Feldman's Faves: March 8, 2021

Happy Monday Everyone,

Thanks once again to Mike for your great suggestions last week. I completely agree that The Splendid and the Vile is an incredible (and splendid) account of life in London during the WWII bombings. It is remarkable how people did whatever they could to live a “normal life” between those “inconvenient” air raids. If you do read this book and like it, Steve Halperin recommends The Garden of Beasts, by the same author (Erik Larson) about FDR’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany and his warnings back to Washington about what was happening, which were largely ignored. According to Steve, it “Reads like a novel, but is essentially based on contemporaneous diaries, journals, memos etc. Couldn’t put it down.” With an endorsement like that how do you NOT read it? Thank you, Steve - it’s on my list!

This week’s recommendations are science and creativity based, which in my mind, are intimately related.

HOW TO AVOID A CLIMATE DISASTER By: Bill Gates – Big surprise, I read a book written by Bill Gates. I must say that this short book is jam packed with great ideas and optimism by the King of Technology himself. The reason I like this book is because my “buddy” Bill does a fantastic job in explaining the problem of climate change (and the science behind it) in a way that my simple brain could process. In one analogy he uses a bath tub. It is full of water, the tap is on and no matter how much you turn the tap down, if you can’t turn it off completely then eventually the bath will overflow. His basic thesis is that we need to turn off the tap completely, and get to a ZERO CARBON WORLD, quite a challenge where failure is really not an option. Fortunately, the book doesn’t merely describe the problem. Good old Bill then explains potential solutions, with his key focus being to eliminate the “green premium”. He breaks down the categories of carbon offenders (e.g., energy use, building materials and processes, agriculture, transportation, etc.) and demonstrates how technology can contribute to solving the problem (e.g., clean energy use, the use of carbon capture in the production of cement, higher yielding crops, planting mangroves, using electric buses and even developing mechanisms for carbon capture in the atmosphere itself). He also appreciates the reality and injustice that the ones who have done the least damage in creating climate change will be the ones that continue to suffer the most. So his proposals take that important public policy element of the problem into account. Some critics of his book say that (a) he is not deep enough into the science and (b) he naively ignores the political divisions that would make implementing his ideas a reality. Both are fair points but I think that misses the point, which is to bring further awareness to this issue and to further the discussion on finding solutions. I could go on and on but I would just conclude by saying that for anyone who is interested in climate science and policy and is trying to better understand how this existential problem might be tackled, then this is the book for you (at least as a starting point). I am hopeful that humanity will solve this problem but it will be hard. Let’s hope Bill is right. Here are some thoughts from the man himself - https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/My-new-climate-book-is-finally-here

The unexpected habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant TED Business – Adam Grant the “it boy of the moment” is by the far the most popular professor at the Wharton School of Business (as voted by students each year) . His latest book, Think Again, is garnering huge buzz and will likely be the subject of a future episode of a certain someone’s weekly book recommendations. But for the moment, we can enjoy this podcast. Grant is trying to understand the DNA of “original thinkers” and what processes they use to spark their creativity. He has some interesting and counterintuitive insights on procrastination, fear and self doubt and even video games. I won’t spoil it for you if you choose to listen. Here is the teaser from TED Business – “We have a lot of ideas about what leads to our most creative thoughts. Today, Adam and Modupe tell us why we’re wrong. You might want to bring a pen. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ted-business/id470622782?i=1000511064511

As always, I welcome your views on these recommendations and offers to make your own.

And remember to stay safe and to docket daily.

Jon