Reddit mentions: The best artist & architect biographies

Note: I am not an engineer, but I do have some suggestions of things you may like.

Books:

• Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Krantz: Great book about the beginnings of the NASA program, Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, and later. Gene Krantz was a flight director and worked as a test pilot for a long time, and his stories are gripping. Beyond engineering and space, it's a pretty insightful book on leadership in high-stress team situations.
  
  
• Kelly: More Than My Share by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson: This is on my shelf but I haven't read it yet. Kelly Johnson was a pioneer in the world of flight, leading the design and construction of some of the most advanced planes ever built, like the U2 and the SR-71. Kelly's impact on the business of aerospace and project management is immense, definitely a good guy to learn about. Plus he designed the P38 Lightning, without a doubt the most beautiful plane ever built ;)
  
  
• Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of my Years at Lockheed by Ben Rich: A fantastic look at the inside of Lockheed Martin's advanced projects division, the Skunk Works. Ben Rich succeeded Kelly Johnson at Lockheed, so this one is going to overlap with the book above quite a bit. I loved the pace of this one, and it covered a lot more than just the F-117, as the cover would suggest - cool info on the SR-71, U2, F104, the D21 supersonic drone, and stealth technology in general. Beyond that, it provides an inside look at the intricacies of DoD contract negotiation, security/clearance issues, and advanced projects. Awesome book, highly recommend.
  
  
• Elon Musk's Bio by Ashley Vance: A detailed history of all things Musk, I recommend it for the details about SpaceX and the goal to make humans a multi-planetary species. Musk and his (now massive) team are doing it: thinking big, getting their hands dirty, and building/launching/occasionally blowing up cool stuff.
  
  Videos/Games/Blogs/Podcasts:
  
  
• Selenian Boondocks: general space blog, lots of robotics and some space policy
  
  
• Gravity Loss: another space blog, lots about future launch systems
  
  
• The Age of Aerospace: Boeing made a cool series of videos last year for their 100th birthday. Great look at the history of an aerospace mainstay, though it seems a bit self-aggrandizing at times.
  
  
• If you want to kill a ton of time on the computer while mastering the basics of orbital mechanics by launching small green men into space, Kerbal Space Program is for you. Check out /r/kerbalspaceprogram if your interested.
  
  
• Subreddits like /r/spacex, /r/blueorigin, and /r/ula are worth following for space news.
  

It's a bit more civil engineering than you might be interested in, but Brunel: The Man Who Built The World is a pretty good read. Summary:

> One of the great minds of the 19th century, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was responsible for some of the most impressive engineering feats of his day. By the age of 26, he had been appointed chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, linking Bristol to London. His love of steamships led him to build a series of revolutionary vessels, including the Great Britain—the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. Illustrated with a wealth of blueprints, drawings, and rare photographs, this new biography tracks the life and achievements of this Victorian-era genius. A fascinating portrait of ambition and innovation, Brunel provides ample evidence to support the claim that Brunel was indeed “the man who built the world.”

Personally I value how much of an effort he makes. Many CEOs just find one good company, make it as profitable as possible and just sit on their fortune. With all the companies he is creating, to me it really feels like he's trying to do good for the world. SolarCity and Tesla are trying to help the environment. Tesla, The Boring Company and Hyperloop are trying to revolutionize transport. OpenAI and Neuralink are trying to be a safeguard to make sure that computers don't kill us. SpaceX is for when the world can't fix it's problems and needs to go somewhere else.

Elon Musk has problems. Period. Anybody who tells you otherwise is an idiot. He sucks at relationships, he can be practically sociopathic at times, and he frequently sets unrealistic timelines for his most important projects. But on the other hand, his laser-like focus and drive in his companies which makes him practically sociopathic at times results in frequent success in them (albeit not necessarily on the original timeline but still,) which in turn allows them to bring newer, better technology into public knowledge (Who gave a shit about electric cars before Tesla? Practically nobody. Who gives a shit now? A lot of people + car companies). But most importantly, he tries. He truly believes that everything he creates could work, and some of it will. However, I believe that he has already succeeded. Even if his companies go bankrupt in the future, he has already inspired many people, and in doing so he has insured that more people will try to help the world just like him. And even if many of them fail, eventually someone will succeed and then maybe, just maybe, we can start to fix some of our problems.

Just a few notes before I end:

• First impressions matter. I first heard about Musk because of Tesla and I thought that that was cool, giving me a good first impression.
  
  
• I'm a really big optimist. I see that stuff could work, and I hope it will.
  
  
• Reading over this again I make it sound like Elon is Christ reborn, here to fix all of our problems, and that's not entirely what I meant to say. I know that he is partly in it for the money, as everybody is, but I do feel like he is motivated by a need to do good, at least in part.
  
  
• I might also recommend reading this book about Elon Musk. It goes through his successes and failures quite thoroughly. It's not really pro- or anti-Musk, in fact it's actually quite neutral if I remember correctly (I read it a while back), but it is VERY illuminating.

Every time a discussion regarding tourism to North Korea starts, this point always comes up. After all, it is a valid and natural point of concern.

Yes, North Korea has concentration camps and an atrocious human rights record. Nobody (except the North Korean government) is going to deny that. Yes, any foreigners in North Korea will have significant restrictions on freedom of movement. No one who has gone there is going to tell you otherwise.

Having been educated and cultivated in the West, where oftentimes we can take matters like human rights and freedom of movement for granted, our instant reaction is to be disgusted by this - so disgusted that we'll cry out "North Korea is the most evil place in the world" and instantly clam up in anger. Sometimes that anger, and the lack of reliable information about North Korea, will lead us to sensationalize. We'll try to explain unexplainable evil as a massive prison camp or a farcical socialist movie set.

This is natural and has basis in reality, but, in my opinion, is unhelpful.

If we want to truly make some sense out of that unexplainable evil, which to an appreciable extent is a prerequisite for any sort of meaningful change, we need to take a more nuanced approach. Sometimes, that could involve taking a visit.

From my perspective, going on a tour to North Korea is not supposed to be like sunning in Mallorca or frolicking in Disneyworld. You don't go there to have "fun", you go there to learn. If your objective in traveling is to have "fun", then by god don't go to North Korea. But my objective in traveling places is not to have "fun"; it's to learn.

The next instinctual response is to cry out: "But you won't learn anything! They're just going to parade you around and show you propaganda!"

Again, I think this line of thinking trivializes the matter. In earlier stages of Western education systems, we oftentimes learn about bias and come to perceive it as an absolute negative. In secondary schools you might hear kids going "oh, this source is biased, so we can't use it!" This is incorrect. Bias is not an absolute negative; biased sources like propaganda simply need to be approached differently. Propaganda is rich with information, but not the factual, face-value information you might expect from some place like an encyclopedia. Instead, you glean the wealth of contextual information it offers. Let's say you're reading Chinese propaganda from the Cultural Revolution, and some of it praises this guy named Lin Biao, while some of it denounces him. From that you shouldn't conclude "some of this shit must be fake". Instead, you can extract hints of the regime's worldview, and use the propaganda to piece together the context that perhaps Lin Biao had a falling out with Mao.

Visiting North Korea is much like that. There's a richness of context from both what's seen and unseen, from what's heard and unheard. If you're equipped with the right advance knowledge and the right academic mindset, there is in fact a lot you can internalize about actual North Koreans and the country itself.

Yes, there remains the issue of lining the pockets of the regime and whatnot, and I'm fully aware of that fact. As with everything else relating to the DPRK, there's layers of nuance to this financial facet of the regime that would take rather long to explain, so I won't do it here.

If you do want to hear that explained/debated, and go beyond CNN articles and "Team America", I'd recommend starting off with the following books:

• Under the Loving Care of Fatherly Leader, by Bradley K. Martin: A 900 page behemoth that's probably the most comprehensive guide to the North Korean regime out there.
  
• Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick: If you want to learn more about the ordinary lives of "actual North Koreans" from outside Pyongyang.
  
• The Aquariums of Pyongyang, by Choi-hwan Kang: The first book published from someone who went through one of those infamous concentration camps.
  
• The Impossible State, by Victor Cha: Written by a former White House official and Six-Party Talks participant, this book provides a view into the complex foreign policy calculus relating to the DPRK.
  
  If after you finish reading all that stuff you get curious enough to go, then that's your choice. If you don't, no one's going to force you to go either. We're fortunate enough to live in societies that generally respect freedom of choice and movement; if we want to play the game of moral superiority, being able to visit North Korea is the ultimate manifestation of that freedom.
  
  

I wouldn't worry about college; you'll be studying things more attuned to your interests, and you'll be surrounded by similar sorts of people. College is actually great for figuring yourself out for this very reason, since you'll be exposed not just to all sorts of different types of content and perspectives, but you'll also get some chances to go more in-depth on particular topics of interest, especially once you start taking upper-level courses that expect specialization. My favorite college memories are actually of afternoons in the library reading, taking notes and putting papers together. I loved this so much I've even started writing my own stuff post-college.

As for getting to know yourself, I'd recommend reading. Since this is the INTJ-sub, I know everyone here prefers things to be a bit more direct, and while I certainly read more nonfiction, I've found things like art, music, poetry, film and fiction are great ways to understand yourself better than any nonfiction work could tap into. I got into fiction via Joseph Campbell, a literary critic who himself was heavily influenced by Jung, and from there it was writers like Hermann Hesse, James Joyce, George Saunders and Olga Grushin that taught me things about myself that I doubt any nonfiction work could. This isn't to downplay the importance of nonfiction (Heidegger, Marion and Kierkegaard have all been huge for me as well), but since fiction and the arts in general don't seem as valued throughout reddit, I thought I'd throw that out there. Read.

>If there is less work to do, everyone can split the work up and work less. Those who work more or do more important work should be compensated accordingly.

How do you fairly define what is 'important work'? How is compensation determined from different types of of work?


>and decide in some democratic way in how to implement it and how to share the wealth. Unlike the totalitarian structure we have today.

What if the janitors in a big company collectively refuse to take any less pay then the highest payed scientist there? You can't get them out, it's collective ownership. Speaking of ownership, is it a 1:1 ratio by person? So said janitors would be the biggest voting block at Google? Is the ratio determined on prestige, skill, or even raw intelligence? How is that fair to those not endowed with said advantages?

>The space program has been driven by public institutions from the beginning. In fact it was the Soviets who started the space race by sending the first satellite and people into space. And we had to create a government program and plan our education around math and science to catch up with them. Capitalism wasn't going to cut it.

Yes! I am for this control of the market. Many pivotal technologies would not have come to exist were it not for government investment. But do you know what companies do to win those contracts? Compete. The government has an abundance of choice when choosing contractors, or simply investing/subsidizing sectors of the economy. While you could recreate this effect in a public system, why not let capitalism do what it does best? Competition.

>I mean, even at SpaceX, people know about Elon Musk but not Thomas Muller, who is the actual brains behind the company. He's an actual rocket scientist and its his work (along with his fellow engineers) that made re-usable rockets possible. Not some billionaire throwing his money around. Labor, not capital, gets things done.

Here is Musk's biography. While he undoubtedly gets help from others, he heads a lot of the technical development there.

>Labor, not capital, gets things done.

The new labor is robots, and the goal is to make people obsolete. Thus, day by day, as technology grows more powerful, human labor grows weaker. The very nature of technology implies immense existing capital. Look at semiconducters, where do you think most of them are built?

Thus, with a democratic means of production, where the labor is mostly robots, how do things even get done? With capital ideally being evenly distributed, everyone would have some of these labor saving machines, but organization into an economy would have to be run by the government.

Why not keep the free market system and give citizens a substantial monthly dividend? While $1000 is a start, I envision it getting much higher as automation truly comes into its own. Strong enough, the dividend would prevent massive capital accumulation, while still allowing all of capitalism's benefits such as inherent market efficiency, automatic, dynamic supply/demand adjustment, and innovation to manifest automatically.

We dont need to tear down the old. We just need strong adjustments to the existing one.

His relationship with his second wife Talulah Riley still seems to be extremely friendly and supportive? As far as I can tell she’s had nothing but quite lovely things to say about him and their marriages, and vice versa.

“Elon and I are best friends. We still see each other all the time and take care of each other. If this could continue indefinitely it would be lovely. When you’ve been with someone for eight years on and off, you really learn how to love them. He and I are very good at loving each other…”
Link

She also rejected the idea he was the ‘alpha’ in their relationship:

“Elon’s ex-wife Justine has described how, while dancing together at their wedding reception, he told her, ‘I am the alpha in this marriage.’ Given his extraordinary power, wealth and the fact he’s 14 years Talulah’s senior, you might guess that this has been the case with her, too. Talulah bristles and for the first time fixes me with a stare. ‘Alpha is a phrase that gets bandied about in America but it’s not something I really thought about before I moved there. I wouldn’t apply it to Elon or myself.’”
Link

ETA: I also found this quote from Riley taken from a Musk biography:

”Elon doesn’t have to listen to anyone in life. No one. He doesn’t have to listen to anything that doesn’t fit into his worldview. But he proved he would take shit from me. He said ‘Let me listen to her and figure these things out’. He proved that he valued my opinion on things in life and was willing to listen.”

I was gonna say Frederik L. Schodt's: Manga! Manga! but you beat me too it. (although as all_my_fish said it might be a bit hard to find it.)

Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics and Dreamland Japan aren't too shabby in terms of information on manga (although again you will have to find them first.)

Also A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi is an autobiographic manga about the gekiga movement that took place withing manga (and talks about the history of manga to a certain extent. (It is also a pretty well done manga in and of itself)).

I wish I could help find you some better non-book sources.

Your essay seems ok so far.

Here is a couple of lines from Schodt's book that you might could use:

>The word manga (pronounced "mahngah") can mean caricature, cartoon, comic strip, comic book, or animation. Coined by the Japanese woodblock- print artist Hokusai in 1814, it uses the Chinese ideograms [I don't know how to type these sorry] man ("involuntary" or "in spite of oneself") and [another one chinese character] ga ("picture"). Hokusai was evidently trying to describe something like "whimsical sketches." But it is interesting to note that the first ideogram has a secondary meaning of "morally corrupt." The term manga did not come into popular usage until the beginning of this century. Before that, cartoons were called Toba-e or "Toba pictures," after an 11th-century artist; giga, or "playful pictures"; kyoga, or "crazy pictures"; and, in the late 19th century, ponchi-e, or "Punch pictures," after the British magizine. In addition to manga one also hears today the word gekiga or "drama pictures" to describe the more serious, realistic story-comics. Some Japanese, however, simply adopt an English word to describe their favorite reading matter: komikkusu.

(from page 18 of Manga! Manga!)

there you go a source you can use and quote and make your teacher happy (maybe).

Booktopia's got a bunch of Aussie military history books here.

Regimental Books has military books in e-book format too.

I think if she likes military history and biographies she might, at a stretch, enjoy Nothing To Envy, which I thought was an amazing account of life in North Korea. Also a book called The Aquariums of Pyongyang.

Biographies, she might like Swimming to Antarctica, about an endurance swimmer who swam a mile in antarctic waters.

If she's at all interested in science fiction, Baen's Free E-book Library has a bunch of "starter" books for their series, which tend to be military-based sci-fi.

And Project Gutenberg has a ton of military history; they're the go-to free e-book supplier. Loads of good stuff. This is my favorite to recommend - A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas by Fanny Loviot. She's such a fun read! Combines pirates, history, and biography all in one.

I came here to nominate Mrs. Ruskin. There is a really great biography about his wife Effie that I enjoyed reading which gets into all those relationships. She was definitely just no.

According to the above bio, Mrs. Ruskin and John Ruskin have left an extensive correspondence that details quite a few things. Mrs. Ruskin initially approved of Effie because she thought Effie was young, naive, and sheltered enough that she could mold her however she wanted. At one point Mrs. Ruskin seemed to have similar designs on Effie's younger sister. When that didn't work out, there is evidence that she and John were plotting to have Effie declared insane and put away in an asylum. Effie figured it out and got her parent's help to escape and then petition Parliament for a divorce. They ended up with an annulment because Effie was willing to be examined by a doctor to prove her virginity and John agreed to claim he had never consummated the marriage. Apparently, during that time you actually had to get parliament to dissolve your marriage with a special act. This is obviously very abbreviated.

In spite of the above, I don't think his mother had anything to do with his unconsummated marriage (unless it was because he had mommy issues, which I wouldn't rule out). In college, I took a class which required reading some of Ruskin's critique of Art and Architecture. At the time I kept thinking that his standards of beauty were so perfectionist that I pitied the woman he married if his standards on female beauty were anything like the excerpts from Stones of Venice. I knew nothing about his private life and was rather excited when I found that biography years later. If his standards on female beauty were anything like his standards on Art and Architecture, it would have been pretty much like man now expecting his partner to actually be air-brushed.

I highly recommend Masters of Doom, it covers the story of John Carmack and John Romero from their pre-id years up until around 2002 or so and goes over the development of early id games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake as well as other companies at the time like Apogee/3D Realms and Softdisk and of course Ion Storm, Daikatana and the issues with its development.

If you find that interesting i also recommend Jordan Mechner's Making of Karateka and Making of Prince of Persia. These are unique in that they are the journal that Jordan Mechner kept while making these games (start with the Karateka one, the PoP one continues more or less where the Karateka one ends) back in the 80s and early 90s up until he started working on The Last Express and give a unique look not only at how development was done at the time, but also how a very known at the time publisher - Brøderbund - was running during their later years (which sadly ended up collapsing in the midlate 90s just when The Last Express was released, which ended up with TLE becoming a commercial failure despite the critical praise it had, in large part because the marketing team left the company weeks before the game's release and nobody was around to market it :-P). Also there are several bits about Mechner's attempts on movie writing since that is another passion of his, although that wasn't as successful (he did write the Prince of Persia movie though and was a moderate success).

Another interesting book is Hackers. This is an older book, written in early 80s about the "computer hackers" that influenced modern computing. A large part of the book is about the earlier communities, like those at MIT from where the free software and open source movement began, but there is also a sizeable part about the early days of gaming companies that would later become powerhouses like Sierra and - again - Brøderbund. This last one is very interesting because you can see the shift from the early Brøderbund days in Hackers towards the more boureaucratic and sterile environment in their later days as shown in Mechner's journals. This also makes me curious about their last days and i'd like to see Mechner writing about the development of The Last Express if for no other reason than that.

Finally a book that i also liked a lot, although this one focuses more on a single genre and the games that make it up, is Dungeons and Desktops which focuses on the development of CRPGs from the early attempts at mainframes down to modern RPG games.

Computer and computer gaming history are favorite topics of mine and i tend to buy books about them (and i really like finding common pieces in different books).

I'm a freelance designer and animator working from home (mainly) and I also teach these things part time at a design college.
First trimester, I needed a lot of naps - particularly after teaching. I would teach for 4 hours, come home and sleep for an hour or two and then get up again to do freelance work, before going to bed early.


Second trimester wasn't as bad. I got a couple of colds in there that pretty much put me out of action for a day or two each time. I was lucky enough that most of the freelance work I was doing was reasonably flexible so if I needed a nap or a day off, then I would take one.
I'm just about to hit third trimester and I can feel myself slowing down again. I finished teaching for the year this week and everyone keeps commenting about how now I'll have that extra time to relax - when in fact it just gives me more time to freelance.


My husband freelances as well (a lot of the time we share projects and clients depending on who has more work on at the time). I'll be the one to stay home primarily (and freelance where I can during naptime/weekends/nights), but there's talk that next year I'll go back and do a little bit of teaching and he'll work from home that day.


Right now I'm trying to work on some personal projects with the aim to bring in some passive income - which will help with my guilt of not earning as much when the baby is born.


If you can get your hands on this book - I highly recommend it.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Divided-Heart-Art-Motherhood/dp/1742591256
It's Australian based, but is full of interviews with artists in different fields and how they coped. It's great!

The 1910’s option seems the most interesting to me because not much is known about those days even tho some great books on the subject have come out recently. The two big names from that era that jump out to me are Windsor McKay (of Little Nemo fame) and George Herriman (Krazy Kat). I don’t know much about McKay other than he was an early pioneer in animation but Herriman had a very interesting life. He was a black guy from New Orleans who spent his entire life “passing” as white so convincingly that no one thought he was black until his birth certificate was uncovered in the 70’s, years after his death.

There have been two recent books about him recently. Michael Tisserand’s George Herriman, a Life in Black and White, which is a straight up biography, and Eddie Campbell’s The Goat Getters, which kinda tells the story of the scene Herriman worked in. I unfortunately haven’t read The Goat Getters yet but the Herriman book is good, even though it is kind of vague about his early years. Tisserand and Campbell might make good potential interview subjects too. Also you’d have an excuse to read a buncha Krazy Kat comics. Picasso was supposedly an avid reader of the strip and Bill Watterson once wrote about it: “THIS is how good a comic strip can be.”.

Also, for whatever it’s worth, E.C. Sugar started Thimble Theater in 1919. That’s the strip that eventually gave the world Popeye although he didn’t show up until 1928 if memory serves. I’m sure there’s a number of other comic greats from that era that I’m blanking on right now which further supports my assertion that the era is ripe for further scholarly examination. Good luck anyways tho, regardless what topic you end up choosing.

I'm glad you got a chance to read those. Really interesting material. I discovered it after the whole series had ended and I guess it had a similar effect on me because I finished of it in one sitting because it was so compelling. It's also an account (or series of accounts) that I recommend to people when they have read all the more popular kwan-li-so and kya-hwa-so stories like The Aquariums of Pyongyang, Eyes of the Tailless Animals, Long Road Home, and a book I used to put on that list Escape from Camp 14. I think everyone knows why I have a hard time recommending it.

For anyone looking for even more information about the camps, a hugely valuable resource would be The Hidden Gulag: The Lives and Voices of "Those Who are Sent to the Mountains" (heads up: this is a PDF link) which was researched and written by David Hawk who is a former Executive Director
of Amnesty International USA, and a former United Nations human rights official. He has worked on documenting the Khmer Rouge atrocities, the genocidal massacres in Rwanda, and now most recently the topic of North Korea. He is a man I have actively tried to get in touch with to request an AMA for our subscribers to no avail, but I would have been surprised if he actually had time for it. We mods are also actively trying to locate Lee Jun Ha to come on for an AMA. Actually we have been quite busy behind the scenes for the last few weeks trying to bring the subscribers quite a few AMAs, some return guests and some new. So we are hoping to have a busy sub for the rest of the year and top it all off with another LiNK fundraiser. So stay tuned.

It really depends on who you are (and what your firm's IT policies are). I think paper and pen are the best. There is something about the physical action of writing that I always find helpful to learning new things.

I personally now use evernote & todoist and their respective browser plugins to keep on-top of such things, but this means you need the permission of IT, I certainly didn't have the right as a grad, I couldn't even run macros.

I find though that you can never go wrong with a notebook and pencil/pen in a new role. If anything it provides a perception that you are organised and serious about listening. I still generally keep a ruled notebook around, I start each new day by dating a new page. I find it a great tool for looking back at your month and seeing your progress especially when you feel you aren't going anywhere.

Here are 2 books I found useful, 1 related one not directly:

• The Sketchnote Handbook
  
• The Rules of Work

Well the Rebirth event going on right now is a great place to start for buying ongoing comics, if you aren't intimidated. Here's a longer post I've written for someone else.

If you just want to get your feet wet... Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories. It is written and illustrated by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, who created those animated series you love and the main story of this comic eventually became an episode.

The book that was the impetus for me to walk in the door of my local comic book store is Dark Night: A True Batman Story, also written by Paul Dini. It's a true story about Paul Dini being mugged back in the 90's when he was working on Batman: The Animated Series. I don't think I could have asked for a better entry into comics.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

The first book that comes to mind is Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. As an entrepreneur, I found it very inspiring—it's all about hard work, perseverance, and doing something that hasn’t been done before. I like to think that’s what we’re doing at 1933, developing unique products for the cannabis market that help people live better lives. I also enjoy reading anything by Ed Rosenthal or Jorge Cervantes, as both taught me how to care for the cannabis plant.

​

Great question!

For Korea in general I took a lot of East Asian history courses, including courses on relations with the west, in college. I studied abroad in South Korea for a time where I studied Korean history (ancient and modern) as well as Korean culture and sociology (mostly South Korea). I also had the pleasure of speaking with someone from North Korea.
But if you're interested to know more, these are some sources I can personally recommend...

Books:

• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
  
  
• Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
  
  
• The Cleanest Race
  
  
• Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty
  
  
• North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea
  
  
• Korea's Place In The Sun by Bruce Cummings
  
  
• Korea Old and New by Harvard Press and Korea Institute
  
  
  And there's more that I have not read yet. If you only read one book out of these, I'd say Nothing to Envy is a great place to start. It gives the most complete picture, in my opinion.
  
  
  Documentaries:
  
  
• A State of Mind (2004)
  
  
• Seoul Train (2005)
  
  
• National Geographic: Inside North Korea (2007)
  
  
• Inside Undercover in North Korea (2007)
  
  
• The Vice Guide to North Korea (2008)
  
  
• Kimjongilia (2008)
  
  
• The Juche Idea (2008)
  
  
• Seven Days in North Korea (2008)
  
  And there's a whole bunch more that I have not seen yet.
  
  And there's a whole bunch of essays and journals/photo collections floating around the internet as well.

I don't know about efforts on the American side, but as soon as it was recognized as an attraction it became commercialized on the Canadian side back in the 1800's. People used to snap up land and erect huge fences to block people from viewing it—unless they payed a fee. When the Niagara Parks Commission was created in the late 1800's it's mandate was to ensure that the natural beauty of the falls would be available for all to view. Initially they did a marvellous job, but I feel like recently there's been a backslide with creeping commercialism. The sliver of greenery and Parks is at least some kind of barrier. I still find it really powerful to stand right at the edge of table rock and look out into the water rushing over the edge and I've visited it hundreds of times.

Source: Semi-retired Niagara Tour Guide.

Primary Source: Pierre Berton - Niagara: A History of the Falls

While I'm busy expending my fifteen minutes of fame here in /r/mvis, this is the book that the author referred to: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Elon is a pretty amazing guy, and I think Ashlee did a pretty good job of capturing what makes Elon tick. Highly recommended.

My daughter would love any of these. She likes books by YouTube stars she watches. She's 15. Loves makeup and is a vegetarian. She reads really well always has. I listed ones i know she wants but feel free to be a matchmaker.
It Gets Worse: A Collection of Essays https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501132849/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_qma.BbBPWAJZP
In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476794308/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_7pa.BbMCP4P0V
James Charles: Born to Break Boundaries https://www.amazon.com/dp/1978483856/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_vFa.BbQK0GS5F
This Book Loves You https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101999047/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_WGa.Bb03G6CBT
Thanks for the cool contest.

You think that you've just made a super intelligent point because you've pointed out the obvious fact that the US has issues with human rights and with over-criminalization. It isn't an intelligent point because you don't know jack shit about North Korea. You don't know dick about how people live there, and I know that because if you did, you would pull your head out of your ass and realize that the issues that the United States has are not even in the same order of magnitude as the issues that North Korea has.

I recommend that you read the following books to give you a better sense of life in North Korea, so that in the future you can be more educated on the subject:

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

Marci Bianco writes: "billionaires' atmospheric ambitions are a 'desire to colonize' tinged with patriarchal undertones... The impulse to colonize, she writes, 'has its origins in gendered power structures,' including the 'entitlement to power, control, domination and ownership.'" But are these traits exclusively linked to men? Is entitlement exclusively a man-thing? Is she implying that these traits (power/control/domination/ownership) are positive or negative?

Bianco is very highly educated (with various degrees from prestigious universities, including an undeniable master's degree in women's studies) so I wished to give her a benefit of a doubt that maybe she's onto something. However, it is immediately obvious that she has not read Musk's biography (by Ashlee Vance) where it was made clear that Elon was interested in space exploration from early childhood (probably before he understood the meaning of the word "patriarchy.") Besides the usual extreme feminist rants about patriarchal pigs, I'm not sure what Bianco's point is. Is it a call for action for more women to get interested in the space program, and for billionaire women to start their own space exploration companies? Or for men to stop being interested in things that women are generally less/not interested in? In either case, Bianco's article appears to be tinged with feminist undertones.

In the case of space exploration companies (like Space X, or Virgin Galactic) the risks (financial, and operational) are enormous; so much so, that many people (regardless of gender) are not willing to invest in these programs. Women generally take on less risk in life (this is also evident in financial trading, where on average, women typically outperform men) and thereby would be less interested, and less likely to pursue such investments. But Bianco only considers three possibilities why someone would be interested in space exploration; and since it' not the "'nationalist' fervor of the Cold War nor 'the American spirit of invention'" (even though Musk is a naturalized American, and a long-time resident) it must obviously be the patriarchy. God forbid someone would think it would be really cool to go into space, and or feel that it's important for humans to have an escape plan.

I'd have to go with Double Take by the wonderful Kevin Connelly. I'm not much for biographies, but having met him a few times on campus shortly before the book came out, I was intrigued. Awesome guy and a fantastic story.

The gullibility and smarmy naivete in this thread is just pathetic. Yes. War is bad. What a revelation. Why hasn't anybody else thought of that before?

If you want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside go buy a Hallmark card or go browse /r/aww.

People living in the real world understand that geopolitics is a game of advantage that you can't circumvent by pleading for everyone to join hands and sing Kumbaya. When you appease dictators and cede ground to them you simply enable and embolden their behavior. Furthermore, the South Korean president is hugging and holding hands with a mass murderer who has enslaved over 20 million people, condemning them to a live a life of near starvation and physical/psychological imprisonment. You're the leader of an extraordinarily prosperous, democratic country; have some dignity. You're meeting a piece of human excrement who is feeling on top of the world right now. You shake the man's hand for diplomacy's sake. You don't hug and caress him.

It's just so god damned pathetic how naive people are. What's happening here is that South Korea learned to live under a nuclear DPRK a long time ago. What they can't abide is constantly ratcheting up brinksmanship that is eagerly stoked by a senile reality tv star with the strongest military in the history of the world at his beck and call.

China, RoK, and DPRK have cooked up this appeasement scheme to dupe Trump into thinking he's quelled the DPRK threat. DPRK will keep its nuclear weapons (the announcement that they've completed their nuclear weapons program and no longer need the facility they're shutting down should have been a good indicator of DPRK's intentions for people that were too blind to them up until now) and as we can see here, the Kim regime gets boatloads of photo opportunities, diplomatic prestige, increased security internally, increased legitimacy externally and inevitably sanctions relief. China will benefit from further DPRK stability and increased trade opportunities (and leverage on Trump as well). And South Korea gets to see the sabre-rattling cease and they receive the same benefits China does from prolonged security for Kim regime. They don't want to deal with that humanitarian crisis either. Trump gets a plaque on his wall that says "Best Negotiator Ever" and a polaroid of a North Korean testing facility with a "closed" sign on the gate.

But don't let me get in the way of everyone "awwwwww"ing over this like it's a picture of a cat hugging a golden retriever. Bunch of rubes.

edit: Can't wait to see all the memes come out of this. Kim Jong Un is gonna have his image rehabilitated the same way GWB did lol... But I don't want this to just a useless rant yelling at silly people. So, before you guys start memeing up KJU let me give you guys a short reading list of DPRK books I've greatly enjoyed (I've been fascinated with DPRK for at least a decade):

• Dear Leader: My Escape from North Korea. This is a great firsthand account of an "inner" party member who lived the relatively high life in Pyongyang as a propagandist.
  
  
• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Exactly what it sounds like: biographies of normal people who live(d) in DPRK over the last 30 years. This book is shocking, sickening, heart wrenching, triumphant, and any other superlative descriptor you can think of. Can't recommend it enough.
  
  
• Aquariums of Pyongyang. Nothing to Envy describes gulag life in detail but this book delves into it exclusively and I found myself enthralled but revolted at the same time. You'll have to take breaks to process the horror and atrocities it describes.
  
  So yeah, check any of those books out then come back here and see if you're still inclined to "oooo" and "awww" and talk about how sweet this is.

Rather than watch the vice guide videos (which only show you the propaganda that the DPRK wants you to see) you should go read books like these:

• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
  
• Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty
  
• The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
  
  These and other books give you amazing insight into what it's like to actually live inside North Korea. May of the defectors who have been interviewed for these books do indicate that they do believe in the personality cult around the Kim's, at least at a certain level.

In Cluj am vazut un model X, superb, culoarea nu prea, maronie/cacanie, dar e ok si asa.. are ECO la numar. Model S am tot vazut pe ruta Cluj-Alba-Cluj.. Si ca sa iti infrumusetez/ocup toata ziua: enjoy watching these videos


Edit: iti recomand si cartea asta, ca sa iti faci o idee cum au luat nastere companiile lui Mr. Musk :) Mie mi-a placut

But the fact is propaganda is only effective when people don't have other sources of information. That is why North Korean propaganda has been so effective for so long, the government was able to cut people off from the outside world. But there are currently 20,000 North Koreans living in South Korea and even more in hiding in China, so we do know.

We have access to information about the North and we know that it is not this universal hellish life for absolutely all, some of these people came from privileged backgrounds and lived lives of comfort before whatever happened and they had to escape, others lived in slave camps such as Yodok. We know they exist, because a couple people have escaped and written books about it. Kang Chol-Hwan has a body full of scars because of the abuse he suffered there. There are numerous lectures he has given about his life if you google it, or you can read his book, Aquariums of Pyongyang. The truth is we know quite a lot about what is going on in North Korea, and there are multiple layers of classes that exist in the society based on their family history and thus perceived "loyalty" to the state, what you see in the videos are most likely people with a very low status, high status people live better but all are paranoid due to the intense system of spying and state surveillance.

I recommend the book, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader to those who want to learn what really happens in the North.

I have a Goodreads account, but I never post to it. I have this person and this person bookmarked for purchasing inspiration, but I don't follow them per say.

I haven't read that book, but it's in my queue now. Have you read this one: Secret Historian, the biography of the man behind Phil Andros? It was great, but also really heavy.

http://i.imgur.com/ETLDQ17.jpg

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Favorite novel of the year

Just Kids by Patti Smith. Favorite memoir.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu.

yes.

It was shortly after he left Paypal if I remember right. He went overseas there with some people, met with them to try to buy rockets, they said he was crazy. The thing to keep in mind is, for that moment it was crazy. Spaceflights like this were always pioneered by governments because of cost, not companies, let alone individuals looking to make a company.

He pulled something off that is absolutely tremendous. He has his flaws... But I think we needed Musk; I bet he has inspired a whole new generation of scientists and engineers.

If you want to read more about this, check out the biography written on him, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. It was very good, and it puts into perspective some of his bigger goals.

Either you don't understand Elon's objectives for any of his businesses, or you just don't care to see them through. Everything he's taken on he tries to find new efficiencies. Boring Company goal, improve tunneling efficiency, SpaceX goal, make a better, cheaper rocket. Tesla goal, make a more efficient vehicle that doesn't require as much maintenance, make production more efficient through new manufacturing techniques. Yes, the Tesla goals are extremely ironic at the moment.

Of course it's obvious the hell that they're in is of their own making - that's the cost of trying something new. He doesn't want business as usual, to just nibble away market share from other companies, he wants to change how the whole system works.

I really feel like people here should read this book about him: https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X

It is not overtly pro Elon, not even close. The book does a great job showing where he's screwed some things up, including being a dick for a boss. But I think it'd shed a lot of insight to his mindset on his businesses and why he is choosing to run them this way.

Neil Young's autobiography Waging Heavy Peace was really good.


I also liked David Byrne's How Music Works.


Just Kids from Patti Smith is from the extraordinary life of an amazing and talentedwoman.

I read this biography about Elon musk. He is definitely an interesting person. While I respect him in many ways and he is certainly going to either directly or indirectly change the world, he is an asshole. For example, there was a story about an employee that was asked to take on an impossible task. The employee came back in defeat. Musk fired him and did the job himself. Musk's mind is amazing, his personal skills are surely lacking.

The basis for his case is that earth will not be able to continue supporting humans b/c we will exploit all of earth's resources. If you read Ashlee Vance's biography, he gets into the topic pretty well since it's essentially what's driven Musk to do everything he's done with Solar City, Tesla and Space X. It's a fairly quick, easy read.

I can't tell you. I can tell you the best book on game development I've ever read is Masters of Doom. I highly recommend that one.

I can also recommend Jordan Mechner's Journals from the development of Prince of Persia.

Dark Knight a True Batman Story is a book based on a real event that happened in the famous Batman author Paul Dini's life and how batman helped him get through a huge crisis. There is a lot of batman history involving random comics and the animated series that is really neat as well.

Basically Dini gets his ass beat really bad and the problem he faces at his job is that how does someone get inspiration to write about a hero who saves the innocent when he experienced what he did. This book will answer that.

It's surely not your average superhero crime fighting book but its a pretty quick read that is really well written. I couldn't put this down and I cant recommend this enough to anyone.

here is a amazon link https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Night-True-Batman-Story/dp/1401241433/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1469871215&sr=8-11&keywords=dark+knight

The author interviewed like the first dozen or so people from the company. The book has pages and pages of sources at the end. I highly recommend this book to others. And Elon Musk was not allowed to read the book until it was published.

I borrowed the book from a library but it's pretty cheap on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X

I would say that north koreans see that their country is run very poorly and show intense dislike for the system, but still love the dear leader, as this article, sadly behind a paywall, suggests. In addition, a survey of 297 conducted by seoul university, which I cannot find the original data for, only [this article ] (http://csis.org/files/publication/twq12winterchaanderson.pdf) that was without a paywall, apparently showed that about 75% of North Korean harbors no ill sentiment towards Kim Jong-Il.


Same story goes for the book [Aquariums of Pyongyang] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047), which I have to admit, might be slightly biased against North Korea, but even someone who spent 10 years in the north korean gulag, doesn't harbor any ill feelings towards Kim Jong-Il. I highly recommend that book if you're interested in an inside look into the gulags of North Korea.

A final note, I'm not disagreeing with you on the fact that many north koreans want to go back home, just adding my two cents because I find North Korea so interesting.

Well if you like to read you should pick up Double Take by Kevin Connolly. It's a short and very easy read but you my have something in common with him and become inspired.

Yes, that is a good point. That was also detailed in the book I read.

If anyone cares, I think it's this book (I read at least two so I'm not 100% sure): https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1475082388&sr=8-5

Anyone who enjoyed this might also enjoy The Aquariums of Pyongyang. It's a well done firsthand account of the North Korean gulag system.

If you want to learn more about Elon Musk, this book is a very good biography.

Alternatively, this (free) blog series by Tim Urban is a great in-depth look at him and his companies, part 3 is all about SpaceX

I bought Mike Kim's book Escaping North Korea after seeing that segment air and I must say I was extremely disappointed. The book seems very poorly constructed and he pushes the Christianity a little much for me. I recommend reading the 3 star and below ratings on Amazon, I wish I had before purchasing this book.

On the other hand, an extremely good book I read before reading Mike Kim's book was Aquariums of Pyongyang: 10 Years in a North Korean Gulag by Chol-hwan Kang. If you're interested in North Korea from the inside, especially the prison camps, this is the book to read.

> I highly recommend his Biography.

Are you referring to Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future? Or do you have a different recommendation? I haven't read a bio about him yet but I would like to.

I’d highly recommend reading the biography by Ashlee Vance

It’s really quite fascinating, and confirmation that Musk isn’t just all hype.

I can do better than tell you some, there's a whole book of them!

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/006230125X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_J5OEAbQBEMRDA

Might not be of any interest to you, but The Aquariums of Pyongyang is an interesting account of escape from NK written by the escapee himself.

This is a great book I read this summer. Hope you will like it as much as I did:

http://www.amazon.de/Fifty-Great-Short-Stories-Milton/dp/0553277456

I read a in The Aquariums of Pyongyang that often it's not just the offender, but also his/her family that are sent to labor camps.

Is that true? If so, how was your dad's family able to escape going?

Here are my favorites:

Designing Disney

Walt Disney's Imagineering Legends

The Disney Mountains

It's Kinda a Cute Story

and anything in the Imagineering Field Guide Series.

Been loving the responses so far! My own preferences have been changing, and I've been reading a lot more non-fiction than I used to. It has really opened the doors to a lot of books I would not have considered reading before!

On my reading list:

The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley - this is what I'm almost finished with now. It has been a really insightful read on how little prepared society is for disasters, and the steps we should take to help fix that.

The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker - I've seen this mentioned on reddit a few times and it's in the same vein as the book I'm currently reading.

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce D. Perry

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries - I'm currently working in the startup industry, and have read similar books to this.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz - same as the book above. This is currently going around my office right now so I should be reading it soon!

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. - this was recommended to me by a friend when he learned I was reading The Unthinkable and The Gift of Fear. Honestly really looking forward to reading this one!

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society


Books I'd recommend:

Blink by Malcom Gladwell - all about the subconscious mind and the clues we pick up without realizing it. Pretty sure reading this book has helped me out in weird situations.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance - amazing read about how Elon Musk works and the person he is.

The Circle by Dave Eggers - just don't watch the movie :)

If you're interested in learning more about the conversations held between Musk, Tarpening, and Eberhard check out this book by Ashlee Vance. It's a good read and goes into detail about the relationships between Musk and the founders of the various companies that he has worked with.

Kindle

Book

I picked up Dark Knight: A True Batman Story by Paul Dini. This was a damn good read. I highly suggest you buy it. More so, if you grew up watching the Animated Series and Mask of the Phantasm.

I also got a new t-shirt from WeLoveFine

For whoever dons this shirt, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR

waitbutwhy has a series of 5 very detailed blog posts about him that explain who he is and what he wants to accomplish with tesla and spacex (and why those accomplishments are important).

DISCLAIMER: these blog post are really long, more like a short book than a blog post.

if that is not enough there is also a biography written by ashlee vance

In the book by Ashlee Vance, Musk says that he thinks smart people should have more kids and was startled to learn that many successful CEOs have, at most, one kid.

AIDS blew up in New York and San Francisco, cities that had neighborhoods where you could cruise down the sidewalk any time of day and find a guy to hook up with, just by signaling with a turn of your head and an inviting raised eyebrow. Every major city had gay bathhouses and bars in the 1960s or earlier — NYC had them in the late 19th century. In smaller cities you could answer personal ads in the back of a newspaper or low-budget "homosexualist" zine you got in the mail. Or you could find cocks to suck in the park late at night, at a truck stop, the bathroom in the university library, the mezzanine at the opera house, etc.

You sound like you need a history lesson. Go read Secret Historian, a great biography about a gay man who obsessively documented his sexual adventures across the country from the 1930s through the days of gay liberation.

Marty Sklar and Rolly Crump's books are essential reads, as far as I'm concerned. I started reading Marty's book for the info on Walt Disney World and Epcot, but came away fascinated by the development of Japan and his business management advice, the most.

https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Do-Half-Century-Creating-Disney%C2%92s/dp/1423174062/ref=la_B00DXGWXRG_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519048704&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/Kind-Cute-Story-Rolly-Crump/dp/098547064X/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=098547064X&pd_rd_r=6TB451HQ6PJ6F2V69E5K&pd_rd_w=AgQX9&pd_rd_wg=njD96&psc=1&refRID=6TB451HQ6PJ6F2V69E5K

Yep, kids on the way; had to sell his home and move in on the couch of another silicone valley investor to finish the first rocket launch that landed his first contracts. Said he was days away from being negative. This is an amazing read <EDIT harmless joke out> https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X

The episode recommended this book for more information about Elon Musk.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

It has been widely reported on. You're also commenting on an article that spelled it out in the article.

"In the Elon Musk biography by Ashlee Vance, it was revealed that Musk and Larry Page, the head of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), had a deal for the latter to purchase Tesla:

In the first week of March 2013, Musk reached out to Page, say the two people familiar with the talks. By that point, so many customers were deferring orders that Musk had quietly shut down Tesla’s factory. Considering his straits, Musk drove a hard bargain. He proposed that Google buy Tesla outright — with a healthy premium, the company would have cost about $6 billion at the time — and pony up another $5 billion in capital for factory expansions. He also wanted guarantees that Google wouldn’t break up or shut down his company before it produced a third-generation electric car aimed at the mainstream auto market. He insisted that Page let him run a Google-owned Tesla for eight years, or until it began pumping out such a car. Page accepted the overall proposal and shook on the deal.

It was during a brief difficult time for Tesla to ramp up Model S production and deliver cars to customers, but things turned for the better and Musk reportedly dropped the deal."

Not exactly theory of game design, more like history of game making but really good ;)

• The making of Prince of Persia by Jason Mechner
  
  
• Masters of Doom by David Kushner

Elie Weisel's Night is an astonishing look at the horrors of World War II.

Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running covers mostly the ins and outs, mundane to nontrivial aspects of his writing career.

If you're interested in a graphic novel type of autobiography, there are two that are excellent:
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life. The former is Satrapi's account of a young girl growing up in Iran and the latter is Tatsumi's perspective on post-war Japan. Both are very good.

This is a great book about a boy stuck in a North Korean gulag for ten years. I believe he did an AMA as well.

1. Nine Stories - Salinger
   
2. 50 Great Short Stories (edited by Milton Crane)
   http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Great-Short-Stories-Milton/dp/0553277456/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290451612&sr=1-1
   
   

I'd also recommend The Aquariums of Pyongyang, an account by a survivor of the Yodok labor camp who escaped in 1992.

A professor of mine recommended Sketchnotes and it helped me a lot.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321857895/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467206935&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=sketchnotes

I've found I remember things better since I draw pictures instead of word for word details. Bullet points are great but if the PowerPoint/lecture will be available online then sketching is so much better, at least for me.

This notion of "Elon Time" is actually discussed in his biography. To determine the amount of time something will take, Musk asks himself, "how long will it take me to code a line? How many lines will there be?" Then, multiply to get an estimate. These are the values we see in his tweets. His secretary then goes back to customers and gives them a more 'realistic' timeline.

But you have to look at what they have now and extrapolate. The ITS will not come by magic. If developing the FH is this difficult, why should the ITS/BFR or the V2 be any better right away? SpaceX will get there, it will take a lot of time, but we need to be patient.

just read the patti smith bio "just kids" -- it's amazing. i didn't want it to end.

https://www.amazon.ca/Just-Kids-Patti-Smith/dp/0060936223

butthole

This one by Ashlee Vance. It's a fantastic read

fascinating, i'll have to find the ebook

is it this?

https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future-ebook/dp/B00KVI76ZS

OP's book was the best of the ones I've read on NK and its policies and prison camps. I recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance is on Google Play Books and Amazon, but if you don't mind Piracy you can also get it on Library Genesis

yes, there is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KVI76ZS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Was this title on purpose? I read the book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047
The author was a child from a 'more privileged' family in North Korea. One of the hobbies was fish collecting. I forget who it was exactly, but one of his fish jumped out of the tank and another little Korean boy stepped on it because he was jealous of the beautiful fish.

Paul Dini has an upcoming book out titled Dark Night: A True Batman Story that tells about that incident.

The Making of Prince of Persia, though I guess it's more like a journal of Jordan Mechner as he was working on the game.

I read the biography about him, which is quite interesting. (https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X)

I don't recall the exact circumstances, but the author describes Musk as experiencing horrific bullying as a child, including one incident in which he was assaulted and thrown down a flight of stairs, resulting in him being hospitalized. One would think that the experience would predispose him to be sympathetic to us.

The biography paints him as a man on a mission to save mankind and the planet thru his business ventures. That's why he's so into electric cars and solar energy.

My previous comments here were kidding, but in all seriousness, if there is some reason I should hate him, please do inform me because as best I can tell, he's an astute businessman who is working hard to push innovation that the established players have been resisting for years.

The Grubstakers podcast did two different episodes about him, I definitely remember this anecdote but I can't remember where the timestamp is. Ep1 Ep2 and they attribute this book as their primary source along with this Rolling Stone profile.

Yes he ended up having to risk it all as the companies invariable ran into issues along the way. Ashley Vance wrote about this in his book. https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future-ebook/dp/B00KVI76ZS

If your friend is a fan the Batman The Animated series, it might not be exactly what you are looking for but you might want to check out Dark Night: A True Batman Story

It's about Paul Dini, one of the writers for TAS (and later comics and the Arkham games) and his mental struggle after he was brutally mugged. It's written as a graphic novel, mixing in real events and characters from the show.

If you get a chance, read Aquariums of Pyongyang by a North Korean defector. Truly unbelievable stuff.

Also, Axis of Evil World Tour has an interesting North Korea section (in addition to its Iran and Iraq sections).

Check this out:
The Sketchnote Handbook: the... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321857895?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Helped me tremendously.

Biografia do Elon Musk. Só tenho a dizer que o cara é um mito.

Digital version

Physical version

> esqueci o nome

X.com

Recomendo a biografia do Musk, muito interessante.

https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518191826&sr=8-1&keywords=elon+musk

Explains a lot about him

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KVI76ZS/
Elon Musk ebook!

This one? If so, I'm adding that to My Cart.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004PYDBVM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Read. Then we will talk.

His biography

https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X

Keith Richards - Life

Patti Smith Just Kids

Elvis Costello Unfaithful Music & Dissapearing Ink

Bob mould See a Little Light

Pete Townsend Who I Am

Patti Smith's "Just Kids":
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Kids-Patti-Smith/dp/0060936223

On Amazin it is listed for June.

Is it this? http://www.amazon.com/A-Drifting-Life-Yoshihiro-Tatsumi/dp/1897299745

https://www.amazon.com/Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-North-Korean/dp/0465011047

Richard Branson's autobiography Losing my Virginity, Elon Musk, Shoe Dog.

There’s a book for that

https://www.amazon.com/dp/006230125X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_uycYCbRK1NCA3

I don't get paid for a week and a half, but when I do I'm buying Paul Dini's new Batman book in hardcover

I've heard of an extremely slutty gay man who got scale-correct inch marks tattooed on his hand to measure other men's dicks.

I recommend reading Elon’s biography.. might cut through some of the misinformation in the comments section ..

https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X

Its brutal. Theres a good book about it, Aquariums of Pyongyang

For anyone wondering what it's like in a North Korean Prison camp I highly recommend The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag. It was written by a guy who spent 10 years in Yodok prison camp, then defect to South Korea. It contains some background info on North Korean government corruption and other stuff as well.

Aquariums of Pyongyang is one I just finished. The author was a defector who was sent to a prison camp as a child for 10 years because his grandfather got too grumbly about the government. It's a good look into the divisions in society there.

The Aquariums of Pyongyang is a memoir about 10 years spent in a North Korean prison camp.

Well done OP. I am trying to make more and more people aware of the vile crimes of North Korea's Evil "God" Kim Jong Un (Kim III, it's essentially a kingdom) and the extermination camps that are based on Treblinka or Auschwitz.

It is SO important to bring attention to these vile crimes against humanity.

If I may trespass on your patience OP, I would take the opportunity to promote

"The Aquariums of Pyongyang" by Chol-hwan Kang, Translated by Pierre Rigoulot. A compelling account of the North Korean Gulag.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047

Not read Escape From Camp 14 yet, but The Aquariums of Pyongyang was shocking too.

> bourgeois propaganda

Really?


So, a country that would create Kijŏng-dong, wouldn't even consider telling their citizens that they are required to stay indoors for the filming of something?

As to sources, sources for what? That NK is completely fucked? I needn't look that hard.

Why are enough people attempting to escape that this begins to happen?

"I had to be careful of my thoughts because I believed Kim Jong-il could read my mind."


["He controls his administration exclusively. It operates absolutely by his word. It's an autocracy."](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kim/them/defector.html
)


I'm all for defending the Soc\Com view and promoting it, but if you think that NK is working out great and simply being held down by the capitalist majority, you're being ignorant. Take the picture of a pitch black NK surrounded by the lights of Japan, China, and SK. You would have me believe that that's a propaganda job? That they've colored over the actual amount of lights? Who exactly benefits from that? It's not like NK has some vast supply of resources that are highly sought after. They provide nearly nothing to the international community. The Korean was is long over, and the only benefit that NK serves currently is a Buffer between The US and China, which is why China props them up-something that they are growing quite tired of doing if the rumblings are indeed correct.

Propaganda benefits someone or something. If it doesn't, it serves no purpose.


Furthermore, are you trying to say that The Famine which was documented by numerous aid groups, wasn't true? In that case, what leads the NK military to lower its physical requirements in a fitting time span for stunted growth patterns due to undernourishment? Just plain chance?

I mean, read some books about the reality of NK. Here's some good choices-

Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea

Nothing to Envy

The Aquariums of Pyongyang

Escape from Camp 14

Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite

If you honestly believe that his many people are part of some propaganda campaign to make a country that already looks terrible look worse, that's pure /r/conspiracy thinking.

Aquariums of Pyongyang is really an eye-opening book on how horrendous the atrocities are.

I recommend three books:

Escape from Camp 14 - This book is most useful about life in the prision camp and the reasons why people are sent there. But its information on daily life is somewhat limited.

The Aquariums of Pyongyang - This is about a 10 year stay in a prison camp, but it has considerable information about daily life in NK, especially after the writer was freed from his camp.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047

A third book is by Charles Robert Jenkins, "The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea"

This is about an American who defected to NK. He defected impulsively in 1965. He was somewhat poorly educated. He was depressed and fearful of being reassigned to Vietnam. He impulsively defected while drunk, thinking he would be repatriated in 2 weeks. NK held him as a sort of prisoner for 39 years. In NK he was treated as part prisioner and part VIP, a bizzarre but fascinating situation. He had priveleges beyond the average North Korean, but great restrictions on his freedom He has much insight into daily living conditions there.

Google Mary Beth Brown, she was there step by step with him building his businesses from the start, she was his right hand. Then she asked for a raise to be paid like other executives, he refused, and not only that, he also crapped all over her, and fired her, she was basically described like Starks assistant, in fact Ironman inspiration was Elon musk and his assistant Mary Beth brown.


He is also a dirty pervert, super edgy, insane egomaniac. When someone is flattering you — you blush and feel uncomfortable. This motherfucker sociopath GLOWS when during interviews his ass is being kissed.


He has insane drive to overcompensate, loves to be the center of attention, while pretending to be sheepish. He throws BDSM style parties without sex just so everyone walks around all sexed up. He even visited the burning man and made himself the center of attention there as well by climbing some pole.


It’s all in his biography, go read it


Oh and his speech stuttering — not effects of childhood bullying, his brain works faster than he can speak. He is smart and hardworking, but he is also a huge piece of shit.

Yes. There's a book written by Ashley Vance on Elon Musk's companies in large part dedicated to the subject: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/006230125X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511139448&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=elon+musk&dpPl=1&dpID=5112YFsXIJL&ref=plSrch

Besides that, the information has been largely available as Tesla is a public company and the roadster and approach to that/volume initially is not hidden. If you have not been following Tesla but still plan to invest, that's really a problem of not doing due diligence (not to be a dick but if you do plan to invest in a company, you should not put the cart before the horse and try to gather as realistic a picture as possible which takes into account positive and negative -- part of that is simply paying attention to the company's history).

You can read more in depth on all of this in Elon Musk's biography which he actually cooperated with. Like how his first son died of SIDs, his companies were close to bankrupt way more than once, how many arguments there were in the PayPal days, and how absolutely incredible the feats of Tesla and SpaceX really were given the small time frame they were working with.

> Yet, how is it any different from those of you who suggest that life is better than death?

What the hell is wrong with you? North Koreans aren't some alien race, they're human beings who also don't want to die. Read memoirs from NK escapees like The Aquariums of Pyongyang or Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. I attended a talk by the man written about in Escape from Camp 14, a man born in a NK prison camp who managed to escape.

These are not people longing for death; they're people longing for life.

>Why do you feel that it is fair to use your own experiences in this life to determine the value of life for other people?

We're not. You are:

"We shouldn't let people starve to death."

"But how do we know they don't want to starve to death!?"

You have absolutely no idea at all what you're talking about, your opinion is idiotic, and you're an awful person for having it.

Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with you? I hate this false "all positions are equal, teach the controversy!" charade.