Review: The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley

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Overall this book is pretty mediocre. It's fairly short, direct and gets right to the heart of the problem of disaster scenarios. It contains an overview of several different disasters though the eyes of who saw them, including a Latin American hostage situation, 9/11, and a hurricane. Overall the advice seems to be that relatively simple instructions and training would a long way to preparing us for disasters but doing so is difficult due to the structure of our society. False alarms also cause people to not react in the real disaster scenario.

It was pretty interesting to see the section on disassociation. The phenomenon is fairly frequent in literature/popular media. I was unaware just how common it was for people who do jobs with high levels of risk/disaster scenario occurring. It's also curious that people with this role train themselves to go into this state. Is this something that we should start institutionalizing and training in professions that benefit it? One note that makes me doubt this is the cop who speaks highly about this phenomenon is also a paid trainer for it so I'd like to see more evidence.

One thing that is interesting in this book and others is how often disaster/operational experts refer to the airplane disasters as an example of positive behavior. Is this because accidents during flights cause usage of airlines to decline therefore it's in the companies best interest to make them very safe? The other argument is that the NTSB is very effective at investigating and making changes to the industry. It seems remarkable that this one industry is held in high regards and there still seems to be low level ideas to steal for other industries. Consider the Checklist Manifesto which includes a long discussion on checklists in airline safety.

So if we have the answers and understand how to give better training, why aren't we pushing the government to do something about it? On a personal level, this is probably going to change my behavior in some small ways but I don't see any major revelations.

Posted on Nov 14th, 2018

Weekly Summary

A band fakes everything for a tour?

This is pretty odd but goes to show you how effective just talking out your ass is. I really wanted to know what this band thought would happen. What was the best case outcome for them here.

America Could Die Like The British Empire Or Live Like The Roman Empire

This is a subject that has been occupying my brain a lot recently. I have several differences of opinion with this article but find it a worthwhile read to understand historical analogies. One thing to note, surveillance and information processing is much cheaper than it was back when with of these empires fell, that could change how easy it is to keep control of distant regions. As well as fast communication and quick travel, distant regions may not be the physically distant ones but the culturally different ones. Most thinkers I read seem to agree that the USA will no longer be the global superpower but they don't spend enough time considering how to navigate that change successfully.

Media

Stellaris - I was pretty sick this week so I ended up playing a bunch of Stellaris on the couch. This game is good but not excellent for a number of reasons. My biggest complaint with this game is that it feels like Civ + EU4 in space and it feels boring because I have played both of those games extensively. The economy is shallow and the diplomacy feels like an after thought. It was only when I talked to a friend who played it as a military empire that I seemed to think the game was complete. The options + depth when you play militarily seem to add a lot to the game. It's also starting to show the limits of the engine and seems constrained by it. You probably already know if you want to play this, if you don't, it's not worth the money. On a side note, where are all the good economic + diplomacy games? Distant worlds seems like the current best but even that has some rough edges. I'd love to see other games in this area.

Posted on Nov 12th, 2018

Illusions by Akiyoshi

There is something very delightful about illusions. So much of how we process information is though our eyes that it's challenging for us to reconcile things we see that we know are false. Akiyoshi's work is very interesting and well worth looking at. I have found with some of the images, it helps to scroll the pages a tiny bit to see the intended effect.

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rollers

Posted on Nov 7th, 2018

Weekly Roundup

Only my second week writing this and I'm already a day late. Hopefully that doesn't set the tone for the future.

‘Oumuamua, Thin Films and Lightsails

One of the recent objects that passed though our solar system had some weird properties. This is more about those and some speculation about the object. It occurs to me that a robotic probes should be fairly common so maybe this is just the first to come?

Do you know about The Algorithmic Trap?

This is an important concept for choosing restaurants, travel locations, and basically anything delivered via algorithm. Once you see this for what it is, you will get so much more authentic experiences and interesting experiencess. My proof for this is to ask yourself could you really tell the difference between a 4 star or a 4.5 star yelp restaurant. Go off the recommend path and see where it brings you.

The Federal Reserve Board is Understaffed

There are three seats open for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. This is an unusual state as you can see referenced by the WSJ last year. I only found out about this because I was looking something else up about the Fed on wikipedia. I wonder why more people aren't talking about this or mentioning it. Most of the articles about this seem to be from 2017. It seems just as dangerous as letting the Supreme Court be understaffed but maybe I don't understand why this isn't significant.

Original Star Trek - This is my second watch though and it is still amusing on multiple levels. It's curious to see how much has changed since this was made. There is both a culture difference element and also just the technological difference. It holds up well and I still recommend it.

Ready Player One - This movie is bad. I haven't seen something this bad in a while. If you want the story, go read the book which is at least tolerable.

Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj - This is more ranting late night. It's too simple, too one sided to be my cup of tea but I would expect that this does quite well compared to other Netflix attempts to start a late night show.

Posted on Nov 5th, 2018

Review: The Sun and Her Flowers

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This is the first poetry book that I had picked up since school and it was delightful. I'd picked it up on recommendation after having started to look around for poetry books. It's amazing how effective a poem can be at invoking imagery and moving our feelings. This book really covers some profound topics such as being a child of immigrants, the challenges of leaving your culture behind, and what empowerment for women can bring. I've flagged a few poems that I particularly liked and shared them below but I do encourage you to go and read the book yourself.

you have so much
but are always hungry for more
stop looking up at everything you don't have
and look around at everything you do

-- where the satisfaction lives

i have survived far too much to go quietly
let a meteor take me
call the thunder for backup
my death will be gran
the land will crack
the sun will eat itself

-- the day i leave

learning to not envy
someone else's blessings
is what grace looks like

I think there is a profound power in understanding what others feel and one of the best methods to learn is from their writing. Someone else having gone though such troubles before is a relief and can give you strength from knowing that you don't walk your path alone. I haven't been reading any poetry for the last several years since I left school but that's a fact that will probably change purely based on the strength of this book. I already have another anthology that I've ordered and plan to order a couple more. Maybe I will share interesting thought provoking poems here.

Posted on Nov 4th, 2018