I didn't exhaustively scanned each entry, but sampled many (> 15) and one thing that I found to be odd was that all of them were male. I'm not sure if it's cultural but it's quite interesting.
How does this 2014 article by an ex boss of Microsoft, who hasn’t been involved in any day to day activities of it for more than a decade, explain this contract in 2019?
I don’t have any personal objections with how Bezos decides to use his money, but to your point of books — how’s your local library? I recently realized I was spending some non-negligible amount of money on books every month and switched to the local library. It obviously depends on where you live but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It’s a fantastic system of local libraries and they’ve all the titles I want to read. There’s a wait for new titles, like Snowden’s book will need me to wait a couple of months, but anything older than a year is almost always available. As the book loan is for 21 days, it also forces me to finish my reading within this time.
For me it's not so much about how he uses his money, but how he gets it.
Raking in obscene amounts of money by working people to the bone and forcing them to pee in bottles and not be able to take proper breaks is unconscionable in my book, and can't bring myself to support such a morally repugnant business model.
I don't doubt that much of the reporting on the working conditions at Amazon warehouses has been exaggerated, but someone who views taking a sick day in a year as a moral failure is not a good spokesperson to make that case. And it's interesting that he doesn't mention that the "Jeff Bezos's generosity" he benefit from came exactly because of those Amazon critics he's debunking (Bezos said so himself).
I almost don’t want to share this because it might get picked over but Alibris has been great.
You do have to be careful as you could receive an unauthorized print from a less scrupulous dealers but I’m not sure how common that is. I don’t think I have personally. One copy I received had me question it because it was a bad printing but it appears to be a licensed print (C Programming Language, 2nd ed)
I like the ability to annotate books. Re-reading with annotations is much more interesting because often I will have realized things on first reading that I didn't the next one.
For me, some new-ish books are available via Inter-Library Loans (https://w.wiki/9yP), and it is quite awesome for me. I have to pay for the postage but local government pays 70% of the bill for me so I pay ₩1500 (approx. $1.2).
As the book loan is for 21 days, it also forces me to finish my reading within this time.
If you're in Chicago, it's even longer than 21 days. It's just short of forever.
The Chicago Public Library recently abolished all late fees, forgave existing fines, and now if you check out a book, it automatically renews something like 99 times.
"a system that for years has locked out library users when they accrue $10 worth of fines — a penalty that disproportionately affects poor families who need free access to books and high-speed internet the most."
"one in five cards that are blocked in Chicago belong to kids under the age of 14"
Coincidentally, I watched this vice news documentary earlier today that shows the current situation in China: https://youtu.be/v7AYyUqrMuQ through undercover reporting.
Read the article. It isn't using the term "soft power" in the realpolitik sense, it's something else entirely. It's more of a meditation on culture and the search for meaning in life. It suggests that Westerners have forgotten what most other societies remember. It uses Japan as an example, but the idea isn't specific to Japan.
> It suggests that Westerners have forgotten what most other societies remember.
But she wrote books for japanese audience in Japanese. Wouldn't it imply that easterners have also forgotten it? How would her books be best sellers in 'other societies' if they already remember it.
The only company that leaps to mind that acts like they are actively afraid of Microsoft is Valve. It's the only explanation for keeping the SteamOS alive I can think of (and developing it in the first place, for that matter), and the way it has neither been shut down, nor really given the push it needs to succeed. It's insurance, and as long as it's a half-viable insurance policy, it's doing its job.
Everywhere else, either Microsoft is still the underdog against some very strong incumbent or incumbents (Azure, mobile), or the competition is a decade-old corpse (Office).
Valve isn't afraid of Microsoft, they're just critical of their motives. Steam will always be the destination for digital PC games and there's nothing Microsoft can ever do to change that. Everytime Microsoft has tried to challenge Steam they've failed spectacularly. Microsoft and PC gaming just don't go together.
Well, I think this is a bit rude. I myself am not a PG fan, but let's not be mean people about it (I come here because the decency high water mark is usually higher than other forums).
Some people have a track record, and you might trust them more because of it. They might still be wrong. Don't hold people up as demigods?
I'm not expressing an opinion about anyone with this; I would like to point out that being a genius is no bulwark against being a tedious windbag. Or heartbreakingly stupid. Or anything, really.
