Although a technologist by profession, I appreciate and enjoy many branches of sciences and humanities. Physics, history, geography, economics, art, literature, philosophy and psychology are all subjects I have often dabbled in out of curiosity.
Philosophy and Psychology
I think Barrett’s books provide a neurological basis to psychology.
Religion may seem obsolete, but I think that it has a lofty purpose: helping us with our existential truths.
Some book recommendations while reviewing a book by Lori Gottlieb.
As an engineer, I have written about a systems approach to mental well-being.
I connect change to loss and anxiety. Managing change is an underrated skill for the 21st century.
Back in 2007, I selected and translated a few verses from a philosophical work in Kannada, Mankuthimmana Kagga.
Impact of Technology
Kevin Roose, tech writer for NYT, wrote a book about adapting to an age of automation.
I think that the Internet relies too much on the eyes and ears, and underserves our remaining senses.
Literature
I usually gravitate towards existential themes in fiction and literature.
My thoughts and appreciation of the graphic-novel adaptation of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.
George Saunders recently (2021) wrote a book about Russian short story writers and how to write (and appreciate) the story form.
Florian Zeller’s The Father and Chekhov’s The Bishop have striking similarities.
Julian Barnes’s Sense of an Ending is devastatingly beautiful.
I liked how Ishiguro inverts characteristics attributed to humanity and machinery in Klara and the Sun.
Ghachar Ghochar is a novella I read in translation that leaves a lot unsaid, like Chekhov’s stories.
Physics
I once co-wrote an online tutorial in quantum mechanics. Nothing new or original there, I was still a college student at the time. It’s mostly distillation from many books. (2002)
Fun
A script that plots daylight hours across the year for any location, and graphs for some representative locations. (2006)
I had fun building a Lego piano.
I wrote some notes on backyard bird-feeding.