Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (175 AD)

I enjoyed this collection of the Roman emperor's personal journal snippets.  They are short, dense, and unambiguous. It's interesting how the fundamentals of Stoical Roman ethics of Aurelius' era have so much in common with other civilizations' ethics, e.g. Zoroastrianism's good deeds from good thought. Civic duty, and aligning our conscious decisions to the Logos (divine, cosmic consciousness) is also repeatedly and well-articulated with examples.  I learned a lot in a short time. 4/5 Stars.

This is my God by Herman Wouk 2nd ed. (1992)

Here is another book I found on the shelf of one of my children whose former-bedroom is now my home office. I did not get most of this information in my own education or research, so this overview was very helpful to me personally.  I do not recommend the book for folks whose mom is not Jewish. 3.5 Stars.

Ideas, Opinions, Liberty, and John Stuart Mill

I was educated as an engineer in the 20th century.  I learned "steam tables thermodynamics," differential equations, electric fields (antenna equation), and engineering (electrical, mechanical, biomedical). I did not learn about literature, sociology, arts, languages, philosophy, or civics (political science).  However, I read quite a bit in a broad range of topics.  And the history of ideas, including polemics and civics is interesting to most folks.

This interesting essay by Richard Reeves has prompted me (finally!) to read On Liberty. In particular, Reeves summarizes concepts in the second chapter:

Mill believed that the pursuit of truth required the collation and combination of ideas and propositions, even those that seem to be in opposition to each other. He urged us to allow others to speak—and then to listen to them—for three main reasons, most crisply articulated in Chapter 2 of On Liberty.

First, the other person's idea, however controversial it seems today, might turn out to be right. ("The opinion … may possibly be true.") Second, even if our opinion is largely correct, we hold it more rationally and securely as a result of being challenged. ("He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.") Third, and in Mill's view most likely, opposing views may each contain a portion of the truth, which need to be combined. ("Conflicting doctrines … share the truth between them.")

These ideas are foundational to good science and engineering.  They are also at the heart of The Enlightenment that enabled human progress. I am frequently disappointed that our society and public discourse do not naturally embrace these concepts.  I am optimistic that we can indoctrinate future generations to honor and embrace these values.

A Handbook for New Stoics

Not bad, and surprisingly useful.  Pigliucci's interpretation of stoicism is more about mental discipline and less about ethics. 3/5 Stars.

Closer to truth: Asking the Ultimate Questions with the Great Thinkers of Our Time by Robert L Kuhn

I watch some of the "closer to truth" youtube videos sometimes; a few of the episodes I have seen appear in this audible collection.  The popular, approachable metaphysics is sometimes fun and sometimes not very exciting.  3/5 Stars.

Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener

For my birthday this year, I received a hardback copy of this excellent, well-written memoir. If you live in San Francisco or are otherwise in the SF Bay area and part of the tech industry, this book is a must-read.  5/5 Stars.

the meaning of it all by Richard Feynman

I am a big fan of Richard Feynman.  It's wonderful to read more of his fun essays.  5/5 Stars.  Too short, as always.

Chesterton's Fence

Among the fascinating concepts I came across while reading a book about software engineering for long-lived code is "Chesterton's Fence," or second-order thinking.  The TL;DR is that if we do not consider the rationale of previous decisions and understand how we arrived at a certain phenomenon or dilemma we can frequently make a situation worse instead of better.

Surveillance Capitalism

I am curious about HIPAA laws in the age of Surveillance Capitalism and proof-of-vaccination requirements.  I shall soon take a course on this topic so I may soon find out.

Hustle Culture

A friend of mine pointed me at this interesting article about "Hustle Culture."  I, personally, suffer from this phenomenon.  I hope to take small steps towards the "Drawn" approach the author recommends.

You focus on the opportunity nested in a career obstacle instead of the difficulty. You center yourself with eight "C" words: calm, clarity, confidence, curiosity, compassion, creativity, connectedness, and courage. The drawn state fosters mindful productivity in which you make conscious choices. Your ability to accept obstacles, difficulty, and disappointments with calm and clarity gives you the ability to scale them. 

I am the master of my fate,  I am the captain of my soul.

as simple as possible

Especially when I work on software architecture and software design, I frequently remind myself and others to keep things simple.  Einstein's Principle applies in many areas, not just science.  Today in Nature, two teams of neuroscientists published two interesting measurements with ideas about why people systematically overlook subtractive changes and a social psych experiment demonstrating that adding is favored over subtracting.  Here is a fun video one of the authors made.

Leonardo Davinci: "Perfection is when there is nothing left to take away."

Lao Zu: "Knowledge is gained by adding concepts; wisdom is gained by subtracting."

Einstein: A science theory should be as simple as possible but no simpler.

 

Hanlon's Razor and the Negativity Trap

In addition to using the books and writings of Frances Frei on Trust, most of us can improve our joy, engagement, and productivity at work by establishing habits that help us overcome our negativity and pesky cognitive biases that prevent effective collaboration.  A friend pointed me at this jesuit priest's analysis of "negativity poisoning" in relationships as well as this excellent, more-serious, deeper, and extended version of an aphorism called Hanlon's Razor: "Never ascribe to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity."  I frequently quote Hanlon's Razor but have never considered how broadly applicable it could be overcoming some of our serious cognitive biases at work and in our personal relationships.

Civil, respectful, political discourse

I normally try very hard not to get distracted by national politics.  This video is an exception worth sharing.  One one side of our national politics we have people who fear a "great purge," where our big-tech companies and winning political party are "using their power to repress, silence, ruin and criminalize tens of millions of private citizens for the crime of opposing them politically."  And on the other side of the debate we have leaders vigorously enforcing the rule of law to prosecute those who aid and abet criminal activities.  Professor Swire explains how and why we should reconcile and ends his interview with these quotes from Abraham Lincoln:

A government of the people, by the people, for [all] the people should not perish from the earth.

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

PLATO, GÖDEL, SPINOZA, AHAB - interview with Rebeca Neuberger Goldstein

This wonderful interview with Rebbeca Goldstein is a great summary of her books and thoughts. I have become more curious about philosophy and found the concepts very interesting.