Category Archives: Books & Reading

Douglas Rushkoff Playing for Team Human

I caught Douglas Rushkoff on Sam Harris’ Making Sense podcast the other day and it really resonated with me. I look forward to reading his new book, Team Human.

A few nuggets I gleaned from the podcast:

Rushkoff, speaking about his book Media Virus: Hidden Agendas In Popular Culture, “It was celebrating this new stuff called viral media – which seemed like a good idea at the time…”

“…algorithms are taking all of these painstakingly evolved social mechanisms and using them against us…we are no longer the users of this technology, but the used….”

“Team Human is a manifesto—a fiery distillation of preeminent digital theorist Douglas Rushkoff’s most urgent thoughts on civilization and human nature. In one hundred lean and incisive statements, he argues that we are essentially social creatures, and that we achieve our greatest aspirations when we work together—not as individuals. Yet today society is threatened by a vast antihuman infrastructure that undermines our ability to connect. Money, once a means of exchange, is now a means of exploitation; education, conceived as way to elevate the working class, has become another assembly line; and the internet has only further divided us into increasingly atomized and radicalized groups.” – Norton Publishing

Full info on Douglas’ Team Human project

Fargo Rock City

I recently re-read Chuck Klosterman’s ‘Fargo Rock City’. If you ever owned even one metal record in the 80’s and haven’t read it, it’s a must-read. Period. It’s a bit dated now, but still fantastic. As such, I’m rolling through my old cassette collection from back in the day thanks to the modern magic of Apple Music. A forgotten gem right here – Bulletboys. I didn’t realize these cats were a: still putting records out; b: had such the revolving door of members over the years including the likes of DJ Ashba, Stephen Adler, Keri Kelli and more. These guys were fringe back in the day but their videos for ‘Smooth Up In Ya’ and ‘For the Love of Money’ got heavy rotation on MTV. Listening back now, they had a lot of Van Halen going on in ‘em – in a good way. I was just commenting to @tyler how I preferred my metal vocalists to be more of the ‘gritty’ sound than the more operatic (i.e. Jani Lane) sound. Marq Torien fit that bill, and apparently is currently the only original member of the band. Works for me. Excuse me while I do some scissor kicks. 

Upcoming Reading

I’ve placed an order for a few new books that have been in my ‘to read’ queue for a long time, as well as a new addition. I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately via my phone/laptop of ebooks, but I’m missing the physical sensation and satisfaction of a physical book.

I had gone to ebooks as an effort to ‘declutter’ as I didn’t want to keep having books around – I went through a process of purging a bunch some months back, so buying more physical books leaves me sort of conflicted.  We’ll see how it goes. Depending on my attachment to them I think I will either keep them or possibly donate them to the library. For the most part these that I’ve ordered aren’t available in my local library system.

I also need to check out the used bookstore downtown and see what kind of inventory they have cross-referenced with my ‘to-read’ list.

Here’s what I picked up:
Meditations on Self-Discipline and Failure: Stoic Exercise for Mental Fitness
William Ferraiolo

This is interesting because I found it via a blog post I shared on LinkedIn regarding stoic philosophy. The author of this book, a philosophy professor, messaged me and made some solid reading suggestions. Looking forward to digging into this one.

These next two books were recommended via an online pal who reads as much as I aspire to.
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
Kevin Kelly

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari

I actually went looking for this author’s latest book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, but there wasn’t a cheap used copy available so decided to put it off until later and read this one first.

Finally, I read Sand County Almanac last year and it was a game changer for me. I’ve seen a lot of cross-referencing between it’s author, Aldo Leopold and Edward Abbey, so I thought I’d check out some of his work starting with Desert Solitaire.