Stuff and Things

"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo is a hugely popular book that often makes it's way onto people's all-time favourite lists. Its message is certainly universal and the themes explored are very relatable in a way similar to how things might seem if you visit a fortune teller; if you are someone who has the desire to read this book, you are likely it's exact audience.  As a story it walks the line between being something of a self-help guide and a quasi-religious folk parable. It tells of a humble shepherd yearning for more out of life and thus setting off on a pilgrimage of sorts to find his treasure. Of course it is not that simple and along the way we discover that the young shepherd is actually on a spiritual quest to find oneself in this crazy world.  He meets a host of characters along the way, all of whom seemingly have wisdom to impart and one of the great things about the b...

“Simply put, humans are not wired to be constantly wired.” Even the most futuristic thinking tech forward people in the world must surely have that gnawing feeling that somehow what we're experiencing in the information age is leaving us all dumb and doomed? I defy anyone to watch a fifteen year-old mindlessly hyper-scrolling through the internet and think 'doesn't the future look bright'. That is what is addressed here by Professor Cal Newport; the battle for our soul in the age of the iPhone.  The book spends less time than you might imagine expounding on the virtues of the analog versus the digital, or the wider societal implications of the attention economy. Instead the focus is primarily one of understanding that the problem exists and immediately working out how to take the power back. Newport's enemy here isn't technology itself, it's the feeling of involuntary impulse that technology commands. He makes the case quite pointedly that it's hard to a...

“Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.” - Judge Holden   First published in 1985, Blood Meridian is often considered the magnum opus of one of the greatest, if not the greatest, American writers in history.  Criticisms of Cormac McCarthy’s books are often that they are almost inaccessible due to the tone and utter refusal to adhere to any of the traditional formatting we generally need to understand the written word. All of those traits are present here so be warned; this book is no casual affair. It requires a very deliberate pace and there are so many layers to almost every sentence it demands absolute devotion to enjoy in full.  The term ‘enjoy’ should be used loosely when trying to surmise this book. Set in the mid 1800s, it follows the lead character, known only as ‘The Kid’, from his desolate upbringing in Tennessee to running the blood-soaked plains of the American/Mexican frontier west with a gang of scalp hunters whose deeds ...