Eric Franklin > Recent Status Updates

Two more chapters. So close.

So I'm roughly a quarter to a third of the way through this monster (you have to account for a bunch of pre-numbered pages here). While it's slow going, it's insanely fun, and provides myriad ways of exploring the world around us that are intriguing. A good bit of the most recent chapter was centered around messages and meaning, and how our attempts to communicate with alien life-forms may succeed or fail.

I made it through Chapter 1! This dense but super fun and interesting. If you're into mental models and puzzles, you could dive in and never come out.

Barack Obama selected a list of recent books he found worthwhile: http://www.openculture.com/2018/06/ba...

Finally starting this book I've heard so much about on #FinTwit.

I've been looking at Kindle Notes & Highlights for Ready Player One. This brief set cracked me up: https://www.goodreads.com/notes/20603...

This book is intriguing, a mix of self-flaggelating history (which is annoying) as well as true principles and insights you can use at home or work (which is inspirational and valuable). I just got to all of the work principles, after reading through life principles and history. Home stretch!

So many great insights on building a company and managing personal growth in here so far (and I’m only 19% in). As advertised, a radically open approach to improvement. Looking forward to the rest of the read.

I'm glad I made it past the opening chapters, which I found extraordinarily weak for a business book. There's actually some meat in here, it's just a highly variable experience.

You've heard about the "Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data" class at UW that became an internet darling, right? Well you should check out the syllabus here (http://callingbullshit.org/syllabus.html). Tons of great free resources on detecting bullshit, starting with Brandolini's "Bullshit Asymmetry Principle":

“The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.”

Happy to see good discussion regarding the Kindle Notes & Highlights feature on Goodreads.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Feel free to ping me (by commenting here or messaging me) with any ideas you have now that you are all in your post-holiday creative/reflective/new year headspace.

I am learning how to become a bestselling author. Watch out, Jade Chang!

My first time reading Franzen, in a quiet house in Portland, while my immediate and extended families nap. This book has very mixed reviews but the opening is solid. I really want to see where Purity goes next.

Recommended by Arjun and quickly available on my 30 day trial of Kindle Unlimited.

The Library of Congress has just published 2 lists, comprising 65 titles selected as most influential with the American Public. Some great reads in there: http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2016/16-0...

Finished the poet's story (section 3), which began as annoying affectation and ended as death metal triumph. Another book I should have read years ago.

Apparently it's pronounced Karl Oov-uh K’NOUSE-gourd. Thank you, Salon. I must be 1,000 pages in and I still had no idea how to pronounce the author's name. That's just embarrassing. http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2...

I'm just updating this so that Sarah Ohye knows I am making progress. I enjoy the book quite a lot, but it is slow going.

So far, I've made it just as far as the title would have got you...

62 pages of a trying family vacation and an exhausting child's birthday party. Why am I enjoying this so much? Just like Book 1, I think it's about the pacing, and stepping so fully into somebody else's life.

Many people have told me to read this book - and just like usually happens, I became dead-set against ever capitulating to their silly demands.

Luckily, I have a reading group that can twist my arm. It's so good I don't want to put it down.

I'm finding that this book commands way more attention than it deserves. I'm rediscovering why I don't read spy novels.

Every bit as good as I remembered.

So much better than I even remembered. Even though I've read it before, I have no recollection of how it ends. Totally true that there's no such thing as re-reading. Great books are interpreted differently every time..