The store clerks stare at me in surprise. We’re in Dublin, California and I’ve come into the shop to buy a toolkit and Rok tiedown straps for my duffel bag.

Fiction

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Taken from the book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Fiction

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

Fiction

The System of the World by Neal Stephenson

Some recent conversations with a friend have me investigating Personal Knowledge Management (PKM).

Fiction

Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart

The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

The Confusion by Neal Stephenson

Strange Adventures by Tom King

Maniac of New York by Elliott Kalan

Nonfiction

Revolt of the Public by Martin Gurri

Antifragile by N. Nassim Taleb (re-read)

Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais (notes)

Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor by Amy Nicholson

Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis

Military & Aviation

Thud Ridge by Col. Jack Broughton

The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security by Grant Hammond

Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds

Viper Pilot by Dan Hampton

Harrier 809 by Rowland White

Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts

Raven One by Kevin Miller

The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare by Christian Brose

Excerpts

The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security

P.141

As the number of events to consider increases, the longer it takes to observe, orient, decide, and act. This suggests that faster tempo or rhythm at lower levels should work within the slower rhythm but larger pattern at higher levels so that the overall system does not lose its cohesion and coherency. Harmonizing these disparate rhythms is accomplished by giving the lower level commanders wide freedom to shape and direct their own activities within a larger pattern of the commanders intent. The mission concept must be completely understood throughout the organization. This is what fixes responsibility and shapes of commitment, not real time command and control.

p. 163

The key points he took from this review [of military history] are that war involved friction […] Friction is amplified by such factors as menace, ambiguity, deception, rapidity, uncertainty, and mistrust, among others. Implicit understanding, trust, cooperation, and simplicity can dimish friction. For Boyd, the key point was that variety and rapidity tend to magnify friction, while harmony and initiative tend to dimish friction. More particularly, variety and rapidity without harmony and initiative lead to confusion, disorder, and finally chaos. On the other hand, harmony and initiative without variety and rapidity lead to rigid uniformity, predictability, and finally nonadaptability. What fosters harmony and initiative and destroys variety and rapidity? Activities that promote correlation, commonality, and accurate information flows are beneficial. Compartmentalization, disconnected data flows, and plans laid out as recipes to be followed are not.

p. 168

Boyd’s briefings were essentially a dialogue with the audience. A natural teacher, he understood that if he told you something, he robbed you of the opportunity to ever truly know it for yourself. He was skilled at asking a series of leading questions to guide the group’s thinking about relationships so that they would figure the lesson out just before he had to tell them. In so doing, he demonstrated the kind of thinking that he sought to demand from others […] He then urged them to continue the process, make their own connections, and continue the spiral of conceptual insights.

Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds

p. 260, on assuming command

Here’s what I’ve learned over the years. Know the mission, what is expected of you and your people. Get to know those people, their attitudes and expectations. Visit all the shops and sections. Ask questions. Don’t be shy. Learn what each does, how the parts fit into the whole. Find out what supplies and equipment are lacking, what the workers need. To whom does each shop chief report? Does that officer really know the people under him, is he aware of their needs, their training? Does that NCO supervise or just make out reports without checking facts? Remember, those reports eventually come to you. Don’t try to bullshit the troops, but make sure they know the bulk stops with you, that you’ll shoulder the blame when things go wrong. Correct without revenge or anger. Recognize accomplishment. Reward accordingly. Foster spirit through self-pride, not slogans, and never at the expense of another unit. It won’t take long, but only your genuine interest and concern, plus follow-up on your promises, will earn you respect. Out of that you gain loyalty and obedience. Your outfit will be a standout. But for God’s sake, don’t ever try to be popular! That weakens your position, makes you vulnerable. Don’t have favorites. That breeds resentment. Respect the talents of your people. Have the courage to delegate responsibility and give the authority to go with it. Again, make clear to your troops you are the one who’ll take the heat.

p. 267

The first fix had to start at home base: getting the guys talking openly to one another. I had learned it in World War II and it had worked over the years. You have to give your people an opportunity to think and express themselves. You can’t knock them down if you don’t agree with them. Think, talk things through, and keep minds open. Be flexible. I spent hours reading every damned combat report written by any outfit that went into Route VI. I read every damn one of them, where our guys were when they had MiGs sighted and where the rest of the force was. I would plot it all on a map kept in my desk drawer, so I knew what was happening up there. I made myself learn, and then I worked with J.B. and the guys in the intel room. Working like this, in short order you can see what is done wrong and recognize what needs to be done to fix it. It does not take great intellect to do this. Just study, learn, and listen. This is the situational awareness a guy has to have BEFORE he gets into the airplane.

Assassin’s Apprentice

p. 140

The news must run ahead to Kevlar, and to Shemshy. The imperial hand is about to reconcile their differences. They must both be left wishing they had never had any differences at all. That is the trick of good government. To make folk desire to live in such a way that there is no need for its intervention.

Good Omens

p. 4

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with black cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

p. 29

Three slightly crooked model airplanes hung on cotton cords from the bedroom ceiling. Even a casual observer could have seen that they were made by someone who was both painstaking and very careful, and also no good at making model airplanes.

Book: Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais

Fiction

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (re-read)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick (re-read)

The Plague by Albert Camus

Neuromancer by William Gibson (re-read)

Fall: or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (re-read)

Dune by Frank Herbert

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (re-read)

Stardust by Neil Gaiman (re-read)

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (re-read)

All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

Cry Me a River by T.R. Pearson

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen

The Red Rising series by Pierce Brown:

• Red Rising
• Golden Son
• Morning Star
• Iron Gold
• Dark Age

Nonfiction

George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll

Skunk Works by Ben Rich (re-read)

Masters of Doom by David Kushner

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein

Influence by Robert Cialdini

GraphDB is a solid semantic graph database that includes both free and paid versions. The free version has a lot of capability and is easy to use.