I've been a fan of Gleick's since his landmark work Chaos, which explored the ins and outs of chaos theory and its modern applications. In this offering, Gleick goes all over the map, covering fully the historical roots of information technology, its major players and the philosophical implications of the movement's development. Along the way the book passes through lands of ancient African drumming (the earliest known form of long distance communication) through to the development of early mathematics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, the discovery of DNA, cybernetics and cryptography. It even spends a good chunk of time exploring Richard Dawkins's concept of memes, a fruitful discussion that rescued this subject for me from the dark haze of Dawkins's annoying modern-day media cult.
The star of the book is Claude Shannon, the too-often unsung "father of information theory", whose groundbreaking mid-20th century approach to "meaning agnostic" information transmission facilitated and inspired the architecture modern computer systems, from the first microprocessors to the internet. In the book's final chapters Gleick discusses the information "flood" that the internet has presented us with and discusses how we might navigate these very muddy waters in the future.
An authoritative, captivating work on the subject and a feast for any nonfiction science reader, not to mention my favorite book of the year which I will most likely be reading again very soon.
Refuse to Choose: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything You Love - Barbara Sher
Barbara Sher's self-help-ish book guided me a lot this year while I figured out how my mind works. In this useful life manual she identifies what she calls "scanners" (a stand-in for the often misleading term "polymaths")- people who have many interests that pull them off in all different directions, often to a detriment. Modern society isn't properly equipped to deal with scanners, which seems to expect its constituents to follow a "diver" lifestyle, in which a person sinks themselves wholeheartedly into a life where they do one and only one single thing expertly, forever. Trying to apply this blanket standard to scanners like me has disastrous consequences, which can lead to disillusionment, isolation and depression.
While some of the coping solutions for scanners she concocts are a bit uncreative (such as adopting 40 hour a week "good-enough-job" and pursuing your passions in your spare time), other ideas Sher presents in the book were pivotal for me in remaking the landscape of my life, such as the multiple streams of income model and the LTTL (Learn, Try, Teach, Leave) approach to working professionally, which I had actually already done at my previous job- it just dragged on unnecessarily for 4 years. It's much more productive (in retrospect) to view these types of outcomes as strategies instead of things that just happened by default, which avoids unnecessary guilt or unease about the entire situation and using phrases like "If I only I had...", etc.
What struck me most about this work was that it gave me permission to be myself- to pursue my mountains of different interests without feeling like I was weird or silly or misguided in doing so. It also led me to realize that I am not alone out here in scanner/polymath land. We are strong in numbers, and we have a lot to offer this planet!
The Four Hour Body - Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss has a knack for mastering the business of getting shit done and making us happier people. In his latest work he sets out on an entirely different frontier than the one he explored in his last New York Times Bestseller, The Four Hour Work Week which I read and loved last year. In The Four Hour Body (4HB as Tim calls it on his blog) he dispels any notion of linear progression through the book and asks "Which 150 pages will YOU read?" Parts of the book are on diet, fitness and muscle tone, while other sections focus on hacking your circadian sleep cycles so you can have more productive hours per day and yet others focus on how to improve your sex life and induce massive orgasms in your partner.
While I didn't put too much of this book to practical use, of the things I DID try I found that the sleep cycle hack totally WORKS. For a few weeks I slept six hours a night with one 30 minute nap in the middle of the day (being unemployed allows these type of luxuries) and only quit because of digestive trouble, likely caused by the crazy increase in adrenaline and energy (no caffeine necessary!). I would definitely do it again if I had some kind of project crunch that required it. Despite the side effects it's an awesome method for procuring some very valuable extra free time when you need it.
Sadie also adopted this book as her guide for weight loss this year and lost 30 pounds using the book's "slow carb" diet, which is restricted to protein, vegetables and legumes, with one "cheat" day a week where you can eat anything you want (ice cream, pizza(s), a whole cheesecake, etc). I've largely adopted this diet since Sadie and I share many of the same meals and I've been having trouble staying ABOVE my all time low weight as an adult. Bottom line- this stuff works. Tim- you rock, sir.
The Art of War - Sun Tzu
I'm not going to lie and say that I read this cover to cover, but this book sat on my desk the whole year (within reach as I write this) as I explored my various interests. It gave me a lot of perspective about how to deal with life situations in a non-destructive, passive, but firm disposition, presented in an utterly poetic and beautiful but highly readable style.
2011 was also my second full year of Tai Chi classes, during the course of which many works of Eastern philosophy were quoted by our teacher. One maxim that we hear often repeated is this, from The Art of War:
"Know the enemy, know yourself, and victory is never in doubt, not in a hundred battles."
This passage is one of my favorites because it deals directly with the unpredictability of situations that come up in life. Knowing thyself was a high ideal of the Ancient Greeks as well, recommending this practice most famously with a carving in the Oracle's Temple at Delphi. But knowing yourself is only one side of the coin- Master Sun also professes that you must understand the forces you are battling against in order to interact with them effectively.
For example you generally wouldn't launch a nuclear missile at a hurricane to stop it- you'd probably choose a more practical option, like taking shelter and hunkering down until it passes. In other words, there is no single magic bullet that is going to work for all situations. There are consequences for overreacting and overextending, as well as there are for underestimating and under-preparing.
Of all the Ancient Chinese and Taoist works I studied this year (Tao Te Ching, Chuang Tzu, et al), The Art of War provided by far the most practical and down to earth advice, directly applicable to modern life. Highly recommended- read it and please, spread it around. Our world will be a better place for it.
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