Is this terrifying? Yes, it should be. Is it kind of weirdly self-congratulatory, and focused on the companies this dude's VC firm funds? Yes, that toIs this terrifying? Yes, it should be. Is it kind of weirdly self-congratulatory, and focused on the companies this dude's VC firm funds? Yes, that too. It's also...weirdly hopeful? Like, you know how bad things are. But this actually does lay out an extremely ambitious but actually pretty rational plan, and shows where we're making a lot of progress. Enough progress to get you fired up on the "oh crap we gotta get moving here" level, rather than "we're so screwed there's no point" level....more
The first chapter, about a forensics course for people trying to figure out which species of animal is responsible for various murders, maimings, and The first chapter, about a forensics course for people trying to figure out which species of animal is responsible for various murders, maimings, and property destruction, is hilarious. The rest is still interesting if somewhat less witty....more
There are a bunch of these "invent stuff from first principles" books, but North's framing device that this is for someone trapped in the past and hisThere are a bunch of these "invent stuff from first principles" books, but North's framing device that this is for someone trapped in the past and his wry, snarky humor bring an extra sparkle to this one. Perhaps a little more practical mechanics and a little less music theory would be helpful for the actual stranded time traveler, but it's a lot of fun....more
I don't know what I was expecting here; maybe some kind of through-line? But really, it's a moderately entertaining guy rambling about literally whateI don't know what I was expecting here; maybe some kind of through-line? But really, it's a moderately entertaining guy rambling about literally whatever comes into his head. Each essay is ostensibly about math in some way, but a lot of them are kind of a stretch....more
The actual suggestions here aren't super novel (although the bits about massage are new to me), but I did like the explanations of what's going on froThe actual suggestions here aren't super novel (although the bits about massage are new to me), but I did like the explanations of what's going on from a neuroscience perspective....more
Disclaimer: I was sent a review copy in exchange for a fair review.
I probably got the review copy because I loved an earlier Sam Kean book, The ViolinDisclaimer: I was sent a review copy in exchange for a fair review.
I probably got the review copy because I loved an earlier Sam Kean book, The Violinist's Thumb. In that book, Kean did a deep dive (for laymen) into our genetic code, with each chapter organized around an amusing story that tied into the theme of that chapter. It was deeply researched, very entertaining, and quite informative.
Here, he tries the same formula...only it never quite gels.
So this one is about gases. Just that--gases in general. There's sort of a vague progression of "beginning of the Earth" gases through "the order in which we discovered stuff" gases to "what we might find one day on other planets" gases. But while the genetic code is a topic that you can go incredibly deep on but has some fairly well defined boundaries, gases are...well, by nature, they're amorphous and don't much like being contained. So this is chock full of insights, but they're really barely connected to each other. There's no actual story here.
And the amusing anecdotes accelerate this problem instead of corralling it. They're really, really random. And he goes far, far deeper into them than actually necessary. (For example, we get multiple pages of learning the life history of a guy who got blown up by Mount Saint Helens. Because...gases were involved in the explosion. Or something. It's entertaining! But really doesn't actually have much more to do with gases than say, my own life history. Because I've played with helium balloons! Or something.)
So. It's deeply researched. (Maybe too deeply, more deeply than is justified.) Very entertaining. (Really! Kean's writing style is delightful! Accessible and funny, and great at putting complex concepts into laymen's terms.) Quite informative. (Did you know the French Revolution can be blamed on a volcano in Iceland?) But it's less a book and more a multi-hour binge on Wikipedia, where you keeping clicking the most interesting link on the page and learning more and more fascinating stuff, none of which has anything to do with each other, and end the evening feeling stuffed full of random knowledge which might be fun to pull out at parties some day, and maybe a little headache-y. (Or maybe that's just me?)...more
Very broad, very interesting take on prehistoric man through the development of agriculture, religion, capitalism, etc. A bunch of the ideas are stuffVery broad, very interesting take on prehistoric man through the development of agriculture, religion, capitalism, etc. A bunch of the ideas are stuff I’ve seen before (for example, his charge that agriculture actually made human lives shorter and more miserable), but an interesting (and potentially chilling) overall thesis that we have a tendency to embrace advancements that help our species/society be more “successful” but that doesn’t actually work in favor of the individual. Thought-provoking....more
Several years ago, xkcd featured a comic about "Upgoer Five", a diagram of the Saturn rocket explained entirely in the top thousand most used words. (Several years ago, xkcd featured a comic about "Upgoer Five", a diagram of the Saturn rocket explained entirely in the top thousand most used words. (This is most well-known for the concluding sentence "If it starts pointing at space you are having a bad problem and you will not go to space today.") This is an entire book of that. Munroe explains things as diverse as the composition of pencils and the composition of the interior of a star in incredibly over-simplified language. It's funny and thought-provoking. A note: this is not this decade's The Way Things Work--in fact, if you don't already have a rough idea of how these things work, you will not actually understand any of this. You need at least a working knowledge of freshman year chemistry, physics, astronomy, and more. What it is good for is making you think about the things that you kind of vaguely know about and either have forgotten or never quite got, and making sure you actually turn it around in your brain enough to make things click. (For example, I had to pull up an actual copy of the periodic table to make heads or tails of the periodic table page, but then it was very funny. And I learned about some properties and history I hadn't known before.) It's a puzzle, in which you try to figure out what the real words that he's not using should be, how that all plays into his explanations, and then translate it out again to get the joke. It's delightful for nerds. I would not bother having my son read it until at least halfway through high school....more
This is the kind of pop psych book that strives not so much to be deeply insightful as it does to be entertaining. And you know what? It's not particuThis is the kind of pop psych book that strives not so much to be deeply insightful as it does to be entertaining. And you know what? It's not particularly insightful, but it is very entertaining. It's partly about what we think we can discover about other people's personalities from observation and partly about what we can actually discover (and why those two are not the same thing). It promises to make you a master detective, and won't, mostly. But it's a lot of fun to think about what you can learn from someone's desk drawers or playlist....more
While my not-quite-3-year-old is a little too young to understand the principles behind most of these, this book should keep us busy for some time. (AWhile my not-quite-3-year-old is a little too young to understand the principles behind most of these, this book should keep us busy for some time. (A number of the experiments should be good for entertainment value now and then can be repeated in a few years with greater understanding.) This isn't so much a step-by-step guide as a set of questions and vague suggestions designed to prompt budding mad scientists to come up with their own questions, hypotheses, and experimental setups. That is, this book tries less to teach scientific facts as to teach the scientific method, which is probably more fun and educational than one that simply tries to get the young elementary crowd to memorize chemical bonds or something. My only real quibble is that in an effort to hit the 100+ mark, they go seriously overboard on the baking soda experiments. They get really repetitive. ...more
I'm not sure quite how to rate this. On one hand, it's unquestionably brilliant and I learned/remembered a lot and put together a lot of interesting iI'm not sure quite how to rate this. On one hand, it's unquestionably brilliant and I learned/remembered a lot and put together a lot of interesting information in novel ways. On the other hand, while he's brilliant, he's not as clever as he thinks he is, and so many of his little jokes and dialogues are so unbearably twee it drove me bonkers....more
I read this years ago, and found it beautiful and profound. Each chapter is a gem--a few pages musing on what life would be like in a Swiss town if tiI read this years ago, and found it beautiful and profound. Each chapter is a gem--a few pages musing on what life would be like in a Swiss town if time moved differently than it does for us.
In the interim, I read Lightman's frankly terrible Mr g. Unfortunately, going back, it's colored my opinion. I can see the cracks--Lightman thinks he's cleverer than he is (he is very clever, but he's in love with his own cleverness). Some of the chapters don't really hold together at all if you think about them too much.
But it's still an interesting set of thought experiments, and beautiful if you don't poke too hard....more
I think there's a downside to big media campaigns--by the time I read this book, I feel like I'd already read most of the interesting parts.
There's acI think there's a downside to big media campaigns--by the time I read this book, I feel like I'd already read most of the interesting parts.
There's actually a lot here that's really quite interesting--from factoids about how roads designed to make cars safer make drivers more aggressive and therefore increase the damage when cars do crash to comparisons between different countries' driving cultures, there's a lot to unpack. I think part of why I was less impressed than I expected is just that Vanderbilt's tour of guest columns when this book came out turned out to be kind of spoiler-filled. So I already knew how long the white dashed lines on the highway are. (I'm not going to spoil it, but let's just say they're shockingly longer than you think they are.) If you didn't catch the promotional campaign, you'll probably enjoy the book more....more
I can't quite put my finger on why this one didn't work for me. Somehow, the information never quite seemed to stick in my head. It's not like I'm intI can't quite put my finger on why this one didn't work for me. Somehow, the information never quite seemed to stick in my head. It's not like I'm intimidated by chemistry--I've got a degree in engineering, I've hacked my way through science textbooks much denser than this. And I've already picked up a decent working knowledge of the chemical underpinnings of cooking.
I'm not sure whether the problem lies in the translation or in some kind of culture gap. But I constantly felt as if there were assumptions being made that didn't make sense to me. Which pieces of information were prioritized, which questions were asked, which chemical processes required detailed vs brief explanations--I constantly felt surprised by his choices, and not in a good way.
I think it also would have been very helpful to have more illustrations/diagrams. Chemistry is a science that is extremely dependent on geometry. Perhaps a chemist has the layouts of glucose vs fructose automatically in his head, but for laypeople, writing out the molecular structures would go a long way towards making some of these explanations easier to follow.
I liked the theory of the book. But apparently so little felt either relevant or fully comprehensible that, weeks later, almost nothing has stuck....more
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