My Review of "The Creative Act: A Way of Being" by Rick Rubin on GoodReads

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best books I've read.

Rick Rubin gives us his philosophy for creating art. He warns us against the things that block creativity and provides wisdom and tips to foster our best work.

The books reads like daily meditations.

I liked the book so much I read it as slowly as possible because I didn't want to be done reading it. I liked to read a few pages at a time and thought about what it was saying.

I liked the author's style. His words read like taoist book of wisdom.

I liked the perspectives I gained from reading this. I can apply what I read to almost everything creative.

Excellent read

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On Writing

 I've been thinking about writing lately. 

I am going to write that book. I don't know when or what exactly will be in it but I've known for a while that my true calling is writing. Nothing gives me more joy than the simple act of creating ideas with words. I want to share my voice, my thoughts and experiences with the whole world. It really doesn't matter to me if nobody reads it, it's the act of creating that excites me. 

I haven't decided yet if I want to write fiction or memoirs. Novels or essays. Write about tech or write about politics. Why not all? Maybe, but one thing at the time and first things first. 

I have a lot to say about the war in Iraq. There are many war memoirs but there aren't any stories written from the perspective of a Venezuelan nerd with ADHD. I did my whole tour, did not leave my post, but I realized in Iraq that I am not a warrior, I freaking hate violence with all my heart. 

I have a lot to say about tech. I am fortunate to work in a place where I see the state of the art advance. I love to write code but I am not your typical tech-bro. How many Spanish Speaking people do you know work in big tech companies as engineers? Not many. 

I have a lot say about being a Dad. This is the thing that came more natural to me. Loving my kids is easy to do. Not sure I can bring anything new, but then again, maybe I should say it and write it down anyway. 

Stephen King had a quote about you are only a writer if you get paid, and use your paycheck to pay the water bill. So if you are starving, and use your words to pay the bills, then you are a writer. 

Hmm, well, I don't know. I do write at work. I write technical documents and I write software. Writing software is just another kind of writing, you have different audience, one is the machine that transform the code you write to machine instructions, but the most important audience is other programmers. When you write code, other coders will eventually go over your code when they need to change it or debug it. Well, I digress. My point is that I am writer already, but now I want to write more than software and technical docs. I want to share stories, opinions and whatever else comes to mind. 

Stay tuned. 

My Review of "Is Math Real?" by Dr. Eugenia Cheng on GoodReads

Is Maths Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths by Eugenia Cheng
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this book the author wants to let people know that if you hate math it's more likely because of the way you were taught. In fact, if there are things that don't make sense to you and you've asked "dumb questions" then you probably think more like professional mathematicians.

I found this book through to Ali Ward's Ologies podcast

Dr. Cheng talks about many mathematical concepts with an explanation of why and how mathematicians come up with concepts. I was blown away in the section "why is 1 + 1 = 2" because it turns the question on its head. We should think about "When does 1 + 1 not equal 2" for example, when you are painting, if you have one color, adding another color gives you a new combined color, not two colors, in this case 1 + 1 = 1. So then a good definition of *when* does 1 + 1 = 2 is in order.

I like that Dr. Cheng hates it when people try to use math to make themselves sound smarter as if knowing these things makes you a better, superior person somehow (it does not, it's your character)

I liked the little commentary on current events sprinkled here and there, I suppose that some people will balk at that, that's fine by me.

I didn't like that the material for me was introductory, I didn't walk about with new mathematical theory (well, at the end she goes into her category theory research) but it's an introductory book aimed at people who don't do math.

Overall, this is an excellent book. Highly recommend it. Math if for you and for all of us.

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My Review of "The Nineties" by Chuck Klosterman on Goodreads

The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is a collection of essays that cover different aspects of the 90's things like music, tv shows, the internet, politics, historical events of the era, etc. The author gives us his take on things and contrasts with how we see things today.

One main theme of the book is that people tend to judge the past through their current point of view. It's easy and tempting to judge history based on what we know now. He challenges that notion and tells us how we used to see and think differently.

I enjoyed this commentary, but to me, it's just that, commentary. Yeah there is some data and stats but this is a book filled with opinions and generalizations about a culture. Not that he's off the mark, but I don't know what to do with the information I just learned. Reading this felt like reading a entertaining article in a magazine...in the 90's. Fun, engaging but am I a different person after reading this? Did I gain a new perspective in life? Maybe not.

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