(Part 2) Best memoirs according to redditors
We found 5,451 Reddit comments discussing the best memoirs. We ranked the 1,954 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
35. Learning to Play With a Lion?s Testicles: Unexpected Gifts From the Animals of Africa
11 mentions
iWoz is a really great read. Worth snagging if you haven't read it yet.
If you are stereoblind/have monopsis please consider vision therapy. Don't listen to doctors who say you are too old: find one who will treat you. I've now seen in 3D a few times and it has been simply amazing (was born with a crossed eye that ended up turning into a lazy eye.... two surgeries later it looks good but no 3D nor depth perception.
I also highly recommend the book: Fixing my Gaze
>When one woman went undercover as a man, she realized that men are entirely invisible, without anyone to help them, without anyone to care about them. She became thoroughly depressed and gained a new sympathy for the modern man.
Source for those curious. The above is a bit oversimplified I think, but in general the author did acknowledge that men don't live as well or as freely as many women think.
Read the book of her account of her year in prison, it is real. The TV show is heavily fictionalized so as to pander to the lowest common denominator. And it worked, I can't wait till next season. Pathetic.
Another "just for fun" project was Linux.
I sometimes dearly wish that the programmer bunch on the internet could be less cynical and more ... fun. But then I look at myself, browsing the proggit on a Friday night looking technical stuff to read after working hours. What is wrong with us?
Not exactly a psychiatric nurse but elyn saks has schizophrenia and she did something similar (link below with her book) I highly recommend reading her book because part of her inspiration for writing it was for people who have a diagnosis of schizoprenia. She is absolutely brilliant and highlights some of her difficulties.
https://www.amazon.com/Center-Cannot-Hold-Journey-Through/dp/1401309445
It can't be because her book didn't sell well. Her book was amazing.
Everybody should buy a copy.
http://www.amazon.ca/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179/ref=sr_1_1?s=books
http://smile.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms-ebook/dp/B00BSB2AE4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books
In his book, he says that he didn't name the OS, he wanted to name it Freax originally.
I think people really underestimate the power of the rich and powerful to seclude themselves. It's why weird shit like spirit cooking and pizzagate are so believable, because the banal story of what actually goes down is so insane people assume there is malice. A bunch of rich powerful people doing hippie drum circles they call spirit cooking seems like something too fake to be real, but it's the kind of thing that totally happens.
There's an insular nature of wealth when combined with power that is just absolutely stunning to watch, and I really do think it has so much to do with how both society and politics are organized. Every CEO involved in the VR homeless simulator had no idea how awful it would look because to them it was this cool woke thing they were doing.
It's not that they work hard at it or it's their singular goal. They are very correct when they say that their time is valuable, so most of the time it's simply them choosing to not engage with anything that makes them feel uncomfortable and having the support and mechanisms through society to accommodate their comfort.
This ideology is so damaging that people vie for recognition even when they're not of that class. Is it any wonder you have dumb fucks who write books about 'living like a homeless person to move up the ranks' who don't take into account their race/gender/college degree all as a means to portray the ideals of the ruling class. You get candidates like Clinton who cynically exploit the fact that ignoring class when talking about race and gender lets you focus on lots of fundraisers with local POC based chambers of commerce without having to step into icky working poor people apartments any more than you have to.
The degree of casual detachment is profound. People are making laws on lending practices who literally do not know what the fuck pawning something means or how profoundly awful payday lenders are.
They choose to use a different water source just to spite a public union and then get shocked when they're arrested for manslaughter because it ended up killing people.
They very openly talk about kicking 9% of the nation off their healthcare and then get absolutely shocked and offended that one of them gets shot over it.
The irony of course is that their fundamental belief that nothing is wrong and everything is working well because it's run by 'experts' (often credentialed literally by calling themselves experts and making the ruling class happy) is a big part of the problem. They love talking about the need for 'balance' and 'nuance' for precisely the reason populists are coming out everywhere to find any form of anti-elite movement. The system so perfectly helps them right now that any change, no matter how significant or beneficial, is viewed with disdain because it could ruin how comfortable they are.
People overestimate how good the ruling class is though at trying to quell dissent, because most of the time they don't see it there.
When Obama made MAJOR cuts to LIHEAP in the middle of one of the worst winters on record, he had to immediately use emergency federal funds to restore the program temporarily and it has happened every year since. This legislation and decision was viewed by at least 200 democrats, and not one in 200 thought "Hey, maybe we look for money somewhere else rather than heating oil for elderly people who will die if they don't get it".
All 200 of those people were former campaign workers, lobbyists, and elected officials and they had removed themselves from so much from the concerns of people on the ground that "Meh, Grandma's house will be 45 degrees instead of 65" seemed totally reasonable to them. We all have bubbles but most of us are forced to really interact with each other in some capacity at some point, but for the powerful it's a totally different story. It's how Hoover at the height of the great depression's start told soldiers marching for bonuses that the depression is over and his logic was literally "I haven't seen a single poor person in months!"
If it's the kind of thing you are interested in, check out Self made man. A woman named Norah Vincent Dresses as a man to "expose male privilege" and she is genuinely surprised by what she finds, and her desire to fight more for the rights of men.
Linus wrote a book called Just for fun about this whole thing. It's a pretty nice read if you like Linus' style of storytelling.
I'm currently reading Oliver Sach's book Uncle Tungsten.
For a less violent experiment, try mixing Iodine with either Zinc or Antimony.
>If I added two or three drops of water to the mixture, it would catch fire and burn with a violet flame, spreading fine brown iodide powder on to everything.
He has particular fascination for the purple cloud emitted from these reactions.
>With chemistry such as this, one was playing with fire… huge energies, plutonic forces, were being unleashed, and I had a thrilling but precarious sense of being in control — sometimes just. This was especially so with the intensely exothermic reactions of aluminum and magnesium; they could be used to reduce metallic ores, or even to produce elemental silicon from sand, but a little carelessness, a miscalculation, and one had a bomb on one's hands.
This (and many other) fascinating chemical reactions can be made with seemingly-inert elements. The book goes in to great description on many wonderful experiments, including most of the atomic theory development through the late 17th to early 20th century chemists' discoveries.
>One could put magnesium in cold water, and nothing would happen. If one put [just] it in hot water, it would start to bubble hydrogen; but if one lit a length of magnesium ribbon, it would continue to burn with dazzling brilliance under the water, or even in normally flame-suffocating carbon dioxide.
All quotes from the chapter "Stinks and Bangs" Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sachs (author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat).
Not an article - a book. There $64 Tomato. It's a genuinely good book.
https://www.amazon.com/64-Tomato-Fortune-Endured-Existential/dp/1565125576
Link for lazy
Yes, there is a thing. Check out this book:
Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OT8GTE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
In it she suffers severe depression as a result of her experiment.
There is a college-aged guy who did basically this a few years ago to counter Nickel and Dimed.
Book is called Scratch Beginnings and I think he started out homeless and ended with an apartment, a car, and like $5k in the bank after 1 year.
Yep. Have you ever read Ghost in the Wires? It surprised me to no end how easily Kevin Mitnick could break into systems... 95% of all the stories he tells start with "I called up their secretary, asked for the system admin's phone number. I called up the system admin, pretended to be a legitimate user and asked for my password".
In reading Kevin Mitnick's autobiography/memoir thing, I've come to the conclusion that this is the majority of hacking. The crazy cool computer skills are necessary to complete the job, but it's the social side that lets you get in deep enough to use those skills.
Read this first!
It a good thing that you could talk yourself out of it. And that was very brave of you to think about tibet and making such a sacrifice for them, but there are better ways to do things. Maybe you can pour in your passion by writing a book about your experiences. There have been a lot of memoirs lately like I am Malala, Orange is the New Black.
Tell him to buy this book. It's a great representation of what depression feels like and is also stuffed full of hilarious stories. Here is an example of one such story
Although this is an interesting article, I don't think it's fair to make generalizations about male privilege as a universal concept based on a single anecdote. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to the contrary too.
One interesting story is that of Norah Vincent, a lesbian journalist who lived as a man for a year and a half, and wrote a book about her experience. To quote from this interview:
> Men are suffering. They have different problems than women have, but they don't have it better.
And her conclusion is completely opposite to that of the woman in the article:
> I really like being a woman. ... I like it more now because I think it's more of a privilege.
Contrasting these two stories shows that experiences really vary from person to person, so please don't turn this into a feminist circlejerk about how men have all the advantages and women have none.
From the book, "When Breath Becomes Air"
http://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X
I'm remembering a book called Self-Made Man that covered a woman's experiences masquerading as a man to catch a more authentic view of masculine interactions. It might be interesting to you. I can give you some more of my thoughts on masculinity if you want, but they'll be rambly and somewhat scattered.
For the simplest explanation why he specifically says that white men are the most put upon people, though, I suggest doing some quick google research on white feminism. People are always going to be more aware of the issues that they themselves face, and consequently think that they're the weightiest issues of the time. So while there's a lot to untangle about masculinity and a lot more about what issues get air time vs. which ones don't, never underestimate the power of good old fashioned cognitive biases.
Not quite what you are asking for but I cannot recommend enough Norah Vincent's Self Made Man for those interested in finding out female experience of what it is like to be a man.
Honorable mention:
>I remember reading the story of a woman who went undercover as a man for a while.
I believe you're referring to Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again, unless i'm mistaken.
>Identity IS important and faking one can be rather damaging.
I agree with this, but op I believe is operating under the notion of postgenderism, and because bathrooms are, or should segregated now on basis of sex, not gender. So transsexuals going into the opposite sex's bathrooms are inappropriate. Not because they are faking anything, but the need to affirm their gender is beyond him, as he's stated multiple times not understand transgenderism.
Yes. Guy DeLisle wrote one of his more well-known graphic novels about his time supervising N. Korean animators, called "Pyongyang".
THIS!!!!!! Kevin Mitnick was able to penetrate FBI networks and stay there for extended periods due to humans violating security protocols for what they thought was a "nice guy in need".
I love Apple and am forever indebted to Woz, but...
Having read his auto-biography iWoz I can tell you this man is a perpetual child with all the naiveté of a child and the wonderful perspective on life that comes with that.
Whether taxing corporations like individuals or individuals like corporations is a good idea or a horrible idea isn't the point. The point is, I wouldn't take economic or political advice from Wozniak.
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
Better - Atul Gawande
Honestly anything by Atul Gawande
Start With Why- Simon Sinek (Just finished this one today. Phenomenal read. Not medicine related, but a great perspective on what leadership means and how you can inspire those around you)
The White Coat Investor - James Dahle (Financial literacy is always a good thing)
​
I have quite a bit more book suggestions if you're ever curious, but those should keep you busy for a while. Feel free to DM me if you want more!
The book is titled Self-Made Man, and it's worth a read.
Thanks, I'm gonna check this one out.
link for the lazy
Here you go.
Has anyone read the graphic novel Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea?
It's about a French animator who is in North Korea for business because its cheap to have animation done there. There is a part where he travels (by guide, of course) to a museum that is deciated to all the great things foreign nations have said about North Korea. Apparently, a lot of the items are either from known parody sources and others are obviously fake.
un po' off topic, ma c'era una graphic novel di un cartoonist francese riguardo alla sua esperienza di vita e di lavoro in NordCorea
EDIT: link
Loved it. Just for fun about Linus Torvalds was good as well.
I would love to see a discussion on "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlan.
"...the epic saga of an earthling, Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet with psi powers—telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, teleportation, pyrolysis, and the ability to take control of the minds of others—and complete innocence regarding the mores of man."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0441790348/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
Edit: link, plus everyone should get the chance to meet Jubal Harshaw.
I have the same thing. Didn't actually realize it until I was an adult. But in retrospect it explains a few things.
Know those "Viewfinder" things that you would load with these little disks with images? I had no idea that it was supposed to look 3D when you looked through those, I just thought it was a really boring toy. Big deal, you look through it and see an image.
Also binoculars are pretty pointless to me as I can really only look through one eye at a time so I'd do just as well with a telescope.
Terrible at foosball because it's hard to judge then the players are lined up with the ball. Same goes for badminton when the birdie is above my head, can't really judge when it's within striking distance.
You might be interested in checking out this book: Fixing My Gaze by Susan R. Barry. The woman is a neuroscientist with strabismus and she goes through optometric vision therapy when she's in her forties and is able to gain full stereovision. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to do it someday as well.
This is my favorite TED Talk, and there are a LOT of spectacular, amazing TED presentations. I show it to people who say they don't believe in evolution, that animals have no souls, that only humans are capable of abstract or complex thinking, that animals are not homosexual or bisexual, that animals can't use tools like humans do, etc. I also use it to underscore the differences between common chimps and humans - bonobos are the link that definitively prove all of these things. No one who sees Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's lecture fails to be amazed at Kanzi's use of fire or Panbanisha's writing. Even better are the books written about them.
The Great Ape Trust's YouTube channel shows more recent work that is being done with these wonderful apes. See, for example, Kanzi following Dr. Sue's spoken instructions in Kanzi and Novel Sentences. Kanzi's interview with reporter Lisa Ling has even been on Oprah.
Dr. Frans de Waal, a psychology professor and researcher at Emory University, is another prominent primate researcher studying bonobos at the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta.
And for more on the amazing culture - yes, culture - of baboons, I cannot recommend highly enough Stanford neuroscientist Robert Sopolsky's A Primate's Memoir.
edit: punctuation
edit: The Japanese-produced documentary, Kanzi: An Ape of Genius is on YouTube in four parts - I didn't know until a moment ago. Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh mentions it in the TED Talk and shows excerpts from it. I've included the link to part one. You'll see the others in the right sidebar once you navigate to it.
Pixar Ted Talk
Pixar 22 Rules of Writing
Jim Butcher's Writing Advice
Chuck Palahniuk on "thought" verbs
Chuck Palahniuk Writing Essays (almost a full book length)
Stephen King "On Writing" - Amazon link
The memoir on which it's based is by an author who actually was sent for a year to a women's prison (Piper Kerman).
But I'd guess that Jenji Kohan just did research in order to illustrate the fights egged on by guards since it's in the fourth season. I could be wrong; I didn't read the book.
Well this is based on a true story. Some of the stories and characters may have been exaggerated a bit, but you can get a book written by Piper. This show is probably close enough to the real thing
http://www.amazon.com/Orange-Is-New-Black-Womens/dp/0385523394
It's in Stranger in a Strange Land, if you read that. For the most common "thank you" - arigatou (Mr. Roboto) - the idea has to do with one of the characters also meaning "difficult," as in "it's difficult for me to live with how awesome you are for [doing whatever you did for me]."
Look at the cover of the book on Amazon.
This is why I made the comparison.
Also this.
I recommend reading this for inspiration: The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1401309445/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_FLi2DbCMS9JNK
Ah, the old 64 dollar tomato.
https://www.amazon.com/64-Tomato-Fortune-Endured-Existential/dp/1565125576
The Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen) by Garth Nix! It's a fantasy with teenaged girls (Sabriel and Lirael) as the protagonists (and their adorable and bizarre and not-what-they-seem cat and dog, respectively, companions). I loved, loved, loved these books when I was in middle school.
For graphic novels, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Guy Delisle's travelogues (Pyongyang, Shenzhen, and others) are great introductions to unfamiliar countries and cultures. And they are non-fiction!
Also:
The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
Coraline (Neil Gaiman) [also: The Graveyard Book, Stardust, and Odd and the Frost Giants, as well as anything else age-appropriate written by Gaiman]
Dracula (Bram Stoker) [...I loved it when I read it in middle school!]
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)
The Fault in Our Stars (John Green)
RTFM.
;-)
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick is also a good read.
I dig articles like this. It's way too easy to sit back and assume these players are robots who only exist when we see them on TV or see them on social media. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg.
For those interested in more of these types of stories, I'd recommend Paul Shirley's "Can I Keep My Jersey?" so you can read about how Baron Davis would hold up the Hornets' introductory dinner by casually showing up 45 minutes late with a beer in his hand and that time Kendall Gill was power tripping on a terrible Chicago Bulls team by trying to subject Shirley to rookie hazing even though he was 26 years old and not a rookie.
Currently reading Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
Yeah! It's based on a true story. :) Link!
Consider reading this when you feel better!
I'd also recommend:
When Breath Becomes Air about a neurosurgery resident who gets diagnosed with cancer.
The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly about a lot of the imposter syndrome in intern year.
Reminds me of a book I just read: https://www.amazon.com/Pyongyang-Journey-North-Guy-Delisle/dp/1897299214
This was from his experience in NK years ago but sounds just like the propaganda that we associate with them now.
I'll just leave this here, http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Play-With-Lion%C2%92s-Testicles/dp/1933016825/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=05H3VM561TH8TE96PCY7
Using a throwaway...
So, I have a strong opinion about copyright laws and stuff like that. Pirating (notice, I'm using this term instead of "torrenting"; torrenting in itself isn't illegal, piracy is) software is not stealing, in my opinion. For something to be stolen, I believe that somebody has to be deprived of it - walking in a store and taking something off the shelf is stealing, but downloading some music isn't. Even if both are illegal, there's a line between moral and immoral. To me, pirating something from an indie author is totally immoral. This is often their only source of income, and that $20 for a game could be feeding them for a day or two. Pirating from a big company, like EA, on the other hand, doesn't seem immoral to me. The developers of games EA publishes are employees of multi-m/billion dollar companies, so that $20 is literally pocket change to them.
Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel said in his autobiography:
>Say you have a person who earns $50 a month. Should you expect him or her to pay $250 for the software? I don’t think it’s immoral for that person to illegally copy the software and spend that $250 for five months’ worth of salary on food. That kind of copyright infringement is morally okay. And it’s immoral — not to mention stupid — to go after such a “violator.”
This is only a small part of my actual opinion, but I believe what I said sums it up pretty well.
By the way, if you're interested in Linus Torvalds, I'd highly suggest you read his biography. I've read it four times, and each time I learn something new.
The most excellent book you will ever read on the discovery of the elements is Uncle Tungsten. I suggest you pick it up immediately if you haven't already (I can't recall if it specifically answers your question, though).
I think it's capable of being very effective in math or science. I'm no expert in either field but:
Our understandings of math and science are built, discovery after discovery and discovery on discovery; most of these came from people for whom that curiosity, that love of discovery, is what drove them. And it's taken a few thousand years, because they had to find and make those paths and the discoverers were often few and far between, but now? the paths are known and paved and there's no reason why every student can't be given the materials to explore and the questions to answer and the guidance as needed to find out the answers and make those same discoveries the same way (if faster) that their original discoverers did, with confirmation, specifics, background information, history, etc. provided afterwards.
That way the student gets the joy of exploring (especially if the beginning instruction is not too narrow; one wants to start with a "what can you perceive about this stuff? what can you discover about this stuff? what does it do?" set of preliminary instructions, not step-by-step instructions, the lesson starting out general, with free exploration, and then focusing in on the discovery being pursued, with assistance from the teacher as necessary.
Why not get the story first-hand from his (imo, excellent) autobiography?
These incidents are mentioned in Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs and also Steve Wozniak's autobiography, iWoz. Both of these books are well worth reading.
Sci-fi and around 500 pages narrows the options a bit, but!
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein may fit the bill?
Somebody wrote a book about this. It's written from the patient's perspective as an adult with strabismus. VT worked for her.
https://www.amazon.com/Fixing-My-Gaze-Scientists-Dimensions/dp/0465020739/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543362553&sr=8-1&keywords=fix+my+gaze
So, there was a Christian Evangelical who did something like this: Timothy Kurek, Jesus in Drag.
There are people who have also done similar things. Black Like Me. Self-Made Man.
I don't know how I feel about this. For one, it doesn't feel kosher, and there are so many layers of privilege... and so much disbelief as to whether he'll get it right, or how much he'll get wrong.
You know what I think here? Common People. Specifically, the lyrics "Cause everybody hates a tourist, / especially one who thinks its all just a laugh."
He's going to be a tourist. He'll have the ability to call his dad to end it all, so to speak. He won't really have all his friends vanish, or have those bridges burn, or lose his roots.
I understand the value in having someone cross those lines, and then go back and educate those that didn't what it's like on the other side. I appreciate how difficult it can be. I don't want to dissuade your son from his project, but it makes me so uncomfortable.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/081298840X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2PWYLO0YY6QL5&coliid=IQ0BIYRCTQNZO
The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
sauce
I read the book years ago and it's quite good.
>I need some advice.
Actually, I think you need the OPPOSITE.
You've been following everyone's advice -- shit like "go to college" and "follow your passion" and "here, dude take a toke on this and relaaaaax, man!" or your parents' enabling that "it's just a phase" and etc. -- for far too long.
That's why you're basically still a child in an adult body, and you're stuck in this "rut".
BTW it is a "phase"... but it's one you SHOULD have outgrown a long time ago. Yes, you're still (relatively) "young" -- probably what 22, maybe 24 or even 26? -- but that's arguably NOT very "young" anymore; it's certainly old enough for you to have gotten your proverbial "shit together".
--
Your problem is that you're surrounded by people who are still
All of that is evident throughout EVERYTHING you wrote, to wit:
>"I do not own a car or wish to learn to drive."
What a pompous crock of pseudo-elite bullshit. Driving and/or owning a vehicle is a UTILITY FUNCTION -- it's how you get your ASS from point A to point B in time to do the days work; it's how you get supplies (food, etc) from the store back to your home -- and while in SOME places (certain population-dense urban environments -- say NYC -- you neither need nor want to drive a car to do things) in many places driving is NOT an "option" but a necessary skill (and one which if you DON'T acquire, you will forever be a BURDEN on others).
This kind of a statement smacks -- to me -- of the "Oh I don't ever want to learn how to cook, that's what restaurants are for." or "I don't own a washer and dryer, and I refuse to do laundry."
Doubtless you justify this "I don't want to drive" based on some bullshit you've been fed about being all "eco" and "green" and "save the planet" -- but it's complete BULLSHIT -- it's a euphemistic cover for an elitest mentality.
So suck it up buttercup, and change your fucking bullshit attitude: if you NEED to learn how to drive, and move somewhere you NEED a vehicle, then learn it, and buy one. But ditch the "greenie" millennial SJW bullshit already. Nuff said.
--
Or likewise this:
>"I once had a reasonable passion for art, studying it has completely killed that and I now resent making anything remotely related. I cannot see myself working in this field any longer, [snip]"
Oh BOOO fucking HOOOO!
Listen dipshit. Despite what you've been told (especially by various "life lottery ticket winners" in HS graduation & college commencement speeches -- or even university enrollment marketing brochures {designed primarily to turn you into a "sucker" customer who pays tuition to "play" with shit they could do at home for a 1/4 the cost}); WORK isn't about "pursuing your passion" -- it's about doing whatever it is you are SKILLED AT, and then using it to make enough money to pay for your OWN food, shelter, clothes, etc. Being an ADULT is about doing the stuff that NEEDS to be done -- the toilet is backed up, you get the fucking plunger out and you plunge it; the toilet is broken you fix it (or work at something else to earn money so you can pay someone to fix it for you).
Do you think the plumbers that fix toilets do it because they have a "passion" for it?
---
You want to get OUT of the fucking "rut" of a life that you (and your 'rents, et al) have created around you?
Well, what is actually stopping you? You want out of that "rut" you need to climb the fuck out of it.
You need to GET AWAY from the bullshit place & people that are keeping you/enabling you to STAY in the "rut".
--
GTFO of dodge, and go out and begin being responsible for yourself.
You want "advice" and need an "example" -- go get this: https://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dream/dp/0061714275
So I recently graduated with a 3.0 GPA with a Biology degree. I'm two months out and I've still been having a tough time finding a job. I wanted to go into research but lab jobs are scarce.
However, I have been taking some classes at my local community college and I discovered that there are some programs that are relatively cheap to get into. For example, getting certified as an EMT only costs a few thousand dollars or so. This is a lot but if you save up, you might be able to afford it.
Basically if you can't get a job in your field, look into getting retrained cheaply, either in Community College or trade school or even military. You may not necessarily want to do this immediately but think about it.
And I absolutely second JBlitzen's advice:
> It would be beneficial, though, for you to start asking yourself what value you intend to create for others. And how your current path will help you to do so.
Essentially, figure out a plan on what you want to do with your current skills. Next, figure out a backup plan if it goes bad.
It definitely sucks to graduate knowing that you didn't do so well in college. I feel for you man, I'm pretty much in the same spot. Don't give up, don't get discouraged, lots of people have been in worse situations and have come out OK. Just read the book Scratch Beginnings or Nothing to Envy. In both stories, the protagnoists succeed in overcoming incredible odds to live a good life.
Figure out what your dreams are and keep going after them. I believe you can reach them. And no, I'm not just saying that.
EDIT:
Also, network! Get to know your teachers and make sure they like you so you have references!!! Show interest in your classes this last semester. You have no idea how important personal references are. Better yet, ask your teachers if they know of any jobs or have any job advice.
All job searching is personal. Employers want to hire people they know will do a good job. Hence the need for personal connections or references (At least someone though this guy was competent.) or demonstrating interest in a particular position. You're still in school so you still have a solid amount of opportunities to network.
Also, some hepful links
http://www.askamanager.org/2012/12/if-youre-not-getting-interviews-read-this.html
http://www.reddit.com/r/jobs
If you're interested in this , Check out Ghost in the Wires. It's the story of Kevin Mitnick a renowned phone hacker. The audiobook was a pretty good listen too.
http://www.amazon.ca/Ghost-Wires-Adventures-Worlds-Wanted/dp/0316037702
https://mobile.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction/Ghost-in-the-Wires-Audiobook/B005H3FYR4;jsessionid=720FB794094EC0B0836E594816593F73?s=s
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks. Sacks is best known for writing case studies of his patients as a neurologist, such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. Uncle Tungsten is part memoir, part history of and introduction to chemistry. There's nothing quite like it out there.
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins's Twitter antics notwithstanding, this book is an unmissable classic in biology.
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. An ode to consciousness, full of puns, music and metamathematics.
Mind, Body, World by Michael Dawson. This is a textbook, but it's (legally!) available for free online, and it's totally engrossing. The author uses his work in music cognition to introduce the major theories and paradigms of cognitive science and show how there isn't as much separation between them as it seems.
I've been with my boyfriend for over a year. We met online. It really started with us over a shirt of his in one of his photos that I kept saying I was going to steal from him. We ended up talking and then we just clicked, especially since the first time we talked on the phone we were on the phone all night without realizing it until the sun was shining thru the windows. We've been living with each other for nearly as long as we've been together. He's my better half :D
My item
http://www.amazon.com/Orange-New-Black-Womens-Prison/dp/0385523394/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374690422&sr=1-1&keywords=orange+is+the+new+black is the original book.
The lesbian angle is very much a big part of the series and not just with Piper.
True polygamy is hard to argue the immorality against unless it appears to be coercing children. But usually the word polygamy is applied to Mormons incorrectly. They actually practice polygyny which is much more objectionable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygyny
The practical real world problem with Mormon polygyny is the fact that it ends up coercing very young women to "consent" to marry an older man. It's not exactly consent when they're children. Also, its overtly patriarchal and a form of female oppression which is both bad for women and another kind of coercion rather than consent.
If you were to, however, argue in favor of polygamy as a true plural marriage with various combinations of genders it would be harder to argue that is was patriarchal or oppressive or immoral. It may be unhealthy still, but I'm not sure we have enough real world evidence to arrive at that conclusion yet. Very few people engage in this kind of polygamy as far as I know.
If you would like to read some fiction dealing with the concepts of Group Marriage you should check out Robert A. Heinlein:
And many of his other books.
I had an "extended" ischemic stroke, starting with left side weakness and ending with left sided paralysis, It sucked but I just think it delayed rather than precluded some aspects of recover, If she's not getting worse then things can definitely get better.
I don't know about everybody else, but it became apparent to me that doctors can do little to treat strokes beyond blood thinners and trying to take preventive measures, there is no cure or antibiotic equivalent for stroke, but that is no excuse for a professional stroke team to be sloppy. Please go full speed ahead as a patient advocate for your mom until you get answers, there should be a case-worker or social worker at the hospital who is obligated to help when you throw up red flags. At the same time, don't be too hard on yourself, it is wonderful that you are available for your mom and I firmly believe that even feeling helpless as we all do, that bringing positive energy, humor and love to her and rehab can only have good results, it may take 4 years but I'm learning the brain is always adapting, changing, re-wiring, often at your expense as strokes are assholes with a low sense of humor but a "thousand cranes" worth of good effort and energy will pay off in the end.
America's best stroke centers- https://www.womenschoiceaward.com/awarded/best-hospitals/stroke-care/ (no idea how good the list is but I would certainly encourage you to get a second opinion from someplace that is doing academic medicine if possible. find a young neurology professor.)
Wild idea but strong cbd (cannabidiol) Oil does not have THC, is not a controlled substance in the US, and may have neuro- protective or recuperative properties if administered quickly enough. (I'll let you Google for studies)
Others are probably tired of hearing this, but I would encourage you to read My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey May 26, 2009 by Harvard Dr. Jill Taylor = https://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0452295548/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502488014&sr=1-1&keywords=my+stroke+of+insight+taylor
That's a little oversimplified. It's hardly a settled issue in the field and it's an active research area. There are very view studies that have been completed so of course it isn't recommended until results emerge (if they emerge). Orthopic VT has been shown to be effective for certain conditions, and can help patients with convergence insufficiency, strabismus, diplopia, and with rehab after brain disease or injury. Behavioral VT is where the kool aid gets drunk. Some places claim they can cure dislexia, adhd, etc. with VT.
Edit: I see that you have quite a history of crusading against VT in /r/optometry. I don't think I will be able to change your perspective no matter what I say.
> it is much tougher to be a woman in this world than a man.
I think giving this book a quick read might suggest otherwise.
The only "fight" I've been in as an adult was with a man holding a baby. He was holding the baby with one arm and attacking a woman with the other. I got between them and he grabbed my throat. I trained in martial arts as a teen/young-adult so I know that someone grabbing your throat isn't a bad position to be in (they leave themselves vulnerable everywhere else). I just wanted to get his attention off of the woman. But I did fix him with a steely stare so he knew I wasn't frightened. He let go and the two of them cussed at each other. I told the woman to call the police or GTFO already. She left. He followed suit. But I was concerned for a moment that he'd actually try to fight me with a baby in his arms. I don't know what I would have done.
Edit: Years later I learned from reading Robert Sapolsky's memoir of working with baboons, that this is a strategy by non-dominant males to avoid fights. They grab a baby and the other male backs off. The first doesn't help his standing in the troop but he avoids a beat-down. That's not what this dude was doing, though. He was just a shit.
If you haven't read his book A Primate's Memoir, do it. You're already late to the party.
I don't see how those are mutually exclusive ... in your travels you could seek out places of worship, famous cathedrals, mosques, temples, along with a healthy dose of naturally spiritual places ... the Grand Canyon is a deeply moving place. I've been there three times. Personally, I would seek the desert but we all have our preferences.
Diet and exercise should be a lifestyle change rather than returning to old habits when you return home. Probably the one thing that will take more effort.
Relationships will be harder if you're going to travel. I've regretted I hadn't kept up with aunts and uncles and cousins. I wasn't in a position to travel the country to do that at the time and now they've passed on.
Put together a reading list. Since you've been pondering these things, recommend https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X Profound book.
u/Ghand_Mooch is correct. Make sure you get into med school first! but if you want to pick up some side reading material (non-academic), here's a few books/authors that I'd recommend:
Atul Gawande: general surgeon with an awesome writing style. I started with his book "Better"
.
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi: Final year neurosurgery resident gets diagnosed with lung cancer. It's a view on his life, medicine, and the meaning of death. Easily in my top 10 best books ever read
.
When the Air Hits Your Brain - Frank T. Vertosick Jr. - a series of patient vignettes from a neurosurgeon. Was recommended this book by the head of our neurosurgery department.
I'm seeing Angelhead: My Brother's Descent into Madness, January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her, Descent into Madness: A Personal Look into Schizophrenia, and The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness. All of those are about schizophrenia, none of them are textbooks or as old as you describe.
Not every older book is possible to find with google. It's possible that she has the title exactly right, and it's just so obscure that nobody is talking about it online.
Inter-Library Loan is a great way to get ahold of rare books. If you have enough information, you can give that information to the library, and they'll check with other libraries until they find one that has the book. Then that library mails the book to your library. It can cost some money, but sometimes it's the only way to find some rare books.
A suggestion for his next gift:
The $64 Tomato
Trenutno citam:
Planiram i citati:
Evo moj 'library' :P
http://i.imgur.com/Xpe7Vk5.jpg
Moj tip za vas je Shantaram. //switch to English now, because it's a lot easier. It's about a guy who escapes from a prison and goes to Bombay. He starts off low and grows both spiritually and materialistically in the streets of Bombay. It's like GTA: Bombay but with more places (Indian countryside, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Africa). I've already been interested in India because of films like Darjeeling Limited, but this book sealed the deal: I want to visit that country.
This looks really interesting, I can't wait to read it. Thanks for the post.
For another look at the Hermit kingdom, I suggest picking up Pyongyang: A Journey to North Korea by Guy Delisle
I'm surprised people haven't said much about the actual writing itself. Tone is an issue, but the actual structure of your writing needs work. I'll pull a few examples that way you can see what I mean.
"Unless you’re a member of an isolated ancient tribe living under one of the six remaining trees in what used to be the Amazon rainforest, you have almost certainly heard the term “Machine Learning” floating past within the last few years."
Your first sentence is almost a paragraph. This is a problem. Writing should be succinct and to the point. Clarity and strength of word usage will make what you say much more meaningful.
"In fact, personally, I’m convinced that if humanity doesn’t eradicate itself prematurely, there won’t be anything left humans can do that can’t be done much better, faster and cheaper by a suitably designed and programmed computer (or a network of them)."
This is a sentence in your third paragraph, which is again almost an entire paragraph by itself. You also severely diminish the strength of your sentence when you use things like 'In fact', 'personally', 'I'm convinced'. Your readers know that you are convinced because you are the one writing it. You need to convince them.
"Even though a computer can do just about anything, making it do what you want it to do can be very hard indeed."
Adverbs are not your friend. - Stephen King
Strength of sentence structure is impacted when you use adverbs like 'very'. And throwing on an 'indeed' doesn't do you any favors either. Make a point to think about what you are adding to your sentences with these words. Is the answer "I am adding nothing with these words."? Then those words should not be there.
I'm going to leave you a list of books where you can learn from writers that will help you with these things. Try not to get discouraged. We all have a lot to learn, so just think of it as part of the process. I would HIGHLY suggest you at least look into Elements of Style.
Sol Stein's On Writing
Stephen King's On Writing
Elements of Style
There were many books before Save the Cat (which is an OK book for screenwriting and/or storytelling technique).
The earliest writings on story structure, though, go back right to Aristotle in Poetics.
Humans have been telling stories ever since speech had developed.
There are two kinds of storytelling books. Snyder's method is a perscriptive method. He gives you a formula and tells you that the only way to a good story is to fill those beats. Syd Field does this too in his extensive bibliography on the subject of screenwriting.
On the other hand, Robert McKee gives a more descriptive method in Story and explains the process of "writing" as opposed to "filling a beat sheet".
The best book on writing (that is, the one which gives out the greatest tips on actually taking your own ideas and putting them into a coherent story) is Stephen King's On Writing. It has nothing to do with movies, and everything to do with stories, which is exactly what great screenwriting should do.
Nevertheless all writing books give out tips, tricks and cheat sheets. Good writing comes from within the writer and, as many "gurus" insist, you cannot become a good writer, you have to be born one and get training.
Source: Screenwriter/Writer here.
I don't see a conflict between those statements. The fact is that for nearly everyone, gender identity is not a choice. I would put the few for whom it seems a choice in the category of unspecified gender.
Kind of the right handed, left handed, ambidextrous. If you are ambidextrous, you can choose if you want to use your left or your right hand. But you can't choose to be ambidextrous: You are, or you are not. The fact is, most people can't choose their gender identity. A very few people, without that internal drumbeat telling them what gender they are, can. But that ability is still an innate thing.
Can someone who isn't 'unspecified gender' choose to present as a different gender than their internal identity? Sure. At great personal risk. Experiments in that direction (See "Self-Made Man" and of course the whole shitshow that is 'reparative therapy') have produced the strong result that you are risking suicidal depression by doing so. Even when done voluntarily. Gender identity is a powerful force - you screw with it at your own risk.
NYT article and her book. Of course NYT finds her insufficiently feminist in the end.
I'd be interested in a real social experiment like this though. A racial/ethnic version of Self Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man.
>It is how they solve the paradox of arguing that women excerting power over men when it is very obvious that men hold the most places in high power...This text solves the paradox arguing that women excert power over society through men: corporations and parties cater to women, feminists being the biggest lobbies, etc.
I will say this: I don't know who has more power in society. It may very well be men. It could just be a small number of men at the top, who ultimately answer to their wives, who statistically are in charge of them. It could be women who on average cede powet to men and prefer men to be in charge (so long as it benefits them). Or it could be about equal, with men exerting power in some areas, and women exerting power in others.
Many men's advocates like to argue that if you're a "one percenter" you're better off being a man, and if you're part of the 99%, you're better off being a woman.
The point of my post isn't to directly compare men and women as it is to address this argument that you see from feminists. They like to say A) that men can't be discriminated against, and you can't be sexist against men, because men are dominant in society and B) that whatever male problems exist in society are caused by men, not by women, and not by feminists (I think there are areas where any of the above are true: women, and feminists in particular, are not innocent here).
So like my thesis says, I have pointed out areas where women do have power, substantial amounts of power, and I have demonstrated how this power has been used, often in ways that actively create some of the issues that men's advocates like to discuss.
In particular, the role of feminism in creating many of these issues is, I think, fairly strait forward, and I provided plenty of references, some of them from actual feminists, that proves this.
I'm not trying to point fingers, but it is necessary to point this out given the arguments that we're seeing from feminists nowadays (arguments that essentially amount to victim blaming). It's like men's rights advocates suddenly caught their attention, they realized some of our points were valid, and so they had to deflect it instead of addressing it honestly and directly.
>Besides, (transitioned) trans women and trans men have mostly confirmed that men hold control over women socially.
This isn't universally true, and it's not a good comparison. I support trans rights but I imagine a trans women who only has a year of experience being a woman may not fully appreciate the role of "soft power" and other forms of influence that women have. Their gender identity itself may even influence their views.
Besides, check out these two examples:
One trans experience here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/07/20/feature/crossing-the-divide-do-men-really-have-it-easier-these-transgender-guys-found-the-truth-was-more-complex/
And a feminist who dressed up like a man and lived like a man for 6 months: https://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised-ebook/dp/B000OT8GTE/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=se%3Bf+made+man+norah+vincent&qid=1571846622&sr=8-1-fkmr0
What's interesting is the author was a bonafide man-hating feminist who thought women were oppressed and that men had things better, and her experiences as a man completely changed her views.
And in particular, both the feminist "cross dresser" and the trans woman agree that being a man is harder than being a woman.
>What I do find interesting about this control by proxy is why do men are so eager to please women in order to act as proxys for women
My theory is that it is in large part biological. Men naturally want to help women. And women naturally seem to be able to manipulate men. This has been shown in various studies (many of the same ones that I already posted) and is really just common sense to anyone who thinks about it.
My comment above was too long! Here's part II:
Resources:
As for resources, the best thing to do is to read up on what your wife is experiencing. You can't understand it unless you've experienced depression. However, reading about it can help you show empathy. Find books written by people who struggle with it rather than only books from "experts."
​
Adventures in Depression | Depression Part Two | Book
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This book is a life-changer. What you wrote here makes me think that both you and your wife would benefit from reading this Christian book:
> I will say that she is self conscious abt her body as she has gotten bigger while being pregnant and still is now, being a wife and mother is a task for her, she’s trying her best to follow God’s way and the Bible to where she would question almost everything now and even what we do in the bedroom, and that she now pays attention to the world around her that reading things like pollution would concern her. That’s just summing it all up without doing to details. Trust me there’s a lot!
When you struggle with depression, the expectations from others can be overwhelming. The expectations on mothers is unreal for women who don't struggle with depression. The state of the world can seem hopeless for everyone. When you are depressed, you feel more, so reading the news can send you into a tailspin. This book is a fantastic way to help gain a healthy, Christian perspective.
​
Meyer can be good or bad, but this is a classic book that most people should read. The struggle against depression is physical, spiritual, and mental. Changing how we think can improve how we cope.
Why no meds?
I would encourage you to consider medication if nothing else works. It can be hit-or-miss, and taking the wrong meds can make things worse. However, sometimes medication does help depression. The trick is finding the right one and only taking it under the guidance of a psychiatrist. (Please don't take psychiatric drugs if you are only getting them from a GP or family doctor.) There are several medications on the market that shouldn't be legal (like Paxil) that have dangerous side effects. However, some meds (like Prozac) have decades of research with minimal side effects.
Depression is a chronic illness.
As a spouse, you should approach depression like any other kind of chronic illness. If your wife had lupis or MS, would you act differently? Depression should be treated like you would diabetes. Look at any and all options available and find out what works best for your wife and family.
Depression is normal.
Let your wife know you love her and there's nothing wrong with what she is going through. She didn't cause this. I repeat -- nothing your wife did caused this. It isn't sin. It isn't a punishment. Depression is an illness just like diabetes, lupus, or MS. Too many Christians respond with trying to pray away depression or making it a consequence of sin. It isn't.
Depression is a physical problem that affects us spiritually and psychologically. Unfortunately, we don't really understand it yet, so people react weirdly. Remind your wife that the Bible is full of stories of God using flawed and struggling people. Some, like David and Elijah, also had depression.
This is very long, so thanks if you've read it all. Your wife isn't alone, and far more people than she realizes (many in your church and neighborhood!) are struggling.
I really like Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened. It has a two part comic chronicling the author's severe depression and I've found that it really spells out the experience for people who don't fully understand what depression can be like.
I think she does a really great job illustrating such a heavy subject without making it scary.
Maybe this isn't exactly what you were asking about but I think it definitely deserves a mention.
I dunno, but there are many more like it online, and printed in this book along with some excellent print-exclusive tales:
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BSB2AE4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_mPccBb7BZP6YZ
If you're not willing to jump on the book immediately, "God of Cake" and "The Party" are posted online and are personal faves.
So, as a libtard, I’d say your went to far libertarian with the first book you got him. It’s kinda like sending a evangelical a Dawkins book. I’d suggest something a little tamer to start OR do what me and a libertarian friend of mine did. We bought each other a book, agreed to read it and then discuss it (respectfully). Now it can’t be you sending him Atlas Shrugged and him sending you the Communist Manifesto.
We did these books.
Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream
https://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dream/dp/0061714275
Who Stole the American Dream?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812982053/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Dku4DbDVRQ8GS
Counterpoint: http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dream/dp/0061714275/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376689152&sr=8-1&keywords=scratch+beginnings
Guy goes out with 25 usd, ends up with appartment and car in less than a year.
Not easy but doable. Here is a book about it.
What can you get with $25 and a dream?
Adam Shepard graduated from college feeling disillusioned by the apathy around him and was then incensed after reading Barbara Ehrenreich's famous work Nickel and Dimed—a book that gave him a feeling of hopelessness about the working class in America. He set out to disprove Ehrenreich's theory—the notion that those who start at the bottom stay at the bottom—by making something out of nothing to achieve the American Dream.
Shepard's plan was simple. With a sleeping bag, the clothes on his back, and $25 in cash, and restricted from using his contacts or college education, he headed out for Charleston, South Carolina, a randomly selected city with one objective: to work his way out of homelessness and into a life that would give him the opportunity for success. His goal was to have, after one year, $2,500, a working automobile, and a furnished apartment.
Scratch Beginnings is the earnest and passionate account of Shepard's struggle to overcome the pressures placed on the homeless. His story will not only inspire readers but will also remind them that success can come to anyone who is willing to work hard—and that America is still one of the most hopeful countries in the world.
Check out the book Scratch Beginnings (http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dream/dp/0061714275/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348439315&sr=8-1&keywords=scratch+beginnings)
The guy who wrote it picked a town out of a hat and bought a train ticket there bringing some clothes and I think $25 or $50 with the goal of having a job, furnished apartment, and paid-for vehicle within a year. He started out staying at homeless shelters and working day labor jobs. He did have a college degree but didn't tell anyone.
Good luck.
You might want to read Just For Fun, it explains his stock holdings in some parts of the book, specifically in relation to Red Hat, SUSE, and how stock splits work from a kernel developer's perspective.
He was given EARLY Red Hat stock and they've gone on to gorilla the market in revenue.
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Fun-Story-Accidental-Revolutionary/dp/0066620732
I enjoyed Just For Fun - The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary.
There is an audio-book version available.
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Unsure of the audio-book availability but these are recommended as well:
EDIT : added some more books
Same, I was just learning about the whole FOSS and Linux community, after finishing Just for Fun, I was just so impressed that I installed Ubuntu.
I use Win7 on my Desktop at the moment, and use 9.10 Desktop Edition on my Netbook and on my personal server, I use the obviously the Server edition.
I came here to recommend Cuckoo's Egg but someone beat me to it. I will drop a suggestion for a related book called Just for Fun. It's a biography of the creator of Linux, Linus Torvalds. He didn't necessarily hack anything, but the book does a great job of explaining why he was so revolutionary in his field. I learned a lot about the early history of computers and the Internet through that book.
Happy Zambambo!
I'd love a softcover copy of Ghost in the wires
Can I Keep My Jersey? by Paul Shirley. Paul was a pro basket ball player whose career didn't take off like the star he thought he was. He is a very funny writer and the book is a good look at the life the vast majority of those who attempt to play professional sports lead and live. Read the reviews on amazon to see if some of the faults others have with his writing style can be overlooked by you though.
Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond
Uncle Tungsten
Oliver Sacks is a great writer, while more known for his popular neuroscience books his memoir has both great stories and outlines the history of chemistry really well.
Oh he has some other fascinating quirks too. He's partially blind (occular cancer) and experiences Charles Bonnet Syndrome
Here's his TED talk about it
Transcript
For more on his childhood, he has a book "Uncle Tungsten"
Sadly, he has terminal cancer
The old man is snoring
On a rainy day I love to curl up with a nice book! I binged watched Orange is the New Black and I'm having trouble waiting for the second season to start so I'd love to [read the book to tide me over.] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385523394/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=DARV9ZGRO46I&coliid=IJWPWMMPGNB9J) I haven't read it yet but if you haven't watched the show you should! It's one of the best things to come out on TV in awhile. The characters are so real and genuine and they look at a lot of issues that other shows really don't touch upon enough (like lgbtq issues) and I'm sure the book would be an interesting read too!
Thanks for the contest!
I'm in the middle of 5 different books because I am a bit of a moody reader (sometimes I'm in the mood to read something funny, other times I want something mysterious, something informative, something that will give me second hand embarrassment, etc.)
Currently I'm reading:
On my "next to read" list:
Consultant is a weird word to use, she wrote the book that the show is based on.
Also, I think linking her twitter (@Piper) instead of email would be a nice thing to do.
Not just a plot, but based on a true story - a memoir of the same name.
Steve Wozniak comes to mind.
His autobiography http://www.amazon.com/iWoz-Computer-Invented-Personal-Co-Founded/dp/0393330435
Edit: Another is Robert Noyce (biography http://www.amazon.com/Man-Behind-Microchip-Invention-Silicon/dp/019531199X)
He and Jack Kilby are the ones we have to thank for integrated circuits and the microchip. They are the reason our PC's dont take up entire office buildings. Also, Robert Noyce founded Intel together with Gordon E. Moore. Also, lastly Gordon E. Moore biography http://www.amazon.com/Moores-Law-Silicon-Valleys-Revolutionary/dp/0465055648
Here's a few to try:
In the Beginning...Was the Command Line: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011GA08E/?coliid=I2AX4MNAR89GW9&colid=1J9YDKJ5WZ8PB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
The Friendly Orange Glow:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101973633/?coliid=IEUJX5OOWTAUK&colid=1J9YDKJ5WZ8PB&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
ROLM: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KGID6WU/?coliid=I1AQGJ83D1GS48&colid=1J9YDKJ5WZ8PB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Apple: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00295MJHG/?coliid=I1Q8J5K347MYXY&colid=1J9YDKJ5WZ8PB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Apple: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0986832278/?coliid=I1I3Q5B2K8YST7&colid=1J9YDKJ5WZ8PB&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Apple: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393330435/?coliid=I3IE3KZUF3E6WN&colid=1J9YDKJ5WZ8PB&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
TRS 80: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P8JNIS/?coliid=IUCSUMJN8ZWU8&colid=1J9YDKJ5WZ8PB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Compaq: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DTEZ56I/?coliid=I259B8WXOE9LHT&colid=1J9YDKJ5WZ8PB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC0WP6/?coliid=I28FZRAZ0WF3CA&colid=1J9YDKJ5WZ8PB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
They didn't get into trouble, it's actually mentioned Woz's autobiography (iWoz). It may have been referenced in Steve Jobs' biography too, but I'm not too sure.
Both incidents are mentioned in Woz's book
This Alien Shore is one of those single books that actually make me want to read more in that universe.
Stranger in a Strange Land is controversial, thought provoking, and while a couple of characters will show up in later Heinlein books, it isn't part of a series.
+1 Anathem (2008) by Neal Stephenson
+1 The Speed of Dark (2002) by Elizabeth Moon
At some point in this beautiful thread you mentioned that you are not well read. What books have you read that you've really enjoyed?
If you haven't read these, they're worth a glance at the description:
Thanks for your time on this thread. You are awesome sir
I used to buy Illusions by Richard Bach for people. The subtitle is "The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah." Very good. Might go well with Ishmael, which others have mentioned.
In the same vein -- it could have the exact same subtitle, in fact -- is Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. If he likes that you could follow it up with other late-career Heinlein, such as Job or Time Enough For Love. All are excellent. Others have mentioned Starship Troopers, and it is also excellent. But his earlier stuff is very adventure-oriented, while his later stuff probably has more potential for life-changing.
Lastly, if he's up for a little ancient philosophy that gives you a different way to look at life, try Marcus Aurelius, which is free on the internet. Tell him not to get too hung up on what goes on in book one. It's almost like an acknowledgements page, but there is some good stuff in there. But once book two gets rolling the life-changing stuff really begins. Tell him it's how to focus on what matters and let go of what doesn't. If people could learn that they'd definitely change their lives.
And good for him. I'm 53 and I started reading philosophy at 50. Learning new things activates the old brain cells and will keep him mentally sharp longer.
Theory of Continuous Groups by Loewner. This book is based on lecture notes which Loewner was planning to turn into a larger book. Unfortunately he passed away before getting much done so some of his colleagues edited and compiled the notes into this book. I'm only quarter of the way in but so far it's given me a really unique perspective into group actions. I'm loving it but it doesn't hold my attention for long spans of time.
Geometry of Polynomials by Marden. Marden is my idol, and I plan to devote my life to studying the zeros of functions. That said, this book is the hardest goddamn book I have ever read. Hell, some of the exercises he gives were actual topics of published research 60 years ago. That seems a little mean to me. Anyway I still love this shit.
Mr. Tompkins in Paperback by Gamow. Alternates between stories about a character transplanted into hypothetical worlds where particular laws of physics are exaggerated and semi-rigorous lectures about the physics itself. The section on gravity as curvature of space was especially enlightening. The author uses the idea of a merry-go-round spinning at relativistic speed, so that straight lines on the surface (i.e. geodesics) are in fact curved to outside observers. You can then imagine that the merry-go-round is walled off from the outside, so that on the inside the centrifugal force can be thought of as gravity toward the edge. This is the concept of acceleration of reference frame being equivalent to gravity. For a non-physicist this kind of explanation is AWESOME.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. My first Heinlein, just started it but I'm enjoying it so far. I honestly confused him with Haldeman... I loved The Forever War and I wanted to get another book by the author. Oh well.
Yeah so what I'm a nerd.
Here's a small list of easily accessible sci-fi that had me hooked to the genre. They are, in my humble opinion, some of the greatest books/authors of the genre.
Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein)
A Deepness in the Sky
Rainbows End (both by Vernor Vinge)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)
They also all appear to be available for your Kindle.
My favorite author, and this is his most fun book even if he has a couple better received books
Bukowski is an amazing author regardless of what succs say.
Great book. Brought the term grok into existence
Really cool graphic novel series
David sedaris is probably the best comedic novelist i've ever read/heard. I recommend audio though because he has great delivery, which is what made him such a popular guest on NPR
selfish gene by dawkins. I know Dawkins is a meme, but this book is actually really good along with a lot of his earlier books.
I completely agree with Otaking. My writing, and even my conversation suffers if I take a break from reading for too long.
Since you're already on reddit, you should stop by here: /r/books, flurry of suggestions there.
This is probably a great place to start though.
Cheers :)
Good one - I'd suggest Stranger in a Strange Land as a starting point.
Now that you've mentioned Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land - some interesting playing around with pseudo-religious/atheist themes. Considered one of the classics of science fiction for breadth, vision, social commentary, whatever.
It all depends on where you get books. This is one of my favorite science fiction books of all time, it's $.01.
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Taylor: A neuroscientist has a stroke and learns to walk, talk, eat, write, or recall her memories.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks: Interesting case studies of patients who suffered from extreme/rare neurological disorders.
Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon: Not necessarily speech-language pathology specific, but it includes chapters identity, self-perception, social perception of people with autism, Down syndrome, and Deaf culture. I read this book recently, and it's absolutely brilliant.
If brain events other than epilepsy are of interest, I can recommend a couple of things. My Stroke of Insight is a memoir by Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroscientist. The description of the experience of a stroke by someone who really understands the brain is fascinating. A Bomb in the Brain is Steve Fishman's account of suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while in Nicaragua, trying to get competent treatment, and making his way back to the U.S. It's 25 years old but still sticks in my mind.
On rainy days I love to try new recipes to cook with my roommates! My favorites are Indian or Spanish recipes :)
if I win I would love this book about strokes, as it's required reading for my fall semester of grad school!
So I have a couple.
First is my Cousin, Dan Barry. He's the nerdiest guy I know, but he's still really down to earth and I still look up to him. His wife has written a book about how she managed to cure her stereoblindness that I would recommend to anyone.
My Uncle's best friend is a Tony Award Winning Lyricist, I tried to get him to come talk at my school, but he was super busy.
My Dad's Best Friend's Brother is a guy named Mark Olshaker, he writes books with John Douglas who was the basis for Jack Crawford in the Hannibal Lecter movies. Mark still talks about having to change me as a baby, because that's the kind of stories girlfriends want to hear about when meeting new people...
I just stumbled across this book in the bookstore:
Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey Into Seeing in Three Dimensions
Have you read it? Is your problem the same thing?
I think I'm in a similar position; I can either use my left eye, or use my right eye, or use both, but I default to right eye for most distance work, left eye for most near work, and usually only unconsciously default to both if I'm watching a movie with 3D glasses.
I got conscious control of it after reading this book by a neuroscientist who was 48 years old when she learned to see in 3D - https://www.amazon.com/Fixing-My-Gaze-Scientists-Dimensions/dp/0465020739 (She covers much of it in a TED talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCCtphdXhq8)
Other techniques include using a piece of string held to the nose! This is a good read:
Fixing my gaze
You might be interested in this book: Self-made Man
http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Journey-Manhood/dp/0670034665
About a woman who disguised herself as a man and documented her experiences.
You said you love books
That statement usually says a lot more about the person defending it than hmanity in general.
Warning Shes has an ultimate killer argument: "They did it to feel better about themselves.". It's a Russels teapot argument, be prepared.
Rhetorically, there's decent counter: "We have a name for people who care only about themselves: sociopaths.". Might work on the bystanders.
----
Anyway, science:
Mirror neurons. Part of the brain can't tell apart between doing something and watching it happen. It seems to be a key in learning by observing. A fairly recent discovery, so there's naturally some lack of certainty. In PopSci, they have been used to explain a lot from why porn is hot to -- well, altruism: they are considered the "empathy neurons". (sources further down the wikipedia link).
Now, that might be seen as an argument for her: "we are programmed to be altruistic, it's not a choice" is the kind of misunderstanding you'd expect from a mechanistic reductio-ad-absurdum view of the human self.
Some more studies:
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/06/finding_altruism.php
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/04/psychopaths_and_rational_moral.php
ah well... more from there
aaaand.... wikipedia again, on Altruism. Interestingly, the evolutionary explanations are similar to some of the more elaborate constructs often used to uphold the "selfishness of altruism".
---------
*edit: If you are interested in that kind of stuff, Sapolsky's A Primates Memoir and monkeyluv are fascinating reads.
really depends on what we define as a bad cover.
[night shift] (https://www.amazon.com/Night-Shift-Stephen-King/dp/B0028Q8P6K/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YBCX3PQ0RCZD8NCMTXND) unbelievably boring cover, but I'm sure people are still buying it.
[kings latest book] (https://www.amazon.com/End-Watch-Novel-Hodges-Trilogy/dp/1501129740/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473776469&sr=1-1&keywords=stephen+king) personally think this cover is horrific, yet was a NYT bestseller.
[here's another] (https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X/ref=zg_bs_books_48) no clue who the author is, but its a best seller. Very boring cover.
I'd consider all the covers above as "bad"... yet the books are best sellers.
Now yes, if you have your kid draw your cover with crayons and that's what is considered "bad" then obviously it's a make or break.
But if the writing is good, a cover will not break the book just because it isn't awe inspiring.
He might like the bulbasaur planter + succulent. There are a lot of really cool planters on Amazon, some animal-inspired (or go to your local nursery).
For medicine, I recommend this book often: When Breath Becomes Air
When Breath Becomes Air?
Često se mijenja, u zadnje vrijeme - When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Edit to add, Dr Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind...
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by
Atul Gawande
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
I'm currently reading and rereading:
this is a great book. she'd tell you, "Don't romanticize."
http://www.amazon.com/The-Center-Cannot-Hold-Journey/dp/1401309445
This is a memoir but extremely readable. It is a national bestseller-
The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness https://www.amazon.com/Center-Cannot-Hold-Journey-Through/dp/1401309445
Elyn R. Saks is an esteemed professor, lawyer, and psychiatrist and is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry, and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Law School, yet she has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life, and still has ongoing major episodes of the illness.
The Center Cannot Hold is the eloquent, moving story of Elyn's life, from the first time that she heard voices speaking to her as a young teenager, to attempted suicides in college, through learning to live on her own as an adult in an often terrifying world. Saks discusses frankly the paranoia, the inability to tell imaginary fears from real ones, the voices in her head telling her to kill herself (and to harm others), as well as the incredibly difficult obstacles she overcame to become a highly respected professional. This beautifully written memoir is destined to become a classic in its genre.
Yes constantly. Thats why I dont watch live tv. It's too dangerous you can feel it pushing into your mind. When its off its a big relief. I don't know why but streaming or dowloading the show is better sorta. Regular sleep , routines and safe spaces , try churchs or whatever works for you. Its trial and error at first. The people thing is real, so I use the ear buds or look down. Harder for their pointed threats to get you if you cant seem them.
Here are some tips i found when starting out.
humming or singing a song several times (my favorite*)
listening to music
reading (forwards and backwards)
talking with others
exercise
ignoring the voices
medication (important to include).
https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/April-2016/Schizophrenia-and-Technology-Opportunities-for-Re
Check out NAMI if you havent done so. Your phone can be helpful but since your senses are different most people aren't going to have a full proof plan. Distraction and confidence in yourself is best, followed by a mood stabilizer if possible. It just makes it easier to endure.
Please read this book. You will understand your life better.
Kind regards,
https://www.amazon.com/Center-Cannot-Hold-Journey-Through/dp/1401309445/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521669874&sr=8-1&keywords=the+center+cannot+hold
If anyone wants to see into the mind of someone with schizophrenia, I would suggest reading The Center Cannot Hold. It is an eye opening narrative of this woman and how she gets through life with her illness. It's not boring either, especially when she is describing her delusions.
I thought schizophrenia was a scary disorder too, before I got an inside look at it. The illness is different for everyone too.
When I owned property I had a victory garden. I grew 3-4 different tomatoes every year. Now I live in a three story walk up in the middle of a city. I don’t get direct sunlight now
Also, ever come across this
https://www.amazon.com/64-Tomato-Fortune-Endured-Existential/dp/1565125576/ref=nodl_
Non-fiction wise I really, really enjoyed this and gave it to a friend last Christmas, got her into buying comics.
Are you talking about Pyongyang?
I'm more of a graphic novel fan (such a snob, I know). Big fan of Guy Delisle's travelogues, especially Pyongyang.
I also grew up on Tintin and Asterix comics, I still have all of them in English and French on my shelf, though I added some of the rarer, politically incorrect ones like Tintin in the Congo in recent years.
Playing with a lion’s testicles: An African saying that means to take foolhardy chances.
Link
Yes, this is a real book.
Apologies if reposti
I want to see "Learning to play with a Lion's Testicles" on the NY Times bestseller.
[classic choice] (http://www.amazon.com/East-Eden-Penguin-Modern-Classics-ebook/dp/B001BC5HXG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397074271&sr=8-1&keywords=east+of+eden)
[New fiction] (http://www.amazon.com/Middlesex-Novel-Jeffrey-Eugenides-ebook/dp/B002HHPVPS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397074374&sr=8-1&keywords=middlesex)
[Light Nonfiction read] (http://www.amazon.com/Pluto-Files-Americas-Favorite-Planet-ebook/dp/B001NLKXF2/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397074425&sr=1-8&keywords=neil+degrasse+tyson)
[Not light nonfiction read] (http://www.amazon.com/Prize-Winner-Defiance-Ohio-Mother-ebook/dp/B000FC0T18/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397074469&sr=1-1&keywords=prizewinner+of+defiance+ohio)
[Biography. If you love your mom, you'll love this book.] (http://www.amazon.com/Prize-Winner-Defiance-Ohio-Mother-ebook/dp/B000FC0T18/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397074469&sr=1-1&keywords=prizewinner+of+defiance+ohio)
[Audio Book option.] (http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B000FC0SIM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397074772&sr=1-1&keywords=on+writing+stephen+king)
Several things help. I keep character notes which keep me straight on who is who in my books. But the biggest help is my beta readers. I send out between five and six chapters at a time for their immediate feedback. They have no problem telling me when my writing is crap. You have to have a thick skin and keep in mind, they are making your writing better.
A book which is a huge help, even today, is On Writing by Stephen King. His tips can help everyone, from the newbie to the veteran writer.
And YouTube.com is my friend. When I need to know how to do something, such as make a bump key, I can find a video to show me how. I also make use of experts in their fields. I have a national championship marksman, for instance, who advises me on weapons usage.
Here is a link to On Writing. It's worth the money. http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Memoir-Craft-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B000FC0SIM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1415897198&sr=1-1&keywords=On+Writing+Stephen+King
I have This little beauty on my wishlist. Stephen King: On Writing. As a writer, everyone says it is a must read, and I have read bits and pieces of it, but never the whole thing. I want to hone my craft and be able to write incredible books and anything that helps with that is worth it, in my mind.
> often aren't given the same amount of freedom to find help and support. I've learnt how lonely the male experience can be,
This was one of the bigger revelations Norah Vincent documented in her book Self-Made Man.
Yes, about a year ago. Amazon link
How to find us: I'll bring a copy of a book and put it on our table. It'll be the Hyperbole and Half book by Allie Brosh, see here for cover: http://www.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms-ebook/dp/B00BSB2AE4
Just look for the table with that book if you want to join us!
I'm in an extremely similar situation to you.
My rental income covers my cost of living at the moment, but I want to increase that safety margin before I stop taking a paycheck.
> I believe that I could be dropped into the shoes of 99% of people living paycheck to paycheck or worse and turn their situation into a successful one.
I actually feel the same way, and in fact, this book (I haven't read it yet but have been meaning to) posits that thesis.
However...keep in mind that, being dropped in someone else's shoes, you'd still have your education and experiences that many of them never got the chance to.
Yeah, I wouldn't have my degree, but I'd have the skills to do my job, so I could find a lesser job to get my foot in the door even if I started from scratch.
So if I was stuck in someone else's shoes, I'd still have an advantage. That said, I frequently see people with a fraction of my income living on more than me (I live in a tiny apartment).
Oh- and expect downvotes.
I just went and got the link to that book to reply here! Because that's basically what he did. http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dream/dp/0061714275
"Scratch Beginnings" is essentially this in book form, though by Republican you're probably thinking more along the lines of the the old, stuffy-suited, political type.
http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dream/dp/0061714275
> Bottomless second hand market.
I don't think it is a bad thing. Especially for the poor.
Well, first of all you need to understand what Linux means in open source software community, you can watch a TEDTalk of Linus Torvalds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8NPllzkFhE and read the history of linux kernel, I recommend this books
Rebel Code: Linux And The Open Source Revolution
https://www.amazon.com/Rebel-Code-Linux-Source-Revolution/dp/0738206709
and
Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Fun-Story-Accidental-Revolutionary/dp/0066620732
You should check out "Just for Fun" it's a biography about Linus Torvalds who wrote Linux. It's a fun and pretty quick read.
http://www.amazon.com/Just-Fun-Story-Accidental-Revolutionary/dp/0066620732
More fun than really about programming, i really enjoyed Just For Fun
This book contains a lot of 'ducking the man'. http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wires-Adventures-Worlds-Wanted/dp/0316037702
I recently finished Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker. I really liked the reading as the reader really brought emotion to it. Also an interesting subject matter if you like non-fiction/true crime/memoirs.
if you haven't already... go read this.
kevin
I go through books like some people go through water.
Jan-April: Sookie Stackhouse, Kerrlyn Sparks Vamps, Immortality Bites, MaryJanice Davidson's Undead, Mercy Thompson, Garnet Lacy, Richelle Mead's Kincaid, Katie MacAlister's Aisling Grey, Silver Dragons & Light Dragons series.
(As you may notice, Jan-April was the period where I was least busy with school. These last couple of months have been brutal with classes, so my extracurricular reading has slowed dramatically.)
Found it! Thanks for the recommendation. I'll start reading as soon as I'm done with "the Art of Deception" :)
I haven't read either of those, but you might be interested in Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick. It's the true story of how he got into phone phreaking and hacking, and became a wanted fugitive on the run. It's a really fascinating read.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316037702?pc_redir=1410942724&robot_redir=1
You might enjoy this.
Absolutely.
Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345495705/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_61ZmDbW057KVT
Paul Shirley's Book touched on his experience with 10-day contracts, and was interesting in parts. Too bad the dude had his opinions and then decided to share them, and then doubled down on it. He had some decent writing back in the day.
What did you talk to him about? His book?
True? Ill look into that
Edit: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0345495705
The guy that wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat (Dr. Oliver Sachs) also wrote a great book called Uncle Tungsten — he writes of this desire (to be rid of desires) over an entire chapter; although in his case he is writing more as a homosexual (in a time when this was not tolerated publicly) so maybe this influence his writings, more (although he doesn't discern between men or women in his fear of desires).
My suggestion would be Uncle Tungsten: Memoirs of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks. While not explicitly about chemistry history, it provides large doses of history in a very readable format woven into the narrative of his childhood experiments.
just a heads up
https://www.amazon.com/Orange-New-Black-Womens-Prison/dp/0385523394/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466395730&sr=8-1&keywords=book+orange+is+the+new+black
I hope everyone has an amazing labor day!
Loved the Netflix series and I really want to read the book
OITNB
Happy Birthday! I love reading and have been expanding my collection recently. I'd splurge for any of the books on my wish list.
> To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.
https://sivers.org/multiply
You idea isn't worth anything until you have something in your hand to show off.
If you think you can take on an existing industry then you might want to think about a startup. If you want to be a startup founder, read and watch everything you can find about founders of your favorite company. Then try to find stories of founders that failed. Lots of people write post mortem blogs. This is important, because once again, ideas aren't worth much, and usually aren't that good. However a founder who knows how to run a startup is worth millions. Here are some good starting points of succesful founders.
yCombinator funded and advised reddit & a lot of other succesful companies:
http://playbook.samaltman.com/
https://news.ycombinator.com/
http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html
http://blog.samaltman.com/
Some other favorites:
https://sivers.org/
http://foundation.bz/
https://www.amazon.com/iWoz-Computer-Invented-Personal-Co-Founded/dp/0393330435 - Woz is an excellent example of an engineer who changed the world but didn't want to be a CEO, he just wanted to be an engineer. He's a success story, but it wasn't perfect, you can learn from him if you aren't interested in being the man in charge, but rather the man who makes things.
As far as making the product, it's unclear what you want to make, but you have to start with a prototype. For hardware/mechanical design Fusion 360 is free, and OnShape has a free account level. Electronics design (I have less experience with) but theres a free version of Eagle (which I've heard sucks) or you can search for alternatives to eagle. You can also buy a lot of useful components for prototyping from Sparkfun and adafruit. For manufacturing there are a few good companies that are good for low volume production, such as protolabs. https://www.protolabs.com/services/suite-of-services/. There are similar companies that will produce electronics. Although any software you will have to write yourself, or get a team of friends on board to help you out (congrats now you have a company). For anything in the prototype stage you're only sending schematics for the parts. They don't know what it does, and they don't care. Their business is making parts. Don't worry about having your idea stolen. The prototype will almost always be more expensive than you think. Of course everything gets cheaper when you scale to 1000s or millions of products, but this is when you can start proving that your product really is cheap. (Or maybe its not, and you have to go back to the drawing board or realize there is no future for your current project). Now that we're talking about cost, you should research all the products that you use in everyday life and find out how much they actually cost to manufacture. Tech gadgets are a great starting place just because theres always someone that wants to know much their $600+ phone costs to make. https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-much-the-iphone-7-costs-to-make/. It's possible the existing products on the market are cheaper than you think to manufacture, but profit margins + employee salaries + utilities add up. Founders might start with a salary of $40,000/yr but a good engineer fresh out of college is 80,000 a year. If you live in NY or SF then in $100,000/yr and thats only the first year, they're gonna want a raise. And they're gonna need benefits, like health care, a free T passes, and free office snacks. Employees also need high end computers, and those fancy standing desks from steelcase that go up and down at the push of a button (I just got one ordered, can't wait for it to arrive)
Finally, every year there's one or two news stories about a genius high school student inventing something (most recent one is that ocean cleaning robot) or discovering something. But really there aren't companies run by teenagers. And most of the time nothing comes of those genius teenagers. I'm not saying this to discourage you. It's just another thing you have to research when you're reading about product design and becoming a founder. Maybe there are lots of teen CEO's and I don't know about them (I'm just a guy on the internet). Or maybe you find out why you're different than other teenagers, and you're product and company will succeed. You should consider that the value of your product is not monetary, if you go through with prototyping it, then maybe it's your ticket into a better university, and/or a good project to show when applying for a scholarship. And/or a good project to show capability when applying to an internship and/or research lab. I have college interns work for me, they all think they know how to make stuff, and they don't. And when they apply to work with me, it's clear they don't know as much as they think they do. Don't be like them, if you go through the entire process of making your product a reality, then someone will believe you when you tell them you know how to make stuff.
-hopefully this is somewhat helpful. Sort of got into rambling near the end... so hopefully it's not read as a put down. Feel free to respond in thread or directly if you want to chat more.
Read more about him
Stranger in a Strange Land
edit I somehow spelled "land" as "place"
Moving to the city is a start. But I suggest finding employment in a target-rich environment, like waitressing. I would avoid anonymous sex parties as a novice, just on general principles. Date a bunch of different guys, find a FWB, just remember, you can be sexually adventurous in a lot of ways, just never lose your dignity. If if feels wrong, don't do it. And that includes letting a guy into your apartment if you get a bad vibe. IOW, trust your instincts, don't let a smile and some talk override your gut.
Take your time. There is a tendency to want everything to happen at once, but it's not the way things work. Got a book for you, OP. Stranger In A Strange Land.
So you believe scientists who have NEVER taken these things because they haven't come up with evidence to support it yet, when you could also just go yourself and come with plenty of hands on experience. If you don't know that it can take you there, then you haven't gone there. That is all. You didn't take that road so you don't think it exists.
So your proof that something doesn't exists is that YOU haven't been there and that scientist who also have not been there agree.
However if you were to ask this scientist among many OTHERS who HAVE been there. They'd say it's real.
***This.
I think My Stroke of Insight should be required reading (TED talk) for anyone that works with stroke patients.
Also, I heard about a similar-ish book from an NPR interview that was recently released.
Stroke victim (and expert, IIRC). The story was on NPR and TED I think.
This it maybe?
http://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0452295548
Take a look at Jill Boldt Taylor's Ted talk or buy her book.
If that site interests you, you absolutely must read A Stroke of Insight. Basically, a young neuroscientist gets an unexpected stroke. She recounts the feeling as the left hemisphere of her brain shut down. She felt a oneness with everything, to the point where walking or picking up objects was difficult-impossible. I think what she experienced may be similar to the experiences of people who "died and met God."
She also has a book out on the same subject: http://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0452295548/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256320086&sr=8-1
If you haven't already, you should look into My Stroke of Insight. The story is told from a neuroscientist who had a stroke. It really helped me understand what it is like to have a stroke and how to get better.
As an adult with strabismus (proof) can I recommend a book? Fixing my Gaze
is incredibly insightful and a really easy read.
You might be interested in Fixing My Gaze, a book by neuroscientist Sue Barry on using vision therapy to gain 3-D vision. It's been at least a year since I've read it, but I remember her discussing how beautiful she found watching snow fall when she could see the space between the flakes.
Barry shares similar experiences in a TED talk. The start of the talk is worth watching for context, but if you want to jump straight to her experience of 3-D vision, it starts at 11:00 minutes.
In the book, she mentions a truck driver who had to quit his job after gaining 3-D vision because he could no longer use his lazy eye to read signs while his dominant eye watched the road. However, I got the impression most people who gain it consider it worthwhile.
I'm really sorry for that, man. That's what they said would eventually happen to me as well when I was 14 so I should wear corrective lenses. I hated glasses, not to mention the difference was so drastic that the doc had to prescribe a small number for my right eye as well, so I ended up ditching them for good. 23 years later, the right is still fine and dandy, except for the whole stereopsis thing, of course. Funny thing is, Lasik would totally take care of the defects in the left, but I'd still have the amblyopia, since the brain got accustomed to that one sending utter shit so it ignores it. However, recent research has proved the brain is much more flexible than previously believed and amblyopia can be corrected through therapy well beyond the infancy, like the old literature used to teach. [This book] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465020739/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_hIkavb1A4CJ77
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465020739/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_hIkavb1A4CJ77) is a wonderful account of how a neuroscientist was finally able to develop tridimensional vision in her forties. Trouble is, the breakthrough therapy is proprietary afaik, and I don't have a few thousand bucks just lying around so it won't happen any time in the near future for me. It would certainly be nice to get a spare eye at some point, though.
That was Norah Vincent...
It's much harder to be a man than it is to be a woman. Read "Self-Made Man" by Norah Vincent. The author (a woman) disguises herself as a man and lives that way for several months. Kind of a "Black Like Me" experience. She comes to the conclusion that, compared to men, women have it pretty easy.
> how best to pick them up because they've never tried to pick themselves up There was a link posted to this subreddit that I read last night about a woman who went undercover as a man and tried her hand at seducing women
If you're referring to Self-Made Man, then the author did have experience picking up women, seeing as she is a lesbian.
I know I'm a little late to this conversation, but for anyone who is seriously interested in following this thought exercise, I would suggest reading the book "Self-Made Man" by Norah Vincent, who spent a year as a man. There are some pretty interesting insights, I thought.
How about "Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again" by Norah Vincent (http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Journey-Manhood/dp/0670034665/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427239563&sr=1-1&keywords=Self-Made+Man%3A+One+Woman%27s+Journey+into+Manhood+and+Back+Again%09by+Norah+Vincent)
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons
I personally felt this was a super page turner. He is a great story teller, and as a primatologist that went to study baboons in 1960's Africa he has some stories to tell!
A Primate's Memoir, by Robert Sapolsky. It's not about manhood, per se, but it is funny and very wise.
Δεν έχω ιδέα αλλά έπιασα το νόημα και νομίζω ότι εγώ γέλασα σε άλλο σημείο :P Ήταν αστείο βιβλίο τελικά.
Άσχετο, αλλά ένα άλλο πολύ αστείο βιβλίο είναι το A primate's memoir, που είναι για τη ζωή ενός νευροεπιστήμονα στην Αφρική. Γράφει πάρα πολύ αστεία.
Sapolsky's book about baboons.
This great "prequel" outlines the tuberculosis outbreak in the troop!
One of my favorite books I think.
> You can be a star neurosurgery resident and then get diagnosed with lung cancer and die two years later
Are you refferring to Paul Kalanithi's memoir "When Breath Becomes Air"? Your example is almost too specific to be coincidence. Have you read the book?
https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X
Read the book "when breath becomes air' - it's an autobiography of a world-renowned neurosurgeon reflecting on his professional and life purpose in an uplifting way despite tragic circumstances.
https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X
Follow your dream and don't let anyone stop you. Period.
When Breath Becomes Air
I'm so so happy to hear you have an understanding husband. I see that you don't have many others who understand but seriously if you could either have him or five close friends that understood you would probably pick him, that is really priceless. He will support you through this in all ways and I will pray that you both have strength through it all.
I know how hard it can be to lose a dream job but I don't know how hard it is to go through all you are dealing with, but I truly empathize. You know, there may be something more fitting for you, something that will make you happier if, indeed, you do lose this job. Have you ever had it where you thought you knew what you wanted but life handed you something even more perfect that you couldn't have guessed you needed or ever contrived? I wish for you that is what is in store.
It really is so awesome for my brother, I hope one day soon to talk with him and have him look back. As hard as this is it is so amazing to know those who come through it, its so so so damn impressive you don't even know, so fucking impressive, you are the most awesome people this world has to offer even if you don't know it.
Please remember, it is not you that is failing, please think of it like you would alzheimers or cancer or any number of things that you can't control, be your own best friend please, if this was your friend wouldn't you tell them its so sad to hear them blame themselves for something they can't help? I bet you would, I bet it would break your heart to hear them beat themselves up for being sick. It breaks my heart.
I'm so glad you are not losing hope. I know I am not going through what you are and can only understand so much, but I want you to know it would truly be a pleasure to be here for you, on good days and bad, anytime you want to talk, please feel free to. Truly, it is a pleasure and an honor to be there for someone as amazing as you. I know, I know you think what do I know of you, but like I said I have seen this with not only my close family member but a few other close friends. That you are already this smart about it it really is impressive, of those I know who suffer from this, not one admitted the problem and sought help right away like you are, I can only imagine you are going to be the most successful, in that group of people who really come through this with flying colors and even help those who struggle.
Also, you may want to check out this woman and her book she is a long time sufferer of schizophrenia and a successful law school professor :) Her story is just one of so many, and soon enough yours will be too, God willing <3
In addition to Yalom and Oliver Sacks:
The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Ellen Saks
Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher
The Mummy at the Dining Room Table - Eminent Therapists Reveal Their Most Unusual Cases and What They Teach Us About Human Behavior by Jeffrey Cottler and Jon Carlson
Depends on skill, free time, climate,crops. It's not for everyone, though.
Wow. All Hail the $64 Tomato http://www.amazon.com/64-Tomato-Fortune-Endured-Existential/dp/1565125576 Thanks for the update and good luck with your next version.
Luckily I've got a bunch of that build list already so maybe not as expensive as your setup for me.
You should check out the book The $64 Tomato
Yikes, that's because I seriously misremembered the name. It's "The $64 Tomato." Sorry about that!
https://www.amazon.com/64-Tomato-Fortune-Endured-Existential/dp/1565125576
Seems like one of those things where you'll spend more money in the learning that you would in just buying. Read this.
This is a great book https://www.amazon.com/64-Tomato-Fortune-Endured-Existential/dp/1565125576
Gardening is very worthwhile and not just for the food. Start small and yes it can be very rewarding and frugal. The first year less so as you buy any equipment or containers you need, but look around the web there are tons of resources for new backyard gardeners. I like to dabble and grow small things in containers which is fun and rewarding. Herbs give you the best bang for the buck, easy and small amount of effort required and buying the leaves at the store is hugely expensive (1 small container of basil leaves $2.99 vs 1 large basil plant at Trader Joes for $2.99). Fresh herbs make such a difference when cooking.
However.... a great and humorous look at the other side is The $64 Tomato: How One Many Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden. http://www.amazon.com/The-64-Tomato-Fortune-Existential/dp/1565125576
You might be interested in the book The $64 Tomato
In my experience, it's not any cheaper that shopping at a produce store, but the quality of the produce that you can get is much higher from your garden. I have kids, and I think it's very useful for them to understand where their food comes from.
You can do gardening on the cheap, but it takes a lot of time and effort. Ie going on Craigslist and Freecycle for cheap containers and pallets. Maybe even manure if you're in a more rural location.
I hear it's moving into Vietnam as Korean wages get higher. There's also the North Korean animation industry, which has some pretty interesting results.
I read a bizarre graphic novel called "Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by, Guy Delisle. Worth a read.
https://www.amazon.com/Pyongyang-Journey-North-Guy-Delisle/dp/1897299214
There was a commentary on this article that made it to /r/bestof. Basically the idea was that it simplified North Korea's history and situation so much for the sake of telling an uncomplicated joke. A lot of the things that go on up there is ridiculous and sometimes outright hilarious... But these are real things that happen to real people and affect real lives.
There was a book by cartoonist Guy Delisle that offered a somewhat terrifying perspective on the lying that goes on in North Korea -- everyone knows that they tell lies, but they cannot speak up because they are terrified of a government that feels confident enough to tell all the lies because they know they can destroy whoever speaks truth.
"A graphic novel cannot be non-fiction." What? A graphic novel can easily be nonfiction. That is OP's point. Example: http://www.amazon.com/Pyongyang-Journey-North-Guy-Delisle/dp/1897299214
I think you are the one stuck on semantics.
Edit: Clarity.
Here's another example of a great non-fiction graphic "novel". It's growing and definitely warrants being distinguished from fiction.
Now everyone can have a copy. http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Play-With-Lions-Testicles/dp/1933016825/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1394680349&amp;sr=8-1-fkmr3&amp;keywords=learning+to+play+with+a+lion%27s+testicles
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Play-With-Lion%C2%92s-Testicles/dp/1933016825
"...it topped the show's list of "Titles Not to Read" for September 2013."
[Holy shit the top review is incredible!] (http://www.amazon.com/review/R11JC402VC3I6U/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&amp;ASIN=1933016825&amp;nodeID=283155&amp;store=books#wasThisHelpful)
This Book.....
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Play-With-Lion%C2%92s-Testicles/dp/1933016825
Learning to Play With a Lion's Testicles
They do it on bulls to make them steers. I looked for a picture of what it looks like afterward to send you, but I wound up finding this instead:
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Play-Lion-Testicles-Unexpected/dp/1933016825
So, that's a thing.
Plenty of writers started late. You're fine. Do NOT let bullshit like this slow you down. Here are a few suggestions:
Here are a few youtube channels about writing, and links to some books on writing.
Lessons from the Screenplay This one is focused on scripts, but the concepts translate well when it comes to the overall story.
Terrible Writing Advice These are all examples of what NOT to do.
Just Write Similar to LFTS, but of lesser quality.
Stephen King talking about writing
The Elements of Style The OG writing book.
Style: the art of writing well
Stephen King: On Writing Part memoir and part writing guide. Well worth reading.
These are good, but always be on the lookout for more resources.
My last bit of advice, and probably the most important, is be authentic. It's your story. Write what you want to read, not just what other people want. Say what you want to say, even if it's uncomfortable, even if it's not profitable. Don't be a pussy, and you'll be ok.
Learn to write well. I recommend this book.
Do yourself a favor and read Stephen King's book "On Writing". The first half tells you what made him the writer he is today. The second half is his personal tips and tricks on the craft, including his take on the plotting vs pantsing theory as well as referencing other self-help books on writing. He also challenges new writers to commit to 1k words a day, which doesn't work for everyone but it certainly lit a fire under my ass.
edit: link for the book on amazon. 13 bucks well spent.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC0SIM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1
Ebooks always make me happy :) Thanks for the contest!
One helpful resource is "On Writing" by Stephen King. The first half is a memoir, and the second half deals with the craft of writing.
Respect, and indifference. Those are the two big things, and they are related.
Compared to a woman, people are far less likely to feel sympathy for a man, to offer to help a man, etc. and are more likely to expect a man to be self sufficent. There will be far less, if any, empathy for a man. Men are not generally allowed by society to seek emotional support that women are allowed to - it is part of the expectation of self sufficiency. Men are held accountable far more than women are.
On the other hand, the reason people hold men more accountable, expect greater self sufficiency, and offer less emotional support is that men are more respected, which is not trivial. People unconsciously assume less agency for women. And of course, the whole subconscious understanding that eggs are expensive and sperm is cheap.
Womandhood is automatic. Manhood has to be earned. Everyone, men and women both, constantly hold men to a standard and judge them according to that standard. Men who fail to meet that standard aren't "real men". Women don't experience that at all.
Men are expected to be useful.
Although it has problems, focusing on some fairly marginal groups of men, the book Self Made Man in which Norah Vincent passes herself off as a man for a year, is something that I would recommend to anyone to read.
Could it be that all people have challenges and frustrations and sometimes get angry, with varying degrees of justification? Arguing that "my anger is justified and that of another group is not" is likely but won't really lead to deeper understanding or resolution of issues.
There was a book written by a woman writer who dressed in male drag for a year or so. She didn't find the experience as positive as expected.
Here is is: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OT8GTE?btkr=1
From a review:
>For 18 months, she disguised herself as a man, renamed herself Ned, joined a men's bowling league, visited strip bars, and dated women. Along the way, she found that the freedom and privileges enjoyed by men were counterbalanced by a constant testing and severe limits on emotions. She also found women to be distrustful, ever ready to criticize men for being emotionally distant yet clearly preferring men who met stereotypical images of strength and virility.
For an alternative medium (and relatively light-hearted), what about Hyperbole and a Half's entries on depression? Part 1, part 2, book version.
Some other possibilities:
have her read this book
http://www.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms-ebook/dp/B00BSB2AE4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1398461194&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=hyperbole+and+a+half
Riddle 1 - A goblet to drink potions out of! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000817BQC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=32C0C61J310BI&amp;coliid=IRF1DDCPWGG7N&amp;psc=1
Riddle 2 - A broom to ride around. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00940DUE0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=32C0C61J310BI&amp;coliid=I2HCV5SJI9A0SA&amp;psc=1
Riddle 3 - A hat to wear for formal occasions http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IXCU9SK/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=32C0C61J310BI&amp;coliid=I1YM6VHB4IGD7
Riddle 4 - A book for lessons! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BSB2AE4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=20STX7OWX18SI&amp;coliid=IY33907YDWDWD
Riddle 5 - A trunk to store everything in http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004835DI4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=32C0C61J310BI&amp;coliid=I4VN3YKOQ3102&amp;psc=1
Bonus Riddle - A cloak to wear and keep warm http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005ICGFDQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&amp;colid=1SJ3U9NEDM7M9&amp;coliid=I2EI50W0EZV7M3
Mischief Managed.
This one this one or this one!
Hyperbole and a Half always makes me laugh my butt off.
Looks like it!
http://www.amazon.com/Can-Keep-Jersey-Countries-Basketball/dp/0345495705
on the left hand side click: "look inside" you can rea the first few pages for free.
/r/askscience taught me more about biology and evolution than I ever learned in school.
Uncle Tungsten taught me more about the elements than I learned in high school chemistry. I highly recommend it. Very easy to read, not that long. Kind of an autobiography of a boy that grew up in London during WWII. Who was really interested in chemicals and started collecting the periodic table.
i feel like providing an example may be more illustrative than my previous reply. also, i thought of a good example of the "power" argument.
okay, so my personal example (from a former gf): she was in high school, dating this guy. i think it was their first or second date, and they were parked somewhere in his truck, presumably making out or something. she told him to stop, he wouldn't, and he forcibly raped her. she went on to actually date him as a boyfriend, which i know sounds crazy but i have heard very similar stories from other women.
anyway, we know (from personal experience) that adolescent and young adult males tend to be extremely horny and pursue sexual gratification very assiduously. to me the obvious (and only) conclusion of such a scenario is that the rape was about sex and not "power".
the alternate scenario: i'm re-reading a book called "a primate's memoir" (excellent book btw), in which the writer - a neuroscientist (and field biologist?) - tracks and details the happenings amongst a baboon troop in africa.
he witnesses at one point the "rape" of a female baboon...typically female baboons only mate when they are in estrus, and they consent (and indeed choose) which baboon(s) they are going to mate with. however in this instance a formerly-powerful male had lost a fight and was angry and had beaten up a couple of toddler baboons, then chased down and forcibly had sex with a female who wasn't in heat...she resisted him but was overcome, etc.
this to me does seem like a "power"-rape scenario. i can imagine similar types of exchanges in humans. so i'd like to amend my earlier statement regarding power rapes. probably there are human males who, once they begin such raping do so on a regular basis, so perhaps where the idea of this being the prevalent sort comes from.
still, i do think that the majority of rapes are about sex.
I found this book by accident. I really enjoyed it. It was my introduction to North Korea. And its a graphic novel. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea http://www.amazon.com/Pyongyang-A-Journey-North-Korea/dp/1897299214
If you haven't already, I highly recommend his book "On Writing". It is half about the craft and half about his life, and all enjoyable. Quite a good read.
You're not too off. There was a book where the author made himself homeless (picked a major city at random and went with just $20) to see how long it would take him to get a furnished apartment (obviously not a fancy one or anything, just livable). It was only like 6 months or something, maybe less. He obviously also wasn't allowed to use his degrees or anything, he couldn't just suddenly get a job as a software engineer or something.
A big part of the point of the book was that a lot of homeless people have some kind of mental illness or need further care, the book was supposed to be what a "regular joe" could do. Also, having worked with a decent amount in some charities and things (I'm in SF), a lot of homeless people aren't exactly mentally ill, but have extreme problems with authority. Which makes it very hard to keep down a job.
The author's path to "success" was basically as soon as he got into town he found a police officer, said I'm homeless where do I go. Officer took him to a shelter. At the shelter he asked about work programs. Pretty quickly he got accepted into a program as a mover and started getting money through that. Obviously wasn't exactly an easy time, but it's also not impossible to drag yourself out of if you're mentally sound and can present yourself well. My memory of the whole situation's a little hazy, been a while since reading.
edit: Found the book. He went to South Carolina and it was actually $25 and a sleeping bag.
Frank and Beans!
ooooh nice
Danke!
>> OK, Mr. Gish Gallop, let me be specific. Unscientific nonsense:
> (Yoga Sutras, Chapter 1, verse 2) which are due to "samskaras" -impressions left in the nervous system by past experience that give rise to thoughts that are inappropriate for dealing with the current situation... which, come to think of it, is one way of defining PTSD. Asanas, the physical postures, aren't meant to be aerobic exercise, but postures that one attempts to assume in a specific order, while paying attention to sensations in the body as one attempts to get into each different position. This is supposed to establish better connections between mind and body, while serving as a preparation for meditation. Meditation (at least dhyan (AKA Transcendental Meditation)), with or without asanas, almost certainly has a better effect on PTSD than any other known therapy.
Hmmm....
(Yoga Sutras, Chapter 1, verse 2) which are due to "samskaras" -impressions left in the nervous system by past experience that give rise to thoughts that are inappropriate for dealing with the current situation... which, come to think of it, is one way of defining PTSD.
Here's what the Mayo Clinic says about PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.
You don't see a clear connection between "impressions left in the nervous system by past experience that give rise to thoughts that are inappropriate for dealing with the current situation" and "flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event?" that are "triggered by a terrifying event?"
To me, at least, "PTSD" is merely the most extreme form of what yogis call "samskaras." In the context of Yoga, anytime thoughts arise that are not relevant for the moment are a sign of imbalance or non-health in the person due to the nervous system being overwhelmed by previous experience. When a person is sufficiently healthy that these inappropriate thoughts don't arise, then the person is enlightened, though that interpretation has its own problems, like the stroke-victim who lost her ability to verbalize thoughts and is therefore confident that she is enlightened.
My comment about asanas was meant to acknowledge that there's no known way (at least I don't) to evaluate the claim in any scientific sense:
This is supposed to establish better connections between mind and body, while serving as a preparation for meditation.
Would you have preferred that I said mystical writings from the bronze age claimed that this was supposed to establish better connections between mind and body while serving as a preparation for meditation?
Now, the last part I already dealt with:
Meditation (at least dhyan (AKA Transcendental Meditation)), with or without asanas, almost certainly has a better effect on PTSD than any other known therapy.
You can falsify that last statement (or not) merely by looking at the existing literature on PTSD therapies and seeing how well they work. Check back periodically as more studies are done and eventually a pattern will emerge concerning which PTSD-therapy works best for which group(s) of people in which circumstances.
Here is the book that the show was based on:
http://www.amazon.com/Orange-Is-New-Black-Womens/dp/0385523394/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1377290448&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=orange+is+the+new+black
It is actually based on the incarceration of Piper Kerman. I have read the book and the show is actually much better than the book in my opinion in this case.