Thread: What are you reading?

I put a copy of El Narco on hold at the library.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

I put a copy of El Narco on hold at the library.

I hope it does not disappoint.

Originally Posted by aberdien

I hope it does not disappoint.

I wonder where else in the world similar tyrannies exist. Afghani poppy market? Stories like this tell about the ascension of willful humans, always compelling.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

I wonder where else in the world similar tyrannies exist. Afghani poppy market? Stories like this tell about the ascension of willful humans, always compelling.

Blood diamonds (I'm just guessing here)?

Just finished up Seoul Man by Frank Ahrens. Really interesting read about how he left his job at the Washington Post to become a Global Communications director in Seoul, South Korea at Hyundai Motor company. Reading about his adjustment to Korean work culture was humorous and also made me never want to work in that country even if the opportunity came up. Basically you are there before the boss comes in and leave after he leaves but no one likes to flinch first. Then after work you hang out with your coworkers (including some weekends) to stress team building. I'm lucky if I feel like having lunch with a co-worker once a week.

He has a nice easy writing style and it really gives you a sense of how fish out of water he felt and how long it took to adjust. He even goes into some history and current events to show how Korea is vs the U.S. in many ways and how it "feels like America but just off in almost every way".

https://www.amazon.com/Seoul-Man-Une.../dp/B018E2B9DM

Originally Posted by MasterShake

Just finished up Seoul Man by Frank Ahrens. Really interesting read about how he left his job at the Washington Post to become a Global Communications director in Seoul, South Korea at Hyundai Motor company. Reading about his adjustment to Korean work culture was humorous and also made me never want to work in that country even if the opportunity came up. Basically you are there before the boss comes in and leave after he leaves but no one likes to flinch first. Then after work you hang out with your coworkers (including some weekends) to stress team building. I'm lucky if I feel like having lunch with a co-worker once a week.

He has a nice easy writing style and it really gives you a sense of how fish out of water he felt and how long it took to adjust. He even goes into some history and current events to show how Korea is vs the U.S. in many ways and how it "feels like America but just off in almost every way".

https://www.amazon.com/Seoul-Man-Une.../dp/B018E2B9DM

I loved Korea, but also couldn't wait to leave.

Summer reading for law school and John Rawls' Justice as Fairness.

Originally Posted by Von Kinger

Summer reading for law school and John Rawls' Justice as Fairness.

You will be great in law school, your entire life has been building towards this, but you need to have the mental flexibility (a near sociopathic trait) of being able to make as compelling an argument for the things you hate as the things that passionately drive you. You make good points, and in law, you will learn to make good legal points. But your strength comes from the desire to make those points, so when they aren't the ones you want to make, will they be as forceful?

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

You will be great in law school, your entire life has been building towards this, but you need to have the mental flexibility (a near sociopathic trait) of being able to make as compelling an argument for the things you hate as the things that passionately drive you. You make good points, and in law, you will learn to make good legal points. But your strength comes from the desire to make those points, so when they aren't the ones you want to make, will they be as forceful?

I'm an award winning debater and won my 'best' award while arguing as a person on the opposite that I supported. In my office, when we have to do devil's advocate work against a client's claim of innocence, I am often tasked with being the opposition. So, I know that in other settings, often legal and political ones, I have done it. One of my strengths is that I'm competitive, regardless of what 'side' I'm on, I'm trying to win. Almost everything I've dedicated myself to I've done well at, sometimes remarkably well.

But, unfortunately, I mostly learn through stumbling. And in a setting where you get one test for your grade, I can't learn via trials and tribulations - that's really scary. To be honest, I'm scared. And not just for academic reasons, either - I've the person who takes care of my mom. I'm the person who helps my elderly neighbors with stuff if they can't do it. There's a way in which I feel like I'm being selfish and being a bad son. So, I am a little concerned that I'm going in with too much on my shoulders.

I just finished another book, my third this summer. I think that's more than i've read in my life. This will probably be it for a while #amateur



It's a happy book that talks about why the "good old days" are the ones we are experiencing now despite how the world is portrayed in the media and by ourselves. If you like statistics, this book is for you.

My favorite thing I learned was in the chapter about food and the Green Revolution. There was a guy I had never heard of named Norman Borlaug who tried to come up with a way to get better higher-yield crops for the country and the world. He came up with a hybrid that was resistant to parasites and could grow in varying climates. Mexico adopted the yield in 1944 and Borlaug taught them how to grow it properly. Borlaug then moved to Pakistan and India to try it out on them and it was a success as well. I don't know how any of this agriculture stuff works. But ultimately, Borlaug might be the most consequential human being that ever existed because he saved over a billion people from starvation.

It's a good easy book if you want to read about positive stuff like that.

I don't believe in being positive because I'm only good when I'm miserable. Abe, give me some miserably melancholy shit.

Originally Posted by Von Kinger

I don't believe in being positive because I'm only good when I'm miserable. Abe, give me some miserably melancholy shit.

That book gives a shout out to John Rawls.

Originally Posted by aberdien

That book gives a shout out to John Rawls.

But...do you?

No, seriously, Abe, do you?

I need a dark book with either sci-fi or fantasy setting/s and a sharp dialogue.

Originally Posted by Von Kinger

But...do you?

No, seriously, Abe, do you?

**** John Rawls.

Originally Posted by aberdien

**** John Rawls.

You always struck me more as a John Stuart Mill kind of guy.