Books I'm reading lately
I’m not sure how, but I’m still managing to do some reading. Must be all those late-night feeding sessions where I blearily stare at my phone screen for 20 minutes at a time in the darkness. I thought I’d share some books I’ve been reading lately that may or may not make their way into future newsletters as I think about some of the concepts they discuss.
2⭐️: The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder This book is considered a classic in computer science. It’s the narrated account of Data General (RIP)’s attempt to build a 16-bit computer in the early 1980s, competing with DEC. Kidder embeds (ha) with the hardware team for a year and profiles what it takes to build such a machine.
I’m not really a big fan of this so far. I’m finding it pretty disorganized (aka the author doesn’t talk logically about how the parts come together, but rather skips around the team) and mostly a book that glorifies overwork and underemphasizes the sacrifices that these guys’ families made so they could pursue their passion. On the other hand, it’s also an enlightening look at the tech industry of the 1980s. It seems like not much has changed. If you like long New Yorker-style articles about a single topic, I think you’ll enjoy this.
4⭐️: There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather by Linda Akeson McGurk McGurk is Swedish and grew up in Sweden before marrying an American and moving to Indiana to have kids. She reflects on the differences between Swedish and American childhoods. The biggest difference is the amount of time Swedish kids spend outside, both in school, and as part of family life.
A lot of what she talks about is sadly unachievable in today’s America: kids spending a lot of time alone, healthy meals at school, forest schools, etc. She also doesn’t talk about how you can take your kids outside when it’s 95 degrees, as it rarely is in Sweden. But still, this book made me reflect on how I spend time with my family and small changes I can make to become as Scandinavian as possible.
5⭐️: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe Tom Wolfe, author of a lot of really good fiction, was witness to one of the Apollo launches in the late 1970s as a journalist, and wondered, “What makes a man want to sit on top of a rocket and go into space?”
This book is an exploration of that, of the mental attitude of the Navy test flight pilots that became the first astronauts. Wolfe’s writing style is unparalleled, and I came away with an appreciation of many things: the right stuff of the men themselves, what their wives and families went through, and how good of a writer Wolfe is. I’m still thinking about this book.
5⭐️: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah I have to be honest - I’m not a huge Noah fan and think it was super misguided to have him take over for Jon Stewart (although who could have filled those shoes, really?). But watching his stand-up special last year warmed me to him, and reading this book floored me. Even if it was written in collaboration with someone else (which he says it was), the honesty, narrative detail, and humor were so good. I learned so much I didn’t know about South Africa, and about what makes Noah tick. Strong recommend, especially if you’re reading with someone else so you can discuss.
2⭐️: The Social Photo by Nathan Jurgenson Nathan works as a sociologist at Snap (right?), and I’ve seen him promoting this book a bunch on Twitter, so I was super excited to check it out because it’s very Normcore-y in its premise: What does it mean to take a selfie? How are photos today perceived? All stuff I’m interested in exploring. But this book was so academic and theoretical that I felt it was talking over my head most of the time, and not approachable to a general audience. It did have a bunch of cool references I do want to check out, such as Susan Sontag’s On Photography.
4⭐️: Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan This was such a fun read. I generally enjoy Gaffigan’s stand-up (although his latest from Amazon is not so great), and I dip in and out of his repertoire enough that this wasn’t repetitive. He talks about what it’s like to be a dad, specifically to five kids living in a 2-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, which made me think: he’s one of the highest-paid comedians around now. Surely he can afford more. Which took me on a journey of trying to figure out both how much he makes and how much New York apartments cost, as well as how he manages to stay sane.
2⭐️: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell Another book in the vein of Social Photo, which sounded so promising, but also ended up being extremely overly academic in nature. Hopefully someone writes a meditation on the modern technological moment that’s more accessible to modern audiences.
Art: The Magdalen Reading, Rogier van der Weyden 1445
About the Author and Newsletter
I’m a data scientist in Philadelphia. This newsletter is about tech topics I don’t see covered in the media, but would like to. Most of my free time is pent kid-wrangling, reading, and writing bad tweets. I also have longer opinions on things. Find out more here or follow me on Twitter.
If you like this newsletter, support it and get friends to subscribe!