A book report must be issued to a book in order to determine whether the book can be of use to other readers. I carry them out because I believe you must write in order to learn. Therefore, I post my book reports online for your benefit, or displeasure. --- ### Favorites - **Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance**: I believe this book defies report, therefore I will not post one here. --- ### AI - [[Life 3.0 - Max Tegmark]]: Pretty good. Covers a lot of AI and futurism. - [[On Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins]]: Provides a theory of what intelligence is and how it comes from the brain. Written for the layman, but seems to be well-grounded scientifically. - [[Weapons of Math Destruction - Cathy O'Neil]]: Examines the "Dark Side of Big Data." Irresponsible use of algorithms can harm society, so here's how to recognize them. --- ### History - [[American Nations - Colin Woodard]]: An engaging analysis of the history of North America that explains historical events through the interaction of 11 cultural nations within the North American federations. - [[Leadership - Doris Kearns Goodwin]]: An analysis of the lives, personalities, and philosophies of 4 very different US presidents and how they each achieved great outcomes as leaders despite their differences. - [[Revolutionary Characters - Gordon Wood]]: An in-depth analysis of what made several founding fathers unique in history, and an overall narrative of how they set up a society that would transcend their kind. --- ### Nature - [[The Soul of an Octopus - Sy Montgomery]]: A touching memoir of the author's experiences with octopuses. --- ### Philosophy #### Mind - [[The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul - Paul Churchland]]: This book details the philosophical foundation of [[Connectionism]], a philosophy of mind based on the behavior of [[Neural Networks]]. --- ### Productivity - [[The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande]]: A quick and entertaining read where Atul Gawande shares stories from his work as a surgeon and explains how introducing checklists can improve performance in highly complex situations. - [[Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman]]: Many books on time management and productivity offer a motivational or technical perspective that simply assume you can get more out of yourself. This book takes a step back and considers what wisdom in time management might look like. --- ### Sports - [[Alone on the Wall - Alex Honnold]]: A written account of the climbs performed by [Alex Honnold](http://www.alexhonnold.com/), who is probably one of the most insane athletes on the planet. --- ### Systems - [[Chaos - James Gleick]]: Pretty good; moderately technical. Covers chaos and dynamic systems. - [[Web of Life - Fritjof Capra]]: Superbly written summary of cybernetics, dynamic systems, and biology, with some thoughts on cognition and consciousness towards the end. --- ### Fiction #### Sci-Fi - [[Neuromancer - William Gibson]]: What does it feel like to be a pawn in the schemes of a superior mind?