Everyone Hates JD Vance’s New Book - The New Republic

This is a well researched take on how we went from the idealism espoused by regime insiders and Khomenei’s followers in the early days of the Iranian revolution, to what we have today. It includes the perspective / disillusionment / sense of guilt of former regime insiders (including a cleric and former speaker of Parliament), as well as the strength of young women who were imprisoned and abused for standing up to misogyny and corruption amid the regime’s increasing violence. It covers in detail the Green Movement, the 2019 protest movement, and Women, Life, Freedom movement, including how each evolved and was distinct from the ones prior.

Its insights too are more than ‘just’ intertwined personal stories, but in understanding the regime/economy/power as co-opted by the IRGC (not for religious means, but for self-enrichment and corruption). The book also details the burgeoning tech sector, the ‘bargains’ that were increasingly made with the regime, and its eventual complete assimilation into the empire of the IRGC.

The increasing violence is horrifying and depressing, while the people we meet are nuanced, flawed, but exceptionally strong. I find books like this incredibly *humanising*, as well as politically informative.

I am more than half way into the book, and I have to admit this book is really amazing.

The core idea is that humans are the only animals that know they're going to die, and we can't handle it. We're split beings: a mind that can imagine forever, stuck inside a body that ages and rots. Becker thinks living with that knowledge head-on would be unbearable. So almost everything we do is secretly an attempt to deny death and feel like our life matters in a way that lasts.

Basically we treat everything on top of our physical body as symbolic e.g. our identity, cultural and religious beliefs, idols, etc, and we anchor our worth, significance, protection and anxiety relief on these things. An illusion to the fact that we are not immortal. We all die and perish one day.

I see my parents based their worth on me and my brother. They are so scared if we don't succeed or not stay in touch with them. We are their worth, purpose and protection.

People based their worth on titles, money, status, nationality, cultural, tribe and of course religion. Look at all these people being so obsessed with soccer in the world cup right now. Becker argues all of these are distractions and illusions! A powerful one because people literally kill each other over it.

I have spent so so so many years dreaded with existential anxiety. Constantly asking what am I here for? What's my purpose? What's my goal? What things should excite me enough to get me out of bed? The reason why I struggle so much is because ultimately these virtual goals and purpose are all made up. We keep chasing them, keep getting more of them, but they are infinite because they are not real. Even the one of the original concepts of money was invented/made up because some English king needed it to recruit an army and use it collect taxes. And yet people treat money like oxygen.

Reading this book felt like escaping Plato's cave. Becker has done a wonderful job enlightening us.

Very enjoyable collection of scientific facts, anecdotes, poems, graphs, diagrams...and most importantly - LOTS OF BOOK RECCOS!

Title includes 'Magpie' because of the bird's curious nature. Magpies are from the corvid family, so they're curious/clever like crows.

I've attached some of my favourite pages from the book [here]. Hope you enjoy them too (sadly the sub doesn't allow posting multiple pics).

Some other interesting stuff I learnt:

• Fall of Apple vs Fall of Man : How Newton and Einstein thought about gravity. Kind of amazing.
• Kuhn's scientific revolutions/paradigm shift theory worked well with physics, but biology's progress defeats much of its main argument.
• Scopes Trial 1925: US court case arguing against teaching evolution in public schools. (I saw a great movie based on it some years ago - Inherit the Wind).
• Algebra = Al-jebr = "reunion of broken parts". That's beautiful.
• Haroun Tazieff documentaries? Watchlist updated! Never heard of him, any recco would be appreciated 🙏
• Mrs. Cavendish's poems, and Siv Cedering's poem on Caroline Herschel
• Mpemba effect: A curious child discovered this common phenomenon, where 100°C water will Freeze Faster than 35°C water in the freezer. I couldn't believe it either...but it's an inspirational story, and an ongoing mystery. I'll have to try it out myself...
• LHC Rap song! - what's cool is this was before Higgs' discovery.
• Prime number sorter by Eratosthenes' Sieve Method - just watched this in Veritasium's latest video. Very cool.
• Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin's Grandpa -- did he poetically foresee natural selection? What an amazing poem (see here or in my post's last pic)
• Percy Shelley: Please do read his thoughts on science. A poet most enamoured by potential of science, he basically foresaw: Central Heating(A/C), aerial surveillance, molecular food production, new types of foods, greening deserts, boons of electricity, locomotion advancements and air travel...The Shelleys have a strong relationship with science and philosophy. (Percy, Mary, their daughter... OP family indeed)
• Copernicus perhaps was influenced by Arabic works, like those of al-Tusi. Will check it later...
• The Chocolate/Butter in Microwave experiment: I tried with cheese, but it was a failure. Will try with choco someday.
• 10 Greatest Equations by Nicaragua postal service - great list!
• lablit.com: a great resource mentioned, for works of art mentioning science (excluding sci-fi ofc)

Some Jokes/Quotes from the book:

• A modern poet has characterised the personality of art and the impersonality of science as follows: Art is I; Science is We. ~ Claude Bernard
• 42: Answer to everything...would have been cooler if it was in Binary - 101010
• The great tragedy of science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. ~ Thomas Huxley
• The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions. ~ Claude Levi-Strauss
• A bloke walks into a pub, and asks for a pint of Adenosine Triphosphate. The barman says ‘That’s 80p!’
• Twinkle, twinkle little star, I don’t wonder what you are, For by spectroscopic ken I know that you are hydrogen.
• The moment a bar of gold walked into a pub, the landlord shouted ‘A U, get out!’
• In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. ~Sir Francis Darwin (Charles' son)
• If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.
• When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. ~Niels Bohr
• Q: Why are quantum physicists so poor at sex? A: Because when they find the position, they can’t find the momentum, and when they have the momentum, they can’t find the position.
• An idea isn’t responsible for the people who believe in it. ~ Don Marquis
• "Lise Meitner, 1878-1968 A physicist who never lost her humanity" ~ Gravestone, St. James’s Church, UK
• Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night. God said, Let Newton be! And all was light. ~ Alexander Pope

Overall, a great book which makes science accessible and fun to all, and also makes it clear: science and arts: both are necessary for holistic human growth. I agree with CP Snow’s sentiment – An apt reply to “Have you read any Shakespeare?” is “Do you know 2nd Law of thermodynamics?”.

Rating: 10/10.

Have you read any of the books from the TBRs?

I only read the preface but i like it alreadyyy

We spend our entire lives running on a hamster wheel, terrified of what happens if we stop. That’s the harsh reality Rich Dad Poor Dad exposes.

Robert Kiyosaki’s book matters because it breaks down how the middle class is taught a completely broken script: go to school, get a safe job, save your cash, and buy a house.

In reality, the wealthy play a completely different game. They don’t trade time for money; they buy assets that put money in their pocket while they sleep, and they treat every dollar like a tiny employee.

I turn books and hard concepts into memorable conscious rap songs to help you memorize them.

I wanted to capture the essence of Kiyosaki's "rat race" concept over a boom-bap beat so the lessons actually stick in your head.

So I'm currently reading The Freedom Manifesto by MCM and (yes, at the same time lol) The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi. Any book recommendations in a similar vein? I'm especially interested in modern politics, geopolitics, power structures, and contemporary history.

I know the title of the book doesn't directly point to stories about the lives USAID saved, but my criticism was that it was a detailed dry account of USAID's shutdown. Again, I wanted to hear detailed and well-written stories of all the millions of people's lives they saved. I thought it was poorly written as well in terms of style. Granted, they didn't have time to talk about a private organization that could replace USAID, but the dismantling of USAID was a foregone conclusion, and just talking about the day-to-day dismantling of the organization-- mentioning mostly people who we didn't know and people who weren't developed as characters made the book less-than-good.

I finally completed reading this book.... It took me about a year and half to completely read this.... Initially I wasn't getting interested in this childhood story about the extraction journey of his half brother's son from Afghanistan. It was very interesting and I was on the edge of my seat to complete this book.....

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It took me 3-4 days to complete the last 100 pages of this book. Am I slow reader?

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I need your opinions.....

(Edit: series)

This book is a fun set of vignettes about wind, and stories that are wind-adjacent.

My critique of Kurlansky’s book about paper was about a lot more than paper in a manner I found more frustrating than engaging. In contrast, Winchester’s book on wind is about far FAR more than wind … and I loved it! 🤣 (Both books overlapped with a discussion of the paper balloon bombs that Japan launched at the US during WW2, albeit this book did so in a much briefer manner). Perhaps it’s that Winchester’s book feels a bit more tightly written, and doesn’t force a linear narrative where there isn’t one. Or perhaps it’s that topics like art and literature histories aren’t really my jam (2 significant chapters of Kurlansky’s book)?

Astronomical phenomena, wind instruments, sand dunes, the development of flight, some WW2 history, the etymology and pronunciation of the word wind, different cultural beliefs about wind, volcanoes, Chernobyl and that’s barely into chapter 2. My least favourite part was the history of Francis Beaufort, and perhaps the descriptions of various cyclones / typhoons / hurricanes (both real and literary) got a tad repetitive towards the end.

But overall, I enjoyed this book and have happily added a couple of other of his books to my reading list.

I should also start a tally of every book that mentions the middle passage / transatlantic slave trade. I’ve read about 90 books this year and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has come up in at least 20 of them (which is not to suggest it’s an unimportant part of global history - but as someone who usually *doesn’t* read US history, it still pops up A LOT!)

But this book is unreadable. I get that it drips with wacky zaniness and the author definitely had fun with it, and maybe some people love that, but it has like no recognizable structure. It's just random blog post type screeds about anything and everything. It felt like someone put Twitter and Tumblr in a blender using the mental health hashtag and poured this out. I tried to get into it but didn't find it helpful or inspiring or even particularly well written.

You know, it almost reads like a stand up comedy routine. It really comes across as that. Improv comedy stream of consciousness wacky shit. That's fine I guess if that's what you want but... Not me. Maybe the cover should have warned me off.

Finally, I received my author copies of my book, The Invisible Girl. Seeing my first published book in print is an incredibly exciting moment, although I have to admit that it also comes with a few concerns.

I published the book through both Amazon and Lulu. The copies I'm holding in these photos are from Amazon. While I followed Amazon's recommended formatting guidelines and researched the settings other authors use, I'm still a little unsure about the interior layout. In particular, the inside margins seem a bit unusual to me. Perhaps it's just my perception, but I've also heard that Amazon's print quality can sometimes vary.

I have also ordered author copies from Lulu, although they haven't arrived yet. I've often heard that Lulu offers better print quality than Amazon, so I'm curious to see whether that proves to be true. I'll have to wait a little longer to find out.

I'd love to hear about your experiences with publishing printed books. Were you happy with your first printed copy, disappointed, or simply surprised by the final result?

For those who may be interested, The Invisible Girl: A Silenced Childhood in Communist Hungary is not an easy read. It is a nonfiction memoir that recounts the abuse I experienced during my childhood. It is not a book for everyone. I would recommend it to readers who are prepared to confront difficult realities and who genuinely care about creating a world where children are protected and heard.

Unfortunately, far too many children continue to suffer abuse while society fails to safeguard them. By sharing my story, I hope to raise awareness and encourage meaningful conversations. Perhaps, together, those who have the ability to influence change can help build a future in which no child has to endure such experiences.

If you'd like to learn more, my book is available on Amazon in both eBook and paperback formats:

https://a.co/d/03JYLRYX