Inspirational books, infuriating books

... and joy of Usha Uthup singing "Flowers"

I’m starting this week’s post with the news that I’m *not* going to talk about:

• The various memes about Sam Altman asking for $7Tn (8% of world GDP) for OpenAI.

• The continuing deluge of interesting articles and memes about Apple Vision Pro

Now that that’s done, let us get down to business…

Reading

Some books make you😊, others 😡. I completed reading 3 books and a short-story this week — a productive reading week. Each of these are worth more than just a blurb, so here goes with longer thoughts.

“Name Place Animal Thing”, Lux Narayan: 5 stars

My brother introduced me to his classmate Lux Narayan a few weeks ago, and I’ve since had it on my mind to read Lux’s book, “Name Place Animal Thing”.

This is a great book: get it, read it, gift it. I don’t say that because I know Lux by way of my brother; I also don’t say this lightly.

Name Place Animal Thing is a great book: get it, read it, gift it.

I read this book in one sitting in about 4 hours on Monday afternoon. I got so excited that I literally pushed the book into my wife’s hands and asked her to read the book, “right now”!

Without giving away too much, let me say this: to write a book that is simple to read, that is memorable, and that is helpful — that is a rare feat. This book delivers on all 3 counts. The book is written as a modern fable, and the book pulls together many powerful existing ideas that can help you transform your life into a single mental model that is easy to remember, and that is easy to put into practice (easy to get started at least!).

I thought about the book for long after I read it. The beauty of the book was that in reading it, it made me want to act on what I had read. The book also made me see with fresh eyes the way in which my wife had prioritized her life, and in seeing that I appreciated her even more than I already do.

Let me not rave about this book more. All I will say is that Lux’s book, and the next one on the list — “The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin — have inspired me to get back to some of my side projects that have been hibernating: you will hear more about these projects from me in the coming weeks…

“The Creative Act”, Rick Rubin: 5 stars

“The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin is a beautiful, Zen-like book that I started reading a few weeks ago and completed earlier this week. In many ways, this book is a stark contrast to “Name Place Animal Thing”: there is no single mental model that is you can remember, and nor is it immediately actionable. What both books share is their simple language, and the inspirational fire that they light in you.

The beauty of Rick’s book is its exhortation to “Live as an Arist (…) as a creative being in a creative universe”, and its gentle instruction on how to approach this act of creation.

“Live as an artist — as a creative being in a creative universe.”

There are some books that are fine on the Kindle, and other books that you want to get a printed copy of, that you can flip open to any page at any time and come away inspired. “The Creative Act” is this kind of a book, a book to buy in print and keep on your desk for everyday inspiration — each passage is filled with wisdom, and each page transports you into a creative state of mind. Beautiful.

“Read, Write, Own”, Chris Dixon: 1 star

I don’t think any book has infuriated me as much as “Read, Write, Own” by Chris Dixon. As I write this post, I’m not quite sure how the next few paragraphs are going to turn out — there’s so much for me to say, and I’m not sure it will come out in a coherent way. Let me try.

Let me start by saying that I’ve given just 2 books a 1-star rating before this on GoodReads. Onwards —

I watched the movie “Animal” a couple of weeks ago; it has been panned for its toxic masculinity and misogyny: I would not recommend the movie to anyone. “Read Write Own”, in not a dissimilar way, made me feel the same way — that feeling of, “I don’t want to recommend this to anyone”.

Why do I feel so strongly about this book? It is written by Chris Dixon, a well-regarded VC, and most of the book is actually quite good (clear, knowledgable). Before getting to why the book made me mad, let me give you an analogy…

Let’s say you bumped into an economist you admired at a dinner party, and you got talking.

The economist says, “Inflation is high, and it’s growing”, and you nod; the economist says, “The gap between the rich and the poor is widening”, and you nod even more; the economist says, “Capitalism and free-markets need reforms to work better”, and you are now nodding and jumping in agreement; the economist says, “Democracy needs to be improved as well” — now you are practically frothing at the mouth in agreement.

“Yes, yes”, you say, “it’s great that we agree on so many things, you’re such a fantastic economist — how do we solve these different, difficult issues?”.

“Oh, there is a single simple solution for all these problems”, the economist replies.

“What is it, what is it?”, you ask, almost grabbing him by the collar.

“It is love”, says the economist…

The reason that “Read, Write, Own” is frustrating is the same: the book is clear, Chris shares a knowledgeable history and evolution of the Internet, and there are many problems that are stated that you can agree with. However, the solution presented for each of these problems is the blockchain, presented with a lack of detail and a lot of hope. It doesn’t help that Chris Dixon has invested heavily in blockchain: there is a clear conflict of interest. Now, to be kinder, maybe Chris truly believes that blockchain is the way we get back to a freer and more decentralized Internet, but then, prove it, goddammit.

The challenge with books written by such smart people is that if you disagree or don't see how the stated solution solves the problems (that you agree with), then you’re the one left feeling like villain or the fool!

As I was thinking about this book, and about non-fiction in general, I put together five parameters to judge non-fiction books by: clear writing, deep knowledge, stated problems, lucid arguments, proposed solutions, and strong details.

In this framework, a book like “The C Programming Language” would score or clear writing, deep knowledge, and strong details (since it’s not an argumentative book — it doesn’t have problems, arguments, and solutions). The challenge with “Read, Write, Own” is that it has clear writing, deep knowledge, stated problems — but is terrible on lucid arguments, proposed solutions, and strong details, replacing them with the exhortation “Believe me — the solution is blockchain”. This does disservice to the potential of blockchains, which deserves a better book than this one: where is “The C Programming Language” for Blockchain technology?

“Folding Beijing”, Hao Jingfang: 5 star

I was moved by the Hugo award winning science-fiction short story “Folding Beijing” (you can read it online) by Hao Jingfang, translated by the amazing Ken Liu (“The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu is one of my favorite science fiction short story collections, he is also the translator of “The Three Body Problem”).

Back to the story — it is a quick read (less than an hour) and makes visible the invisibility of class in society, the difficulty of breaking out of your own class, and the fundamental inequalities in our societies, using the powerful imagery of “Folding Beijing”.

“Stories can make you feel again what you have become inured to…”

The linked interview with Hao Jingfang, where she says “I want to write a history of inequality” is also worth a read.

This is the power of stories — they can show you things that you already know in a new light, and make you feel once again what you have become inured to.

Music

This was the week of the Grammy’s. Shakti won the “Best World Music” album for “This Moment”, Taylor Swift won “Best Album” again — the only person to win 4 “Best Albums”, more than Paul Simon and Frank Sinatra — for her album Midnights.

My two album discoveries this week — one from the Grammy’s and the other from the rabbit holes I traverse are:

• “the record” by Boygenius — I discovered Boygenius through the Grammy’s, they won “Best Rock Performance” for their song “Not Strong Enough” from the album. My daughter had earlier introduced me to Phoebe Bridgers, who is so talented in her own right, and her coming together with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus in this supergroup has created a special, magical sound. This is a brilliant album worth listening to on long drives and moody evenings.

• “Disco Se Aagay” (Bandcamp, Spotify) by Nermin Niazi, reissued by Discostan — Nermin Niazi made this album in 1984, it sounds even more fun and quirky in 2024! Worth one listen (it is not a great album), even if just to laugh out at how silly-fun disco sounds, and to enjoy how it vibes with modern electronic music. Listening to this album reminded me of the excellent “10 Raags to a Disco Beat” by Charanjit Singh, an album I heard of from my RD Burman crazy friend, who told me that Charanjit Singh was part of RD Burman’s troupe — and who was the person who created the genre of acid house!

My 2 music music video discoveries of the week, and I highly recommend both of them:

• Sunny Jain's Wild Wild East: Tiny Desk Concert: I love Tiny Desk Concert by NPR, and “Wild Wild East” by Sunny Jain on Dhol and Drums (so energetic and fun!), Ben Parag on vocals, and Shubh Saran on guitar is excellent. I especially liked the “Brookly Dhamaal” track.

• A few weeks ago, I had shared how much I loved the movie, “Kho Gaye Hum Kahan” (must watch!), how much I enjoyed the soundtrack (I listen to it on all my drives), and how fantastic Adarsh Gourav (of “The White Tiger” fame previously) had been in the movie. Well, I learnt that Adarsh Gourav can sing — this video of him and Lisa Mishra singing “Mujhe Tum Nazar Se” is so beautiful.

Now, to end the week on a joyous note: Usha Uthup wearing a saree and with jasmine flowers in her hair singing “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus at Trincas in Calcutta — if this isn’t joy that anyone in the world can enjoy, I don’t know what is…

Stay joyful till next week!