Philly-Photog

Explains so much inexplicable behavior in the U.S.

Revisado: 08-23-21

My life will seem divided between before I listened to this book and after I listened to it. That's how life-changing this book was to me.
Living as a liberal Democrat in the United States is hard. Those who don't share your opinions take up a lot of bandwidth and denigrate your views. They feel comfortable sharing their fantasy-based views with everyone, but you feel timid about sharing your more realistic, and often more compassionate, views, lest speaking out offend someone. Yet while you are being shamed into silence, the problems in the country just keep mounting: rising inequality, seemingly insurmountable racism, a virulent gun lobby, disbelief in established scientific consensus around viruses, climate change, even evolution.
This book explained why even though societal problems are so glaring obvious, and change is so urgently necessary, that solutions are seemingly impossible to achieve. Fantasies of all sorts stand in the way of progress. Fantasies that drug addicted homeless people somehow should be able to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. Fantasies that a dangerous cabal of elites runs a shadowy pedophile ring. Fantasies that climate change is just nature's natural rhythms, and that scientists have perpetrated a hoax. Fantasies that -- this was an actual recent Fox News headline -- "Leftists Hate You and Your Baby". And on and on.
This book illustrates the many strands of fantasy that the specific circumstances of Americans' history and proclivities has inspired. At the end of this long recitation and recall of fantasies, it's not hard to see how, when combined with the combustion engine of fantasy that is social media, our civic life has been imperiled.
I was confused why things are so bad, but now I see clearly. It's an epic American struggle between fantasy and realism, and, for now, fantasy is winning.

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A must-read for start-up founders

Revisado: 06-10-21

This author puts some tropes that almost all VC investors live by to the test, and finds that they just don’t stand the scrutiny of data. Some of my favorites are that solo flinders are, in reality, just as successful as co-founders, and that many of the successful ones are not all that young. But beyond these interesting data points is really good advice from the author, and from VCs themselves. This overturned some of my assumptions about fundraising for start-ups, and gave me a more thoughtful way to view the whole startup game.

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For a psychologically-aware news junkie there’s not much new

Revisado: 12-22-20

For someone who is aware of the characteristics of a malignant narcissist, and follows the news daily, there’s not much new information. While the author has an impressive command of the topic, and there ought to be more psychological awareness brought to our political lives and this is a great contribution, I was looking for a deeper understanding of the inner dynamics of Trump’s followers, not so much Trump himself. I got from this book that the followers have a need to follow him like he was a lock that opened their key. Got it just from looking at the rallies. What’s going on inside those brains underneath the MAGA hats? I still don’t know after listening to this book. I would recommend the book "The Cult of Trump" for that.

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Gripping story of what made Trump who he is

Revisado: 08-01-20

Mary Trump is not only in a unique position to tell this story of Donald Trump’s upbringing, and the details of his adult life that paint a full portrait of the man - she’s also a great storyteller. I felt transported to hardscrabble, unglamorous Queens of the 60s as I listened to the story of Trump’s bleak and proscriptive childhood unfold. The details of how the family dysfunction served to destroy Donald’s older brother, Fred, (the author’s father,) who was more of what we would call today a sensitive guy, are telling and heartbreaking. The family serves as a reflection of the growing narcissism, social isolation, and media-focused nature of our culture. Although the Russians helped elect “The Donald” (listen to Russian Roulette for that infuriating story,) it also becomes clear from this book how Donald Trump was born and bred to be in synch with today’s off-putting zeitgeist.

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