Cows, pigs, wars, & witches
This book challenges those who argue that we can change the world by changing the way people think. The author shows that no matter how bizarre a people's behavior may seem, it always stems from concrete social and economic conditions. It is by isolating and identifying these conditions that we will be able to understand and cope with some of our own apparently senseless life styles. In a devastating attack on the shamans of the counterculture, the author states the case for a return to objective consciousness and a rational set of political commitments.
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2010–2024years
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- Origin - A genetic history of the Americas by Jennifer Raff. Recent evidence of how humans came to the Americas; it's a significantly different story than our conventional wisdom account.
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches by Marvin Harris. How cultural norms establish collective behavior.
The Extermination of the American Bison. Written in the late 1800s as the tragedy was unfolding. Lots on great detail on how and why we decimated a keystone species in a matter of a few decades.
Plato's Revenge by William Ophuls. A concise manifesto on societal change. Lays out a vision for a new post-growth, post-oil, ecological consciousness that incorporates modern science, religion and philosophy.
Four Thousand Weeks. Far from a self-help time-management book, this is more a philosophy book on human's relationship with time. Delightful read.
Breath by James Nestor. Modern humans are breathing incorrectly due to factors of modern life. An exploration of the science and art of breathing properly.
Bernoulli's Fallacy by Aubrey Clayton. In the statistical wars, this book takes a strong stance: Bayesian is unequivocally better. He exploses the racist/colonial history of frequentist statistics, as well as the fundamental flaws in their math. Posits that mis-applied frequentist methods are to blame for the reproducibility crisis in science.
How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil. A no-nonsense, factual account of the systems that keep our modern globalized society running.
Elements of Clojure by Zach Tellman. A concise, high-level philosophy about how we build and compose abstractions. One of those books where every sentence is gold. My only wish that the book wasn't tied to Clojure (most of the book is applicable to any language, despite the title).
Tidy First? by Kent Beck. How and when to make structural changes (refactoring, architecture, paying down tech debt) vs behavioral changes (new features, bug fixes). You need both, and you can use economic theory as a guide for when to invest in one or the other. But you need to treat them differently.
Numerical Linear Algebra for Programmers by Dragan Djuric. A code-centric introduction to common linear algrebra routines, Using Clojure and the neaderthal library - a high-level API for fast math optimized for CPU and GPU hardware.
- Marvin Harris' theories of material anthropology. I can't one-line the meaning behind his findings and theories, because it's wonderfully complex.
It's an explanation that makes sense out of otherwise nonsensical human habits of cultures (tribal, ancient and modern).
If you're curious and want to read something enjoyable—he's a decent writer—check out "Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches" (preferably one of the later editions), or for something a little denser: "Cannibals and Kings".
- For a somewhat deeper anthropological dive into this, although in a very accessible way, you might check out the book "cows, pigs, Wars, and witches". One of the case studies is a culture with a boom-bust cycle much like this.
- In fact, moral based on religion is completely arbitrary. Some years ago I read a book titled "Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture" by the anthropologist Marvin Harris, where he explained that the reason why it is forbidden for muslims and jews to eat pork, is because those religions where originated in a desertic land, and pigs roll over themselves in mud where they are hot, and if there is no mud they roll over themselves in their own feces, which is a danger to health. That health rule became a part of the religious rules, and thus followers of these religions shall not eat pork even if they are living in a different place. Religion alone has caused more suffering in history than any other idea, and has lead to wars, deaths, torture, discrimination, intolerance, sexual repression, sexist discrimination to women, and a slowdown for science, culture and knowledge. How is that moral acceptable?
