Review
- One mentee turned around a toxic relationship with their manager, had a great quarter, and is excited for next year
- Two mentees found better roles more suited to their skills and experience
- Another mentee received a well-deserved promotion
- Akimbo: I have no interest in marketing, but I do have interest in the way Seth Godin explores big ideas.
- Code Switch: If you don’t know what code switching is, you definitely need to listen to this. If you do, you will likely enjoy the variety of topics and perspectives and the charming hosts.
- Freakonomics Radio: granted, some of this is “pop econ”, but it’s entertaining and frequently has good investigative research or covers big ideas.
- It’s Going Down: the guests frequently outshine the host, but this anarchist podcast is a good source of news from the perspective of the marginalized & oppressed and is sure to expand your perspective.
- The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish: an extension of the Farnam Street learning website, this podcast is interviews with “big thinkers”. The interviews often wander, but there are almost always important takeaways or food for thought.
- Note to Self: a philosophical take on technology trends.
- Radiolab: entertaining and sometimes enlightening.
- The Rebel Beat: this podcast covers music and radical politics together, showcasing new and old music and interviewing artists of varying genres.
- Risky Business: information security current events coverage, with excellent analysis. Easy to skip the sponsor interviews, but even those are well done.
- Scene on Radio: I started this podcast with their excellent series “Seeing White”, and they continue to deliver with “Men”. As you add this one, make sure you have your app setup to listen to a season in order.
- Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!: a humorous weekly news quiz that you probably already know about.
- 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:Â 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 havenât 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 âYesâ: 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:Â 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 Manâs Fear: beautiful bardic fantasy. (These were re-reads)
- The Seventh Princess: Iâm amazed this fantasy book for children isnât still in publication.
- Fight Club: strange writing style, but better than the movie. Really good, assuming you read both the problems and âsolutions" as satire.
- Warbreaker: this is my favorite Cosmere/Sanderson book. (This was a re-read)
- Slaughterhouse Five: so it goes, but it doesnât have to.
- The Handmaidâs 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 and Words of Radiance: The Stormlight Archive take a long time to get going, but end up being worth it. If youâre 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.
2018 Mentoring Update
One of my greatest pleasures is mentoring and coaching. Helping people grow, learn, and achieve their goals is a great feeling and incredibly rewarding.
One of my objectives in mentoring is to make sure that underrepresented and marginalized people are getting solid support and seeing growth opportunities. In 2018 I worked with five people (outside my org chart, that is), and four of them are from backgrounds typically underrepresented within STEM (in general) and information security (in particular). Being involved with inclusive employee resource groups is a good thing in general, but also helped to make connections that helped foster this objective.
We had a lot of great conversations this year, asked a lot of good questions, and leaned into challenges. While I can’t dig into specifics of these (obviously), here are a few outcomes I’m happy to highlight:
I’m looking forward to new mentoring opportunities in 2019!
Related: other 2018 Review Posts:
2018 Podcast Review
I’ve added and culled a lot of podcasts over the last few years. Here are top ones on my list, and why I listen to them.
I recommend Overcast for listening to podcasts, and am a happy subscriber.
Related: other 2018 Review Posts:
Seeing Igorrr live tonight. #bucketlist đś
Food for Thought: 2018-01-23
This essay from LeGuin helps explain why her writing is so great: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction
  Update: She has passed
Waging Nonviolence interviews the executive director of Life After Hate and and they discuss how we help people leave violent organizations.
“I’m simply tired and bored by a progressive Christianity that doesn’t believe in anything, at least anything beyond Jesus being a model exemplar of liberal humanism.â From Experimental Theology
A good breakdown of USA immigration issues.
Experimental Theology looks at idolatry in the workplace.
Quality essay on Toxic Tech Culture.
Cory Doctorow says thereâs more to the long game in the attention wars.
   Related: Hereâs how to turn your phone greyscale, with a quick shortcut to restore color when you need it.
âThe #Resistance Just Gave Darth Vaderâs NSA Broad Spy Powersâ Less sarcastic article here.
Solid Last Jedi thinkpiece roundup:Â
Not the Droid Youâre Looking For: Subtler Political Points from The Last Jedi from C4SS
Why so many men hate The Last Jedi but canât agree on why from Bitter Gertrude
Lure of Myth from Slate
From the makers of Juicero, we now have âraw waterâ. Yes, people are charging exorbitant amounts for dangerous water.Â
Shellfish, which generally stay in the same area, are good subjects for observing the effects of our waste entering the ocean.
This essay from LeGuin helps explain why her đ are so great: The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction
Food for Thought: 2018-01-08
Here are some things Iâve 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.â Consent of the Ungoverned 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 suspected non-violent offense. Again, itâs 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 isnât allowed to see her dead, SWATted child.
Some New Jersey prisons have banned New Jim Crow, which sorta proves the point.
Are Technica reports on research detailing common causes for poor patents being approved. These are fundamental structural problems with the process, though fixable. As you know, Iâd prefer to #AbolishIP.
ProPublica reports on scams and malware in political ads on Facebook. But really, this isnât just about Facebook, but any large-scale ad-driven site. (Here’s they are getting the data. Here are the ads.)
In addition, a reminder that social media sites are becoming ânewsâ 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.
Iâm 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!)
Here’s my pick for the Books & Brews mug club
đ 2017 Book Recommendations
Goodreads made this list from my reading, but here are my direct recommendations:
Non-fiction:
Fiction:
What are your recommendations?
Courtesy of my sister-in-law: How Many Times Does Braid-Tugging and Skirt-Smoothing Happen in The Wheel of Time?