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Books and Ideas
Reading reflections, intellectual frameworks, and cross-disciplinary insights
34 posts
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A Lucky Find
Prompted by reading John Connell's The Running Book, I remembed a catalogue of moody black-and-white photographs of the Irish landscape by Giles Norman.
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Tree Poems
Kinship, a poem by Ursula K. Le Guin, contrasts the slow, deep burning of an ancient forest tree with the restless, blinding warmth of human life — a meditation on what we share with the non-human world.
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Daily Rituals
Great infographic showing the daily rituals of interesting historical figures. Smoking, coffee and beer appear frequently.
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Models for decision making
A look at decision-making techniques and the value of stepping back to see the full picture. Includes a fine mind map example from Learning Fundamentals on personal actions for reducing climate change impacts.
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Solvay Conference 1911
Mark Bernstein illustrates his argument by describing the photo of attendees at the first Solvay conference in 1911, which brought to my attention that so many these famous scientists were contemporaries.
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Chinas rising soybean consumption-reshaping-western-agriculture
A disturbing piece by Lester Brown: saving the Amazon rainforest now depends on curbing global demand for soybeans — which means both stabilising population and, for the world's more affluent people, eating significantly less meat.
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Dividing camels
The traditional teaching stories of the Sufi's are often intriguing. One of my favourites is known as Dividing Camels.
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Challenges of creating for the web
A pointed comic from The Oatmeal on the realities of making things for the web — the gap between what creators intend and how the work is actually received. Painfully recognisable.
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Elegant deep or beautiful explanations-at-edge-2012
Some fascinating ideas explored at the Annual Edge contributions for the most deep, elegant or beautiful explanation.
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Diversify your dreams
Great post from HBR that calls out the danger of simplifying your dreams down to a narrow outcome that can setup a black and white success or failure scenario.
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Sopa what can make a difference
A call for direct, concrete action against SOPA rather than symbolic online gestures — banners and blackouts won't create the change internet users want. A pointed piece from Macdrifter worth heeding.
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Crisis of faith in the financial system
Thought provoking post by Adam Richardson at Harvard Business Review on the levels of abstraction implicit in the financial system and the trust that is required from all participants for it to continue to operate.
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Read one book per week
A note on the challenge of keeping up with a growing reading backlog — and a pointer to Joshua Becker's strategy of reading one book per week as a way to make steady, satisfying progress.
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Looking for meaning by paying attention
Practising how to find the meaning in proverbs sharpens our ability to define problems in ways that lead to innovation. A piece that connects HBR's thinking on creative problem-solving with the deeper attention cultivated by traditions like Sufi teaching stories.
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Drowning in books to read
I love books, i enjoy being given them at this time of the year and I enjoy buying them at any time. Unfortunately I sometimes fall behind with reading them.
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Inspiring blogger - Matt Gemmell
Matt Gemmell is such a good writer, his post Dear TextMate is a beauty and must reflect the thoughts of many former Textmate fans.
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A book apart
Just bought a bundle from A Book Apart, excellent value - especially as eBooks. I particularly like their condensed focused works.
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US police under the spotlight
The pepper-spraying of seated protesters at UC Davis sparked international outrage and a powerful moment of silent accountability as the Chancellor walked to her car through rows of students. A reflection on police militarisation, civil disobedience, and Thoreau's enduring relevance.
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VW and the darkside
Greenpeace's clever Star Wars-themed campaign pressed Volkswagen to apply its green technology across its full fleet, not just flagship models. A well-crafted piece of activist media that used the brand's own imagery against it.
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Rushkoff speaks to occupy movement
Douglas Rushkoff's rousing address to Occupy Wall Street argues that protesters are fighting not people but a 500-year-old economic program designed to suppress peer-to-peer exchange. A companion piece to his book Life Inc.
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Occupying wallstreet
Tim Bray's sharp summary of why Occupy Wall Street resonates: bankers enriched themselves through what feels like theft, nobody was punished, the bailouts came from public money, and the political system appears structurally incapable of acting against financial elite interests.
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CNN occupy wall street
Douglas Rushkoff argues that Occupy is not a protest but a prototype — a practical experiment in a different way of living. Its lack of demands is precisely the point: it isn't asking anything of the existing system, which is what makes it both unsettling and genuinely new.
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Groups with more women are more intelligent
Tom Malone on collective intelligence and the 'genetic' structure of groups. The average intelligence of the people in the group and the maximum intelligence of the people in the group doesn't predict group intelligence.
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Rushkoff, a change agent
Douglas Rushkoff's books Program or Be Programmed and Life Inc make a compelling case for why we should engage critically with technology and challenge the economic model that shapes so much of modern life. A rare pair of books that genuinely changes how you see the world.
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Trading as video game
An Atlantic piece comparing modern derivatives trading to playing a high-stakes video game — and speculating that this kind of immersive, abstracted decision-making will become a feature of more jobs in the future.
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Great bookshops of the world
Fascinating photos of bookshops from around in the world in this article in Salon via Twitter from Mark Bertstein who has been to 3 of them.
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Things that matter
Seth Godin's free ebook brings together over seventy short essays from leading thinkers. Howard Mann's contribution stands out: a sharp observation about how we walk the streets staring into screens, convinced we are more connected than ever, while the world passes by.
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New book - cubicle nation
Pamela Slim's Escape from Cubicle Nation finally makes it to the shops — a book long anticipated after following her blog. A guide for anyone considering trading corporate employment for work that better reflects who they are.
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So long Fourth World Review
A tribute to the Fourth World Review, the fiercely independent journal founded by John Papworth in 1984 in the tradition of Schumacher's Small is Beautiful. A personal account of meeting the inimitable Papworth, and a pointer to the journal's online archives.
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Alan Watts
Reading Alan Watts in my teens I experienced my first taste of eastern thinking which has led to a life long interest. In his essays on Zen and the Tao I could feel deep truths were lurking just beyond the words.
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The franklin river campaign - 25 years on
A personal account of taking part in the Franklin River campaign — camped in Tasmanian rainforest, arrested on the Crotty Road, briefly held in Risdon maximum security prison. One of the defining experiences of a life, and a reflection on what was won and what was at stake.
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A very small farm
William Paul Winchester's A Very Small Farm is a memoir of quietly extraordinary simplicity — life on twenty acres, building house and barn, putting in a garden and orchard, taking up beekeeping. It belongs to the tradition of Thoreau's Walden and rewards return visits over the years.
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New perspectives on money
Resurgence magazine's special issue on money and true wealth opens with a sharp editorial by Satish Kumar: money is not wealth — true wealth is healthy land, clean water, honest work and human creativity. There is never a shortage of money for war, but always a shortage for art and education.
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Clear thinking - well informed outspoken
George Monbiot's essay collection Bring on the Apocalypse makes for compulsive reading — sharp, unapologetically left-wing, and full of the kind of gutsy analysis that rarely appears in mainstream Australian media. A writer who says what he believes needs to be said.
