full posts
- Changing Lenses: a life-altering introduction to Restorative Justice.
- Weapons of Math Destruction: this book about big data misuse was a great resource for my talk on big data security (Security Thinking for Big Data).
- Conflict is not Abuse:Ā A nuanced, challenging, imperfect, and incredibly important book about how we respond to conflict, and how trauma- and supremacy-based anxieties affect those responses.
- How to Win Friends and Influence People: classic advice, though some of the examples havenāt aged well.
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: introduces them well with a story, ends with a good reference to the ideas.
- Reviving Old Scratch: Richard Beck of Experimental Theology addresses the tendency towards secular humanism within progressive theology.
- The No Asshole Rule: good advice for how to prevent (or deal with) bad workplaces.
- Getting to āYesā: classic negotiation advice.
- Utopia of Rules: a philosophical exploration of our relationship with bureaucracy.
- Irresistible Revolution: an autohagiography of radical christian experiments. For a heroic everyday method for Christian living, see: Stranger God.
- The Dispossessed:Ā This is a wonderful take on sci-fi that explores work, societies, and beliefs. Our means are our ends.
- The Name of the Wind and The Wise Manās Fear: beautiful bardic fantasy. (These were re-reads)
- The Seventh Princess: Iām amazed this fantasy book for children isnāt still in publication.
- Fight Club: strange writing style, but better than the movie. Really good, assuming you read both the problems and āsolutions" as satire.
- Warbreaker: this is my favorite Cosmere/Sanderson book. (This was a re-read)
- Slaughterhouse Five: so it goes, but it doesnāt have to.
- The Handmaidās Tale: maybe this time a dystopian work will warn us off?
- The Rise and Fall of DODO: almost as good as Anathem.
- The Way of Kings andĀ Words of Radiance: TheĀ Stormlight Archive take a long time to get going, but end up being worth it. If youāre reading Stormlight Archive and missed the novella, get lifted up by this bit of awesome: Edgedancer.
- The Butcher of Anderson Station: read this novella after the first Expanse book.
- Dragonsong: this was my first Pern experience, and it was really good.
Food for Thought: 2018-01-08
Here are some things Iāve found thought provoking, recently. Recommend your own in the comments.
“The search for a more human understanding of power and consent is not simply stage-dressing for a bigger fight. It is the big fight.āĀ Consent of the UngovernedĀ is a great read about sex and politics. Immensely quotable.
Security Planner is an excellent resource from Citizen Lab. Answer a handful of super-simple questions and they will make quality, achievable recommendations on how to digitally protect yourself.
There were at least 1129 killings by police in the USA last year, and most of the known ones started with responding to a suspectedĀ non-violentĀ offense. Again, itās not even clear that guns even need to be brought to those situations, as they endanger to the officer, the suspect, and bystanders. Rather, we need prioritization of de-escalation techniques and the ability to follow-up after the event.
Related: mother isnāt allowed to see her dead, SWATted child.
Some New Jersey prisons have banned New Jim Crow, which sorta proves the point.
Are TechnicaĀ reports on research detailing common causes for poor patents being approved. These are fundamental structural problems with the process, though fixable. As you know, Iād prefer toĀ #AbolishIP.
ProPublica reports on scams and malware in political ads on Facebook. But really, this isnāt just about Facebook, but any large-scale ad-driven site. (Here’s they are getting the data.Ā Here are the ads.)
In addition, a reminder that social media sites are becoming ānewsā for many people, and oppressive governments are able to delete opposition viewpoints.
(Spoilers) This article makes the case that The Last Jedi starts to redeem the prequels.
Iām not fully convinced, but daniel siegel makes the case that to pursue goals in computing, we often bring humans down to machine level, instead of raising machines to human level.
New sushi place in Nora (yay!) but also new Martha Hoover restaurant (boo!)
š 2017 Book Recommendations
Goodreads made this list from my reading, but here are my direct recommendations:
Non-fiction:
Fiction:
What are yourĀ recommendations?
The Key Ingredient Is Violent Power
Reminder: the key ingredient is violent power.
People are often jerks. People sometimes have frightening opinions. People do things we dislike. People can be ignorant, sometimes willfully so. People are frequently selfish.
These are problematic, so we seek empathy and enlightenment. And it is good that we do.
But the above are not truly damaging unless they attached to violent power.
Without violent power, these issues are an opportunity for discussion and learning.
But when backed by the ability to call on armed men & women, the ability capture & hold people, the ability to acquire with force, and the ability to strike and kill: they become coercive and potentially deadly.
We cannot and should not stop educating. We cannot and should not stop furthering socialization and empathy.
But we also need to be more focused on limiting violent power and the systems that coordinate it. Too often we excuse the amassing of violent power because it is done by someone with a friendly face or someone agreeable to our causes.
History tells us time and again that such violent power will always be abused eventually.
Immediacy is not an excuse to trust it. Tribalism is not an excuse to trust it with āour side.ā
We must fight being distracted by opinions and strike at the root.
Fight the power.
Food for Thought: 2016-02-16
Really good article about Bernie Sanders, and more generally, voting: Donāt Change the Players, Change the Game.
This is why I want you to read Changing Lenses by Zehr:
Remember the toy company (VTech) that was hacked? They now have Terms of Service that says they arenāt responsible for hacks. People are rightly outraged that this would fly, but this is nothing new for ToS and EULA, unfortunately. It is commonplace for companies to claim no responsibility. (Whether those terms hold up in court or not is another question, and part of the problem.)
Read these concerns about the future of Consumer Reports. I wonder how much our current content/marketing setup is a driver for this?
French supermarkets are now going to beĀ required to donate (and not spoil) their unsold food. Iām not sure the situation in France, but in the USA, this would be an example of the government āsavingā us from problems the government created in the first place. Stores are required to remove still-edible food (example), so naturally hungry and/or frugal people try scavenge it. Furthermore, stores are sometimes held liable if scavengers are harmed while acquiring that food. So, stores increasingly decide to protect themselves from problems that were thrust on them.
twtxt is another decentralized microblogging option.
Richard Beck has started a new series on āThe Power of the Powerlessā, dealing once again with institutional power.
Micah Redding suggests we consider āMinimum Viable Theologyā and makes his case.