"The Course of Love" by Alain de Botton

The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

goodreads.com rating: 4.08
my verdict: crap

pro: short
con: it's not that short

This one has the highest rating in goodreads.com among de Botton's numerous books. I found it too late that this is because it has been only very recently released. I believe the rating will go down to around 3.6ish in two months. Of course, for me, this is a one-star crap.

The book is comprised of a series of episodes that you have already seen in some sitcoms. The narratives are pretentious but hollow. De Botton's dumb style that attempts to decorate a pile of shit so that it looks like a cake, persists.

The highlight of the author's stupidity comes when he attempts to compose a bundle of proverbs of his own, when he speaks about Rabih's being ready for marriage. It makes you puke. Hold Caulfield would have puked like a million times about this phoniness.

This being not enough, the audiobook is read by some idiot, who whispers whenever he reads a part where Kirsten says something. Boy, he whispers when Kirsten is quarreling with Rabih.

This is the most horrible book experience for me this year, and I sincerely this does not happen to me again. Not to anybody, for that matter.

"Organisez Vos Idees avec le Mindmapping" by Denis Rebaud et al.

Organisez Vos Idees avec le Mindmapping by Denis Rebaud et al.

goodreads.com rating: 3.5
my verdict: mixed, but it's worth a shot

pro: sincere intention to invite you to the mindmap
con: unorganized, incoherent, helter-skelter, verbose, out of focus



Everyone knows that action is the key to any change. David Allen's Getting Things Done is, in sum, about the importance of breaking things into pieces so that each piece becomes actionable.

Before this book, I've tried a few books on Mindmap, two books by Buzan himself and one by someone else. Even though the concept of mindmap is simple enough, I could not really grasp the usefulness of such a tool. Frankly, up until yesterday, my conclusion about mindmap was that it is another marketing BS. It felt like people are trying to sell something that they themselves do not know exactly what it is.

Yes, I talked about action. What happened was, yesterday afternoon, I just decided to give it a shot. I just decided to try making a few mindmap. The authors of this book says mindmap can be used in almost all mind activities, from taking a memo to managing projects. I tried summarizing a report, and voila, it felt not too bad.

I finished the book this lunchtime. And in the meantime, I summarized about five work-related reports using mindmap. It feels fun!

At the beginning of the book, it says one obstacle in using mindmap is people's gaze. Seeing you scribbling something on paper in a peculiar way, people might regard you a weirdo - is the fear you have that prevents you from trying mindmapping. Now I strongly agree. You'd better not take others' gaze into consideration when you want to decide whether mindmap is for you or not.

Mindmap, despite its dirty look, has one clear advantage: that you can see the whole in one shot. Now I believe that it's worth trying at least once. You might end up being another mindmapper, or maybe not. But why don't you even test it once?

p.s. About the book itself, you can never say it's well written. The book is composed of incoherent parts sewn together. However, the authors' intention is sincere, and somehow they succeeded in persuading me that mindmap is worth a try. So, I give it three stars even though the book itself deserves even less than that.

"The Art of Travel" by Alain de Botton

The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

goodreads.com rating:3.81
my verdict: you can forego this one

pro: you might like some part of the book, guarantees a good night's sleep
con: you get bored

Most of us can neither compose a decent piece of concerto nor paint a decent piece of oil-painting. However, most of us can talk and write. Of course, this does not mean that most of us can write a decent piece of essay. However, it is much easier to overestimate our capacity in writing than in composing music or in painting. Thus, writers are rather forced to foster a style of one's own. Simply put, styles can be either succinct or verbose. While succinct sounds positive, verbose does not. The reason is as follows: To be succinct is difficult. On the other hand, not to be verbose is very difficult.

I do not like the style of Alain de Botton. He easily bores readers. He is very verbose, often lost among his own words. He often overstretches similes and metaphors. He knows too much useless things. And worse, he wants to let it show. The Arts of Travel is like a sampler of his boring style.

My wife finished this book first and told me, "it gets better in the latter half." Yes, it does. However, it took her a whole week to finish this one. Seeing this, I took a rather strategic approach, and read a chapter every morning over breakfast. It also took me a whole week. (Yes, I read more in the weekend.) And yes, I liked the parts about Wordsworth (who has never been my favorite poet), Sinai Desert, and John Ruskin.

But, why, why should someone ever read this book? It does neither entertain nor inform. Actually, if you want to try this book, read a chapter every night, which will nudge you into a good night's sleep.

"Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

goodreads.com rating: 4.09
my verdict: super-fun reading

pro: interesting facts, funny experiments, great style
con: nothing

It is known that we human are irrational. But the author says that our irrational behaviors are predictable. Therefore, we can predict our irrational tendency and choose to fix it if needs be.

In this fun book, Dan Ariely shows how we human beings behave in irrational, but predictable ways, by showing the results of his and other people's funny experiments. In many experiments, Dan himself carried out the experiments. For example, it was Dan who put the 6-pack cokes in the fridge to gauge their half-life. And it was also he who got beer orders in a restaurant when people tried to look unique just for the sake of it.

Most of all, I liked his style. He is not verbose at all, but he puts a few extra words to describe how irrationally people behave, which make you laugh out loud.

I would like to give this book 4.5 stars. But again, a few hearty laughs are worth more than half a star.

What follows are summaries of of each chapter, more or less for my personal record.

Chapter 1 - The Truth about Relativity
Two choices are juxtaposed and we don't know which to choose. It is like, A is better than B in one trait, but in the other trait, B is better. Overall score looks similar. In this picture, a marketing guru comes in and puts another choice, namely, A-, which is overall similar to A, but a little bit (but noticeably) inferior to A. Then everyone rushes to A. With the backdrop of the inferior counterfeit, A suddenly looks better than not only A, but B. His episode with the Economist subscription tells the story in a succinct and clear way.

Chapter 2 - The Fallacy of Supply and Demand
Price is not determined by supply and demand. Price is heavily influenced by the initial anchor! Given the same task, people who were suggested 90 cents bid higher wages than those who were suggested 10 cents. MSRP is designed to be the anchor for our willingness to pay.

Chapter 3 - The Cost of Zero Cost
Zero cost rushes you to make choices you won't make otherwise. The author believes this is because of we human beings' deeply rooted fear about loss. When something cost you nothing, you don't see the downside of the interaction, and there it goes. But marketers know this well, and make you spend even more by giving you something for free. The Lindt vs. Kiss experiment shows this well. (By the way, in Switzerland Lindt is a cheap low-quality chocolate and is dirt cheap!)

Chapter 4 - The Cost of Social Norms
People are willing to do things either when they are paid reasonably, or when they do it in the context of social relations. When they are paid inadequately, they won't do it. Your lawyer friend might pick up a parcel for you in return for a candy bar, but won't fill your legal form for the same candy bar! The even more important lesson from this chapter is, that a social norm relation can really quickly easily turn into a market norm, and that once deteriorated into a market norm, the social norm won't return easily. A bank might be able to cuddle a customer with simple gifts and free services, so that he feels he and the bank are in a social norm. Let's say, the customer fails to pay his due once, and the bank makes him pay the penalty according to the account contract. Now the relation plummets into a market norm, and will hardly ever return. So, corporations, if you want to make customers feel like they are at home with your services, choose wisely when to apply the market economics.

Chapter 5 - The Influence of Arousal
Dr. Jekyll believes that he can control the dark Mr. Hyde. But no. Hot is actually hotter than we think. When hot, we cannot control ourselves and make lousy and dangerous decisions. Don't you affirm that you will be different.

Chapter 6 - The Problem of Procrastination and Self-Control
We perform best when we are dictated to do things. The report deadline experiment shows this so crisply well we can't deny it. So, if we are fined when we skip our routine cholesterol check, general health level of the country will enhance. What I liked in this chapter is the author's meeting with the bankers, marketing a self-control credit card. While the bank will lose some $17 billion in interest charges, it will stand out among the crowd as the good bank. But the bank never called back. Perhaps they decided to choose the interest charges over the good bank image. Or perhaps they just procrastinated. ;)

Chapter 7 - The High Price of Ownership
We price what we have simply because we have it. We are emotionally attached, and we focus more on what we lose than what we gain. The IKEA effect (TM) says that the more labor and efforts you put in, the more you value it. Furthermore, we assume ownership even before we actually have it. So, 30-day money back guarantee works. When the deadline approaches, your loss of what you already have looks much bigger than the meager cash payment you will receive in return.

Chapter 8 - Keeping Doors Open
Even smart people make bad choices just to have more options. So, parents teach their kids all kinds of things - foreign language, piano, painting, and Taekwondo - just to keep the doors open.

Chapter 9 - The Effect of Expectation
The well-know effect of expectation on actual outcomes. The example is about the famous Pepsi blind test. When people are told that they will drink Coke, a part of the brain activates, and they come to believe that they are drinking Coke, their favorite brand. Asian girls will score higher in math when they are (secretively) reminded that they are Asian, but they will score lower when they are reminded of their gender. Their performance actually follow the popular myth - an expectation.

Chapter 10 - The Power of Price
Continuing from the previous theme, the expectation effect, this chapter talks about the Placebo effect. A 50-cent drug can do things that a 1-cent drug can't.

Chapter 11&12 - The Context of Our Character
Again, the priming effect. Primed by reminding oneself of the Ten Commandments, people cheat less. We feel stealing money much more uncomfortable than stealing a can of coke. As we get further away from "money", such as a token or a stock option, less qualm we feel.

Chapter 13 - Beer and Free Lunches
When ordering in a restaurant, people tend to order different dishes when they are heard. On the other hand, when they can order in writing, they order what they want. So, be the first one to order in restaurants, or talk about what you will order before the waiter arrives. Behavioral economics do not presume rational human behavior, instead, it observes how they behave. In behavioral economics, because things are not perfectly organized, so you might be able to find a loose spot and earn some free lunches.

"Spark" by John J. Ratey, Eric Hagerman

Spark by John J. Ratey, Eric Hagerman

goodreads.com rating: 4.09
my verdict: yes, solid 4 stars

pro: it reads well, and it makes you feel good (the book makes you believe that you will exercise)
con: somewhat repetitive?

Whatever health trouble you have, begin exercising right now.

Exercise is perhaps the best thing that can happen in your life, if you round up the overall score, after accounting for all the minute plus and minus effects. Even better, it is something that you can ignite, proactively. Whether it happens in your life or not, it is your choice.

I do exercise regularly, and I feel the benefits - psychological as well as physical ones. I do enjoy the positive energy surging in my body when I finish the last lap of burpee in my daily exercise routine.

According to the author, almost all health problems related with the brain can be treated by exercising, at least to a certain degree. Depression, stress, ADHD, hormone imbalance, dementia... the list goes on and on.

However, do not count the author as another self-help book peddler. For example, he is subscribing medicines as well as exercise, which means he does not think that some strong belief can make anything happen. Of course, he is also giving lots of lab results as evidences, but I am one of those who do take statistics with a grain of salt. (I used to make living with statistics, for your information.)

Overall, the book reads well and do not tire readers despite some repetitions. I think this is due to the power of episodes, the true stories of living people around us. This book is not just a pile of information. Actually, it reads like an exercise. Reading this book makes you feel good.

"Zorba the Greek" by Nikos Kazantzakis

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

goodreads rating: 4.1
my verdict: really good

This is a famous novel, but I was not lured to read this until someone mentioned that Meursault (from L'Etranger by Albert Camus) and Zorba belong to the same kind of human being. For example, Meursault carries on his life as usual the day when his mother died. He knows that people expect certain behaviors on certain occasions, but he does not wish to live up to their expectations. He would rather live up to his own desire. Zorba, in this context, looks very similar. For example, even though his boss ranks very high on his life's agenda, Zorba decides to spend all the trusted fund to Lola, to follow his own desire. The two personae are quite different from the perspective of social status, Zorba and Meursault, but they both behaves as they like. They do not give a damn what others might think of them. And we know this attitude is extremely difficult.

Zorba the Greek consistently kept me thinking about Narziss und Goldmund by Hermann Hesse. (And of course Siddhartha by the same author.) Simply put, Narziss versus Goldmund equals the boss versus Zorba. Two sets of personae, they both seek truth, but in different ways. Narziss focuses on mind activities for the purpose, while Goldmund decides to seek it in the world (in der welt). The boss, like Narziss, has been following books and buddhism to reach the truth. Then he meets Zorba, who seems to have found the truth already, by living in the world.

Therefore, strangely enough but also in a very unavoidable fashion, Meursault also meets Narziss and Goldmund, along with Zorba. What is L'Etanger? Perhaps the most famous existentialist novel. Martin Heidegger's dasein is also in-der-welt-sein. In other words, being cannot be but being there (dasein), and it is also being in the world (in-der-welt-sein). Zorba knew it, and Goldmund came to know it. And, Meursault was also living it.

I am not sure if Zorba is right. (Right and wrong is a very childish idea, but I cannot find a better term here.) But I know that I cannot choose to live like Zorba. All my life when I was in the university, truth was the biggest theme in my life, and I still think I want it. Is Zorba the answer? I know there are people who behave like Zorba, and I know I am not one of them. Should I aspire to be like them? Or should I yet stay on the road of mind like Narziss did? I still want to learn, and books are the easiest tool, at least for now.

"Presentation Zen Design" by Garr Reynolds

Presentation Zen Design by Garr Reynolds



goodreads.com rating: 4.17
my veridct: main dish is excellent, but the hors d'oeuvre and the dessert are terrible

pro: solid core messages, good examples
con: verbose and repetitive introductions, shallow show-off about the author's knowledge about Eastern culture


This book is almost refuting its own arguments in its design and contents. In presentations, less is more. The book could have been one third of its volume and still perfect. The book starts with a very long and boring introduction. When you're done with the waddling through the puddle and are gasping, you find that every chapter afterwards starts with its own verbose introduction, thoroughly till the end. You can imagine all those introductions are repetitive, thus boring.

Another thing that rubs you the wrong way is the author's imprudent quotes about Japan. The book starts with the author saying that the Japanese cuisine, "washoku(和食)", is about harmony. Following the same logic, the United States is a country of beauty, Germany a country of mercy, and France a country of law. I know that the author added "literally" in that argument to avoid this kind of criticism, perhaps. Then again, I can say that, literally, the author is one that protrudes in the family of Reynolds.

I know he lived in Japan for 20 years and I bet he knows a lot about its culture. But put yourself in the other's shoes. Imagine some Japanese guy who lived in France for 20 years talking about the Latin roots of French words. Most of Europeans will scorn at the insolence. His quotes about Chinese letters are actually very scornful for most East Asian people, but I will talk no more.

Now, on the bright side, content-wise this book is very satisfactory. Nothing spectacularly new, but most suggestions in the book are solid tips for good presentation (and the design of slides for it). I learned a thing or two about the selection of colors, among other things. And the examples found in the book are well chosen. What I liked most was, the suggestion about using a photo bigger than the screen, leaving the unseen for the realm of imagination.

Overall, the book is worth reading. If the author could have followed his own advice and have written the book in, let's say, 70 pages instead of 240+, it would have won 4 solid stars.

"Namiya Zakkaten no Kiseki" by Higashino Keigo

Namiya Zakkaten no Kiseki by Higashino Keigo

goodreads.com rating: 4.34
my verdict: the very best

pro: everything
con: nada

Higashino Keigo is crude. To talk about his style, I can't say anything but that his style sucks. His style is worse than most junior high students. His characters are weak. I admit that there are exceptions (for example, Yukiho in Byakuyakou, or Ishigami in The Devotion of Suspect X) but most of his characters are just names. His storytelling methods are most of the time very banal, or to put it more positively, cliché. His employment of frame narratives is so crude that it hurts the flow.

Still, I like most of his novels, and love some of them. The stories he tells are way too powerful. The basic idea that sustains the whole plot is simply genius. Small devices here and there do their job artfully in delivering the overall effect. As a result, his story rivets into your mind.

Reading Byakuyakou ("Walking under the White Night") is like being stabbed with a knife in the heart. When Yasuko reports herself to the police, and seeing this, Ishigami falls on his knees and cries, who is it that can stop himself/herself from shedding tears as well? (The Devotion of Suspect X)

But, of all his works, I love this one best. I can earnestly say that writing such a story is itself a miracle (kiseki). This novel is like a touch of a warm, soft hand of your beloved when you least expect it. It is like the first snow. It is like the moment when a kid finds what he wished for in the Christmas Stocking. The boy rubs his eyes because he is only half-awake yet, but he wants to find out sooner. And the world outside is shrouded with cotton-soft snow.

What I want to tell you is, reading this book is like receiving a gift. You never knew you wanted that gift, but now you know it.

Three good-for-nothing youngsters get into a shabby house. Then they find that there's a letter in the letterbox. They have nothing to do, and a night to spend. They decide to read the letter...

I still feel electrified just by thinking about the story.

I strictly stay away from containing spoilers in book reviews. So I do not wish to talk more. But I earnestly recommend this one to literally ANYONE. There are books that appeal to some but disgust others. But this one, I believe, will move any human being. I believe reading this book will make you happy, being reminded that you also belong to the same race.

(This is the cover of the Korean edition of the book, which I read)

"The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor

The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

goodreads.com rating: 4.13
my verdict: good!

pro: actionable
con: repetitive

Recommendation is a powerful tool in choosing books to read. The title of this book sounds so banal that you can instantly say that this must be a good-for-nothing self-help book that disguises itself as a psychology book. To tell the truth, the book title couldn't be anything else. This book actually says about the advantages of being happy. However, it is also true that I wouldn't have picked up this book if it were not for the recommendation of someone (and goodreads.com's high rating of course).

There are seven principles with the happiness advantage (even though they are not systemically interwoven like those seven habits of Stephen Covey).

1. The Happiness Advantage: capitalize on positivity to improve productivity/life.

2. The Fulcrum and the Lever: adjust your mindset (the fulcrum) so as to attain the most power (the lever).

3. The Tetris Effect: you are the lucky guy! Everything will turn out best for you!

4. Falling Up: Eureka, you fell! Now it's time to get up even stronger!

5. The Zorro Circle: start out small. Retain your core circle of control (i.e. the internal locus of control) whatever happens to you.

6. The 20-Second Rule: reroute the path of least resistance. Eliminate the 20-second obstacle to good habits. Build 20-or-more-second obstacle to your bad habits.

7. Social Investment: invest in friends, peers, and family so that you have a social support network when needed.

(Almost) Every item on the list is actionable. But I'd like to recommend the item number 6, that is, the 20-second rule, to people like me who get heavily challenged in terms of willpower on daily basis.

For example, you know daily exercise is great, but what if it takes 5 minutes in the morning to get ready and walk out the door to go jogging? Shawn says he went to bed in gym clothes so that he could automatically dash out of the bed to go jogging in the morning. For me, I found myself eating less potato chips when I put it in the pantry with a door, instead of right beside the coffee machine where I can see it (and grab it) more easily. So, for a good habit that you want to build on yourself, remove any obstacle that might discourage you from doing it habitually. For a bad habit that you want to shake off, build many obstacles so that it takes a lot of time and effort to do it. In other words, put your good habits on the path of least resistance.

Have I said that I like this book because it contains many actionable items? I will recommend some from the book.

1. Choose a day of the week. This is your good-deed day. Do five good things to others throughout the day. Of course, you will count each of them as you do it and feel great.

2. To have or to be? Spend money on experiences, rather than on stuffs. (This reminds me of the good book, The Story of Stuffs.)

3. Do you think you are doing petty things to earn living? That petty stuff most probably will lead to something greater in the bigger picture. Write down the petty thing you do not like, and draw an arrow. Then write down what that leads to. If that still does not satisfy you, draw another arrow and at the end of it write down what is accomplished by that. In most of the cases, your petty daily chore is a building block for a lot greater thing that you can be proud of.

4. Set an alarm at, let's say, 11 o'clock in the morning. When that sets off, begin writing down three good things that happened yesterday. Now your mind is set on the positive side.

5. When you get really stressed out, draw a table and divide the causes of your stress into two groups - those you can control and those you can't. Forget about those things you can't control. Focus on the little things you can tackle easily (the Zorro Circle). You will get improvement.

6. Clear obstacles to your good habits. Build obstacles to your bad habits.

7. Many people (including me!) spend energy and willpower in making small decisions that does not make any difference after all. Set up a simple rule and use it for quick decisions. Pizza or spaghetti? Toss a coin. You want to have one more cup of coffee? Set up the daily limit.

8. Make eye contacts. Look at people's eyes when they speak to you.

Wow, that's already quite a long list. At the end of the book, Shawn says about a man who thinks he is already doing all of these, while his wife isn't. Shawn told the man that he had heard the opposite from his wife a while ago. What I mean is, people (again including me) think they are doing things while they aren't. Let's start actually doing those good things. :)

"Quiet: the Power of Introverts" by Susan Cain

Quiet: the Power of Introverts
by Susan Cain

goodreads.com rating: 4.00
my verdict: well! (see below)

pro: good intention
con: this is part book, part manifesto (someone's review in Amazon.com)

All's well that ends well. So, the final verdict for this book  is well(!) instead of good. The few pages at the end of the book, under the heading of conclusion, include some really good real-life advices for introverts, extroverts, teachers, and managers.

Except that, well, like the reviewer I quoted above, this may not be even a book. Yes, of course you can call a bundle of printed pages glued together a book. Yes, physically, a book. But what about the basics you learn at school about writing? I don't even accuse this book of being illogical. I accuse it of being incoherent. In one part, the author distinguishes being introvert from being shy, and goes on bedeviling shyness. In other part, she presupposes that being shy equals being introvert and goes on advocating shyness.

Even worse, for a very large part of the book, the author depicts a world torn apart between introverts and extroverts, and affirms single-handedly that it's the extroverts' bad. For example, she says the subprime mortgage crisis would not have happened if the bankers had been introverts instead of extroverts.

I am actually amazed that she has the gut to pitch this kind of stuff in the TED. Most people would have just ended up writing in their diaries.

However, as mentioned above, the book has a good intention. I wish it had a matching quality. And yes, I wasted a fair amount of time.

"Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel" by Carl Safina

Goodreads rating: 4.38
My verdict: Good

Pro: Interesting and emotional episodes
Con: Do not expect science



Having a rating of whopping 4.38 on Goodreads.com is a feat, you know. For your information, Richard Dawkins's Selfish Gene has a rating of 4.10, Stephen Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell, 4.12, Keigo Higashino's Namiya Zakkaten no Kiseki, 4.33. My brief search could find only one book that has a higher rating: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, at 4.59.

This is a very interesting book, coming at you often with riveting stories of emotional depth that leave big impacts on your mind. I was an elephant lover but I am an adorer now. Wolves deserve much more respectable traits for metaphors. Killer whales, (I sigh,) they are much better beings than us humans, in every aspects.

But, is this a science book? If you expect it to be one, you will be disappointed. Most stories are told like a gossip. When the author argues something, what he brings as the proof is, most of the time, a hearsay. Yes, the hearsay is in the format of some scientist's argument, but the scientist is quite often a like-minded fellow researcher who happened to live in the author's neighborhood and told him the episodes over a dinner table.

This book is like the famous animal stories by Ernest Thompson Seton. The book strikes you with a very powerful insights about the world and the position of us human beings in it, but you'd better not expect what is told is scientifically solid. I strongly suspect the author actually believes that he is delivering a set of scientific arguments backed by solid evidences, but I don't think the author's arguments will appear on The Nature as they do in this book.

But do not underestimate this book. It will make you think about the world, mankind, and other habitants of our planet, from a different perspective than before. And once more, it is a powerfully compelling read. Science or not, you will enjoy this book and love the animals in it. And yes, there are other beings living in this world that matter too.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The title alone can attract a number of readers, I guess. The flip side of an attractive title is the disappointment you get when you find the snappy title contains nothing - like, for example, Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. In my case, I’ve been betrayed quite a few times already, so the nice title actually lowered my expectation about the novel. Consequently, the actual reading was very pleasant.


Easily you can see the novel is about pain, or at least, loneliness, since it is about the wife, not the time traveler. But once you open the book, you realize it is also about the time traveler himself, and his pain. I will reveal one very important part of the plot, which means, you must stop reading this article if you don’t want a spoiler. I am giving this book a solid 4-star (out of 5) rating. So, if you are interested enough already, go read it!

The time traveler’s pain lies in that he does not have any control over his own time travel. He calls it a disease, and a doctor is trying to fix it. Henry, the time traveler, feels that he cannot and must not alter any events in the past. However, somehow he made his mind to do two audacious things: to train his younger self to increase the probability of survival when he leaps in time, and to tell her future wife about what will happen and what should be done. The second part, Henry telling Clare of some of their common future, creates a loop of causes and effects, and the fun part of the novel.

I don’t think that anybody will call this a science fiction in a serious sense. The author does not attempt to explain any kinds of time paradox, nor does she even try to make the events more plausible by explaining things in a pseudo-scientific ways. It is extremely uncommon in a usual time-traveling sci-fi that the time traveling self interacts with himself in the space-time he travels. Henry says that he could not affect the way things evolve even though he tried, then later he does things that might well affect the future, for example, buying winning lotteries and picking stocks with clairvoyance. More profoundly, what if he could avoid meeting Clare in their initial encounter-to-be? Henry says he dare not ride on airplanes because of the danger of being on 5,000 feet high in the air when he gets back from time traveling, but the danger is not much less for a car traveling.

However, the gist of the novel lies in the feelings of the people involved in the fate of Henry’s. Therefore, this is not a science fiction, and is not to be blamed for such minor factors. Readers are fixated on such memorable scenes such as when Richard cuddles newly born Alba or when Henry meets 82-year-old Clare.

In this respect, it is too bad that the author actually made the time-traveling a disease, which some people might be able to control well, like Alba. Alba will find it extremely difficult to avoid becoming a superhero after all, with her “controlled” disease. This takes all the epic nature of the disease away from her, and makes any further story-telling on her future meaningless.

Still, the final verdict on this novel is, yes, a solid 4-star rating. The emotional depth of the happy and sad story between Henry and Clare is strong enough to pull any reader into its gravity.

Cyberspace Polluting the Real World

The New York Times had an impressive article last week, about data centers of Cyberspace giants polluting the air we real people breathe. Whatever you do on the Cyberspace, some of the actions require computer processing. These are done remotely in data centers, where huge (though nothing to compare to ENIAC) servers are run throughout the day to take your orders. Data centers are huge buildings packed with servers, which means 1) they require a lot of energy, and 2) they emit a lot of energy, in the form of heat. You might remember news about Google or Facebook worrying about cooling systems in their new data centers.

For energy use, it is not just about how prodigal these data centers are in terms of energy consumption. They do eat up a whole lot of energy, for sure. But they are doubly polluting because they all have backup electricity generator, mostly run on diesel. The following picture shows a backup diesel generator at a large computer data center. (Picture at the courtesy of Richard Perry, New York Times, copied from the news article.) According to the annotation on the picture, there are six generators in total in the data center, enough to power 7,000 homes. And yes, they are polluting. Amazon was once fined by the environmental authority of North Virginia because they were running diesel generators without permits.



In addition to generators, large data centers also hoard on flywheels and lead-acid batteries for additional backup. Indeed a super-conservative insurance measure. Why do they do this, then? Because data center operators lose jobs if there’s any failure in the system. These people are not paid for energy efficiency. They are paid to keep the system running 24/7.

The amount of electricity used in data centers is also massive. In 2010, data centers used about 2% of all the electricity used in the US, or 76 billion kilowatt-hours. The whole paper industry used 67 billion kilowatt-hours that year. Doing things in the Cyberspace does not save energy as we expect.

According to a research done by a consulting company, the utilization rate of facilities in data centers is around 6 to 12 percent. Up to 94% of computing resources at data centers are idle, in other words, in a standby mode to be prepared for a surge in usage.

Pooling risks reduces risks. Suppose a data center have a peak time utilization rate of 90, but most of the day runs at 10. Since utilization rate of 100 is a nonsense, this data center keeps its facility level at 100, giving a safety margin of 10. Suppose another data center with exactly the same specs. If we can combine the two data centers into one, we do not need resources of 200, because the peak time will be most probably different for the two data centers. We might end up needing only, say, 150. The actual necessary resources depend on the covariance of the facility utilization rates of the two facilities. This is the basic concept of risk pooling.

So, the answer can be found in risk pooling. According to the article, there are 2,094 data centers in the US in 2010. Using a simple binomial probability function, I could get interesting numbers as follows:

1) Assuming simple binomial probability distribution (and normal distribution), a data center that has average utilization rate of 12% can operate on a probability of failure of 1/10^50, with only 19.3% of its current resources. This shows the hyper-conservatism of the data center industry. They are massing up more than 5 times necessary resources to prevent any blackout. Perhaps you think 10^50 processing orders (such as clicks of a mouse) can happen in your lifetime? No way. It takes 1.06*10^33 years if 3 billion people clicks at the speed of once per second 24/7 nonstop.

2) Pooling two such data centers will require only 34.2% of one data center’s resources, not 19.3% * 2 = 38.6%. Pooling ten such data centers will require the resources of only 1.43 data centers, not 1.93. Huge savings on resources keeping the same probability of failure.

Seeing the calculation makes the pooling solution so attractive. Then why don’t they do it? Because the data they are dealing with are sensitive data such as personal information. There are also business reasons, political and legal complications, and technical feasibility to some extent. So what? Cyberspace polluting the real world is a real phenomenon. We must start addressing the issue first by realizing it. Before people realized the significance of it, climate change was a kind of urban legend to many people.

Metro 2033: A Powerful Narrative about Human Existence

The so-called post-apocalyptic fictions deal with the lives of survivors of a certain apocalypse. The art of the genre lies on how to depict the lives of human beings after the world as we know is scrapped. In this respect, post-apocalyptics are destined to be part sci-fi and part fantasy, both of which factors can lead to a big failure if not controlled well. Most of the time, writers are so involved in creating the new world, and fail to capture the simple fact that what they tell are, after all, about human beings. On the other extreme, some writers use the post-apocalyptic setting as a mere prop in their theatrical setting, which means, the post-apocalyptic part of the fiction is merely an unusual setting..

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky is by all means a very well written post-apocalyptic novel. The writer did not indulge himself into his own creation, nor did he simply borrow the scene of a post-nuclear war Moscow for no purposes. The themes are about human nature, and they are well woven into the story where people are forced to think about human nature.

The theme of this novel has two layers. One is the communication conundrum. The other is about the purposes and weight of life. The first theme on communication is dramatically presented at the very end of the novel, when the right message is finally delivered only a few seconds too late. The second theme about life is repeatedly presented by the hero of the novel, Artyom. But this theme again is revisited very powerfully at the very end of the novel, where he says that we human beings are doomed to creep on earth. In this sense, in that we human beings are left with the doom because of our fear of communication, the two themes are interwoven - beautifully.

The most attractive aspect of the novel lies in its ending, where the coda is thrown at the reader like a sudden death. Throughout the whole time, Artyom narrates all kinds of thoughts on life and mankind to the reader. He is quite verbose. Then, at the very end, when all is lost, he does not elaborate. His action speaks louder, as he tears open the gas mask. It is time to go home.

I already said that this wonderful piece of art accomplished the dual objectives of a post-apocalyptic novel, which means the description of the life after the apocalypse is also all too powerful. I’ve heard some people say that the mutant creatures are too extreme - rather phantasmal than sci-fi. Yes, they are, to a certain degree. But not without a reason. Think about the librarians. They are big, brutal, but are also humanoid, and have hands rather than paws. They echo people’s speech. And they live in the library. Isn’t this wonderfully allegorical?

Even from the perspective of pure ideation, Glukhovsky is excellent. There have been much imagination about currency after an apocalypse, like bottle caps in the Fallout saga. In the metro, it is the bullets. Means of life are gauged against the means to kill lives. At the same time, it makes a perfectly realistic sense. Since the life in the metro is full of danger, bullets become indispensable commodity to rely on, for survival.

Even though I have shed glimpses of this wonderful fiction to make my points clear, I did my explanations rather vaguely, because I sincerely do not want to ruin anybody’s experience with this novel with some careless spoiler. I recommend this book very strongly. Whether you seek action, violence, fantasy, or food for thoughts, you will find it.

How to Avoid GMO

Capitalism is unbelievable in some profound ways, sometimes, as in the case of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). I bet those scientists would never test genetically modified corn syrup on their own children. Yet those food industry tycoons are motivated by the the stock market figures and media coverages, and the scientist working for them are driven by 99% monetary incentives and 1% scientific curiosity.

Somehow, we are exposed to GMOs with little protection. This means we should take measures to protect ourselves from the god-knows-what impact of GMOs. As follows are some tips I garnered from the Internet.

1. Go organic. Buy food with organic labels. When I was in Switzerland, an American expat wrote an article on a journal, in which he said, “In Switzerland, I see food with organic label everywhere. Can I trust these labels?” That coming from an American person, perhaps this is not a trustworthy strategy in North America. However, let’s hope it is better in Canada.

2. Make a list of archenemies - soybean, corn, cotton, and canola. Someone says you should memorize the acronym, SCCC. They are produced in bulk in GMO, and are sold throughout the world. For example, canola oil seems to be en vogue in some parts of the world, but alas, most probably the canola oil you get at grocery stores will be from GMOs.

3. Live like your grandpa, in the old-fashioned way. Buy grocery locally, preferably at a farmer’s market. Prepare food yourself, rather than microwaving packaged foods. In packaged foods, the contents are simply enumerated in the unit of basic ingredients, not the plants and dairies we see in the farmer’s market. For example, if a packaged food contains fructose, it is most probably from some GMO corn.

4. Go veggie sometimes. Animals are positioned higher in the food chain, hence have harmful substances in more concentration. Most cows feed on corn, and you won’t imagine them organically grown.


* Photo credit: http://leightonpost.com/2010/04/30/poison-on-your-plate-gm-foods-and-your-right-to-know/

History Anywhere - Bill Bryson's "At Home"

Bill Bryson is a born storyteller, so much so that what he tells, even though when I already know it, sounds quite savory to the ears. In a book called At Home, Bryson takes us back to many eras in time when people lived quite differently from the way of our lives today. For example, when he looks around in the kitchen, he tells us about a time when ice makers could make astronomical amount of money because they supplied ice for the old-fashioned refrigerators in the Industrial Age. In the dressing room, he reminds us of a time in our history when people wore 20 kg or more of clothing. Quite a well-off man like Thomas Carlyle had to read in the Kitchen at night because it was the warmest spot in his house, because of which his sole servant had to stay in the cold back-kitchen till very late every night.

In this book, Bryson tells interesting stories on many different aspects of human history in relation with our private life, in such areas as anthropology, paleontology, history of science, invention, medicine, and government affairs. Also, the way he tells his story reveals what a sensible man he is, just like he did in his previous book, Short History of Nearly Everything. Most probably, I will revisit one of his books in the near future, once again to be educated and entertained at the same time.

How to Make Good Decisions

How many of you think that your driving skills are better than average? In a typical poll, 90% of respondents say that they are better than average drivers.

Let me tell you about a person I know. Linda is thirty-one years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in antinuclear demonstrations.

Which do you think is more probable? 1) Linda works in a bookstore and takes yoga classes. 2) Linda is a bank teller. Most of you probably chose 1 over 2.

Now, another comparison. Which do you think is more probable? 1) Linda is a bank teller. 2) Linda is a bank teller and feminist. Most of you, I know, chose 2 over 1. However, ,think twice.

Linda being a bank teller and feminist is clearly a subset of Linda being a bank teller. The probability of Linda being a bank teller and feminist cannot be higher than the probability of Linda being a bank teller. However, you made an apparent logical mistake. Why do you think so? It is because you formed a stereotype in your mind when I described Linda.
The Linda test is from Danielle Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011). In this book, he suggests that we have two thinking systems: system 1, which is fast and intuitive, and system 2, slow but meticulous. Because we are lazy (according to Kahneman’s description), or because we seek efficiency in as many occasions as we can, we try to avoid the effortful system 2 as much as possible. In most cases, the system 1 will handle problems as they arise, and system 2 will occasionally check the validity of the system 1’s answers. Therefore, most of the time, we can respond fast with minimal efforts. This is also what Malcolm Gladwell describes in his book, Blink(2005).

When you hear the description of Linda, your system 1 responds accordingly, and searches through your cached database for plausible answers. The quick answer comes from the patternized knowledge database you have stored in your brain. In your patternized knowledge, Linda sounds more like a bank teller who is a feminist as well, rather than just a bank teller. So you choose the more plausible description even before engaging the system 2 to verify if the conjecture makes sense at all.

As a conclusion, here is my suggestion for your decision making, based on my reading of those two books, Thinking, Fast and Slow, and Blink. When you face a decision-making situation, your system 1 will automatically engage and provide a quick answer. Pause for a second at this moment, and effortfully engage the system 2, if you think the decision is worth the efforts. If your system 2 concurs with your system 1, you have the best answer you can have. If not, ask another question. Am I super-confident about my system 2 answer? If yes, go with it. If no, you’ve better stick with your system 1’s original answer. Probably, your intuition (based on your lifetime experiences) produced a good answer, even though you cannot quite articulate the reasoning verbally.

Premortem - A Tool for Your Decision-Making

Most of us are affected by overconfidence sometimes in some part of lives. As a stark example, most drivers respond that they are better than the average drivers. In a typical poll, the rate is whopping 90%. So, they will drive as they will, because they are natural born drivers, and cause accidents. Is there a way to curb this overconfidence?

Run a premortem. When you plan for a project, whether it be a pre-project planning or fine-tuning in the course of action, take a time and think about what might kill the project. Then you can also think about ways to prevent the failure you imagined, before it actually happens.

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman describes the idea of premortem, and credits Gary Klein for it. Kahneman says premortem enables us to overcome groupthink, the automatic flow into consensus  about which most individuals in the group are not really enthusiastic. The consensus from groupthink is more of an acquiescence rather than a willing agreement. This stems from the lazy, easy, and intuitive thinking of the individuals in the process - which is called System 1 thinking by Kahneman.

System 1 quickly fetches a solution from intuition. System 2, which is about deliberate thinking and brooding, will occasionally check the validity of System 1. However, most of the time, System 2 does not run the audit too deeply. If the readily available solution makes enough sense, that's it. Therefore, we end up with tons of problems that come from not thinking deeply enough. Overconfidence and groupthink are examples of the problems presented by System 1's shallow solutions.

Run a premortem. Think about possible ways your project can fail. Then think about how to avoid them.

One Second After - An Anachronistic Cold-War Agenda?

One Second After is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel by William Forstchen, where the continental U.S. is hit by an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP), which instantly sends hundreds of millions of people back to the 19th century. It is rather surprising that a simple phenomenon of country-wide electric shut-down can cause such a huge damage, but when you read the novel, it sounds all too plausible - we are that dependent on electricity. The novel is well written in two aspects - one, the description of the post-EMP world is so touchingly real and persuasive, and two, the human drama is mind-numbing enough to make you think about the very nature of our existence and co-existence. Especially, I would like to recommend two scenes: the one with a girl soldier who dies holding John's hand after being triaged out, and the one where Jennifer, John's daughter, dies. The scenes are more riveting because the style of the narration is rather hard-boiled.

However, the novel reads too much like a Cold-war era propaganda against enemies of the state. John the protagonist and several others repeatedly say "But, this is America." For example, after describing kids who developed pot-bellies because of hunger, John reminisces seeing kids with pot-bellies in countries in Africa and Asia, but then he adds, "but, this is America!" Is child starvation in America qualitatively different from that in other parts of the world? (It is, actually, because it is fictitious, after all.) The novel is strewn with self-centered egotism deeply rooted in the protagonist's mind. For him, America is different, Black Mountain is different, and her daughter Jennifer is different. On top of that, the foreword to the book makes the whole thing sound like a Republican propaganda.

How Much Caffeine Did You Consume Today?

I am a caffeine addict, like you and the person over there with Starbucks paper cup. I know the undesirable side effects of caffeine, but abstaining from drinking coffee does not solve anything, because I will be still drinking lots of tea with even more chocolate. Right now, I am having tea and chocolate at the same time, and just found out that the nutrition facts sheet on the chocolate package does not include caffeine amount. So, I would like to share with you some facts I found by googling.

The following is a table on caffeine contents in chocolate, from https://www.amanochocolate.com/articles/caffeineinchocolate.html.

Chocolate Percentage	mg/pound	mg/3.5oz (100g)	mg/2oz (56g)
43% (Semi-Sweet)	353mg	77mg	44mg
50%	453mg	99mg	57mg
60% (Bittersweet)	544mg	119mg	68mg
70%	635mg	139mg	79mg
80%	725mg	159mg	91mg
90%	816mg	179mg	102mg
100%	907mg	198mg	113mg

What I am eating right now has 70% cacao, and I finished eating 75% of the whole, which is 35g. So, I’ve added 139mg * .35 * .75 = 35.44mg of caffeine into my system.

Also from the same webpage, the following is on caffeine amount in drinks:

Food / Beverage	Serving Size (oz)	Caffeine (mg)	mg/oz
Coffee
Coffee (Brewed)	8	107.5	13.44
Coffee (Decaf Instant)	8	2.5	0.31
Coffee (Decaf Brewed)	8	5.6	0.70
Coffee (Drip)	8	145	18.13
Coffee (Espresso)	1.5	77	51.33
Coffee (Instant)	8	57	7.13
Tea
Tea (Brewed)	8	47	5.88
Tea (Green)	8	25	3.13
Tea (Instant)	8	26	3.25
Tea (Lipton Brisk)	12	9	0.75
Tea (Lipton Ice Teas)	12	9	0.75
Tea (Nestea Ice Tea)	16	34	2.13
Caffeinated Sodas
Cocoa Cola Classic	12	34.5	2.83
Cocoa Cola Diet	12	45	3.75
Pepsi	12	38	3.17
Pepsi (Diet)	12	36	3.00
Dr. Pepper	12	41	3.42
Dr Pepper (Diet)	12	41	3.42
Highly Caffeinated Sodas
Bawls	10	66.7	6.67
Jolt Cola	23.5	220	9.36
Mello Yello	12	52.5	4.38
Mountain Dew	12	55	4.58
Red Bull	8.3	80	9.64
RockStar	16	160	10.00

Since I had two tea bags of green tea and one cup of tea today, 25*2+47 = 97mg of additional caffeine has come into my body from the tea drinking.

Then how much is OK? According to about.com, it is generally agreed that 300mg of caffeine per day is safe. I’ve already taken about 132mg of caffeine today, and most probably will drink one cup of coffee with some sweets this evening. That is additonal 77mg+ of caffeine. However, there will be some amount of caffeine in other foods, for example, the stir-fried noodle I had as lunch today, might also hold some caffeine in it, considering the various ingredients in it. According to some source, the caffeine in green tea is less absorbable into the body because of other substances in green tea. And I don’t have a clue whether the figures in the above table factors in this or not.

Still, I think looking at a table like that once in a while will keep you from having another cup of coffee. Yes, only sometimes, but sometimes is better than never. :)