Book Review: Future Perfect

I'm behind on reviews so keeping these short.

The book's main premise is that peer networks, and 'peer progressives' (his term for sort of folk with a neo-progressive mindset and a belief in peer networks as the tool to get us there) will improve many facets of our future.

After a strong opening explaining the concept, the book falls short. Too drunk on the kool-aid for the examples, too short on prescriptive behavior, and not honest enough to take a look at the downsides and possible pitfalls.

Some interesting ideas, but not high on my 'recommended' list

Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age

Book Review: The Coke Machine

The Coke Machine is an interesting history of one of America's most iconic brands and companies. Clearly written with an anti-Coke bias, but even if half of what it accuses is true, then it seriously gives pause. There's an awful lot of smoke for there NOT to be a fire.

The specifics about coke aside, it's an interesting study of how a corporation's immune system kicks into gear to stamp out PR and/or legal problems in the most efficient way possible (which usually isn't actually FIXING the problems they are accused of).

The book covers everything from Coke's coca-leaves-cure all origins to the war against sugar to the murder of unionizing bottling workers. Through them all it shows how Coke simultaneously distances itself from the problem while also doing token moves to deflate the PR problem.

Interesting book, but a little depressing. I'll think twice before drinking their products.

The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink

Book Review: The Crack in Space

I picked up this Philip K Dick book at my local library. It was passable, with some fun bits to it, but the highlight to me was looking at 50-year old futurism  (it was written in '66) and thinking about where the author got it wrong vs not.

The Crack in Space is takes place in a not-too-distant future, where an overpopulated earth has dealt with unemployment and overpopulation by putting people into suspended animation until another planet can be found to go colonize. When a repairman looking at a disfunctional transporter discovers a crack in space that leads to another Earth-like world, the problem may be solved. But of course, it's never as easy as that.

The book, like much 1960's sci-fi, deals with space travel, alternate histories, and other themes that were then de rigeur. There are elements of Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green, etc, etc. Even a little free-love thrown in via a giant floating space-brothel.

The story was passable, though perhaps a little predictable. There were some fun characters thrown in there, and a couple unique twists on the above themes.

On the negative side, there were a few things that broke the immersion (over-focusing on racism themes, characters focused on trivialities in the face of massive-scale events, etc).

A highlight for me though, was looking at the then-forward looking view of the future and where it got it wrong. e.g. He foresaw the global nature of satellite TV broadcasts (then a very new thing), but had the character getting up to turn the channel knob on the TV. Or he saw dynamically updated, animated e-newspapers, but they were still distributed the same way and followed the same biz model.

In any case, it was this stuff that gave me pause to think about our own present-day futurism and where we might be getting it wrong.

The Crack in Space

Book Review: Nexus

I really enjoyed Ramez Naam's debut novel, Nexus. As a novel it's a solid debut if a bit formulaic, but as sci-fi/futurism Naam really hits it out of the park.

Nexus is about a bio-tech hacker/researcher who is coerced into working for the government to spy against and ultimate thwart those leading development in his field of research. In this way, it's a very standard average-nerd-in-over-his-head, espionage action-adventure. And even if evaluated only at that level, it's a solid work. If this type of book is your thing, you won't be disappointed.

But what I really loved was the sci-fi trappings of the book. The bio-tech posited in Nexus is a technology to run software on the human brain, to read or change what it's doing, or to run alternate software on it. Three areas are then explored in various ways. The first and least surprising is behavior modification (think of The Matrix's "I know Kung Fu" and you get where this is going). The second is that of the hive-mind, and Naam follows this down several paths of exploration. The third is the concept of a virtual machine. In the ultimate take on "what if you are just a brain in a jar" explored by The Matrix and many others, Naam asks "what if you are just a brain in a jar, and that jar is just a VM running in your REAL brain", he then riffs on this with all the issues around real VMs (rootkits, back-doors, etc). Fun stuff.

Naam uses this sci-fi premise and story to make some points about progress, change, blind obediance to authority, civil liberties and the like. All interesting and most valid, but for me the it was the instruments he constructed to have these discussions that really set the book apart. I can't way to see what he comes up with next.

Nexus

Book Review: Who Owns the Future

This is strike two for me with Jaron Lanier's books. It's too bad, because I really admire his thinking, but I gave a weak review to You Are Not a Gadget, and have to do the same here.

In Who Owns the Future?, Lanier posits that several technology trends threaten to have a long-term negative impact on the middle class, and on the economy in general (which is highly dependent on the existence of a thriving middle class). He asserts that (a) many of today's disruptive technologies and services constitute what he calls "Siren Servers", luring users in and making it difficult to escape, (b) that these do not give fair value back to users for what they put in, and (c) that the result is not going to net out to the new jobs replacing the old, but rather a more efficient system where the middle class loses money to a priviledged few that control those servers.

While initial idea of Siren Servers is one I agree with, and serveral of Lanier's observations are astute, that's where I start to part ways with his thinking.

Many of his arguments and suggested solutions are not only lacking in data, he hasn't even an attempted a simple modelling of them. At the same time, he dismisses the arguments of others for the same reason. For example, he dismisses the claims of those that say musicians can replace lost CD revenues by instead doing live performances, but then asks readers to accept that they can replace those revenues through a system of micro-transaction revenues magically piggy-backed onto the Internet. While proposing this, he offers even a high level examination of the technical feasibility nor a rudimentary attempt at the business model.

As a book that offers some provocative ideas and alternative ways of looking at technology and its impact on economics, it offers some value. But the solutions proposed are as pie-eyed as flying cars and teleportation without providing more than a hand-wave.

 Who Owns the Future?

Book Review: The Blind Giant

A while back I read (and subsequently reviewed) Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway. I loved it so much I looked into what else he'd written. I found out that he had a non-fiction work about the impact of technology on business and culture, and so gave it a read.

It's hefty piece of work, talking about the impact of technology on a very wide range of subjects, from the publishing business, to our ability to learn and concentrate, to the impact on politics and life in the public eye. His view of the impact of tech on the publishing business is especially well done, as he's grown up in and around that industry as one of the 'disruptees', and yet is also a technology proponent.

Through the book, the author takes a nuanced, even-handed look at most of these areas of controversy, showing both sides as having some merit. He also tackles it in a way that is entertaining, and still goes deep enough to show that he's done a fair amount of research and thinking on the subjects.

The down side is that he covers broad ground without really reaching a hard conclusion. that might be OK though - as the point is to show that we are evolving in our relationship with technology, and that we don't necessarily know where it will end up, and that it's neither all good nor all bad, but somewhere in between, as will be our end destination.

Book Review: Becoming a Supple Leopard

I finished the book a while back but am just getting around to posting a review.

Kelly Starrett is really well known in the Crossfit community. As a Crossfit gym owner and Doctor of Physical Therapy, he has carved out a really niche of expertise as being the "joint, form and mobility guy" of crossfit. In addition, he has posted a ton of really useful videos to youtube over the past couple years that have made him a well known name. So, when he announced the book, many people pre-ordered and I was one of them.

The book is good, though it has a couple flaws (I'll get to those later). It's organized in two main parts.

The first section deals with categorizing all the major crossfit movements from gymnastics, olympic lifting, etc. Deadlift, Clean & Jerk, Pullups, Handstand Pushups, and many more are organized based on the degree of difficulty (mostly having to do with how dynamically one has to stabilize the load & form). I liked this section, as the logic made a lot of sense, modulo the flaws below.

The second section discusses all the major muscles & joints in the body, and covers a range of techniques of how to better stretch, mobilize, floss, and otherwise work them into better range of motion and stability. This section was also useful, but made less sense to read logically back to back, rather than a reference to build a program from and/or to mix up a program of mobility work.

The flaws I found with the book are threefold. Two are relatively minor.

First, Starrett uses a little too much 'bro-speak' in his language. It's fine, and what we've come to expect, in his videos, which are quite conversational in tone, but in print it feels a little cheesy. This is a minor complaint

Second, given the huge number of videos he's posted in the past, there's probably very little here that you can't get by watching all the videos for free. However, I didn't mind paying some extra to have all of the same information in a logically organized form. It would also be nice to provide some reference/link to any youtube videos where those made sense to add clarity to the text/pictures in the book.

My third, and only major complaint, is that the book could have really benefited from spending some money on an anatomical illustrations. When Starrett talks about torque in the shoulder capsule, it would be nice to have some actuall "under the hood" illustrations.

These things aside, I still found the book useful and would recommend it to all crossfitters.

Book Review: Love With a Chance of Drowning

Picked this one up after seeing it on the shelf at Powells, thinking it would be something me and Alisa would both enjoy. I was right.

It's a biographical account of a sailing voyage. The author meets a man and falls for him, but there are two problems: He's about to embark on crossing the pacific in a small sailboat, and she's petrified of the ocean. She bites the bullet, takes the trip with him, has some adventure, and emerges on the other side a more capable, transformed woman.

There's adventure, humor, romance. It's a fun read.

Book Review: First: What it Takes to Win

I'm not normally one for sports biographies, but am pretty into Crossfit these days so figured I'd pick up Rich Froning's book First: What It Takes to Win

The book was... ok. It's simply written and is a very fast read. Good parts were getting his inside perspective on his training and the different events, what was going through his head mid-competition and the like. Some of the anecdotes from his upbringing were amusing.

The bits about religion and such were not of interest to me but might be good for some.

First: What It Takes to Win

Book Review: You

I finished Austin Grossman's second novel, You, while on vacation last week, and am just getting to writing some thoughts on it now.

It's quite different than his first novel, Soon I will be Invincible, which I loved.

You is the story of a law-school-dropout-turned-game-designer who accepts a job at the game studio his high school friends have turned into a hit-factory. Like his own career, the game studio has hit a point where its future is in question. The creative genius behind the original games is no longer around, the key founders have left, investors threaten to sell off the company, etc. In trying to prove they still have what it takes, the lead character learns about the company's past games and a lot about himself.

It's in this that the book starts to get interesting. The title "You" is a nod to the second-person narrative involved in many games, going back to the old Infocom titles like Zork ("You are standing in an open field, west of a white house, with a boarded front door"). Without spoiling too much, the company's games' characters, world, and eras are metaphors for the high school friends, events and phases of their lives. The author takes a long time to build this up for the reader. To tell the truth it was initially a little slow for me, and some of it was a little over my head. However, when he brings it all together toward the end it really is quite well done, and I found it very satisfying and quite moving.

I know Austin through friends, and knowing his history working at Looking Glass and on games like Ultima Underworld, I can't help but think that there's a lot of history underlying the work. It certainly is the most realistic depiction of what game development is like that I've ever read.

Some reviews I've seen have made reference to Ready Player One, perhaps because of all the references to games of our youth. I don't think that's fair though. This is far more a book about coming of age. More Breaking Away than Wargames, IMHO.

Good book. Recommended.
You

Update: One more thing I meant to add:

From the book's description of one of the studio's games:

"The game's concept demanded intrigue, mystery, glamour, and romance. Accordingly you couldn't just go around murdering people; there was exactly one bullet in the entire game. Instead, Nick could do things like (F)lirt, (Q)uestion, or (W)altz."

I cannot tell you how sad I am that we don't have this game yet.

Book Review: Sleights of Mind

I really enjoyed this book. A couple years back I read a couple books on performing magic as I thought there were some interesting bits that could apply to giving presentations, product demos and the like.

Sleights of Mind does reveal some secrets about how certain magic tricks are performed, but it's written by two neuroscientists who spent years researching magic (collaborating with magicians) to determine how and why we are susceptible to certain illusions and deceptions.

I not only learned a lot, but it's given me a lot to think about in terms of the future of graphics, user interfaces, gaming and more. Fascinating stuff!

Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions

Book Review: Technopriests Vol 1

Picked this up on a friend's recommendation. Was ok, but I didn't really care for it enough to carry on to other volumes. Basic theme: Game Designers rule the universe, creating the ultimate tools that entertain and educate. The lead character aspires to become a member of the guild of techno-priests that design the ultimate games.

Neat them, but not that clever in how it's pulled off, and too much "Heavy Metal-esque" content (gratuitous rape, violence, etc).

The Technopriests Book One: Initiation (Technopriests (DC Comics))

Book Review: Good Strategy - Bad Strategy

I rather enjoyed Good Strategy Bad Strategy. It's a very back-to-basics approach to business strategy that I found a nice reminder that strategy doesn't need to be that complicated. It's very much a one-idea business book but that's OK in this case.

The author starts by outlining what he calls the kernel of any strategy:
- A diagnosis of the situation/problem/opportunity
- A guiding policy that will guide how the organization will react to obstacles/challenges
- A set of clearly defined actions to achieve the goal


While this seems simple enough, it's very useful in cutting through the BS that normally passes as 'strategy'. Additionally, I like they way he frames strategy as hypothesis that is undergoing continual testing and refinement, not something that is authored once and then cast in stone.

Several other things I liked about the book:
- Lots of good case examples. Some well known ones (Apple, Microsoft, GM...) but also some that to me were less well known (International Harvester, many others).
- One case example, Nvidia, is one I have intimate history with, having competed with them in two of my past roles. He didn't nail it all 100%, but it's pretty well summed.

Stuff I didn't like:
- There's a few places in the book where he plays monday morning quarterback, pointing out failed strategies from the recent past, saying he knew better. Would be good if he'd provided proof that he'd called it when he did, vs after the fact. (He may have, but it didn't leap out at me).

In any case, definitely recommended if you are involved with setting strategy for your organization.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

Book Review: Born to Run

Spotted this at the library in audio book form, and remembered that a couple friends had recommended it to me.

Born to Run is a story of a crazy gringo ex-prize-fighter known as Caballo Blanco (White Horse) living in the Copper Canyons in northern Mexico with the Tarahumara indians, and his plan to put on a deadly long-distance race with some of the worlds most hard-core long-distance runners.

In seeking out the recluse, the author becomes wrapped up in the plan and trains to run the race himself, as he seeks out advice from the gurus of barefoot running in an effort to deal with his own injuries.

The book introduces us to a cast of really interesting characters and the competitive world of long-distance running. It eventually culminates in the story of the race itself, by which time I was rooting for every one of the characters - a good sign he'd told the story pretty well.

The "science" the book attempts to tell about barefoot running and it's evolutionary superiority, the harm that shoes do, etc, is similar to the whole Paleo diet thing - a compelling narrative, but I'm not sure how well backed it is by science. Still, it's got me thinking about it. I may do further research on it. I don't consider this book that research, but a compelling story that at least presents one side of the argument.

Born to Run

Book Review: Here's Looking at Euclid

I fully admit to buying Here's Looking at Euclid based on the title alone. The book is a collection of short explanations of mathematical concepts and mathematical oddities, with a fair bit of history and trivia thrown in for good measure.

Written for the layperson, there's a lot in here most technical folk will already know. Still there was enough history and stuff from alternate branches of mathematics (e.g. people using origami to solve mathematical problems). that I learned some stuff and found it entertaining.

Here's Looking at Euclid: From Counting Ants to Games of Chance - An Awe-Inspiring Journey Through the World of Numbers

An Easter-Egg-Hunt game... from 1983

I first laid eyes on a computer back in the 7th grade. The school had received a bunch of TRS-80 Model 3's, and without having a class curriculum for them, set the kids loose on them at lunch. I was hooked immediately, and started bugging my parents for a computer.

That Christmas (1982), they bought me a C-64. I of course took to it immediately. However, so did my dad and my sister, in different ways.

The next Easter, rather than the usual chocolate egg hunt, which we were getting a little old for anyway, my dad took it upon himself to write an easter egg hunt game on the C64. 

I was delighted that he found it recently in his notes (he'd written it out on paper first, of course). He scanned it and sent it over and I've inserted it below. As a game it's pretty simple. Text input and answer the questions to proceed. Typical of the first BASIC programs one learned to write back then. However, it's valuable to me for a couple reasons.

First, it worth remembering that machines used to come with manuals that explained how to program them. We've somehow lost touch with that as computers have become appliances aimed increasingly at consumption.

Secondly, I think the trivia questions he put in there say a lot about how my sister and I were raised. There are questions there to make us think and others to make us laugh, and some freebies to keep us encouraged moving forward. He always had a pretty good mix of all three.

Thanks Dad!

Book Review: Makers

I've been tinkering with 3D Printing over the past few months, trying to get a sense of what can and can't be done and how user friendly it is (or isn't). I have a number of friends doing 3D-printing-related startups (Alice Taylor's Makies, Ed Fries' Figureprints, and my Printxel printer is from Billy Zelsnack's kickstarter effort), and so the sense that something big is afoot has been very much tickling my brain. When I heard about Chris Anderson's Makers, I hesitantly picked it up to see how he tackled the subject.

I say hesitantly as I had very mixed feelings about The Long Tail, and worried that Anderson would fall into some of the same traps with Makers. He does, and I'll get to what those are in a minute.

On the plus side, he very much captures the sense of excitement afoot, and profiles a number of companies doing small scale manufacturing or design + outsourced manufacturing, that are allowing for a 'long tail of fabrication' and a nimbleness of physical product manufacturing. Many of the companies, individuals and examples profiled are well known if you've been following this stuff on the web, but there are always details to be learned and some of the examples were new to me.

On the down side, there are two main flaws that made this a 3/5 book for me, vs a 4- or 5-out-of-5. First, as with The Long Tail, Anderson stretches the definition of Maker too far, and inconsistently. In some instances, he's clearly focused on the disruption of computer controlled manufacturing hitting consumer price points. In other cases, if you cook your own food, you're a maker! Similarly, he profiles some companies that are by no means small, and dismisses this by pointing to the fact that they embody 'the maker spirit'.

Secondly, he over-states the consumer readiness of these technologies. A metaphor I use is that it's like saying "look, you can buy a router and a lathe for under $500, so clearly anyone can make furniture now!"

If you can see past these flaws, are are looking for a good overview to take with a large grain of salt, then Makers may be for you. If not, you are better off reading articles on the web that cover the subject adequately.

Makers: The New Industrial Revolution

Book Review: Amped

Last week I finished Amped by Daniel H. Wilson. I'd recently read Robopocalypse and enjoyed it so thought I'd give another of his a try.

Like Robopocalypse, Wilson uses well-trod ground to make a statement about our current day erosion of civil liberties in the name of security; and like Robopocalypse, it's well executed.

The book takes place in a near future where neural implants devised to help people (at first those with various disabilities, later anyone with money) focus without distraction. When those with the implants, 'Amps', start exhibiting advantages over regular non-implanted folk, a backlash ensues, and threatens to grow to a civil war.

In the midst of this, the protagonist tries to make sense of it all, while learning that he's one of thirteen unique individuals who were implanted with a little something extra.

Fun read, which can optionally offer some deeper food for thought for those that want it.

Amped

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

During the whole Harry Potter craze, I had so many friends telling me I just *had* to jump in, that I got put off an decided I would definitely not read any of them. Then recently my younger son asked me to read it to him, and that was that.

Verdict: It's passable, formulaic, and somewhat fun. Great for kids, but for adults there is SO much content out there that would be time better spent.

Book Review: The American Way of Eating

I rather enjoyed The American Way of Eating though it's one of those books that you find yourself partly wishing you hadn't read. Ignorance is bliss, etc.

The author, Tracie McMillan, spent a year "undercover" (I place it in quotes because she was sometimes honest about what she was up to, other times not) working in America's food chain. The book chronicles her time spent working in crop fields in California, in a Walmart produce department in Detroit, and at an Applebee's in Brooklyn.

Through all of these, she covers three elements: the role each plays in our food distribution system and how it has evolved over time, the people she meets and how they live and work, and her own attempt to survive on minimum wage (or less).

There are also some 'side trip' portions where she examines food stamp programs to encourage produce consumption, urban community gardens, etc.

Through these, the book is sort of a mash-up of Nickel and Dimed, and Fast Food Nation. Like both of those, it's both an engaging read and strong social commentary. I learned a lot and the book will affect how I look at food and how I choose to consume it.

Consider reading it, it's an important book.

The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table