The Book Report

Grammar of the Film Language by Daniel Arijon is an evergreen text for learning the technical ins and outs of what directors, cinematographers, and editors go through to get their ideas on screen. I read this book hoping to learn the technical language for composing scenes in motion pictures. I thought it would help, considering many image and video-generating AIs have better outputs when the user describes the scene rather than explaining it. I've always looked at pictures from the point of ...

The author Vladimir Surkov, used his pen name Vladislav Surkov to publish today's book report. 'Almost Zero' published in 2009 is a fascinating character study of the author. He was essentially Putin's spin doctor before falling from grace back in 2020. [1] His strategy inverts our common understanding of media manipulation. Let's review a few politicians who found creative ways to use the media. For example, let's say Berlusconi in the early 2000s was the prototype. He controlled the media, ...

Adventures of Ideas by Alfred North Whitehead is a dense yet engaging book that takes the reader on a journey through man's psychology concerning the societies humanity went through. My first takeaway focused on our conduct with each other. Whitehead lays out a path humanity traversed, starting with the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy of man's sense of freedom. In ancient Greece and Rome, freedom was something to be earned, but today, individuals are born free. This transition of thought...

The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull highlights a strange phenomenon in organizations, something we're all too familiar with: incompetence rises.True Life Incompetence: Reaching Your Peak of Inefficiency 🫠This humorous book points to case studies in organizations of various fields, showing how competent people are promoted to a position where they become incompetent, achieving the mo...

First published in 1997, The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age written by William Rees-Mogg and James Dale Davidson predicted a seismic shift: that nation-states would lose their grip on citizens, and those who could decipher the "signal in the noise" would disentangle from the old guard with advancements in electronic technology. This book has resonated deeply within libertarian, anarcho-capitalist, and crypto communities. [1]The Foundation: Nation-States ...

The Power of the Medium: McLuhan's Core Argument 🎯An eye-opening read, Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man provides a broad perspective, explaining the nature of electronic technology and its profound impact on human behavior and societal relationships. McLuhan controversially argues that the message itself holds little significance. He posits that humans have been storytellers since the dawn of language and symbols, animating its medium to communicate and connect.F...

Clifford A. Pickover's The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics is an invaluable resource, offering a clear timeline of mathematical development. While many crypto projects are open-source, inviting community participation and experimentation, I, with my humanities background, consistently encountered a language barrier—the language of math. As an avid history buff, I found this book particularly educational. It mapped the intricate in...

I read Andrew Mango's Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey because I went on vacation to Turkey recently and thought I'd do some homework before enjoying my time. So, who is Mustafa Kemal Atatürk? Mustafa Kemal (perfection) Atatürk (father of the Turks) was born in 1881 as an Ottoman in the Greek city of Salónica, and he learned humanist philosophies from French literature. His career started in the military, but gradually he entered into politics, and eventually, he evolved...

Philosophy and Fun of Algebra by Mary Everest Boole is a compact and educational book that opens the reader to the joys of algebraic thinking. In summary, Algebra is accepting one's ignorance, and solving the unknown is an angelic endeavor. (Angel meaning messenger in ancient Greek.) [1] To use mathematical terms, the previous comment would look like this:x = ignorance.This book was published in 1909 and is a sound book for understanding what is algebra. I highly recommend it for its beautifu...

Jim Simons and his hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies, were notoriously private. This book, The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution, shows it. While reading, I never felt I was getting to the heart of Simons. Even with the mystique, one can only admire their accomplishments. The book narrates several stories: Simons, Renaissance, and the political involvement certain members took using their spoils. Inside Renaissance was another figure: Robert Mercer. Hi...