What I Just Read

Breaks no new ground but is still a worthwhile read. Useful review of Stoic and other philosophical principles that tend to fit into the " important but not urgent" category of life's responsibilities. In other words, since these principles are easy to forget--and likewise it's easy for us to fall out of the habit of practicing them--it never hurts to have a readable and anecdote-rich review to get you back into the practice. A few quotes and thoughts worth copying down:   Just think. Just be quiet and think.  --Fred Rogers   What stands in your way is that you have too much willful will.  --Awa Kenzo to Eugen Herrigel (from Zen In the Art of Archery)   "Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise."  "It must be very well-disguised."  --Winston Churchill talking with his wife Clementine, after being ignominiously voted out of office. Try to look at this moment in the light of eternity.  --Stephen Colbert's mother   Above all, do no...

A linguist explains the history and semiotics of internet communication. While some chapters sing out more than others, this book offers tremendously helpful insights about communication in the post-post-modern era. Thanks to the internet and texting (and all of the irony, subtext, and various other linguistically subversive nuances one can communicate via those media) modern culture is experiencing what I consider could be the first stages of a hard fork in written communication. An early example might be a concept like Poe's Law, which arose to explain how entire  demographics fail to see irony or sarcasm when clearly intended. The growing political bifurcation in the USA seems to be giving rise to noticeable differences in dialectic and language style.  Even the "language" of Bitcoiners with their rhetorically powerful memes and extensive use of vocabulary designed to be unintelligible to outsiders (e.g.: "few," "gradually, then suddenly," "ho...

Pair this book with Nathaniel Popper's "Digital Gold" and it will give you solid background knowledge of Bitcoin's history, the players involved, and the various dramas that happened along the way (Silk Road, Mt. Gox, BitInstant, etc.).  "Bitcoin Billionaires" is a faster read, better paced and written like a novel, and it tells the narrative largely from the standpoint of the Winklevoss twins and Charlie Shrem. If you've read Mezrich's "Bringing Down the House" you know he's a good writer with a good sense of how to pace and arrange a story.  "Digital Gold" is more like the type of history a journalist would write, which is exactly what it is: Popper covered Bitcoin and many of these events for the NY Times. Both good reads, both well-written.  PS: One final, unrelated thought: You'll come away from this book with a good understanding of Mark Zuckerberg's ethical compass (actually, his lack thereof). It makes it extre...