Recent posts – dr.Pep

The Indian diaspora across Asia and beyond has shaped culture and science globally.

Recommended to pick and choose the chapters where the subject matter is most of interest to the reader.

From a modern western perspective the vikings were bloody (and) weird.

It is fascinating how much can de deduced from archeological evidence.

As trusted deputy of FDR, Harry Hopkins had a major impact on the way in which WWII unfolded

The author is skilled in blending the arc of history with the personal narrative of the actors shaping it, but could have been a bit more strict in curating the stories he included.

Trying to bring innovation to an organization that relishes traditions inevitably leads to an intense political battles

Raj Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff – Unit X

However hard the authors try, it is hard to make the political machinations sound exciting.

Sam Altman is a skillful despot, leveraging his unrivaled influencing skills to amass to what he hopes will be infinite power

Karen Hao – Empire of AI

Refreshingly critical biography that, unfortunately, at times digresses into unverified personal narratives and broad strokes comparisons to colonialism.

Jensen Huang has a ruthless determination and an autonomous and far-sighted vision, both of which proved justified if measured by NVIDIA’s valuation.

Stephen Witt – The thinking machine

When reading a biography that is too current: remember to skip the final chapter, because it will be inevitably speculative and outdated.

The story of J.P. Coen terrorizing the Banda Islands serve well to illustrate the major social and environmental injustices of our time.

Amitav Gosh – The nutmeg’s curse

What starts as a well written exploration of a well-chosen historical event derails into a all-encompassing indictment of the Western, capitalist world order, but leaves the reader wanting to learn more about nutmeg.

The world is still on course for achieving the singularity -and nanobot in your bloodstream – in the 2030s.

Ray Kurzweil – The singularity is nearer

The book feels as if it is written for a different age than the current one in which the most relevant challenges in AI are not about the theoretical fronteir but about real-world implementation.

In a region where Russia may want to regain influence over lost territory, the need for good old, Cold War-style, deterrence is raising for small countries that want to keep their independence and a NATO alliance that wants to be taken seriously.

Oliver Moody – Baltic, the future of Europe

The conscientious exploration of different viewpoints sometimes makes for slow reading, but leads to a comprehensive and surprisingly nuanced book.

Autocracy has become a team sport in which autocrats team-up with kleptocratic financiers, tech surveillance providers, and each other to bring liberal democracy to its knees

Anne Applebaum – Autocracy Inc.

Unfortunately, the strongly opiniated perspectives of the authortake away some of the power of the solid analyses.

Love should instill caring, compassion, and strength in all aspects of our lives

All about love – Bell Hooks

What starts with an analytical exploration of the meaning of love branches out into a series of sermons on different aspects of the topic.

From an agent perspective, ‘explore’ often trumps ‘exploit’ because they can choose their own adventure.

Range – David Epstein

The book relies too much on anecdotes to get its point across, taking the typical Mlcolm Gladwell approach to its extreme.

Conscious realism posits a locally consistent perspective on the world, working from the premise that our mind creates a simulation to make fitness predictions.

Donald D. Hoffman – The case against reality

I love the attempt to give mathematical grounding to philosophical ideas; and would be curious how explicit the connection with sheaves and topos theory can be made.

Piet van Eeghen was a leading force behind major private initiatives in 19th century Amsterdam, resulting in the creation of a.o. the Prinsengrachtziekenhuis, the Vondelpark, and the Rijksmuseum.

Laura van Hasselt – Geld, geloof, en goede vrienden (in Dutch)

An in-depth economic analysis of the business dealings and charitable causes of Van Eeghen and the way they were intertwined would have created a more complete picture.

Facebook leadership does not care about employees or humanity, but only about market power and profit.

Sarah Wynn-Williams – Careless people

To make the central thesis compelling, it would have been better to split the book in two: one on Facebook’s policy choices and one on how it treats its employees.

Shipwrecks are time capsules that provide a fascinating and dramatic window on the past that makes maritime archeology unique

David Gibbins – A history of the world in twelve shipwrecks

In particular, the retracing connections and trade routes in prehistoric times through chemical analysis is impressive.

The combined innovations in politics, warfare, religion, and finance around the turn of the 16th century laid the foundation for developments that would shape Europe for centuries to come.

Patrick Wyman – The verge

The personal stories of individual actors are a bit over-done, but fascinating references to original sources ensure the whole is sufficiently balanced.