The South by Southwest Conference and Festivals (SXSW) is happening in Austin this week and a group of handmaids has been marching throughout downtown to promote Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. I twice spotted them. I don’t use Hulu, so I won’t be watching, but I can certainly recommend the novel. #handmaidstale procession at #SXSW […]
Category: Book Club
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
At eighty-one pages, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics is indeed brief. I will also be brief. There is a quasi-overarching theme of a physical world our human consciousness cannot comprehend – one of curved space, particles smaller than atoms, and a lack of objective time where all past, present, and future has happened/is happening – and it’s […]
The Inevitable
Technology continues to shape our world. It always has, and it always will. It can be difficult to precisely predict what our devices will be like in ten years, let alone one year. Will wearables like the Apple Watch be a fad? Will our phones become obsolete? I do not know, and neither does Kevin […]
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
A few years ago, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, set out to inspire both men and women with her “sort of a feminist manifesto,” Lean In. I can attest that she has done exactly that. Through a mix of humorous anecdotes and informative, compelling empirical evidence, Sandberg demonstrates how society does not encourage women […]
Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five is an absurdist classic and is considered to be a great anti-war novel. It follows Billy Pilgrim, an American prisoner of war during the Second World War who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden. He is able to travel through time after being abducted by aliens (Tralfamadorians). There is no concrete setting; the reader ricochets through […]
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
What are you: Human or economist (Econ)? Are you rational or irrational? Despite the sacred tenement of economics and, indeed, much of social science, humans are irrational creatures. Not too long ago, trying to understand economics through a psychological lens was a crazy idea. Now, it seems more pragmatic than ever. Richard Thaler, the author […]
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
My bedroom before reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Sad!) I’m generally a clean, tidy person. My mom is the tidiest people I know and cleanliness is a value she passed on to me. Be that as it may, I’m certainly not as tidy as she is. I figured reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up would […]
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Last night, I watched The Founder, a movie about Ray Kroc, the businessman who joined McDonald’s and turned it into the fast food powerhouse that we know and love. In the film, Ray Kroc, played by Michael Keaton, preaches the power of persistence. Ray had what Angela Duckworth might call “grit,” or a combination of passion and […]
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis
Wow. Hillbilly Elegy is the kind of book you sit down to read, and then you finish in one sitting. Then you write about it online, recommending it to everyone. That’s the process I followed, at least. Hillbilly Elegy is a deeply personal memoir on the social, regional, and class decline of the white working class: the hillbillies, […]
The Rational Optimist
Matt Ridley makes a fascinating case in The Rational Optimist: that humanity, in general, has improved and progressed and will continue to do so. Personally, I am more of an optimist than a pessimist, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book, even though I have some disagreements with Ridley’s philosophies and conclusions at times. How has prosperity […]