Happy Birthday Marines

 The US Marine Corps turns 250 years old today. 

Happy Birthday Marines!

What does ChatGPT have to say about baseball

 Yesterday I asked Chat GPT to give me a Summary of Stephen King's essay "Head Down"

link

Here’s a summary plus some reflections on Stephen King’s essay “Head Down”:

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Summary

• “Head Down” is a nonfiction essay by Stephen King, first published in The New Yorker in 1990, and later included in Nightmares & Dreamscapes. (The New Yorker)

• It follows the 1989 season of King’s son Owen’s Little League baseball team, Bangor West, in Maine. (Stephen King)

• King treats the story in a somewhat journalist’s tone: he describes practices, road trips, the team’s emotional ups and downs, errors in games, and how the coaches and players react under pressure. (Sheila O'Malley)

• A particularly vivid episode involves a game against a rival team, Hampden. The narrative builds tension: pacing, kids making mistakes, a starter being injured, and the eerie “Hampden Horns” — horns blaring from cars beyond the outfield, whose owners are never entirely identified (not clearly parents or relatives) — adding a surreal, haunting edge to what might otherwise be a simple youth baseball game. (Michael Mingo's Blog)

• Even in defeat, the essay shows how the coaches rally the boys: “Get your heads up,” they tell them, emphasizing that one loss doesn’t define the season, and that character and camaraderie matter. (Readers Library)

• The team goes on to win the Maine State Little League Championship. (Wikipedia)

• Afterwards, they continue into the Eastern Regional Tournament, where their run ends. (Wikipedia)

• Despite not winning it all, the coach, Dave Mansfield, is honored as amateur coach of the year by the U.S. Baseball Federation, which gives the story a note of recognition and closure. (Wikipedia)

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Themes & Observations

• Childhood & Idealism: Though the players are just 11–12 years old, King writes as though they were professional athletes—very seriously, respectfully. In doing so, he evokes the drama, hope, and heartbreak of youth sports. (Sheila O'Malley)

• Community & Stakes: What seems like a small local team carries the weight of community pride, expectations, and emotional investment from parents, townsfolk, and even mysterious outsiders (the “Hampden Horns”). (Michael Mingo's Blog)

• Mistakes & Resilience: The essay dwells on errors (fielding mistakes, bad hops, a hit batsman) and how the coaches and players respond. It’s not always pretty, but it’s real — how do you handle failure when the stakes feel huge to a kid? (Readers Library)

• Narrative tension in small-scale drama: King shows how even a youth baseball season, when rendered carefully, has narrative arcs, tension, and emotional highs & lows. The imagery of the “Hampden Horns” gives a slightly eerie dimension, making the ordinary feel charged. (Michael Mingo's Blog)

• Love & Team Identity: In the closing moments, coaches remind the boys that as a team they must support each other win or lose. King emphasizes that the connections formed — between players, coaches, parents — are part of what makes the game meaningful beyond the scoreboard. (Readers Library)

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If you like, I can also give you a more detailed, scene-by-scene breakdown (or some favorite passages) from “Head Down.” Would you like me to go deeper?

Then I asked:

Daily Helper, I want to know books and authors that have written books or essays about the philosophy of baseball, how the game is like life, and the lessons of baseball apply to real life and why is baseball a beloved american game

The response:

Hey — good question! There are quite a few books, essays, and novels that treat baseball not just as a sport, but as metaphor, philosophy, or lens into American life. I’ll list some of the best, and then sketch out why baseball tends to be such a beloved game in U.S. culture. If you like, I can pull up a reading list with summaries.

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Books / Essays & Authors That Explore Baseball as Life & Philosophy

Here are works that dig into how baseball reflects life, values, identity, community, etc.:

Title	Author(s)	What It Brings / Why It's Philosophical or Life-Lessony
Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter’s Box	Edited by Eric Bronson & William Irwin	A collection of essays by philosophers and scholars exploring moral, ethical, existential, and aesthetic questions around baseball — e.g. luck vs. skill, rules vs. spirit, what it means to be part of a team. (Ingram Academic)
Infinite Baseball	Alva Noë	Looks at how baseball reveals things about perception, time, being, boredom, language — philosophical reflections rather than just memoir or history. (Alva Noë)
Why We Love Baseball	Joe Posnanski	A more accessible, emotional exploration: memorable moments in baseball history that show the humanity, the failures, the triumphs. Reminds why people fall in love with the sport. (PenguinRandomhouse.com)
101 Lessons from the Dugout: What Baseball and Softball Can Teach Us About the Game of Life	Harley A. Rotbart & Ken Davidoff	Very direct: each lesson links baseball and softball moments to real-life values like perseverance, teamwork, handling failure, etc. (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Dugout Wisdom: Life Lessons from Baseball	Dan Migala	Collects accounts from well-known baseball players about pivotal moments; these stories transcend the sport and touch on character, growth, meaning. (Apple)
The Natural	Bernard Malamud	Fiction, but rich with symbolism. The story of Roy Hobbs is as much about hope, failure, redemption, dreams, and the mythic ideals Americans set up. Baseball is the stage. (Wikipedia)
Shoeless Joe	W. P. Kinsella	Magic realism, myth, nostalgia. Deals with memory, father-son relationships, longing, imagination — baseball is something more than just a game. (Harper Academic)
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America	Joe Posnanski	Uses Buck O’Neil’s life, history, and the landscape of America to reflect on how the sport has been shaped by race, culture, struggle, joy. (Wikipedia)

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Why Baseball Is Beloved in America — What Makes It Special

Here are some philosophical/sociocultural reasons why baseball often works as more than a game in the U.S.:

1. Time & Pace
   Baseball moves slower than many sports; there’s rhythm, pauses, waits. That gives space for reflection, for memory, for anticipation. Mistakes happen slowly; tension builds. That pace allows people to think, to hope, to feel the passing of seasons.

2. Myth & Memory
   Long history, legendary figures, dramatic moments, statistics, records — all add up to myth-making. People retell stories (Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, etc.) and those stories become part of identity: personal, family, communal. Baseball connects you to the past.

3. Failure with Hope
   In baseball, failure is built in. Even the best hitters fail most of the time. But that’s part of the beauty: you can fail, you can strike out, but you get another at-bat; another chance. That’s analogous to life, where you often have to pick yourself up, keep going, even after a strikeout.

4. Tradition & Ritual
   From taking in games in the summer, traditions in little leagues, ballparks, even the smells (cut grass, peanuts, hotdogs), the uniform, the bases — there is ritual. Ritual gives comfort and meaning. It anchors people.

5. Community & Identity
   Local teams, hometown players, minor league towns, small leagues — people invest in these. Baseball teams often become part of civic identity, of belonging. Shared experience: cheering, heartbreak, hope.

6. Democracy of the Game
   On one level, baseball is open: people from different backgrounds, races, sizes, temperaments can find a place. The game values different skills (speed, strategy, power, fielding, pitching). It’s not only about brute strength. Also, success depends on individuals and teamwork.

7. Symbolism & Life Lessons
   As seen in many of the books above, baseball offers metaphors: home base (coming home), strikeouts (failure), getting back into the batter’s box (resilience), line drives, foul balls, sliding into home — there are many images that map onto human life.

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If you want, I can pull together a more comprehensive reading list (fiction, non-fiction, essays) and maybe group them by theme (identity, failure, community, etc.). Would that be helpful for your reading project?

I said yes:

Perfect ⚾️ — here’s a comprehensive baseball reading list organized by theme and focus.
It includes nonfiction, essays, philosophy, and fiction — everything that explores why baseball matters beyond the diamond.

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🧠 I. Baseball as Philosophy & Life Lesson

These books treat baseball as a mirror for how we live, think, and grow.

Title	Author	Key Idea
Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter’s Box	Edited by Eric Bronson & William Irwin	Essays by philosophers on ethics, luck, time, identity, and beauty in baseball.
Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark	Alva Noë	How baseball reveals truths about perception, time, and human experience.
101 Lessons from the Dugout: What Baseball and Softball Can Teach Us About the Game of Life	Harley A. Rotbart	Direct, motivational life lessons from baseball moments.
Dugout Wisdom: Life Lessons from Baseball	Dan Migala	Interviews and insights from players about how the game shaped their lives.
The Meaning of Sports: Why We Watch and Why It Matters	Michael Mandelbaum	Broad sports philosophy, but baseball gets special attention as America’s moral and aesthetic pastime.
The Tao of Baseball	Jeff Morehouse	Blends Eastern philosophy (Zen, Taoism) with baseball metaphors — calm, patience, focus, flow.
The Baseball Codes	Jason Turbow & Michael Duca	How baseball’s unwritten rules teach respect, restraint, and social order — like a moral code in motion.

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❤️ II. Baseball as American Identity & Memory

These explore why baseball feels so deeply American, and how it connects to culture, family, and national stories.

Title	Author	Key Idea
Baseball: A Literary Anthology	Library of America (ed. Nicholas Dawidoff)	Essays, poems, and fiction from great writers — from Walt Whitman to Updike.
Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game	John Sexton	The NYU president reflects on how baseball’s rituals and mysteries resemble religion.
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America	Joe Posnanski	A moving journey with Negro Leagues legend Buck O’Neil through baseball’s heart and history.
Why We Love Baseball	Joe Posnanski	50 timeless baseball moments showing why the sport evokes such devotion.
The Summer Game	Roger Angell	Gentle, lyrical essays from The New Yorker capturing baseball’s rhythm, nostalgia, and beauty.
Five Seasons / Late Innings / Once More Around the Park	Roger Angell	Continued meditations on baseball, aging, memory, and the passage of time.
Baseball in the Garden of Eden	John Thorn	The real story of baseball’s origins and why Americans mythologized it.
The Boys of Summer	Roger Kahn	A journalist’s remembrance of the Brooklyn Dodgers and how time, aging, and loyalty shape fandom.

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📚 III. Baseball in Fiction — Myth, Failure, Redemption

These novels use baseball as metaphor for the American soul, human ambition, and imperfection.

Title	Author	Key Idea
The Natural	Bernard Malamud	A mythic tale of talent, temptation, and the price of greatness.
Shoeless Joe	W. P. Kinsella	Magic realism and nostalgia — the novel that inspired Field of Dreams.
Bang the Drum Slowly	Mark Harris	Friendship, mortality, and grace between a pitcher and his dying catcher.
The Art of Fielding	Chad Harbach	Modern literary novel about ambition, love, and imperfection within a college baseball team.
The Brothers K	David James Duncan	A sprawling family epic linking baseball, faith, and politics in 1960s America.
If I Never Get Back	Darryl Brock	Time-travel novel connecting modern life to baseball’s 19th-century roots.
You Know Me Al	Ring Lardner	Early 20th-century satire — a ballplayer’s letters reveal ego, humor, and American attitudes.

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🌎 IV. Baseball, Race, and Social Change

Title	Author	Key Idea
I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson	Jackie Robinson	The story of baseball’s integration and moral courage.
Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy	Jules Tygiel	Deep historical and cultural study of integration in baseball.
Forty Million Dollar Slaves	William C. Rhoden	Broader sports commentary, but with crucial insight into baseball’s racial legacy.
Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend	Larry Tye	Biography of Satchel Paige, exploring race, style, and independence in the Negro Leagues.

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🕰️ V. Classic Essays & Must-Read Short Pieces

These are often found in anthologies or online, and they’re iconic.

• “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” – John Updike (about Ted Williams’s last game)

• “Head Down” – Stephen King (about his son’s Little League team; life, pride, and community)

• “The Crack of the Bat” – Roger Angell

• “Baseball and the Meaning of Life” – A. Bartlett Giamatti

• “The Green Fields of the Mind” – A. Bartlett Giamatti (a classic meditation on loss and the end of a season)

• “The Boys of Summer” – Roger Kahn (essay version + full book)

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🌅 VI. For Poetry & Reflection

• “Casey at the Bat” – Ernest Thayer (humor, failure, pride)

• “Baseball” – Marianne Moore (poetic complexity and discipline)

• “To an Athlete Dying Young” – A.E. Housman (not baseball, but often paired with baseball elegies)

• “Glory” – Yusef Komunyakaa (Black joy and baseball memories in the segregated South)

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⭐ Suggested Starting Path

If you want a balanced introduction:

1. Roger Angell – The Summer Game → beautiful writing, pure love of the sport.

2. John Sexton – Baseball as a Road to God → philosophical and emotional.

3. W. P. Kinsella – Shoeless Joe → myth and magic.

4. Joe Posnanski – The Soul of Baseball → history and humanity.

5. A. Bartlett Giamatti – “The Green Fields of the Mind” → one of the most lyrical essays ever written about the sadness and beauty of baseball.

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Would you like me to make this into a printable reading list (PDF or formatted table) you can keep or annotate?

Anyway, not much different than doing internet searches for "books about baseball" I thought I got a neat answer so, why not share it. 

My Review of "The Tree" by Percival Everett

The Trees by Percival Everett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a fun read, it's part murder mystery part historical lesson about lynching in America, this book conveys a powerful message with a satirical tone (the joke's on the racists) that only Percival Everett can pull off.

I picked up this book on whim when I was at the bookstore, the first few pages caught my interest, and I finished it in one day. I laughed out loud, got angry, and made me a little more conscious. I'm 2 for 2 with this writer (I read James and really liked it too)


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My review of "Empire of AI" by Karen Hao

Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI by Karen Hao
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a highly opinionated book that answers the following question:

- Why did Sam Altman get fired from OpenAI and then come back (long answer and not that exciting unless you're into corporate drama)
- How does OpenAI and big tech companies affect me, and how they affect the world?
- Should the power of AI and all that it entails be concentrated in the hands of very few people?

I gained a lot of insights into the way Silicon Valley tech dudes think about AI. I didn't know that there were two camps when it comes to thinking about General Artificial Intelligence (Doomers and Boomers) this was all very interesting to me. Fascinating. The chapters about power consumption and and what's going on in Chile and Uruguay are upsetting.

This book is well researched, one thing I'd say is not really focused on one thing per se, there's stuff about Altman's personal life, stuff about OpenAI and it's drama and stuff about the tech industry in general, these are all somewhat tied together, but besides all that, this is a must-read for everyone with a job that requires technical knowledge.

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My Review of "Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI" on GoodReads

Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI by Anil Ananthaswamy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book gives an overview of the math that powers Deep Learning algorithms, I was goin to say high level, but that's not quite right. It goes into great depths, describing the concepts in lay terms. This book will give you an intuition for thinking about large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and such.
I love that the author gives clear explanations to complex topics. I really enjoyed getting the history and the people behind each discovery, the book goes in chronological order.
I have been studying and following AI since it was called "Pattern Recognition" in grad school, I took courses on "Machine Learning" at the University of Washington about 10 years ago, right around the time Deep Nets were stating to gain traction. I was starting to think I was not going to get anything new from this book but the last chapter of the book covers what's been happening since 2020 and it made me change my mind about this field. I don't want to "spoil" it, but I didn't know about that fact that Neural Networks are going past the theoretical bias/variance "Goldilocks" limit. Reading about that made me take another look at the tech. Like I said, I've been skeptical about NN and the "hype" of AI, but reading about this made me want to know more.

Excellent Read


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My Review of the Sympathizer by Viet Than Nguyen on GoodReads

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This book rattled me. Not going to lie I was shaken when I finished reading this book. Our main character is a man who escaped the Vietnam War as a refuge and ally, but he's got a secret, he is leading a double life a secret agent, a spy for the communist. He lives in America, but he is not one of us, so he comments on our culture, our customs and our hypocrisy, and then he goes back to communist Vietnam.

This is an amazing story written in a style that I don't quite have a name for, it's a first person narrative that manages to be self-critical and observant. The observations the man made while in America were quite eye opening, there were some parts that seemed obvious but others were new, I love it when a book makes me challenge my assumptions and make me consider new points of view. As a person who grew up watching the Vietnam War movies of the 80s, I grew up influenced by America's reaction to the War, yet all the books I read and the few conversations I had with actual Vietnam vets did not give me a full picture of the people of Vietnam. How did they see the war? How do they see us, US?
I liked the history lessons, the tropes ridiculed, the stereotypes challenged and the usual cliches exploded. I recommend this book to anyone who likes history, specially US history.

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"Cadáver Exqusito" de Agustina Bazterrica en GoodReads (Español)

Cadáver exquisito by Agustina Bazterrica
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Este libro es brutal, espeluznante.

Se trata de un futuro distópico, donde una enfermedad deja a todos los animales incomibles y entonces se comen a la gente. Los imigrantes, los pobres, los que no podían defenderse.

El canibalismo es ley y ahora hay dos grupos de personas, los que comen y los son comidos.

Marco Tejo es el encargado de un frigorifico, su esposa lo ha dejado y de repente un día recibe de regalo una mujer criada para ser consumida. Marco tiene que decidir como actuar, hacer lo conveniente o lo que le pide su conciencia.

Para mi lo horrible no es solamente el canibalismo, si no como el lenguaje es utilizado para oprimir y para evitar que la gente piense en los que están haciendo. La autora quiere que el lector comprenda como el consumerismo hace que nos devoremos entro nosotros. La alegoría es sutil y brutal a mismo tiempo.

Uno de los libros mas aterrorizantes que he leído.

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My review of "Don't Believe Everything You Think" by Joseph Nguyen on GoodReads

Don't Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got a lot out of this book. I have been my own journey working on living life as a stoic. Putting my energy into the things I have power to control and letting go of the rest.
However, I got an insight reading this book. For me (YMMV) I tend to overthink everything and it's easy for me to get anxious. It's hard for me to let things go. The simple lesson here helped me out, Ill put it here for free. Thinking is Suffering. If you don't think, you don't suffer. Of course, this idea can be taken too far, and god knows that we need more thinking in our public discourse. But for me, a person who ruminates and thinks and overthinks and always in my head, this gave me a path to clarity. If I let go, I can find peace. The second insight, which could be considered a trite cliche, I know. Is that chasing fame, money, pleasure is a longing for something else, something that we already have: joy, love, fulfillment, inner-peace, we don't need external factors to get that, who we are and what we have is enough.
This helped people with my mindset and my personality, I'm always worried and anxious about something, about doing a good job at work, about being a good dad, good husband a good person. Worried that I'm not good enough if I don't make enough money, that I need people to like me and approve of me in order to feel good about myself. All that is in vain, you already have all the ingredients to have a life full of peace and free of suffering.
I am still a realist, an inquisitive skeptic, but this book helped me control my anxiety, because I understand that over-thinking is the root cause. After reading this book I have decided to choose inner peace, I have decided not to suffer for things that are not happening. Understanding that suffering is all in my head.
I liked this book and I recommend it to people who like me, worry a lot.

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My Review of "Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men" by Caroline Criado Pérez

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book showed me how we are failing half the world population.
Women get ignored when they should be seen and they are harassed when they should be left alone.

A lot of the stuff in this book is not new to me, but I still managed to be surprised about the ways in which we leave out women when we are testing drugs, researching the human body, writing laws, designing products, using algorithms. In short, men have by design created systems that subjugate, exploit and objectify women.

The thing is, the patriarchy hurts everyone, not just women. Current events have me convinced that if women ruled the world, (presidents, Corporation CEO's) we wouldn't have the problems we have. Men are too emotional and brittle to run countries (look at Trump, Putin, Musk) Anyway, I digress.

This book is not a feel-good read, but it has given me more awareness. Unlike other social issues, I have hope that progress is inevitable, but we have to make it happen.

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My Review of "What is ChatGPT doing and Why Does It Work" by Stephen Wolfram

What Is ChatGPT Doing... and Why Does It Work? by Stephen Wolfram
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This books aims to provide a clear, plain English layman's terms explanation of how ChatGPT works.
I am not very sure how well it achieves its goal. I heard about neural nets when I was an undergraduate studying computer engineering in the early 2000's. Back then the term "AI" was not used in engineering research unless you wanted to not get funding. In Grad School "Pattern Recognition" was the name of the class that taught neural nets as an after thought right after liner regression, and SVM's (Support Vector Machines).
Anyway, I did enjoy reading this book, I learned a few insights, and I was able to get intuitions about why it's hard to explain. I studied "Machine Learning" at the University of Washington in 2015 and I was up to date until ChatGPT. As a person who has used ChatGPT at work (made a cool prototype in a hackathon) I didn't know how they made it work so well. This book offered a good explanation.
Stephen Wolfram is a tad pompous, and sometimes I got lost in the details, but overall this is a good book for anyone with enough curiosity.

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My Review of "AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference" by Arvind Narayan

AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference by Arvind Narayanan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book showed me how to be more critical of AI hype. (Snake Oil) People seem to think that the authors are against tech or AI in general, but that's not the case. The book is aimed at debunking myths about AI, and it is very critical of those who makes misleading claims about AI when they should know better.

This book is credible because the authors have the right credentials, a PhD student and professor of Computer Science from Princeton University teamed up to study all the ways in which AI fails to do what their marketers promised it could do.

The examples are compelling enough to make the reader see that if unregulated bad algorithms can literally cost people's lives. Just like the FDA doesn't let you sell items with misleading labels, there should be regulation aimed at protecting humans from computer algorithms.


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My Review of "The Island of Dr. Moreau" by H.G. Wells on GoodReads

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has aged surprisingly well. It's no wonder H.G. Wells is considered one of the "fathers" of science fiction (along with Jules Vernes, Mary Shelley should be given more credit for starting this genre, but I digress)

The setting: 1887, an island somewhere in Pacific Ocean. The main character, is a London-educated scientist named Edward Prendick. The boat he is in gets in a shipwrecked, he gets rescued and finds himself stuck in an island with Dr. Moreu, a mad scientist performing horrible experiments.

I just learned that there was a public outrage when this book came out in 1896. I am not surprised at all. You can see how the state of science in that era influenced the story. It brings up evolution, the role of humans in nature and culture. I'm ngl, there is some racist undertones, but it's subtle enough to ignore. This classic has inspired a bunch of movies and books, but I honestly had not really heard about this book until I learned about The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia so I wanted to get the background before reading that.

Good book, if you are a fan of sci-fi.

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My Review of "Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous" edited by Gillian Anderson

Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous by Gillian Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reads like a Post-Secret compilation, curated by Gillian Anderson. Interesting read. This is like Nancy Friday's "My Secret Garden" but includes inputs from a more diverse group of women. WoC plus LGBQT folks. Fascinating look into the human psyche. Our brains are the sexiest organs for sure.
Interesting take aways is that is totally normal to have fantasies, and that queer people fantasize about heterosexual sex (sometimes?) Not every fantasy should be turned to reality, or in other words, fantasies are safe and the creator has complete control of what happens. That's not always the case in real life. I was going to say something about how women still feel shame about their fantasies even in today's age. The truth is, society is regressing a bit when it comes to social values and women's rights. That sucks, but in any case, there's a lot less stigma around sex in general if we compare society today to 1973 when My Secret Garden came out. It's surprising to compare what has changed and what stays the same. You'd have to read the book to know.

Good read.



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My Review of "The Siren's Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endagered Resource"

The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource by Chris Hayes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an informative book about Attention, what it is, how it works, and how recent changes in tech transformed attention into a commodity to be taken, traded and commodified.

This shift from survival mechanism to coveted valuable resource is making our lives less enjoyable.
Chris Hayes gives us a lot of information to think about, along with supporting data, quotes and apt metaphors.

I really enjoyed the analogies to labor (it's a monetized commodity) and food (we evolved not needing a lot, now there's too much information)

The last chapter, is the weakest, but I think it's up to the reader to judge for themselves. The question in the last chapter can be summoned as "Okay, now what do we do about this? " There isn't much new, just be intentional about what you pay attention to. There's a call to regulate tech companies as well.

The information in this book is important and the issues called out in here need to be addressed.

Good Read

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My Review of "Feeling Good Together" by Dr. David Burns on GoodReads

Feeling Good Together: The Secret of Making Troubled Relationships Work by David D. Burns
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This self-help book will give you tools for improving communication with people you care about.
I enjoyed the audible version. It was filled with amusing stories that help cement the strategies and techniques from the book. Well, written, well presented and very insightful. It's an excellent reference for being a good listener and a good communicator.

The Section of the book that explains the "Five Secrets of Effective Communication" is my personal favorite. I am doing the exercises and I am going to apply it as much as I can. The "Disarming Technique" was an eye opener.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to deepen their relationships.

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Everyone is a Creator

 I love this passage from Rick Rubin in his book "The Creative Act: A Way of Being"

Those who do not engage in the traditional arts might be wary of calling themselves artists. They might perceive creativity as something extraordinary or beyond their capabilities. A calling for the special few who are born with these gifts.

 

Fortunately, this is not the case.

 

Creativity is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human. It’s our birthright. And it’s for all of us.

 

Creativity doesn’t exclusively relate to making art. We all engage in this act on a daily basis.

 

To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before.

 

It could be a conversation, the solution to a problem, a note to a friend, the rearrangement of furniture in a room, a new route home to avoid a traffic jam.

 

What you make doesn’t have to be witnessed, recorded, sold, or encased in glass for it to be a work of art. Through the ordinary state of being, we’re already creators in the most profound way, creating our experience of reality and composing the world we perceive.

The rest of the passage is wonderful. What a moving idea! We can all create, it doesn't have to be perfect, or celebrated, rather, to make is to be human. I. love. that. 

So, creativity is a way of being. Reading this book hit differently. This was one of my favorite books of 2024. I think I am going to keep it in my reference shelve so that I can refer to it often. 

 

Resist

 

Don't let evil go unchallenged. Fight against it. 

-JV

My Review of "None of This is True" by Lisa Jewell

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Alix is a famous journalist/podcaster when she meets her "birthday twin" a lady that was born on the same day at the same hospital as her. Then things get weird. This is an entertaining page-turner with some dark turns along the way. It's funny and sad at the same time.

I am not sure about the narration structure, the book presents the story as the screenplay for the Netflix documentary for the story. So, it's a story told inside a story of a podcaster. It's unique, it did not quite feel gimmicky, but at the end I wondered how much this helped the story/plot.

For me, I am starting to see a pattern, I think I am drawn to "crazy women doing crazy shit" genre.
Like "All fours" by Miranda July or all the people in Mary Gaitskill's stories. I liked the pace of the story, I liked how the mystery slowly unravels creating even more questions as you go.

I liked this book, it was a good story, I gave it three stars because I thought the author could have done without the unusual narrative format. I could not fully relate to the main character specially her relationship to her husband Nathan. I don't want to give away spoilers, but, I did not like Nathan.

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My Review of "Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created and Empire and Transformed Pop Culture" by David Kushner

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the story around the people who created the game Doom. John Romero and John Carmack.
The book starts with a short bio of the two Johns. And covers the stories around the creation of their first game, the company they started and the famous public fallout.

I like the idea that the game and the company worked because both founders had opposite views and opposite approach to the game. Romero was "design is king" and Carmak was the "Engine Guy" One thought that the design of the game is the only thing that matters and tech was just a tool to get the game you want to create. Carmak was the opposite, for him the tech was the main thing, the story is not that important if you don't have the tech to make it stand out.

I didn't like the people in this story, the sterotype of the programmer as the socially-inept genius, the nerd that has the last laugh hurts the tech industry. I liked that I read this book, but I was not inspired by the people or the story. For me this is a history lesson and how to suck at managing.

Good read for sure, I recommend it to those who are in tech as a cautionary tale.


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20 Years of Blogging

 Wow, 20 years go by so quickly. 

I started writing this blog in 2005, my life was changing...for good, but it was happening so quickly I realized the magnitude of what was to come. 20 years ago I had been married for a little over 2 years, October would be the 3 year anniversary. But we really started living together as a married couple March 2004 when I got back from Iraq. In May 2005 we would learn that my wife was pregnant, 20 weeks along and we didn't know it! We had put money down for our first home, it was a pre-construction in Margate FL. I had  a 6-month "Co-op" (longer internship) with IBM, my first tech job. I had completed roughly half of my undergraduate classes. It was really my wife and I. 

The thought of becoming a parent changed the way I saw myself and the way I saw the world.  I wanted (I still do) to be a good father. To be a better father than mine, I wanted to raise good people. I was looking for a way to discover myself, since I thought there is no "handbook" to being a parent. 

Well it turns out, there have been pretty good books written on the subject, I just didn't know it. I now realize that yeah, everyone's life a bit different and you have to make decisions on a case by case basis. That doesn't mean that you can't educate yourself. 

In any case, 20 years have gone by, my oldest daughter is a freshman at UW and my youngest is a Senior in high school. I am very proud of them. 

Now begins a new chapter. We are going to be empty-nesters. New transition in life. I look forward to it, but I am a bit scared, same as I was when my kids were about to be born. 

We put so much of our personality and efforts into being parents, once the kids are gone, what is left? 

There are many things to do, places to go, sights to see. I look forward to see what's in store. NGL, it's intimidating. 

-JV

10 New Books to Feed Your Mind

This is probably spam, but this article came up on my google chrome feed:

The 10 New Books to Feed Your Mind

Since I'm a sucker for reading lists, and this is a subject dear to my heart, I'm gonna go ahead and copy/pasta the whole thing here. (sorry not sorry)

One thing we can all control this year is the information that we let into our heads. As I reviewed this winter’s new releases, I had three filters: screen out what’s inaccurate, impractical, and uninteresting.

My recommended reads to start 2025 are brimming with thought-provoking ideas and data points—and they won’t put you to sleep. The common threads are improving communication and relationships, increasing happiness and well-being, and igniting change.

Communication and Relationships

1. Calling In by Loretta Ross (February 4)

This book is the ultimate antidote to cancel culture. Drawing on her extensive experience talking people out of hate, a teacher and activist offers profound insights about how to get through to others—and maintain your own dignity along the way.

2. Validation by Caroline Fleck (February 18)

Warning: reading this book may make you a better parent, partner, colleague, and friend. A talented therapist offers a crash course in important and neglected skills for building, maintaining, and repairing relationships.

3. Ping by Andrew Brodsky (February 11)

Finally: an evidence-based guide to having better conversations by text, email, phone, video, and yes, even social media. An expert on virtual communication offers surprising insights and useful tips for avoiding misunderstandings and making genuine connections.

4. Outraged by Kurt Gray (January 14)

A riveting read on the roots of our bitterest conflicts—and the remedies for them. A leading light in moral psychology overturns widespread assumptions about why we’re divided and illuminates how we can come together.

Happiness and Well-Being

5. Shift by Ethan Kross (Feb 4)

If you think you can’t control what you feel, get ready to think again. This is a page-turner from a top psychologist that’s grounded in science and filled with practical insights on managing emotions.

6. Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi (February 4)

It turns out that there’s more to life than happiness and meaning. Building on his pioneering research, this psychologist introduces a third dimension of the good life: having new and interesting experiences.

Change

7. Defy by Sunita Sah (January 14)

A powerful book about overcoming peer pressure by a physician turned management professor. If you’ve ever compromised your principles to please others, Defy will give you the will—and the skill—to stand up for yourself.

8. Reset by Dan Heath (January 21)

One of my favorite behavioral science communicators explores how to fix what’s broken. It’s the long-awaited sequel to Switch.

9. Make Work Fair by Iris Bohnet and Siri Chilazi (January 28)

Whereas many discussions of DEI are driven by ideology, this book is grounded in evidence. It’s a timely resource for building workplaces that create opportunities for everyone to succeed and belong.

10. Superagency by Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato (January 28)

The influential entrepreneur-investor highlights the risks of not making advances in AI and reveals how it’s poised to transform our lives. It will leave you more informed—and excited—about the revolution that’s already underway.