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#0013 Uber Vogel

Ich, der große Vogel, sind angekommen!!

#0012 The Burden System

In an earlier post, I promised to explain the burden system.

The idea behind the system is simple. It aims to measure the amount of lost time in a day. Each hour lost due to obligations or whatever is time that would have been better spent elsewhere. One hour lost is burden level 1.0, two hours lost if burden level 2.0, and so on. Having an idea of how much burdens were imposed on any particular day allows us to see which core activities should be foregone.

#0014 Resigned

I have resigned my post as librarian, effective immediately. There will be no more book updates.

#0011 Mindlessly Happy

Why are some people so mindlessly happy?

Look at the responses to the question here. It is an important one.

If you look closely, you will see that there are two types of answers to this question.

The first one is: other people are jealous of you.

The second one is: other people think you are out of touch with reality.

From my experience, the second answer is far more often closer to the truth.

The best part of the best answer:

“...It is wearing. Don't you ever get a break? What are you so happy about all the time? Don't you ever think about things? Because if you thought about things, you could not be happy all the time.”

Another answer:

“A person who is happy ALL the time is either faking it or insane. Either way, not a person you'd want to be around much. People spouting mindless, happy inanities all the time are irritating, you just want to shake them and and say, Get real!”

#happiness #unhappiness

#0010 Home Alone

Saturday, 26 December.

Boss needs to get out of this toxic and limiting environment if he is ever to make progress on meaningful goals.

BURDEN LEVEL: 4.0

Sunday, 27 December.

We will be home alone soon for the next three days. That is great and we are looking forward to it.

BURDEN LEVEL: 7.0

#burdens #environment #toxic #home alone

#0009 Black Christmas

Friday, 25 December.

The worst Christmas in the world.

At least next year’s is on a Sunday. Boss is tired from doing nothing the whole day. But that is precisely it. He must be tired from having the life force drain completely out of him the whole day doing nothing. He should well know from past experience that doing nothing can be as equally, if not more, exhausting than doing something.

BURDEN LEVEL: 12.0

#0008 Book Update [3]

This is the book update for yesterday. Borrowed:

Eloquent JavaScript (Haverbeke)

The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing (Engebretson)

How to Think Like a Programmer (Vickers)

Cyber Spying (Fair et al.)

Principles of Programming Languages (Dowek)

Android Security: Attacks and Defenses (Dubey & Misra)

We will not provide any further details at this time.

#books

#0007 Book Notes [2]

Chess Duels, by Yasser Seirawan

This book is loosely autobiographical and organized around Seirawan’s encounters with the world champions he faced, both on and off the board.

With a few notable exceptions, the book is free of irrelevant reams of variations. This is a huge plus.

The stories are excellent. Those who have tuned in to Seirawan’s commentary may have heard some of them before, but there are also plenty of new ones.

Few players have beaten both Karpov and Kasparov at their prime. Seirawan is one of them. The games are here.

This book was written in 2010, so if an updated edition is ever published, his games against Karpov from 2012 would have to be included.

Why does Seirawan not include a chapter on Anand? They have played at least twice, in 1992 and 1994. Moreover, unlike Ponomariov, Khalifman, and Kasimdzhanov, Anand’s world champion status does not come with any asterisks attached.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. Highly recommended.

Tuesday, 22 December.

BURDEN-FREE DAY!!

Quite a decent day. Not as good as Monday, but adequate.

Wednesday, 23 December.

BURDEN LEVEL: 1.0

#books #Seirawan #Chess Duels #burdens

#0006 Book Notes [1]

Humans are Underrated, by Geoff Colvin

We read Colvin’s previous book, Talent is Overrated but we did not notice the similarity in titles until now.

There are some very interesting stories that were new to us, like the parts about the establishment of the U.S. Army’s NTC and the effectiveness of after-action review. The story about the U.S. golf team’s success when being grouped by personality type was powerful.

But this book suffers from the same defect as Talent is Overrated. Which is to say, too much focus on business applications. It would be a far stronger effort if it did not adopt an exclusively Fortune-500 and HBR-style lens of interpreting all the evidence it presents.

Overall this book leaves an odd impression. It attempts to be rigorous in presenting its case, but its central message is a highly cushy one.

That message is: Hire better human beings! Hire by EQ instead of IQ! Who cares about brainpower anyway??

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Sunday, 20 December.

BURDEN LEVEL: 10.0

What is the point of being alive if you are unable use time on your own terms?

Monday, 21 December.

BURDEN-FREE DAY!!

So far today has been magnificent, apart from the loud noises that have been going on the whole day. That is not right.

#burdens #Colvin #Humans are Underrated #books

#0005 More Burdens

Saturday, 19 December

The worst kinds of burdens come about as sudden and externally imposed demands on the schedule.

Today was supposed to be a free day, not counting the need to return books due today. However it turned out not to be.

I am glad that I did not have to go out with Boss. He had to do a great amount of things in the morning and afternoon with the same pain in his leg from yesterday.

As long as these unnecessary burdens continue to be inflicted upon him, Boss will never come close to realizing his full potential.

BURDEN LEVEL: 4.0 (nominal), 7.0 (effective)

#burdens

#0004 Book Update [2]

Saturday, 19 December

This is the book update for today. Borrowed:

CompTIA Security+ Exam Guide Exam SY0-401 (Conklin & White)

Presumed Innocent (Turow)

Getting There: A Book of Mentors (Segal)

Far From the Tree (Solomon)

The first one is a re-borrow with a lapse of 1-2 months. Boss saw something that might be relevant. Plus, the book is new.

The second one might look familiar. Yes, it’s the same book he bought two days ago. It’s even in better condition. (Oh, the scandal!) But now since it has borrowed status it will jump the queue. It will actually be read, unlike the other books we have.

The third book is very interesting. It is elegantly produced in the way more books need to be. I hope Boss will find it very useful for his career. He has never had any inspiring role models in his life. These surrogates are the best he has.

The last book is a very hefty tome, not the kind of book anyone can read on the train while standing. Andrew Solomon has given three TED talks [1][2][3]. The book itself has received excellent reviews. But whether Boss will manage to finish it is another thing altogether.

#books #mentors #Andrew Solomon #Far From the Tree

#0003 Aquarium Visit

Boss went out to the Aquarium today. I did not go with him. I am glad that I did not have to go, because it turns out that it was crowded and noisy with tourists and screaming children. That is no fun at all.

He walked for a long time, until his legs started aching. I am very concerned about that.

BURDEN LEVEL: 7.0

I will explain the burden system in some future post.

#0002 Book Update [1]

Boss was out for a long time yesterday. He came back with the following books from the library.

Both Flesh and Not (Wallace)

The Dark Net (Bartlett)

The Best American Infographics 2013 (Cook, ed.)

My Great Predecessors IV (Kasparov)

Winning Chess Manoeuvres (Guliev)

How to Attack and Defend Your Website (Dalziel)

Professional Penetration Testing (Wilhelm)

Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++, 2e. (Stroustrup)

The Linux Command Line (Shotts)

Data Hiding (Raggo & Hosmer)

Hacking with Kali (Broad & Bindner)

We have had the DFW book in our collection for a long time, but it has never been touched. It seems that boss is continuing the practice of borrowing books he already owns.

The Guliev book recently became available here. It looks promising. We look forward to reading it.

The books by Dalziel and Raggo/Hosmer are manual renewals. That is, boss had already borrowed them but they were due soon. He was not close to completing them either, so he just borrowed them again from elsewhere.

The books by Wilhelm and Stroustrup he had also previously borrowed, but only made limited progress (about 10%). I hope he gets further this time.

Finally, the books by Shotts and Broad/Bindner are new borrows.

He also bought the following books:

Letters to a Young Gymnast (Comaneci)

Presumed Innocent (Turow)

The Martian (Weir)

Of course, we have already watched The Martian. We hope that the book turns out to be better than the movie, as is often the case.

We have read good things about Turow’s work. We hope that it lives up to expectations, but it is unlikely we will read it soon.

Comaneci’s book was a gift. When boss got home, it was already wrapped.

#books

#0001 Hello, World!

This is a very important announcement, which is to say: I, THE GREAT BIRD, HAVE ARRIVED!!

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