Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson is a fantastic adventure. Pirates with their tremendous violence and weird shipboard egalitarianism, mixed with the very beginnings of globalism and multi-national corporations. The read is easy and enjoyable and did that thing I love which is unlocked a desire to read more history — of the time in which the book is set, of Red Sea pirates, of India, of British tea corporations.
Logistics: I checked out the audiobook from the Oakland Public Library. I listened to this book, walking the streets of Berkeley, Emeryville, and Oakland. Book 08 finished 19 February.
It was an accidental purchase. I mistake of a Christmas gift. I liked A Gentleman in Moscow enough that I decided to keep Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. The Lincoln Highway feels like a nostalgic visit to a past U.S. that may or may not have existed. The landscape does not sprawl. It is close in to the sides of a train, the inside of a car, even a boat at the very end.
Somehow for me this book, beautiful written and with a variety of well drawn characters, never hits its stride. And then end felt, well, like a twist to many and outside of the scope of the story itself. I'm not sure, honestly, if I would recommend it. Though I may be alone in that.
Logistics: I had this book in hardcover, purchased from Pegasus Books in Berkeley. I read it at night, before falling asleep. Sometimes a paragraph, backing up the next time to remember what I read. Book 07 finished 18 February.
I just finished listening to Poland by James Michener. It is all Michener, big and sprawling and historic. We have an office in Warsaw and I’ve been a few times. That and a recommendation from a colleague was the inspiration for reading the book. It was full of history I don’t know well and, frankly, found somewhat hard to track. I loved the device of meeting two men and then going back to see the political and personal events that led to those two men being in that time and place.
I do now want to read some histories of the country. It feels like so much was left out.
“I have to tell you this: this whole thing is not about heroism. It’s about decency. It may seem a ridiculous idea, but the only way to fight the plague is with decency.”
This means two things for you. First, you should be evaluating AI solutions for specific, narrow tasks in your organization and deploying it to fulfill those tasks as rapidly as possible. If, for example, you crank out press releases, AI should be doing all your first drafts now. If you make captions in videos for different language markets, AI should be doing all the translations of those captions. I did a video recently for a friend in French and they said the translation was spot on, helping me be more understandable in their language. For fun, I’ve put Spanish captions into this video as an example. Is the language translation perfect? No. Is it’ usable? Absolutely.
Second, these tools open doors. If you have friends you’ve met online or at in-person events and your language isn’t their native language, you now have a way to communicate with them easily. It won’t be via voice in real-time, but you can absolutely hold a chat conversation in many common languages without needing to speak it and still be understood.
The title refers to two events: the death by suicide of Jamie Raskin's son and assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The two events weave together in Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by Congressman Jamie Raskin. This book provides an insiders view of grief, the events of January 6 from a Congressperson who was inside, and then the political view of January 6 from the House Impeachment Manger, who also happens to be a Constitutional law professor. And all of whom are one person, Raskin. So the stories swirl together in a way that makes each more real. All heartbreaking. The book opened up my understanding of events and the power of politics, with the different way that power is used, Donald Trump on one side, Nancy Pelosi on the other.
While I was reading the book, I kept asking myself why Congressman Raskin was writing it. Both stories so raw and painful. And in the end, with the epilogue which is the best part of the book, I realized he was writing it for history. He was writing so neither story would be washed away, glazed over, changed. This book has flaws, of course. Even with them, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Logistics: No version of the book was at my local library, so I bought an audio copy from Apple Books. I listened to it while walking Berkeley's early morning streets. Once crying hard enough that another early morning Walker stopped me to ask if I was okay. Book 05 finished 1 February.
…Young’s main point here is exactly right: free speech works both ways. It’s correct to argue that Joe Rogan has a right to say whatever he wants on his podcast, and that people who want to listen to his show should be able to. But it’s also correct that Neil Young has a right to make clear that he doesn’t want to be associated with a service that is associated with Rogan, and to publicize his stance. The answer to speech one disagrees with is more speech, and this is more speech.
