jm3 reviewed The molecule of more by Daniel Z. Lieberman
Review of 'The molecule of more' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The concept of “Control”-focused Dopamine was illuminating and useful.
Reviews and Comments
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At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren’t taught history, geography, or …
Review of 'Lexicon' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
The last 10-15% of this book fell apart but I loved the first 85-90%. Great writing, mostly!
jm3 reviewed A hole is to dig by Ruth Krauss
Nursery school children's "definitions" of everyday objects reveal their different view of the world in …
Review of 'A hole is to dig' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This book is a gem for kids. We’ve read it for years since my child was very young. It’s a rare collector’s item now; the hardcover edition is auto-priced north of a $100 on the river website. I was at the Maurice Sendak exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in SF and scored a new copy, purely by blind luck.
What’s funny to me about the other reviews on here, especially the lackluster and negative reviews, is they seem to have totally missed the central device of this beautifully simple, nonsense book: that the objects in the book were the questions asked of kids, and the text is children’s answers. (tablespoon: “What is a tablespoon for?” → kid: “To eat a table!” “what are hands for?” → kid: “To hold!”, etc. )
People have no empathy, or no imagination, I guess.
Folks on here really writing reviews like “uh this …
This book is a gem for kids. We’ve read it for years since my child was very young. It’s a rare collector’s item now; the hardcover edition is auto-priced north of a $100 on the river website. I was at the Maurice Sendak exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in SF and scored a new copy, purely by blind luck.
What’s funny to me about the other reviews on here, especially the lackluster and negative reviews, is they seem to have totally missed the central device of this beautifully simple, nonsense book: that the objects in the book were the questions asked of kids, and the text is children’s answers. (tablespoon: “What is a tablespoon for?” → kid: “To eat a table!” “what are hands for?” → kid: “To hold!”, etc. )
People have no empathy, or no imagination, I guess.
Folks on here really writing reviews like “uh this says A Book of First Definitions but they seem kinda weird……” yes because they’re young kids’ definitions, my gentle smoothbrain, that’s it — that’s literally what the book is lol
jm3 reviewed The Stuff of Life by Zander Cannon
Review of 'The Stuff of Life' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
clever, cute, fun. a bit dense + deep — i would have kept it a little more high level.
clever, cute, fun. a bit dense + deep — i would have kept it a little more high level.
jm3 rated Keep It Simple: The Early Design Years of Apple: 5 stars
jm3 reviewed The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
"How the police endanger us and why we need to find an alternative. Recent years …
Review of 'The End of Policing' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Dark times
jm3 reviewed Model railroading with John Allen by Linn Hanson Westcott
Review of 'Model railroading with John Allen' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A rare behind the scenes view of perhaps the world’s most detailed and faithful model train layout and landscape, hidden in a humble private home in Monterey, CA. The creator John Allen even introduced the idea of faithful “scale time” (married to eg 1:16 scale distance), which the trains’ schedules faithfully followed. A time capsule of a beautifully hidden moment of dudes being dudes, now sadly destroyed by fire.
jm3 reviewed How to build dioramas by Sheperd Paine
Review of 'How to build dioramas' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
An absolute classic of the craft. If you grew up making models, military or railroad or otherwise, this book is a treasure. The author is a tremendously skilled painter, rendering shadow and highlight detail using a six phase model figure face painting process. Incredible details, nerd nirvana.
jm3 reviewed Agency by William Gibson
Review of 'Agency' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Some beautiful passages but too few and far between
A retread of ideas from NEUROMANCER and THE PERIPHERAL.
I recommend avoiding this book and instead enjoying Gibson’s earlier PATTERN RECOGNITION. This is only for superfans. The dozen poetic gem passages threaded throughout the middle of the book don’t quite make up for the overpopulated, quotidian remainder, like a Downtown Abbey dress rehearsal performed by redditors on the spectrum, endlessly strapping intro nylon duffles, tyvek tarps, and juggling chargers.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh …
jm3 reviewed Great catastrophe by Thomas De Waal
"The destruction of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16 was a brutal mass …
Review of 'Great catastrophe' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
The author takes somewhat of a diplomatic, “but both sides will need to stretch and change in order to reconcile” view of the dynamic between Armenia and its murdering, acquisitive, genocidal neighbors. An interesting angle. Historically solid.
jm3 reviewed No Filter by Sarah Frier
Review of 'No Filter' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Recommended to anyone who uses a smart phone or has a pulse. Especially arresting details for anyone who’s been through the ringer of building a social media business or even just a social brand. Despite being on these platforms forever and having worked on integrations with both Facebook and Twitter during this time period, there were a lot of product decisions explained in this book that had previously baffled me, E.g Q: why was sharing multiple images in a single post prioritized as a feature? A. Because it was observed that so many teens posted only once / day so as not to clog the feed, slowing down the rate of posting and reducing pressure to return to the app.)
The Facebook’s metrics-driven, “move fast and break things” product philosophy vs. Instagram’s careful, curated philosophy is something that we’ve experienced tangentially as users, but when it’s laid out so clearly, …
Recommended to anyone who uses a smart phone or has a pulse. Especially arresting details for anyone who’s been through the ringer of building a social media business or even just a social brand. Despite being on these platforms forever and having worked on integrations with both Facebook and Twitter during this time period, there were a lot of product decisions explained in this book that had previously baffled me, E.g Q: why was sharing multiple images in a single post prioritized as a feature? A. Because it was observed that so many teens posted only once / day so as not to clog the feed, slowing down the rate of posting and reducing pressure to return to the app.)
The Facebook’s metrics-driven, “move fast and break things” product philosophy vs. Instagram’s careful, curated philosophy is something that we’ve experienced tangentially as users, but when it’s laid out so clearly, it’s like a slap in the face. Sarah did especially great reporting on this.
Nobody is asking, but, I‘d say NO FILTER is easily 2 × better than HATCHING TWITTER, about the arc of that business. I recommend NO FILTER instead; more current, more broadly reaching, and as a bonus you get great insights into not just IG but FB and TWTR.
jm3 rated Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow: 4 stars
Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
"Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may …
jm3 rated Convenience Store Woman: 4 stars
Convenience Store Woman by 村田沙耶香
Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in …
jm3 reviewed Kids these days by Malcolm Harris (duplicate)
"A Millennial's groundbreaking investigation into why his generation is economically worse off than their parents, …
Review of 'Kids these days' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Very good, dark brew. Strong stomachs required.