Saturday, June 14, 2008

Books That Changed My Life

i'd like to see if the library has the GEB book.

 
 

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via Cool Tools on 6/13/08

Books still have the power to change lives. Which ones have changed yours?

I don't mean merely great books, or memorable ones, or favorite ones. I mean books that altered your behavior, changed your mind, redirected the course of your life. Books as levers.

Here's mine, in the order they entered my life. (I'm not the only one affected by these books because each of these titles has a Wikipedia entry, linked here, if you'd like to know more.)

Childhood's End -- For a kid growing up without TV in the boring enclaves of suburbia in the 50s and early 60s, science fiction opened up my universe. I devoured any and all science fiction our public library contained. Arthur C. Clarke's stories in particular birthed a life-long interest in science, and a deep respect for the power of imagination. This story of a singularity always stuck with me as something to prepare for. (Available from Amazon)

Whole Earth Catalog -- When I was 17 this big catalog of choices gave me permission to have my own ideas, make my own tools, follow my two loves of art and science unabashedly, and invent my own life. Decades later, I worked at the Catalog in my first real job. Cool Tools is just the electronic version of this book. (Available from Amazon)

The Fountainhead -- I got sucked into reading this over-the-top manifesto of self-reliance during finals of my first year of college. By the end of the book I decided to drop out of school. I never returned. It was the best decision of my life. (Available from Amazon)

Leaves of Grass -- While reading this classic poetic ode to America and possibilities ("I am multitude!") my gasket blew and I became seized with an unstoppable urge to travel. I set the book down and bought a ticket to Asia. I roamed there off and on for 8 years. It was my university. (Available from Amazon)

My Experiments with Truth -- This autobiography of Gandhi curiously led me to Jesus. Gandhi's stance of radical honesty prompted me to attempt the same. I was surprised it took a tough Hindu to make me a tender Christian. (Available from Amazon)

The Bible -- Reading this all the way through, beginning to end, shattered all expectations I had of such a foundational text. It was weirder, stranger, more disturbing and more powerful than I was lead to believe. I've read through several times more and it never fails to disturb me. (Available from Amazon)

Godel, Escher, Bach -- I was amazed and impressed by the brilliance of GEB when I first read it, but it didn't change my life. However over the years I kept finding myself returning to its insights, and each time I would arrive at them at a deeper level. Now I find them my own thoughts, and I realize I now see the world through a similar lens. (Available from Amazon)

The Ultimate Resource -- Another book whose influence took time to establish. Simon's clarifying insight -- that mind and intelligence can overcome any physical limitations, and is therefore the only scarce resource -- has become a big idea that colors much of what I look at. (Available from Amazon)

Finite and Infinite Games  -- This small, short book provided me a vocabulary to think about the meaning of life  -- not just my life, but all life! It gave me a mathematical framework for my own spirituality. As it says, the game is to prolong the game, to rope all beings into playing infinite vs finite (win-loose) games, and to realize that there is only one infinite game. (Available from Amazon)

Kk'slibrary

This is my library. I guess you would have to say all the rest of these books are books that did not change my life, although they tried.

What's your list of Books That Changed Your Life? It has to be more than a list. A book cannot be said to change your life unless it can be annotated with the tangible consequences you made as a result of reading it.

Here are a few qualifying lists by others I have encounter in my clickage.

Peter Turney, AI researcher (Peter's list prompted this posting.)
Tim O'Reilly, Publisher
Steven Leckart, Editor
Mark Reid, AI researcher
Trent Hamm, financial blogger
Eric Rawlins, data architect
Larry Winget, motivational speaker

Mark Verber, software architect


I get a lot from reading these love letters to books. Why doesn't everyone do a list like this?

Send me links (kk at kk dot org) -- of yours or others you respect -- and I'll add them to the list if appropriate.

-- KK

 
 

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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Robert Downey Jr. says he gave up drugs ... [Burger King]

see, fast food isn't all bad...

 
 

Sent to you by David via Google Reader:

 
 

via Consumerist by Meg Marco on 6/10/08


Robert Downey Jr. says he gave up drugs after Burger King served him " a cheeseburger so disgusting that it forced him to reassess his entire life." The burger was so nasty that he suddenly felt like something terrible was going to happen to him, so he threw all his drugs into the ocean and has been clean ever since. One man's complaint is another's life changing epiphany, we suppose. [OK!]



 
 

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Sunday, June 8, 2008

Browser Plugin Allows PayPal Payments at Any Site [Featured Windows Download]



 
 

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paypal_plugin.jpgWindows only: Online payment service PayPal rolled out a service a few months back that lets you generate and use single-use credit cards in order to make PayPal payments at sites you might not want to give your credit card information to. The PayPal Plug-In, for Internet Explorer 7 and (at the moment) Firefox 2, makes using "Secure Cards" much easier. When you're at a site you want to pay with, you can create a card, fill a payment form with the card's details, and even check your PayPal balance, all from a drop-down menu. For regular auction buyers or those venturing into unfamiliar web territory, it could be convenient peace of mind. The PayPal Plug-In is a free download for Windows systems only.



 
 

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How to Dice an Onion Like a Pro [Kitchen]



 
 

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Cooking web site The Kitchn demonstrates how to dice an onion like a pro in the video above. It's surprisingly simple, and when you're done you'll have a perfectly diced onion ready for the millions of recipes that might require it. The post also covers a few tips specific to different onion types and briefly discusses chopping onions tear-free, territory we've covered in the past. You're now one more step closer to chopping vegetables like a pro.



 
 

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SpotCrime Maps Local Illegal Happenings [Crime]



 
 

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Crime-mapping mashup SpotCrime pulls data from city police records and news sources and plots it in an easy-to-snoop fashion. Choose a city, a time frame, and the types of offenses you want to see, and you can mouse over the pinned icons to see thumbnail descriptions, or click an item for a full read. The site claims that humans are working in the background to make sense of the data, and that incidents show up anywhere from 3-24 hours after they're reported. A good tool for checking out a potential neighborhood for moving or exploring, or just keeping up on what's going down across town.



 
 

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The Best Way to Cook Your Vegetables [Cooking]



 
 

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fruit-and-veggies.pngIf you've been following author Michael Pollan's simple eating philosophy—"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."—you're trying more than ever to incorporate vegetables in your diet. What you may not know, however, is how to best prepare those vegetables so you're getting the most nutritional value. From the New York Times:

"There is a misperception that raw foods are always going to be better," says Steven K. Clinton, a nutrition researcher and professor of internal medicine in the medical oncology division at Ohio State University. "For fruits and vegetables, a lot of times a little bit of cooking and a little bit of processing actually can be helpful."
Though the article emphasizes that no cooking method is best, it does explain the trade-offs you make when you make the decision to cook or not to cook.

For example, boiling carrots increases carotenoid levels while decreasing polyphenol. Often you can cook better with your microwave than your stove, and—according to the article—microwaving can retain more vitamin C than other methods. You don't have to weigh the health options every time you decide to prepare a vegetable—you're eating vegetables, after all, which is already healthy—but do know that variety in your preparation methods is advantageous. Let's hear how you prefer to prepare your veggies in the comments.



 
 

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Pit a Ripe Avocado the Easy Way [Cooking]



 
 

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If there's one useful thing that I learned when I moved to California, it's how to slice and pit a ripe avocado. Forget scooping out the pit with a spoon and losing any bit of that precious green butter inside—tap the pit firmly with a knife to lodge it there, and twist the pit out. Hit the play button above to see how.



 
 

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