⭐⭐ Seek You by Radtke
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Full Title
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Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness
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Authors
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Kristen Radtke
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Year Published
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2021
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Date Read
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February 25, 2023
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Rating
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2/5 stars
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Weird digression on gun ownership. Stopped about halfway.
February 25, 2023
Book Reviews
⭐⭐⭐ Going Solo by Klinenberg
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Full Title
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Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone
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Authors
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Eric Klinenberg
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Year Published
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2012
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Date Read
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February 20, 2023
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Rating
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3/5 stars
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Not bad, though the book really struggles to weave together a story that would make it something you want to return to. Useful in terms of sharing some stats.
February 20, 2023
Book Reviews
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Billion Dollar Spy by Hoffman
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Full Title
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The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
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Authors
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David E. Hoffman
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Year Published
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2015
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Date Read
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February 09, 2023
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Rating
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5/5 stars
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I try to read a Cold War era book every once in a while and this one really didn’t disappoint. One surprising thing is just how much of someone’s motivation to be a spy seems to be so personal — in one case highly ideological, in another case motivated from a sense of personal wronging. Reminds me of the importance of having people believe in what your nation is pushing forward, and makes me concerned about what seems to be a trendy perspective among millennials / gen-z’s — questioning the value of our capitalist system.
Would highly recommend to anyone that’s even passively interested in this era or spying.
February 9, 2023
Book Reviews
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Count Down by Swan
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Full Title
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Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race
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Authors
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Shanna H. Swan, Stacey Colino
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Year Published
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2021
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Date Read
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February 02, 2023
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Rating
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4/5 stars
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Scary stuff. Kind of tough to stomach when it seems like so much of the causes seem to be out of our control.
February 2, 2023
Book Reviews
⭐⭐⭐ Four Thousand Weeks by Burkeman
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Full Title
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Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
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Authors
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Oliver Burkeman
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Year Published
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2021
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Date Read
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November 21, 2022
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Rating
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3/5 stars
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Useful reminder that productivity is not about getting more done, it’s about deciding what few things actually matter and being comfortable throwing the rest away. Makes me think of the concept of “
maintenance syndrome”; the gist reproduced below:
Constantly cleaning up, organizing files on our hard drive, running errands, putting out little fires and making inconsequential project todo lists: these are all symptoms of Maintenance Syndrome.
Maintenance tasks in our life and in our projects are usually very clear-cut. They seductively offer a clear problem and a clear solution. The structure-seeking part of or brain loves this and will endlessly procrastinate important ambiguous tasks in favour of taking these on.
When we are pulled into this game we usually think: “let me just check all these things off my list first, then I’ll do the hard thing”. There’s one big problem with that: there’s absolutely no end to these kinds of minor tasks in life. They will grow to take as much space as we have to offer — completely crowding out creation.
November 21, 2022
Book Reviews
⭐⭐⭐ Die with Zero by Perkins
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Full Title
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Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life
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Authors
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Bill Perkins
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Year Published
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2020
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Date Read
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November 11, 2022
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Rating
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3/5 stars
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Not bad. Feels a little too focused on the “any time you’re working you’re not living,” which is a concept that I really used to espouse maybe 5 years ago but have since mostly moved away from — one finds out after voluntarily not working that doing so brings with it its own set of trade-offs. Still, an interesting concept that was explored was general maximization of what you’re getting out of life, which doesn’t just boil down to spending money on the right things; it also might mean something like enhancing your memory of past good times. I hadn’t really considered this angle much before.
November 11, 2022
Book Reviews