memoir – Made by Mikal

This is going to hurt

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 13, 2023
Post category:Book

This book is lots of things: honest, funny, and ultimately heart breaking. I don't remember how I came across it, but its a good read for when travelling as the diary format means you can put it down whenever you need to do something else. I'm left wondering how the Australian medical system compares to the NHS -- I know we have more patient choice and flexibility -- but I wonder what its like for those working within the system. Either way I definitely recommend this book.

Unix: a history and a memoir

Post author:mikal
Post published:November 21, 2022
Post category:Book

It was a bit surprising to me that Brian Kernighan self-published a book about Unix history with Kindle Direct publishing, but given how many other books he's published he must have his reasons for not using traditional channels for this one. The book is an engaging read, with quotes which still seem timely today popping up every so often. Certainly the decision to self-publish does not appear to have been because of a lack of effort put into the book. An example of a quote I think is still relevant today: "Stable funding was a crucial factor for research. It meant that AT&T could take a long-term view and Bell Labs researchers had the freedom to explore areas that might not have a near-term payoff and perhaps never would. That's a contrast with today's world, in which planning often seems to look ahead only a few months, and much effort is spent on speculating on financial results for the next quarter." (page 7). Kernighan covers his own early career and the general functioning of Bell Labs, before starting to delve into the history of Unix. Describing at a high level early batch processing systems and then Multics, Kernighan describes how…

If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 28, 2019
Post category:Book

This book discusses science and technical communication from the perspective of someone who comes from professional theatre and acting. Alan explains how his accidental discovery of the application of theatre sports to communication created an opportunity to teach technical communicators how to be more effective. Essentially, the argument is that empathy is essential to communication -- you need to be able to understand where your audience is starting and and where they're likely to get stuck before you can take them on the journey. Unsurprisingly given the topic of the book, this is a well written and engaging read. The book is nicely structured and uses regular anecdotes (some of them humorous) to get its message across. A detailed and fun read.

Ignition!

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 5, 2019
Post category:Book

Whilst the chemistry was sometimes over my head, this book is an engaging summary of the history of US liquid rocket fuels during the height of the cold war. Fun to read and interesting as well. I enjoyed it.

Best Foot Forward

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 27, 2019
Post category:Book

Catherine and I have been huge fans of Adam Hills for ages, so it wasn't a surprise to me that I'd like a book by him. As an aside, we've never seen him live -- we had tickets for his show in Canberra in 2013, but some of us ended up in labor in hospital instead, so we had to give those tickets away. One day we'll manage to see him live though, he just needs to get back to touring Australia more! Anyways, I enjoyed this book which as mentioned above wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise is that he said something interesting which I have been pondering for the last few days... Basically, its nice to get on stage and say things, either entertaining the audience or in my case perhaps educating them a little (I give technical conference talks). However, that's not the most important thing. You need to work out why you're on that stage before you go out there. What is the overall thing you're trying to convey? Once you know that, everything else falls into place. I think this is especially true for keynote speeches, which need to appeal to a more general audience than…

Chaos Monkeys

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 10, 2018
Post category:Book

A very well written tale of a Wall Street quant who left during the GFC to adventure in startup land and ended up at Facebook attempting to solve their monetization problems for an indifferent employer. Martinez must have been stomping around Mountain View because his description of the environment and what its like to work inside a Silicon Valley company ring very true to me. A good read.

A Walk in the Woods

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 19, 2016
Post category:Book

I found this tale of Bill Bryson walking the Appalachian Trail (rather incompetently I must say) immensely entertaining. Well written, interesting, generally exaggerated, and leaving me with a desire to get out somewhere and walk some more. I'd strongly recommend this book to people who already care about bush walking, but have found other pursuits to occupy most of their spare time.

Don’t Tell Mum I Work On The Rigs

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 22, 2014
Post category:Book

I read this book while on a flight a few weeks ago. Its surprisingly readable and relatively short -- you can knock it over in a single long haul flight. The book covers the memoirs of an oil rig worker, from childhood right through to middle age. That's probably the biggest weakness of the book, it just kind of stops when the writer reaches the present day. I felt there wasn't really a conclusion, which was disappointing. An interesting fun read however.