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New Book!

10 October, 201710 October, 2017 ~ poorbjorn

New Book – New Topic.

Reading up on some light theory that might help me in my work as an Environment Artist in the games industry. Let there be light (and shadow, terminator, fill, translucency, caustics etc….)!

Light for Visual Artists: Understanding & Using Light in Art & Design

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Reading List 2018
Reading List 2017
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Favorite Books of 2017
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While his other books, Sapiens and Homo Deus, focused on the past and the far future - this book focuses on the present and mankind’s immediate challenges. —- Topics are ranging from how to deal with disruptive technologies, the resurrection of nationalism and the relevancy of religions. Harari wants to shine a light on the fact that we are lacking new idea systems that are capable to help us navigate these new and trying times. Liberalism and the other old ideologies just won’t make the cut anymore. —- 📝 The opportunity cost of fighting terrorism is that the money could have be used to fight other threats; like global warming. —- 📝 Disruptive technologies will likely create a new “worthless class” of billions. Marxism might make a come back when jobs are being threatened, one might think? But Marxism presumes that the workers labour is of value. That probably won’t be the case with advancements in automation. —- 📝 Protect humans not jobs. Finding meaningful pursuit for humans is the most important problem to solve in a future without jobs. —- 📝 You don’t need religious text to be moral. Apes learned to take care of the poor and weak well before the Bible told them so. —- 📝 “If you want reliable information, pay good money for it.” 👌🏻 —- A whole bookshelf worth of topics is crammed into one small volume, which becomes a problems when each chapter deserves its own book. —- Harari don’t have a solution for all the issues. He offers the same advise that wise people and sages always have: sit down on a cushion and observe your sensations. Know thyself, and get to know suffering deeply enough so that you can act in a way that reduces it both your life and in the life of others. —- 4/5

The Stranger is presented as a first person narration by Monsieur Meursault. A man who get imprisoned for shooting “an Arab” on a beach. —- It’s a quick read, somewhat depressing, and very absurd. I like it! Especially thought provoking is the fact that Meursault excepts to be judged for his crime (murder) but is instead is judged by his character because he did not cry at his mothers funeral and the fact that he was seeing a comedy at the cinema the day after his mother’s death. —— Reading it gives me a sense of unease as I’m are used to sympathize with the main character. Meursault don’t care about being likable. Another striking thing about this books is Meursault detached way of observing the world. —- Here is a conversation after his friend have been beating up a girlfriend of his: —- “Then he wanted to shoot a game of pool, and I just barely lost. Afterwards he wanted to go to a whorehouse, but I said no, because I don’t like that. So we took our time getting back, him telling me how glad he was that he’d been able to give the woman what she deserved. I found him very friendly with me and I thought it was a nice moment.” —- 📝 The Classic beginning: “Mother died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram from the Home: “Mother deceased. Funeral Tomorrow. Faithfully yours.” That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.” —- 💭 Thought: Haha, when I think about it, the way Monsieur Meursault expresses himself in this book is very similar to how I write in my journal. Short sentences. Very detached and emotionless. Giving small and big events the same weight. A journal entry could look like this: “My son took his first steps today. I need to eat more vegetables. Today I received The Stranger in the mail. Looking forward to reading it.” —- On the topic of baby steps; I’m taking my first stumbling steps into the world of classic literature. I feel it’s much harder to write about these types of books than non-fiction. Anyway.. I enjoy it! —— What are your favorite classics? Which one are wanting to read? 🤔 —— 4/5

The theoretical have taken a back seat these last few weeks to make room for the practical. —— Focus have been on public speaking and communication. I have attended a weekend long course dedicated solely to this — and this week a lot of time has been spent on preparing a speech I’m presenting this Thursday at #Toastmasters —— I’ve been reading less as a result of all of this but I still have a lot new reading material in the pipeline: —— 📖 “Women who run with the wolves” — Time to explore the archetype of the wild woman! —— 📖 “Building a Story Brand” — Marketing book about how clarity and story telling can help your business grow. By Donald Miller. —— 📖 “The Stranger” — Camus classic and absurd novel. My next step in expanding my knowledge about classical literature. ——- 📖 “Mutants” — On genetic variety and the human body. Could be great! —— 🎧 “Leonardo Da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson — Turtle power! —- 🎧 “21 Lessons for the 21st Century “ by Yuval Noah Harari — The robots are taking over. I’m glad I’ve already started to prepare for being a part of a “worthless class”. More time for running and philosophizing! 👌🏻 —— What’s in the book pipeline for you?

“The soul mate of you dreams is going to become the cellmate of your nightmares.” Rosenbergs father said this to him as a joke 30 years before he wrote this book. There is a lot of psychological insight in this joke. Especially since Rosenberg grew up to be a codependent. —- In a magnet-like fashion, Codependents are attracted towards self-absorbed emotional manipulators. We have all witnessed this phenomenon. Maybe we scratched ourselves in the head and wondered: “Why do these people don’t see that this relationship is dysfunctional?” —- This magnet-like force that pulls the codependent and the narcissist to each other is what Rosenberg aims to explain in this book. —- 📝 Codependent and emotional manipulators are naturally attracted to each other because if their perfectly compatible dysfunctional inverse personalities. —- 📝 Consciously we desire relationships based on similarities. But this is secondary to our unconscious preferences. “...We unconsciously gravitate towards relationships that are familiar and reminiscent of those experienced during our childhood.” —- 📝 People of similar polarities seems uninteresting to each other. When dating what “on paper” would be the perfect partner the feel like “chemistry” is missing. —- 📝 These types of relationships are resistant to break-up because neither the codependent or the manipulator can stand being alone. Loneliness triggers shame and a feeling of inadequacy. —- 📝 Most families, especially dysfunctional ones, tend to resist change, since it is experienced as stressful and uncomfortable. A child, in an attempt to gain independence, might be seen as a threat. “Hence, all families, especially dysfunctional ones, not only resist change, but pass down their shared emotional function to the next generation.” —— A good book if you want to get an introduction to the common personality disorders. A fantastic book if you find yourself in an unending loop of dysfunctional relationships. —- ⭐️ TAKEAWAY: I’ve been thinking about one question a lot lately: What makes me sad about the world we live in? I think I have found it. It is how unfair it is that children have to inherit the problems of their parents. 😔 —— 3/5

What I really would like to know is how you use feedback as tool, but first.... —- Here are my key takeaways form your feedback: —————————— ⭐️ Add More Personal Thoughts. —- Anyone can summarize a book, right?! What makes things interesting is the thoughts and associations book triggers in the reader. That’s the part I enjoy when I’m reading book post. I will definitely keeping this in mind going forward. —————————- ⭐️ Start making video content w. audio. —- Started working on this last week. To be honest, It feels weird, unnatural and a bit pretentious to do it. I mean, who am I to broadcast shit to the world, right? BUT, it is a skill I want to master and the only way to get good is to practice. I’m also starting a private group for people who want to start working with video and want a friendly environment for practice in. I don’t think I’m alone in my struggle. More info coming soon! 😉 —- ⭐️ Show how you put what you learn into practice in everyday life. —- This is something I’ve been wanting to expand on for a while, and I do it somewhat in my Lab Reports. I have a few ideas on how to improve on this point. ———————————— Thanks to everyone who provided valuable feedback! —- Special thanks for elaborate feedback: @postcardsandauthors Anita, your the best! Check out her profile! @rick_urbanski Overdelivering as always! Im blessed to have a follower like you. @nabilmedjebeur I don’t know you yet, but you are a boss! —- That’s it for me. Now I want to know how you work with feedback in different aspects of your life and how you plan to improve the coming 6 months. Comment or DM!

HeLa cells was the first immortal cell line ever discovered. This mean that they can survive and multiply forever in labs given they are provided with cell culture. Without this amazing discovery modern medicine would look very different. —— HeLa stands for Henrietta Lacks. The name of the poor tobacco farmer from which the cells come from. This book tells the story of the cells and the Lacks family, (which I quite a ride!) but also the history of patient consent. —— 📝 What made the HeLa cancer cells so special was that they allowed researchers to do all kinds of experiments on them that would never be allowed to do on live humans. —— 📝 HeLa led to the polio vaccine in a time when people died in droves from it. Only one of many HeLa contributions! —— 📝 The Tuskegee Study: In the 30s scientists studied how one died from syphilis. Black men where observed dying from syphilis without intervention. (Yes, a cure existed.) “Doctors where doing experiments on black people. Watching them die.” That was the word on the streets when the study came to public knowledge. No wonder black Americans where distrustful of scientists! —— 📝 All cancers originate from one cell going wrong. Scary thought. Memento Mori I guess! —— 📝 People in prisons volunteered to inject Henrietta’s cancer cells into their arms to see how healthy people rejected to them. These patients fought off the cancer. (I would not volunteer for that 😬) —— 📝 Modern gene patenting inhabits research. (No shit, Sherlock! 🕵️‍♂️ 😒) —— 📝 The Lacks family have seen nothing of millions of dollars being made from HeLa-cells. They are still piss poor. —— ⭐️ TAKEAWAY: What made things worse was the Lacks family’s lack of education. When hearing about Henrietta’s cells being cloned in London, her daughter thought actual copies of Henrietta was walking on Trafalgar Square, when i reality it was only her cancer cells that was cloned. The stress made her sick. So much unnecessary suffering could have been avoided by education. —— What are you reading this week? —— 3/5

YEAR TWO for me on Instagram has come to end. It’s been a really fun one for me and I have tons of ideas of how to evolve this little endeavor going forward into year three. —— BUT before sharing that vision, I would love to get some feedback on what I've got going here. I’m always looking for ways to improve my content. 😀 —— Things like: - What to stop doing? - What to start doing? - What to continue doing? - What would you like to see more of? - I really hate this and that! - Why not try doing *insert word here*? - Etc... —— I'm thankful for any type of feedback and I'll try to find a way to return the favor! Don't be shy now! 😎 —— DM me or COMMENT below! (No sugar coating needed, I can take it!)

This short and sweet books became the next stop for my Hermann Hesse obsession. —- The story has magical, almost mystical feel to it. Almost impossible to understand at times, but we are being warned, that the story about to be told about the journey to the East, is an untellable story. It’s not just a journey in space, but also in time. It’s is also both biographical and fictional. —- The main character, H.H, loses touch with himself, his Being and his previously natural creativity. In an attempt to re-live past days of glory he sets out to write an account of his greatest adventure; his journey to the East with The League. —- The League is a secret society that he ones where part of, with roots going back thousands of years. Famous members including both real and fictional hotshots like Plato, Mozart, Pythagoras, Don Quixote, Puss in Boots, and the ferryman Vasudeva (from Siddhartha) just to name a few. —- ”But no account of David (note: King David that is.) can prove to me that life is not just a game. That is just what life is when it’s beautiful and happy —- a game! Naturally, one can also do all kinds of other things with it, make a duty of it, or a battleground, or a prison, but that does not make it any prettier? Goodbye, pleased to have met you!” — - Leo to H.H in Journey to the East. —- It’s an honest and personal story about the cycle faith gained, lost and regained. The unending search for enlightenment. —- It didn’t grab me right away but when I got into it I couldn’t put it down before I reached the last page. Beautiful book! —- What should be my next Hesse book? 🤔Btw. Just ordered The Stranger by Camus. So expect more classic fiction going forward! 😊 —— 4/5

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Thoughts on Classics: “The Stranger – Albert Camus 19 September, 2018
Thoughts on: “The Human Magnet Syndrome” by Ross Rosenberg 10 September, 2018
Thoughts on: “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot 24 August, 2018
Thoughts on: “The Journey to the East” by Hermann Hesse 19 August, 2018
The Bible of Fake News. Thoughts on “Trust me, I’m Lying”. 6 August, 2018

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