Pietertje

I wonder how this will fly in an European Court with GDPR.

I could not agree more... with you. On top of that, good luck onboarding new recruits or people that move departments.... Cute names are just like abbreviations, they are jargon and are an unnecessary hurdle to become effective.

No I'm not. I just stopped watching tv, limiting smartphone time and make sure I always have a book with me.

I love the feeling of an actual book in my hands. So during the daytime I read paperbooks. During the evenings/nights I read on my ereader as this requires less light so i dont wake up my spouse or the baby. I make sure I have both so I can read whatever I like.

Something which I discovered this year is reading multiple books in parallel. And start reading the book which you feel like reading, not the book which you think you should read. That way I always had the mindset to enjoy a particular book.

How did you like the Wheel of Time? The size of the saga scares me a bit...

The biography of Roosevelt is indeed very nice. I finished the first volume and looking forward to the other two.

This year I've put myself to the challenge to read at least one book per week which I primarily could complete by reading in the middle of the night while holding our sleeping baby in my arms. It has been an interesting challenge which gave me a lot of fulfilment and has certainly changed my mind on how I view the world. This comment became quite a long read, apologies for that.

Books I highly recommend:

Churchill by Andrew Roberts (p:1105)

A biography about one of the most interesting figures in politics and WWII. Roberts gives a very detailed description of the life of Churchill and manages to keep you interested the entire length of the book.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (p:374)

In The God Delusion Dawkins gives arguments why there is no God, why we do not need a God and why religion is damaging to our society. If you are religious it might not be the book for you unless you are open to hear his arguments and line of reasoning. Dawkins will challenge your worldview.

The Bomb by Fred Kaplan (p:384)

Kaplan describes the policy of different US presidents on the atomic bomb and war in general. And primarily on the inability of US presidents and policy-makers to tune down its military. A chilling read which makes you appreciate a nuclear holocaust did not happen (yet)....

Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo (p:320)

Banerjee and Duflo give a gripping portrait of how poor people live. They offer an insight in the choices and decisions people make surviving on less than 1 USD a day (corrected for purchasing power). It made me completely rethink my own view on poverty and development aid; stressing even more that in order to help one need to have a complete understanding of the individual's situation and the local boundary conditions.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (p:476)

This book triggered my science fiction reading. For some reason I never was interested in science fiction. Most likely triggered by reading Foundation by Asimov a few years back which apparently is not a book to my taste. But Andy Weir completely annihilated that wrong perspective on science fiction. Project Hail Mary is interesting, funny and gripping book.

Kindred by Octavia Butler (p:287)

This book.... From page one I was hooked and almost read it in one go. Butler is a wonderful author and Kindred is a must-read. The book is about a woman traveling back in time to end up on a slave plantation. It's a chilling account of slavery.

Other books I read this year, ask me anything about one of these books. I've added a + if I think its worth a recommendation

Biography:

Navalny by Dollbaum, Lallouet and Noble (p:280); The Man from the Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya (p:354) +

Sociology; Politics; Economics; Business:

Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove (p:224); The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (p:140); Winter is Coming by Garry Kasparov (p:290); Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum (p:224) +; Man's Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl (p:164) +; We Are Bellingcat by Eliot Higgins (p:272); De Zeven Vinkjes by Joris Luyendijk (p:200); Waarom vuilnismannen meer verdienen dan bankiers by Rutger Bregman (p:104)

Comedy: The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams (p:336)

History:

Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose (p:432); The Nuclear Jihadist by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins (p:413) +; The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre (p:384) +; De Heineken Ontvoering by Peter R. de Vries (p:347); Red Famine by Anne Apllebaum (p:384); Night by Elie Wiesel (p:115) +

Science, Technology, Mathematics:

Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh (p:315) +; A Mathematician's Apology by G.H. Hardy (p:153); The Great Influenza by John M. Barry (p:546); The Rise and Fall of the Dinousaurs by Stephen Brusatte (p:404) ++; The Double Helix by James Watson (p:144)

Sport:

Run or Die by Killian Jornet (p:208); The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton (p:290) +; The Rise of the Ultra Runners by (p:304); Tom Dumoulin by Patrick Bernhart (p:203)

Fiction:

Anthem by Ayn Rand (p:105); Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (p:704); The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum (p:566); Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (p:466); Live and Let die by Ian Fleming (p:229)

Classics:

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (p:104); The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (p:201); The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzergerald (p:180); Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (p:139); Animal Farm by George Orwell (p:122) +; Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (p:227) +; The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (p:118)

Science Fiction:

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (p:399); All Systems Red by Martha Wells (p:144) +; A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (p:462) +; A Psalm built for the Wild by Becky Chambers (p:160); Dune by Frank Herbert (p:658); Foundation by Isaac Asimov (p:244); The Martian by Andy Weir (p:384) +; The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (p:278)

Richard Dawkins, enter even more impressive credentials here, also wrote a book "The God Delusion" in which he - as part of the overal story that there is no god - spends some pages completely debunking the claim of Collins.

Exactly... Now you could argue there is an even more complex civilization running simulations of the simulation-running civilization. But you are creating this ever increasing complexity you cannot get away from. In that aspect it's a bit similar to the Gods hypothesis

And this has been going on for ages and we simply are universe X in time.

Alternative hypothesis the OP seems to refer to is the one of Lee Smolin in which a black hole from a previous universe creates a new universe. Smolin wrote a book about his theory, The Life of the Cosmos. I haven't read it nor do I know / understand his theory fully, so interested to learn others viewpoint on this theory.

The simulation theory is not very satisfying. It might answer some of the questions we have but leaves a much bigger one: who/what/how made this simulation?

Not sure what you use to watch, but VLC has the option to delay the timing of subs.

And from someone who is used to watch with subs for his entire life, you get used to it and won't notice them anymore at some point in time.

ASML and Intel are two completely different companies. ASML makes lithography machines which is one of the many steps in producing a chip. ASML machines are used by all chip manufacturers. The challenge for chip manufacturers like Intel, but also tsmc, Samsung among others, is to optimize the entire production process. And that has been / is not easy with a lithography step (EUV) which is so drastically different then what the industry has been using before. One of the challenging choices for chip manufacturers was to drastically change the process and implement EUV or to go self-aligned quadratic patterning. The latter, if you take a simplistic view, can be seen as an evolution on existing processes. We know see that those companies who went aggressively into EUV are having an edge on their competitors.

As many have mentioned: books! I do like to add the Economist. It's my way of keeping up to date with current affairs

Did you consider Russell's A history of western philosophy or The Worldly Philosophers by Heilbroner? I'm considering to read one of the two, would like to hear how they would compare to Adamson.

If you like to read a bit of history on cellular automata I can highly recommend Neumann his biography [0]. Primarily about Neumann his life, so naturally quite broad, but a very interesting chapter about the early research on cellular automata.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56155133-the-man-from...

And the power to delta

Well, that tech is still being used heavily for a lot of chips. Companies like NXP still have fabs of 90s tech running smoothly. Only the high-end chips need new tech. Also, equipment from that era is still in high demand on the second hand market (especially now...).

I completely agree. I try to position 'not taking a decision' as a decision option itself. Often it clarifies how poor that choice is or whether you are micro-optimizing alternatives.

And sometimes it is the better decision to postpone the decision to a moment later in time you have more information.

I expected to find Gaudi in this list for art/architecture. He got run down by a streetcar, which to my knowledge happened while he was watching his Sagrada Familia. It seems I'm mistaken here as his wiki page also does not mention it. [0]

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD

Funny he puts more faith in Astrazeneca vaccin. True it's logistics are easier. But it's efficacy is not... Worse given the higher transmission rates of the new strains it in itself might not be sufficient to prevent further spread. Higher R0 requires higher efficacy to keep R below 1.

ASML does lithography, they do not make wafers. NXP develops chips, especially for automotive industry.

There are also some small companies focusing on photonics in NL, Smart Photonics is one of them for example.

Just wow, listening to the podcast interview is super interesting. The abstraction and knowledge on so many different levels and topics is thrilling.

Any other tips for interviews with similar architects?

Same here, I expected a list or map which gives an user the ability to see which organizations or projects operate nearby. It would be really cool if you could see which projects are nearby and you might be able to participate in. I really like the idea though. Hopefully your site will inspire others.

For those of you who wish to read more on Erdos personal life I can recommend the book: The Man Who Loved Only Numbers [0]. Highly entertaining.

[0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/714583.The_Man_Who_Loved...

Interestingly the problem tends to be economical rather than technological. A 5 years ROI would normally be sufficient to get traction. Apparently the current system of charterers is holding it back.

This is Delta which do not have a copy or scan of your passport - just your textual info..., different to customs which do have this.

Also note that quality of Delta's photo booth will be much better than a copy of your passport.

This is indeed a great book. Definitely worth a read.

Van Reybrouck describes the history of Congo starting pre-colonial, the colonization by Belgium and the entire aftermath. The books gives you a good understanding on the impact and the how of colonization and the history of Congo.

Piranhas.co does the same, though with less sites. It also includes shipping costs.

This policy reminds me of a recent TOR blog post [0]. A good example why the tech industry shouldn't ignore the political climate and why the second principle is so important.

[0] https://blog.torproject.org/blog/technology-hostile-states-t...