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Feeling nostalgic

I noticed that in many books mindfulness is described as an opposite of being disconnected from the present moment and being lost in thoughts about the past or the future. More specifically, what is meant there is ruminating on regrets about the past or worrying about the future. I am wondering, though, whether reminiscence about the past is necessary a negative thing. For example, mentally reliving a happy memory could potentially be a nice stress relief, if nothing else. There is also a potential argument for regrets in general sometimes serving as a useful learning tool.

But I wonder if a positive case could be made for something in between these two kinds of past-dwelling. For example, considering that the definition of nostalgia is “sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations,” I think that feeling nostalgic implies feeling happy and sad at the same time. I also wonder if then, by definition, every person has something to feel nostalgic about . After all, most people probably have something with happy personal associations that is now in the past.

What do I feel nostalgic about? I certainly don’t leave with the constant feeling of nostalgia, but if I dig for it, it would probably have to be the time when I practiced kendo, or, even earlier, aikido. I miss the sense of awe of participating in something so deeply rooted in a foreign and fascinating tradition and of being aware of the formative effect of the practice on my life.

These are the kinds of thoughts I am having when present moment awareness proves elusive.

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Sherlock Holmes and the Dunning-Krueger effect

Continuing our family tradition of reading physical, hardcopy books before bed, we started reading the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Those were my favourite reads when I was growing up, and the one-volume collection of “all four novels and fifty-six adventure” was the first book that my wife and I bought for ourselves when we were graduate students. It took me some time to find this massive tome in the bookcase, and we started from the beginning – “A Study in Scarlet.”

Both my daughter and I enjoyed the description of how Dr. Watson got introduced to Sherlock Holmes’ extraordinary deductive abilities. There is one episode early in the book, though, where Holmes describes his approach to accumulating knowledge, with which I don’t completely agree (in my defence, neither does Dr. Watson, i.e., presumably, Doyle himself). There, Watson is astonished that Holmes didn’t know about the heliocentric model of the solar system, and that he was intent on forgetting it as soon as possible after learning about it. Here is how Holmes justified it:

    ” “You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance , therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” “

This is a compelling argument, but I suspect that the assumption about the rigidity of the boundaries of one’s brain-attic is wrong, particularly in the modern times. Perhaps, another, more up-to-date analogy is with the contents of the Photos app on a smartphone. Certainly, you could max out the memory if you take a ton of useless pictures and videos, but you can also upgrade your cloud storage or even the phone itself. And the AI-based search algorithms continually improve, to the point that the suggested compilations of “memories” rival those put together by humans. So the danger of not being able to retrieve useful information is not particularly great. Also, even without computer-augmented mental abilities, collecting broad information trains memory, if nothing else. Improved memory, in turn, increases our capacity to accumulate more information and, possibly, convert it to knowledge.

Incidentally, I’ve learned that Doyle himself was quite a bit more of a renaissance man than his most famous character, although even Holmes was an amateur violinist. In addition to being world-famous as a writer, Doyle had a successful medical carrier and was an accomplished athlete (footballer, golfer, boxer, skier and one of the first bodybuilding enthusiasts) and an amateur, but serious and successful, architect. I don’t think that this impressive lists of pursuits and accomplishments would have been possible if he had limited his interests and studies to medicine, which was his intended profession early on.

In defense of Sherlock Holmes’ approach, I think thatbeing selective about what to learn and what to ignore probably protected him from falling victim to the Dunning-Krueger effect. That’s a cognitive bias, where we overestimate or abilities due to limited competence in a particular domain. In other words, we often theorize or even act without knowing enough to even realize that we don’t know enough about what we are doing. For example, like me talking about cognitive psychology because of my interest in it but without any systematic knowledge of the field. 

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On gaming

During the past Holiday season, motivated by helping my daughter to set up her new virtual reality (VR) headset, I’ve noticed my own renewed interest in computer games, and I must say that I am quite happy about it. In the past, I’d been fascinated both by the gaming technology and the deep storytelling aspects of some of the best games. However, gradually, I came to see gaming as such a profound waste of time that I somehow managed to convince myself that I didn’t enjoy it anymore.

Well, I am happy to report that this is not true. In fact, I think I can quite easily rationalize that gaming (in moderation, of course, etc., etc.) is good for you, or at least for me. Seriously though, I do believe that it healthy to have something in your life that you do in small amounts and without expecting any recognition for your efforts. This idea reminds me of the book I read last year called “The Little Book of Ikigai” by Ken Mogi. Whether it could be called ikigai in the lofty sense of the word, like something that gives a meaning to life, or not, but solving puzzles is a fundamentally fascinating activity, and it is even more so in VR!

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My 2023 reading list

In the spirit of keeping a tradition of publishing a list of books that I’ve read outside of work in the past year, here is the list for 2023. I believe in active reading, that is, taking notes on what I learn in the process, even if that relates to the writing style, the genre, the authors, etc. I am not always diligent with the note-taking, but I am always glad when I am in the retrospect.

Note: The links below are affiliate links, so if you follow them to Amazon and buy something, I might get paid some money.

Fiction:

  1. “Kill decision” by Daniel Suarez.

I really like the high-tech thriller genre and also find the bio of Suarez inspiring. He is a tech consultant turned author. Makes me wonder whether I need permission to do the same. Maybe, the first thing I need is discipline to write more regularly.

  1. “Influx” by Daniel Suarez.

Great for fans of conspiracy theories. That’s all I am going to say to avoid spoilers.

  1. “Change agent” by Daniel Suarez.

A biotech-themed thriller. I’ve been struggling a bit to get though it, for some reason, but I do like it in general.

Non-fiction:

This year, non-fiction audiobooks have largely replaced for me podcasts, which I usually listen to while walking the dog.

  1. “Daring greatly” by Brene Brown (audio).

Something about the benefits of vulnerability. I remember that it did resonate, but don’t recall in what way exactly. The unrealistic expectations that the society puts on us – something along these lines.

  1. “Loonshots” by Safi Bachall (audio).

I came across this book by browsing Daniel Pink’s website. It explores the analogy between innovations in social groups and organizations and phase transitions in physical systems. Dynamic equilibrium of strong bonds and entropy – need separation of the phases, but also an easy flow of information between them. Analogy with franchises and original films. One of the core messages: Equally love your soldiers (who are running the franchises) and artists (who are creating the original ideas).

  1. “Happy” by Derren Brown (audio).

A reminder of the gap between the events that happen around us and our reactions to them. Critique of the “positive thinking” approach.

A neat discussion of our relation to the older generation. We think in terms of “us vs. them” and fear losing individuality, but our past experience points to the opposite – we gain individuality as we age.

  1. “The power of regret” by Daniel Pink (audio).

Short, but sweet. I liked the concept of classifying the regrets into one of the four main categories: foundational, boldness, ethics, connection. Anticipating a future regret can be productive, if it would fall into one f these categories. If not, it’s better to be a “satisfiser” and make a quick decision. 

Thinking is for doing, feeling is for thinking. When dealing with a regret, self-disclose, exercise self-compassion (think what you would say to a friend in a similar situation) and use self-distancing (talk to yourself in a third person).

  1. “From strength to strength” by Arthur C. Brooks (audio).

The concept of jumping to the “second curve” of once life trajectory, once the performance starts to decline.

Utilize the accumulated crystallized intelligence once the fluid intelligence begins to fade.

Need of shedding the attachment to success, which is rooted in the fear of failure, in order make jumping onto the second curve easier. Good read.

  1. “What you do is what you are” by Dan Horowitz (audio). 

Values and virtues are not the same. Values are what you believe, and virtues are what you do. If you don’t do what you believe, you won’t become what you’d like to be.

  1. “Are you fully charged?” by Tom Rath (audio).

This book was good, if a bit short. I like the idea of optimizing the personal well-being on the timescale of the day, instead of the lifestyle. This approach can probably create problems related to planning and discipline if applied beyond reason, but it certainly help with small decisions, which accumulate for a larger affect. Tom Rath also wrote “Eat, sleep move” (which I haven’t read). He refers to it in this book, and the title is self-explanatory – prioritize healthy eating, exercise and sleep on the daily basis. Over-arching thesis of the book, though is that applying effort and resources to increase well-being of other people is more beneficial for you than directly aiming at maximizing your own happiness.

  1. “Can’t hurt me” by David Goggins (audio).

Another Navy SEAL – inspired read. This one is a memoir, which is a bit of a different read for me. It’s is difficult to fill Jocko Williks’ shoes in this genre, though.  I dropped the book at the third chapter – the bogus claims and inconsistencies are too difficult to ignore. Paraphrasing Thoreau, what the author doesn’t say shouts so loudly in my ears, I cannot hear what he is saying. In retrospect, I rarely have such negative impressions of books as of this one.

  1. “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek (audio).

Good summary of the common human manipulation techniques and an insight into why they don’t work in the long run.

  1. “Why we play” by Joanna Fortune (audio).

In the modern society, playfulness is almost automatically associated with something opposite of a serious endeavour, but this is a mistake. Playfulness has serious consequences on our  health and productivity, both individually and in groups. It is obviously important for children in terms of teaching them the value of risk-taking, social interactions, etc., but it is also important for adults in terms of stress management, promoting creativity and developing social skills. This book is preaching to the converted, but I enjoyed it.

  1. “Stealing fire” by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal (audio).

This book points out the importance of altered states of consciousness for peak performance, particularly by groups of people. I find the attempts to support the arguments by numbers laughable – they would be ridiculously easy to pick apart by any critic with a functioning pre-frontal cortex. Incidentally, it is over-riding the activity of this part of the brain that is apparently needed for transcending the individuality and achieving the extasis – tapping into the hive mind. I am admittedly not a fan of the hive model of the future humankind. It is certainly fascinating what can be achieved by a hive mentality, but somehow the prospect of forgoing the free will completely while keeping the creativity doesn’t sit well with me. According to the authors, forward-thinking individuals are taking the excursions over the artificial fences erected by the society (the “pales” of the Church, the Body and the State) to take advantage of the altered states of consciousness. Perhaps, they are right, and we just don’t notice it, just like we don’t want to admit that we are becoming cyborgs by wearing eyeglasses, prosthetic devices or wearable electronics. For what it’s worth, I also do drink coffee every day, and it probably does something to my consciousness (hopefully, good things mostly).

  1. “Thinking, fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman (audio).

I was familiar with the main ideas in this book, as they’ve been re-told by other authors, but the writing is very good. It shows why Kahneman is a Nobel laureate.

I liked the idea of the importance of introducing names to concepts that would otherwise be collections of properties and facts, e.g., “System 1” and “System 2” of the fast and slow thinking, respectively.  It is easier for people to relate to agents, i.e. characters with names and assumed traits and personalities, than to sets of properties. It is also important for the names to me short, because the more information we need to keep in our short-term memory while pronouncing the name the less is our capacity for thinking.

  1. “Four thousand weeks” by Oliver Burkeman (audio).

An excellent summary of the author’s experience with reviewing the vast literature on the finite nature of human life and its relationship with time. For me, one of the practical takeaways is limiting the number of the “on the go” projects to a maximum of three for any given day in order to avoid the feeling of overwhelm.

  1. “The Happiness Hypothesis” by Jonathan Haidt (audio).

An entertaining discussion of the common key messages from the significant philosophical and religious works of the past, including the limitations of the specific ideas. I liked the discussion of the stoics in particular, with an added twist of the balance between striving to improve your external conditions and to accept them, while focussing on managing your internal reactions.

  1. “Eat, Move, Sleep” by Tom Rath (audio).

A nice collection of rule-of-thumb principles for improving physical quality of life based on a wide, if not scientifically rigorous, literature survey. Useful takeways for me personally: tackle all three components listed in the title of the book simultaneously, because they are closely related and avoid long periods of inactivity during the day.

  1. “The Little Book of Ikigai” by Ken Mogi (audio).

Upon listening to this book, I found many examples of ikigai in my own various activities. Building gunpla is a particularly good example – you start small and don’t expect any particular success or recognition for your efforts. It is truly an autotelic activity.

  1. “Flow: Living at the peak of your abilities” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (audio).

This isn’t rally a book, but rather a collection of recordings, probably lectures, by Csikszentmihalyi himself. It is different from his book “Flow: The psychology of optimal experience“, which one of my all-time favourite reads, but it covers the same concepts. It certainly hasn’t been a waste of time to listen to it. Csikszentmihalyi is a great speaker, and listening to this book confirmed to me that it is great to listen to the author reading their own works, whenever there is an opportunity. You receive a clear sense of what the intended emphasis is, and this added emotional content makes the material easier to internalise, if nothing else.

  1. “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson (audio).

I am glad I picked up an audio version, because this book is huge! I like Isaacson’s biographies, and this one did not disappoint. Musk is a polarising character, but the book itself made me think about some questions, on which I would typically fall into one of the two distinct camps, without much consideration. Those are “Does it actually take a somewhat sociopathic individual to inflict a major change on the society?” and “Is it ok to be a jerk in some areas of your life if you are doing wonderful things in another?” Upon consideration, I think my personal answers to these questions are “Very likely” and “No”.

  1. “The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Achor (audio).

I liked this summary of the positive psychology milestones. 

  1. “Hidden Potential” by Adam Grant (audio).

I didn’t write any notes on this book as I was listening to it, and now I am struggling to recall what I’ve learned from it. This observation is probably saying something about the book by itself.

  1. “Be useful” by Arnold Schwarzenegger (audio).

I’ve been a huge fan of Arnold since my teen years, and this book is my favourite of the year. I really enjoyed that it was read by Arnold himself, and it did’t disappoint in terms of the content as well. I found the autobiographical take interesting and Schwarzenegger’s approach to the various challenges that he faced throughout his life quite motivating. There are certain parallels with Jocko Willink’s no-nonsense ability to focus and a good balance between privacy and vulnerability. I will seriously consider re-listening to this book in the future.

  1. “Discipline is destiny” by Ryan Holiday (audio).

I came back to this series on Stoics and the cardinal virtues after a break (it gets repetitive after a while), and found that I missed it and Holiday’s style of presenting it.

  1. “Courage is calling” by Ryan Holiday (audio).

This book is, technically, the first one in the series on the four cardinal virtues (courage, temperance, justice and wisdom), but I listened to it after the “Discipline is destiny”, mostly for the sake of completeness. I am ready for another break from the Stoics now. 

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L’Arbre des voyelles

Last summer in Paris, I saw, almost by chance, the sculpture by Giuseppe Penone called “L’Arbre des voyelles”, or “The tree of vowels.” I wasn’t specifically planning on visiting it, but it was marked as a point of interest on Google Maps, and I was curious to see what it was. It is located in the Tuillleries garden, in the somewhat wilder and greener part of the park. As the name suggests, it’s a sculpture of a tree. It is incredibly realistic, despite being mage of bronze. As I later learned upon doing some reading, Penone used a 30-meter uprooted oak tree as a model, eventually casting it in bronze. The bronze tree looks like it really belongs in the garden. In fact, my first thought was that it could have been easily replaced by the original tree without any loss of artistic value. But then, of course, provoking this kind of thoughts was probably the artist’s intention.

Regarding the deeper meaning, when I was looking at the sculpture, I was focussed on the roots and completely missed the significance of the five branches. At the points where the branches touch the ground, there were planted five different species of oak trees. So the significance of the artwork (or at least one of the points it conveys) is to show the role of human creativity in the evolution of the environment.

Initially, I also didn’t understand the significance of the name of the sculpture, but reading about it later, learned that the roots apparently resemble the vowels A, E, I, O, U. Penone mentioned that he was inspired by the hypothetical alphabet of the druids. On the other hand, these letters are also associated with the famous sonnet “Voyelles,” written by Arthur Rimbaud in 1871. (I read it on the Internet, so it must be true!)

For what it’s worth, it’s a nice association. Here is the original sonnet:

Voyelles

A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles,
Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes:
A, noir corset velu des mouches éclatantes
Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles,

Golfes d’ombre; E, candeurs des vapeurs et des tentes,
Lances des glaciers fiers, rois blancs, frissons d’ombelles;
I, pourpres, sang craché, rire des lèvres belles
Dans la colère ou les ivresses pénitentes;

U, cycles, vibrements divins des mers virides,
Paix des pâtis semés d’animaux, paix des rides
Que l’alchimie imprime aux grands fronts studieux;

O, suprême Clairon plein des strideurs étranges,
Silences traversés des Mondes et des Anges:
—O l’Oméga, rayon violet de Ses Yeux!

Here is a English translation by Oliver Bernard: (“Arthur Rimbaud, Collected Poems (1962)”):

Vowels

A Black, E white, I red, U green, O blue : vowels,
I shall tell, one day, of your mysterious origins:
A, black velvety jacket of brilliant flies
Which buzz around cruel smells,

Gulfs of shadow; E, whiteness of vapours and of tents,
Lances of proud glaciers, white kings, shivers of cow-parsley;
I, purples, spat blood, smile of beautiful lips In anger or in the raptures of penitence;

U, waves, divine shudderings of viridian seas,
The peace of pastures dotted with animals, the peace of the furrows
Which alchemy prints on broad studious foreheads;

O, sublime Trumpet full of strange piercing sounds,
Silences crossed by Worlds and by Angels:
O the Omega, the violet ray of Her Eyes!

And I also liked this translation into Russian by Nikolai Gumilev:

Гласные

А — черно, бело — Е, У — зелено, О — сине,
И — красно… Я хочу открыть рождение гласных.
А — траурный корсет под стаей мух ужасных,
Роящихся вокруг как в падали иль в тине,

Мир мрака; Е — покой тумана над пустыней,
Дрожание цветов, взлет ледников опасных.
И — пурпур, сгустком кровь, улыбка губ прекрасных
В их ярости иль в их безумье пред святыней.

У — дивные круги морей зеленоватых,
Луг, пестрый от зверья, покой морщин, измятых
Алхимией на лбах задумчивых людей.

О — звона медного глухое окончанье,
Кометой, ангелом пронзенное молчанье,
Омега, луч Её сиреневых очей.

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More on flow and photography

I noticed some time ago that photography, which started for me as a hobby, rapidly lost it’s appeal when I began treating it as a business. This phenomenon is not unique to me, of course. Many photographers say that becoming a pro is a sure way to kill a perfectly fine hobby. It is not surprising either, since any job, no matter how fun it is, has some dreadful elements, buy definition of a job. These are things like deadlines and, more generally, the obligation to meet external expectations.

Lately, I’ve been listening to an audiobook called “Flow: living at the peak of your abilities” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which is a collection of audio recordings of his lectures or seminars. It is not to be confused with the earlier-released book called “Flow: the psychology of optimal performance“. This earlier book, by the way, is one of my all-time favourites in the non-fiction genre. In the book am listening to now, I’ve come across another plausible explanation of why photography loses its appeal when it becomes a business. According to the “flow” theory, from an amateur’s standpoint, photography is an autotelic pursuit. That is, the activity itself constitutes its own reward and meaning. An amateur photographer takes pictures simply because it’s fun to do. It is exciting to learn new techniques and play with new gear. Even the process of transitioning to becoming a pro is initially fun, because it presents new challenges to overcome and things to learn. However, professional photography immediately introduces an additional set of goals , namely, making money and increasing the efficiency of the workflow. These business-related goals conflict with the original, creative goals of the photographer. The conflict can be subtle. For example, as I post-process a particular image and decide to learn some technique that I haven’t tried before, I might have a thought on the back on my mind: “Is this the best use of my time at this time? My processing workflow is good enough. Maybe, it would be better to plow though the rest of the images in this photoshoot., rather than fiddling with this one picture.” This is precisely the flow-breaking point. Instead of being fully concentrating on the creative task, which is learning new technique and increasing the complexity of my activity, my attention becomes split between what I am doing right now and what I could have been doing instead. I also become self-conscious, in the sense of starting to consider how what I do affects my image as a photographer.

The good news is that, according to Csikszentmihalyi, it is totally in my power to maintain flow, or at least maximize the amount of time spent in the flow state. After all, the attention split between the conflicting objectives happens entirely in my head. The trick, for the lack of a better word, is to convince myself to take interest in what needs to be done and to apply mental energy in order to increase the complexity of the activity at hand. For example, if a business-related task requires attention, it would be wise to make that the focus of the activity and strive to become really good at it. Conversely, it helps to recognize that the necessary attribute of an autotelic activity is that it needs to be done without any expectation of an external reward or future utility. It is certainly easier said than done, at least for me personally, but it does help to be reminded that “wasting time” on fun things is, upon consideration, not wasteful at all. In fact, it is often the best possible thing I can do.

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My 2022 reading list

Couple of years ago, I decided to keep a list of books I read outside of work as a way of keeping notes on the personal takeaways. Since the beginning of the New Year is as good point of reference as any, I’ve been organizing my reading log by year. Here is the 2022 list, grouped into three categories: children’s literature, fiction and non-fiction.

Note: The links below are affiliate links, so if you follow them to Amazon and buy something, I might get paid some money.

Children’s literature:
These are books we read aloud with my wife and daughter, usually in the evening. When we started this tradition a few years ago, all the books we read were in hard copy format, but lately we read a few e-books, which are very convenient for traveling.

1. “Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis.
After finishing the “Harry Potter” series last year, this was our choice of a huge epic book. It did not disappoint, either in volume or in the content. Certainly, it’s a classic for a reason.

2. “The way of the Warrior kid” by Jocko Willink.
I am a fan of Jocko Willink’s podcast and non-fiction writing for adults, but I was skeptical about his foray into the children’s literature. I was definitely wrong – his simple language and super-straightforward way of presenting and demonstrating ideas were both fun and super-inspirational. It inspired my 10-year-old daughter to start a pull-up training program.

3. “The way of the Warrior kid: Marc’s mission” by Jocko Willink.
A sequel to the “Warrior kid”, this book once again surprised me with how efficiently Jocko handles complex issues that kids face like personal responsibility, compassion and bullying.

4. “The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas.
This summer we went to France, so we thought it would be good to read a classic adventure novel with strong ties to the location. This book has been my all-time favourite since childhood – certainly one of my most formative reads. With my daughter, though, we found that traction was elusive. Perhaps, at 10 years of age and in 2022, powering through a rather long introduction written is a somewhat archaic style and peppered with references to Huguenots “making a second La Rochelle” of some obscure Trent town was asking a bit too much. On a positive side, on the very first page, the book referred to another classic – “Don Quixote”, which my daughter was unaware of. So we had a chance to introduce that story to her. Maybe, she’ll decide to read it some day? There is hope, at least.

5. “The illustrated Longitude” by Dava Sobel.
This book was given to me as a present many years ago, and I heard only good things about it, but somehow I never got to reading it. It is definitely very nice – a casual, lay person’s-level insight into the development of applied science in Europe from the perspective of the specific problem of determining the longitude of a ship at sea. I’ve certainly enjoyed it, although I think my daughter is probably experiencing the story very differently, since she lacks the understanding of some physical concepts that are discussed there. Still, perhaps simply being exposed to them could spark some curiosity.

Fiction:

Most of my fiction books in the past year, not counting “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “The Three Musketeers” that I mentioned above and “The paper menagerie” (see below), have been written by Boris Akunin. I read them in their original Russian and really enjoyed the fast pace, the variety of styles (they are parts of a series of detective novels set in late 19th – early 20th century, featuring a common protagonist, Erast Fandorin, and written in different classic styles of the genre) and detailed, but liberal, interpretation of historical events. Pure entertainment!

6. “Левиафан” (“Murder on the Leviathan“) by Boris Akunin

7. “Особые поручения” (“Special assignments“) by Boris Akunin

8. “Статский советник” (“The state counsellor“) by Boris Akunin

9. “Турецкий гамбит” (“The Turkish gambit“) by Boris Akunin

10. “Коронация” (“The coronation“) by Boris Akunin

11. “Сокол и Ласточка” (“The Hawk and The Swallow”) by Boris Akunin

12. “The paper menagerie” by Ken Liu (audio)
This is a collection of short stories, whch is shockingly good. I was getting a bit tired of Akunin’s historical detective novels, so picked up this audiobook to listen to on the plane. It is easily the best new book I’ve read in the year, or maybe even of all time (I am saying “new” to avoid pitting against the classics like “The Three Musketeers“, “The Chronicles of Narnia” and the “Harry Potter” series, which would be a meaningless and an impossible comparison).

Non-fiction:

13. “Conscious” by Annaka Harris (audio)
This was the most thought-provoking read (or rather, listen) for me during 2022. It introduced me to the “hard problem of consciousness” (how consciousness comes into existence) and panpsychism. At he time of reading, I wrote down my impressions in this post (“Curiouser and curiouser!”).

13. “Is God a mathematician?” by Mario Livio (audio)
I think I heard about this book in Krista Tippet’s “On being” podcast. I wrote about my impressions of this book in this post (“Invention vs discovery”), but the main personal takeaway was to enjoy mathematical problems without worrying too much whether they are immediately relevant to my current research projects.

14. “The Art of Memoir” by Mary Karr (audio).
Although I am not planning to write a memoir (come to think of it, why not?), I found this academic dissection of what makes a good memoir, or generally a non-fiction piece of literature, quite useful in framing my thoughts on capturing ideas in writing.

15. “Speak, Memory” by Vladimir Nabokov
I started reading this after listening to “The Art of Memoir” by Mary Karr, because she uses Nabokov’s book as an example of a masterful memoir. It is definitely fascinating, and I enjoyed the historical references to the pre-revolution Russia, but with all the tremendous prose, it is not an easy read. I still haven’t finished it, and now that I’ve got an idea of what it’s like, I don’t think I am willing to invest more time in this story.

16. “The subtle art of not giving a f*ck” by Mark Manson
Another book that I started and haven’t finished. It is is pretty good though, and I might come back to it. I wish that I’ve started it in audio, because my actual reading time is to scarce and I prefer to spend it on something more entertaining.

17. “Barking up the wrong tree” by Eric Barker (audio)
This book is based on a blog, but unlike Steven Pressfield’s “Do the work”, which I very much disliked, not on a single article. It recaps main takeaways from other authors, but does it quite effectively and with the author’s own interpretation and humour. Main takeaways for me personally were:
a) Gamifying work by referring to the WNGF (Why Neutered Goats Fly) mnemonic: incorporate these aspects into your work – Winnable, Novel, Goals, Feedback. Also, don’t worry about being constantly productive: adding fun is opposite of productivity by definition, and that’s Ok.
b) Using mental contrasting: WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) – think about if-then scenarios.
c) Necessity to prune the list of activities. Aim for one “highlight” activity per day.
d) Fixed schedule productivity (from Cal Newport) – schedule the work, not the interruptions.

18. “Rethinking positive thinking” by Gabriele Oettinger (audio).
This is a deeper dive into the concept of mental contrasting process (see WOOP mnemonic definition from the “Barking up the wrong tree above”). This concept was originally introduced and popularized by Oettingger. The main idea is that wishful thinking alone is detrimental for success, but it is conducive to constructive planning if done correctly.

19. “Wild problems” by Russ Roberts (audio).
It was an enjoyable read/listen, but I don’t seem to have many constructive takeaways. The main thesis of the book is to not always be data-driven in our decisions. This advice mostly applies to the problems that are outliers in terms of their complexity (due to dependance on incomparable variables) or significance of the consequences of the decision. Examples would be deciding whether or not to get married, to have children, to move to another country, to switch careers, etc. The difficulty with this type of problems is that making one decision or the other changes who you are, this making pros and cons analysis from the perspective of you before having made the decision is fundamentally flawed.

20. “Awareness: Conversations with the masters” by Anthony De Mello (audio).
This one of the few books that I found truly disappointing. It came highly recommended by Tim Ferriss, whom I’ve been following because of his excellent podcast, but the book itself is a slapped-together recording of live lectures/seminars by De Mello, who is quite condescending in his attitude to the audience. Most frustratingly, he doesn’t add much insight to the field of spiritual development. Overall, the book leaves an impression of a money grab. I do regret the time spent on it, but the lesson to take away is, perhaps, not to hesitate to drop the books without completing them.

21. “Homo Deus” by Yuval Noah Harari (audio).
A fascinating insight into long-term possibilities for the humans.

22. “Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell (audio).
This book shows that it might never be possible to decipher strangers without resorting to evolutionary-dictated mental shortcuts. But this is Ok, because the price of being always vigilant would be too high in terms of poor social fit.

23. “Indistractable” by Nir Eyal and Julie Li (audio).
I really liked this book. It has many practical strategies for maintaining focus. The emphasis on internal triggers is particularly insightful. This book also pointed me towards the rabbit holes of multi-modal perception and self-determination theory. it is bit ironic, though, that I listened to it in audio, so that I’d be able to do other things at the same time.

24. “Drive” by Daniel Pink (audio).
For me, this is a deeper dive into Self-Determination Theory, inspired by Nir Eyal’s “Indistractable”. The idea of the “third drive”, beyond the carrot-and-stick motivation (motivation 2.0), is central here. Also, I agree with the statement that a flow state is relatively easy to achieve, but mastery is asymptotic, and it requires years of painful practice.

25. “Quiet” by Susan Cain (audio).
The main takeaway is that it is not always better to work in groups. The society expects everyone to conform to being an extravert, but almost half of people are introverts. True mastery strongly correlates with working alone, because only you can determine what you should be working on, which is the necessary component of deliberate practice. This book also changed how I look at my daughter and her interactions with friends and other people (at least I’d like to think so).

26. “The one thing” by Gary Keller (audio).
I first came across the idea of identifying one thing, completion of which would make other tasks easier or unnecessary, and focussing on this one thing until it’s done in Tim Ferriss’ podcast, so it wasn’t particularly new to me. This probably remains the main takeaway from the book, but I also like the tactical advice of going small, which, according to the author, applies to everything.

27. “Free to Focus” by Michael Hyatt (audio).
The main ideas in the book are not new, but the tactics are surprisingly fresh and useful. Stop (to identify the “zone of desire” – things you are good at and that you like to do), Cut (things in your “dread zone” and most of other things), Delegate (three levels of delegation, using specific language to define boundaries), Execute (I particularly like the “on-stage/backstage/off-stage” analogy. Plan on weekly and daily scales).

28. “Range” by David Epstein (audio).
The idea of early specialization is profitable for organizations like junior sports leagues and music teachers.
Short-term success and before-your-eye progress does not correlate with long-term learning.
Desirable difficulties – space the testing in time, use interleaving – make learning more challenging in the short term.
Overall – an excellent read. I’d like to re-visit it some time in the future, probably.

29. “7 habits of highly effective people” by Stephen R. Covey (audio).
I came across this book several times, but always hesitated to pick it up, being turned off by a click-baity title. It was a pleasant surprise – a good combination of depth and tactical advice. I also liked the historical reference to a paradigm shift from character ethic to personality ethic in the self-development literature. Here is a summary:
Habit 1: Agency. Be “response-able”. This closely parallels the “extreme ownership” idea of Jocko Willink.
Habit 2: Starting with a destination in mind. The idea that everything is created twice – once as a plan and once as an implementation.
Habit 3: Prioritize the important over the urgent.
Habit 4: Aim for a win-win. Seek mutual benefits.
Habit 5: Prioritize listening to understand the others.
Habit 6: Collaborate to create new possibilities.
Habit 7: Practice self-renewal.

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The art and science of the Eiffel Tower

When I was first learning about travel stock photography, the Eiffel Tower was given as an example of a universally-recognized landmark that is both most-photographed and most demanded for editorial purposes. This is a bit surprising, because with so many images of it available, one would think that the demand would be satisfied many times over.

Still, there is something more to photographing the Eiffel Tower than simply chalking up another must-take image on the itinerary, at least for me personally. Just being there reaffirms that I am, in fact, in Paris. This is why it this one of the first sites I like to visit when I am in the city. Also, it somehow represents the synergy between the art and engineering, which I find fascinating.

For example, I found out recently that one of the first wind tunnels for fluid mechanics experiments was designed by Gustave Eiffel and installed in the aerodynamics laboratory at the foot of the tower in 1909. It was later moved to its present location in Auteuil in 1912, where it’s still operational, in principle. It is also curious that around that time, Eiffel was involved in a scientific argument about equivalency between testing the aerodynamic properties of objects in a wind tunnel and towing them through air on railroad tracks. Apparently, he appealed for mediation to Henri Poincaré, who declared that the tests would be equivalent, provided that there would be sufficient room in the wind tunnel to from around the tested object without obstruction (what we now refer to as low blockage).

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Fiction


I write quite a lot as part of my job as a university professor – journal papers, reports, research proposals, etc. All of this is squarely in the non-fiction category. Recently, I came across a suggestion that writing fictional stories could a fun creative exercise and a way of cultivating observation and communication skills. I decided to jump on it, taking advantage of my sabbatical. Frankly, at this time I’d jump on any idea to mix things up in terms of the workflow and study techniques – that is what a study leave is all about, I think.
Writing fiction is a completely new thing for me, though. So, as any good student, I turned to YouTube.  I decided to try this exercise, described by Abbie Emmons as a “story smoothie” (the point being that all stories are, in-fact, re-told old stories that are “blended” into something new):
  1. Take your four favourite scenes from fictional literature (or even movies, Abbie suggested, but I was happy to be able to recall four books that I liked).
  2. Take one of the four components from each of the four books/scenes – genre, theme, plot and character(s) – and mix them up into your own story.
  3. For a bonus point, change the genders and social positions, etc. of the main characters. Et voilà, c’est fait – the blended “story smoothie” idea is ready.
I do realize that there is much more to writing than generating a story idea, but it has always been the difficult part for me. I really liked this, somewhat algorithmic, way of tackling at least this first creative aspect of writing. Because I am on sabbatical in Paris, I decided to base the story here.
Can you guess where I (mostly) took the main character and the plot from? Hint: It’s an opening of a famous novel, which was made into movies many times, and the action of which mostly takes place in Paris too.
If it doesn’t ring a bell (yes, I am aware that cliché is not our friend – it’s on my list of things to work on), then I blended the ideas sufficiently well to at least avoid blatant plagiarism.
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The Résumé

Artania could sense the stares stabbing her from all directions. She pretended not to notice them, looking directly forward, even though people could not see her eyes. She switched off the transparency of her augmented-reality glasses, so all the others could see was the black, curved glass hugging the upper half of her face. She stayed straight, perhaps a bit too tense, on the grippy surface of her electric hoverboard, commanding it to move forward by a deliberate tilt of her feet.

The hoverboard was the reason people were staring at her. It was a relic of the past – one of the early versions of the electric mobility devices that exploded in popularity about a decade ago and that were hopelessly obsolete now, in 2034. Here, on a cobbled street of Montmartre, among a dense crowd filled with the most advanced personal transportation contraptions imaginable, Artania’s board was as out-of-place as a horse carriage in a showroom full of luxury concept cars.

Paris was the point of convergence of the new avant-gardists, who were extremely attuned to the latest developments in technology and art. The history has come full circle in Montmartre, which once again, as in the end of the XIX century, has become home to the revolutionaries of the art world.
Coming here took all the courage Artania could muster. Her dream, and the reason for coming to Paris, was to join the famously secretive Bureau for Art and Technology Affairs – an arm of the INTERPOL that dealt with art-related crimes. She didn’t really have a plan of how to do it. As everyone else, she knew that the Bureau’s headquarters were in Paris, and that she couldn’t apply on her own initiative. Hopefully, they would approach her if they thought that she had what it took to work for them. It was also a common perception, perhaps cultivated by the Bureau itself, that what they demanded of their recruits was a rare blend of analytical and artistic skills, some would even say, talent. One had to assume that all the Bureau’s agents also had above-average athletic abilities, but that was an easily satisfied requirement – there were many young men and women, who could hit hard and run fast. Presumably, the Bureau would teach them to shoot straight too. Such was the image of an elite warrior of the New Renaissance era, and to become one was what Artania wanted most of all.

Getting recruited by the Bureau was Artania’s all-consuming goal. She dedicated the last decade of her twenty-two years to forging herself into the image of the Bureau’s agent, which she created in her imagination. The bar that she set for herself was high. Considering that she didn’t know where the real bar was, aiming high was a reasonable idea. She decided that she would have to establish herself as a leading force in both the art and the tech worlds. In fact, she would have to be so undeniably strong in these spheres that nobody, including the Bureau, would be able to ignore her.

The tech part was relatively easy. Artania always knew that any mathematical puzzle or a piece of code would eventually unravel if she kept patiently turning it in her mind and poking at it from different directions, never releasing from the firm grip of logic.

Art was trickier. She did have true passion for it from the earliest years, and through countless hours of doodling, painting, taking photos with various cameras and experimenting with graphics software, she developed some formidable skills. But who was to say if she had real talent? Sure, parents, friends and teachers always praised her as an artist, but she mostly dismissed their praise, attributing it to kindness. In order to be noticed by the Bureau, she would need to truly embody the artistic power. She needed to have style. And style wasn’t possible to acquire by hours of hacking, as one would do with a piece of computer code or a golf swing. It was even less possible to fake it.

And Artania did feel like a fake right now. She was obviously failing the test. She was not fitting in with this techno-artistic elite.

*

The crowd was filled with the latest tech, mostly gadgets for creating images, holograms and for interacting with virtual reality. There was also abundance of electric skateboards, motorized footwear and scooters. The reason that the contemptuous glances at Artania’s hoverboard did not escalate into open mockery was the impressively large and tough-looking backpack on her back. Purpose-built for carrying video gear, the bag was clearly state-of-the-art, and one could reasonably assume that it contained state-of-the-art equipment. Artania’s clothes, backpack, as well as her virtual ID that was visible to anyone with an augmented-reality eyewear (probably everyone in the crowd) did not contain any indication that she was affiliated with a large design firm. While she certainly didn’t look like a high-flying Parisian artist or agent, that didn’t mean that she couldn’t turn out to be a pro.

“You see, these provincial dilettantes, who come to concur the big city – they are hardly better than amateurs. It’s a pity, really. They watch a few clickbait videos on the Net and think they are the new van Gogh. The truth is, they don’t have resources even to buy decent gear. And the gear is practically all that matters these days.”

There was a pause.

“See this girl, for example,” continued the calm women’s voice. “One look at the contraption she is riding on, and you can figure her entire résumé.”

“This device would be even curios if it wouldn’t be so sad,” added the woman. “I’d offer to buy it from her to display with other antiques in my studio, but this would probably deprive her of her only means of transport.”

Artania heard this monologue in crystal-clear, digitally-enhanced sound through her active headphones, which were barely visible in her ears and could be mistaken for minimalistic jewelry. She blushed, but continued staring forward. The woman’s words echoed her fear: she was a fake, she had no business being here. She heard her pulse in her ears.

Gradually, on the back of Artania’s mind, another thought began to stir. It was something her mother told her after a long hug, before Artania boarded a supersonic flight to Paris: “Don’t let anyone tell you what you are worth as a person. You’ve worked very hard. You have great skills and a great heart. Nobody can take that away from you.”

An orange arrow in the corner of her head-up display indicated the direction, from which the women’s remark came from. There was no pretending that she didn’t hear it.

Artania pressed on her right heel, simultaneously pushing her left toes down, abruptly spinning her hoverboard towards the woman’s voice and flicking the transparency of her glasses on with a wrist gesture. She found herself staring, point-blank, at a tall, brown-haired woman in her thirties. The lady was casually resting her elbow on the handlebars of the latest-model German self-balancing scooter. Besides the beautiful machine, Artania noticed that she had only a single piece of tech. It was a thin, transparent tablet computer, which the lady carried on a metallic chord slung over one shoulder, like a handbag. The tablet looked understated. It had several tiny camera lenses located along the edges, and its screen was displaying a slowly-rotating abstract 3D model that matched the colour of the woman’s eyes and that of her long, floating jacket. The tablet was a truly impressive device, which Artania immediately noticed – an organically grown computer, likely with enormous computational power for its size.

Artania’s sudden pirouette and piercing stare apparently had no effect on the woman, who continued talking to her companion, a slim young man in a leather outfit, straddling an electric motorbike. The man had his helmet on, and the upper half of his face was covered by a black visor.

“This kind of board was all the rage years ago, before the AI. I am surprised the battery is still working,” – the lady pointed on Artania’s board with her eyes.

“Excuse me, I couldn’t help overhearing that you were making fun of me behind my back,” – Artania’s voice was slightly high with indignation.

“Curious, isn’t it, that people don’t get what it takes to compete in the tech world these days,” continued the lady.

Artania’s head-up display showed that her heart rate increased. She felt insulted, but strangely, the self-doubt that was consuming her moments ago was gone. She was confident that the woman was wrong. Artania did know the importance of high-tech tools in her trade. And she was confident that the gear she had in her backpack could give the woman’s fancy tablet a run for its money. She inched even closer on her board.

“Madame, why do you think you can make fun of me and make assumptions of my tech literacy?”

The woman turned to look directly at Artania and said, after a pause: “I wasn’t making fun of you, young lady. I was making fun of the board you are riding on.” She released Artania from her gaze and turned again to her companion.

Artania stepped off the board, pulled one arm from the strap and swung the backpack to the front of her body. Holding it horizontally across her chest, she touched the quick-access panel. It flashed her monogram, “A”, as an indication that her biometrics were recognized. The zipper illuminated around the perimeter and opened with a muted beep. She pulled out a thin rectangular box made of chitin, which immediately transformed in her hands. The organic exo-skeleton retracted, revealing a sensor of a lensless camera. Artania’s fingers reflexively found the shutter button.

“Would you like me to take your friend’s portrait? You can compare it with the pictures you take with your tablet and decide if it might be overdue for an upgrade.”

The woman’s eyes scanned Artania’s camera, slightly worried look momentarily flashing across her face.

The thin man leaned slightly toward her and said in a low tone: “Madame, I will take my leave now, before people start taking photos of us.” With that, he put his hands on the handlebars of the bike, which came to life with a low hum of the powerful electric motor.

The woman nodded and turned to Artania.

“I can see that you’ve just arrived here and are eager to make a name for yourself. But because you apparently don’t know who I am, I’ll give you a piece of advice: spend some time studying the field you are planning to enter before barging in.”

The woman stepped onto her scooter, which immediately whisked her away through the crowd, leaning nimbly into the turns.

*

Artania remained there for moment. She felt good for standing up for herself, but her self-doubt was starting to flood back. “She is probably right,” Artania thought. “What was I thinking – coming here to joint the Bureau, without knowing even whom to talk to and what to say? Besides, it all might be coming down to having the latest gadgets and computing power after all. With the AIs capable of writing code and generating art, who really needs humans anymore?”

She slowly folded the camera back into its shell and stowed it into the backpack, closing it with a touch of her finger. The bag beeped, flashed her initial again, and Artania swung it back over her shoulders.

She didn’t notice that a sheet of paper slid out of the backpack and landed on the cobbled sidewalk.

Artania picked up her heavy, nearly-discharged hoverboard under her arm and started walking down the hill. She wasn’t going to give up that easily. Tomorrow will be another day that might bring better luck.

*

As Artania was rounding the corner of the narrow street, a middle-aged man with closely-cropped gray hair and rimless AR glasses stepped out of the crowed and picked up the sheet dropped by Artania.

It was a pen-and-ink sketch of Parisian rooftops that Artania made on the first evening of her arrival as a part of her daily practice to hone her observation and drafting skills.

The man looked at the sketch for a long time. The pattern of the ink lines led his eyes into the page. Subtle details in the treatment of perspective – deliberate deviations from the strict rules of nature – made him subconsciously aware that it was not an AI-generated image. The composition reminded him of the compressed perspective effect of old-school telephoto lenses. Despite the startling boldness of the composition and the roughness of the penwork, the image was incredibly balanced. It was imbued with the inner strength that difficult to define, but which was undeniable. It was the same kind of boldness that he just witnessed in the girl, who confronted the leader of the largest international art crime organization – the woman he has been tracking.

The man turned the paper over and back, looking for the signature, and finally found the initials concealed among the pen strokes at the bottom of the image: “AO”. Not much, but not a problem – he will find her. The man smiled. It turned out to be a good day after all. This young lady couldn’t have left him with a better résumé even if she wanted to. She was just the right type that he was looking for: good eye, sharp technique, knowledge of the craft,.. and something else that was difficult to put into words, but that was shouting from the paper he held in his hand. Talent.

The man pulled a thin folder from his leather shoulder bag and carefully slipped the sketch into it. He sealed the folder with a gesture of his index finger. It beeped, indicating the lock activation, and its cover briefly flashed a logo consisting of a globe, scales, olive branches and a sword, with the text below in pale blue letters: “Bureau for Art and Technology Affairs”.