Now.
What I'm doing at the moment, inspired by Derek Sivers' Now and which I learned of from Patrick Rhone.
My current reading is:
- 'Annotation' Remi Kalir and Antero Garcia (MIT Press)
An introduction to annotation as a genre-a synthesis of reading, thinking, writing, and communication-and its significance in scholarship and everyday life.
- 'The Unforgotten Coat' Frank Cottrell Boyce
This short work demonstrates why there’s a good reason he was chosen as the current “Children’s Laureate”. It also incorporates the strange magic of Polaroids into the narrative.
A good read, for all ages, and a proof of why every country should dearly value its immigrants.
'The Bells of Old Tokyo—Travels in Japanese Time' Anna Sherman
'A Pale View of Hills' Kazuo Ishiguro
'Security Engineering' by the late Ross Anderson
... if you're even thinking of doing any security engineering, you need to read this book. It's the first, and only, end-to-end modern security design and engineering book ever written—Bruce Schneier
(By the way the author arranged for the complete text of the book to be available online).
My recent listening is 'Opus', Ryuichi Sakamoto, his final performance for a film directed by his son, Neo Sora in the last few weeks of his hugely productive life, cut short by cancer in 2023.
My current projects are:
getting a little 'literate programming' environment going using emacs org-mode and fennel
working through 'The Little Learner, A Straight Line to Deep Learning', Daniel Friedman and Anurag Mendhekar
Previously.
Some previous things I've read include:
'The Nickel Boys' Colson Whitehead. This is the shocking, moving and thought-provoking book which was the inspiration for RaMell Ross' remarkable, ground-breaking film 'Nickel Boys'
'The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI', Fei-Fei Li. There's a plethora of 'AI introduction/critique' books at the moment, following the current infatuation with generative AI. But this is different, by a Chinese-American who worked hard for her career while supporting her family after their immigration to the US. It's as much an auto-biography of struggle (not the least as a woman in a male-dominated field) as a technical work, and all the better for it. If you want a taste of her style, here she is in amiable conversation with Yuval Noah Harari, providing a gentle check in his more excitable moments
'The Maniac', Benjamin Labatut. Reading the first few chapters I have to admit I was fazed by the unflinching directness of the violence described. It's an interesting format—mixing fiction and a more factual account of the life of John von Neumann; whose background I didn't really know much about. I persevered to the end…
'Four Seasons in Japan', Nick Bradley, 'Dandelion Wine', Ray Bradbury, 'Tyger', S F Said, 'Fractals, on the edge of chaos' Oliver Linton, 'Kofi and the Rap Battle Summer, Jeffrey Boakye, 'God's Children Are Little Broken Things', Arinze Ifeakandu.
Image: Caerfi Bay.