Steve

Concise, analytical

Évalué le: 2022-06-13

This is exactly what I was looking for. I just wanted the facts curated for me by someone who spent time on it.

If you are a man there are some things in here that may not apply to you, but you should know about them anyway...

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Stick to the point

Évalué le: 2021-12-21

This book veers off into a copy-paste exercise of major pop science insights, even presuming to explain game theory to me, as if this is necessary to make the point. It is entirely possible for someone to read, and complete, this book without having any core understanding of why governments push inflation, why they fear deflation, why we can trust that people won't stop spending in a deflationary environment, and pretty much everything that you'd hope the book would dig into. At least I heard some neat anecdotes about upcoming tech.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

This could have been condensed to 5 minutes

Évalué le: 2021-03-16

I realize the author spent a lot of his life doing this research, but unless you're interested in him as a person--that is, if you just want to know how bees make their decisions--you should Google up a summary and read it 8 times to make sure it sticks. I actually found myself losing track of the core facts because they were buried in so much extra padding.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Terrible

Évalué le: 2021-02-12

Not the worst thing to come out of 2020, but you can tell that that's when it was written. To repeat: you can date this book (which is set decades ago) to within a couple years of its publication date.

I'm gobsmacked that anybody who's literate could think this is good. Your mind has got to purged of all critical thought and aesthetic sense. You have to have an almost religious appetite for left-wing politics that suppresses all your normal brain functions. I could've written this book by programming an algorithm to spit out every trope about racial politics, and legions of upper-middle-class white people would've eaten it up.

The black protagonist is a star athlete, good at math, good at medicine, good at everything.
The white male character is rich for some unclear and unearned reason, gropes women, and doesn't care about math.
The white cousin is spoiled, and she only got a break in acting by showing her breasts.
Passing as white makes you wear furs and not really know anything except how to sign your name on a cheque. But if you start acting black, you start being interested in math.
The cousins can't really be friends because you can't *really* be friends with a white person who won't renounce themselves.
Random black physics professor added to remind you that black people can be good at science.

The real question is: how good is the author at math and science?

The book is dangerously ahistorical, to the point that I'd almost call it revisionist agitprop.

There's a trans character who shows up in the middle of the book, and the straight black heterosexual protagonist from Louisiana starts a relationship with her, with absolutely no questions asked, and just supports her through her trans experience. No hesitation. In the year 1978. Did you know that in modern day (not 1978) only 1.8% of Canadians surveyed would date a trans person? And of those people, 50% would only date a trans person whose birth sex matched their heterosexual preference? And those are trans-affirming Canadians being surveyed today--not black people from Louisiana in 1978. If you can take this book seriously, you were born yesterday.

Oh and the twins' father was lynched... in the 1940s. Just because you've gotta pack everything into one book. White people just lynchin' it up out there. But the fact is, a black man in the 1940s was more likely to get struck by lightning twice than to be lynched. Look it up.

Oh and when the protagonist is studying to get into med school in the 1980s, here's a thought that somebody nearby has: "Plenty of dull boys wanted to go to medical school but only smart girls thought to apply." Yeah that's why 70% of doctors in the 1980s were men, Brit Bennett... because only smart girls thought to apply.

I laughed out loud as I was listening to this. Other times I cringed so hard that I had to speed some passages up to 2.5x, it was so awkward. Sometimes at night I lie awake and think about how this author is out there, thinking she's a good writer, and thinking that the accolades are something besides an outlet for people's current political feelings. And I convulse.

This was worse than evangelical Christian fiction where the demons meet in the liberal college professor's office to discuss their plans. That this type of thing can be published in our society and receive critical acclaim has sent me into despair. We are entering an intellectual and aesthetic dark age from which there is no obvious escape.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Didn't need to be a book

Évalué le: 2020-09-14

I just wanted to know what the Internet is doing to our brains. Invariably, however, you are subjected to the entire history of language and the printing press, as if you haven't read any pop science non-fiction before.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Inflammatory but full of necessary facts

Évalué le: 2020-08-30

Although the author takes the whole "sociopath" thing too far, the point is that the disregard for the future (and for fiscal responsibility) is real, and must be addressed.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Incisive and expertly articulated.

Évalué le: 2020-05-26

Murray saddles himself with the laudable but unenviable goal of carefully plodding through the absurdity without losing his temper, losing the point, or losing the will to carry on. Well done.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Could've been a paper

Évalué le: 2019-09-09

This could've been condensed into an hour. The author keeps saying he isn't endorsing woo but he says a lot of wooish things. Nonetheless, if the goal was to rekindle my interest in trying psychedelics then he succeeded.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Great, wish it was even longer and more advanced.

Évalué le: 2019-06-08

There's no reason to require 15 words in a review when I wrote my thoughts in the title. In any case, this was a great set of lectures; real fun to listen to.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Fantastic

Évalué le: 2019-05-06

More true, and more accurate, than anyone or anything else I have consulted for pain

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation.

3 les gens ont trouvé cela utile