book review

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Book Review: 'The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World'
2 months ago
- The book traces the history of precision engineering from the 18th century to modern times, emphasizing its role in industrial progress.
- Key developments include James Watt's steam engine cylinders, Henry Maudslay's screw-cutting lathe, and the concept of interchangeable parts for firearms.
- Precision enabled mass production, such as Ford's assembly line and Navy block-making machines, boosting efficiency.
- The narrative progresses to jet engines, optics, and semiconductor manufacturing, highlighting extreme precision at nano-scales.
- The book concludes with discussions on wabi-sabi imperfection, SI units, and GPS, though these feel somewhat disconnected.
- The author's father's background and characters' quirks reflect a fascination with precision for its own sake.
Steve Blank Incorruptible
2 months ago
- The book 'Incorruptible' by Eric Ries offers a transformative perspective on why good companies go bad and how great companies stay great.
- It is compared to the impact of 'The Lean Startup' after the dot-com crash, suggesting it could reshape corporate and startup worlds after the next financial crisis.
- Part 1 explains how corporations shifted from serving people to serving only shareholders.
- Part 2 provides practical guidance on building companies with enduring governance structures.
- Part 3 discusses the network effect of creating such companies and highlights the Long Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) as an attempt to address short-termism in public markets.
- The reviewer believes the book may be more important than 'The Lean Startup' for founders, companies, and society.
What Makes the Intro to Crafting Interpreters so Good?
2 months ago
- The introduction of 'Crafting Interpreters' effectively answers two key reader questions: relevance and worth.
- It immediately states the book's purpose: implementing interpreters and designing languages worth implementing.
- The author establishes credibility by noting the book reflects a decade of thought and is written for his past self, appealing to novice/intermediate learners.
- The opening line ('I’m really excited we’re going on this journey together') sets an unpretentious, accessible tone, contrasting with academic texts like the Dragon Book.
- The intro's success lies in four elements: stating what you'll learn, why it matters, setting a casual tone, and achieving all within the first four sentences.
A Philosophy of Software Design - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- John Ousterhout's book 'A Philosophy of Software Design' is a concise 178-page work that distills 40 years of experience into insights on software complexity.
- The book identifies complexity as the defining trait of software success and offers concepts like 'shallow' and 'deep' methods, 'information leakage', and 'pulling complexity downwards'.
- Ousterhout critiques common practices, such as over-emphasizing commit messages over source code comments, and argues that code cannot document calling semantics.
- The book covers a wide range of examples, from language design to low-latency distributed storage, making it unique in its scope.
- Good design leads to more enjoyable development, as designers spend more time in the fun design phase rather than chasing bugs.
Book Review: A City on Mars - by Dr. Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith
2 months ago
- The reviewer suspects the book is a psyop to demoralize dreamers but finds its logic compelling.
- The book argues space is much harder than commonly admitted, and even if faster/safer/cheaper, there's little point—technologies are better used on Earth.
- It covers biological, legal, and moral challenges of space colonization, including breeding in space, jurisdiction, and enlightenment.
- Despite the logical arguments, the emotional appeal of space remains strong, comparing it to building cathedrals.
- The authors are praised for making complex facts simple and delightful, though the reviewer wishes the conclusion were different.
Book Review: Foreign Fruit - A Personal History of the Orange by Katie Goh
2 months ago
- The book tries to combine botanical and cultural history with autobiography but fails at both.
- It contains dull Wikipedia-style facts and presents origin myths without analysis or engagement.
- The author focuses too much on herself, yet her story lacks genuine hardship given her privileged background.
- She dismisses other people's experiences, especially regarding colonialism, and becomes frustrated when they don't share her outrage.
- The reviewer finds the book solipsistic and lacking rigor in botanical history.
Book Review: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
2 months ago
- The derivative nature of the genre rehashes familiar media properties, akin to having Transformers fight He-Man toys.
- The plot involves the Vogon Constructor Fleet destroying Earth, forcing people into The Hunger Games-like scenarios narrated by a Twitch streamer.
- Protagonists from Andy Weir, Scalzi, and Dinniman rely on science, pop-culture knowledge, and loot-box RPG experience respectively to save the day.
- The book offers fun, goofy tropes, splattertastic gore, campy villains, and a tolerable wisecracking sidekick.
- The prose is criticized for repetitive descriptions of game mechanics (e.g., '+3 damage with poison debuff') and endless lootbox openings, becoming tedious and unbearable.
- The author acknowledges the book has found its fanbase but personally finds it a fun read not worth continuing due to recycled plots and repetitive enemy squishing.
- The audiobook of the sequel was difficult to endure due to endless lists of stats and modifiers.
- Comments compare the book to watching someone play a video game through text, with interesting geopolitical worldbuilding but insufficient to offset repetitive battles.
- Some readers found the series' nihilism and video game logic uncomfortable, while others felt it needed better editing and writing; later books reportedly focus more on the outside world's politics.
Pluralistic: Jo Walton's "Everybody's Perfect" (30 Jun 2026)
2 months ago
- Jo Walton's new novel, 'Everybody's Perfect,' is beautiful, profound, and unlike any of her previous works.
- The book is structured like Ada Palmer's 'Inventing the Renaissance,' with each chapter from a different character's perspective in a phantom Venice called the Serenissima.
- In the Serenissima, belief shapes reality, and residents greet each other with 'I see you' to prevent disappearing.
- The novel explores eight races from parallel worlds, with a prophecy of a low-born doge bringing peace.
- Walton blends elements from her earlier works, creating a dreamlike and captivating narrative.

book review

Book Review: 'The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World'

Steve Blank Incorruptible

What Makes the Intro to Crafting Interpreters so Good?

A Philosophy of Software Design - Bert Hubert's writings

Book Review: A City on Mars - by Dr. Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith

Book Review: Foreign Fruit - A Personal History of the Orange by Katie Goh

Book Review: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Pluralistic: Jo Walton's "Everybody's Perfect" (30 Jun 2026)