Z'

Good summary of ordinary life in the DDR

Revisado: 03-09-24

The story does a good job of the founding of the DDR and the people behind it. Once the country is formed it then mostly shifts to talking about daily life in the country. It does go into a lot of detail about how people lived and how the majority of them were mostly happy, almost to a fault. It’s probably true that most people didn’t have any trouble with the Stasi, but outside of taking about the founding of the organization and occasionally mentioning it, you’d barely know what they did and the kind of brutal methods they used. They mention how the DDR had mass emigration problems but barely talk about why.

The fall of the DDR also barely gets any detail. According to the book everyone was happy (even though emigration was still a priority for many people) but just one day they decided to rise up against the state with barely any detail of why the people were so unhappy and starting to revolt. They don’t even talk about the fall of the Berlin Wall, just a few stories of people who walked across the border when it opened. No mention of Honecker being tried for his crimes afterwards and how he had to escape the country.

Some people might think that it has too much of a positive bias, but again, this book is about the people who lived there and what they experienced and for the most part they just lived their lives the best they could without getting involved in politics or caring about the rest of the world. So, for better or for worse, that’s what you’re getting. There are a couple stories of people who were harassed by the Stasi, but even those examples were people who got off light. Perhaps some stories of people who were targeted by the state and suffered under the regime would have given some different and welcome perspectives.

The book is fantastic with plenty of details of how people lived in the DDR and these are stories worth remembering. Just be aware that if you’re looking more for a macro view of the country’s history and fall, you may be disappointed.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Both a biography and business book

Revisado: 06-02-23

The book goes into detail about Reggie's upbringing and career before focusing on his time at Nintendo, and while giving his personal stories he relates them to being successful at business in general. The stories end with a "so what?" section where he talks about why we should care about what he just talked about and how it's relevant for people in business. It's a lot easier to digest than most business books, and there are plenty of interesting stories to listen to. Reggie himself is a great narrator and has a lot of passion!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Must listen for Apple fans!

Revisado: 04-13-23

The Apple of Steve Jobs has been greatly reported on, but it's rare to get such insight into how things have been since. This book goes into the changing of the company culture and the new projects like the watch, airpods, car, and move towards services. It's fascinating to hear the inside story of these products that I know so well about. I remember hearing rumors about why certain projects were designed a certain way and why strategies were implemented, but after listening to this you realize just how many of those were incorrect and in fact often the opposite! It explains a lot about how Apple operates today, Apple fans won't be able to turn it off until the end!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Tries to have it both ways

Revisado: 04-13-23

This course is all right, they the author tries so hard to seem hip to today's standards but then keeps waking back and forth. Making a big deal about how gender is now fluid and we have to accept it and that we should encourage our kids to explore themselves, but then when she gets to actually having sex and the modern hookup culture she immediately blasts it as a terrible thing. Even though most women seem to think that this new sexual revolution is a positive one, she goes back to the typical ultra-conservative mindset and tries to fight against the arguments with 'well, actually, they're wrong, it's bad for women! They're liars!' How ironic that she tries so hard to be progressive and yet her true close-minded character comes out when it's about action and not just bragging about how open-minded she is.

Some of the other topics are fine and there's some good advice here, but her hypocritical character really makes me wonder if she really knows what she's talking about and not just trying to posture.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Sticks to the facts

Revisado: 12-30-22

I've listened to a lot of parenting content on Audible and although some of them might mention brain and hormonal development, this is the first one that seems to focus mainly on it. It's just science, it explains in detail how the teenage brain and body is developing and why they act the way they do. It can be difficult for adults to really get back into that time, when kids are illogical and we think they're just acting like fools, but in reality they simply aren't prepared to think that way yet. One interesting thing she mentions is that puberty is much earlier now, before it was in the late teens but now it can start from around 12 due to the body getting much more fat and nutrients because of our modern diet. They're simply biologically unprepared for it hitting them so early in their lives!

She's also much more realistic in talking about modern topics like being rebellious and social media. Almost every other parenting book says that social media is nothing but blight on kids and should be heavily restricted, but this one explains the benefits of social media, a way for kids to make connections with similar ones all around the world. She gives the example of someone who is gay but lives in a heavily conservative area being saved by finding online communities that supported him and gave him more perspective on the world.

Definitely a must listen for any parents!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Should be longer!

Revisado: 11-21-22

Jeremy Parish is someone who knows his stuff regarding videogame history, with his Youtube channel going through individual games in order of release for different consoles and explaining how they fit in both the history of the time of release, and the overall impact on general gaming history.

Unfortunately his talents are kind of wasted here, the course is simply too short to go into the details needed to be a proper history of videogames. It starts out strong with going into the details of the birth of the industry and Atari, but then moves way too fast. Entire console generations are finished in minutes, and the last few lectures are more about general industry trends and how it has adapted to the times. It's clear that Jeremy has a lot more that he wants to talk about but is constrained by the limit of course length. I hope that he is able to make more content for Audible in the future which does take advantage of his vast knowledge of individual releases and consoles.

There are several books on Audible that go into deeper videogame history, those are more comprehensive, but if you're looking for a more casual overview then this course will give you a good starting point. The information is good, and if you're a paid Audible member you can listen to it as part of the Plus catalog.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

They're more than just numbers!

Revisado: 10-30-22

I was a big fan of Art's course about Mental Math, his enthusiasm for math and numbers is contagious and that energy is stronger than ever in this course. He goes into detail on a selection of different numbers that have some interesting history or properties to them. Along with showing some tricks and interesting discussions with simple numbers like 1 or 7, he also goes into some famous concepts like Pi and the golden ratio. He also includes some of his famous math tricks whenever appropriate.

It's a fun listen, I'm not very strong in math but it was fascinating to learn about things like the debate of if 0.99999999 (3/3) is really equal to 1, or how you can prove negatives in math. It shows that the subject is far more interesting that what we learn about in school!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

How to not put yourself first!

Revisado: 10-30-22

Some of the content of the course is fine and gives you some good ideas on how to negotiate in different situations, but it left a bad taste in my mouth for how much it downplays the importance of money. The instructor gives an example about how a professor negotiated hard for a high salary and got it, and then years later he got a higher offer from another university, went back to give them a chance to match it, the dean refuses to so he goes to the other school. This is explained as a negative, that the bridge was burned from day 1 and maybe if he had been willing to take a lower salary, the dean wound have matched it. Sounds to me like the professor made out well, he got paid what he knew he was worth and was able to leverage that salary to get even more from another school which clearly valued his talents.

The whole course is filled with nonsense like this, like how if you push too much on salary or ask for raises too often the company will think you only care about money more than loyalty. Isn't that what the point of a job is? Maybe if you work for a family-owned small business where people work there for their entire career, but the current work environment is like that, and companies will gladly cut you the second they can. The salary discussion is usually done through HR anyway, not the person who's your direct manager who will just be happy to get a competent worker. I'm sure that all of these managers who care more about relationships over money will be happy to take a pay cut, right?

It's just hard to take this course seriously, it's completely out of touch with the current working environments.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Who is this for?

Revisado: 10-30-22

The professor seems to make a lot of assumptions about what's possible for most parents these days. It must be nice to homeschool double digit children with only the father working and somehow support such an enormous family, but these days it's hard enough to raise a family with dual incomes! It's clear that she lives in a bubble and assumes that we're all clearly able to provide all of the resources to fully homeschool our kids.

Not to even get into the argument about the mixed data about homeschooling and how well it prepares kids for the future, as especially in the early grades, socialization is more important than the academic content. She does briefly go over some negatives of homeschooling, but each one is followed by a "but" and tries to minimize it. Well, I guess if you're a super-parent like her and have unlimited resources, then it's easy!

There is some general information for childhood learning which is useful to know, she doesn't go into any real deep details but they're still good starting points and you can get the general ideas from it. The course is also so short that it's not much of a commitment to listen to. When included with the Plus catalog then it's worth a listen, but I'm not sure if I would recommend using a credit on it normally. The professor also recommends the "Scientific Secrets for Raising Kids Who Thrive" course, which I've also listened to and agree that it's a must listen for parents. Use your credit on that instead!

Unless you're a rich super-parent, you'll probably just be rolling your eyes during a good chunk of this. The title is almost misleading. It should be more like "how to homeschool", and not present itself as a general parenting course!

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Good course for those involved in sales

Revisado: 09-30-20

First off it's important to know that this is not a book but a recorded class, more similar to the Great Courses you can get on Audible. The course is also kind of old, recorded in the 70s but with the exception of a few outdated references and obviously not considering modern technology, the actual content of the sales approach is still just as relevant as ever. Tom breaks down every part of making a sale from prospecting to closing and makes it very easy to understand and follow and adapt to whatever industry you happen to be working in. As someone involved with sales but working at a company that didn't really have much in terms of training, it was very valuable and I learned a lot of useful techniques which I could use in my job. Tom himself has a lot of charisma and has a lot of fun teaching the class so it was very entertaining to listen to.

If you're in sales or thinking of going into it, this will be a very valuable resource and is worth listening to.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas