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.
- 'Security Engineering' 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 late 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:
re-taking the edX-published course "UBCx: How to Code: Simple Data"—Gregor Kiczales' fine (no previous programming experience required) introduction to a sound programming methodology. I thoroughly enjoyed an earlier incarnation of this course a decade back and wanted to experience it again. If you'd like to learn how to write AI prompts, this is not going to help you. What it will do, is open your eyes to a bit of computing magic and so train your cognitive skills, rather than exploit you for the gain of any tech company rapidly backtracking on its earlier promises to only use AI research for good.
getting a little 'literate programming' environment going using emacs org-mode and fennel
slowly working through 'The Little Learner, A Straight Line to Deep Learning', Daniel Friedman and Anurag Mendhekar. In the style of the classic book series including The Little Schemer.
Previously.
Some previous things I've read include:
- 'The Emperor of Gladness' Ocean Vuong
This is a fascinating depiction, with lush metaphors, of the lives of two people thrust together by chance and (however haphazardly) supporting each other. Really enjoyed it; the author has that knack for stunning you with a paragraph that so succinctly, and movingly, captures an idea. As per here (link to mastodon post).
Ocean gave an interview at 2026 Hay Festival (on the occasion of the paperback book release). One of the most moving and insightful interviews I've seen there in almost 20 years of attending. This is viewable on their (paywall) catchup site (along with years of other events).
- '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 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
'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: Bae Caerfi/Caerfi Bay.