#82: /now

Books I've read + "Half-baked" ideas I'm incubating

Hello friends and new subscribers,

I’m writing this from my home in New Jersey, USA. In the middle of summer 2024.

I’m stealing this idea from Derek Sivers, a writer/entrepreneur whose work I’ve admired for the longest time. The concept is quite simple: have a document or a page to succinctly¹ summarize the things² you care about/or up to at the moment. I figure this is a good idea to fill my absence on this platform.

I was also at the Shore at some point this summer

Books I’m reading

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Walter Isaacson

I’ve just finished The Innovators, a book by Walter Isaacson. One thing I really do like about Isaacson’s writing is his ability to turn complex topics into an entertaining and engaging read—without dumbing down his readers. His pragmatism is evident, that is neither good nor bad. I appreciate the breathe of this book and its compelling narrative about the people who built technology as we know it today. ‘A brief history of modern computing for people without a Computer Science background’, I told someone when they asked me what I thought of it.

One of the best things I’ve gotten out of this book is being introduced to Ada Lovelace. As a firm believer in the marriage of humanities and technology, I was in awe of her work and her contribution to the latter’s history. Although the book was designed to just skim through the surface of all the profiles it covered, it was enough to make me curious about Lovelace. I think it was quite clever that the last chapter was entitled, ‘Ada Forever’. That was a nice touch.

The innovators is a worthwhile read, not just for the audience it was clearly written for. Technology, at this point, is practically ubiquitous already. We are living in it, and in a world run by it. Our collective futures as a society and as a planet depend on it. This is especially true if you subscribe to the idea of technology for the good and the advancement of mankind. Regardless, it won’t be a bad thing to know the history behind it: the people, world events, companies and governments that made it all happen. It’ll give you a clue on why things are the way they are now, and how might that change in the near future.

I can make a full review of this book on a separate post. For today, I’m ending this with the two of the best quotes I pulled from it, both from Justin Hall, a writer and a programmer:

• On the rise of the early web blogs: “The best use of our technology enhances our humanity. It lets us shape our narrative and share our story and connect us.”

• On storytelling and the internet: “There will be as many places to find fresh and engaging content as there are people who yearn to be heard. Good telling of human stories is the best way to keep the internet and the World Wide Web from becoming a waste vastland.”

Note: I’m aware of the controversies that Isaacson is facing at the moment. This is not an endorsement of him nor of his body of work. Admiring someone’s work or creation does not automatically mean blindly following their principles, philosophies or perceived values. There’s no need for me to link those controversies here, just do your best in looking up what I’m referring to.

Aside from The Innovators, here are the other titles I am currently and actively³ reading:

1. The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge by Matt Ridley: Lots of strong opinions and stances, some backed by quantitative data, others are not. Matt Ridley is not an easy writer to like, but maybe that’s the point. You would need to be a lot more open-minded to get past a few of the initial pages. Know that reading the opinions of others does not make you automatically a follower or a believer. Sometimes, it probably just means they’re a terrific writer and a damn gifted storyteller. And it won’t be a waste of time consuming their work, regardless of your differences. (And boy do we have a LOT of differences!)

2. Designing Agentive Technology: AI that works for people by Christopher Noessel: Reading this for work but also for pleasure. I enjoy learning more and more about Generative AI technology these days, especially on what it means for design. There’s lot of actionable strategies in here that most Senior Designers can deploy and use for their work in this space. It’s easy to get incredibly overwhelmed with this subject. My technique is to isolate specific areas and focus on that tremendously. This book does exactly that. It is a good addition to my work library. A resource I’ll expect to learn from for years to come.

A shortlist of titles I’m planning on reading:

• The anxious generation by Jonathan Haidt

• Clear thinking by Shane Parrish

• Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick

“Half-baked Ideas” I’m incubating

I’ve done a few talks over the last 5 years. In preparation of every single one of them, I start off with a document outlining ideas with a theme in mind. Consider this as a public version⁴ of that.

1. “Mafia mentality”: Why is innovation so difficult to teach to children, to adults? Despite being in the Information Age, why is it that we’re still following the playbooks of the past— from the way we raise our children to the way we think about work/careers? It is quite clear to assume that tomorrow will not be the same as yesterday, for a lot of aspects of the world. Yet, culturally, most of the world does not reflect that. Speaking as a Filipino, born and raised in my home country, I can see this mentality as more of the norm rather than the outlier. In contrast to what I’m noticing in some parts of the United States. I’m sure there’s a lot more things at play here. This is just a thing I can’t stop thinking about.

2. AI as a “brain-in-a-jar”: I fantasize about the idea of putting my brain on a jar, metaphorically speaking. It is made up of memories (real and imagined), dreams, mashed up stories, voices and many other things. It can all be broken down into millions and millions of private metadata. I mean the log could be enormous.

   The purpose of which is to create a version of myself that will outlive me. I don’t need the full version though, just the central brain part.

3. That mythical product sense: wrote about this on threads the other day:

Putting in the reps to develop your own product sense only became super obvious to me in recent times. In the past, I’ve never thought about it. It never even occurred to me that that’s a “thing”.

The more I dwell on this, the more I realize just how crucial it is if I want to survive in this industry. Software is an ever-evolving thing— working in it exposes you to the fastest, and most brutal changes, in the way you work and everything else, perhaps.

The skill of knowing what can work, and what wouldn’t work is massively critical. However that is just the first part of it. Regardless of where your judgement ends up in, how to prove that—through methods, intuition and iterated thinking, data et. That is the next big hurdle.

The beauty about all of this is it all boils down to skill. It’s all learnable. You just have to put in the reps. This means showing up, doing your homework, coming up with ideas, sharpening your critical thinking and negotiating skills. And above all, writing.

I’m convinced everything comes back to writing.

In the white collar world, writing is everything.

Will they be any good as I explore them further? I’m more than happy find out.

Articles I’ve enjoyed a lot (in no particular order)

1. Time management techniques that actually work by

   Lenny Rachitsky

2. Should parents stay at home to raise kids by Emily Oster via The Atlantic

3. The happiness lottery by

   Rob Henderson
   - Rob is underrated as a storyteller and writer. His voice leaves a lot to be desired especially for the topics he bravely chose to write about.

4. Recommended Reading on Community, Growth, and Marketing by

   Abby Sugar
   - her recommendations on long-form reads are top-notch, one of the most substantial in terms of curation out there

5. Why is Linkedin so miserable these days? by Amy Santee - I don’t use Linkedin as much as I used to. I always regret it everytime I do. Except for when I read Amy’s work there, and a few others. Her unique writing voice, as well as her advocacies, is a much needed—MUCH, MUCH NEEDED— antidote to the otherwise self-glorification theme pedaled by LinkedIn influencers/users.

6. Personal artifacts by

   Nix 🕊

7. Why doesn’t advice work? by

   dynomight

8. Ai Weiwei says art that can be replicated by AI is ‘meaningless’ – philosopher explains what that means for the future of art from The Conversation

Oh, and most clever product/startup I’ve seen in a while (especially for this space): DateMeDocs

Thanks for reading working title,

Nikki

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If you have a spare moment, I’d love to hear your opinion on my newsletter. This will help me understand what to write about and curate better. I am also on Notes, where I post previews and premature ideas that fuel my writing streaks.

1. Broke this rule here

2. Mostly referring to endeavors outside of family or one’s intimate personal life such as work (projects), interests, hobbies, learnings etc.

3. Not just for pleasure but also mostly for education and self-growth purposes. The best way for me to distinguish this is by the length of notes I’ve produced from that said book. If I read strictly for pleasure (or curiosity or peer pressure), there’s rarely a trace of it on my life other that through conversations.

4. Ones that I’m not ashamed to share publicly, at least