David Patraeus and Andrew Roberts – Conflict
Somehow, in the world of Mr. Patraeus, all people who agree with the general are the most capable, intelligent and respected leaders to ever walk the earth while the French are never any good.
Without active allies and inclusive policies, disadvantaged groups will never get the same opportunities as the privileged
Sheree Acheson – Deminding more
A refrehingly data-centric book that elegantly yet firmly addresses issues without pointing blame.
The ideas that were seriously considered in covert operations and military plots shew a new light on the term ‘Intelligence’
Vince Houghton – Nuking the moon
The overly jolly style of writing can be a bit tiresome, but one cannot help to be fascinated by the outlandish stories..
Founders are gaslighted by VCs in order to convince them that they need to take high risks that are not in their own best interest
Rand Fishkin – Lost and Founder
Juicy slightly contrarian view written with sufficient self-deprication in order not to offend anyone in the vally.
To contain AI (and synthetic biology), humanity should bet on regulation
Mustafa Suleyman – The coming wave
In the light of the message of the book, the writer’s move to join Microsoft as AI chief in early 2024 was surprising.
Use ‘validated learning’ to launch your ‘MVP’, and ‘pivot’ when your ‘value and growth hypotheses’ are falsified
A staple of startup literature, advocating a deceivingly simple concept which is hard to get right (as is proven by the examples of startups that have failed since publication).
Re-read 2024: Even though some examples are by now pretty stale, there are still many relevant insights in there.
The West has for a long time under-estimated the tenacity of Russian covert operations
Gordon Corera – Russians among us
The connection between ‘illegals’ and digital information warfare seems mostly motivated by the author’s (or publisher’s) desire to give the book more relevance, rather than the coherence of the narrative.
To disagree with Kara Swisher is not for the faint hearted
Entertaining rather than enriching, with strong emphasis on the ways in which Kara lets other people know that she is right
If power is all you want, just follow these 48 simple steps
Robert Greene – The 48 laws of power
A pile of cynical, often conflicting, recommendations presented with Machiavellian panache.
Understanding behavioral economics is quite helpful when you want to understand what works in marketing.
A smart repackaging of Khanemean for marketeers that is indeed worth a second edition nine years after initial publication
The populist far-right has been able to gain ground due to the failure of progressives to address underlying concerns across broad strands of the population
Rhetorically strong, with well chosen observations spun into a seductive narrative that is designed to give hope.
Brain variances manifest differently in women, leading to widely-held misconceptions and many living undiagnozed and untreated
Janara Nerenberg – Divergent mind
Does a great job explaining the negative impact.
A bunch of geeks figured out a better way to run a company and are now taking over the economy
The case that “data trumps opinions, provided your corporate culture doesn’t get in the way” contains little original thinking, but that – to be fair – is not the author’s objective
Most crypto currencies are Ponzi schemes funded and operated by hardened criminals and effective altruists lacking a moral compass
The author’s hard-felt frustration that the crypto market could (and in a sense still can) stay irrational as long as it did makes the story even more juicy.
Writing your tests first saves a shitload of time in debugging
Harry Percival – Test Driven Development with Python
It take quite some wasted hours of coding to appreciate the full power of the TDD approach
If you are quirky enough; people may just trust you because you seem harmless even if you have a history at a Wall Street trading firm
Michael Lewis – Going infinite
Amazing story, told with a consistent yet not so surprising perspective
To optimally solve for the UN Social Development Goals, optimize on simple metrics with good pay-off
Bjorn Lomborg – Best things first
Nice exercise that provides some nice contrarian thinking, as long as one is aware that the methodology of cost-benefit analysis (as applied here) seems to ignore systemic risks (e.g. climate change) and under-plays the difficulty of getting from theory to policy (let alone realization).
Sourdough oliebollen
Ingredients
- 600 gr starter
- 700 gr wholewheat flour
- 500 gr sparkling water
- 30 gr sugar
- 2 eggs
- 15 gr salt
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- vanilla from 1 stick
- Zest of 1 orange
- 50 gr melted butter
- 500 gr currants
Method
- Start expanding your starter 2 days in advance of baking to ensure you have enough; use white flour for that
- Soak the currants for15-30 minutes
- Mix starter, flour, water, eggs; using the paddle attachment of your kitchen machine, c. 3 mins at speed 1
- Add salt, cinnamon, butter, vanilla, and orange zest. Continue mixing for another c. 2 mins at speed 2
- Spoon in the currants
- Let rise for c. 4 hours (or overnight in a cool place)
- Stir through and let rise for another 2-3 hours
- Fry in frying pan with sunflower oil at 180 degree Celsius. Flip after c. 3 mins, boil for 6 mins in total.
The original recipe is in Dutch
My twist: add vanilla and orange zest to the dough.
Want to try: touch of cardamon
It requires a risky mix of naive optimism, grotesque bluff, and boneheaded persistence to get a scoop on a yakuza boss
The story is, appears heavily romanticized, but provides a nice insider perspective on many quirks of Japanese culture.
100% rye bread
Ingredients
The gelatined rye mix
- 480 gr Water at 90 degrees C
- 120 gr Rye flour
The dough
- 400 gr rye leaven
- 100 gr cold water
- 600 gr gelatined rye mix
- 600 gr rye flour
- 12 gr salt
Method
The gelatinated rye mix
- Quickly whisk rye flour in the hot water
- Leave for 1 hr to 1 day
The loaf
- Set apart 4 tablespoons of the gelatinated rye mix to brush over the loafs later
- Mix the leaven in the cold water
- Add the gelatinated rye mixture
- Add the flour and the salt
- Stir until you have a sticky paste
- Knead gently into two balls
- Shape each ball into a baton
- Let the loafs rise on floured cloth in a basket for 5 hours / until doubled in size
- Just before baking, brush with the remaining gelatinated rye mixture and spray with water
- Bake for 50 minutes at 210 degrees C
- Leave to cool fully
- Wrap in kitchen baking parchment tied with a string and leave for 24 nrs before slicing
From the amazing book The handmade loaf
My twist: add anise , cinnamon, and orange zest to the dough for an even richer flavour.