Mood Machine by Liz Pelly

What can go wrong with Spotify? It is a product which is trying to provide the music to the listeners around the world without much hassle of juggling between multiple apps limited by the licensing roadblocks between different producers.

But is this what it looks like?

Spotify is a business like any other which charges the consumers for the subscription, and try to balance the cost against it. Which is perfectly alright until the balance moves in a direction of some practices where rather then providing the right music, it tries to start maneuvering around the user behavior to make more money. Which is where the object of business dilutes when the product makes more money and the artists are left with no to very low portion of the overall earnings.

And really, the competition for Spotify is not the other similar business but the user's attention. There will be a whole team at Spotify dedicated to user engagement but how much it can acquire from a user's time, and is there any limit?

Why the users will engage to an auto play rather then actually choosing the music that they want to listen? The answer lies in not being thoughtful about what we're consuming, and that is true for everything we consume. We read the books recommended, watch a movie, keep watching photos/videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and all the similar platform. Just scrolling without actually registering what we're consuming or something which gives a quick satisfaction.

There is nothing like a perfect playlist unless you know what you want to listen.

Love

The Shortest History of Japan by Lesley Downer

You can't expect much from a book which has shortest in the title but this does cover a lot of things about Japan from the history to contemporary topics.

The books like this work like a primer where you don't invest much time but still get a lot of relevant information which can potentially help a reader decide whether to pursue the subject further.

Japan is one of the oldest culture, and even if one is not interested in knowing everything about it, this books gives the basic building blocks on which you can always add but beware of making any opinion too soon.

Love

All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley

This the single window to understand how a guard in a museum thinks about all the artefacts kept there. Of course the writer could come up with writing about this based on his years of experience being a guard but the sensibilities for art, and appreciating comes with the long exposure.

A lot of times just being around doesn't make you appreciate things. It takes an active engagement, and observation that helps one see what others just see because of second hand knowledge.

Going to a museum is a task if you're into it otherwise it is same as walking any climate controlled building in a big city. It can be a casino, mall or anything unless you're award of your surroundings.

This ones tries top convey a lot about how one should see art but it can only be learnt inside. So, next time we're in a museum, just stop and appreciate the art, and don't just be around with a hashtag.

Love

Kaput by Wolfgang Münchau

Germany is the most important country of Europe, and it is one of the biggest economies of the world.

This one is mostly about the economic circumstances of Germany, and how it came to this. Its a bit difficult to adapt to the whole idea in the book but it puts forward the arguments, and situations which led to the current situation of Germany.

It is not Kaput but definitely needs a new direction focusing on more important things compared to some left-right tug of way which distracts people. It is not at the edge yet and has a bright chances to get back with a bang. The world is not just about production, and cars anymore. The faster the policymakers learn it better will be the recovery.

Peace

Land Between the Rivers by Bartle Bull

History of Iraq is different from what it is today which makes one wonder how it ended up here from being so amazing in the past. But that is the thing about the past.

Reading this book was a primer before one can understand anything about how the civilisations evolve and how this particular one contributed to science, literature, music, art and everything else that summarises any civilisation.

The historical part of the book is very informative however the later part which is more dedicated to the political scenarios from the post modern world is not the best. But this is a good point to start and explore if this topic gets any reader interested in this subject.

History always looks beautiful. It is not something to be proud of but something to be cherished. But beware of someone who promises to bring you back to the history because they might do it.

Peace

How They Broke Britain by James O'Brien

We're giving a lot of credit to the people who are the part of the narration. The absence of a good thought is not opposite of presence of bad thought.

We can go through this over and over but eventually it was people who stopped seeing the irrationality of the whole discussion. They were persuaded for something which they didn't understand very well. And this persuasion was based on lies and deceit.

But can this be a reason enough to cut some slack while it was the big lie written on the wall. Maybe yes or maybe not. One thing is though clear is that there are always a chance when people take the advantage of chaos and obfuscate everything to deliver their own agenda. These people are not the most intelligent, or knowledgable. In fact, most of the time they are not even aware of the consequences. They are short sighted people who don't see anything apart from their own good.

Will this teach a lesson to the people and they will remember how they were manipulated? Most likely not. There are higher chances of one from the same lot coming back and start selling something else but people will not know what they are buying until they pay the price, and a price they can hardly afford.

Peace

Knife by Salman Rushdie

How the thoughts and imagination can cause the havoc in ones life without signing up for it?

It took such a long time sine the book was published when he spent a large part of his life waiting for this moment to happen. The worst part is that the perpetrator never tried to see it for himself and followed a decade old word from someone he has never met.

Thoughts are ageless, and can never be destroyed but that is not true for humans. Any attack on the choice of life is not justified by any reasons but reason had left the discussion long back.

It was a moment which shows what a blind following can drive people to do. And it changed him forever bodily and otherwise. His words are as good as ever but with a missing eye and nearly missing hand, how much of a man is left?

Law will take its course but will there be any point in time when the people will be liable for their actions and not their thoughts?

Peace

Erasing History by Jason Stanley

 Education is one of the first thing that a corrupt regime wants to change because it leaves the first imprint on budding minds.

Once the access to wider narrative is blocked in the early setup, it is difficult to open up the horizon for a lot of people to accept what they were not aware of. This helps in building and moulding the narratives in a preferable direction to influence the larger opinion of the society.

This can happen on many levels from changing/editing the books, threatening the teachers with consequences, changing the leadership at board levels or by directly stopping the funding for those who don't fall in line. This sounds very easily doable for the people in power but this has a long lasting impact over the generations.

Not only does it hide the reality, it also rewrites the whole narrative to its own liking. The preference to such whitewashing leads to a lot of things unsaid from the history which further complicates the possibility of an open discussion about anything.

People can come out of such early influence and build their own independent and rational opinion but what are the odds.

Peace

The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack

The life as we know it is a billion year old phenomenon. It started with the simplest to the complicated/conscious life forms that we see today (including humans).

However, the life came a lot late when the universe came into existence as we know it today with a bang. Happenstance of Big bang is a scientifically established point. While we definitely can't say what was before that, there are hypothesis about how the expansion which started with big bang is going to end.

The thing with hypothesis is that this gives the scientific freedom to critically build a theory and bring the proof if possible, mathematically or otherwise. The book describes the five major hypothesis/scenarios how the universe is going to end. None of them are very pleasant to hear but the universe doesn't care much about pleasantries. It is such a human trait to expect everything to behave in a way which is inline with what we understand as humans even the emotions that are very specific to us.

When the universe will end (less likely the Earth will survive that long) in a really long time, it is expected to go back to what it was before big bang, an unimaginably high density (not the material density as we know it) but with a hope that it will expand again (human psyche of pulsation or cycle which may or may not imply in case we don't remember that the universe don't behave in human terms and on hopes).

Definitely a good read to philosophize about how everything came into existence and how it is going to end. But end of universe is not the end of it, it is just the end of how we know it now. It will exist in a form that a human mind can't imagine right now or may not be able to for a very long time in the future.

Peace

Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence by Sara Imari Walker

Not the first one to seek an answer which defines life.

Its a century old question but as our knowledge grows the answer gets farther and more complicated. Imagine it taking it to a cosmological level.

We're never sure if the basic laws of physics and chemistry will apply to an eco system which is different from ours. How can we be sure that the way define the life on earth is not going to follow it. Are bacterias or cells the basic component of life like we've sub-atomic or even sub-nuclear particles the basic component of matter? Consciousness has been the biggest qualifier to call for the life but with AI being more and more independent, is that the case any more?

This small speck called Earth has been the only place which has any sign of an intelligent or otherwise life. It sounds very common to define life which mirrors the life as we see it around which is why all the aliens are always a mirror image of humans at least in nature if not in feature.

We don't need to agree to a frame work for defining life but think about the people who stay awake for this question.

Love

Probably the Best Book on Statistics Ever Written: How to Beat the Odds and Make Better Decisions by Haim Shapira

Nobody is going to beat any odds or getting better at making decisions because there is a higher probability that we never learn :) 

Maybe not the best book but if you don't remember the basic maths from high school its going to sound a lot of gibberish.

But this book puts a lot of guesstimates in the perspective, and most of the time these will prove wrong. Probability came out of the curiosity in casinos but it did a great service to expand the imagination and brought the statistics into the calculation of chances. But data will say anything that we want it to say. You just need to slice it from the most favorable dimension.

The chances are your chances are awfully good - Johnny Mathis

Love

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Of course for the Nobel prize in literature.

The most remarkable past of this novel is how people internalize the trauma for a lifetime.

One of the common statements we here are that some people are more sensitive than others. Like sensitivity can be measured. This a coping statement, and doesn't really help the people who are going through it. Every single specie on this planet has faced trauma but it is the curse of cognition that humans internalize it the most. The response to it may differ among a larger group but the list of causes is not very big.

The story is told from three different perspectives but a reader can see that how disjoint they are. Mostly by design but if you keep adding more to it, it will become complicated to reach a conclusion. But fictional work are never looking for a conclusions. It is left for the users to find it for themselves.

The one statement which stays with you for long is “Why, is it such a bad thing to die?” and shows how people reach to such situations that death doesn't seem so bad. We can philosophize this or just let it be with inaction.

Love

Patriot by Alexei Navalny

Being in opposition is not easy. Specially, when the other side doesn't feel any moral compunction of their actions. This is not the first case of a suspected death but there has never been an approval or denials of any involvement. Which brings the things in grey area.

The book has a record of chronic health issues, and being in the toughest prison brings the works out of these issues. We'll never know if the prison broke the person first or the life force but this is just another name in the list of people who are not approved by power. But the power is never absolute, and there will be a day when the power will shift. Of course, it is the biggest fear of the powerful but it happens.

The second half of the book sounds like a prison diary (it is expected to be repetitive when the writer didn't survive the prison to tell the whole story). People had a right to hear the whole story but then the right is not everything in such a nation state.

You did not leave a legacy but you left a story memorable or otherwise.

Peace

Red Memory by Tania Branigan

Denial is the first of the coping mechanism. Not because it helps to forget but choosing not to remember it makes it tolerable. And once the denial has been long enough, it hardens the nonchalance.

The wrongs of the authoritarian is not in one person but in the collectivity. The book is full of instances where the people who were on the wrong side know this in the retrospective but don't want to do much about it. Even accepting it can change the lives forever. And the lives of the people who lived to not tell the story. The ones which are lost are never coming back.

Another important point is that it takes a lot of efforts to hide the things but the machinery always choose to put efforts in hiding the things rather then accepting and working on it. But working was never an option which is why they end up teaching everyone to live in denial. Even to the people who lost their loved ones.

But how long one can hide the truth? The truth survives the lives of everyone. The truth is just waiting in one person, one record, or even one memory, and when it is out it is not going to change the world but it will be the symbol of what happened.

Peace

Best Loser Wins by Tom Hougaard

A book about trading which doesn't really have a much information about trading. This is more about how to cope with the losses and trust in the process even when sometimes the results are not in your favor.

Trading is a game with loosing prominently irrespective of how long you've been doing it. You can learn the analysis and charts but this doesn't prepare you to face the losses and the situation that comes after the losses.

The book doesn't really have a framework for trading and it tries to force stoic in trading which is easy from a point where one ends up with making money. From the opposite side this is not easy to cope with. The loss is not just a financial loss but it also brings a the after effects of these losses.

Skip this one and, if possible, avoid using any telegram channel for trading/investment advice.

Love

How Migration Really Works by Hein de Haas

Can a rational scientific study clear the myths about migration? The myths that make the migrants others. The migrants who are targeted because the look, eat and speak different.

Maybe not because a lot of negativity against migration is politically motivated. Migrants are easy scapegoats who can be blamed for anything that is going wrong. This is a short term diversion from the actual problem but politicians who use this as a political tool don't understand the long term effects of such positioning. The short term effects are hate crimes, attacks, marginalization, exclusion etc but the long term effects are that these groups are never scene as one even after generations have lived in the same country.

This book provides a whole list of counter points against all the common myths against migrants with the data. So next time when you hear that migration is all time high, it causes job loss, walls are going to reduce migrations etc, you can cut the noise, and see through sloganeering.

Peace

Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis

This book started on a positive note but you can hear a lot of conspiracy theories in the background of this content. The idea of richest families or the biggest companies running the world is an old theory and never sticks.

Of course, big tech companies are very big and have so much information about people which can be used in various ways to influence a larger population but in the end these companies have their own demons to hunt. Their prime motive is to make more money. And to serve this purpose they serve a lot of masters. Not just the buyers or advertisers from a brand but for them anyone with money is a client.

There has been more awareness about how big the companies can be, and the arguments in favor of taking stringent actions to rein in the irresponsible hunger for growth is growing bigger. These companies do take advantage of various loopholes in the system, and influence the policy makers to stay on their side but this is not something new. This has been always the case with big be it power, people or companies.

The solution proposed in the end doesn't sound very practical and it is demeaning to call the individual users of the products from these companies as surf.

Peace

Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

The food is still a problem. Some countries are suffering with shortage of it and others excess. This excess of food has been driven by a lot of innovation in food industry which is more focused on selling more. The food products which are advertised based on which user segment it targets. Nothing wrong in that because that is how the advertising works but there is also a motive of making it more appealing for the other reasons apart from its nutritional value.

This led to adding different chemicals, and processes which was introduced largely for three reasons - to increase the shelf life, bring the texture/taste by lab produced chemicals and second to make the production process scalable. A novel commercial idea was pushed into the market which created incorrect eating patterns and habits in the vast population. Preparing a meal was replaced by a ready to eat food, colas, drinks and what not.

Preparing a meal is still a challenge for a lot of people and the factors vary from lack of time/skills to availability of easy options of buying your food of the shelf. It is not possible to dictate what one should eat but eventually people will have to become more conscious of their consumption, and there need to be a more robust mechanism in place for food testing and approval. Both of them are not good but this is already starting in a lot of places, and expected to grow for the larger good.

Peace

Autocracy, Inc by Anne Applebaum

Gone are the days when a charismatic person full of rhetoric was able to usurp the power, and maintain it with an iron hand.

The latest form of autocracy has become decentralized in a true sense. Which means that all the autocrats that we see around are not in their position because they persuaded a larger population to follow their lead. Today, it is more complex with financial structures, state power, and propaganda machinery keep them where they are. This brings a longevity not because they are more stable but there are many more vested interests in keeping them in power. Which leads to a crackdown on free speech,  systemic graft, and a class of people who thrive in the proximity of such an eco system.

But what is the legacy of such systems/people? Most likely this is not the case of leaving a legacy. This is the lunacy of coming and staying in power for now, and as long as possible without giving any thought to the consequences or the legacy that it is leaving. The decentralization helps a lot with only one face in public and everything else hiding behind that. So, even if it ends, it is difficult to trace the connection between the systems, and bring them to justice. Once, it is over, the whole machinery moves on to building a new eco system to keep it working.

The face always stay in public domain as long as it can be kept. But only the power of people can depose this. But this leaves a vacuum for the others to fill that gap which is where it is important to keep a check on who replaces it.

Peace

Exponential by Azeem Azhar

The technology around us is growing so fast, and it is getting more and more complicated. This novelty of usage and implementation leads to a lot of void between the tow groups - the one who create this, and the one who need to find a way to regulate it.

There is no doubt that the regulation has been lacking in understanding of how to fill this gap. This is not an easy question specially when it requires two disjointed set of people to come and discuss in one language. This gap in communication has created a lot of loopholes and distrust.

What is important is that we understand and assign the liability or any new tech without limiting the functioning and scope of innovation. And this should come from both sides. Of course, tech can keep innovating new things but they should also need to understand that when this tech is released in a public domain, the safeguards are in place to avoid any misuse of it. Novelty makes it a bit difficult to put these checks in place but that can't be the reason to let the things growing unchecked.

Of course, a lot of the arguments go into a direction of potential stifling the freedom to build and choose but this is where a positive discussions and policies play an important role.

Peace