This was a recommendation from a very good friend that was sitting in my kindle for a while. I dont normally read Sci-Fi. Apart from Foundation, Dune and Three body problem. And honestly I liked the book. It was engaging, you wanted to know how things were going to finish, and I really like the end twist, the different personalities, etc.
And with all the new rocket companies trying to reach the moon, mars, etc. Maybe we will have a situation like the book in the long future: Earth, Mars and the Belt.
I bought this ebook as an offer and I was surprised about how short it was. It is easy to digest as it is not a hardcore science book
The most interesting lesson was the last one about “Probability, time and heat”. “the difference between past and future only exists when there is heat”. And the reason the heats from from hotter to cooler things is just probability…
And I dont mean I fully understood everything but It was a nice and light read.
It is quite dense and practical. The author cuts most of the technical terms and make it easy to understand. It is a about psychology and the split between Human/Rational brain and Chimp/Emotional brain. It reminds me again to this book. Although he adds the concept of the computer too inside our brain. The Chimp is the strongest so you need to learn to tame it and live with it, you can force the chimp as he always beat the rational side. The computer is the fastest answering and it is used by the chimp so you need to have a good programming on it: your live values.
So the whole book runs around those three concepts so you can build a balance between them and live a stable life.
I liked it as I felt resonated with several concepts. I think they match a lot with Stoicism in the sense to accept the world, create your values and take action.
This year I travelled to the Azores Islands. Somehow I was a bit apathetic, I wasn’t in the mood of a big trip, not sure.
I followed this blog to make my planning. And didn’t check much as I wanted to go a bit with the flow. My main goal was to see whales (because swimming was not possible), trekking and see the sea. I visited Sao Miguel, Faial, Pico and Sao Jorge.
Although I made a couple of blunders in my planning (expired credit card, booked flights for something that I could take a ferry), it turned very good. I liked a lot, I trekked in the morning, and then I chilled in the natural pools in the afternoon. It was simple. I like the bread with corn flour: tasty, moist, fluffy, I need to try. As well, I tried the local banana and pineapple, and they were great! I dont like to go to restaurants alone so I mainly bought food in supermarkets.
I used this page for all treks, being the one linked the hardest one I did (go and back)
I didnt socialise much apart from one hostel that was really focus on that. But it was good to think on myself and refresh/recharge.
Unexpected in Quantum Computing: A bit of a summary of the current state of quantum computing. In short, still quite to go (it seems you need 20 million qubits to break RSA-2048)
It a funny book about about math errors in real life. An many of those errors are not isolated, they are like several slices of melted Swiss Cheese that are aligned and then is when shit happens as at some point there is line that can cross all holes. The important thing is to learn from mistakes, that are rarely published and make systems more robust (and i would say “simpler”) The errors in the books go from falling bridges, blow up space aircrafts, nearly missed fly accidents, medicines, etc.
Interesting book for “Choice” architects. A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. The intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. A sludge, is the contrary, things that make your the choice process hard: ie, cancel your broadband subscription, etc
I think the main term in the book is the “Choice” Architect, and anybody that builds anything is one. An the main take of the book is, if you want people to do something, “make it easy”. This goes from buying healthy food in a supermarket, cafeteria, taxes, retirement investment, organ donations, etc etc.
The authors talk about “Libertarian Paternalism”, is like the economic concept of “Libertarian” but with a nudge, “Paternalism” so a tiny hand pushing you via the correct path.
With the Tomahawk Ultra, Broadcom has a switch ASIC with 51.2 Tb/sec of aggregate bandwidth that runs the Ethernet protocol and delivers 250 nanosecond port-to-port hop latency and can push through 77 billion PPS. That is twice the PPS at the same small packet sizes common in HPC as the 102.4 Tb/sec Tomahawk 6 switch ASICs from Broadcom, which have a latency of somewhere between 600 nanoseconds and 700 nanoseconds for these packet sizes.
IBM Quantum: In the last months, there have been many breakthroughs but I still dont see any real application. This is also quite beyond me so maybe I am missing the plot.
Very interesting book, as per the title, it is about happiness and how to get there. There is a significant focus in Buddhism and Stoicism, as these philosophies started to look at this “problem” a long time a go and can help us to understand it. Both are focus in the individual and mainly in your interior. You only control your opinions and actions. You can’t control anything outside your skin, and if you try, you are doomed. Stoicism is something that really resonates with me and is giving me a lot of support.
The core of the book is the concept of the elephant and the rider inside your mind. We think the rider is in charge, but it is the elephant. The goal is how to guide the elephant for the correct path. The elephant is our “animal” past and it was been there for a long time so it requires a lot of touch to dominate it.
But the author says that not all happiness is in the individual. Human beings are social creatures so we that connection too as par of the happiness. And we need also espiritual happiness.
At the end, he says this is ying-yang and there is no perfect solution, it is just finding the balance.
To be honest, I think I have done a shitty summary of the book. It needs more credit.
