The book follows the story of 2 Japanese teenagers, that are in love. Both of them go through a shock, after their best friend, and the former lover of the girl, commits suicide.
Recommended readings:
- "The Centaur" - John Updike
- "Sexual Beings" - Kenzaburo Oe - Nobel Prize '94
- "August Light" - Faulkner
- "Beneath the Wheel" - Hermann Hesse
Midnight's Children - by Salman Rushdie
This is the last time I read Rushdie .. :(
It is my second attempt to read Rushdie, after "The Satanic Verses"; this time I finished the book, and I was very disappointed. After finishing the book, I thought I should have known more about the Indian history in order to really appreciate it, but than I read the description on Wikipedia, and the review there is exactly as I would describe the book in a few words..
It is my second attempt to read Rushdie, after "The Satanic Verses"; this time I finished the book, and I was very disappointed. After finishing the book, I thought I should have known more about the Indian history in order to really appreciate it, but than I read the description on Wikipedia, and the review there is exactly as I would describe the book in a few words..
John Fowles - "The Collector"
Two completely different characters meet, an artist young girl, dedicated to art, creation, love and life, and a brain-limited butterfly collector, in search for love.
Striking is the intersection of the two universes that seem not to have anything in common, even the understanding of one character from the perspective of the other is very far from the truth. A reminder of how different people are, think, feel, and understand the others.
Striking is the intersection of the two universes that seem not to have anything in common, even the understanding of one character from the perspective of the other is very far from the truth. A reminder of how different people are, think, feel, and understand the others.
The Dalai Lama at MIT
Brief:
This is one of the most rewarding books I read on Buddhism, and the connections with the modern sciences like psychology and neurology.
Some prominent Western scientist meet Buddhist monks under the roof or MIT, and discuss topics of interests for both parts, as well as means of better collaborating in the future. Main topics are:
- attention and cognitive control
- imagery and visualization
- emotion
Some thoughts:
- attention as a relaxing state of mind (effortless process)
- how can we possibly experience compassion for a person who engages in evil, especially if this very harmful behavior is directed toward ourselves
- emotions in Buddhism: the concept of emotion as we know it plays practically no role in the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist discussions of the mind. There is no term in the traditional Buddhist vocabulary that resembles our notion of emotion
- the connection between feelings and afflictions is crucial in Abhidharma: on the basis of our misapprehension of the self, we become entangled in the compulsive attitudes that lead us into suffering.
- the possibility that certain emotions such as anger, that we normally consider destructive might contain some root component that is valuable, that can be used skillfully to overcome obstacles. What is the evolutionary role for what Buddhists would consider nonvirtuous emotions like anger and fear?
- What is interesting is that ordinary people have so little insight into the sources of their own well-being and happiness. Both traditions agree on that. There isn't a lot of mystery about why Westerners believe that transitory pleasures should last. We live in a consumer society. It's meant to maximize consumption, not our happiness. We want to maximize our happiness and the society wants to maximize our consumption, and so we are taught that our consumption will bring us happiness. It turns out to be a lie, but we dies soon enough and then a whole new generation gets to believe it.
- Even if the trained introspectionist were able to pierce the veil that hides the fast-moving, subtle changes that occur in brain and body, the person would have great difficulty in sharing that information with others. Perhaps nature wanted these feelings to remain secret, locked in each agent's sense of his being. "I've often mistrusted the spoken word. You give a quick tug on a line and out they come from the dark continent of the mind, those little rasps of sound that jostle together, shoulder to shoulder, that are supposed to be able to five shape to what you really think, feel, or know. But words easily miss the point. They drift in the wrong direction, or they insist on providing a clear shape for something that, by its nature, is lost when it's pinned down." (Julia Blackburn)
- Buddha's teachings: "you are right to doubt, because you double that which should be doubted - because you don't know. When you hear something being expressed of this nature, you shouldn't accept it just because it's widespread news that everyone thinks this way. You shouldn't follow it just because it's what your parents do. You shouldn't follow it just because it's the lates new thing. You shouldn't follow it just because it 's cited in scriptures. You shouldn't follow it just because it is hammered out by logic or by inductive or deductive reasoning. And you shouldn't follow it just because it appeals to common sense, or because of the credibility of the speaker, or even because it's your own teacher who's saying it to you. If you take something and apply it, see whether it leads to benefit for peaceful, more harmonious, more benevolent? Then take it and use it. If it makes life more difficult and more harmful for yourself and others, than leave it aside."
Suggestions of reading:
- Abhidharma: one of the oldest Buddhist textual traditions. It contains the earlier texts in which Buddhist concepts were developed, as such it has been the source of most philosophical developments in Indian Buddhism.
- Howard Cutler - "The Art of Happiness": "The systematic training of the mind, the cultivation of happiness, the genuine inner transformation by deliberately selecting and focusing on positive mental states and challenging negative mental states, is possible because of the very structure and function of the brain. But the wiring in our brains is not static, not irrevocably fixed. Our brains are also adaptable" (Dalai Lama)
This is one of the most rewarding books I read on Buddhism, and the connections with the modern sciences like psychology and neurology.
Some prominent Western scientist meet Buddhist monks under the roof or MIT, and discuss topics of interests for both parts, as well as means of better collaborating in the future. Main topics are:
- attention and cognitive control
- imagery and visualization
- emotion
Some thoughts:
- attention as a relaxing state of mind (effortless process)
- how can we possibly experience compassion for a person who engages in evil, especially if this very harmful behavior is directed toward ourselves
- emotions in Buddhism: the concept of emotion as we know it plays practically no role in the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist discussions of the mind. There is no term in the traditional Buddhist vocabulary that resembles our notion of emotion
- the connection between feelings and afflictions is crucial in Abhidharma: on the basis of our misapprehension of the self, we become entangled in the compulsive attitudes that lead us into suffering.
- the possibility that certain emotions such as anger, that we normally consider destructive might contain some root component that is valuable, that can be used skillfully to overcome obstacles. What is the evolutionary role for what Buddhists would consider nonvirtuous emotions like anger and fear?
- What is interesting is that ordinary people have so little insight into the sources of their own well-being and happiness. Both traditions agree on that. There isn't a lot of mystery about why Westerners believe that transitory pleasures should last. We live in a consumer society. It's meant to maximize consumption, not our happiness. We want to maximize our happiness and the society wants to maximize our consumption, and so we are taught that our consumption will bring us happiness. It turns out to be a lie, but we dies soon enough and then a whole new generation gets to believe it.
- Even if the trained introspectionist were able to pierce the veil that hides the fast-moving, subtle changes that occur in brain and body, the person would have great difficulty in sharing that information with others. Perhaps nature wanted these feelings to remain secret, locked in each agent's sense of his being. "I've often mistrusted the spoken word. You give a quick tug on a line and out they come from the dark continent of the mind, those little rasps of sound that jostle together, shoulder to shoulder, that are supposed to be able to five shape to what you really think, feel, or know. But words easily miss the point. They drift in the wrong direction, or they insist on providing a clear shape for something that, by its nature, is lost when it's pinned down." (Julia Blackburn)
- Buddha's teachings: "you are right to doubt, because you double that which should be doubted - because you don't know. When you hear something being expressed of this nature, you shouldn't accept it just because it's widespread news that everyone thinks this way. You shouldn't follow it just because it's what your parents do. You shouldn't follow it just because it's the lates new thing. You shouldn't follow it just because it 's cited in scriptures. You shouldn't follow it just because it is hammered out by logic or by inductive or deductive reasoning. And you shouldn't follow it just because it appeals to common sense, or because of the credibility of the speaker, or even because it's your own teacher who's saying it to you. If you take something and apply it, see whether it leads to benefit for peaceful, more harmonious, more benevolent? Then take it and use it. If it makes life more difficult and more harmful for yourself and others, than leave it aside."
Suggestions of reading:
- Abhidharma: one of the oldest Buddhist textual traditions. It contains the earlier texts in which Buddhist concepts were developed, as such it has been the source of most philosophical developments in Indian Buddhism.
- Howard Cutler - "The Art of Happiness": "The systematic training of the mind, the cultivation of happiness, the genuine inner transformation by deliberately selecting and focusing on positive mental states and challenging negative mental states, is possible because of the very structure and function of the brain. But the wiring in our brains is not static, not irrevocably fixed. Our brains are also adaptable" (Dalai Lama)
"Why Most Things Fail: And how to avoid it" by Paul Ormerod
Brief:
An interesting book of modern-wave economy. The author proves that the universe of a company is way to complex to be understood, thus any strategy has an undetermined probability to succeed or fail. There is a great number of examples of strategies that failed, of big companies that really did not understood their market even after being a leader in the business for many years. Also the game theory is presented, along with the ice-cream vendors on the beach game.
I personally did not appreciate a great deal the "What is to be done?" chapter, otherwise the book has tons of good information.
Links to other books:
- "Scale and Scope: the Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism" by Alfred Chandler
Charts in great detail the development of large firms in America, Britain and Germany around 1900
- "Eat the rich" by P.J. O'Rourke
"Microeconomics concerns things that economists are specifically wrong about, while macroeconomics concerns things economists are wrong about generally"
- "Barbarians Led by Bill Gates" by Marlin Eller
About Microsoft strategies, and the lack/luck of it..
- "The Country of the Blind" by H.G. Wells
"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King."
An interesting book of modern-wave economy. The author proves that the universe of a company is way to complex to be understood, thus any strategy has an undetermined probability to succeed or fail. There is a great number of examples of strategies that failed, of big companies that really did not understood their market even after being a leader in the business for many years. Also the game theory is presented, along with the ice-cream vendors on the beach game.
I personally did not appreciate a great deal the "What is to be done?" chapter, otherwise the book has tons of good information.
Links to other books:
- "Scale and Scope: the Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism" by Alfred Chandler
Charts in great detail the development of large firms in America, Britain and Germany around 1900
- "Eat the rich" by P.J. O'Rourke
"Microeconomics concerns things that economists are specifically wrong about, while macroeconomics concerns things economists are wrong about generally"
- "Barbarians Led by Bill Gates" by Marlin Eller
About Microsoft strategies, and the lack/luck of it..
- "The Country of the Blind" by H.G. Wells
"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King."
New Ideas from Dead Economists: An Introduction to Modern Economic Thought by Todd G. Buchholz and Martin Feldstein
"Our children are no longer raised by people who know the world, not because parents have gotten stupid or lazy, but because the world has gotten too big to master. Parents must eventually learn to teach their children how to handle uncertainty - not how to ensure stability"
I find that all people that know very well their business, they obey two rules: first they can make even a stupid man understand, by simple and amusing stories, such a way regardless of how complicated all seems so simple and common; and second they can always look at many sides of the story, and as Keynes "always have two answers for one question". This reminded me of other two writers I liked a lot Stephen Hawking and Bill Bryson, that after analyzing many theories, inside up, they come to the conclusion that sill there is much to discover.
The book simply presents all the important economists and their ideas through the centuries, with lots of humor and simple example. I found out about: Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" - the free market, the division of labor, deregulations.. Found out the the prophecies of overpopulation and global climate change are actually very old, dating from Malthus time, that is around 1800. Found out how Ricardo's law of "competitive advantage" works, and why free trade is so important.
Jeremy Bentham's "pleasure, pain and arithmetic" sounded a little similar to Dalai Lama's teachings, thou I am pretty sure I have to read a little more into it.. :)
Also found out about John Stuart Mill's theories, Karl Marx life and "contributions", Alfred Marshall's marginalist theories, economic time - short and long runs (and how our perception of morality and ethics changes given a different time constraint), the biological view of economy.
And here comes the fun part:
1. Institutionalists:
- Thorstein Veblen and his "Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899) "Clothing use to have labels on the inside, hidden from view. [..] Ralph Lauren's name tells the world that the wearer can afford expensive clothing."
A follower, John K Galbraith - "advertising and salesmanship cannot be reconciled with the notion of independently determined desires, for their central function is to create desire - to ring into being wants that previously did not exist "
- The creativity of engineers, in the face of business man
- Economy and law - hand in hand, and how does it apply to negligence, property, crime and corporate finance.
2. MV = PQ : Keynes vs Friedman (monetarist), and how modern economies are shaken/driven by the four pedals that these currents created.
3. The Public Choice School/The politics as a business: trying to explain why politicians act as they do, and what are their constraints from an economical point of view.
4. The Rational Expectations and Behavioral Economics: that brings fresh ideas on stock exchange and the new economy we leave in. "Stock picking is ineffective because so many people engage in research and stock analysis." "Plenty of brokers and publicists rave about their predictions. Careful studies uncover little reason to believe them."
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky - theories on how people react depending on the why the problem is formulated. Rchard Thaler's intertemporal choice - how people value the future - the people discount the future too much.
Even so, even if my late-hour review is just a long list of names, at the end of the story it is a good start point to investigate more, at least on bold topics. Night night.
I find that all people that know very well their business, they obey two rules: first they can make even a stupid man understand, by simple and amusing stories, such a way regardless of how complicated all seems so simple and common; and second they can always look at many sides of the story, and as Keynes "always have two answers for one question". This reminded me of other two writers I liked a lot Stephen Hawking and Bill Bryson, that after analyzing many theories, inside up, they come to the conclusion that sill there is much to discover.
The book simply presents all the important economists and their ideas through the centuries, with lots of humor and simple example. I found out about: Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" - the free market, the division of labor, deregulations.. Found out the the prophecies of overpopulation and global climate change are actually very old, dating from Malthus time, that is around 1800. Found out how Ricardo's law of "competitive advantage" works, and why free trade is so important.
Jeremy Bentham's "pleasure, pain and arithmetic" sounded a little similar to Dalai Lama's teachings, thou I am pretty sure I have to read a little more into it.. :)
Also found out about John Stuart Mill's theories, Karl Marx life and "contributions", Alfred Marshall's marginalist theories, economic time - short and long runs (and how our perception of morality and ethics changes given a different time constraint), the biological view of economy.
And here comes the fun part:
1. Institutionalists:
- Thorstein Veblen and his "Theory of the Leisure Class" (1899) "Clothing use to have labels on the inside, hidden from view. [..] Ralph Lauren's name tells the world that the wearer can afford expensive clothing."
A follower, John K Galbraith - "advertising and salesmanship cannot be reconciled with the notion of independently determined desires, for their central function is to create desire - to ring into being wants that previously did not exist "
- The creativity of engineers, in the face of business man
- Economy and law - hand in hand, and how does it apply to negligence, property, crime and corporate finance.
2. MV = PQ : Keynes vs Friedman (monetarist), and how modern economies are shaken/driven by the four pedals that these currents created.
3. The Public Choice School/The politics as a business: trying to explain why politicians act as they do, and what are their constraints from an economical point of view.
4. The Rational Expectations and Behavioral Economics: that brings fresh ideas on stock exchange and the new economy we leave in. "Stock picking is ineffective because so many people engage in research and stock analysis." "Plenty of brokers and publicists rave about their predictions. Careful studies uncover little reason to believe them."
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky - theories on how people react depending on the why the problem is formulated. Rchard Thaler's intertemporal choice - how people value the future - the people discount the future too much.
Even so, even if my late-hour review is just a long list of names, at the end of the story it is a good start point to investigate more, at least on bold topics. Night night.
"All Marketers are Liars" - Seth Godin (Google presentation)
I've just seen this presentation from Seth Godin, about new means of marketing products, two years after his presentation, and I find him completely right and according to the directions of the Web3.0 in the last years.
It will be interesting to watch how Google and other companies apply this, for sure Apple does it; as well as to look fw for other presentations of the guy.
"Ideas that spread win", use this in conjunction with the power of internet communities, and you are a winner. Talk to the people that care about it (early adopters).
Check his blog and website.
It will be interesting to watch how Google and other companies apply this, for sure Apple does it; as well as to look fw for other presentations of the guy.
"Ideas that spread win", use this in conjunction with the power of internet communities, and you are a winner. Talk to the people that care about it (early adopters).
Check his blog and website.
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