piabo's Reviews (301)

It took me a long time to read it, but I am glad I did.
My first advice for everyone is to skip (or skim) all the chapters in the middle (coding theory to simulations) unless you are very interested in technical stuff. I skimmed them and don't think I missed out on a lot of important information for myself. 
Second is that there is a lecture series based on this book that I have not watched myself. But just want to put out there in case anyone does not want to read but watch/listen: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30. Please tell me about it if you watched it.

The book talks about research style and attitude. A lot of this should be taught at university, and luckily my uni does it. But it is still nice to hear from such an accomplished person, who has been alive during and involved in much of the development of computation and computers. Very fascinating how much has changed during the lifetime of one individual and how forward thinking Dr Hamming must have been.
This really talks about habits of minds and foundational concepts, crucial if you want to do good research and discover new theories or see connections. Our world is complex, and being open minded and willing to look deeper and challenge the status quo is very important. Just accepting assumptions or following what other people have been doing is not always the best possible decision. There are biases at play that we have to identify if we want to advance our fields.

Definitely a good book for every aspiring or current researcher.

A few quotes I highlighted and want to remember: (These are from the skimmed chapters only, I do not understand why I did not write others down, I really need to work on my note taking habits!)
- "When you know something cannot be done, also remember the essential reason why, so later, when the circumstances have changed, you will not say 'It can't be done.'"
- "It has long been recognized the initial definitions determine what you find, much more than most people care to believe. The initial definitions need your careful attention in any new situation, and they are worth reviewing in fields in which you have long worked, so you can understand the extent the results are a tautology and not real results at all."
- "When something is claimed to be new, do not be too hasty to think it is just the past slightly improved - it might be a great opportunity for you to do significant things. But again it may be nothing new"

Jup, das war wie Teil 2 von Exit Racism. Mit viel Wiederholung.
Was aber gut ist. Wir weißen Menschen verdienen definitiv Wiederholung. Und ein bisschen Unbehagen.


Ich habe riesigen Respekt für Tupoka und ihr Mitgefühl mit Menschen, die rassistische Aussagen treffen. In diesem Buch ist sie einfach so unfassbar nett zu Lesenden, die es weiterhin nicht checken (ich sage nicht, dass ich nicht dazu gehöre). Danke.

Ich hoffe, ich lese dieses Jahr mindestens ein rassismuskritisches Buch pro Monat.
Und dann reflektiere ich auch ganz viel und werde weniger rassistisch Handeln. Und ich hoffe, ein ganz viele meiner weißen Mitmenschen machen mit.

I don't know. I didn't really get the book.
It is definitely a coming of age story of a queer student in Taipei and their love stories.

Reading about their thoughts and the difficulties of being gay and gender-nonconform was ni ce and important. But it just wasn't really a coherent story for me. I wish this person was more than just miserable with/in relationships.

The crocodile metaphor was fun but also confusing at times. Eventually I think I liked it.

Had to keep myself from going back to my comfort HP books again, so read this.
And it was nice tbh. It is not every day that I learn about being a child actor / famous person. It's nice learning about another person's experience and their reflections on life before being older. Especially using HP jargon ;)

I really appreciated the openness of Tom Felton about his mental health struggles towards the end of the book. He is a reflected and wise man, and I took some things away.

Another one of those valuable books that gives a great account about colonialism.
While this book started from a talk about why Britain should pay reparation, the author included so much more and even retracted from the black and white statement on the question of reparation.

In fact, the book is so much more. It talks about pre-colonial India and how the Brits disturbed it, re-organized it and then extracted, extracted, extracted. It shows how little the colonisers cared about the people and its customs and cultures.
I find it so sad that so much knowledge and artifacts have gone missing just because of colonialism.

There is a lot of good stuff in the book, even for people not just specifically interested in India. The author also compares to other colonial powers and oppressors.
After the introduction, it got a little boring for some time, but I really liked the second half.
I learned so much!

I really liked the review of my Goodreads friend, who said poetry that is about processing inner feelings should not really be rated. It is wonderful that people publish their things and we should encourage everyone else to do it! And a lot about how we feel about "processing poems" is about how we can relate to it (full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1917491464).
Still, I am rating this because I want to. 
Luckily, I do not relate to most of the abuse the author experienced. Reading the first chapter and a few occasional poems later really hurt. Just being a woman (and a human being in general) in this world makes me relate somehow. Being grateful that I was kept mostly safe and being incredibly sad and mad that anyone had to go through this stuff.
In later chapters the poems were more about relationships, love, and hurting because of it. I found some wisdom there. But also just really enjoyed learning about someone else's perspective.

This was possibly my first time reading a whole poetry collection. I could have read the book within an hour but deliberately spread it out over many days so I can go back, feel, and just process. If I was to read more poetry, I will do a similar approach. I also think right now that I am not done with the book yet, I want to revisit the pages and maybe copy down stuff I can relate to most. Or just let it sink in.
Let's see. I shall try.

Just a very cute book with strong messages. My favortie quote was something like this:

"Sometimes I feel like you believe more in me then I believe in myself"
"You'll catch up"

The title and description are very unassuming and I guess it is hard to just walk across this book by accident, but it was so so good to read. Definitely surprised me!

My two classmates, one from Kenya, the other one from Nigeria, reflect on their friendship, time in San Francisco, and om being African students in the United States. They discuss cultural, religious, and individual differences on a relatable level and describe their experiences in a fun and engaging way.

I never thought I would be so invested in their stories, given I have basically lived the same life as them. There were times I did not want to put the book down at least until the start of a new chapter.

I also loved reading about my friends and their time as first year students, it is just so cool to see our lives written down in a book (I am not mentioned myself, which is good).

The two authors have different writing style which makes the reading experience even more engaging. Calvin uses shorter sentences and direct words to describe his parts while Yusuf is more descriptive and reflective, he has definitely what it takes to become a great storyteller!

I recommend this book to everyone, not just Minerva students, who want to learn more about what it means to be an (African) international student in the US. This is a unique opportunity to get an insight into the author's minds.

Great writing style and some of the stories were really nice. Some were just average though. Definitely great potential of the author and I am waiting to read more.


I think I find short story books difficult to get through because the stories always change and I don't like rushing through them. So I need to take long-ish breaks and it will take some time to finish.

Ich habe sehr lange gebraucht, dieses Buch zu lesen. Ich glaube, weil ich nicht richtig interessiert war. Die Berichte sind echt gut geschrieben und auch interessant, aber irgendwie nicht so relevant zurzeit für mich. Es kann auch sein, weil ich schon ähnliche, neuere Berichte vorher gelesen habe.

Trotzdem ein gutes Buch.

Vor allem zu den letzten Kapiteln empfehle ich das Buch "Europa schafft sich ab" oder den Film "Die Schwimmer".