Richard (Rick)'s Updates en-US Mon, 09 Jun 2025 20:08:00 -0700 60 Richard (Rick)'s Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7642235316 Mon, 09 Jun 2025 20:08:00 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) added 'Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith']]> /review/show/7642235316 Far Beyond Gold by Sydney McLaughlin Richard (Rick) gave 5 stars to Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith (Hardcover) by Sydney McLaughlin
This isn't just a great book to read—this is a book every young woman (or young man) SHOULD read! I need to get my daughters to read this one. What an inspiring story of the youngest woman to make the U.S. Olympic team (at age 16). But while the track superstar was blowing up world records, underneath it she had crippling anxiety that almost caused her to quit the sport. She was able to overcome this anxiety through discovering her value as a daughter of God, and drawing near to Christ through the blessed relationship of a good friend. So much of this book resonated with me: the running (although obviously not at her speed), imposter syndrome, the value of a relationship with Christ, the wonderful blessing of finding the right marriage partner, the support of family, etc.

It's also a great book for understanding how so many young people are struggling with anxiety, and how social media is fueling it. Many great lessons from this book! ]]> Review7610009145 Thu, 29 May 2025 09:58:59 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) added 'Steve Jobs']]> /review/show/7610009145 Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson Richard (Rick) gave 5 stars to Steve Jobs (Hardcover) by Walter Isaacson
Another masterful biography by Isaacson. Wow, what a book! You forget how incredibly Jobs completely revolutionized, with his collaborators, so many whole industries:
- First personal computer
- Graphical user interfaces
- Portable and unbundled music
- cell phones
- tablets
- digital animation
- cloud computing
- retail stores
etc.

Truly the Benjamin Franklin or Henry Ford of all time. Horrible individual in many ways, but a true genius and an interesting book. ]]> Review7587721012 Wed, 21 May 2025 09:22:05 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) added 'How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older']]> /review/show/7587721012 How Not to Age by Michael Greger Richard (Rick) gave 4 stars to How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older (Hardcover) by Michael Greger
]]> Review7587715147 Wed, 21 May 2025 09:19:55 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) added 'The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country's Foremost Relationship Expert']]> /review/show/7587715147 The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John M. Gottman Richard (Rick) gave 5 stars to The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country's Foremost Relationship Expert (Paperback) by John M. Gottman
]]> Review7564498665 Mon, 12 May 2025 18:41:17 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) added 'Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be']]> /review/show/7564498665 Family Unfriendly by Timothy P. Carney Richard (Rick) gave 5 stars to Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be (Kindle Edition) by Timothy P. Carney
Really interesting book! It first makes the argument that families and children are a societal good—we should WANT people to have babies and raise them within families. The second argument is that our current society is "family unfriendly" or in other words makes parenting harder than it should be and discourages people having more children. The third argument are strategies for making our society more family friendly.

A main takeaway is that making our society family friendly is bigger than giving checks to parents who have babies, or granting more family leave time, or providing universal day care. The biggest challenges are cultural. It's the guilt parents face when letting their child walk alone to the park. It's the way people are looked down on for choosing to have kids (there was a professor in college tell a friend of mine that he was "irresponsible" for having children while in school. I think it's the opposite--it's a tremendous shouldering of responsibility in his life). It's also employers who make it flexible work situations difficult for parents trying to find balance. It's the subtle jokes on social media about how terrible parenting is, warning singles to enjoy the fun life before parenting makes it un-fun. It's also how we design our cities so parents are stuck in car-hell instead of making it safe enough for kids to navigate to their own activities on their own via bike or transit.

It's all of that! So while parental leave and day care options are good, what we really need is to shift cultural attitudes towards parenting. To truly accept that we WANT parents having children—for their happiness, but also for the good of our country. Because immigration won't be enough to save our country from the challenges that are coming from being too far below "replacement rate." ]]> Review7550795003 Wed, 07 May 2025 11:08:19 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) added 'How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen']]> /review/show/7550795003 How to Know a Person by David Brooks Richard (Rick) gave 5 stars to How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (Kindle Edition) by David Brooks
Section 1 - I See You
Chapter 1 - "Knowing how to sit with someone ... how to see things from another's point of view, knowing how to host a gathering where everyone feels embraced, ... these are some of the most important skills a person can possess, but we don't teach them in school. It seems we have intentionally built a society that gives people little guidance on how to do the most important things in life. Consequently, we are lonely. ... we lack the knowledge of how to give each other the rich attention we desire."

"Over the past several decades there's been a loss of moral knowledge ... our schools have focused more and more on how to prepare people for a career but not on the skills of how to be considerate to the person next to you ... the life spent on social media is not helping people get these skills. You have the illusion of having the skills, but not the practices (to actually act on these skills"

"the worst thing we can do to our fellow humans is not hate them, but be indifferent." - quoting bernard shaw.

In one of the chapters he shares the data that strangers meeting will only understand about 20% of the other person. Good friends will only understand about 30%. Even spouses don't understand what each is saying because they hold stereotypes about who the person was before.

]]> Review7547943830 Tue, 06 May 2025 09:54:19 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) added 'Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering']]> /review/show/7547943830 Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Richard (Rick) gave 4 stars to Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering (Hardcover) by Malcolm Gladwell
Originally supposed to be a freshening up of the original Tipping Point, Gladwell instead wrote a whole new book that explores other key factors in causing social contagions to "tip". This book, perhaps not surprising given the reaction to his chapter on broken windows theory in his first book, is much more focused on social justice issues, including tipping of social attitudes towards gay marriage and gay equality, gender equality in teams/organizations, and racial equality in communities. Overall, an interesting book, with Gladwell's traditional long-form journalism approach, and in typical Gladwell fashion, some overgeneralizing and extrapolating of the data in my opinion. A main theme in the book is the concept of overstories, which are the narratives that shape how we understand and react to social changes, and "superspreaders," individuals who play a disproportionate role in spreading contagious phenomena. ]]> Review1096540439 Thu, 01 May 2025 22:00:13 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) added 'The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution']]> /review/show/1096540439 The Innovators by Walter Isaacson Richard (Rick) gave 5 stars to The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (Hardcover) by Walter Isaacson
bookshelves: to-read, audible
Another really interesting book from Walter Isaacson! In this one he provides short biographies of the people and events that were instrumental in the development of the internet and computers. Some of the names I knew, of course (Vint Cerf, Tim Berners Lee, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs), but many I did not and it was really fun to learn about the quirky people who created the world we have now. Isaacson also shares the stories behind their innovations, the stops and starts, the fights and quarrels, and the teamwork that was almost always involved in the innovations. I also liked that he discussed all the awesome women involved in developing these innovations—beyond just Ada Lovelace.

If you want to know the story behind the inventions, this is a great read! ]]> Review7526126812 Mon, 28 Apr 2025 10:35:20 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) added 'Elon Musk']]> /review/show/7526126812 Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson Richard (Rick) gave 5 stars to Elon Musk (Hardcover) by Walter Isaacson
Probably the best biography I've ever read. It's truly mind-blowing, but for lots of different reasons. First, Musk is truly a genius, and hearing about how he develops his products is a great case study in innovation and creativity. Second, Musk is ... well, truly a dude who thinks differently than the rest of us. So it's an interesting psychological case study as well in trying to understand why he thinks the way he does. Does he have Aspergers? Bipolar? I don't know, but he definitely thinks differently. Third, Musk's history parallels so much of our country's history over the last 20 years, so his story talks about how our country has changed technologically, politically, and socially.

In the end, it's just a fascinating read. I also came to the conclusion that whatever one may think about Musk politically (because he's so politically charged now), they're wrong. He's a man of contradictions and a lot of nuanced. He's not a nice person, according to many employees. And yet, his ex-wives all love him, still (even if they can't live with him). He's a devoted father, it would seem. Many argue he's destroying the fabric of our democracy and I would tend to agree---and yet, his focus in life is not making money but saving humanity (according to what he thinks needs saving). He's altruistic...and selfish. He's a brilliant leader...and a terrible one. He's a genius innovator...and incredibly stupid at times. He's all of that. Whatever opinion one might have of him, including my own, is probably not nuanced enough. ]]> UserQuote92995864 Thu, 24 Apr 2025 16:46:45 -0700 <![CDATA[Richard (Rick) West liked a quote by Richard West]]> /quotes/12774988
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