The 22 Books I Read in 2020

On December 27, 2020   /   Books  

In the year of Corona, I read a lot. I did not read as many non-fiction books as usually, but escaped into some great novels, alone and with my family/kid.

5 Stars

  • Der Fisch in uns: Eine Reise durch die 3,5 Milliarden Jahre alte Geschichte unseres Körpers – awesome and entertaining book about evolution, from the point of view of an archeologist.
  • The Lean Startup – totally overdue for me to read this great classic on starting a business,

4 Stars

  • Solaris – reading this was triggered by the release of the movie. The book is awesome, the movie is horrible.
  • Children of Time – hard science fiction, the way I like it!
  • Todesengel – a great and depressing story on populism and hate.
  • Im Krieg – another great science fiction on weaponized animals. He was a good dog!

3 Stars

  • Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth – this is a wonderful book, as it makes sure that you are not blind to promising sales channels.
  • The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation –bringing the buzz-word topic of digital transformation and people together.
  • Productized Services – a useful book for freelancers who want to productize their services without employing people.
  • Children of Ruin – not as good as “Children of Time”, but still a fascinating read.

2 Stars

  • Project to Product – I have a hard time buying into the framework that is supposed to solve the problem of the digital disruption.
  • Das Jesus-Video – interesting idea, but compared to other Eschbach books it is just “okay”.
  • Die lymphatersche Formel – short story by Lem, I came across it when looking for Solaris.
  • Awaken the Giant Within – I like to check out books like this once in a while that provide guidance in your life, but it was too much anecdotes and feel-good stuff, without much substance.

1 Star

  • Im nächsten Leben wird alles besser – too much lecturing, twice as long as it needs to be and an end that was totally predictable. Not sure why this book got such good reviews.

Children Books

  • Blackthorn Book 3 and 4 – Book 2 is still my absolute favorite. Book 3 was decent, book 4 a little disappointing.
  • Der Ratz-Fatz-x-weg 23 – Fast and fun story, perfect to read with the family.
  • Die Nachtflüsterer 1-3 – I got the audio book because it was read by Oliver Rohrbeck. But the story itself was so-so.
  • Das schwarze Mal – pretty good fantasy, set 500 years in the future. However, the end is rushed and a little anticlimactic.

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Pocophone F1 Fixed – So Much Software in Smartphones!

On March 10, 2020   /   Hardware, Operating Systems, Software  

I had really bad touch screen glitches in my phone, and I was convinced it was a hardware issue. Well, turns out that in addition to the ROM (I run LineageOS), there is also a separate Kernel. Updating to FrancoKernel seemed to have fixed it!

This is not the first time I had a problem with software that I wasn’t even aware of: In the past, I had a phone where I had to update the radio firmware, as the new SIM card I got was constantly crashing…

 

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Firstest with the mostest – What the world has learned about facing covid-19 | Briefing | The Economist

On March 8, 2020   /   Politics, Quote  

Some [cases of covid-19], such as that of a New York lawyer and his family, have no obvious connection to any of the four high-incidence countries, strongly suggesting that there are what epidemiologists call silent chains of transmission in the country. In a population without measures in place to control such chains, a single undiagnosed case can, in principle, give rise to more than 3,000 cases six weeks later.

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We think these successive career waves can provide greater opportunities for employees to achieve ikigai

On February 22, 2020   /   Entrepreneurship, Job, Quote  

Quote from The Technology Fallacy (Management on the Cutting Edge):

This need to continually pivot to the next possible career wave also has another implication—the need and/or the ability for employees to chart their own course of career exploration with passion. By passion, we don’t necessarily mean an overriding and long-term desire for a specific goal. Instead, we envision it as the opportunity to scan the environment and find the point at which personal interest and market opportunity are maximized. The American writer Frederick Buechner describes this as one’s calling, where the world’s deep need and the individual’s deep joy meet. The World Economic Forum describes this intersection in terms of the Japanese concept of ikigai—the junction at which what you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs all come together. We think these successive career waves can provide greater opportunities for employees to achieve ikigai, pursuing new avenues as their passions change and the disrupted world creates new opportunities to do so.

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