Delta-V

The last time I wrote about Daniel Suarez’s book was nearly a decade ago (Influx), even though I revisit Daemon and Freedom TM every so often. I don’t consider myself a fan, but I do check on Daniel’s books periodically.

I guess I really missed Daniel’s writing, so it was time for a new book. I skipped over “Change Agent” and jumped to “Delta-V”; I guess I really wanted something “out of this world.” While half of the story is set on earth, the other half is set in space. I wish the author spent more story time in space, but missing all of the groundwork, struggles, training, and building relationships that got developed on earth is important to the rest of the story. Regardless, the space part came out a bit rushed and a bit superficial. While the story provides some thrilling and unexpected turns, those moments are slightly dull and short-lived.

Even though I have a couple of axes to grind, overall the story is good. I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end. I couldn’t let the book go; I just wanted to keep on going. One of the trademarks of Daniel’s SciFi is the proximity to not-so-far-away reality. Yes, it is still a plot of imagination and science fiction, but it is just close enough to contemporary technologies to give you the feel of near-future possibility, which, in turn, makes it feel more realistic. In addition, the author provides enough technical details to make technology feel real and not an abstract concept, such as “wormhole engines.” Reading the book makes me want to learn more about the science behind diving, planetary alignment, and space technologies, and in my book, the promotion of curiosity is a solid sign of the author’s good writing.

In a nutshell:
+: Pleasant read
+: Can’t put the book down
+: Feels realistic due to proximity to contemporary technology
+: Promotes curiosity towards described science and technology
-: Some thrilling parts are slightly dull and short-lived
=: Daniel keeps this traditional trademark of “near-future” SciFi with a good space story that is hard to put down.

Title: Delta-V
Author: Daniel Suarez
Cover:

Misspent Youth

I picked up the book because it is a prequel to Peter Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga, and I love those books. “Misspent Youth” is a short story that takes place before rejuvenation and memory crystals. The story is well-written and pleasant, but that’s about it.

While I love most of the work done by Peter Hamilton, there are books that I don’t enjoy as much as others, and “Fallen Dragon” springs to mind. Unfortunately, “Misspent Youth” is added to the list today. The story feels more like futuristic romantic drama rather than science fiction, but that’s not the main issue. The primary problem is the lack of twists and plots. It feels like the story just lacks the punch.

I’m not sure where the author was going with the book. It doesn’t add or remove any value from the rest of the Commonwealth Saga, perhaps just slightly disappointing if you have expectations. But overall, if you go in without expectations, then you will enjoy it.

In a nutshell:
+: Easy going
+: Short
+/-: No expectations, no disappointments
-: Lacks twists and plots
-: No punch to the story
=: Nice short story, but that’s it.

Title: Misspent Youth
Author: Peter Hamilton
Cover:

Искусство оскорблять

Давно я не писал на русском языке, впрочем и не планировал писать, но из-за несложной череды событий я приобрел книгу Александра Невзорова – Искусство оскорблять.

Забавно читать его книгу и сравнивать его структуру речи и мыслей с видеозаписями на его YouTube-канале – он говорит, как пишет, и пишет, как говорит.

Я должен снять перед Александром шляпу и сказать: иронию критики тяжело пропустить, так как сам автор по сути является писателем и в какой-то степени влияет на культуру, при этом не лестно отзываясь о культуре, писателях и другом не научном сброде. Глебыч очень чётко и своевременно всегда отмечает, что он не учёный.

Крайне интересен и забавен его подход, в особенности с «доказательством» и использованием аналогий. Подход элегантен, забавен и местами щекочет мозг, но местами напрягает – «заход из далека» может занимать метры и километры, а в случаях с Глебычем и сотни километров.

На всем протяжении книги можно заметить тренд, и он не столько образовательный (хотя тут как посмотреть), сколько больше раскачиваемый – рассмотреть фундамент и отбойным молотком «проверить на прочность». По итогу автор конечно больше ломает, чем строит, хотя возможно в этом и смысл – если фундамент гнилой, то надо его вскрывать и перестраивать заново.

Книга приносит удовольствие, как изложением, так и содержанием, но подозреваю, что не всем она придётся по вкусу. Думаю, что нужно иметь хоть какой-то уровень свободы мысли и/или не принимать себя и реальность слишком серьезно, в прочем, как и себя самого.

Будучи студентом много лет назад, были курсы, которые весьма больно массажировали мозги, доставляя дискомфорт и местами боль. Бой был тяжелым и кропотливым, однако, “взяв высоту”, чувствовал себя победителем знаний человеческих. С этой книгой ощущения аналогичны, хотя и не такие интенсивные. Возможно, это именно то, чего автор и добивался.

In a nutshell:
+: Легко и приятно читать
+: Интересные темы для рассмотрения
+: Написано элегантно и красиво, чувствуется врожденный писатель
+: Примеры, анализ и обсуждения
-/+: Доказательство по аналогии не самый убеждающий подход
=: Книга забавная и дает возможность подумать и переоценить многие вещи. Отчасти она развивает разные домыслы и исторический флаф. Я думаю, что книга полезна, периодически нужно проверять фундамент на прочность.

Title: Искусство оскорблять
Author: Александр Невзоров
Cover:

Designing Data-Intensive Applications

I chose this book among others because I wanted to get out of reading about programming, methodologies, and other related stuff. I wanted to read something more abstract, not necessarily applicable to my immediate work, and boy did I get what I bargained for.

Well, let me start with complaints. First and foremost, the book is a bit long. I feel like it could have been compressed a bit. No, there isn’t much fluff, just several chapters could have been reorganized. Second, and no less subjective, the book at some point turns into a “horror movie,” where each passing chapter, things get more dangerous, complicated, and helpless. But I have to admit, there is a certain charm to such a delivery. Last grumble of mine: few examples of highly scaled and/or distributed systems. I would love to see more examples and discussions about them. Now I know the grumble isn’t entirely fair, since I got what I wanted – “more abstract” – but by the end of the book, I was left wanting more. I guess appetite comes during a meal.

Now let’s flip the page and go in the opposite direction: the examples in the book are quite interesting and educational. I loved the discussion about Twitter’s design and a couple more along the way. I personally don’t work with databases or other data-related systems that much, so the author fascinated me quite a bit. Some discussions are quite lengthy and detailed, mostly due to the complexity of the subject, but that’s what makes them so good, opening up your mind to different ways of thinking about programs, structures, and networks. The “horror movie” comes and goes, it makes you doubt everything you took for granted, even a CPU’s ability to add two numbers together. The author seems to project a lot of paranoia, the levels are similar to the amount of paranoia exhibited by system administrators. It sure gives a lot of perspective to developers, since lots of things are assumed to work properly and not to fail at the most opportune moment. One last thing: as I was reading the book, it reminded me of a bit of fun I had reading research papers at university. Some of the design patterns did emerge from academia, and perhaps it is a good direction if you have an interest in it.

I believe the title speaks for itself. If you want to design data-intensive applications, the book might be a good start. Perhaps it will give you a good insight and/or wider perspective. But if you are looking for hands-on material, the book might disappoint you. It is hard to tell whether the book is worth it or not. I had fun reading it; I believe it is well written, and I can see that the author put a lot of work into it. So I’ll leave you with this: if you are curious about the subject, go for it!

In a nutshell:
+: Well written
+: Broadens horizons
+: Lots of discussions and examples
+: No requirement for specialized knowledge
-/+: In a way, a long book; in a way, it needs to be longer
=: If you have any interest in application design, the book is an awesome way to start your journey.

Title: Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Author: Martin Kleppmann
Cover:

Pragmatic Programmer

I been developing software for a while now and managed to read few books on the subject. Some books are general purpose, some with narrow focus on a particular subject in the development process. Pragmatic programmer is general purpose book on the subject.

I picked up the book in hopes of learning something new, something I haven’t seen or read before. Surprising enough I did find few things, but not nearly enough to justify going through the entire book. Now let me be very clear, the book itself is a good book, if you are starting out and want to improve your skills and understand what’s out there. However it might be a waste of time if you been in the game for a while and read a few things here and there. Also I can’t help but notice that some topics are not well covered even at a basic level (IMHO).

Since negatives are largely based on the amount of knowledge/experience a developer has, let’s talk about positives. The book is well written and relatively short. There is no fluff or metaphysical discussions, just practical and pragmatic advice. The book outlines and talks about all the useful basics that each developer should have, like: structures, clean code, testing, design, refactor, thought processes, personal & team behaviour, project organization and development methodologies. There is no deep dive into any subject, just essentials – which should spark enough interest in a developer to start researching more on any particular subject of interest. The author’s personal experience also comes in handy, some things don’t change over decades.

Overall, the book is good for inexperienced developers and for the experienced developers this book might be a trip down memory lane.

In a nutshell:
+: Well written & short
+: All the basics
+: Discussions
+: Some hands-on examples
-: Some subjects are not well covered even at basic level
=: Good book for new developers, but not much value for experienced devs.

Title: The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition your journey to mastery
Authors: Andy Hunt, David Thomas
Cover:

The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition: your journey to ...

Midnight in Chernobyl

I don’t have any particular curiosity towards soviet or post-soviet history. I watched the HBO mini-series “Chernobyl” and “Chernobyl The Lost Tapes” documentary, so I got enough of an idea about what happened. Since I was born in Russia and spent good chunk of my life there, I don’t need to be explained about corruption, incompetence and the Soviet ways.

So how did I end up with the book? I have a Canadian friend, really sharp guy, reads books, thinks things through, really fun to talk to. Many years ago, yet another regular conversation took a turn towards the topic of corruption in Canada. Before long he made a broad statement: “… it is the same in Russia”. I disagreed and he disagreed with my disagreement. This was the first time when I realized that people in Canada and in the west, don’t really understand Russia, more specifically that there is a difference between corruption and Russian corruption. In nutshell it is like comparing teenage hockey and professional hockey. Not long ago, my friend, came back to the subject of corruption, but now with a totally different position, now he no longer disagreed with me. I was surprised and he elaborated on his revelation – “Midnight in Chernobyl”, insisting that I should read the book as well.

So how is the book? Well, without a doubt the book is good, very good. It is well written and can be gulped without breaks. What you don’t find in any show or movie is nitty-gritty details and the book does a lot of justice to that. You can feel and see the system at work, incompetence, secrecy, economic and social struggle in “full HD color”. I believe the book represents a relative short and concise case study of the Soviet Union and how people though, operated and sacrificed. To some degree you will be able to understand even current situation and decision making of Russia today (including Russian invasion of Ukraine). The book is about Chernobyl, it is about the tragedy but Chernobyl story spans way beyond boundary of one location and far across entire USSR.

In a nutshell:
+: Well written & easy read
+: Lots of details
+: Brief history of soviet reactor building
+: Great insight into how the state operated
+: Overview how people lived, all equal but some are more equal than others
=: It is a good book, if you have any interest in historic events, pick it up. Chernobyl is one of the greatest disasters and perhaps it is worth while to learn about it, at the very least for the sake of not repeating it.

Title: Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Author: Adam Higginbotham
Cover:

Midnight in Chernobyl | Book by Adam Higginbotham | Official Publisher ...

This is marketing

Business is a very strange beast to me, on the one hand I understand importance of it, on the other hand I never wanted to dive deep into it. I guess business to me is like forbidden fruit – it is there, it is tempting but I never got enough desire to take a bite.

Something changed over last few years and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to learn a thing or two about marketing. This book was chosen almost randomly. As I scrolled over a blog, someone highly recommended the book, without much thought I picked it up.

This is my first book about marketing and since I’m fairly clueless on the subject, it is hard to judge the content. However I can cross reference some ideas from other books and materials:

And so as I read the book, I came across some previously acquired knowledge (good refresher or reinforcement) and since the book is focused on one topic, there were more interesting tidbits.

Now I’ve been dragging my feet with this book for a very long time, embarrassingly long. It is a short read so what the problem? Well, the delivery is… for the lack of better word – ugly. Whenever I picked it up, shortly after I find my mind wondering away, loosing focus and interest. Often I had to put it away and say to myself: “may be tomorrow”. The book just simply does not flow. It is like a bumpy ride, might be entertaining for a bit but ultimately wears you out. Some books you can’t wait to pickup and keep on going, this one is the opposite – delay delay delay.

In a nutshell:
+: Interesting aphorisms, anecdotes and stories
+: General case studies and analysis
+: More on psychological side
+/-: Short book but hard read
-: Lack of concrete recipes and techniques
=: It is hard to make a conclusion on the book in the subject matter that I don’t know much about. I guess if you have to read it (because of a job or deep interest in the subject) then go for it. Otherwise it is not a pleasant read, you will have to commit to get through.

Title: This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See
Author: Seth Godin
Cover:

How to get rich

The material got into my hands from a friend of mine. Something tells me he never read the material, but somehow convinced me to read it. Let me say right off the bat, while the material is somewhat interesting and philosophical, rather than hands-on practical, I believe it is worth while.

From this point on, I’ll call it a book, even though it might not qualify. The book is a collection of brief and not terribly deep conversations on the topic of “getting rich”. Now, I can’t blame the author since Twitter is somewhat limited in terms of thought expression. Also the book leaves much to be desired in terms of structure and language. Quite often I had to do double, triple, quadruple take and still couldn’t understand a meaning behind a sentence. Yeah and I’m still calling it a book. But in this day and age perhaps none of this matters.

So will this book make me rich? Well, it’s up to you, or your genetics or upbringing or education and luck. But is there a “secret sauce”? Nope! Effectively the book just talks about your own behaviour and how to focus on essential things and let everything else go – because extreme focus on one thing, is exactly what it takes to get rich.

“Extreme people get extreme results.”

Sam Altman

So, no deep discussions, poorly written, no “secret sauce”, why should I bother? Because (in my opinion) the same techniques and ideas can be applied elsewhere. You don’t have to play status games, you should read books, you should learn to build, learn specific knowledge, you should experiment and go beyond recipe books. Not everything from the book will be applicable, but most of it seems like pretty universal advice that can be applied to other areas of life.

“Don’t partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling.”

Naval Ravikant

I wish authors went deeper into discussions with more concrete examples and exercised more upon each topic. At times some material feels like pure philosophy – a wishful thought if I may. However I read few things before and able to fill some gaps or extrapolate some idea further, but I wonder how would this book read to someone without prior knowledge. Perhaps this is on purpose, by design – leave them striving for more and they shall achieve more.

“A calm mind, a fit body and a house full of love. These things can not be bought. They must be earned.”

Naval Ravikant

P.S: if you want to read the book, you can search online or download copy here

In a nutshell:
+: Short & fun read
+: Generally good advice / philosophy (not everything I agree with)
+: Get a feel for what it takes to be rich
-: Not a smooth read – text should be seriously cleaned up
-: Some topics are not well covered or expanded on
=: While the material is rough, some topics are not well covered and some ideas need deeper investigation, overall its worth the time. Philosophy feels quite universal, advices can be adopted for many situations and more importantly, continuous learning is something to be adopted.

Title: How to get rich (without getting lucky)
Author: Naval Ravikant, Babak Nivi
Cover:

Maverick by Ricardo Semler

I found out about Ricardo Semler from an IT blog, I don’t remember details, but the gist of it: successful Latin-American IT company follows Ricardo Semler’s approach – corporate democracy. The last bit peaked my curiosity, ultimately driving me to the book and let me say, if you never crossed the path, it is enlightening.

Every company wants to stay lean, competitive and ahead of the curve. There are multiple options to achieve it, however once a company grows, it inevitably gets fat and the ability to maneuver is diminished. Ricardo Semler addresses exactly the point – how to stay lean, agile, profitable in a competitive and turbulent environment.

“To survive in modern times, a company must have an organizational structure that accepts change as its basic premise, let’s tribal customs thrive, and fosters a power that is derived from respect, not rules. In other words, the successful companies will be the ones that put quality of life first. Do this and the rest – quality of product, productivity of workers, profits for all – will follow.“

The book is an easy read, the closest I can compare it to is “The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win”. However Maverick is written from experience in a real company (Semco) and by a real CEO/Chairman (Ricardo Semler) – it is not a novel or a fantasy. The author has a nag for writing, I found the book entertaining to read, among other things. Described ideas, practices and methodologies that are innovative and provocative at least at a time the book was published – 1995. Not all ideas are original (but what’s new under the moon), some came from the land of rising sun, others from elsewhere, however all of them seem to be remixed and modified to fit the unique Brazilian market conditions Semco found itself in. Considering the age of the book, some of the ideas seemed to survive and flourish in fairly modern and big companies, such as Amazon and Netflix. As I was reading the book, I couldn’t help but say to myself: “oh look, Amazon does this…” or “sure sounds like Netflix’s approach”. I don’t know if those companies consciously adapted those ideas or arrived to the same ideas independently.

So it is fair to ask: is the book relevant after so many years? As I mentioned before, some modern companies already adopted some ideas, but not everything the author had to offer. There is more and the reason for more is fairly simple: the author is examining ideas, practices and methods that deal with human organizational conditions and not with any particular technical issue. Humans are slow to change and after decades of technological progress we still do business the good old way.

“The conflict between advanced technology and archaic mentality is, I believe, a major reason why the modern workplace is characterized by dissatisfaction, frustration, inflexibility, and stress. If only minds were as easy to change as machines. I’ll wager that it’s easier to invent a new generation of microchips than get a generation of middle managers to alter the routes they drive to work every day. Technology is transformed overnight; mentality takes generations to alter. Who can blame us for thinking technology will cure all that ails the workplace. It’s so much easier to acquire.”

In a nutshell:
+: Easy & fun read
+: Many great ideas, practices and methodologies
+: Based on real company and written by the CEO/Chairman
+: Great discussions and examples
+/-: Wound be great to have more details but not at the expense of abstract
=: I enjoyed the book. It contains lots of interesting, provocative and as years passed, very applicable ideas. I wish the author provided more details. Even if you have no interest in business, you might have lots of fun reading the book, at least I did.

Title: Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace
Author: Ricardo Semler
Cover:

Mastery

Ah mastery, who doesn’t want to be a master? A rhetorical question, yet an important one.

I’ll come back to the question later, but for now, how is the book? I like it, strange to say from the get-go but yeah… I enjoyed the story, examples & discussions. The book takes mystery of being a genius and breaks it down into concise, foundational sequences of events that each master had to go through in order to climb to the top of their respective field. Each event and a sequence is analyzed by the author and discussed. If you ever wanted a guide on “Mastery”, this might be it.

As I was going through the book, I couldn’t help but ask myself: “well, alright, but who is this book written for?”. Is it a recipe book? I’m not sure, some of the recipes are kinda long – start when you are 5 or 10 year old. Sure, mastery takes long time, you can’t be on the top of a field in just couple of years or by following few “easy” steps. I get it, but it doesn’t answer my question. If you got this book and comprehended it by the age of 17, perhaps you can make it, but for anyone over 30 there aren’t that many recipes in the book. To be fair, the book is fascinating and at any age you should take some ideas out of it, but let’s be real, in order to take full advantage, you should be at the very young age – perhaps you can prepare your children for the journey?

But do you want to be a master? Is it even a conscious choice? I don’t know, but overarching theme seems to be outliers. Those masters have a very different view of the world, some don’t even fit into society. It feels to me that the journey starts with a perceived defect in a person. Something deep inside drives those people forward, some get unlucky and go to live on mountains (figuratively speaking), others get lucky (timing, resources) and lunge forward through many years of hard work but in the end some become dazzling stars of our society, providing example and direction for others to follow.

In a nutshell:
+: Easy & fun read
+: History, analysis, discussions
+: Examples from different eras
+: Useful bits and pieces even if you are not planning on a mastery
-: Is mastery a choice?
=: I don’t know if mastery is a choice, but I can still learn quite a few things from the book. Perhaps if you are young, you should read the book early on. If you have children, perhaps you want to read it as well and set your child on a journey. But perhaps you want to explore minds of the masters for the fun of it, then please enjoy.

Title: Mastery
Author: Robert Greene
Cover: