"As I approached my fiftieth birthday, I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my countrymen. And then I had come suddenly to pity them, for I understood how innocent and natural it was for them to behave so abominably, and with such abominable results: They w . . . Read more

In the opening scene of Nolan’s Prestige, Michael Caine explains what a magic trick consists of - a pledge, a turn, and the hardest part - the Prestige. This is what Asimov’s stories are like. He starts with an ordinary world with something slightly extraordinary about it, takes you arou . . . Read more

“We don’t have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not go in to. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing and finally taking it in – then we will be able to speak in our own vo . . . Read more

"Man is fallible, but maybe men are less so." -The Checklist Manifesto It is such a simple idea, and yet so hard to follow. When your work is complicated, involves serious teamwork, needs to be done in a time critical manner, is prone to errors of oversight; make a checklist. Follow it diligently, a . . . Read more

“One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.” - Sophocles Oh man, what do I say about this novel? It was excruciating to keep reading it, perhaps for something like 90% of the novel my mental state was somewhere between mildly frustrated and benignly annoyed. But I’m . . . Read more

Survival is insufficient, is what it says on the lead caravan of the Traveling Symphony, a group of actors and musicians traversing the treacherous post-Georgian-Flu world which has wiped out most of humanity and destroyed the human civilization leaving behind scattered towns and technological relic . . . Read more

“I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it’s just too much. The current’s too strong. They’ve got to let go, drift apart.& . . . Read more

These are some notes I took from the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. Let me first start with the cons of the book. First the book is tediously repetitive, while some repetition is good to drill the concepts deep in your mind, the book overdoes it. Second, the book is clearly intended for pe . . . Read more

“What happens when people open their hearts?" “They get better.” - Norwegian Wood Norwegian Wood is a teenage love story/coming of age story set mainly in Tokyo and the mountains of Kyoto. The name derives from the eponymous song by the Beatles. I have very mixed feelings about the . . . Read more

An Area of Darkness is a disturbing pessimistic novel written by V.S. Naipaul about his first visit to India in 1962. This was India not too long after the Independence with it’s freshly minted Constitution, trying to make a transition from an English past to an Indian future. Naipaul shares t . . . Read more

Thinking, Fast and Slow in a life changing book written by our lord and savior Daniel Kahneman, Danny Kanny. If you haven’t read this book you should drop everything that you’re doing and start reading it right away. It is extremely well written and easy to read, with short chapters and . . . Read more