also what gave me my always raging SR-71 boner.
After loads of reading on the bus to work every day, here follows my reading list for military aviation:
Modern
Vietnam
WWII
Overall/Other
Bonus non-military aviation
I highly second the recommendations of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Diamond Age. I would also recommend:
Get Ben Rich’s book about Lockheed’s Skunk Works Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XzLDAb7GJBNX2 also Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439148813/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_xALDAb3C5Q08N has excellent stories and Brian Shul has some excellent stories and photographs in his books but I don’t think they are in print any longer.
I might as well start.
Skunk Works -- This is a memoir by Ben Rich of Lockheed's Advanced Development Programs division(AKA Skunk Works). If you're interested in aviation, I'd highly recommend it! Ben Rich lead the Skunk Works during development of the F-117 Nighthawk and the development of stealth technology(including a stealth ship for the Navy that never got the green light). He also worked on the U-2 Dragonlady, and designed the engine inlets for the SR-71 Blackbird.
The Machine that Changed the World -- I'm currently working on this one, so I don't have a fully developed opinion just yet. So far it's pretty neat. This is an expositional work about the Toyota Production System, and similar aspects of industrial engineering(dubbed Lean Production) that were developed in Japan after WW2. The authors have a tendency to proselytize it seems like, but maybe that's for good reason. It's not my area of expertise.
If you enjoyed this, give Stealth Fighter a read!
And if you're in this subreddit, give Skunk Works a read. It's one of the best.
Maybe this would be interesting? Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_NW0EzbB1SC556
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1491448540&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=skunk+works
The boss of Skunk Works wrote a book about it. It's pretty good.
Yeah, this one is really cool.
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1491448540&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=skunk+works
Just be aware that the author did run the skunk works for a time and is obviously biased towards the model. That being said the Skunk Works as a whole is a really fascinating model of business and the story of Lockheed's is really cool even beyond what you might take away from the book.
Read Skunk Works - http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003 - if you want the whole story - great read - and Kelly Johnson is a pimp.
The autobiography of Ben Rich, one time chief of Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works division. He was in the team for U-2 and SR-71 and was head of the F-117 development. It's basically the birth story of modern stealth technology.
An immature internet writer adulterating the writing of Shul. Search for "Sled Driver pdf" if you would like to see the 1st edition original. I'm not sure if the account in fancy, limited, later edition was as brief, but it was definitely terse, understated, tongue-in-cheek, and professional. None of this highschooler self-congratulatory, chest-beating cowboyish fantasy.
You might be able to find it at a local library: http://www.worldcat.org/title/sled-driver-flying-the-worlds-fastest-jet/oclc/237046663&amp;referer=brief_results
Here is another book highly worth reading: https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003/
There is a really cool book called Skunk Works, which talks about this technology-race during the cold war. I recommend it for anyone interested in reading about the stealth tech development.
https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
More info, if you're interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003
It's called Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed.
I can absolutely recommend reading it.
In no particular order but all of the following are great.
The only thing on my list starting with D is a book. The Devil in the White City
Erik Larson—author of #1 bestseller In the Garden of Beasts—intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.
Root Returned to Chicago while the architects where in jackson park.
The Devil in the white city - Erik Larson
Devil in the White City- By Erik Larson A fantastic nonfiction that reads like fiction.
Anything by HP Lovecraft for a dose of Horror. I think the story, "Horror at Red Hook" and "Lurker in Darkness" have more of an adventurer GM theme to them than others. Fair bit of warning, when reading his stuff have a dictonary pulled up on your phone. Since it's older material there are a lot of anitquated words in there. Don't worry about learning every new word for future reference. Your brain will pick a couple.
My favorite collection.
I have used some history books about WWI and WWII to make campigns for Iron Kingdoms.
I'm a fan of varied mediums, if you haven't done graphic novels before, maybe look into one that could strike your fancy. Hellboy, Batman-The Long Halloween, most titles by Allen Moore, Superman-Red Son.
Also sneak some poetry in there. Even light stuff like Shel Silverstein was helpful to me. It helps you think of how to use words in new ways.
Edit: Formatting
A surprising number of these books were assigned reading from classes.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
And I'm currently reading a book recommended by an excellent redditor somewhere in this sub, Mad in America by Robert Whitaker
If anyone wants to learn more about Holmes' story or just hear about things that were going on in 1898 Chicago during the planning of the World's Fair, I highly recommend Devil in the White City. Great read, 100% non-fictional, but it's written in such a way that it feels like a fiction thriller. Really anything by Erik Larson is great.
Good question.
You could just start writing and see where that takes you - don't think too much about structure, etc. but get the stories written up (with cited sources). I'll bet that during the writing you'll find questions that you hadn't considered earlier - it'll make you research further. You may start to find a structure to the story as you progress.
When you feel you're finished, read it over and see what you think. You can move sections around/break the stories into chapters, add more here or there, etc.
Alternatively, you can try to answer a common family question ("Who shortened our Surname?") or investigate a rumor/myth ("Did that ancestor really buy land from Thomas Jefferson like everyone always claims?") or, write individual biographies of notable individuals.
For some inspiration, take a look at how other authors handle writing biographical-based history. Something like:
There are as many different approaches as there are people in your tree, but really just try to get started, see where you end up.
The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson. 50% of the book follows the elaborate and seemingly impossible construction of the Chicago World Fair and 50% follows the construction of serial killer H.H. Holmes' kill house. Cited on countless "100 books to read in a lifetime" articles.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601
Can't say I've read much horror fiction, but a good/terrifying (all the while tragic) tale is the true story of The Devil in the White City. I really enjoy anything by Poe and Ayn Rand. Randomly, I'd recommend A Passage to India by E.M. Forster or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey 🖤.
The story is SPOILER ALERT
Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered his parents and 4 siblings while they were asleep. Then ya know, prison. So the house goes up for sale and some family buys it because it is a steal. They don't even last a month there though because some truly scary ish keeps happening. It is known as America's Most Haunted House.
2 - Good true crime read? I would go with The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair all day long. It is a a mix of true story and storytelling magic about the Chicago World fair and a serial killer who uses the fair to find his (or her) victims.
I actually might reread this one now that you reminded me of it!
Devil In The White City. The parallel stories of the planning and execution of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the serial killer on its edges
Even if you aren't a fan of King's work, this is the single best place to start for anyone who fancies writing. See here.
Okay, everyone's "read and write" advice tells you what to do, but not how to do it. Simply reading will not teach you how to write well; it will only teach you how to write LIKE other people do. If you want to "learn the rules," what you need to do is learn how to think critically about your own writing. For that, either take a creative writing class or read a few good books, or both. I'd recommend picking up a couple books. First, go through The Art and Craft of Fiction (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1457613905?psc=1&amp;redirect=true&amp;ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage) by Michael Kardos, and then read something like Stephen King's On Writing (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439156816?psc=1&amp;redirect=true&amp;ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage). These will provide you with the central problems that writers of fiction must keep in mind.
Then, write regularly. Practice editing your own work. Find some other writers to read it and give you feedback.
And I have these in my list on amazon. Would love to get some opinions on them:
&nbsp;
How to Win Friends and Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
&nbsp;
Secrets of a Freelance Writer: How to Make $100,000 a Year or More
by Robert Bly
&nbsp;
Words that Sell
by Richard Bayan
&nbsp;
Tested Advertising Methods
by Caples and Hahn
&nbsp;
Writing That Works
by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson
&nbsp;
Confessions of an Advertising Man
by David Ogilvy
&nbsp;
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
by Al Ries and Jack Trout
&nbsp;
The Robert Collier Letter Book
by Robert Collier
&nbsp;
Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose
by Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee
&nbsp;
Letting Go of the Words
by Janice (Ginny) Redish
&nbsp;
Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers
by Harold Evans
&nbsp;
Can I Change Your Mind?: The Craft and Art of Persuasive Writing
by Lindsay Camp
&nbsp;
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer
by Roy Peter Clark
&nbsp;
Read Me: 10 Lessons for Writing Great Copy
by Roger Horberry and Gyles Lingwood
&nbsp;
Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads
by Luke Sullivan
&nbsp;
WRITE IN STEPS: The super simple book writing method
by Ian Stables
&nbsp;
On Writing Well
by William Zinsser
&nbsp;
The Wealthy Freelancer
by Steve Slaunwhite, Pete Savage and Ed Gandia
&nbsp;
Write Everything Right!
by Denny Hatch
&nbsp;
The Secret of Selling Anything
by Harry Browne
&nbsp;
The Marketing Gurus: Lessons from the Best Marketing Books of All Time
by Chris Murray
&nbsp;
On Writing
by Stephen King
&nbsp;
Writing for the Web
by Lynda Felder
&nbsp;
Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
by Ann Handley
&nbsp;
This book will teach you how to write better
by Neville Medhora
/u/ReedsyRac20 is faster than I am. I also recommend Allie Brosh's book that she recently published.