The Books I Read in 2016

More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

This book is the sole reason I have the Kindle app on my phone. It was interesting but not terribly exciting in hindsight. I think I would need a better perspective on 1950s telepathy fiction to appreciate whether it's high or low quality. Nevertheless a fun story to watch unfold.

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Unambiguously great, despite what a lot of my classmates said. Neuromancer has aged better than a lot of scifi from that era, though occasionally mundane technologies reminded me of the normalcy field. Overall the story was immersive, well-planned, and engaging. I'm hoping to read the other Sprawl books soon.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

My first time rereading in several years, this time to focus on non-political themes. Primarily I was focusing on the AI aspect for an assignment. I still found it quite enjoyable to read, to the point that I really felt like writing for the first time in years. Another reminder that books have more layers than what I picked up in high school.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

I finally picked this up because I wanted to go above-and-beyond with that paper on AI in literature. I may have been a bit resentful with how little serious analysis my professor gave. Clarke's writing is extremely poetic throughout, but the eventual plot wasn't that earth-shattering given that I've seen the movie. There's a lot more detail and cosmetic changes, no major differences in theme. Nevertheless and enjoyable read and convinced me to look at Clarke further.

The Foundations of Morality by Henry Hazlitt

All the books avove, and the three below, in some capacity, were read for my English class this spring. Nominally, I was reading Hazlitt's ethics text during this time. In practice, not so much. Despite owning a physical copy, most of it I read on my phone, a significant chunk during a car ride on Stop Day. Strongly recommended for libertarians, to get a better grasp on utilitarianism. Review here.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

So much of this book left my head since high school English. Another case where a story doesn't seem that great, but considering when it was written, the book is actually quite impressive. It's cliche but the book was better than the movie (pretty much any version).

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells

Had some good moments but just not that engaging for me. Maybe if my professor hadn't given away the mystery early on, it would have been more exciting. Worth skimming for historical perspective but not something I expect to reread soon.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Holy hell has this book not aged well. Post-internet but pre-Web 2.0 results in a very weird mix of idioms. As for the actual plot, meh. There was potential but overall felt badly executed. The antagonist would be relatable if his motives made any sense; the protagonist makes a lot of strange decisions and isn't nearly as engaging. Jumping back and forth in time made for interesting story-telling but couldn't make up for an underwhleming story.

Hive Mind by Garett Jones

Non-fiction about IQ research, specifically applications to social problems. As pointed out in my review, the Jones is asking questions, not giving answers. Definitely worth thinking about.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Another reread. Rand definitely does claim to have the answers. I have a few reservations, but her story, style, and themes are still uplifting after all these years. Review of Atlas Shrugged, and the following books, forthcoming.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Frame story on about seven different levels. Definitely a book for people who like puzzles and mysteries. And you definitely need a physical copy. I don't really want to spoil it for future readers by talking about the story here, but to say the least I found it interesting.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Didn't expect to like Jared Diamond, but after multiple commentators recommended it I finally caved and picked up a copy. It was well worth the money--Diamond has effectively written a book about the whole of human history and gives a pretty credible explanation for why geographic factors had a strong influence on how the world looks today.

Redesigning the Kansas City Flag

Roman Mars wants us to adopt better municipal flags. Many city flags go unflown because they're terribly designed in one way or another. Since my city's flag isn't seen very often, I decided to look it up. Here it is:

This flag frustrates me because it is so damn close to being really, really good. It's beautiful, it's simple, it's recognizable, and then some moron decided to write all over it because they didn't trust their own handiwork. That's just depressing. The flag was good, anonymous designer! Believe in yourself!

Unlike a lot of city flags, this one would be very easy to fix. Just remove the writing. That's it. A tricolor with the fountain symbol would be a gorgeous banner for then entire KC Metro.

Seriously, it took 15 seconds in MS Paint to clean it up:

As a country, we need symbols of non-exclusionary communities right now. Municipal flags are such symbols. It wouldn't be hard to change this. Consider writing the mayor or city council members. 

Kansas City can come together even better with clean, coherent images of who we are. An improved flag is the quickest and easiest way forward.

If Your Recreation Isn't Selfish Then What's the Point?

Not even two days into winter break and I'm already running into the classic problem that my parents have no idea what constitutes fun. Oh, I'm sure they enjoy their television session, but that's not what I'm looking for after a week of self-denial for finals. Somehow it still shocks them to learn that spending the limited hours a day that we have for entertainment on something I don't enjoy is not agreeable to me.

The problem is that the things I want to do (right now, mostly Kerbal Space Program) require a certain time commitment, which I can't make during finals, and more importantly cannot make during the large quantities of unstructured time between the orgies of work my parents voluntarily take upon themselves. Right now it's getting ready to move to a new house, which of course is a frustration all of its own category. But last Christmas I had the same problem with just cleaning and chores. Instead of doing the things I wanted to be doing, I was stuck with low-commitment entertainment because I knew that an interruption could come at any time. From literally the first day last year, which I had pre-announced I was going to spend relaxing and they should not expect my involvement, they nevertheless barged in with things to do.

So yes, I can see why you think looking at my phone is my idea of a good time, but it's not. It's just what I can afford when you won't tell me what time you're leaving because you don't fricking know.

Is it clear that I'm a little frustrated by this phenomena?

But to add to the complexity, I'm not opposed to watching television in general. Give it a few days, once I've relaxed and enjoyed my high-density fun, spending a few hours on medium-density stuff for variety will be a perfectly rational thing to do. This doesn't seem that hard to figure out but apparently it is for them.

(Maybe I'll send you two this blog post, since you never actually check my blog. But that would start an entirely different rant about time allocation for social media use.)

But what I came here to say is that, well, if one isn't trying to maximize the joy derived from recreation then it's not clear they know what recreation is. Is it supposed to be about helping others? No! That's what work is for! In a rational economy, anyway, but the Cathedral has seen about that, haven't they?

As I've said, I'm not an altruist. So long as I'm stuck in this world, I want to get joy out of it. And simply put, television isn't the best way to get that joy. Sue me.

Forms and Structure

A problem which I've complained about mightily is the gap between my desired level of course material integration and what professors actually provide. Indeed, I still believe that this has been among my greatest hurdles in learning mathematics. It would seem, however, my preference for structure is at the rightmost end of the bell curve. Unfortunate.

As such, it would seem that divining the conceptual structure of a given subject is perhaps the utmost task for increasing my academic achievement. The problem with this, of course, is that I won't know where everything goes until the semester is almost over. By that time my grade will have suffered needlessly and I may even have lost all interest in trying to decipher the inchoate mess of equations and trivia that all too many classes top-out at.

The only strategy may, perhaps, be to stay ahead of the syllabus. This is hard. Very hard. When I don't understand the material, doubly so.

I maintain that engineering has not yet been hard. Badly presented, yes. Botched, even. But not hard.

What mystifies me is that no one else thinks this way. In other fields the value of good form for communication is patently obvious. Nothing about STEM screams any difference. So why the resistance to clarity I deal with day-in and day-out?

A mystery, but probably a stupid one.

An Observation

When studying Tuesday night for my aerodynamics exam yesterday, I found it extremely difficult to study precisely because my performance was extremely important. Pressure actually made the process of learning more stressful and therefore made me more likely to procrastinate. This is a disturbing behavior but not a new ones. I experienced it earlier this semester, and frequently during my time at Purdue.

Pressure depends heavily on the amount of time remaining before the deadline. I experienced significantly less pressure when reviewing on Sunday afternoon, despite the fact that I was, at that time, less prepared. The impact of this exam upon my grade has been fixed since under-performing of the first midterm and lab report.

As I see it, there are three way to attack this problem:

1. Do more of the focused work before pressure builds
2. Reduce the perceived pressure of individual assignments
3. Improve focus overall

Unfortunately, none of these are easy fixes. Doing work beforehand requires the cooperation of parents and professors--both notorious for doing everything in their power to prevent routine. Individual assignments would be less stressful if I were doing well overall, but that would require more work time. See #1. Attempts at improving focus have, so far, been met with limited success.

This feeds into the larger problem of...something I'm not sure I have a name for. The phenomena where I notice a mistake or failure mode but can't correct it until a term set by outside entities comes to an end. An example would be the housing complex I lived in last year: entirely unsuitable to my needs, but locked into the contract unless we forfeited a sum of money my parents were unable to pay. So I drove home each weekend of the spring semester and waited it out.

A similar dynamic arises with classes. For various reasons I find that the class is not working out for me, and am essentially unable to do anything about it without adding a year to my program. Dropping classes has never been a real possibility for financial reasons alone, which makes me all the more frustrated when professors a) fail to state their expectations clearly b) set their expectations way to high c) have expectations at all but no plans to teach.

My aerodynamics story has a happy ending: the exam went really well. After the first one it was clear that most questions are lifted directly from the textbook with only small changes, so finding the relevant example is half the work. (Aerodynamics exams are open book.) But on the whole this semester has been pushing against a brick wall. No amount of BRUTE STRENGTH will get around the two-sided job of conceptual communication. I'm willing to do my part. But a lot of educators don't seem willing to do theirs.