Love's Executioner by Irvin D. Yalom

This is the kind of book you'd like to read which is written by a person who knows about his/her chosen topic. I didn't finish a book on porn earlier for the reason that it doesn't offer a critical study, and based on sole discussions with people from a closed circle. In that sense this book brings a different perspective.

It brings the ideas of people with death scare (old age or medical condition) in one place and analyse this from a psychologists perspective who worked with them.

Death is literally a larger than life idea which sounds absurd to any living cognitive being. This cognition which helps humans examine things differently brings it own perils. And the worst of all is to face the possibility of one's own death. The thought of end of a life which you have known all your life which brings the torments, and challenges. This is one of the reason why the humans can't just exist like a tree or a stone in nature, and search for immortality/longevity has been such a big theme across all the fields of  human developments.

We can look at all the cases mentioned in this book, and don't relate to anyone of them but it provides a primer before you start your own painting.

Love

Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks

I don't remember where I saw the reference for this one but glad to found it.

It is small, and apparently more autobiographical. Gewndolyn is known for her poetry, and this was her only published novel.

This is small but the language is very poetic. It looks like a collage of life events rather than a storytelling which is how it ends also. But maybe that was not the end but the prequel of something bigger which never got published.

Quick and a beautiful read.

Love

Chip War: the Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller

Every other time some or the other technology is called the future. Semiconductor was no different when it was invented, and won a couple of Nobel along the way.

The book explores the history of semiconductors/chips. How it started, developed and what lies in the future. And, it is an interesting read.

There are two main things which anyone can find common with any other technology that we see around today. First, it was developed for war (later it got commercialised because business has to make money), and second is that obsession for cheap and efficient never stops, no matter the price.

The same happened to semiconductors where the design came from one place funded by the speculation of wars and being second to none but eventual production was transferred to any place in the world which can do it cheaper. This was short sighted focus on profits without taking into account the global equation of mutual mistrust among the stakeholder countries.

The funny example here is the shortage of semiconductors during the time of pandemic where the supply chain got broken and a lot of production got halted due to shortage of chips. It is funny because when people were struggling for their lives, semiconductor was the last thing on their minds. But this argument doesn't go down with the calculation of loss in productivity.

Proverb was "Necessity is the mother of invention" but from the oldest times it was war which led to inventions.

Peace