Supply Chain Security Challenges

This recent article is a great non-technical summary of how and why supply chain attacks on open source are so dangerous and successful.  There are very few magic bullets and instant answers. Everyone in Tech, including users of tech will need to pay more attention, go through some extra inconveniences, and stay informed.

A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson

The drama and people behind all the science are extremely well-presented and fun.  Unfortunately, recent, new discoveries have revealed the answers to some of the "big questions" that make the book so fun.  For example, Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich solves many of the mysteries regarding migrations of ancient Hominins. Although Bryson's book is dated, it's still worth reading. 3/5 Stars.

Murder by Other Means by John Scalzi

The complex mystery behind what is really happening in the story was not well paced. There were too many missing clues that came out only during the "big reveal."  The book should have been about twice as long.  3/5 Stars.  The first one is much better.

Singularity Sky by Charles Stross

I really liked this book, despite the terrible motivations, poor plot, and silly, arbitrary deus est machina magic system. All of the bizarre misapplied Soviet political thought was awesome. 4/5 Stars.

Management Style (again)

Every so often it's worth revisiting styles of management and using whichever "models" are in vogue to figure out how to get along better at work.  These "models" are usually just fashionable patterns of currently popular ideas that are unscientific and frequently not repeatable.  Nonetheless, the exercise itself -- thinking about how to better work with various personalities -- is usually worthwhile.  Here is one my friend posted recently that is worth reading and considering.

Personally, I have noticed that almost no one with whom I interact cares about evidence-based science.  And I have always been frustrated when trying to introduce academic (repeatable, predictive) applications of personality research because everyone prefers the debunked, mythological 19th century crap. 

Camouflage by Joe Haldeman

I did not appreciate the deus est machina transmutation and magical capabilities of the space aliens and the ending was a little disappointing.  But overall I liked the story, 4/5 Stars.

The End of the World is just the beginning by Peter Zeihan

I really loved this book despite my disagreement with the author's doom and gloom predictions. I speculate that individuals, corporations, and nation state actors will innovate and uncover ways and means to overcome the labor, materials, and transport shortages he predicts. 5/5 Stars highly recommended.  See also this talk the author gave on 9/8/2022.

Delivering bad software faster

Outcome is more important than output.  Speed is neither true velocity, nor is it the same as agile. This fantastic medium post points out that our fixation on DORA metrics and delivering faster prevents us from delivering what our end-users want. A work colleague told me recently that shipping many features in our software that our customers don't want is wasteful and self-destructive.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

It is odd that I never read Joe Haldeman during the science fiction golden years (when the reader is 12 - 16 years old).  This one deserves the accolades and awards. 4/5 Stars.

Weaponized by Neal Asher

This author has a bizarre obsession with vivisection and wet chemistry that runs about a hundred million times faster than what is possible in our universe.  And this bad science frequently gets in the way of good storytelling.  I enjoyed the story and characters.  3/5 Stars.