What if? 2 by Randall Munroe

I love XKCD and this second volume of the series is just as good as the first one. The cartoons are fantastic.  Some of the questions and answers are great.  Some answers veer off into the wrong directions.  Randall's long form prose is less and weaker than the fiction and other non-fiction I read. 4/5 Stars.

Die Leiden des Jungen Werther von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Dieses fantastische Buch ist mindestens so gut, wenn nicht sogar besser als Romeo und Julia. Die Schönheit der Schrift ist atemberaubend. 5/5 Sterne.

Gateway by Frederik Pohl

This book won the 1978 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1978 Locus Award for Best Novel, the 1977 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1978 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.  And somehow I had not read it during the golden age of science fiction. It is a little dated but holds up remarkably well. 5/5 Stars.

Forget Nothing by Jason Anspach & Michelle G Meyers (audio)

This well-acted audiobook is a good back story to an interesting character in the series. There were some fun, tantalizing clues to the "big mystery" that is being revealed too slowly, 4/5 Stars.

The Sandman Act III by Neil Gaiman and Dirk Maggs (audio)

I listened to the most popular audiobook on audible and was disappointed.  The graphic novel is not well-adapted to audio; the power of the images is poorly conveyed.  Many of the stories are not bad and would do well as theatre plays or sketches.  Audio is inappropriate. 3/5 Stars.

Remains by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole

Fun story, great characters, 5/5 Stars.

Tschick von Wolfgang Herrndorf

Die Geschichte ist spannend und anschaulich.  Die verschiedenen Charaktere sind lebendig beschrieben und eine Entwicklung durchlaufen. Das Buch hat mir sehr gut gefallen, 5/5 Sterne.

Tips for business writing

A wise friend of mine recently posted these simple tips for business writing.  I personally violate all of these rules frequently and needed Marc's reminder.

minimize dependences

One of the rare objective principles we try to apply to reorgs and org design is to minimize the required communication and lock-step dependencies each execution team requires to deliver value to end-users.  This empowerment is sometimes called the "independent executor model" within the rubric of coordination models.  Recently my wise friend Michael posted his own take on how to apply this model to existing product teams.  The key, as Michael points out is that teams should be self-reliant:

They ask, but never expect other teams to do work for them.

The Signal 2 by Joshua and Philipp Calvert

The series is getting much worse as the magic system devolves and the prepper lifestyle is glorified. 2/5 Stars.  I shall likely not read the next one.

Gateway by Frederik Pohl

The story is surprisingly good despite the terrible Freudian psychobabble, 3/5 Stars.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

The master still has his mojo.  Put this one at the top of your stack.  5/5 Stars.

The Signal by Joshua T Calvert & Philipp Calvert

The plot, mystery, characters, and background "awe & wonder" writing remind me of early 20th century golden age science fiction that I loved growing up.  It was easy for me to suspend disbelief of the techno-babble magic system and put up with tedious "prepper" messaging to find out what would happen in both storylines.  I look forward to the next book in the series. 4/5 Stars.

Zeihan on US Healthcare

This one is worth sharing:

The US healthcare system is a mind-bendingly spectacular ziggurat of blazingly hot trash. Americans spend roughly triple the amount on health care of the average citizen of other developed nations in order to achieve health services that regularly rank in the bottom third of humanity. A few years ago I was broadly supportive of Obamacare, as the idea of reducing costs and increasing quality for the world's most-expensive, least-efficient health care system sounded sexy. Unfortunately, the "reforms" made American health care even more expensive and even less efficient.

Read the whole thing.

Starbound by Joe Haldeman

I liked this one despite the odd plot twists.  The magic system was more self-consistent and the inscrutable aliens' unpredictability was cool. 4/5 Stars.

Der Besuch der alten Dame von

Dieses Buch ist eine fantastische, zeitlose Geschichte. Das Stück spielt vor dem Hintergrund der Weltwirtschaftskrise. Der Haupthandlungsstrang illustriert die berühmte und oft zitierte Zeile aus Berthold Brechts Dreigroschenoper: „Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral". Alle Charaktere sind tiefgründig und gut illustriert. Die Dunkelheit unserer primitiven Mob-Mentalität wird in der Geschichte kraftvoll dargestellt. Ich muss mehr von diesen Klassikern aufspüren und lesen, beginnend mit Friedrich Dürrenmatt. 5/5 Sterne.