I read Tomasz Tunguz’s writeup on his website rewrite, and took some inspiration. After a long run yesterday, it seemed like a fun little project to sit down with a cup of decaf and re-examine this website. Ended up being a bit more than a one-morning project, but mostly fit within a weekend.
2017 Book Shorts
It’s typical for me to have a half-dozen books going at once, so I took advantage of a relaxed holiday week to finish up a handful (and start some new ones!). In no particular order:
Originals by Adam Grant
A quick read, and an interesting collection of “anecdata” regarding the traits and habits of some successful individuals. I appreciated that the stories Grant told tended to be backed up by (or at least explainable in the context of) academic research, although I was left with questions about the validity of that research given the past few years’ of upheaval in the social sciences. Cf. Andrew Gelman’s Garden of Forking Paths, Amy Cuddy - NYTimes. But Grant succeeds in providing an actionable source of inspiration and self-confidence for voicing one’s views and pushing organizations in the right direction.
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Pipeline at Leadbetter
Double overhead at Leadbetter after El Niño blew through. Late February 2017.
Santa Barbara, California
42mm, ISO 400, 1/500, f/16
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Book: Birth of a Theorem
This was such a fun book to read. Cédric Villani offers a mix of memoir, dream diary, and narrative, all centered around the unfiltered process of discovering and proving a new mathematical theorem. I particularly appreciated the insight into the daily life, the ebbs and flows and rhythms, of an intellect of the highest degree. Villani plays with his children, cooks for his wife, manages the administrivia of leading an organization.