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Apple Produktevolution 2008-2014: vom iPhone zur iMat

Elsewhere U.S.A. by Dalton Conley (Read via Physical Book)

I admit I only picked up this book based on it being physically close to ‘Generation Me’ when I wanted instant gratification at Borders the other day. Sadly I was disappointed. This book only states the blatantly obvious about how America runs today. Meaning how most people don’t have a punch in-out time. they are constantly looking at email etc.

What I do not like about the book is the lack of a strong opinion of the issue other than things are changing. There is no solid clear outlook nor clear data weaved in to back anything. Granted this book gives a very accurate picture of the way people work today, which may be useful to a history major 200 years from now. But for in present time, not really.

for blabbing on for 200 pages only a 4/10

Generation Me by Jean Twenge (Read Via Physical Book)

I picked this up after seeing a reference that Marco made to it. Boy was it a good read. The book dives into the sociology of ‘Generation Me’ Err people who were born from the 80’s to about the 2000’s or so. The key concept presented was the notion of ‘Self’ & ‘Self-esteem.’ Twenge takes a good dive into the numbers of how making students feel good, has very little effect on performance. In some cases it backfires bigtime.

Another great note is how the social dynamics have changed. This generation does not believe in doing anything in groups will change anything. They don’t get how protests change countries. Not to mention voting. Most people I know think voting in a election is just for the president of the united states. They don’t seem to realize there are state governments, local, and even school votes. But what to I know, I only have a green card.

Overall I do have one favorite paragraph from page 136:
In some ways, the shift toward melancholy in young people seems paradoxical: Generation Me has so much more than previous generations—we are healthier, enjoy countless modern conveniences, and are better educated. But Generation Me often lacks other basic human requirements: stable close relationships, a sense of community, a feeling of safety, a simple path to adulthood and the workplace. Our grandparents may have done without television and gone to the bathroom in an outhouse, but they were usually not lonely, scared by threats of terrorism, or obsessing about the best way to get into Princeton. As David Myers argues in his book The American Paradox, the United States has become a place where we have more but feel worse. Technology and material things may make life easier, but they do not seem to lead to happiness. Instead, we long for the social connections of past years, we enter a confusing world of too many choices, and we become depressed at younger and younger ages.

A great book a solid 9/10

Via -marco:

“In her 2006 book, Generation Me, Twenge notes that self-esteem in children began rising sharply around 1980, and hasn’t stopped since. By 1999, according to one survey, 91 percent of teens described themselves as responsible, 74 percent as physically attractive, and 79 percent as very intelligent. (More than 40 percent of teens also expected that they would be earning $75,000 a year or more by age 30; the median salary made by a 30-year-old was $27,000 that year.) Twenge attributes the shift to broad changes in parenting styles and teaching methods, in response to the growing belief that children should always feel good about themselves, no matter what. As the years have passed, efforts to boost self-esteem—and to decouple it from performance—have become widespread.”

— [How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America](http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/201003/jobless-america-future) (a great overall article, but for this brief quote, paraphrasing this book)

American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot - By Craig Ferguson, Narrated by Craig Ferguson (Read via Audible.com)

I picked up this book after Carl Reiner plugged his book on Craig’s own show. I have to say I was greatly delighted. First Craig actually recored his own audiobook which gives is much more character. I found it very interesting how he of all people stumbled in after Dave. Fascinating history.

More importantly, I found the book to be very genuine. That Craig as a person, presents the qualities of a a classic good man. Granted he has had his ups and downs, but that is what builds good character.

This book is defiantly one to grab off audible.

9/10

Chemistry for Beginners: A Novel By Anthony Strong, Narrated by Simon Vance & Kate Reading. (Read via Audible.com)

This the defiantly a nerdy love story novel. I picked it up on browsing the Simon Vance’s collection. Its a fun read for the fact that there is so much as John Cleese puts it “Techno Gobbledy Goo.”

This story in a scientific paper type layout, with footnotes and references. The thing is this book presents the opposite of a dry scientific paper. Strong brought tons of color to the paper, by telling the story as a scientific discovery, when it is really about romance. As the late Randy Pausch puts it in his book The Last Lecture, a Head Fake!

The most enjoyment of this book came in the primary character Dr. Steven J. Fisher. The book revolves around his work of developing a new drug formulation called KXC79. The drug’s intention is to treat female sexual disfunction. Fisher is an Uber Nerd. Brilliant as a scientist and really has a bottomless passion for his work.

What I liked so much about him is that he is not the typical portrayed stereotype. Instead he illustrates what a real person can be and would act like. His social interactions are really on spot on how some people live. They really have no barometer for social games. Most signs of attraction or flirting just go way over his head. I too can relate. I was talking to a friend about this type of thing and was just blown away by the complexity of interaction he was talking about. Chase but don’t chase too hard. Cater to different thought processes. You have to give them attention then cut them off, but don’t, then do, only for a little bit. aahhhh-eer-argh-Ahhh! Strong does do a good job mixing it up, specifically how we got to read Ms. G’s diaries. It really is great stuff, especially seeing a situation from both sides.


Anyway, at the end of the day Conan says it best (in many ways) and this books reflects that: “If you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

9/10

chartier:

Work Hard And Be Kind by Clay Larson

Inspired by Conan’s farewell speech.

via thedailywhat

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Vale of Work by Matthew Crawford, Narrated by Max Bloomquist (Read via Audible.com)

I picked this one up from a off-hand recommendation by Alex Lindsay when he was on MBW on the Twit Network.

This book is about the lost art of the tradesman in society. Crawford makes a very valid point where the education taught in K-12 today is only to shuttle kids into “knowledge worker” type jobs after college. This more than anything else I have found has changed society the most.

I think only two generations back to my grandparents. They both had workshops in their respective houses. They could navigate their
furnace,
plumbing,
electrical work,
painting,
carpentry,
gardening,
mechanics,
and much more.

We have really moved from being self-sustaining independent people to being hopelessly consumerist. Perhaps thats why advertising is so dominant today. Even the most recognized carbonated beverage maker still spends billions in ad dollars every year. Saddening.

I do relate this book to a talk by Mike Rowe gave (available on TED.com) on his views of works and they go together hand in hand.

The only negative is that the book trails off in the end. It’s not babbling per say. I feel that Crawford really just struggled putting into words how he feels about which collar he wears. To put it in studio terms, He is unsure which is better. Being above the line or below the line.

A great read and was only just under 7 hours.
Solid 8/10

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, Read by
Dennis Holland (Via Audible.com)

I didn’t realize that this book was written in 1962 until after reading the book.

This book for me felt 60% awesome combined with 40% of academic gravitas-err-filler which made it a read that I had to come back to multiple times over the past few weeks. I found myself drifting and thinking about something else while the book rambled on which got annoying.

That 60% though was a good case study on how people shift their thought in the sciences overtime. Kuhn did go into great detail on how paradigm shifts and what forces people to move forward and change their view.

He used examples from history from a bunch the big names in science on how their view really challenged their day’s opinion, and how over history the science body tends to bend history to keep it very (to use a Star Trek term) logical.

What really makes this book interesting, is comparing it to the book ‘The Shock Doctrine’ by Namomi Klien. I find that the contrast between instant gratification and the gradual change over time is fascinating. In some ways.. shocking people is an efficient way. However, in the end I think it always backfires. I believe we have only started to scratch the surface on how uber complex structures work. Take the brain for example. We know somewhat what each area does, however we still don’t (as far as I know) how all of it is randomly meshed together to build a consciousness. The gradual changes that happen organically as Kuhn studies paradigm shifts in science tells a lot about the evolution of knowledge.

The only modern paradigm I will cite is with computing. The personal computer has gone through a series of major interaction changes. First it was build-a-computer. Next it was keyboard based and text prompt. Then it was the classic GUI that added the mouse. Hopefully we are about to enter the next phase of interactions with computers were we’re not constrained by the classic inputs of a computer. Only time will tell.

Thankfully Dennis Holland narrated this book remarkably well which did keep me going by threads. But since I found this book filled too much with academic uselessness I can only give it a 5/10

The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company By David A. Price, Narrated by David Drummond (Read Via Audible.com)

This book is obviously about the story of Pixar up till just after the Disney purchase and the release of Ratatouille. The relief of this book on how it was not an official PR approved piece. It did get into the details of the Disney issues and the internal politics at play on the Disney board. Not to mention some of Pixar’s more dark times.

The major piece that I found interesting was that Pixar was founded as a hardware company, and it looked like Jobs believed its market was as a hardware vendor. For a time, the animation department only survived for two reasons: One to help with the promotion of the product and two, to help pay the bills.

The other note that was interesting on how the author viewed Ed Catmul’s opinion of personal computers for a long time. That he thought they were not useful for a long time. However then again he did use computers that were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is very much like a person who uses a super computer must feel today.

This is a solid 8/10 for a good biography of the founding of Pixar and the major players who surrounded it.