Reddit mentions: The best arts & literature biographies

I probably won't respond to every comment but I just want you all to know that I'm happy if this helped you in anyway.

I know how frustrating, demoralizing, and even depressing one can feel when struggling to enjoy what should be a happy pass-time.

I have several good resource to recommend, if you want to get better. Some of them are books. A lot of Smashers practice and watch Smash, but don't do much else to improve their mentality.

At the end of this comment I'll paste a short list of some books that I found very help for my improvement in Smash and then a link of a list of Smash resource I've compiled.

** Please feel free to send me a Reddit Chat or PM if you wanna talk more about Smash! **

It makes me very happy to share happy vibes with fellow Smashers. Like I said, I can relate to the feelings of frustration that you've all felt but I am also very fortunate to say that I've gotten a lot from this game and the community and I wouldn't change it if I could.

------Recommended Reading Material:

Playing To Win: Becoming the Champion

by David Sirlin

Link: http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/

This is a book on how competition in gaming works and having a "play to win" mentality. This means taking responsibility and accountability for everything you do and not putting excuses that only hold you back. Very helpful for your mindset. You can find a free audio version that covers most of the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y6KU7ZGeMs&list=PLZbBoZgd9o1mVN2-CnS4yfbhIEbpJFrWp

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The Will to Keep Winning

by DAIGO UMEHARA

Link: https://amzn.com/B01JOEKKWU

Written by one of the world's best Street Fighter players, Daigo, this book talks a lot about consistent growth, the benefits of staying humble, innovating, taking risks, and how to play with the mentality of learning and growing rather than focusing on just the win. Despite having the word 'Winning" right in the title, the book teaches the value of focusing less on the results and more on the process.

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The Inner Game of Tennis

by W. Timothy Gallwey et al.

Link: https://amzn.com/0679778314

Yes this is a book on Tennis but it talks about the inner workings of your mind and how to get the best out of competitive performance and practice. Very much worth the read.

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The Way of the Bow

by Paulo Coelho

Link: http://a.co/iR14a9T

I haven't read this one yet. i'll be honest. But I've heard many trustworthy Smashers recommend it. It is said to be about "how to overcome difficulties, steadfastness, courage to take risky decisions."

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My List of Smash Resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d7Ghmr4tpAqCn4GQGYnyM4XLuWfVEcN_hAdv-QVVifc/edit?usp=sharing

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♥

If you're read or seen "The Fellowship of the Ring", you'll remember that when Frodo noticed they were being stalked by Gollum in the Mines of Moria he said to Gandalf, "It's a pity that Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance."

To which Gandalf replied:

>>Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

In his letters, Tolkien writes concerning the "Passion" of Frodo:

>>Frodo ‘failed’. It is possible that once the ring was destroyed he had little recollection of the last scene. But one must face the fact: the power of Evil in the world is not finally resistible by incarnate creatures, however ‘good’; and the Writer of the Story is not one of us.

And in another place he wrote:

>>In this case the cause (not the ‘hero’) was triumphant, because by the exercise of pity, mercy, and forgiveness of injury, a situation was produced in which all was redressed and disaster averted. Gandalf certainly foresaw this. See Vol. I p. 68-9. Of course, he did not mean to say that one must be merciful, for it may prove useful later – it would not then be mercy or pity, which are only truly present when contrary to prudence. Not ours to plan! But we are assured that we must be ourselves extravagantly generous, if we are to hope for the extravagant generosity which the slightest easing of, or escape from, the consequences of our own follies and errors represents. And that mercy does sometimes occur in this life.

And just one more quote:

>>[Gollum] did rob him and injure [Frodo] in the end – but by a ‘grace’, that last betrayal was at a precise juncture when the final evil deed was the most beneficial thing any one cd. have done for Frodo! By a situation created by ‘forgiveness’, he was saved himself, and relieved of his burden.

What may we take from this?

One, that "pity" or "forgiveness", in order to be worthy of the name, must be something done contrary to prudence, contrary to our "best interests".

In Luke's Gospel, Jesus says:

>>If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return...Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

You write:

>I tell my friend that I can forgive people who honestly apologize (something my father never has) and who make a true effort to better themselves. I can forgive people who ask for help and seek help when their problems become too much for them or their family.

But that's just as much as to say you can forgive the forgivable--as if forgiveness, as if mercy (pity), is something that has to be earned. But is that forgiveness? Is that love? To love only the lovable?

And you write:

>From a humanistic perspective, I think there is very little reason to forgive my father for the decades of hell and unnecessary stress he has put us through. My mom has wished several times that he would die soon - but God must have other plans because he will be in his mid-70s in 2017.

Indeed. Plans that we can neither imagine nor foresee. But just as the pity of Bilbo created a situation in which the Cause (though not the "hero") was successful, so your own forgiveness of your father--even though he doesn't deserve it, even if he hasn't merited it through genuine repentance--may have positive effects that you can't predict.

None of this is to excuse your father's behavior or to minimize the consequences of the pain your father's behavior has brought upon you, your mother, or your family. But hopefully I've shown why maybe you should forgiven him--not that by doing so you might hope for some positive outcome in a utilitarian sense, but simply for the ultimate belief in the "value-in-itself of pity and generosity even if disastrous in the world of time."

(Quotes taken from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, and The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien)

Come now, I'm trying to engage you. Like this entire time.

ALL I SAID WAS HAVE SKILLS THAT CAN MAKE YOU STABLE AND HELP YOU HAVE A DAYJOB SO YOU CAN WORK ON YOUR DREAMS IN STABILITY.

Like I said that four times or something like that.

Over and over again.

Have skills people will pay for. Make sure you don't hate those skills but you don't have to have a passion for it. Work on your fun thing. It's unlikely to be the next Beatles because there's not enough brain space, but if it makes you happy, hobbies are great!

Somehow that came out

>NOBODY SHOULD EVER BE HAPPY. ALL ARE SLAVES!

Or something. I'm not sure how I could be more clear.

Anyone I know I haven't cited much here's an info dumb

http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Stagnation-Low-Hanging-ebook/dp/B004H0M8QS Tyler Cowen is one of the World's best most sober economists. You should fall in love with him (even if he sounds autistic)

http://www.amazon.com/Race-Against-The-Machine-ebook/dp/B005WTR4ZI

Machines might be becoming substitutes instead of completments. This could cause problems even if we were socialists. We have no idea how to handle that

http://lesswrong.com/lw/4su/how_to_be_happy/ All the best happiness research in one post

http://www.amazon.com/Worthless-ebook/dp/B006N0THIM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194677&sr=1-1 A good book about the economics of college degrees

http://www.amazon.com/The-Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-ebook/dp/B003E749TE/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194701&sr=1-1-spell

Jonathan Haidt is sexy and cool and also a psychologist.

http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html How to do what you love only also be practical and not ruin your life.

http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html How to get fuck you money if you can identify a good start up and work that hard. (also finance

http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Swan-Improbable-ebook/dp/B00139XTG4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194849&sr=1-1 Why all the advantages of artists go to a few while most are forgotten because they have trouble finding a fanbase

http://www.amazon.com/The-Consolations-Philosophy-Alain-Botton/dp/0679779175/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194919&sr=1-3 How Ethical Philosophy can help with not having your favorite external circumstances.

Why modern therapy owes much of it's usefully to ideas generated by old greeks

http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Cognitive-Behavioural-Therapy-Psychotherapy-ebook/dp/B005TQU5KA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194962&sr=1-1

So yea, I hope that made up for claims you find spurious.

>And that just doesn't cut it. That's what all religious people say about their beliefs. "Just go ahead and devote yourself to it for a while and you'll see what I mean!"

Yea, I know what you mean. Its unfortunate because religious fundies have made this argument so many times, its impossible to say it with out sounding like a tool. If any thing, I'd suggest reading Hardcore Zen, by Brad Warner.

Basically, all I can say is that I've been able to have so many insights and been so much calmer from doing zazen. Maybe its because I'm just naturally high strung, but I notice a dramatic difference when I'm doing zazen versus when I'm not. Its not a matter of 'just believe in god and some mystical thing will happen that probably has to do with him', its more like, when I practice the methods set down by ancient buddhist dudes, I feel a fuck ton less worse about my self, the world, and really life its self. Its not a matter of faith at that point. Its just the whole "why the fuck should I waste my time on this nonsense" part that requires faith.

Its like if you've eaten fast food all your life and you don't even know what feeling healthy feels like. Why would you believe that this magical "healthy food" would change any thing?

>All I want is to hear one bit of wisdom that Buddhism has provided to the world that is not arbitrary or an assumption.

Thats the problem... it IS based on assumptions. The problem for me was always that I was an extreme pragmatist.

However, the 'faith' in Buddhism is different then the faith in Christianity, like I said, in that you get ACTUAL results. You are calmer, happier, and better equipped to deal with life.

At some point, if you want to be a scientist, you have to have faith that learning science will help you get there. If you want to be a psychologist, you have to have faith that taking psychology courses will help you get there. My goal is to be centered and happy and productive. After much research and questioning, I decided to have faith that Soto Buddhism would help me get there.

>If that were reasonable then we'd all be spending all of our lives trying out the infinite list of religious ideas people claim to have veracity.

Not your whole life, no. And not even a huge chunk of it. But studying the worlds religions IS important to a lot of people. I did as much as a teenage, and found that 99% of them were silly as hell. I, like you, thought Buddhism was in the same group as well, but the western Buddhists always struck my fancy. But ya.. I felt like you do.. like they are just watered down pot heads. I'm glad I moved past that stigma.

If you don't like this stinking Buddhist stuff, try some Schopenhauer first. That guy is pretty sweet. His ideas are very similar and equally helpful., tho I tend to get on with Schopenhauer better then many others.

I posted this down in response to someone else but yeah, it's very, very difficult.

>If anyone wants to actually see how hard this is, they should grab an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3 and buy Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition on the digital store for about $15. The game has a Challenge Mode and as an homage to Daigo, they made one of the challenges this EXACT scenario.

> But I think you'll quickly realize how difficult what Daigo did in this video. If you're not familiar with the game, I imagine it will take you an entire night to do just 3 out of the 16 or 17 parry's Daigo strung together in that original video and several days to do it precisely as Daigo did. And back when Daigo did it, he didn't have the conventions of a PS3/360 to sit in training mode and practice. He literally dumped quarters into arcade machines at an arcade, set the scenario up by building the meter, having a friend execute the Super and then try to parry it. And on top of that, he did it in the heat of a high stakes tournament against the best American player at the time, Justin Wong.

This moment is iconic in Street Fighter. The Pro Players of today that play Street Fighter for countless hours and literally do this for a living, have practiced this "moment" just for fun. Some of them have practiced it so much that some can even do it without looking at the screen.

EDIT: I gotta say, Daigo is really an interesting dude and if anyone is interested, there's a lot of media about him out there. He recently wrote a book that had a huge impact on a lot of competitive gamers and how they view gaming and if you think yourself to be a competitive person, I'd suggest giving the book a read simply because its quite reflective to anyone that has a competitive nature. They have documentaries about the guy, he has a manga being written about him and in Japan, they literally sing tales of the things Daigo Umehara has done in Street Fighter over the course of 20+ years. In 2015, Daigo took second place at Capcom Cup 2015 and he took the entirity of his $60,000 prize and donated it to the NYU EVO Sholarship Fund:

>I would like to donate all my prize winnings from the Capcom Pro Tour Finals to the community. It’s simply because I would not have existed without community and I owe you.

The guy is really fascinating and a living legend.

I'm copying these ideas from another post I made on the thread for a Secret Santa but I think they still apply

• (Lush)[http://www.lushusa.com/Gifts/gifts,en_US,sc.html] has these really cute sets that they are offering for Christmas
  
• You could make like a spa kit? Include some lotions, nail polish, and some slippers.
  
• There are lots of books out now, you could get a fun memoir that almost everyone will like. A couple of good ones are (Mindy Kaling's)[http://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Hanging-Without-Other-Concerns/dp/0307886271], (Tina Fey's)[http://www.amazon.com/Bossypants-Tina-Fey/dp/0316056898/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DKE9VHSE47JT5861QM7], and (Amy Poehler's)[http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Please-Amy-Poehler/dp/0062268341/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=14XX5H3BTB60TZ13GJST]
  
• Another really fun book is Humans of New York which is on sale right now.
  
• Otherwise people always enjoy going to the movies - you could get them a gift card or make a little gift basket; include your favorite movie or one you think they would enjoy and then some popcorn and various candy [http://www.grannastreasures.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/movie-night-gift-basket.jpg]
  
• Pinch Provisions offers some really cute emergency kits [http://www.pinchprovisions.com/]
  
• a perfume set?
  
• a cute mug with a starbucks gift card or some tea Hope this helps!

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.

I'll answer very briefly, but /u/NoraTC covered a lot of really important things, the biggest being the variation in work. I'm answering as a line cook in what most would consider a good, upscale restaurant.

Working as a cook is both a tremendously rewarding and challenging proposition. The hours and schedule and pay aren't good. Many of your co-workers will be derelicts. It is hard, repetitive, stressful work. On the average day, you'll get there a couple hours before service (whether that means 4:00 am or 2:00 pm) and you'll get your station set. If your restaurant has lunch and dinner, you'll hope the person working the opposite shift didn't screw you over by using all your mise en place (abbreviated to meez generally). If so, hope you're good at what we'll call dispute resolution techniques. You need to make sure you're set for that day and you're staying ahead for the next few days too. Are there parties coming up? Better make sure you have what you need. If you have to rely on a sous chef to help you get set, it's bad news. The whole time, you'll be working quickly.

You eventually get to the point where your hands know what to do and your mind can wander a little. But you'll get done at whatever time and then go home exhausted. Usually, the managerial style is brusque. People get fired; practical jokes are played. The best source is Bill Buford's Heat, which is also an excellent read.

But despite its less great qualities, working in a kitchen can be really rewarding. It's satisfying to make stuff with your hands. See e.g. Shop Class as Soulcraft for more on this topic. The folks you'll work with form a real sense of camaraderie. It teaches you a lot about life. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely. I'm probably even happier I'm done with it.

Edit: One of the things that's really rewarding, but I didn't touch on above, is knowing you can do it. There's a lot in life where you get a participation award. In a kitchen, it's not like that. If you're good, you survive, then you thrive, then you move to a new station and figure shit out all over again. If you can't cut it, you're out.

There are two ways to make dictionaries. The older and most common way was to copy what people have done before and make emendations based on one's interpretations of textual evidence. For example, a dictionary released in the 19th century and still often used by scholars of medieval Latin, commonly referred to by the names of its editors as "Lewis and Short", is a translation and revision of a Latin dictionary produced by a German scholar. This is how European lexicography worked until the very ambitious project of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which appeared in a large number of slim volumes (or "fascicles") over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This dictionary was made the other way, namely, completely anew, from a massive compilation of textual evidence. The OED worked by cataloguing enormous quantities of "slips", pieces of paper with a lemma (word to be defined), proposed meaning, and a quotation to illustrate this meaning. These slips were mailed in to the editorial office by thousands of volunteers, which could be anyone at all who wanted to contribute. Lexicographers then sorted through the quotations to devise an order for the definitions which they thought reflected the semantic evolution of the word. The OED was unique in its time for its ambitious scope, its method of arranging definitions, and its cataloguing of all the quotations used in it. Nowadays, slips are often replaced by electronic databases. And dictionaries of the contemporary forms of a language like the Oxford Dictionary of English (not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary, which is a historical dictionary of English from late Old English to the present day) use collections of both spoken and written language from very diverse contexts called "corpora" (singular form "corpus") as their sources. The result of this transformation in the methods of lexicography is that, where the glossaries of an earlier age were often produced by single authors or small groups of authors over a few years or decades, modern dictionaries of living languages require large editorial staffs and constant revision to keep them up to date. The second edition of the full-length OED was completed in 1989, for instance. The third edition is too incomplete for the editorial staff to want to give a release date, but some sources estimate it will be finished in 2037.

James Murray, the main editor of the first edition of the OED, has an interesting lecture called The Evolution of English Lexicography, which traces the roots of English lexicography from Latin glossaries, accessible here. Edit: If you're interested in the early history of dictionaries, this is the link that's going to be most interesting to you.

K. M. Elisabeth Murray, James's granddaughter, wrote a fabulous book about her grandfather and the publication of the first edition of the OED called Caught in the Web of Words.

A popular recent book that reveals a fair bit about the OED's history in entertaining fashion is The Professor and the Madman.

Some interesting info about the system of slips can be found at this website for Cambridge University's attempt to (finally!) produce a dictionary of Ancient Greek based on modern lexicographic principles.

On corpora, see this web page for the corpus on which the contemporary Oxford Dictionary of English is based.

That's some of the more significant stuff from English lexicography. If you're interested, I can probably dig out some articles on Latin lexicography from the middle ages/renaissance, but basically, the way it worked was that people made glossaries of words that were often arranged by subject rather than alphabetically. Such glossaries, unlike modern dictionaries, did not typically contain the very common or easy words (e.g., "eat" in English) that take up so much space in modern dictionaries. These glossaries usually only gave one-word equivalents rather than definitions, or simply listed words on a common subject together, so that you might have a glossary page for "the calendar" and find words for "week", "month", "Monday", "Tuesday", "June", "July", etc. together, or you might have a section on words for parts of the human body, or words for kinds of food. Alphabetical order only emerged over time. Another point of note is that most Latin texts were elaborately annotated in medieval/renaissance editions (why, check out Vergil's Aeneid with Servius's commentary even in something as late as this early modern edition), so one was as if not more likely to look for the meaning of an obscure word in the commentary, at least as a first point of reference, than in a separate glossary.

Some edits for clarity. I know this post focussed a lot on modern lexicography, but I hope you'll find what I've written of interest for your question.

Beyond the obvious choices, Watts' The Book, Ram Dass' Be Here Now, Huxley's Doors of Perception, Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience, and of course Fear and Loathing (all of these should be on the list without question; they’re classics), here are a some others from a few different perspectives:

From a Secular Contemporary Perspective

Godel Escher Bach by Douglass Hofstadter -- This is a classic for anyone, but man is it food for psychedelic thought. It's a giant book, but even just reading the dialogues in between chapters is worth it.

The Mind’s Eye edited by Douglass Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett – This is an anthology with a bunch of great essays and short fictional works on the self.

From an Eastern Religious Perspective

The Tao is Silent by Raymond Smullyan -- This is a very fun and amusing exploration of Taoist thought from one of the best living logicians (he's 94 and still writing logic books!).

Religion and Nothingness by Keiji Nishitani – This one is a bit dense, but it is full of some of the most exciting philosophical and theological thought I’ve ever come across. Nishitani, an Eastern Buddhist brings together thought from Buddhist thinkers, Christian mystics, and the existentialists like Neitzsche and Heidegger to try to bridge some of the philosophical gaps between the east and the west.

The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by Nagarjuna (and Garfield's translation/commentary is very good as well) -- This is the classic work from Nagarjuna, who lived around the turn of the millennium and is arguably the most important Buddhist thinker after the Buddha himself.

From a Western Religious Perspective

I and Thou by Martin Buber – Buber wouldn’t approve of this book being on this list, but it’s a profound book, and there’s not much quite like it. Buber is a mystical Jewish Philosopher who argues, in beautiful and poetic prose, that we get glimpses of the Divine from interpersonal moments with others which transcend what he calls “I-it” experience.

The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila – this is an old book (from the 1500s) and it is very steeped in Christian language, so it might not be everyone’s favorite, but it is perhaps the seminal work of medieval Christian mysticism.

From an Existentialist Perspective

Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre – Not for the light of heart, this existential novel talks about existential nausea a strange perception of the absurdity of existence.

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus – a classic essay that discusses the struggle one faces in a world inherently devoid of meaning.

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I’ll add more if I think of anything else that needs to be thrown in there!

> When America rapes the Olympics every 4 years and embarrasses the athletes of other, lesser countries (often on their own turf)

Only a recent phenomenon. The gold medal run from 1996 to 2004 was impressive, but the Soviets have long been dominant in that field.

> the country is allowed to enjoy its superior sports on its own time.

How does one define superior?

>America doesn't give two shits about soccer.

TV ratings and attendance says differently.

>Soccer is a boring

Personal opinion, but I must ask, why do you find it boring? Lack of scoring? Then I assume you consider a perfect game or a defensive battle in American football to be an affront to nature. Perhaps you lack the intelligence to understand the overall tactics of the game to fully embrace it. People overseas find American football incredibly boring because it lacks fluidity, but upon learning the game grow to respect it.

>simple minded game

Pitcher throw, hitter hit and run, players catch

Put ball in hoop

Put puck in net

etc.

> designed for poor Europeans

Then what was American football designed for? The two sports had very similar rules and roots deep into the 1890's.

>feel a sense of belonging and purpose connected their respective clubs

Incorrect, soccer was encouraged as a recreational game between organizations. Some were athletic clubs filled with influential individuals, some were universities, others were clubs at manufacturing plants created by workers to utilize their day off. Over time people became willing to pay to watch.

>Which is why they have sing a songs

I assume you refuse to applaud and cheer when a pitcher is on the second strike with two outs in an inning. Or make noise when your American football team is on defense.

>get drunk as fuck with each other while absentmindedly watching grown men

So I assume you don't watch college football

>flail and flop along a grass field

Happens in every sport

>cheering their beta hearts out when they manage to draw a card.

I would recommend not using a phone to post, autocorrect can be so silly. In the sport of soccer a draw is worth one point. Now if a club is vastly overmatched by a superior opponent, but that club manages a draw on the road, the fans would be happy has the draw is worth one point. In the NHL it used to be similar until they introduced the ridiculous shoot-out. But that's what's nice about soccer is that the match is less than two hours long. Extra-innings and extensive overtime periods can be incredibly boring.

>There is no strategy

Ya.....no

>no heart

Ya......no

>no skill

I assume you have never heard of Messi

>it will never be embraced in United States

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

I really like Putting Food By for preservation guidance.

If you are looking for less how to, Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal Vegetable Miracle is a wonderful read.

This isn't so much of a homesteading book, but Sara Stein's Noah's Garden is one of my favorites. It's about rethinking the way we garden so that we are doing it in harmony with ecology and nature.

I've been a fan of Ben Falk for a long time and he put out his first book not that long ago, The Resilient Farm and Homestead which is awesome particulary if you live in a colder climate. I have a feeling he will be putting out a new edition though soon given how he wrote the first one so you might want to wait on a purchase of that one.

Again, if you are a cold climate person, almost anything by Elliot Coleman is really great. He does a lot of extending the season kind of stuff that is good for shorter season growers.

Edible Landscaping is more for people with yards (as opposed to acreage I guess....) but I think the book is brilliant and well written and very inspirational with lots of resources.

Whether it is actually better or not, that's highly debatable and according to taste. But the cuisine in London/ UK is not neglectable and has a very rich background.

One of the most influential chefs in the world such as Heston Blumenthal (which is largely inspired by Harold McGee, an American), Marco Pierre White (he partly wrote modern cuisine, also an awesome person to hear) and Michel Roux (both senior as junior) have worked their careers in the UK. Each of them have defined a part of cooking/ cuisine in their way.

Not to forget the Commonwealth as well indeed, which brought a lot to the UK.

Really been watching too much MasterChef UK/ Australia and to one of my cooking teachers who really loves to read about history/ science of food. Then again, it's awesome to hear and to know as food is a way of sharing love, express your creativity and bonds and is such an important aspect of our lives/ society/ culture.

Some books which are awesome and I also have in my collection are:

• The Fat Duck Cookbook (don't imagine creating a dish of it, it's more about the insight and the science behind the dishes as they are easily a couple of pages)
  
• On food and cooking
  
• The Devil in the Kitchen
  
• Kitchen Confidential
  
  Honestly, couldn't forget the latter of course.

>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.

For a quick read: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Great story, hilarious, lots of layers, if you want to go looking for them. Fun read even if not.

Two excellent novels that you might identify with. Both long, but fantastic:

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Novel about a young officer in the Vietnam war (around your age), based on the author's experiences. Great book, long, but very engaging and entertaining read.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts: Just go to the amazon page, can't do it justice here, fantastic book.

A cool part about these is that each could be considered a "Roman a clef" (should be some accents there), at least loosely, as both are based to some degree on actual events in the author's lives. Though liberties are certainly taken, still neat to remember.

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.”

Ok, since no one has mentioned it yet, I feel compelled to recommend you read "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain, if you haven't already. Of course all experiences are different, but it paints a pretty vivid picture of what real kitchens are like (or at least were a few years ago). I love food and cooking as well and considered becoming a chef, but this book persuaded me otherwise. However, I think there are plenty of people that that lifestyle appeals to, so might as well check it out. Bourdain is also an entertaining writer, so if anything, you should just read it purely for fun and the love of food. (oh look, they released an updated version)

I am a professional chef and while watching people prepare food is entertaining and sometimes also educating I actually recommend you to buy books and learn the basics first.

You can then use youtube pretty well in order to watch how to do specific things, like i.e. deboning a whole chicken for a gallantine, or how to trim certain pieces of meat.

Start with french cuisine. Once you have understood how things are connected you'll actually understand everything else.

If you want something simple and entertaining for the start I'd choose Anthony Bourdaine's Les Halles Cookbook. It's amusingly written and the recipes are fairly easy and they are all legit.

Then there is Paul Bocus. Living legend with three long-term girlfriends.

And of course you want to have Escoffier at your home. Doesn't get much more classic than that.

If you want to get a sense of what drives a top notch chef, watch In Search of Perfection by Heston Blumethal. Very very good stuff.

And finally, if you want to learn something about culinary history I highly highly recommend Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany and to learn about our lifes as a chef you need to read the (admittedly exaggerated) autobiographicly Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain.

All this provided, you won't learn cooking without actually doing it.

Edit: Depending on your budget, I also heavily recommend Alain Ducasse's Grand Livre de Cuisine.

Amy

My husband and I love your work and everything you've done, we both enjoy Parks and Rec twice, once while high and once while... not high. We consider you one of our gay icons in comedy. Loved you on Louie too.

Everybody knows you're really good friends with Tina Fey, any possibility of her appearing in the last season of Parks? Any other collaboration ideas?

While writing this btw I went to amazon and bought "Yes, please" right away. (http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Please-Amy-Poehler/dp/0062268341/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414608697&sr=8-1&keywords=yes+please)

Why did you write the book if I may ask? Is it your take on Tina's Bossypants?

Thank you again! And if you're around Encino, my husband and I would throw a fab fondue party for you!

With only my phone on me, I'm just going to list out some of the non-fiction I've enjoyed on my commute recently.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory - Caitlin Doughty Great reading for the morbidly inclined.

Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film - Patton Oswalt I would only recommend this book for true cinema fans. It's enjoyable if you get the references and are also a procrastinating creative.

God'll Cut You Down: The Tangled Tale of a White Supremacist, a Black Hustler, a Murder, and How I Lost a Year in Mississippi - John Safran sort of reminds me of Jon Ronson. Good true crime, fish out of water stuff.

Yes Please - Amy Poehler Great advice, hilarious. Get it on audiobook.

Carsick - John Waters John waters being John Waters.

Manson - Jeff Guinn A super fascinating breakdown of the 1960s, and the environment that held Manson is much is a biography. I'm really excited to read his new book his writing about Jim Jones and the 1970's.

Currently on Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon, very excited about it.

My favorite book is Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. It is breathtaking, inspiring, tragic, and yet has a sense of accomplishment along with it. It's a beautifully written novel, and much better than the already great movie based off of it. I highly recommend it to anyone I can!

This book is only $2.99, and is an ebook (if that's okay with your contest rules), so it has free shipping.

Thanks for the contest! :)

Chomsky is off by 10 years.

The real "tipping point" was 1971 when the dollar was completely removed from the Gold exchange standard (aka Bretton Woods) -- which triggered the massive inflation of the 1970's (worst at the end) -- and that in turn led to dramatic changes in the financial sector in the late 1970's and early 1980's (the end of usury laws, which enabled the VAST expansion of credit cards; the first of two decades worth of loosening of restrictions on banking; including the channeling of nearly all savings {including 401k's} up to Wall Street {creating a VERY massive "pool of cash" needing to be "invested"} whereas previously it had been lent locally, etc.) -- and of course the selection of Greenspan and the entrenchment of economic idiocy around "fiat" money (which, along with the modern spreadsheet, enabled the beginning of the corporate raiders and LBO operations that began the process of hollowing out of US based manufacturing -- all that "retirement" money was "dumb" in that it bought stocks via several layers, and only cared about "PPS" quarterly & year-over-year results.)

Add in the significant increase in environmental laws (which began in the 1960's & 1970's but actually hit it's "stride" and became far more pervasive in the 1980's) and the concurrent things like NAFTA & MFN status for China...

And you had the perfect recipe for a DE-industrialization of the US, an increased emphasis on short-term corporate results, and a shipping of any/all "dirty" jobs outside of the continental US.

For good measure, you can also toss in the reduction/elimination of general "savings" in the middle class (mainly because their FICA taxes were significantly increased -- to a level that basically equaled what people had previously "saved" themselves) -- which basically drove people into extended use of credit cards as a means of personal deficit-financing (and all other forms of debt including things like auto-leasing, virtually unheard of before the 1980's).


You can also look at Tyler Cowen's book "The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History,Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better" -- where he posits that the US had reached the "apogee" of a series of MAJOR innovations and was after that "coasting" on past achievements -- which I think has some merit as well.

There was no SINGLE factor, rather it is a result of many different factor pulling in various directions, with the overwhelming main direction one of a decreasing domestic industrial sector.

1. Glad to oblige. Sundays are rarely fun days for me.
   
   2)Sleep. Glorious sleep. When I'm done sleeping, I plan on reading a book just for fun. Perhaps on the beach, where I might have a little more sleep.
   
   
2. My favorite special holiday recipe is sweet potato pie with pralines on top. Who am I kidding, I'd eat it everyday and twice on Tuesdays.
   
   
3. I adore this woman, and I've been thinking I want to spend my holiday with her.
   
   What are your holiday plans? If that is too far away- What are you and /u/WMichaelis going to do tonight, Brain?

(23 F bisexual, with a varied relationship history w/ men, non-binaries, and women)

I think a major issue with TRP is that they are determined to think of women as a hive mind. You can see how easy that mindset is to get into by looking at your search history - unfortunately, asking 'what do women want' is about as useful as asking 'what do men want' - we all know there is vast variation at the individual level.

The difference between you and them is that if a woman were to walk up to you and say 'i would like to be respected and not be subordinate to you', your response would not be 'you don't really mean that, because what women really want is [insert horrifying statement]', because at the end of the day you're aware that women are individuals.

Knowing that women are in fact people is not a magic bullet to getting the girl/relationship you want, and it's worth remembering that sexism is a systemic issue, which means that women can also believe it (I really liked someone else's comment about 'lizard brain' versus human brain) and gravitate toward it.

However, I really do think I am a person, and I only date men who I won't have to convince of that fact. If a dude makes statements like 'you're not like other girls', he goes straight out the window, because I am not going to date a man who thinks 'other girls' are a monolith of shit. However, no redpill dude is ever going to come close to me, which is why it's so easy for them to reaffirm their worldview.

You are on the right track to being a trustworthy and wise person, and I would encourage you to keep on your track. Maybe look for dating advice authored by women!

edit: I grabbed a link to one google drive that's (I think) totally authored by women, talking about 'emotional labour', which is a huge thing you can be aware of if you want to be a good partner: here it is!

another link is to Nick Offerman's book/audiobook, which I listened to with my old boss (I used to do leatherwork, very manly), which I think is a really good perspective on manliness. jordan peterson may tell you that women are 'the dragon of chaos', but nick offerman is actually a success in the entertainment and woodworking world, and it does appear he's had positive relationships with women.

​

My favorite book in a long time which I'm currently reading is A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. It doesn't have much to do with anything but it keeps me entertained. Definitely check it out.

Second favorite is A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Both are rather obscure of meaning but have a fun precedence (this possibly more comical than the other)

If you are looking for a semi-serious book I recommend The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. It does have to do with an ex-military doctor but it is hardly the focus of the book. It follows the creation of the Oxford American Dictionary, but it isn't quite what you'd expect. I don't believe I could give you in depth analysis for any of these nor if you'd like them. They are my favorite books (minus Calvin and Hobbs) and are worth a read.

I honestly can't answer your question thoroughly, but I do recommend this book, The Professor and the Madman, which is about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. It speaks of other attempts, but none quite as ambitious as the OED. Other languages, French for example, had already been done fairly thorough. The book explains the attempt to both standardize the english language(like spelling and definition) but also find the earliest uses of the word and trace its use over time. The project is probably the greatest experiment in the idea of crowd-sourcing ever over a century before the computer existed. So many anonymous lexicographers and philologists( both words I learned by reading the book) came together out of a collective and noble goal to accomplish such an immense feat. I loved it.

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.

Economists don't agree about much, but there is almost universal agreement that free trade deals like GATT and NAFTA are good for society. They make most of society much, much better off than they would be absent free trade. That goes for people as well as corporations.

The problem is that there will always be some people who lose out and find that their skills are no longer necessary. I don't remember anyone ever saying that wouldn't happen, at least to some extent. I think what's been unexpected is the extent to which we haven't been able to find productive things for those displaced workers to do. Tyler Cowen calls it "The Great Stagnation." And again, I think that problem is largely due to broader changes in the nature of our economy. If globalization had occurred fifty years ago, the displaced workers would just have shifted over and applied the same skills to make different products. But because manufacturing in the U.S. has become so specialized, there's just not much need for low-skill people. I don't see how "corporate interests" are responsible for that trend, except to the extent that they've decided -- rightly, I would argue -- to adopt efficiency-enhancing technologies.

Hey! This is my kind of contest. Here's my list:

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Horari -
   From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”
   One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? (copied from the Amazon page)
   
   
2. [Name of the Wind - Kingkiller Chronicles by Pat Rothfuss] (https://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Patrick-Rothfuss/dp/0756404746/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537668772&sr=1-1&keywords=name+of+the+wind) -
   My name is Kvothe.
   I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
   You may have heard of me. (copied)
   
   
3. [The Golem Cypher: T.R.I.X. by B.V. Bayly] (https://www.amazon.com/Golem-Cypher-T-R-I-X-B-V-Bayly-ebook/dp/B072C11JJS/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537668912&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=golem+the+trix+cypher) - Once one of the best assassins in the galaxy, Cadell is now the hunted. The Ascendency, the ruling galactic empire and Cadell’s ex-employer, has stripped him of everything and placed a significant bounty on his head. Forced to live with the shadows of his past, Cadell hides on the backwater planets of the outer rim. Away from anyone who would recognize him.
   When his old friend and mentor, Salis, dangles a job in front of him that will get him an Ascendency pardon and let him clear his name, Cadell is ready to take it on. Armed with his constant companion, a strange alien symbiote named T.R.I.X. and his skills as an assassin, Cadell sets off to complete the strange job. ( A nifty book but a relatively new author, worth the read!)
   
   
4. [I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid] (https://www.amazon.com/Im-Thinking-Ending-Things-Recommendation/dp/1501126946/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537669080&sr=1-1&keywords=i%27m+thinking+of+ending+things) - All I'll say about this is that it's quite volatile when it comes to the reviews it's received. I enjoyed it, but many other didn't... It's quite a ride if you end up enjoying it.
   
   
5. [Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer] (https://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Krakauer/dp/0385486804/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537669320&sr=1-1&keywords=into+the+wild+book) - In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. (One of my favorite books/stories of all time. I
   also hold the movie close to my heart.)
   
   
   
   This took me a good few minutes, I hope you find something you like through this contest :)

Honestly, if you are not passionate about library services, you should not be pursuing your MLIS. The job market is hard enough out there for people who are passionate about library services, tossing yourself in the mix (and adding to your debt while you're at it) isn't a great move.

That said, I'm also not sure about how realistic it is to pursue a career in writing for TV, but you seem pretty aware of that, and it sounds as if you've already been able to get writing positions, which seems like a good start. It sounds as if you already know what you want to do.

If you haven't read it yet, you might want to read Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling. I personally don't know much at all about the business of writing for TV, but scattered throughout her book was her path through writing for TV, which I thought was super interesting.

I'm sorry to hear about your dog. It's hard to lose them, as they grow up with you. I lost my dog two years ago and it's hard to remember I won't hear the jangle of her collar anymore. If you need to talk, I'm here for you. Feel free to PM whenever. I kinda like to talk a lot so if that cheers you up i'd love to help :)

http://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Hanging-Without-Other-Concerns/dp/0307886271/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=MP4WCNL8A4OU&coliid=I39SO4BFP7U5K8m Mindy Kaling is so funny, and I really want to read her book. You should watch an episode of "The Mindy Project" to cheer up as well. I guarantee you'll laugh. It's so great. <3

Atul Gawande - Better, Complications, and checklist manifesto.

Sandeep Jauhar - Intern

Jerome Groopman - How doctor's think

Michael Collins - Hot lights, cold steel and Blue collar, blue scrubs

Samuel Shem - House of God

Brian Eule - Match day

Paul Ruggieri - Confessions of a surgeon

Emily R. Transue - On call

Okay so I was in the same position you are in right now. I wanted to read as much as I could because I truly found it fascinating. I read these books and I'm glad I did. These books just give you an idea of how hard doctors work and what the life of a doctor is like. Another recommendation is Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. It has nothing to do with medicine but I read it and I think you should too. He talks about the life of a chef and how perfection and long long hours are demanded of him. I feel like there are some overlaps between the different settings. Chef/doctor and Restaurant/hospital. Anyways, This list should last you a long time. Hope you enjoy.


Edit: Added links.

Vindicates it to a certain level yes. http://www.amazon.com/Great-Stagnation-Low-Hanging-Eventually-ebook/dp/B004H0M8QS is a great book mostly talking about America's economic decline but also speaks a little to China as well. China has seen impressive growth by the numbers and in some real world cases but that doesn't mean the system is incredibly corrupt and inefficient. A state managed system can work wonders when all you have to do is do the simple things all the other developed countries have done already (build infrastructure, factories with cheap labor, open up borders). This is especially true seeing what China was coming from in the 1970s, there wasn't much room to go but up. Now in the coming decades we will see how well this development approach will work into the future.

A pretty average New York chef who wrote several books about his experiences. His third book, Kitchen Confidential, became a cult hit based mostly on his 'no bullshit' descriptions of the service industry. It is one part autobiography, one part advice column (explaining for instance why you should never order fish on a Monday or go to a Sunday brunch), and one part philosophical screed (talking openly about sex, drugs, alcoholism, gender, race, and crime).

His notoriety from the book landed him a series of TV shows. The second of these shows, No Reservations, gained him a minor level of fame in the US. The show's popularity (among a certain audience) came largely from it's brilliant cinematography. Each episode is filmed in a different 'style' befitting the location and food. This is mixed with a propensity to visit dangerous locations and try exotic foods / experiences.

Now-a-day's Bourdain along with his crew from no reservations are doing essentially the same show on CNN (this time called Parts Unknown). The show does well among men aged 25-54 with either some college or a bachelor's degree. Unsurprisingly these demographics tend to line up with reddit's own so he's pretty popular on this site.

If you want to learn more:

Kitchen Confidential is actually a great read.

His talk at google gives a pretty good insight to his personality.

And if you're interested in filmography you should watch this talk from the producer of his show.

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'm personally getting a lot of great recommendations who cares if Grey's assistant likes them.

[TLC: High middle ages]
(https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/high-middle-ages.html)
Really interesting professor does a very broad overview of the changes happening in Europe during this time period.

[Unfamiliar Fishes]
(https://www.amazon.com/Unfamiliar-Fishes-Sarah-Vowell/dp/159448564X) Actually most Sarah Vowell books are pretty interesting and entertaining. This one covers the time period of Hawaii from when it was a kingdom to a state, when it's soul is being fought over by missionaries, fruit companies and shipping.


[What I talk about when I talk about Running](
https://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/0307389839) I'm not a runner, neither is Grey, still a really interesting reflective book.


[Cod: The biography of the fish that changed the world](
https://www.amazon.com/Cod-Biography-Fish-Changed-World/dp/0140275010/ref=sr_1_1?
keywords=cod&qid=1566160678&s=books&sr=1-1)
You need to read this just for the charming cod wars Iceland engages in, also a ton of history and geography.

[Stephen King: On Writing](
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816) Very nuts and bolts book about the physical act of writing and a lot of inside baseball about the state of mind King was in while writing some of his most famous books,

I can post a few links from some books about numbers. I haven't read a few of them, but the history of some numbers like phi, pi, zero... all of them are fascinating.

• http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Pi-David-Blatner/dp/0802775624
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Ratio-Worlds-Astonishing-Number/dp/0767908163/ref=pd_sim_b_4
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Story-Number-Princeton-Science-Library/dp/0691141347/ref=pd_sim_b_2
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Imaginary-Tale-Story-square-minus/dp/0691127980/ref=pd_sim_b_1
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Biography-Dangerous-Charles-Seife/dp/0140296476/ref=pd_sim_b_3
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/History-Pi-Petr-Beckmann/dp/0312381859/ref=pd_sim_b_5
  
  Those six are all the history of the five most important constants in mathematics. If you're looking for the history of some of the most brilliant minds in mathematics, I'm afraid I haven't the resources or expertise to help you out.

The best book to read, the thing that rings the truest I've ever read about working as a cook / chef is this book Sous Chef it reads as if I was speaking out loud to my friend about what my day was like.

Bill Bufords Heat is also a really good read. These books may make you want to start cooking for a living. I implore you don't. Your bank account will shrink, your knees and back will go out and your social life will become destroyed.

/r/KitchenConfidential and Anthony Bourdains books are pretty good as well. Nearly any chefs Bio is good. Although Bourdains trends to tell white and sometimes black lies for dramas sake in his books.

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.

I would love to be the creepy smiling girl from Insidious
I love her outfit, her story is so creepy and.. I just really like her part
Even though it was not important, she was scary!

Dresses similar to that are expensive. But I think that would be a fun costume to experiment with!
I would like a book a book or a way to make me prettier lol

Definitely Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson
It's a bit dry, but it's a great history of the tactics of football, and how they & the game in general spread across the world.

Even though it's about Arsenal, Fever Pitch by Nick Hornsby does a good job describing what it's like to be a fan.

I haven't read this yet, but have heard very good things about Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer by David Winner

Those are the ones that jump to my head immediately.

You might like the 4400 I loved that show... or Dollhouse... but you probably have seen that one... oh oh oh try "Persons Unknown"! It's so good... so so good...

I'm a workaholic too!! Yay!!!

I love books...

I don't know if you do.... but I thought you might like that one!

Mediation itself sounds like a great idea but I have no interest in the spirituality or metaphysical aspects. A few years ago I found this book:


Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality by Brad Warner.

It's pretty good, and helped me get started on meditation purely for the empirical physical and mental benefits.

I recommend:

• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas A little bit like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but with a lot more drugs and looser morals.
  
• The Last Lecture In the Tuesdays with Morrie theme, The Last Lecture is from a professor who is terminally ill, but approaching it with calm and mindfulness. Inspiring, sad, the whole bit. And short!
  
• Juliet, Naked Nick Hornby again. Pop music/stuttering romance again, and I really liked it.
  
• And, finally, for awesome and funny and easy-to-read sci fi, go for Stardust by Neil Gaiman!

• Deeper/Further/(Eventually)Higher - If I can't be out riding, might as well watch people riding things I never could.
  
• Anything by Jon Krakauer. Into the Wild is an obvious choice, but Eiger Dreams and Under the Banner of Heaven are great as well.
  
• Ride the Divide is a good flick as well, and available on Netflix last I checked.
  
• 3point5. Pro-deal pricing can be addicting.Plus being in the top 5% for snowboarding, camping, and running have to count for something, right?!

There are several popular 'flavors' of Buddhism, but unfortunately I have not read any general overview books covering all of the sects. Most of my generalized knowledge has come from podcasts like Buddhist Geeks and Zencast. Gil Fronsdal and Jack Kornfield are both enjoyable to listen to.

But back to books!

The most accessible Zen book I've read was Nishijima's To Meet The Real Dragon. Other overviews like Alan Watt's What Is Zen and Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind are good but a little obtuse.

And while I can't give it a general recommendation because the writing style isn't for everyone, I really enjoyed Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up.

Of those mentioned, I would go with To Meet the Real Dragon unless you prefer a much more informal style -- then I would pick Hardcore Zen.

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

Wow. Something I can talk to... I'm an engineer.
I'm going to guess that they mean "decimal place" or "place value". Arabic numerals have set places, based on their relation to zero, that define their meaning. The further from zero you are, the larger, or smaller, the value of the number is! Each spot further down the line is an order of magnitude smaller or larger!
Non-arabic numeral based systems don't have that constraint. Roman numerals, for instance, simply "add up" the value of each number but can have each number listed in the "numerical phrase" in various orders... and still represent the same number.
The advantage to having a system with place value comes in to play when you're doing complex, and abstract, math. Multiplication is an example of this. I don't even know how you would go about multiplying two numbers using Roman numerals... but, it's rather straight forward in Arabic Numeral/ Western Math... and even binary if base ten isn't your thing.
Also, while the Romans, and Greeks, had exposure to the concept of "nothing" they didn't really use "zero" in math (which is too bad, if they had, we might have gotten calculus a few centuries earlier) due to religious beliefs about the philosophical meaning between the concept of "The Infinite" and its opposite, "Nothing" (zero and infinity are both necessary for concepts for calculus... and the Greeks felt that Infinity was a Divine concept. And since Nothing is the Opposite of Infinity, it must be sinister and evil and not used).

Now, I don't know anything of Mayan math. But, if they had a positional, or place-holder, system, then they might have been able to do some very, very interesting math. Unfortunately, it looks like OP is saying that we can only show what the Mayans might have been capable off of the little we know of their counting method, and not actually what they could do...


Here's a link I found after a quick Google search
Here's one that summarizes the bit about Calculus (yes, it's pop-math history, but it's interesting and pretty decently written)

Interesting. There is a good book on the history of the number zero but I honestly don't know if you'd like it or not. https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Biography-Dangerous-Charles-Seife/dp/0140296476/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1526496930&sr=8-2&keywords=zero+book if you happen to be interested.
People have definitely run mazes end decks before but they certainly aren't common. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I haven't read this one yet, but the thread gives me an idea:

Let's put together a list of essential reading here, and when we're done we can add it to the FAQ.

Please add book title with link and a short description.

I'll start:

Soccernomics -- analyzes the game from the perspective of behavioral economics. A highly entertaining read. Some may find some of the conclusions a little iffy, but the chapter on penalty kicks and game theory is by itself worth the price of the book.

Soccer in Sun and Shadow -- a poetic, moving, and often hilarious reflection of a lifetime of watching the beautiful game. The book is written in short, pithy chunks, and few chapters are more than a couple pages long. But the work itself is a passionate and reverent love song for the sport itself.

Fever Pitch -- a diary of the author's life-long obsession with Arsenal, the book tries to make sense of the complex mix of agony, frustration, bitter disappointment, and fleeting moments of pure ecstasy that make up the experience of being a die-hard supporter. There is a lot about Arsenal, of course. But it's really a story about being a fan.

___

Keep 'em coming ...

If you want to learn a little bit of context and history of what English football is all about Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch is a great book written from the perspective of a growing up to be life-long Arsenal fan. Good sense of humor and excellent writing, not some boring paean to sports-fandom. Even my mother like the book and she doesn't know anything about soccer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fever_pitch

http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Pitch-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573226882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254612517&sr=1-1

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.

Hello, I read one of your sections of your new book, Yes Please about parents and it reminds me of my relationship between me and my parents. My questions are:

• As a mother, what are some of your expectations for your relationship between you and your children when they grow older?
  
  
• What was the idea behind Amy Poehler's Smart Girls? I think that website is really encouraging how young female acts in real life and it is good for our community.
  
  
• What is you favorite dessert?
  
  Thank you, you're one of the funniest female in show business right now.

I was raised in a very strict Evangelical, Fundamentalist Christian household. I had a feeling from the very beginning that it was all bullshit, but I tell you what, I tried valiantly to hang in there. As I got into college, I had moved onto reading Kierkegaard and other Christian Existentialist in order to try to make my religion make any damn sense. Paul Tillich also figured in prominently. Honestly I still really like a whole lot of what both Kierkegaard and Tillich have to say.

Anyway after doing that for a bit, I realized that there was no point in all the mental gymnastics I was doing. I was clinging to this thing because I was raised with it, and that is a lousy reason. So I tossed that shit overboard. For about a minute I hopped onto the New Atheist train. Several things there immediately became obvious to me though. The first was that while I generally agreed with them, they were kind of dicks to everyone. That was kind of not cool in my book. Then there was fact that they seemed to be completely missing a part of life. There seemed there was a sense of mystery, I guess, that that kind of stark atheism just misses. That is not quite it. Maybe wonder or some other ineffable quality. The whole thing just seemed too mean, with a pat answer for everything. And it does a lousy job of answering the whole, "Ok, so what do I do now?"

It was about this time that my ex-wife (we were married at the time) gave me the book Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner. As a side not here, I think Brad is kind of a creeper, and a lot of his teachings strike me as a little simplistic these days, but he will always have a bit of a special place in my heart for bringing me into Buddhism. Anyway, so I read that, and stuff in there just kept ringing true for me. I have always been a little bit of a philosophy dork, and there were so many things things in Buddhism, specifically Zen, that struck me as applied philosophy. Philosophy taken out of the clouds and actually put into practice. Which, as it happens to be, had been one of my major critiques of philosophy for a long time.

"In relation to their systems most systematizers are like a man who has built a vast palace while he himself lives nearby in a barn; they themselves do not live in the vast systematic edifice. But in matters of the spirit this is and remains a decisive objection. Spiritually, a man's thoughts must be the building in which he lives—otherwise it's wrong." -Soren Kierkegaard

While the above quote was specifically about Hegel, it has much broader application.

Anyway, being that as it may, there were lots of things about Buddhism that rang very true to me. So I started reading everything I could put my hands on about it. In addition to this, I found that there was a temple near me, the Houston Zen Center. I immediately felt comfortable there, though it seems like I was the youngest member there by a decade or two. Then a couple of guys and myself wanted a more youth oriented group, so we sent out an email to Noah Levine and got permission to use the name Dharma Punx for the group. We have been meeting for a couple of years now.
My schedule is all messed up with work, so getting up to the zen center is kind of a pain in the ass, but I make it up there as often as I can. I sit zazen with some regularity. I have a fantastic teacher in Gaelyn Godwin. Not only is she brilliant and possible one of the most wise people I have ever met, she has got a wicked wit on her. She is constantly messing with me, but in a most perfectly loving and gentle way. She has been a profound influence on my life.

I have taken the lay precepts. I have been talking about here in another decade or so, when I reach retirement age, going into the practice full time, and taking the full monastic vows. We'll see. No definite plans, but that is one of the ideas I have floating around my head.

That looks like an interesting read, never got smitten by the Vampire/werewolf fantasy myself, but looking forward to hearing more about it.


I recently came across Paddle your own Canoe - Nick Offerman And its a great book.

Its written almost like an autobiography, but with so much humor and brilliant tidbits of information that I powered through it in a day or two, and immediatly started on one of his other books, Gumption.

He wants to be a linguist--I think he would also enjoy the etymologies in the Oxford English Dictionary. I suggest taking him to a public library and sitting him down with a copy of the OED and going through a few definitions (penetrate would be a good start).

You've definitely got a linguist on your hands--if he also gets interested in computers and/or programming, he will have a lot of jobs waiting for him after he gets through college.

Please PM me if you want more help/advice.

Edit: He might enjoy these books:

http://www.amazon.com/History-English-Language-6th-Edition/dp/0205229395/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377654532&sr=8-2&keywords=english+a+history

http://www.amazon.com/Linguistics-A-Very-Short-Introduction/dp/0192801481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377654559&sr=8-1&keywords=very+brief+introduction+linguistics

http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-Insanity-English-Dictionary/dp/0060839783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377654605&sr=1-1&keywords=the+madman+and+the+professor

The University School classes are probably the best in town, but they don't release the catalog until around thanksgiving, and the classes usually occur in the first few months of the new year.

Chef Jamie Watson is a local chef who does mostly French cuisine, which is perfect for learning techniques, and he does some intensive workshops from time to time. The Salud school at Whole Foods is probably the next best option, but I haven't heard great things. You also may want to consider a book; I'd recommend this one.

A few thoughts:

At one point Lewis and Tolkien were going to write companion novels about space and time. You can see echoes of this in the last chapter of Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in CSL's Space Trilogy when he mentions that space has been cut off from human travel and now any future voyages would be through time. There's also echoes of what might have been in JRRT's Notion Club Papers, which has a time-travel element, but was never published.

In addition, JRRT did not care for the Narnia series because he felt it lacked a coherent theme. However, in the controversial Planet Narnia, Michael Ward posits that CSL actually did have a theme: the medieval view of the planets (The Seven Heavens). There are definitely intriguing arguments made in the book, especially as he combines information from Narnia and the Space Trilogy into his thesis. I wouldn't say it's iron-clad, but if I was still in education, or had the luxury to write papers, this is an area I'd love to explore in depth - specifically the influence of Charles Williams on the evolution of CSL's thought.

If you're interested in aspects of their backgrounds that influenced their worldviews, I would recommend The Discarded Image from CSL (on medieval literature - my favorite CSL book) and The Road to Middle-Earth by Tom Shippey (on the philological undergirding of Middle-Earth). The Humprey Carpenter books are also good (JRRT Letters, Tolkien bio, Inklings bio) as are CSL's letters.

Foolproof is a good example of this. Lots of self-contained chapters on random fun problems. (My only large critique is that the first chapter is very out of place; being basically a history schpiel. Mischaracterizes the book.)

Then there’s math adjacent stuff like Zero: the history of a dangerous idea that look at the history of math development.
(Side note: the first chapter of Pinter’s A Book of Abstract Algebra is a top knotch example of that. And very much in place, unlike the foolproof chapter I mentioned.

Then there are things that aren’t quite “pop”, but make themselves more accessible. Like An Illustrated Guide to Number Theory, which is both a legitimate intro to number theory and a reasonably sexy coffee table book that guests can leaf through. (Though I’d like to see a book that pushes the coffee table style accessibility further.)

Gaia's Garden, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle are two great ones. Gaia's Garden regards permaculture and making your garden more in touch with what occurs in nature. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, while it is not a "Gardening" book, is a great read and was what inspired me to start a garden as soon as I moved out of my apartment to the country.

In the modern literature category

Dave Eggers - What is the What. Or A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius by him is also pretty good.

A.S. Byatt - Possession

Also, someone else mentioned Neal Stephenson, I cannot second this recommendation strongly enough! Very fun reads that don't shy away from intellectual engagement. I read Cryptonomicon by him recently and loved it.

I also note you don't mention Don DeLillo although you mention many of his contemporaries. Check out White Noise by him and go from there.

I could probably make some more suggestions, but it depends what genre's and styles you're really into? Do you want hugely post-modern? Do you enjoy the classics? (I notice your list had no Shakespeare, his tragedies are as famous as they are for good reason)

First off, Okun's law is partly observational (though it can be derived through IS-LM), and because of that it is really only tested for "normal" situations, and there are no completely fixed economies in the real world, even Japan has a certain level of churn even when the aggregates hover around zero. Like most economic theories, the predictions are strongest at the margin.

To address the main question, to a certain extent the answer is implied in the question. When dealing with mathematical (textbook) macro, we simply assume that GDP is equivalent to welfare, because on a micro level it is impossible to aggregate utility. From a theoretical standpoint, assuming GDP growth equal to zero is equivalent to assuming welfare change equal to zero.

Now, from a societal standpoint this becomes more complicated. As mentioned, even when the macroeconomic aggregates are relatively steady the underlying real economy can experience tremendous fluctuations. For example, US inflation over the last few years has been overall rather moderate, even though food prices have risen and technology costs have fallen. Similarly, if Consumption falls by a trillion dollars and Gov't Spending rises by a trillion dollars, it is possible (though not necessary) that this could represent a fairly large decrease in consumer welfare even though the aggregate figure is static.

Further, there are socio-economic reasons to assume that stagnant GDP would hurt welfare. Tyler Cowen theorizes that US economic growth is due for a drastic slowdown in the near to mid term, and that because so many contracts and expectations are based on the idea of continuous economic growth this will cause a great deal of disruption. If we wish away these fairly high transition costs, a society that was organized and expecting zero growth would be so very different from what economic science typically studies that it is hard to say what would happen, though leaning heavily on IS-LM equations seems like a reasonable first estimation of what would occur.

Assuming by "numbers" you mean the set of numbers {0,1,2,.....} (commonly known as the "Natural" numbers) you should first know that there is some debate as to whether or not to include 0.

Whether you decide to include 0 or not, no one knows where/when the concept of the Natural numbers originated. In some cultures, notably the Piraha, they appear to have never been developed so if you believe Kronecker's "God gave us the integers...", God appears to have forgotten to tell to the Piraha.

My own view on the origin of the natural numbers is that they probably arose from trade. A scenario, which may or may not be true but I find particularly appealing, is given in Eugenia Cheng's book "How to Bake Pi". As an example suppose that I want to trade 1 salt cake for each sheep you have. I could line up all the sheep and parade them by one by one. As each sheep passed I could hand over 1 salt cake. This involves lining up the sheep, which, having lived with sheep as a kid, I can tell you is not the easiest thing to do. So instead you could just point at each sheep and hand over a salt cake, perhaps, as Cheng proposes in a likely nod to her musical background, singing a song while doing so. Then the song itself becomes the counting mechanism. The reason I like this so much is that it fits well with Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Mo

If you want to learn more about the historical origins of zero you might try: Zero:The Biography of a Dangerous Number be forewarned that this is a pop-sci book and it's tone is a fairly hyperbolic, here's a review that I think sums up this up pretty well.

http://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395195004&sr=1-1&keywords=tolkien+letters

If you want to read it.

You might also enjoy two of my favorite short stories published in The Tolkien Reader, "Tree and Leaf" and "Farmer Giles of Ham." Tree and Leaf is always a great reminder read for me about the importance of spending your time in life on the things that are meaningful, and of devoting yourself fully to the moment rather than worrying about the past or the future.

• Yes Man (2005)
  
  As the title implies, the book basically suggests being more open to all manner of "invitations." Basically, saying "yes" more often. You'd be surprised how powerful the word is, in all honesty, when you really start to think about it.
  
  In fact, the most incredible times in ones lives are usually a result of saying "yes," rather than "no."
  
  Almost any great job, girlfriend, or experience, you had to say "yes" to going out in the first place, yes to a date, yes to accepting the job, et cetera. People say "no" a lot and there are good reasons, but sometimes the word just gets in the way of keeping life exciting.

Hmm...well, the writer of The Circle wrote a memoir about his post-college days, with a really pretentious title. I have always really liked it, but the reviews are mixed.

The Stolen Child is pretty cool. It's a little different, I hadn't read anything like it before, and got through it quick.

My personal favorite is American Gods. Little weird, but if you're into it, it will really pull you in quick.

And if you're into something creepier, Heart-Shaped Box (not to be confused with the Nirvana song) is probably one of the scariest things I've ever read.

And then as far as YA is concerned, I just discovered Jennifer Hubbard last week - met her at a writing conference.

And then I had never heard of House of Leaves - but it looks SO cool, so thank you haha

[Into The Wild] (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Krakauer/dp/0385486804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397008013&sr=8-1&keywords=into+the+wild)

Picked it up on the fly at my local library in high school. I love non-fiction and the story of a boy deciding to drop everything and move to the Alaskan wilderness sounded amazing. And it was!

Bonus: the book turned into a movie, and it was actually really good!

Watching him protest at the Women's March made me revisit some Nick Offerman books. Quality reads.

Paddle Your Own Canoe

Gumption

Strongly, strongly recommend the audio books as narrated by Mr. Offerman as well. Would love to get a crack at Good Clean Fun sometime soon (his newest book).

In The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, the man himself wrote:

> So Gandalf sacrificed himself, was accepted, and enhanced, and returned. 'Yes, that was the name. I was Gandalf.' Of course, he remains similar in personality and idiosyncrasy, but both his wisdom and power are much greater. When he speaks he commands attention; the old Gandalf could not have dealt so with Theoden, nor with Saruman. He is still under the obligation of concealing his power and teaching rather than forcing or dominating wills, but where the physical powers of the Enemy are too great for the good will of the opposers to be effective he can act in emergency as an 'angel'.

Gandalf the White is everything that Gandalf the Grey is, only better.

Read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
This link will lead you to one of the best books I've ever read. Written by a guy in his early 20's as well who also lost both parents almost simultaneously, in a type of English everyone in their 20's will appriciate. Absolutely hilarious and heartfelt. Seems like it would give a bit of peace of mind right now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0375725784/ref=si_aps_sup_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1311606199&sr=8-1&condition=used

At the very least, read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. I'm serious, there's nothing that could scare the shit out of you more than this book, and if you still are eager to go into the kitchen professionally, then by all means do it. (Also there's a fair bit of good advice about culinary school versus work experience.)

http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Confidential-Updated-Edition-Adventures/dp/0060899220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344405232&sr=8-1&keywords=kitchen+confidential

If you want, message me and I'll send you a copy, it's on me. :-)

awe, I kinda figured it was more of a mind playground :) it is indeed fun. I'm interested in finding ways to develop it though, I'll look into some of the concentration stuff you mentioned. I feel like that time is when I am most in touch with my 'self'.

that is kind of interesting about our difference in thoughts on shikantaza. my understanding (from a single book) was that is was a really chill and informal form of meditation.

thanks for your response.

Another super entertaining book that isn't a cookbook is Heat. It definitely changed the way I look at cooking and ingredients, especially eggs, pasta and meat. Great read.

We were all 18 once...


Specifically, the problem with "go out to eat or go to a convenience store" is that both of those are going to basically nullify the benefit you have to backwoodsing it. Nearly anywhere in the US you can get a room to rent for something like $250/mo if you're willing to drive a bit. This doesn't apply to big places like New York or San Francisco... but if you're able to camp there, you can probably find a place to live for cheap. But if you're buying prepared food, I don't see that being less than $20 a day.


But look at dry goods like rice and beans. You can actually eat a 1:1 ratio of rice and beans and get a complete protein for a few dollars a day. A fridge (see above about renting a room) is going to be able to stretch your food dollars much further than if you have no refrigeration.


Regardless, you should use this summer as an opportunity to test-run some of this. Go find some dispersed camping sites, try camping for a week.


Also, I want to highly recommend you read Into the Wild: https://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Krakauer/dp/0385486804 -- maybe A Walk In the Woods, too: https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Woods-Rediscovering-America-Appalachian/dp/0307279464/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2165P9GZRK25U&keywords=a+walk+in+the+woods+bill+bryson&qid=1562608312

Apologies if these have been posted already, but I'd highly recommend Simon Winchester's work, particularly The Professor and the Madmad and Krakatoa.

Well researched, well written and thoroughly enjoyable.

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.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is really great, but be warned that the book lives up to its title.

Also, I love reading about Robert Kennedy (one of the last true American politicians IMO). I suggest reading The Last Campaign. Pay attention and learn from Bobby, and you'll live a good life.

I change up the books on the non-fiction list every year and this one is no longer on the list. It's a good one though: here's a link to it on Amazon.

Students may enjoy looking into Dave Eggers' work. He's written another book I've considered putting on the non-fiction project list, Zeitoun, a wonderful fictionalized work of true events called What is the What, and he is the editor and founder of McSweeney's, which has spawned the cool sport's writing quarterly Grantland and a sister literary magazine, The Believer.

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

First of all have you read Murakami's book on running? just curious, as a book nerd.
Surely you've read The Oatmeal?

Ok ok first question. Why do you run Raisin? What do you like about it?

Now a less philosophical one:


So, what kind of stretches do you recommend before running? And after? I've noticed alot of stiffness around my knees and the muscles on the sides of my legs so I'm thinking I'm not stretching properly.

I'm in the same boat as you and just started reading a lot of science stuff.

It might be a good idea to pick up an edition of The Best American Science [and Nature] Writing for lots of topics all at once.

I also second the Brian Greene books, early Dawkins, and The Red Queen. But I don't really understand all the Hofstadter hype... I really didn't like I Am a Strange Loop--I found it extremely poorly written, off-topic, at times pretentious, poorly constructed, and overall not a very pleasant experience.

Most of my interest is in biology and evolution, so my recommendations would be:

My favorite animal rights book: Created From Animals - Rachels

A really fun read about poisonous plants: Wicked Plants - Stewart

Another Stewart book about earthworms: The Earth Moved - Stewart

Also anything by Michael Pollan, and to complement that, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

Zeno's paradox isn't really a paradox. it's actually REALLY simple to explain:

You take limit as the distance between two points reaches 0. This is the fundamental operation in calculus.

Why is it not a paradox now but it was back then? Because they didn't believe in the number 0. There is a really good book called Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (http://www.amazon.ca/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476)

A great read! I recommend it!

Some good books about Zen, if you're interested in learning more:

Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality Great book, written by a modern Zen 'master.' Colloquial, not translated and thus easy for us westerners to understand.

Not Always So, Shunryu Suzuki

Moon In A Dewdrop, Dogen This guy is the real shit. Lived hundreds of years ago. You can go as deep as you want into this guy's writings, many levels of meaning (or none?). More metaphorical/figurative than the others, very poetic.

When/if you read this stuff, don't worry about understanding everything sentence. It's easy to get caught in the trap of reading and re-reading sentences and paragraphs to try to understand, but in doing so you miss out on the flow/stream of consciousness of the works. Just read it through, eventually the ideas will start to become clear.

I would agree that Jesus is an important thinker, definitely, revolutionized Judaism, but not the most important. It's tough to pinpoint the "most influential human being or thinker." I can't pinpoint Jesus' ideas as revolutionary or wholly unique as most of the philosophy is highly Eastern... and can be found in Zen Buddhism, some of which I hope you have read. If you have the time, check out Hardcore Zen, fun read. No I'm not a Buddhist.

We've already briefly discussed scripture... and we disagree on the historical veracity, I tend to believe early Christians were quite the storytellers, you feel they were more historians.

I've not misunderstood Jesus' teachings... but I would say a large number of Christians have, no?

I'm glad we have the stars thing in common. I am not so lucky as to live in the country... but that's why I rock climb in the mountains every weekend.

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.

[Kitchen Confidential] (https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Confidential-Updated-Adventures-Underbelly/dp/0060899220) by [Anthony Bourdain] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain)

I read this on Kindle on through their Lending Library (it might still be on there) and loved it. It's a great look inside kitchens and Bourdain is a good writer.

Edit: inserted title and author

This is the book that got me into zen meditation, you can probably get it for almost nothing off ebay. It's a really good book which isn't esoteric like many on meditation. I'd really recommend trying zen meditation, it's about as basic and easy as meditation gets and if you do it enough on a daily basis it will be the most beneficial thing you've ever done in your life. I has been for me.

> you have usage rights so long as no one else vetoes your usage rights of the claim. if someone does so, you cannot use that property. you are also free to veto any and all from the same claim, excluding him and anyone, or everyone, else from that claim.

So it's "I called dibs" vs "I called dibs first"?

> on a functionality note, i would say this veto for usage rights is done through giant computer system to manage such disputes in real time.

People are going to have to make sure that computer keeps running, and more are going to have to make sure that computer stays coded for impartiality. Getting them to sacrifice time needed to grow food so that they can keep the system in check will require compensation. Otherwise you'll effectively end up with "automated cronyism" or a dead computer.

And since the earth is not a homogenous environment and some areas are more lush than others, how will this system determine who gets the best plots? What if those who are stuck in places where natural disasters or droughts or harsh winters are common try to wrest control of land from those who are in a comparative paradise?

And if someone says "I don't care what the computer says, I'm willing to use violence to take your farm", then what? Does the computer have the capacity to violently enforce its decisions, or can it simply be ignored by those who don't like the answers?

You're describing a system that has the ultimate authority of land ownership effectively giving IT full ownership, a system that takes significant resources to run, a system that could be corrupted, and a system that would be worthless in the long run with an inability to use enforcement when those whose rights it dictates are challenged or attempt to subvert it. Sound familiar?

We've burned the Capitalist system! Live off the land!

>
> this actually allows for today's system to function exactly as is, so long as everyone participating consents to that distribution. which i don't think would happen, but it doesn't rule out the possibility.

By saying that you don't think it would happen, you are acknowledging that this either is an exercise in futility or will necessitate brainwashing and/or genocide unlike anything humanity has ever experienced. I'm going to assume that you don't plan on the latter. So given your general admittance of futility, what is the best alternative that:

• is realistically attainable
  
• provides an improved standard of living for as much of the population as possible
  
• enables continued growth and prosperity as a species
  
• and may be sustainable for centuries, millennia, or more?
  
  Borrowing from Churchill, I'm of the opinion that Capitalism is the worst economic system except all the others.
  
  To be fair, I have no idea what system you're implying other than "The system sucks, I want to live off the land and abandon modern medicine and have an omnipotent supercomputer dictate who can live where and have everything function identically to today's system other than these things and have everyone else also willingly live this lifestyle", which is hard to fit in the standard boxes.
  
  Now if you don't want to change the system, and you just want people to leave you alone so you can go build your farm or go Into The Wild, what's really stopping you? Take the book for inspiration; or do as someone else mentioned and buy some land inexpensively in the southern US, even less if you look globally. Despite your insistence, there are many people in the US who have shunned society and found a little place to call home away from civilization. You can do that too, with enough determination. It's a free country!

Best answer. Related: there's a great book about the creation of the OED, The Professor and the Madman.

Here are some biographies that have just what you're looking for! Biographies sound boring, but you won't be able to put these ones down I promise!:

• Bossypants by Tina Fey
  
  
  
• Why not me by Mindy Kaling
  
  
  
• is everyone hanging out without me? by Mindy Kaling as well
  
  
  
• Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg I originally refused to get on the hype train for this one, but after reading it: WOOT WOOT! it's so empowering!

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling.

She had a FA-ish youth, but the more salient point is the whole book is hilarious and uplifiting. I'd highly recommend checking it out.

Division by zero is just one particular topic. You may as well ask for a book about cross-multiplication.

There is a book about zero. I really enjoyed this book, but I haven't read it in a long time, so I don't remember much about it. But I'm pretty sure it discusses division by 0.

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.

Something I want

Something I need

Something to wear and

Something to read

This something to watch
will make me laugh,

And this will be music to my ears…

But what I want most, my dear friends, is to ease sadness and tears.

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.

Dava Sobel writes about science in history, and she's fantastic. Longitude, in particular was great!

I also really like Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary

New to the sub. I'm from China so I read him in translations mostly and however the translators differ from each other the author comes across as consistently a J type..the way he structures the story and sticks to a preferred structure over time.

Also, have you read his book on running? http://www.amazon.com/What-About-Running-Vintage-International/dp/0307389839

It demonstrated how J he is - 30+ years being a runner with strict training regime, daily schedule and diet.

TJ is the feeling I get from many of his writings, although he apparently has strong emotional capacity too. It's just that the thinking and logic are almost equally strong.

BTW Ryu is another Murakami that's very worth reading.

I don't think the movie was based on that book! It was based on 'Yes Man' by Danny Wallace. The story of a man in London who actually said yes to everything for a year. It's literally a laugh out loud book...way better than the film.

I enjoyed Ed Viesturs book: No Shortcuts to the Top, it was a self focused memoir, yet he shares his views and opinions in a way that came off genuine and down to earth. It is probably different than something you are writing since the focus of the book is entirely on something that made him very famous (First American to climb all 8000m peaks)

I like John Krakauer's books. Into Thin Air was a great firsthand account of a major disaster. It has some controversy, but like anything else firsthand accounts rely on the writers memory of events and those can change wildly from person to person.

Into the Wild is obviously another one of his more famous works. I liked it writing style and level of research, but I disliked the man the book was written about with a passion. Hardly the writers fault there though.

I would like this book because I love Mindy Kaling and I think she's hilarious.

Lmfao "Daigo fucking Umehara gave money away so Ricki Ortiz should too" - literally eat shit with that. Embarrassingly naive. This has got to be the most dishonest attempt at a comparison I've ever read on this website.

Daigo can comfortably afford acts of philanthropy and benefits from them because not only is he a celebrity in a way that Ricki is not (or any other fgc player who isn't Daigo), Daigo is his own brand. He does lectures, media events, he makes passive income as an author and even has manga written about him. It was beyond generous of him to give that money away, and is also indicative that he is living very comfortably. A child would understand that.

On top of that Daigo has earned more than twice as much as Ricki in lifetime tournament winnings alone, on top of being sponsored by Madcatz - and meanwhile Ricki probably isn't even getting paid a salary by EG.

Maybe you should send his agent an email and see how much Daigo charges to do a lecture at an event for your college?

I can't wait to hear your response about how Ricki got interviewed by a magazine or something. You are far beyond even attempting to be honest making a comparison like that - Daigo Umehara can afford to give away money so Ricki Ortiz should too lmfao. Holy shit.

Absolutely. Brad Warner is an interesting example. He went from being in punk bands to teaching English in Japan to becoming a Buddhist priest. He wrote a great book called Hardcore Zen if you'd like to read more about his philosophy and experiences.

I agree and the original book is also a good source. It helped guided me to opportunities that I never thought I'd have.

I just read the article and I want to go back to bed: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/we-need-new-science-progress/594946/

Peak liberal ideology right here, folks

Edit: I just looked up the co-authors and found that one of them, Tyler Cowan, is the author of a book titled The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better.

Cowan's fundamental argument is that America's astronomical wealth rests on certain forms of """low-hanging fruit"""" such as """free land""" (which, he generously notes, "was often stolen from Native Americans, one should not forget) and that the benefits of that """low-hanging fruit""" have now ceased helping deliver the same rate of exploitation as it used to.

Simply put, his argument vindicates Marx's argument about the falling rate of profit, and this article with his co-author Patrick Collison is really about how to grasp this pseudo-object called "progress" in order to return us to past rates of profitability.

In conclusion: these fuckin liberals will drive a comrade to drink

Edit 2: This has to be one of the saddest sentences I've ever read lol:

>Along the cultural dimension, the artists of Renaissance Florence enriched the heritage of all humankind, and in the process created the masterworks that are still the lifeblood of the local economy.

While counseling definitely sounds like the best course of action, and while I doubt free time is limited, if you can get your hands on this book and read it, you might, at least, not feel so alone in the world. Who knows, you might even glean a few strategies from it:

http://www.amazon.com/A-Heartbreaking-Work-Staggering-Genius/dp/0375725784/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413987586&sr=8-1&keywords=heartbreaking+work+of+staggering+genius

tl;dr: famous author, david eggers in his early 20's, becomes guardian of his younger brother.

I recently finished a book about that! The Professor and the Madman covers the lives of William Minor (the madman) and James Murray (the professor) while also providing an interesting look at the creation of the OED itself. It's about two hundred pages and flows by pretty quickly. Worth a read.

oh! what about Nick Offerman's book? I haven't read it yet but it seems in line with some of the other ones you're bringing up. Or Neil Patrick Harris' Choose Your Own Autobiography seems similar, too.

I read David Cross' "I Drink for a Reason" and it was less personal analysis than light-hearted observation, but I still really enjoyed it.

Personal opinion: I read Amy Poehler's book and actually didn't enjoy it like I thought I would. There was very little humor...at least not of the caliber of Bossy Pants, and it felt more like a chronological listing of events in her life rather than any real reflection.

http://smile.amazon.com/Paddle-Your-Own-Canoe-Fundamentals/dp/052595421X?sa-no-redirect=1

http://smile.amazon.com/Neil-Patrick-Harris-Choose-Autobiography/dp/0385346999?sa-no-redirect=1

http://smile.amazon.com/I-Drink-Reason-David-Cross/dp/0446697710/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420487957&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=this+is+why+i+drink+david+cross

I know the song. It was on the radio for like a year and a half. I believe that Hunter Thompson is the best (or at least most publicly exposed) example of a person that has taken this quote to heart.

That's why they wrote the song... the quote, plus the excerpt from Fear and Loating equals that song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8gAtTxWhUY

http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Loathing-Las-Vegas-American/dp/0679785892/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373775814&sr=8-1&keywords=fear+in+loathing+in+las+vegas

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

Zero is a whole number, and pretty awesome at that. If you want, this book tells the story of zero. And explains why the phones and calculators are different.

My two favorite running books are What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and Run Gently Out There. The /r/AdvancedRunning Book Club also has a good list.

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.

Charles Seife wrote a book about this from a mathematical perspective (which is great, IMO).

He talks about a few cultures, and says that the Greeks, and thus much of the western world, were a bit twitchy about the concept of zero as a standalone number because it represented a void, which conflicted with the prevailing systems of philosophy. A lot of their math was based on geometry, like the Egyptians before them, and zero didn't exist in geometry. How can you think about a non-space?

There are interesting side effects of this - notably our calendar, which goes from 1 BC (-1) to 1 CE, with no zero, meaning it's very easy to mess up the arithmetic of time around then.

I realize that these two stories are just anecdotes to you, and you will probably never change your mind that drugs are bad man, but I'm also basing my opinion on working for over 20 years in the F&B business. I've worked behind line, waited tables, bussed, parked cars, dish dogged, tended bar, and managed front of the house. I've known both people that used alcohol and weed (and coke) to get through a shift, and those who did not. In my experience, drugs and alcohol use had very little to do with whether someone was useful in a kitchen or not.

If you are at all interested in what a crappy job it really is, you should read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly sometime. It's a pretty no-holds-barred look at working in a restaurant in NYC in the late 80's - early 90's. It's changed some, but not all that much.

*Edited to fix link to book

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

The current print paperback is perfectly nice, for what it's worth. Very sturdy feeling. I have no plans to upgrade.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J/dp/0618056998

IS THERE OLIVES IN IT!? (Somebody please get the reference or I'll be very sad)

I've wanted this book for a while now! Otherwise gift card is cool.

Strawberry Bubblegum

Please let me make this abundantly clear, I am not saying Tolkien is a racist in any way shape or form, simply that he did use race as an influence in his works.

“The dwarves of course are quite obviously, wouldn’t you say that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic. The hobbits are just rustic English people,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-G_v6-u3hg Its in the last few minutes of this interview

and

“I do think of the ‘Dwarves’ like Jews,” he writes (Letters, p. 229), “at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue.” From the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein http://www.amazon.com/The-Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J/dp/0618056998


This one is pretty obvious to me, maybe not racist in a hatred, but definitely using a race as an influence. But the greed for gold doesn't really help.

Here's the book if you want to support his legacy.

Some highlights;

>You will receive on Monday the copy of the 'Story Line' or synopsis of the proposed film version of The Lord of the Rings. I could not get it off yesterday.

>....An abridgement by selection with some good picture-work would be pleasant, & perhaps worth a good deal in publicity; but the present script is rather a compression with resultant over-crowding
and confusion, blurring of climaxes, and general degradation: a pull-back towards more conventional 'fairy-stories'. People gallop about on Eagles at the least provocation; Lórien becomes a fairy-castle with 'delicate minarets', and all that sort of thing.

.
>Z ( Morton Grady Zimmerrnan, who was trying to get a film adaptation of the trilogy off the ground as far back as the 50s) .... has intruded a 'fairy castle' and a great many Eagles, not to mention incantations, blue lights, and some irrelevant magic (such as the floating body of Faramir). He has cut the parts of the story upon which its characteristic and peculiar tone principally depends, showing a preference for fights; and he has made no serious attempt to represent the heart of the tale adequately: the journey of the Ringbearers. The last and most important pan of this has, and it is not too strong a word,
simply been murdered.

The whole 210: From a letter to Forrest J. Ackerman [Not dated; June 1958] letter is a scathing rebuke of attempts to convert the saga into film. Granted, some of them are dated (Tolkien in particular recognized the danger of convenient Eagles moreso than he had dared use in his own narrative), but a few still echo in Jackson's version...

>#9. Leaving the inn at night and running off into the dark is an impossible solution of the difficulties of presentation here (which I can see). It is the last thing that Aragorn would have done. It is based on a misconception of the Black Riders throughout, which I beg Z to reconsider. Their peril is almost entirely due to the unreasoning fear which they inspire (like ghosts). They have no great physical power against the fearless; but what they have, and the fear that they inspire, is enormously increased in darkness.

Also, one nice burn from the pen of the English professor:

> The Balrog never speaks or makes any vocal sound at all. Above all he does not laugh or sneer. .... Z may think that he knows more about Balrogs than I do, but he cannot expect me to agree with him.

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.

Aesthetics are simply important to me when I am buying a physical product, especially in this day and age. I can buy an ebook without any aesthetic value whatsoever, but if I decide I like something so much that I want a physical copy, be it a movie or a CD or a book, if it applies, attraction will play a factor in my purchase. I've been looking for a non-movie cover version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for ages, simply because I don't like the glossy, absently considered DVD cover version that is most common. It doesn't need to be beautiful, since I was more than willing to buy the 70s-esque commonplace cover of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, and there are always exceptions to the movie cover rule. For instance, I bought the 80s movie edition of the Great Gatsby with the Robert Redford cover because it was comically cheesy. I can't even find a picture of it on the Internet.

Pretty sure this is a movie already. But skip the movie and read the book instead. A LOT more amusing.

How about Nick Offerman's book? The paperback is £9, + free next day delivery if you get an amazon prime trial :)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paddle-Your-Own-Canoe-Fundamentals/dp/052595421X

I think I heard of that before. Also, Buddhism teaches how connected we are...read a pretty good, straight forward book called Hardcore Zen.

This reminds me of another school of thought: that life is a projection of our minds.

and

What is real is just your perception. [7]

> 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 highly recommend The Great Stagnation to you. It sheds some optimistic light on the role of the internet while simultaneously stressing that we need gear up America again for the new century.

http://www.amazon.com/What-About-Running-Vintage-International/dp/0307389839

Not sure if it's spiritual in the sense that you're looking for, but it's an interesting read. If you're interested in running and Christianity specifically, I'd check out Ryan Hall's blog. He's a very outspoken Christian and a phenomenal runner. He also has a book, here:

http://www.amazon.com/Running-Joy-Daily-Journey-Marathon/dp/0736944125

That might be more in line with what you are looking for.

Ramsay explains why well done steaks are bad in the YouTube video...but if that's not enough, you might want to read Kitchen Confidential if you're at all interested in learning what cooks and chefs think of well done steaks.

The short of it: By overcooking the steak, you remove all juiciness and tenderness of a good cut of beef. Beef is carefully raised and graded according to the level of fat distributed throughout the meat. When the steak is cooked correctly (medium to medium-rare) the proteins and carbohydrates on the outside of the steak caramelize and develop delicious flavor while the fat melts and becomes a carrier for the amazing steak-y goodness. The inside of the steak warms slightly but you still have enough intact proteins that you actually taste the beef.

With a well-done steak, you loose that contrast between the inside and outside of the steak and the caramelization process will have gone on too long on the outside giving you burnt charcoal instead of sublime flavor.

If you haven't tried a steak cooked medium or medium-rare, you should. I don't think you'll go back to ruined meat ever again.

Even though it is not directly about DN I can recommend reading into the wild (http://amzn.to/1NA0OAN) because I think it shows how being too dedicated to something can harm you in the end.

Other than that there is the four hour work week: http://amzn.to/1VqMekU

Several books about blogging if that's something you are interested in: http://amzn.to/23sLGAX

You might also want to read up on vehicles online,
www.desktodirtbag.com is a guy living in his truck most of the year and there are several good blogs about living in vans.

Thought you might like this book I read once, about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary...

http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-Insanity-English-Dictionary/dp/0060839783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454012004&sr=1-1&keywords=the+professor+and+madman

Have a great day!

I’d highly recommend reading the biography by Ashlee Vance

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

You might be interested in read The great Stagnation.

Bringing up age to not adapt to a game is brought up in street fighter player (god) daigo umeharas Bible. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JOEKKWU/ its a good book! But yeah don't let age or losing get in your head. Life is always about the learning.. winning isn't everything.

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

Simon Winchester is really good. I enjoyed Krakatoa and The Professor and the Madman.

My 2¢ :
While a "discovery" may involve a lot of hard work (i.e. the discovery of DNA's double-helix), at some level it still seems to imply:

1. an element of chance, like discovering a hidden cave, and
   
2. the "thing" was not known to have existed beforehand.
   
   An "invention", on the other hand, implies a thing which was built to achieve a specific purpose, which is the case with Calculus.
   Also, recall that Leibniz developed ("invented") calculus independently of Newton. They were both working toward a common goal to describe phenomena that they knew to exist. Calculus is the shorthand which was invented to solve this.
   
   For an interesting take on this, I'd recommend reading: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife.

Everyone else has said great things to you. Here's my input.

http://www.amazon.ca/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476

For some light reading (a term used loosely here, but hey, I found it entertaining in my off-hours), check out this book. Enjoy!

It's actually total transportation costs that gets me upset with modern agriculture. If you're part of a CSA, the farmer portions out the food into boxes, and transports it to the customers. If you buy a banana from Ecuador, the bananas have to be carefully handled, boxed, transported in a gigantic refrigerated ship, stored locally in appropriate storage. All of this time and material uses a great deal of energy, and also wastes a good deal of food, since not everything makes the trip in an edible state.

Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book about five years about her family's year-long experience of living as locavores. She writes very persuasively about obtaining greater quality of food, feeling more connected to the community and the food it produced, etc. Her choices are definitely not for everyone, as she and her her family were totally committed.

You mention local employment, but I think that's a wash, not really worth mentioning. You could argue both that people like Kingsolver took work away from farmers that could have supplied their needs, but also that the family gave their money away to other local businesses for supplies, advice, and services, all adding to local employment.

You might try getting your hands on a copy of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. There's a lot of great information on his work there, and I find them generally a little easier to read than the History of Middle-Earth.

>Journalism demands briefness and articles have rigid schemes to follow, so creativity wasn't always welcome.

Fuck them.

Black Hawk Down, by Mark Bowden.

Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, by Hunter Thompson.

Roughing It, by Mark Twain.

These are four books--all creative, funny, dramatic, informative and beautifully written--by reporters.

Read them and study them. Copy the techniques they use, how they craft sentences, how they lead into the stories they tell, how they turn interviews into characters narrating their events.

And then practice. Over and over and over.

I read Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea a few years ago and found it pretty fascinating. It's a really interesting mix of history, philosophy, math, and physics.

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?

Not a novel but "Lone Survivor" is a great book. As is "Into the Wild"

That's rough. The e-Book is available from the Amazon US store. You may be able to make an amazon account on it (assuming you use amazon.de), and then read the book through a kindle reader. (PC kindle reader is free and not bad to use).

USA Link: here

*Edit: Goofed up the link format

Fever Pitch

Amazed no one has mentioned it. Really helped me see fandom in a different light. Great Arsenal book!

These kids today just have no appreciation for the great literature of the '70s.

http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Pitch-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573226882

A nice read it's a book about the authors life as an Arsenal fan. Talks about the games and supporter life in the stands.

A must read for all football fans imo.

You might enjoy this book by my favorite author.

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0307389839

I wish i could eat cheesecake all day everyday....

in addition to these slutty brownies, they're the perfect combo!

Thank you

Happy cake day!

Absolutely. I got a real love of science reading various books through school. A few recommendations:

Achilles in the quantum universe

Absolute zero

Zero: Biography of a dangerous idea

I suppose Achilles and Zero are more about math than science or engineering, but I really liked them.

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 :)

The "Oxford English Dictionary"

the story of its creation is a pretty good read, too.

One of my favorites on the history of zero by Charles Seife. Short, interesting, and well-explained. Has some challenging math concepts later in the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346799685&sr=8-1&keywords=zero+the+biography+of+a+dangerous+idea

Read his book paddle your own canoe, or listen to the audio book which he narrates. It gives a nice insight to him and is quite funny.

I don't know the article, but The Professor and the Madman is a fantastic book about it.

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

This is in his book, as is a plethora of other wise and interesting information and stories. I highly suggest the read.

Thou art capable still of receiving the LORD'S blessing and enlightenment through His words:

https://www.amazon.com/Will-Keep-Winning-DAIGO-UMEHARA-ebook/dp/B01JOEKKWU

["Yes man"] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068680/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt) literally just took the title and the idea that a man starts saying yes to everything. [The book was written by an english man and is way funnier.] (https://www.amazon.com/Yes-Man-Danny-Wallace/dp/1416918345/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485288804&sr=8-1&keywords=yes+man+book) And everything in the book did happen. They didn't even used the real reason he started to say yes to everything.

This is just a tip and can be applied to anything:

Haruki Murakami in his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running said that you should only write until you recognize that you can still write more. That's when you stop for the day. The idea is that your mind will keep thinking about it and build new ideas and store the ideas until the next time that you sit down again to write. He also says that doing this makes it easier to get back into the groove of writing the next day because you're excited to get your ideas out. I have been doing this and it does help me.

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

Its illogical to be able to take anything (even zero) away from zero. zero is a weird little digit we use as both a placeholder and to represent 'nothing'. Zero is not a thing which can be broken into pieces.

There is a GREAT book I read a while back that goes into a whole lot of depth on the idea of zero. I found it very interesting, you might too.

found a link to it on amazon, maybe you could find it at a library... (or online if you're better at the internet than me)
Zero The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

Added a new chapter to Five for Iron, set five years before canon. (Here's the ff.net link, for anyone who prefers that site.) Anywho, this chapter is my first from Winter's POV, and I'm hoping I did an OK job with that, while still keeping the premise engaging.

Reading:
I finished Cadillac Desert this week, and I've gotten about 100 pages into Animal, Vegetable, Miracle since then. Both are brilliantly written and wonderfully subversive, but considering my line of work I may be a smidge biased.

Well... yeah. That pretty much his claim to fame.

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

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

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a sort of memoir written by her, her husband, and their daughter (they take turns with different chapters) where they discuss a year of eating locally, sustainably, and growing/making their own food. It is a great book (both in audio and in print!)

Read "Heat" by Bill Buford, he has some interesting perspective. http://www.amazon.com/Heat-Adventures-Pasta-Maker-Apprentice-Dante-Quoting/dp/1400034477/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1293387244&sr=8-5

There's also an article out there written by Bourdain entitled "So you want to be a chef" or something similar that would give you some perspective if you're thinking of becoming a professional.

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."