Going to be writing more than reading this weekend. But definitely want to secure:

The Genesis Book, by Aaron van Wirdum. I'm reading the files online that are no longer downloadable, but it's a very good new bitcoin history. https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/products/the-genesis-book

The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver

Meetings with Remarkable Men, G. I. Gurdjieff

There’s plenty of downtime involved in raising my infant girl actually. She ignores me whenever I try to do something with her, but hell hath no fury like a woman scorned when I try to leave her playpen. Her screams can burst eardrums, I swear. Anyway, I thought of entertaining myself by reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle in three languages.

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is one of the best books you can ever invest in. That’s because when your child reaches middle primary age and comes in contact with Science, you can read this beloved children’s tale again and highlight the life cycle of butterflies. That was what I did when I taught fourth grade Science. I started off my lesson by reading this book to my precocious students in my deep, sexy voice. I wanted them to appreciate how Science is everywhere around us, even in children’s tales.

Obviously, my infant girl wouldn’t care about caterpillars, as amazing as their metamorphosis is. But she gravitated towards the holes on the pages, trying to stick her tiny fingers through them. So, I can conclude that she was engaged with the book (for about thirty seconds).

Only when I read all three versions together did I notice that the Japanese version started and ended with a line of dialogue. In fact, it personified the Sun as the first line of the book was uttered by him. I heard my Japanese wife read aloud this book to my elder son before. I must say that humanising the Sun was a great adaptation by the Japanese translator. It set the tone for a lullaby-like reading.

The Chinese version reinforced for me a difficulty in learning Mandarin. There are many classifiers (量词), so while English speakers can get away with saying “one slice” for many things, Chinese speakers have to learn 个/条/根 - among other measure words - in order to convey one unit of an object accurately. Actually I don’t remember my parents and teachers teaching me the rules of classifiers; I just acquired them naturally. But since Mandarin is my children’s 3rd language, I got to make the rules explicit for them.

Maybe it’s the start of a new year, but I thought the caterpillar gobbling all kinds of goodies and stocking plenty of nutrients for itself can be equated to me reading all kinds of books to provide myself with brain fuel. However, the caterpillar secludes itself from the outside world and digests thoroughly all the nutrients - before emerging into the world as a beautiful butterfly. This is something I can learn. Give myself an imposed hiatus from outside stimuli so that the things swirling in my mind can fuse together to become something spectacular.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by psychologist Daniel Kahneman.

A book that reviews research on judgment, decision-making and behavioural economics.

It's all about how bias, cognitive illusions and heuristics influence human judgment. ✌🏾

I started reading Michael W. Lucas' book "Absolute OpenBSD". Although I am not a developer, it is well written and understandable.

The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time by Yascha Mounk

How the woke and far right feed off each…

Elric of Melinbone, Michael Moorcock

Heard a lot about this fantasy series, finally came in at the library. Pretty good so far, definitely grand scale, epic feeling.

I'm trying to read Pushkin's poems and realize it's not my style

This weekend I’m reading Scale by Geoffrey West.

Lots of smart people have recommended it, and so far it is living up to the hype.

Born in slavery, Charles Young (1864-1922) was the third black graduate of West Point, the first black U.S.military attache and the highest-ranking black officer in the Regular Army until his death.

Unlike the two black graduates before him, Young went on to a long military career, eventually achieving the rank of colonel. After Young, racial intolerance closed the door to blacks at the academy, and forty-seven years passed before another African American graduated from West Point.

21 lessons from Gigi.