Edmundas

As an adamant fan of astrophysics and all things cosmos, I got sucked into the proverbial black hole that Stephen Hawking had created with the book A Brief History of Time. However, fairly early in the book, I nodded to myself, agreeing with the consensus that the book can be a challenge to people without a physics or cosmology background. Trying to conceptualize imaginary time on top of hearing about imaginary numbers for the first time may be overwhelming for some people.

Stephen Hawking wrote the book for the general, non-technical audience. Be that as it may, I found that the concept and theory explanations are inconsistent in their delivery, as if there were missing pages sometimes. Things like geodesics and great circles are accompanied by illustrations, whereas the reader is left to imagine concepts such as imaginary numbers and imaginary time.

The first edition got released in 1988, so the book has had a long time to build its legacy. Along with that legacy also come the discoveries and phenomena that were theorized or observed indirectly back then. Gravitational waves, for example, were first directly observed only in 2015 by LIGO. It is possible to trip over the facts that are no longer entirely true today. The book explores the scenarios in which the Universe is contracting, expanding, or static. However, in 1998, ten years after the first edition came out, it was discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. Unfortunately, this fact is only mentioned in the book's appendix (I read the 2016 edition).

Overall, do not expect an easy read. A Brief History of Time will leave a lasting impression if you're willing to dedicate quality time to it. The book is slightly dated in its original form, and you are required to read the appendix to stay true to the facts.

The word skeptic has gotten a bad rep, and one could easily deduct from the book title that the authors will nitpick current and previous visions of the future to exhaustion. Rest assured: the Novella brothers are excellent critical thinkers and big nerds of science fiction and space fantasy. The exploration of the near and distant future is in safe hands!

The book first lays down the pitfalls of futurism (calling them futurism fallacies) and frequently refers to them throughout the chapters. The fallacies help the authors be honest, managing the reader's expectations.

Part two of the book goes through today's technology and how that is already shaping and will continue to shape the future. The book navigates such existing technologies and makes a compelling argument that even incremental advances soon add up to create a profound effect on us.

The following parts of the book increasingly distance the reader from the current reality, going from non-existing but very probable future technologies to pure tech fantasies and technobabble. The authors give a good perspective on why some tech from sci-fi movies and books is beyond the realm of possibilities.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was reminded that predicting the future is not just about technological advances. Science, exploration, and incremental technological advances significantly alter the course of history. Yet, do we understand how they change how we think and what decisions we make? Would we have the same governing structures if every resource imaginable was abundant? Would it seem reckless or unnatural to have designer babies a century from now? There are a lot of similar questions that the book explores and that I keep raising in my head.

One criticism I have for the book is that it feels too dry and overly factual at times. If you're not in a focus mode while reading/listening to the book, some topics, such as rocket propulsion will fly over your head!

Improv Wisdom connects to improvisational theater through improv maxims, and Patricia Ryan Madson tries to bring them to everyday life. If you remove the word improv from the book, most of the material will still preserve its meaning. It will not teach you improv and, at best, send you down a path of self-help-induced positive vibes.

The book is a collection of highly general and bland advice with no memorable stories from improvisational theater acting experience. In the chapter "wake up to the gifts," a few short sentences mention improvisation, and the rest is about the author's life flashbacks. "By focusing on what was right <...>, we managed to avoid the shouting and blaming <...>. We saw the gift in the moment <...>. Use this approach to create a lens of life." This writing pattern repeats throughout the book, and while I appreciate the cheerful tones, Patricia Ryan Madson does little setup for the advice to carry significant weight.

Ultimately, the book feels more like spiritual self-help advice than improvisational theater skills showcased outside the theatre. If you're in the market for reinforcing positive loops and need the nudge, this book can help. However, there are better mediums and content to get you there.

If there's one word by which I'd have to describe the book Contagious, it would be passable. The content is good enough to have some practical value. The book can provide mild entertainment from the stories Jonah Berger tells. But whether the book can stand the test of time or offer insights you couldn't arrive at on your own is something to consider.

The book revolves around the concept of STEPPS - six principles that describe why ideas catch on and spread. Jonah Berger dissects each principle by providing examples from ads, marketing stories, and some dubious research. These examples are passable enough to support the principles, but I am not convinced they're the formula of success. The author says that "the best part of the STEPPS framework is that anyone can use it. It doesn't require a huge advertising budget, marketing genius or some sort of creativity gene". However, the book did not lift my sense of skepticism on that.

I question whether the book can stand the test of time. Having published the book in early 2010s, Jonah Berger built it around the realities of that time. While I believe the described principles are still valid, they probably require different contexts to fully reflect the world of 2023 and beyond. The viral aspect of an idea stems from the human psychology, which cannot radically change in a decade. However, word of mouth is increasingly moving to social networks and are distilled through algorithms. Mix it with the shortening attention spans thanks to platforms such as TikTok and being tethered to our phones and computers, and the simple framework of STEPPS becomes dated.

Contagious is a passable read both for practical value and entertainment to reinforce the thoughts that you already have about ideas that tend to go viral. Read the book if you must, but don't expect it to have a lasting effect.

You will feel at home if you are familiar with Neil deGrasse Tyson and his content. If you have only heard of him, you may miss some of the subtleties and musings that one would notice otherwise. Either way, "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" is a fabulous book for those who have only recently started plunging into the depths of science and astrophysics and for those who are more seasoned.

The book covers topics all too familiar in the context of astrophysics, such as how the Universe came to be, what is dark matter or dark energy, and exoplanets -- you will all find it there. Neil does not go too heavy on any of them, but there are breadcrumbs and clues for the curious mind to go deeper. You may know what planets are roaming our solar system, but do you know how the names of the planets came to be? Or how about learning what was Einstein's greatest blunder? The book connects facts from science and history to build a coherent story of the cosmos.

In the last chapter, called Reflections on the Cosmic Perspective, Neil deGrasse Tyson brings the reader to a humbling conclusion. He reflects on the scale between humans and the Universe. Human curiosity should always be at the forefront. As Neil puts it, "the day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us". It is very reminiscent of Carl Sagan and that, in a sense, seems to be the point.

"Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" touches on the most common astrophysics topics just enough to not overstay their welcome, yet engages you in craving for more.