Tag Archives: books

1.5 billion beats

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I just started a new audio book, Scale, by Geoffrey West. I learned that almost all life forms have an average of about 1.5 billion heartbeats in their lives. Mice have faster heart rates, and die sooner as a result. Turtles and whales live over 100 years with their slower heartbeats. But fast or slow, it seems animals end up with about the same number of beats if they live a full life.

I find statistics like this fascinating. How is it that this is a constant when so many other factors come into play, and when so many evolutionary traits went in different directions? Trunks, blow holes, shells, horns, fins, arms, wings, marsupial tails, all evolve with different purposes, but our many sized hearts all give our different species the same amount of beats.

We may not have the same appendages, we may be all different sizes and shapes, and we all have different amount of time on this planet… but all our mechanical clocks tick the same number of times. Amazing!

Asimov’s Robot Visions

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I’m listening to Isaac Asimov’s book, Robot Visions on Audible. Short stories that center around his Three Laws of Robotics (Asimov’s 3 Laws).

• The First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

• The Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

• The Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These short stories all focus on ways that these laws can go wrong, or perhaps awry is the better term. There are a few things that make these stories insightful but they are also very dated. The early ones were written in the 1940’s and the conventions of the time, including conversational language and sexist undertones, are blatantly exposed as ‘olde’.

It also seems that Asimov made 2 assumptions worth thinking about: First that all robots and Artificial Intelligence would be constructed with the 3 laws at the core of all intelligence built into these machines. Many, many science fiction stories that followed also use these laws. However creators of Large Language Models like Chat GPT are struggling to figure out what guard rails to put on their AI to prevent it from acting maliciously when meeting sometimes scrupulous human requests.

Secondly, a few of the stories include a Robopsychologist, that’s right, a person (always female) who is an expert in the psychology of robots. There would be psychologists whose sole purpose would be to get inside the minds of robots.

Asimov was openly concerned with AI, specifically robots, acting badly, endangering humans, and even following our instructors too literally and with undesirable consequences. But he thought his 3 laws was a good start. Perhaps they are but they are just a start. And with new AI’s coming out with more computing power, more training, and less restrictions, I think Asimov’s concerns may prove prophetic.

The guard rails are off and there is no telling what unexpected consequences and results we will see in the coming months and years.

I need a good book recommendation

What’s your favourite, “I couldn’t put it down (or stop listening) book you would recommend?

I listen to a lot of books in a year. I barely read much before switching to audio. I’d come home and try to read but I spend so much time looking at screens in a day that even if I chose to read, my eyes would get tired after 10-15 minutes. Switching to audio, I can listen during my workouts, while in the car, when eating lunch on my own, and even doing house chores. I can get hours in over a week, rather the occasional minutes reading.

But to start this year I’m listening to a book that, while I’m enjoying it, I can only listen to short bursts then I need a break. And in between listening to this, I’ve been listening to podcasts, and I’m looking for a good book to listen to.

I tend to listen to books I learn from until Christmas break, March break, and summer, when I listen to fiction, but right now I’m thirsty for a good, hard-to-put-down action/thriller. I like sci-fi, fantasy, and spy novels, and enjoy novels no matter the age or gender of the protagonist. Some recent things I’ve enjoyed listening to include:

Caliban’s War, book 2 of the Expanse series, (but not ready to go to book 3).

Many books in The Grey Man series (do NOT watch the awful movie that butchers the story and creates a final battle that screams of bad moviemaking and screenwriting). I love this series but 7-8 books in I need a break.

The Bone Witch… fabulous storytelling!

The Bobiverse entire series and everything Dennis E. Taylor has written.

And Artemis, sharp, witty, and fast paced sci-fi that begs for a sequel.

So there are some of my shares… what would you recommend?

Nationalism vs Globalism

I remember reading The World is Flat back in 2006 and thinking about how our world had changed.

I hired a patent lawyer in India shortly after that and paid less than 10% of what I would have paid in Canada (a story for another time). I recognized the value of outsourcing, and seeing the entire globe as a single supply chain. It was a time of breaking down walls and getting access to whatever you needed, wherever you needed it, faster and cheaper. We have benefited greatly from this as consumers of products, many of which are made of component parts that are manufactured in different countries around the world, then delivered to our local stores, or dropped off at our doorstep.

But the tides are changing and we could very well see a move away from the globalization we’ve been benefiting from. Shortages and supply chain issues have been issues across the globe. War, fuel costs, inflation (or stagflation), compounded with severe weather systems affecting crops, have all led to things we haven’t seen in decades: Jumps in prices, delays in delivery, and shortages in products leaving some shelves bare in our grocery store.

This is all leading to a shift from globalism to nationalism. Why would a country export a product desperately needed in their own country? Why rely on a component part being made slightly cheaper in another country when shipping and supply are causing delays in production of the final product? What is a country to do when neighbouring countries don’t trade enough food, because they are focussing on feeding themselves? And the food that is coming in is very expensive due to increased transportation costs.

All these changes lead to a more nationalistic approach. An approach counter to the globalization that brought us such prosperity, with an endless supply of cheap food and goods. Is this the end of globalization? Probably not, but it could be the start of a rebalancing where countries get more nationalistic, and things get tougher for a while.

High prices, shortages of products, and a focus on countries protecting themselves from dependencies on other countries…dependencies that we relied on to create a global economy that brought us better, and more affordable products faster than ever before. Things really might get worse before they get better. And while I believe that there will be a return to globalization, I’m not convinced it will happen any time soon.

The power of audiobooks

I just spent 3+ hours power washing my lower back yard and front porch. Normally that would drive me crazy with monotony and boredom but I had over-ear noise reduction headphones on and listened to an audio book the entire time.

I have about 5-6 more hours to go with my deck, but that will be next weekend. Although time flies while listening to a good book, my back is telling me I’ve done enough for today.

The last time I power washed, I listened to a podcast, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, which itself is like historical novelettes. I find it so wonderful to be able to listen to stories rather than just reading them. I can imagine a time when there were no written words and stories told at campfires were the only method of sharing both history and imaginative tales of Gods, and mythological beasts, and of love, sins, revenge, and retribution.

A story well told is magical, and while I enjoy a good movie, I really feel like I can dive into a long audio book for hours at a time, and in the coming weekend, I’ll have at least 5-6 more hours to really devote to my current book.

Book stacks

As part of our main floor renovation, I moved a bookshelf yesterday. On this shelf I found 4 books that I had put aside to read. On the corner of my desk at work I have another 5. On Audible I have 3 credits, and a large list of books on my wish list, but I am listening to a few books offered for free first, and re-listening to parts of one that I’m developing some lessons for, for my Inquiry Hub students.

I’ve always been a painfully slow reader and so audible has been a wonderful treat. Since I started listening to Audible in 2017, I’ve listened to the equivalent of 1 month and 12 days worth of audio, according to the app. I have 111 books in my collection of which there are only 8 I have yet to read. In that time, I’ve read about 6-7 paper books completely and another 4-6 partially.

My stacks are unlikely to be read… unless I add them to my digital audio stacks. It’s a bit of an awakening to realize this. I don’t read books anymore, I listen to them. For me physical book stacks are nothing more than an audio wish lists. But somehow, I like seeing the stacks, even if I never get to them.

Audio Book before the movie

I started listening to Dune by Frank Herbert today. It’s a 21 hour audiobook, but I had a long drive planned and have listened to over 4 hours already. I wanted a science fiction, and heard that I new movie version is coming out. I never saw the first version.

Two thoughts:

1. I consider listening to a book equivalent to reading it. I’ve listened to so many books in the last 3 years that I would never have read, had I needed to actually read them. I look at a screen too much and my eyes fatigue really fast. I also get lost in the effort of reading and mindlessly read pages without comprehending how the words fit together. However, despite losing the plot occasionally as my mind drifts with an audiobook, I am actually able to stick with the auditory story for long periods without interruption.

2. If I see a movie of a book, I struggle to enjoy the book afterwards. However, even if a movie doesn’t stay true to a book, I can enjoy both if I read/listen to the book first. The best example of this is Lord of the Rings, where the movie visuals exceeded my imagination. For a movie that truly followed the book, check out Holes by Louis Sachar. The movie is so much like the book, I probably would enjoy these both even in the reverse order I just suggested.

I’m already looking forward to the movie as I listen to Dune. The audio version is brilliant, with a good mix of both narration and dialogue by different readers… it’s not just a reading, it’s a performance, and I hope to hear a lot more books that use this method of going to more than one reader. It’s very entertaining.

Your priorities are not your priority

I’m listening to ‘The One Thing‘ by Gary Keller and this concept hit me over the head.

For years, there was no plural for the word priority. This makes sense. If you have more than one priority the multiple things on your list are no longer your ONE priority.

I was talking to a colleague today, (we are holidaying at the same campground), on our morning walk we discussed how some days our jobs are such that the 3-5 things we started the day wanting to prioritize remain undone at the end of our day. Other people’s priorities (and problems) get in the way of our own daily accomplishments.

Keller states, “Purpose without priority is powerless.”

Priority, not priorities.

If I were to start my day planning and scheduling to accomplish my one priority, what would that look like? How successful would I be, compared to trying to divide my day between the many things on my ‘To Do’ list? Yes, those things still need to get done, but are all of them a, or my, priority? If I had a daily focus on my one priority for the day, would that change my sense of purpose on those days when things generally get in the way of what I intend to do?

Will the daily act of determining my one priority change my ability to plan and execute?

What’s my one priority for today?

Binge watching

My wife and I just started watching ‘The Stand’ on Prime Video. It’s based on Stephen King’s novel. I read this about 20 years ago and remember some but not all of it. It’s a great book with a silly ending. I’m enjoying the series so far, but I have to keep ‘letting go’ of this dumb ending to a brilliantly written book.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I prefer to read a story before watching it, rather than the other way around. I don’t mind when a movie takes liberties and changes the story of the book. However, when I’ve watched a story and the book doesn’t match, even knowing the story came first, the visuals of the movie make the words I read seem wrong.

I don’t watch much television, but during my breaks I like to pick a series and binge. Today we started The Stand. I’m going to enjoy hours of watching, and put up with the crappy ending when it comes.

Dear me, take my advice, it’s free!

I’ve been writing my daily posts for over 6 months now and some of them come off as if I’m writing some sort of advice column… like yesterday’s post on Undermining Self-Sabotage.

I say things like,

It’s the small thing that you can do today that move you to a bigger goal. Small, repeatable things that become habits. These small things undermine self-sabotage. When you surround yourself with small positive, incremental changes, your trajectory changes, and the people around you notice.

But despite addressing the writing to you, admittedly, I’m talking to myself. The book I shared in yesterday’s post, Atomic Habits by James Clear, was very influential to me. I read it at a time when I was making some really positive changes in some areas of my life, but not in others. I still have more work to do.

If I come off as preachy, or like I’m sharing some sagely advice, please know that I’m doing it from a position where I’m trying to take my own advice too. Atomic Habits is one of many great books I listened to last year. If I don’t actively reflect and write about what I’m learning, I won’t really have learned anything. And if I change the pronouns in the quote above to I/me/myself then to me my writing sounds self-centered, and even pretentious.

By the very nature of writing a public journal, I find myself talking to you, the reader, and you get to share my journey. So, when I give it, please feel free to take my advice, or to take my advice with a grain of salt. In reality, I’m talking to myself, and sharing it in the open. Free advice from me, to me, and as it turns out, for you too… if you find it useful.

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Oh, and by the way, if you think some of the things I say are full of crap, please let me know! It’s bound to happen. When I’m trying to pump out a different idea every day, at some point(s) I’ll be deluding myself in some way, but I’m probably too close to the idea to see the error in my thinking. That’s when I would most appreciate a comment or a question to help me learn and grow.

I’ll leave you with one last quote from James Clear,

“I didn’t start out as a writer. I became one through my habits“

Thank you for joining me in the practice of this daily habit.