Keith Wagner - Book Notes

Too Big to Fail

Keith Wagner — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I graduated college and started my career shortly before the 2008 financial crisis hit. I remember the aftermath and learning about the subprime mortgages that were the primary cause behind it. This book provides an interesting perspective about some of the government officials and company executives dealing with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and AIG.

The book focuses a great deal on both Lehman Brothers and AIG as they were two of the biggest failures leading into the crisis. It does a good job talking about how the CEOs for both Lehman Brothers and AIG both trying to escape the disaster. Neither of them seemed to fully grasp the trouble they were in and neither seemed to be willing to take responsibility for the failures.

The book also looks at Ben Bernanke (US Fed Chairman), Henry Paulson (US Treasury Secretary), & Timothy Geithner (President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank) and how they reacted to and handled the looming crisis. It talks about their beliefs of no bailouts or rescues to the creation of TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program).

Overall it was an interesting look at one of the greatest economic crises since the Great Depression.

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Mood Machine

Keith Wagner — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I've known now for a while that streaming is bad for artists, and while I still have and use my Apple Music subscription, I have been using it less and less, focusing on growing my music collection. This book focuses on Spotify and how it ruthlessly worked to cut costs squeezing more and more from musicians and songwriters.

Spotify's stated goal when it launched was to "level the playing field" for musicians and artists. While it would be a goal that could be great for all involved, like so many things in life, words sound better than the actions actually taken.

The book goes into how so much of the opportunities bands and musicians got came down to getting onto the right playlists. Getting onto a playlist could mean the difference between making any kind of money and walking away with nothing. To make matters even more challenging, it talks about how Spotify was paying for "ghost artists" to write songs for some playlists with lower royalty costs. They were then encouraging their curators to use more of these songs in their playlists, further pushing out bands and musicians who were trying to make a name for themselves. The further irony of this is that eventually many of the "ghost artists" eventually started complaining that there was no way to link their songs back to them.

One thing I thought was interesting was how Spotify's stance on AI was talked about. A company named Boomy, allowed their users to use AI tools to generate music and quickly post it to Spotify and split any royalties. Boomy eventually got banned from Spotify, not because AI was used, but because they were caught creating bots to generate fraudulent listens. This showed Spotify's stance...AI was fine so long as you didn't try to fraudulently drum up listens.

The book does talk about the one thing you can't really blame Spotify (or any of the streaming platforms) for, the consolidation of the music industry. The big labels control an overwhelmingly large percentage of the music market and their oversized influence gives them special deals with Spotify and the like which only further squeezes independent artists and bands. I more mention this because it is important to understand the full picture of the problem. And while the music industry at large does factor into things, Spotify in particular, should still shoulder a fair amount of the blame for its actions in the music business.

I'll end this with a quote from the book I thought was quite on the nose:

If DIY artists banking on the "opportunities" of the streaming landscape was like playing the slots, then there's another phrase from the casinos that comes to mind: "The house always wins."

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Blood in the Machine

Keith Wagner — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I picked a good time to read this book. Right now, the tech job market is in a weird place. The layoffs have slowed a bit lately, but we're also in a low-hire environment where those who have been laid off, as well as recent graduates are often having trouble finding work.

Today, much of that is coming from how AI and LLMs are being used to try to supplement workers or replace the need to hire additional staff. Back in the early 1800s, it was similar, but instead of AI, you had power looms and other inventions tied to the industrial revolution that were putting many who worked in the textile business out of work.

Brian Merchant does a fantastic job in this book going through the history of the Luddite Rebellions. He describes the struggles of those facing the toughest of economic times and the lack of support they got from their governments. He also explains so many of the misconceptions of the Luddites. They weren't anti-technology. They were against how the new technology was being used.

The message did not just appeal to weavers and cloth dressers and knitters, which perhaps worried the magistrates and the Home Office most. Artisans, hat-makers, shoemakers, bricklayers, small shop owners, and farmers joined the cause. So did coal miners and railroad workers, whose industries were on the rise due in part to the technology and automation - because the Luddite movement was not about technology; it was about workers' rights. Luddism started as a tactical strike against the technologies of control, but had exploded into a greater expression of the rage against a system where the privileged few with access to the right levers could lift themselves up at the expense of the many.

This book really does make me think about all that is going on today. Between AI, the rise of the gig economy and everything else, capitalism feels broken. During the unrest in England in the early 1800s, while it was only the textile industry dealing with the rise of the machines at the time, other industries saw the writing on the wall and supported the textile workers. We should make sure we do the same for everyone today.

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Chip War

Keith Wagner — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Despite working my entire adult life on computers, I never really dug all that deep into the history of the development of computer chips. They're such a key piece of almost everything in our lives so it's a little embarrassing I didn't know all this history.

This was a captivating book. It talked about the history of the development of some of the first chips that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon, to how Japan through its rebuilding after World War II became so big in the memory chip market, and how the Soviet Union struggled throughout the Cold War to match western chip developments.

The book does a good job talking the companies involve. About how Intel became so big as well as its missteps that have put it on its current unsure footing. It dives into TSMC and how they were able to corner the market for advanced chip manufacturing.

It also goes over the various geopolitical struggles between the U.S., China, and the rest of the world. How the American government dropped the ball with recognizing how important the advanced chips would be for modern technology, including military uses.

If you work with technology of any kind, or are interested in the history of the microprocessor, this is a good read.

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The AI Con

Keith Wagner — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This was a fascinating read about a little bit of the history or the current AI hype and many of its problems. It did a fantastic job of digging into what the different tools being hyped actually are as well as the basics on how they work, and why they aren't as "powerful" as they seem. They point out the issues many of these tools have with built-in biases, the costs of the creatives behind the tooling and many of the downstream negative effects.

As the ending of chapter 4 put it.

Input a set of symptoms, and what comes out looks like a diagnosis. Input a legal query, and what comes out looks like a contract or a legal brief. Input a school subject and a request for a lesson plan on literally anything, and what comes out will look like a set of facts that you can teach students and exercises to have them do. We empathize with the people on the ground, teachers, physician's assistants, and paralegals, among many other professionals faced with great need, and insufficient resources, wanting to believe that these systems actually work. But we have no empathy for powerful interests looking to shirk taxes, nor the forces within government who respond by shredding the social safety net and pushing so-called AI as a cheap replacement. And we have nothing but scorn for the would be creators of AI, tech philanthropists, and their allies who claim to be acting in the interests of everyone, pointing to real needs in the world and selling their tech as a solution. But that solution is only poor facsimiles of welfare services, healthcare providers, legal aid, and educators. Facsimiles that the tech barons would never rely on for their own families. Just because you've identified a social problem doesn't mean LLMs or any other kind of so-called AI are a solution. When someone says so, the problem is usually better understood by widening the lens, looking at if from its broader context. As Shankar Narayan, the tech and liberty project director for ACLU of Washington asked regarding biased recidivism prediction systems, "Why are we asking who is most likely to reoffend, rather than what do these people need to give theme the best chance of not reoffending." Likewise, when someone suggest a robodoctor, robotherapist, or a roboteacher, we should ask, "Why isn't there enough money for public clinics, mental health counseling, and schools?". Text synthesis machines can't fill holes in the social fabric. We need people, political will, and resources.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who's looking to get a little more context in the environment we're in with all these AI tools being introduced.

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Billion Dollar Whale

Keith Wagner — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I had heard about this book a while ago and when it was mentioned again in Apple in China, I decided to see if it was available through my library, and sure enough it was.

This book goes through the history of the 1MDB scandal. For those unaware, 1MDB was a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund that ended up being a slush fund for the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak and his family, Jho Low, and several other conspirators in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others.

The book was a fascinating look at how the fund was formed and how Jho Low was able to expertly navigate the world's financial systems to bypass all safeguards they had put in place.

This, like many other financial scandals that have occurred throughout the world, had many red flags thrown throughout the grift, and every time bankers either were strong-armed into believing questionable statements or were willing to look the other way to make money.

The book was written in such a way that I was able to easily understand what was going on. It allow the reader to follow the progress of all the different happenings and ways that Low and his conspirators were able to dodge investigations and any roadblocks that were thrown in their path.

One quote towards the end of book proves prescient still even today.

Low's genius was he sensed that the world's largest banks, its auditors, and its lawyers would not throw up obstacles to his scheme if they smelled profits. It's easy to sneer at Malaysia as a cesspool of graft, but that misses the point. None of this could have happened without the connivance of scores of senior executives in London, Geneva, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, and elsewhere.

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Apple in China

Keith Wagner — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This was a look at how Apple grew from manufacturing primarily in America to almost exclusively in China. It was a fascinating look from when Apple had to sell their own factories just to avoid bankruptcy to today.

It was kind of eerie to see all the decisions that slowly but surely tied them to China. The book goes through in detail all the different things Apple did to take advantage of the cheap labor in China as well as all the hoops they had to jump through to appease the dictatorship. It was informative and enlightening both about the decisions Apple made, and how China flexes its muscles to capture technical know-how as well as the manufacturing capabilities.

Cook's silence, his ultimate consent, was highly indicative of just how beholden America's most valuable company had become to an authoritarian state. The point however, isn't to condemn Cook or Apple. It's to convey the predicament they're in. At the turn of the millennium, Washington made a bet on China. A bet that free trade would liberalize the country and perhaps catalyze the creation of the world's biggest democracy. Instead, trade enriched China and empowered its rulers. Cook shouldn't be blamed by politicians for enmeshing Apple's operations in China two decades ago, but he has erred by doubling down over the past decade, despite mounting evidence that Xi has been ramping up repression at home and taking a more combative stance in international affairs.

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Doom Guy

Keith Wagner — Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I'm not one who generally likes memoirs, but this was an incredible listen about John Romero's life, growing up and gaining a legacy of one of the DOOM creators.

I remember getting DOOM and playing it and thought it was amazing. Listening to the history of how John Romero got into game development, programming in assembly, and how he, John Carmack, and the rest of Id got together to make one of the most iconic games ever was fascinating.

I'd highly recommend this for anyone who grew up playing DOOM or Quake. Or for anyone who is interested in an icon of the game industry.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't inspiring to give me a little kick in the ass to do my own development, even if it's not necessarily games.

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Dark Wire

Keith Wagner — Sat, 10 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This was a fantastic dive into the history of the encrypted phone market. The book goes through the history of the previous encrypted phones like Phantom Secure, EncroChat, and SkyPhones and how those companies got charged, often with their founders facing criminal charges for intentionally supporting organized crime.

This all led to the creation of the primary focus of the book and the events that culminated in the creation of ANOM, the encrypted phone provider that was actually run by the FBI.

Joseph Cox does a good job digging into the characters involved on both sides of the phones; the criminals running their drug and organized crime empires, and the police organizations trying to shut them down. The way he tells the story is captivating and informative and in many cases feels like an old war movie with spies spying on spies. In reality, it kind of was.

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Murder the Truth

Keith Wagner — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I found out about this book from an episode of the Techdirt Podcast. I had heard about NYT v Sullivan and knew it was important with regards to free speech and journalism. This book does a good job talking about why the Sullivan decision is so important to the freedoms we enjoy in America, especially the freedom of the press.

The book goes on to describe the different attacks the rich and powerful are waging in the court systems to try to get Sullivan either overturned or weakened. From Donald Trump to rich and powerful coal executives, they don't like the fact that journalists and news outlets can dig up dirt and investigate what they're up to.

This should not be a partisan issue either as it protects both right and left-leaning journalists investigating those on either side of the political spectrum. It's an interesting and informative read about what's at stake with regards to holding the rich and powerful to account.

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Winning Fixes Everything

Keith Wagner — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I remember when I first heard about the Astros cheating scheme. As a baseball fan, I was surprised at how brazen it was. I knew teams would often straddle the line and skirt the rules any way they could to gain an advantage, but didn't expect something so bold and blatantly illegal.

As much as I borrowed this book thinking it would be focused on the cheating scandal, the scandal itself was not a major feature. It was not a disappointment though. The book goes through the early history of Jim Crane’s purchase of the Astros and Jeff Luhnow’s never-ending dive into numbers and analytics building the team and how it rubbed a lot of people around baseball the wrong way sometimes.

The book did a good job going into the conflicts and cut throat culture Jim Crane and Jeff Luhnow cultivated in the Astros organization, all in the name of winning. The culture even went beyond 2017, after they had won the (now tainted) World Series.

This book provided an interesting look inside an MLB club and how a team on the cutting edge of technology and stats tried to find every edge they could think of to win.

It's still disappointing though how many of the organization, both players, management and ownership don't feel like they did anything wrong or that they're "not guilty". I'm sure other teams have crossed lines, and if/when they're caught, they should face punishment as well. But justifying cheating by saying "others do it too!" feels like a cop-out, and it definitely sends the wrong message.

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Madoff

Keith Wagner — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I had heard a Fresh Air interview with Richard Behar about the largest Ponzi scheme in American history. I of course had heard about Bernie Madoff and knew the basics, but this book provided more details and insight into it.

I found the audiobook on Libby and decided to give it a listen. I mention that because the audiobook contains recorded phone calls between Richard and Bernie. Richard interviewed and communicated with Bernie while Bernie was still alive and in prison.

The book goes into detail on who the different people were who were involved in running the scheme as well as how Bernie L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS) was setup and how it managed to avoid scrutiny for so long.

Despite the sheer magnitude of the losses, I still have a hard time feeling sorry for some (not all) of the victims as some seemed smart enough to have known something was up. The book talks about this, as well as why it was difficult for a undermanned SEC to learn about this and take action.

As someone who is interested in the inner workings of Wall Street and finance, this was a particularly interesting look into one of the more notorious crimes in Wall Street history.

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The Death of Expertise

Keith Wagner — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This was a sobering look at where we are as a society. It’s easy to put the blame for all of this on the rise of the internet, but as Tom goes on to describe, there’s a lot more to it.

The breakdown of trust between the public, experts, and elected officials in a republic goes in all directions. The public, especially, needs to be able to trust leaders and their expert advisers. This relationship becomes impossible to sustain however, when laypeople have no idea what they’re talking about, or what they want. When that trust breaks down, public ignorance can be turned by cynical manipulation into a political weapon. Anti-intellectualism is itself a means of short circuiting democracy, because a stable democracy in any culture relies on the public actually understanding the implications of its own choices.

He goes through several of the problem areas, like the news media, the internet, higher education, and some of the other sources of some of the issues we face.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the perilous state of the role of expertise in American life. ... Experts themselves, as well as educators, journalists, corporate entertainment media, and others have all played their part. In the end however, there is only one group of people who must bear the ultimate responsibility for this current state of affairs, and only they can change any of it. The citizens of the United States of America.

It made me think about some of my own biases too and I can probably be guilty of thinking I know more than I actually do.

If laypeople refuse to take their duties as citizens seriously, and don’t educate themselves about issues important to them, democracy will mutate into technocracy. The rule of experts, so feared by laypeople will grow by default. For laypeople to use expert advice and to place professionals in their proper roles as servants, rather than masters, they must accept their own limitations as well. Democracy cannot function when every citizen is an expert. Yes it is unbridled ego for experts to believe they can run a democracy while ignoring its voters. It is also however, ignorant narcissism for laypeople to believe that they can maintain a large and advanced nation without listening to the voices of those more educated and experienced than themselves.

It’s worth a read.

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Challenger

Keith Wagner — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I’m a pretty big space geek. I’ve always found it captivating. I was born too late to experience the moon race, but I was born just as the Space Shuttle was starting to take off. I didn’t really know what was going on at that point, but the Challenger disaster occurred a couple of years after I was born. I remember when I started getting into space, my Mom mentioning Challenger, and how it was one of those moments you remember where you were when it happened. I remember it being especially hard for her as a teacher since Christa McAuliffe was on board.

This book is about the Space Shuttle Challenger. But it’s also about the lead up to the disastrous launch, the failings in the design, and most importantly, the failings of leadership to stop it.

The book is well organized. It starts with the decisions from NASA as to what they wanted to do post-Apollo. He does a good job writing about the different design decisions and tradeoffs NASA was sometimes forced to make in order to continue to receive the funding necessary to build the fleet of orbiters. It goes through the progression from the first launch of Columbia in 1981 through the fateful launch of Challenger in 1986. He does a good job describing the issues engineers saw with the shuttle program, and what some tried to do to fix it.

Even knowing what happened, it still surprises me how reckless those in charge were at giving the go ahead to launch on that cold day in January 1986.

It’s a fantastic read and it does a good job talking about the disaster, both about those who made the decision to launch, as well as the engineers who did all they could to stop it from happening.

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Nuclear War

Keith Wagner — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I had heard about this book on an episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Addendum podcast and quickly put a hold on it at on Libby.

The book is an interesting look at what nuclear war might look like. She interviewed countless Department of Defense officials as well as others who at points in their lives were involved with our nuclear war planning.

The insight she used from those interviews brought about an interesting story of what what might happen should nuclear war start. Explaining who the different people are and what their responsibilities would be. She goes through fantastic detail as to what could happen and what might be likely to happen.

Given the state of the world right now, it was a scary, but captivating read (or in my case, listen). It's also a stark reminder of how powerful these doomsday weapons are and how nuclear war really can't be won.

After nuclear war, who, if anyone, will know we were once here.

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Battle Cry of Freedom

Keith Wagner — Sat, 30 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

As someone who enjoys reading about history, this was an in-depth look at one of the darkest periods in American history. The book is long, but it goes into so much depth about the battles, the characters involved, and the politics of both the Union and the Confederacy.

So much was going on in the country during the Civil War and James M. McPherson did a great job talking about what was happening throughout. For many of the battles, there were maps to go along with what was happening to visually help figure out troop movements. I found these helpful in many cases to get a better idea of where the armies were.

The political happenings on both sides was also well discussed which helped provide good context for how both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were dealing with what was going on behind the scenes with public sentiment.

This was a long read, but if you like history, well worth it.

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The Demon of Unrest

Keith Wagner — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

This is the second book of Erik Larson's I've read and it was again well written.

The trigger that started what would become the Civil War was the Confederacy's siege of Fort Sumter by Charleston, South Carolina.

Larson does a good job going through what happened leading up to the shelling as the newly seceded states wanted to take control of U.S. forts and armories since they declared their independence from the Union.

Larson uses historical records as well as diaries kept by those involved to go through the different people's motivations and perceived thoughts about what was happening both in Washington and in South Carolina and the Confederacy.

As someone who has gotten more interested in history as I've gotten older, I would recommend this to anyone wanting to learn more about the Civil War and the run up to the hostilities.

Here lay the greatest of ironies: In thirty-four hours of some of the fiercest bombardment the world had ever seen, no one was killed or even seriously injured, yet this bloodless attack would trigger a war that killed more Americans than any other conflict in the country's history.

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Liar in a Crowded Theater

Keith Wagner — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

To say I've been upset at the lies, misinformation, and disinformation we see on social media and various TV channels would be an understatement. It makes me angry that people are duped about COVID, voting rights, and who knows what else. But as angry as I might be, the 1st Amendment allows for the speech, and that's the right call.

Kosseff does a good job going through past legal cases regarding speech. He explains what the cases were about and why the rulings made were decided the way they were and their importance.

I appreciated his way of explaining the cases and pointing out some of the finer points and nuance of the decisions. He explains why we might not like the decisions, but why they're better than the alternatives.

It might be a little infuriating, but it's important and a good read.

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The Blood Telegram

Keith Wagner — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I had known that Pakistan was divided into East and West Pakistan at one point in history, but didn’t really know how the region formed into what it is today.

The book goes through what happened between Pakistan, India, and what is now Bangladesh. It goes through the atrocities committed by Pakistan against the Hindus and East Bengalis across East Pakistan, the unwillingness of the United States to condemn or even speak out against Pakistan, and India’s response to the situation being situated between the two halves of Pakistan.

This book was suggested after Kissinger died earlier this year. It was recommended to give a view of Kissinger that showed who he was.

Kissinger and his defenders often try to shift the blame to Nixon. But the record here proves that Kissinger was almost as culpable as the president. When dealing with the White House and State Department staff, Kissinger would entertain a variety of viewpoints, showing his trademark subtlety, although pressing an anti-Indian line. But when it was just him and Nixon alone, he cannily stoked the president's fury. All the sophistication vanished, replaced with a relentless drumbeat against India. Although Kissinger billed himself around Washington as a vital restraint on Nixon's dangerous moods, here it was Kissinger who spun out of control. In the most heated moments of the crisis, when Nixon lost his nerve for a superpower confrontation with the Soviet Union that at worst could have led toward nuclear war, Kissinger goaded him on.

Throughout the book it was shown that Nixon and Kissinger had multiple opportunities to put some pressure on Pakistan to stop the slaughter, but deliberately chose not to. Add to that the continued use of U.S. weaponry and it doesn’t paint the United States in a good light…for good reason.

It might not be a light read and it definitely covers a dark time of history, but that’s also why learning about history is important.

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The War that Made the Roman Empire

Keith Wagner — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Like The Storm Before the Storm, I had discovered this book on a Hardcore History Addendum episode.

This was a fantastic book going from the death of Julius Caesar to what would become the Roman Empire. Barry Strauss does a great job of going through the history of the rivalry between Mark Antony and Octavian (who would later become Augustus).

The story was fascinating as it goes through the political intrigue caused by Antony’s affairs with Cleopatra and the seemingly constant flows back and forth of defectors.

Eventually the rivalry becomes a war and the book describes in detail the various events that took place as well as the various mistakes and missteps Antony made that led history to turn out the way it did.

Despite the large amount of detail, this was a relatively easy, and quite informative read.

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The Storm Before the Storm

Keith Wagner — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT

This was an absolutely fascinating look at the Roman Republic leading up to the fall of the republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

I was referred to this book from an episode of Hardcore History Addendum. Episode 2, Rome Through Duncan’s Eyes had Mike Duncan on to talk about this book.

The book goes through the different figures who were involved as well as some of the fateful decisions they made that would later weaken and doom the republic.

As someone who wasn’t super familiar with this era of history, this book did a great job of laying out the details of what the Roman Republic was and the history of the different wars and political intrigue that occurred.

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American Whitelash

Keith Wagner — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT

I had heard of this book from a Make Me Smart podcast episode.

The book is an interesting and slightly depressing look at the racism that clearly still exists in America. The book looks back at various points in history where there were spikes in racial animosity.

There is an obvious futility to the search—there is no satisfying explanation for evil. Yet in moments of chaos and tragedy, human nature demands that we seek answers. For a journalist, the busywork of reporting can be soothing, even if it often feels like we're groping aimlessly in the dark. Understanding the present cannot always be achieved by examining what lays in front of us. Often the answers lie as much in our past as they do in our present, requiring us to turn around and look back.

I’m not so naive to think that racism is dead, but I guess until 2016, I thought we were starting to get better. This book only shows that we still have a long way to go.

One example mentions is that the election of Barack Obama as president caused a backlash from white supremacists and the far-right. To make me even more angry about things, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) saw the rise of the far-right terrorism and reported it only to have the Republican Party push to have the DHS retract the report. Instead of tackling the problem, the GOP allowed for terrorists to simmer.

This book is informative, but it disappoints me seeing how little we have changed as a country.

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A City on Mars

Keith Wagner — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

If you haven’t already picked up on it, I’m a pretty big space geek. I love reading about it and have dreamed of going up into space. This book was right up my alley.

This book throws some cold water on humanity’s dream of truly settling space, at least in the near term. Kelly and Zach do a fantastic job of going through the different challenges, technologic, scientific and legal of us as a species venturing into space. They touch on a lot of things that we often don’t think about when talking about sending humans into space.

The book is fascinating and is written in such a way to be realistic about things, but also with the hope for the future and the caveats that there is much we don’t know and don’t have data for.

I’m a fan of Zach’s Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comics and this book has the same humor that he’s known for. If you enjoy space and science, I’d highly recommend this book.

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The Creative ACT

Keith Wagner — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Nothing in this book is known to be true. It's a reflection on what I've noticed. Not facts so much as thoughts.

Some ideas may resonate, others may not. A few may awaken an inner knowing you forgot you had. Use what's helpful. Let go of the rest.

That’s Rick Rubin’s introduction to the book. From my perspective, it was a good way to go into the book.

Recently I’ve been trying to branch into my creative side and have been writing a lot more. I even started what started out as a short story and has since only been growing into something more like a novella.

Notice yourself feeling the weight of self-criticism or the pressure to live up to expectations. And remember that commercial success is completely out of your control. All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.

I enjoyed this book as it gave me a lot of helpful thoughts to get over my concerns that what I’m working on isn’t good. (I mean it might not be good, but it certainly won’t be any good if I just give up.) If I’m enjoying it, which I am, then that’s what matters.

One of the greatest rewards of making art is our ability to share it. Even if there is no audience to receive it, we build the muscle of making something and putting it out into the world. Finishing our work is a good habit to develop. It boosts confidence. Despite our insecurities, the more times we can bring ourselves to release our work, the less weight insecurity has.

Avoid overthinking. When you're happy with the work and you're moved to share it with a friend, it might be time to share it with the world as well.

Again, I have no idea if anything I write will ever be really consumed. I’m not expecting or even targeting commercial success or anything, I’m just trying something new, doing something I’m enjoying. This book helped by pointing that out.

The book also provided some good tips on breaking through various blockers artists, musicians and writers often face. Some of them would also help with my software development work as well.

If you’re interested in any kind of creative work, I’d recommend this book.

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Number Go Up

Keith Wagner — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT

From the beginning, I thought that crypto was pretty dumb. And it turned out to be even dumber than I imagined. Never before has so much wealth been generated with such flimsy schemes. But what shocked me was not the vapidity of the crypto bros. It was how their heedlessness had devastating consequences for people across the world. By the end, I’d find myself in Cambodia, investigating how crypto fueled a vast human-trafficking scheme run by Chinese gangsters.

I had heard about this book on an episode of Make Me Smart and added it to my list. I have been a skeptic of crypto and this book only cemented my feeling that I made the right call skipping over the whole Crypto and NFT craze.

I realized I had walked in on a presentation for a timeshare that I would pay money not to join.

Zeke did a good job going over some of the many crazes, cons, and schemes so many different companies and people have done over the last decade-plus related to cryptocurrency, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), and NFTs.

Celsius, it turned out, had $18 billion in assets. I couldn’t believe it. Somehow Celsius had accumulated as much money as a large hedge fund with a business plan that wouldn’t even work for a kid’s lemonade stand.

He presented it with clear language, a good sense of humor, and humility especially after dealing with Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX.

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Your Face Belongs to Us

Keith Wagner — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve read several of Kashmir’s articles in the New York Times, so I knew she knows her stuff when it comes to privacy and technology. It’s the primary reason I bought the book. I had heard and read about Clearview because of her reporting.

This book does a good job going into the history of facial recognition, its failures, weaknesses and potential for a very scary future where privacy as we currently know it might not exist.

She does mention Illinois’ biometrics privacy laws as a good example of how to find a balance of privacy vs. accepting new technology, but it’s still kind of eerie that this kind of technology exists. And since it’s owned by a private company, it can make it harder to deal with.

I’d highly recommend this book if for no other reason than to understand the scope of what we’re dealing with in terms of facial recognition. You’ll learn some history of the technology too.

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Team of Rivals

Keith Wagner — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT

This was a really fascinating look at Lincoln's rise to the presidency. and how he ran the Union during America's darkest hours.

The book starts out by describing how both Lincoln and the three other presidential hopefuls in the 1860 Republican Primary race got to be on the ballot in 1860. Doris Kearns Goodwin does a fantastic job of describing the backgrounds of Abraham Lincoln, William Seward, Salmon Chase and Edward Bates and how each one of them got to where they were, their history in politics, and what their political viewpoints were.

It was interesting to read how Lincoln wound up garnering enough support to win both the primary and then the presidency itself. While there were certain key events that ended up being strokes of luck, the book does a good job of describing Lincoln's natural ability to find political angles to get the followers and support he needed.

From a historical perspective, it's interesting to read about how the former Whig party dissolved into the Republican Party in the 10 years prior to Lincoln's inauguration. I had never realized how new the Republican party was when Lincoln became the first Republican president.

It was interesting to read about how Lincoln built his cabinet. He nominated his rivals to his cabinet to get multiple different perspectives on the many tough decisions he had to deal with as President. In truth, many of his cabinet members didn't get along and it was amazing to read how Lincoln was able to help keep Washington and the federal government together as the Civil War got started and then continued to be fought.

The book also talks about how Lincoln was able to corral his cabinet and prepare the country for his Emancipation Proclamation, and then later get the votes together for passage of the 13th amendment ending slavery permanently.

I really appreciated Doris' writing, It gave me a much better understanding of the kind of person Lincoln was and why he made such a great president aside from him keeping the country together and ending slavery.

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Dead Wake

Keith Wagner — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT

This book was an interesting read looking at one of the biggest victims of unrestricted submarine warfare. It was also the start of the events that would bring the US into World War I two years later.

The book Bounces between passenger and crew stories from the Lusitania, the path of U-20 and Captain Lieutenant Walther Schwieger, who would sink the Lusitania.

While talking about Schwieger and the German U-Boat fleet, this line stood out to me:

Unlike large surface craft, a U-boat came to reflect the character and personality of its commander, as though the boat were a suit of steel tailored just for him. This arose from the fact that while on distant patrol the captain received no orders from superiors and had more direct control over his own men than would, say, an admiral aboard a flagship, with a fleet of ships and thousands of men under his command. There were cruel boats and chivalrous boats, lazy boats and energetic boats. Some captains made no attempt to save the lives of merchant seamen; others went so far as to tow lifeboats toward land. One U-boat commander sent the captain of a torpedoed ship three bottles of wine to ease the long row ashore.

Could you imagine being a captain of a ship just sunk by a submarine, and the sub captain pops up and offers you wine?

The book also talks about how British Intelligence had broken German codes and were tracking U-20 and were generally aware of where it was and what it was doing, but had neglected to alert the Lusitania or send any of their warships to help escort it to Liverpool or an alternate port.

A naval historian, Patrick Beesley later even pointed this out.

"As an Englishman and a lover of the Royal Navy," he said, "I would prefer to attribute this failure to negligence, even gross negligence, rather than to a conspiracy deliberately to endanger the ship." But, he said, "on the basis of the considerable volume of information which is now available, I am reluctantly compelled to state that on balance, the most likely explanation is that there was indeed a plot, however imperfect, to endanger the Lusitania in order to involve the United States in the war." So much was done for the Orion and other warships, he wrote, but nothing for the Lusitania. He struggled with this. No matter how he arranged the evidence, he came back to conspiracy."

It caps off what was an absolute tragedy costing the lives of almost 1,200 civilians. Carrying munitions bound for the frontlines on a passenger ship is questionable at best, but the lack of escort, or even actionable warnings being sent to the Lusitania after being specifically threatened by Germany should be criminal.

Morals aside, it was a compelling read. It was interesting to hear all the different stories from some of the passengers on board.

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