Books

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America

Thomas Friedman describes the at one time greatest threat (to humanity), and biggest opportunity (for the US) of this era. How to make a globalized and still globalizing, overpopulated world with a rapidly changing climate a sustainable place where not only the Western world, but the additional billions in Asia, and the billions to be born in the next decades, can live a 'middle class' live. His answer is the 21st century version of the American Dream, a route to new moral leadership for the US, based on three pillars: Clean electrons, Energy efficiency, and Conservation. All those three areas need to be addressed simultaneously.

A very American book, no doubt. But also a very worthwile read to broaden your thinking on what's up ahead, and how your personal role and behaviour fit into it all.

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Kleins scathing story on the chaos and suffering the Friedman theory of economy has caused around the world. Starting with the US supported toppling of democratic government in Chile up to the destruction of Iraq. Not happy bed time reading.

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become

In this book Peter Morville explores how the 'sea of bits' meets the 'land of atoms'. Or in other words how we may combine physical reality with our digital on-line perspectives. Ambient systems, accessing information within the environment, form a different user interface than the usual laptop or pc screen. Adding an information layer to our physical environment is in my eyes a major step we are about to take.

If you ever thought 'virtual' means unreal and has no connection to reality, think again. Or read this book.

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cultivating Communities of Practice

This 2002 follow-up of Wengers work Communities of Practice provides a guide to setting up CoPs inside organisations.
Chapter 3 has been a checklist in my head for many years whenever I create group settings, or help lift CoPs off the ground.

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity

Etienne Wenger puts communities of practice in the center of learning in this book. Wenger calls it a social theory of learning. It fits well with both my notions of knowledge (as capacity to act, and as a social construct) and the networks of meaning that are central to George Siemens' Connectivism. Needless to say I see lots of connections to social media as well (even though they were hardly conceived when this book appeared)

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Blank Slate : The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Steven Pinker convincingly discusses the myths Blank Slate, Noble Savage, and Ghost in the Machine, in order to then propose new perspectives based on the current insights into how human nature works and doesn't.

Read it during a stay in the Austrian Alps. Great read, even if you have to take it in small pieces at a time. Balancing it with mountainhikes and enjoying the sun in front of our tent helped a lot.

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs)

Keith Devlin is the director of Stanford University's Center for Language and Information. In this book he made me see again that math is about patterns before going on a tour of places where those patterns can be found in nature.

It triggered me to write a blogposting about Mathematics and Social Software.

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Home: A Short History of an Idea

I picked this one up in a local used books store, where I usually browse the attic for SF books.
It was the first few sentences in the introduction that made me buy it:

During the six years of my architectural education the subject of comfort was mentioned only once. [..] One would have thought that comfort was a crucial issue in preparing for the architectural profession, like justice in law, and health in medicine. [..] I write then from ignorance.

The author explores the notion of 'home' and what a comfortable home means in history. It is a useful source for ideas of how web-sites and tools can be made to feel comfortable, if you work from a 'portal like a home' metaphor e.g.

Kruimeltje, my favourite local place for used books

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Until I Find You: A Novel

John Irving is a man that always gets mixed reviews for his books. Same with this one. In all those reviews to me it seems like people not able to see past the absurdity, getting hung up about some taboo being shattered, and generally not getting that irony and humour can be mighty weapons in dealing with the most hurtful.

Until I Find You is a good book, all 800 pages of it. The absurd characters, the twisted tour of Europe, the weirdness of the sexual development of all involved, and the sudden reversal of perspective on the relationship between the main character and his parents, are all just plain funny because of their twistedness. The end is moving, and shows once again how loveable imperfection can be. In all its absurdity Irving again writes a story that is utterly human. At least to my eyes.

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Patrimony : A True Story

Philip Roth is certainly one of my favourite US writers. He and Gore Vidal have done a good job of analysing recent US history in literary form. This book is not a novel however but more an eulogy for his father. Sharp (self) observation and the love of a son for his father are well balanced, in this book-long farewell. I read it in Dutch, as I couldn't find an english original in the local bookstore.

Posted by Ton Zijlstra at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)