Personal

As a kid, I read a lot of books above my level of comprehension. More to show off and show folks my “smartness” and give off that snooty “I am a well read boy” air1 than from any sense of love or learning. I know better now (I hope, I do) :) But two books from those days will always stay with me. One was my father’s science textbook, which I no longer have or remember the title of. I used it for four years in high school to understand what I was learning. The book was my secret weapon :) The language in that old textbook was far more engaging and lively than the teachers in class. And it was beautiful with all those black and white line drawings, and anecdotes of the folks who made those amazing discoveries. (Faraday and Tesla and Watts and Madam Curie). It actually was a textbook from before science became “Science”; when it was Natural Philosophy Despite years of searching, I haven’t found it again. The closest textbook of that style I could point you to, would be Thompson’s Calculus. ...

More Gaiman truisms for me. He talks about writing. Holds true for all of my endeavours though. lazynoodlepuff asked: Hi Neil, I wonder what could tell not native speaker like me. I struggle with writing anything. Words don’t flow in my native language and in English it’s even more difficult. Sonetimes I struggle with every sentence. But I really want to create things in English and be a part of English-speaking culture. Is this too much to try learn not only to write but also write in another language? I feel like I am so far behind everyone and have to try so hard just to keep up (I moved to the UK to study) ...

For me. For posterity. From Neil Gaiman. miriams-song asked: Hey Neil. Someone recently told me that because I’m not ethnically Jewish (I’m a conversion student set to be “official” within the next year), I shouldn’t be writing ethnically Jewish characters. What do you think? I’ve been actively involved with my Jewish community for years so accusations like that are pretty hurtful. As a writer of fiction part of your duty and obligation is to write characters who are not you. Write them well, write them with respect and interest. And don’t listen to anyone who tells you you aren’t allowed to write people who aren’t you. You are. ...

As the year draws to an end, here’s what the folks I follow read this year. Vishal Khandelwal, has a couple of short, sweet posts on “The Books That Made Me.” Here’s Part 1 and here’s Part 2. If you’ve already read (and reread) Taleb’s books, here’s a list of books he loves (and hates). Here is Ryan Holiday’s evergreen list and here’s what he was unto in 2018. Patrick Collison has a whole antilbrary. (via this ttfs episode). ...

Scott H Young on writing as a tool to sharpen your thinking. From the article … First, by jotting down your thoughts on paper, you can hold more ideas than you could in your limited working memory. This means you can more easily work through thoughts that have several parts which are difficult to keep in mind simultaneously. Second, writing allows editing. If I write down an idea, then later notice a contradiction further down the page, I can go back and edit it. Editing mentally quickly becomes exhausting as, like in the n-back task, the old information interferes with the new. ...

– via Austin Kleon