Omar > Recent Status Updates

Took more than midway through the book but eventually, one encounters Tolkien:

“Smok or Zmij, or Zmei or Zmaj, depending on which Slavic speaking country you happen to be in, is the archetypal serpent, denier-of-life, and any resemblance you may notice to J. R. R Tolkien's dragon Smaug is not coincidental.”

On Trump:

“He had on his USA ball cap, broad crowned so it wasn't possible to see the swirl of contrivance that was his hair. I knew a thing or two about creative hairdos and was disappointed not to have the chance to study his.”

Lol

On Silicon Valley and the iPhone era:

“The old art history student in me wondered if what was taking place in San Francisco at the turn of a new century was perhaps the same spirit of Florence on the eve of the Renaissance.”

"Something about the translucence of that jar of gel spoke to me."

Re: the beginning of the hair gel, lol

Great resource. Listening to audiobook which seems just as good as reading given the subject matter.

“The Fifth tells a story of personal victory and inner heroism painted in broad strokes on an epic canvas. The ecstasy of the Eroica’s end is humanity rejoicing. The ecstasy at the end of the fifth symphony as a Personal cry of victory.”

“Now, as with all artists, his own suffering became grist for the mill.” (411) Regarding the highly productive period around 1805.

“In an ideal sense, Beethoven might imagine becoming the kind of ethical and spiritual leader he recognized in poets and philosophers like Goethe and Schiller. Bonaparte was aimed toward lifting him to such heights. In the process, it would show the world what a sinfonia grande could truly be and do. Here was a conception worthy of the Aufklärung and of his gifts and ambitions.”

Apart from Mark [Andreessen], I think most other people can see the complexity of AI and the complexity of its impact. (321)

“Wikipedia is probably the best single example of what I wanted the web to be.”

Really interesting how extended the drama at Ithaca is. When younger I recall more of the story tilted toward the journey home but that is not the case!

“He met extraordinary suffering with extraordinary endurance and courage. He needed that strength. Other than death itself, going deaf is the worst thing that can happen to a musician. That is easy to understand, terrible to bear.”

(226)

By 1798, the first parts of a great puzzle were falling into place for him….The enlightened and revolutionary ideals of his childhood in Bonn, the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, Haydn's masses [….] How could he lift his art to a new level, to the territory of scope and ambition where he had always expected it to live? How could he step out of the role of entertainer and into the stream of history?

Interesting moment.

“He was ashamed to let them see him cry. Each time the singer paused, Odysseus wiped tears, drew down the cloak and poured a splash of wine out of his goblet, for the gods. But each time, the Phaeacian nobles urged the bard to sing again—they loved his songs.”

“Now Mozart was dead. In part, Beethoven’s coming career as a composer would be predicated on having no real rival in his own generation.” (126)

The language flows very clearly and indeed, I’m struck by how *funny* some moments must have appeared to the audience (like naked Odysseus)

“Fortunately, the hostility to algorithms will probably soften as their role in everyday life continues to expand.” Interesting take re formulas as being better than judgments prone to biases. Relevant section for AI.

Invaluable.

It’s interesting to be able to recall aspects of this story. I’m on the part about the introduction of Apple Maps and it’s an interesting case study in how *not* to launch a product—as I remember the bad press it got.

“Remember what followed the invention of the printing press in Europe: a century and a half of religious wars.”

The book really starts to find its momentum when comparing the American and British industrial revolutions - prior to that I was getting wary (and still am) of the lack of a central thesis. But perhaps that misses the point.

Didn’t realize the Dutch-Anglo connection…

They could produce a rehearsed simulacrum of human empathy, but they seemed incapable of comprehending their own role in the story, and impervious to any genuine moral epiphany. They resented being cast as the villains in a drama, but it was their own stunted, stubborn blindness that made them so well suited to the role. They couldn’t change.

“…[T]his was the very scenario he had feared: the prosecutors in a little satellite office in Abingdon devoted a substantial chunk of their careers to putting together an airtight case against Purdue, only to have handful of white-shoe influence peddlers in Washington go straight over their heads and short-circuit the whole endeavor.”

“Richards argument about OxyContin mirrored the libertarian position of a firearms manufacturer who insists that he bears no responsibility for gun deaths….It is a peculiar hallmark of the America economy that you can produce a dangerous product and effectively off-load any legal liability for whatever destruction that product may cause by pointing to the individual responsibility of the consumer.”

A narrative page-turner, not without an aspect of tacit dry humor from the author:

But the space program was a great coup and priceless publicity for the company. "Splash-down!" a Purdue Frederick advertisement clamored, noting that while NASA might use Betadine for space germs, it was also available, here on earth, as a "mouthwash/gargle."