Fun stuff I read and reviewed in 2024!
Essays:
Trick Mirror
by Jia Tolentino
![Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion [Book]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Hqbg!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4c0004e2-d474-43cc-b59e-904386fad255_647x1000.jpeg "Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion [Book]")
This whole book was kind of a trip. People compared her to Joan Didion, and I can see the parallels. It’s a critique of the self-oriented nature of modern society, of materialism and the glorification of the image, of delusion, grandeur, and delusions of grandeur.
Songs on Endless Repeat
by Anthony Veasna So
Anthony Veasna So was one of the greatest voices of Southeast Asian America we had. It is an unrivaled tragedy that he was taken from us so soon.
What Is Art?
by Leo Tolstoy
Art is that which communicates and infects others with emotion.
"Art begins when a man, with the purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs"
All men are brothers, claims Tolstoy, and thus good art should be that which communicates this feeling of comradely brotherhood and unity. All other art is bad, or corrupted, art.
Assorted
Analog
by Robert Hassan
A great anthropology of analog technology. A must read for people interested in the cultural revival of the analog and physical: CDs, wired headphones, vinyl records, Digicams and Polaroids.
Designing Data Intensive Applications
by Martin Kleppmann
![Designing Data-intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems [Book]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QbKK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F484fd746-f524-4ab2-b7c7-5c97a1fce408_1951x2560.jpeg "Designing Data-intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems [Book]")
npm init react-app DefinitelyScalable
npm install
npm start
npm run build
git commit -m "React is definitely not bloatware."
rm -rf