The Affluent Society by john Kenneth Galbraith
After World War II, America became rich. It was setting records producing and accumulating wealth. What should the US do? He advocates for a more attention to the government and personal sectors. Build up people. This aligns much more with modern liberal thought than classical liberalism.
The Forgotten Era: Nigeria Before British Rule by Max Siollun
Nigeria was an administrative unit created by the British when they colonized Africa. The area had many different groups with different languages. They had grouped together in different ways in the past. There had been some fairy extensive kingdoms. The area was also one of the first places outside of Arabia to adopt Islam. It was a diverse area with diverse history. Much of the history has not been very well documented, and much of the documentation was by colonizers or missionaries who had a negative view of the history. This book explores some of the history and spends time jumping around at the key points, but doesn't present a compelling narrative. It also comes to a conclusion that Nigeria could have been many different states, yet it may have consolidated to its current form eventually.
Stacey the Soccer Fairy by Daisy Meadows\
This was originally "Francesca the Football Fairy" in the UK. The girls attend a soccer game with their parents. It is very clearly European Football - it is very popular and relegation is a thing. A goblin has stolen the special soccer ball that helps people to play well. The goblin team hopes to win a tournament. However, like in other fairy books, if the wrong people have this object, things mess up. The girls and stacey need to hunt down the goblin to get the soccer ball. This includes a bus chase in the parking lot - something that seems a little more intense than the typical fairy book. However, they are able to clean up the mess and the girls go back to the game, where one of their dad's is fully decked out in gear, wig and face paint.
Stephanie the Starfish Fairy by Daisy Meadows
The girls and the fairy are trying to find the missing piece of the conch shell that is being guarded by a starfish. However, goblins are also looking for it. Early on, the goblins catch Stephanie in a net. She ends up out of commission for most of the book. However, she is able to use some fairy magic to lead the goblins on the wrong track. Meanwhile, the girls find the starfish. They can communicate only by signs, but they work together with some puffins to help rescue Stephanie and return the shell piece. This books is a rare one with the fairy out of commission for most of the book.
The Power of Nunchi: The Korean Secret to Happiness and Success by Euny Hong
When you are good at Nunchi, you are said to have "quick Nunchi", yet a key nunchi skill is to be quiet and not immediately respond. Nunchi is somewhat related to empathy, but very different. It requires quickly assessing the mood of the room and the condition of others. Small clues are used to understand how people feel and what they are communicating non-verbally. Nunchi also involves picking up and understanding local customs and behavior quickly. Those with quick nunchi can pick up on these and do what is needed to fit in. In many situations, just sitting there quietly can encourage others to play their cards and give out details. (Most people do not like silence.)
This skill seems especially appropriate in Korean culture. The verbal communication is often only a small part of what is going on. It is highly ritualized, with the "real" communication going on in the very subtle back channels. Even in cultures with very open communication, there is still value in understanding these small cues and communication needs.
The Portable William Blake by William Blake, edited by Alfred Kazin
This is a more complete collection than the audiobook I listened to before. However, it still has gaps. Some of the poems are just "selections" from a greater work. I've added dates primarily for ones that have complete works and a single date. His works tend to be very "grand" in scope. He has an elaborate mythology created. He used pictures and words, so would probably be right at home as a comic book author today. He has a large scale universe with grand mythological porportions.
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
A girl does not know who her parents are. She currently lives with "The Colonel". He found her in a river one stormy day. He does not know how he got there and has no memory of his life prior. They live in a rural area of North Carolina, somewhere near Winston-Salem. Things get interesting when a detective comes into town investigating a murder. Later, somebody is killed also. The girl and her friends decide they will help in the investigation. (In part out of guilt because her friend was returning a boat to the man shortly before he died.) The investigations end up merging, and it is discovered that the Colonel was once a lawyer and worked on the case of the murders (who were also robbers.) His former fiancé was the lady in town, who had hoped he would regain some memory. It is an interesting look at small town life and a good detective story in one.
Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama by Alexis Okeowo
This book will not change any stereotypes of Alabama. The author was raised in Alabama by African parents. They were "outsiders". They were culturally very different from the slave-descendant African American population, though that was the group they most closely resembled on the outside. Alabama had been controlled by a small group of wealthy white plantation owners for a the past few centuries. The Creek tribes, poor whites and blacks were relegated to a lower position. Though the poor whites were elevated a bit higher than the others to help keep things in order. The Creek had managed to stay through aligning themselves with various groups in power, but have had to struggle to remain relevant. The author tells stories of authority figures that would abuse their power and individual people. There are struggles to be heard along with a strong, conservative religious environment that makes change slow and hard to come by. Alabama continues to be Alabama.
The Myth of Multitasking, 2nd Edition: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done by Dave Crenshaw
Multitasking is usually just "switch-tasking". We work on one task for a bit, then switch to another. Then switch back. There are costs involved in switching. The end result is that we end up accomplishing much less than if we just focussed on a single task for a period of time. This is exactly what "multi-tasking" computers were set up to do. They provide the illusion of working on many different things, but are really just switching from task to task. Alas, when the term came to use in humans, people got the idea that they really could accomplish multiple things at once. Instead, things are just slowed down. The multi-tasking environment also has negative personal impacts. We may think we can give people attention while doing other things, but we really can't and others can tell. It is faster and better to focus on a single task at a time and give people full attention. (But how does that work if something is really boring?) The book is told in a story of a consultant that comes and helps a worm out multitasking boss to work more efficient and bring efficiencies to her company. It is a short and efficient book that clearly brings home the point.
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox
The Goal is a business book told as a story. The protagonist is in charge of a factory that is in trouble. There is risk of the company shutting them down. He is struggling to find a way to turn things around. A non-business professor, Jonah, appears and helps pinpoint him in the direction he needs to go to find answers. Meanwhile, his wife is stressing out at home due to his time spent at work and lack of attention to his home life. At work, he looks at the big picture and realizes that the small metrics won't help. He needs to improve things all around. The improvements eventually lead to a focus on constraints. Inventory should be kept as lean as possible. Effort should be focussed on improving areas that are constraining the system. He even gains some ideas by seeing how boys hike together on a boy scout hike. The teachings are primarily applicable to manufacturing organizations. However, applications can be found in other areas, including family life.
Wireless by Charles Stross
This science fiction collection includes a variety of works spanning different time periods. I enjoyed the commentaries that were associated with the stories. The author praises the short story as a medium that allows earning money and receiving quick feedback. Alas, this was written before the influx of AI has caused issues in the field.
Stories included:
Missile Gap
Rogue Farm
A Colder War
MAXOS
Down on the Farm
Unwirer
Snowball's Chance
Trunk and Disorderly
Palimpeset
Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut in Math and Life by Marcus Du Sautoy
Math relies on building blocks and shortcuts to help quickly get to conclusions. Multiplication is a fast way of doing repeated addition. Exponents are just repeated multiplication and good by done by repeating additional over and over. However, shortcuts enable doing these in simpler fashion. More advanced math like calculus are essentially just shortcuts to solve certain types of problems. There are many shortcuts that can be found in math. Spotting patterns and shortcuts can help quickly resolve problems. Likewise, in life there are many shortcuts that can be found to quickly come to an accurate conclusion. However, like math, there are also some things that require doing things the "hard way", like practicing an instrument.
Flight of Dreams: A Novel by Ariel Lawhon
This historical fiction work brings to life a fictional account of the lives on board the final voyage of the hindenburg. Germany and the United States were not on great terms, thus the airshop used Hydrogen instead of Helium. It was a "nice" way to travel, but the initial novelty and exclusivity had worn off. People were together for a long time onboard the ship. Thus, there were plenty of times for machinations. The book details some family squabbles, affairs as well as desires to escape the Nazis. Here the cause of the crash is an American seeking revenge on a German. He was willing to shoot and destroy the whole airship as a way to avenge a death. There is a bit of drama in the book, though the actually crash feels somewhat anti-climatic.
Will There Ever Be Another You: A Novel by Patricia Lockwood
The narrator is going through some crisis that spans mental and physical aspects. She goes back to talk about her past experiences and explores weird thoughts she has had during the past as well as during things going on now. There are random erotic thoughts about the doctor, mentions of fairies and remembrance of past events whether real or imagined. It is almost surrealist, but still keeps some grounding.
The Waste Makers by Vance Packard
I often think of older products being made to last longer with higher quality, replaceable parts. However, this book, written ini 1960, laments the poor quality and planned obsolescence at the time. I guess no matter how bad things are now, they can get worse. Some areas seem to be carrying right on with the tend line outlined. Other areas may have gotten a bit carried away. He praises Japan for getting population growth under control. They sure did. Now there population has been declining rapidly.
Much of the waste is in the mindset. Companies want people to buy new things. They update products frequently to drive new sales. They add gimmicks (such as fins on cars) that differentiate, even at the expense of greater resource consumption. Media has become part of the marketing machine. (It was interesting to read that there may have been an alternative. We take the influence of media so much for granted today.) So much of our society is predicated on waste. On one hand it is depressing. However, it does mean there is a lot of area for improvement.
William Blake vs the World by John Higgs
For some reason, I had thought Blake was American. He was not. He was very British. He was "unschooled" by his mother long before that was a thing. He became involved in writing and engraving using his unique style. He did not fit well in many categories. He claimed to be Christian, but his religion did not fall in line with church teachings. He had his own prophesies and mythology in is poetry. He was adopted by the romance poets, but didn't quite fit in with them. He was just his own thing. The book explores his life and work in detail, though it is not quite a biography or literary analysis.
The Truth Machine: A Speculative Novel by James L. Halperin
The novel is also available for free download from the author's company website. This starts from the period it was written in the 1990s and gradually moves forward in history. It primarily follows some college friends. One goes to be billionaire business leader. Another becomes president of the United States. There are various international conflicts and technological advances. Things didn't pan out exactly as the novel projects, but it did seem to get general vibes pretty well.
The eponymous "Truth Machine" is the technological goal of the novel. Crime had become bad in society. Strict "two-strikes" laws were implemented to execute repeat offenders. This helped reduce crime, but it also led to execution of innocent victims. This was justified because this saved lives that would be lost due to violent crime. However, people wanted something better. Thus the truth machine. If there could be a technology that could identify the truth with 100% accuracy, we could reduce crime and false incarcerations. The genius strives to do it. Investors end up combining his company with another one that includes an unscrupulous guy. They make plenty of money with other "big data" products as they are working on the truth machine. Unscrupulous guy shows him code that could help accelerate development of truth machine. Techie guy has photographic memory and can't not remember it. He is stuck because he would need to certify nothing bad happened in development of truth machine. He struggles to work on alternate approaches. After somebody that he thinks is innocent is put to death, he decides he must release the truth machine. He incorporates code similar to what he viewed. He also adds a special override just for him so that machine can be certified. However, unscrupulous guy knows he has used it and makes him sign off half of revenue from product and give him an override also. Eventually techie kills unscrupulous so he won't get killed. This haunts him internally. However, truth machine helps lead to world peace and a future world government. Decades later, he finally fesses up and goes to trial. He eventually is allowed to be free - if he agrees to treatment that takes away his super-intelligence.
The novel reminds me of Fountainhead. It is trying to expose a worldview and contains climatic trial where the protagonist fights against the system. It poses some interesting exploration of how the world could be if everyone told what they believe to be the truth. It also explores the challenge of relying on technology. Can we ever be sure that it is totally accurate?
What would a cat ask Santa for? This humor book presents many cat letters to Santa. Some are attempts to bail them out for damage they have done by scratching, etc. In other cases, they may just want companionship. There are also various interactions with humans, dogs and other animals. One cat wants a new computer. He thought the mouse was a play toy, the fish screensaver was real and the computer a nice warm place to nap. There are many of these small letters that can be enjoyed in bite size chunks.
It is the birthday for one of the girls. However, one of the cards seems to be addressed to both the girls. They get requested to attend a celebration in fairy land. However, they need to work with party fairies to keep the goblins from messing it up. The goblins are even in the real world and mess up the cake for the girl's birthday party. The girls dispatch of the goblin and get everything in order. Then the cake fairy helps create a super birthday cake. (This leaves dad a bit surprised because it is much more than he was expecting.) This is the typical fairy book. Not great, but there are worse.
Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison
A woman buys a Christmas tree farm. To help publicize, she enters a social media contest. However, she feels it will work better by claiming her best friend is a boyfriend. She then wants him to be a "fake boyfriend". They work on their "fake" relationship and make it physical. He is totally in love with her and admits it. Everyone in the small town (and the social media person) all recognize it, even though she is totally clueless. Finally she admits it and they get together. There are a couple random subplots - one employee had a fling with the social media person. There was also a guy that thought he was going to get the farm to raise animals. He had been sabotaging the farm in hope of getting it back. The book is almost decent. However, the woman is just too absolutely clueless to be believable. And the little subplots are a bit over the top - and then don't really impact the novel at all.
Holly the Christmas Fairy by Daisy Meadows
Jack Frost wants to get some special Christmas presents. The girls and the fairy want to keep him from getting them. Somehow, they can see exactly which presents are the special ones, but Jack Frost needs to open everyone to find out. Jack Frost hides in an exhibit in the mall and pretends to be Santa. Nobody seems to notice a bunch of Goblins and a mean Santa. They think it is cool when the reindeer fly away. The girls eventually get the presents, and then trick Jack Frost into wearing the crown that gets him banished. Then they get Santa working again to deliver presents. This has even more plot holes than the typical fairy book.
Cool Comfort: America's Romance with Air-Conditioning by Marsha E. Ackermann
Air Conditioning caused huge changes in society. Early advertising bragged of a climate control free from nature. Theaters were some of the first to adopt air conditioning. They would often heat the theater to chilly temperatures to bring in customers during the summer. During the world's fairs, air conditioner companies would create cold exhibits and showcase air conditioning as part of the city of the future. There would be no need for windows. Everything could be contained in a fully-controlled sterile environment.
Air conditioning led to changes in development. Natural circulation was not needed. Trees and landscaping were not important. It was better to have a tightly sealed environment that could be climatically controlled. These tract homes could be quickly reproduced across a barren landscape. Instead of building homes to work with nature, they were built via a pattern with no regard to the natural surrounding.
We continue to pay the price for this obsession with air conditioning. Climate change and air conditioning work together in a bad feedback loop. As climate gets hotter, more air conditioning is used. This requires more energy use. It also encourages more development that impacts the landscape.
The book is a quick overview of the rise of air conditioning and the challenges. The early history shows an optimism for a new technology at a time when humans thought they could fully control nature.
There is an audiobook available from audible and ebook available from libraries. Thomas S. Monson grew up in a working class part of Salt Lake. His church unit was the combination of two wards, called the "6-7 ward" (This would be sure to attract giggles from children everywhere with the popular meme.) From a child, he was fairly sociable and had leadership positions from a young age. He liked the outdoors and was fairly sociable, though got into typical juvenile mischief. He had good leaders at a young age who encouraged him to help others. He continued to have a strong focus on the individual throughout his life.
He attended the University of Utah and worked in advertising and publishing. He would continue to have a keen eye for details throughout his life. He enlisted in the Naval reserves towards the end of World War II, but spent most of the time in San Diego. He became involved in church callings, serving as a Bishop and Mission President at a young age. He was also a young member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was involved in many areas of the church, especially the opening of the church behind the Iron Curtain. He continued to have a reputation for individual focus and looked after individuals from his stewardship.
He was always a master storyteller. I recognized many of the stories from his talks. This book "fills in the details" for many of the events that are already well known.
The Myth of the Entrepreneurial State by Deirdre N. McCloskey and Alberto Mingardi
This book has good ideas, but is not well written. It was written as a refutation of Mazzucato's Entrepreneurial State. It tries too hard to refute points and often comes across as pedant bickering. The style is also very loose and casual. It is a book, but barely.
Despite the poor writing, the argument is sound. The state is just not good at entrepreneurship. It is very bad at picking winners. It is even bad at picking areas to invest. The lack of signals can cause it to spend way too much time investing in the wrong things. It is much more inclined to protect the status quo. After all, the state is beholden to voters who tend to like their current jobs and have difficulty seeing what could happen in the future. Central planning has been a huge failure nearly everywhere it is tried. Touted benefits of government regulation are often "fixes" to excesses that previous regulation encouraged.
The government can take credit for encouraging some innovations. It has played a huge role in the economy and thus some would be hits. However, to achieve these hits, it was required to take money out of the economy. Could there have been even greater innovations elsewhere? The Concorde was the result of huge amounts of government outlays to provide supersonic travel. It does not fly anymore. Was that money well spent? Would it have been better to allocate it elsewhere?
In the end, the state is made up of people. In a democracy, these people are selected by voters. It may be nice to envision a technocratic elite that have thoroughly studied in the area and can provide the guidance of what would be best for the country in the long term future. Alas, what we typically get is politicians with their own beliefs and cronies. Democrats are not too happy with Trump being empowered to redirect science funding. However, in empowering the state, you are beholden to people to act in whatever way they see fit.
