5 comments about The Last Lecture.

1. The Last Lecture
   Review by Richard L. Weaver II, PhD.
   
   Randy Pausch's 224-page book, The Last Lecture, is exactly what most would expect from an expanded last lecture: a great deal of "live life to the fullest" advice about remembering to laugh, seizing every moment, overcoming obstacles, appreciating the gifts you receive, and enabling the dreams of others. In ease of writing and types of advice, it reminded me of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie. Pausch's advice is that we can face any challenge in life as long as we face it with optimism and determination. Of course the message has been stated before, but it never hurts to hear it repeated again. What I found most lasting from his book are the timeless lessons of showing gratitude, setting goals, keeping commitments, tolerating frustration, maintaining a sense of humor, telling the truth, working hard, and celebrating victories. Because his live lecture is more succinct and reveals Pausch's character and the emotion accompanying the ideas, it is more inspirational. If you watch his lecture (free) on youtube (or you were fortunate to see it live), you know that he is a charismatic, intelligent, funny man who easily and comfortably connects with his listeners. There is no doubt that the book is upbeat and moving. Also, it is full of love, courage, wisdom, decency, intelligence, helpful life lessons, tips, and examples from the people and students he knew. If you want to give someone a gift of hope and affirmation, this would be an excellent choice.



2. One of the most deeply moving books I've read. He focuses on the big picture in our lives, something so many of us fail to see until we're confronted by mortality. His students were indeed privileged to hear him first hand, and to experience his final moments. The Last Lecture



3. The Last Lecture
   
   THIS IS A REAL LIFE STORY, SAD, BUT VERY INTERESTING. THE AUTHOR WROTE THE LAST LECTURE FOR HIS CHILDREN TO KNOW HIM GOOD AFTER HIS DEATH. THEY WERE SMALL, AND HE WANTED TO LEAVE THEM HIS EXPERIENCES NI WRITING. HE WAS A BRAVE PERSON AND INSTEAD OF BEING SAD OR MAD BECAUSE HE WAS DYING OF CANCER HE MADE THE BEST TO MAKE HIS WIFE, HIS KIDS AND HIS FAMILY HAPPY. A BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE FOR US TO FOLLOW. GOOD BOOK! GAVE ME ROOM FOR THOUGHT, AND I AM WRITING MY MEMORIES. HOPE YOU CAN BUY MY BOOK FROM AMAZON.COM SOON ALSO! ENJOY YOUR LIFE NO MATTER WHAT WRONGS YOU ENCOUNTER IN YOUR SHORT JOURNEY ON A EARTH. THE BEST IS TO COME YET.



4. "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
   --Randy Pausch
   
   A professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon, Dr. Pausch had prepared to give his "Last Lecture" before he had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. He determined to use this venue to speak to his children and his wife, because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think." This intimate and insightful little book was prepared from the lecture that he gave, a combination of personal biography, lessons learned as a student and teacher, child and parent, with some heartfelt and practical advice on making the most of living. The chapters are very short, with intriguing titles like "In Fifty Years, It Never Came Up" (when he learned by accident of his dad's heroism in WWII).
   
   There is much to be gleaned from this tiny tome. My only real disappointment with the book is, as I am person of deep faith, I wish he had shared more of this perspective in his writing. He indicates near the end of the book that he considers faith a very personal matter and, as such, chose not to share it in his Last Lecture, which he titled "Really Discovering Your Childhood Dreams."



5. What a fabulous book. It was so thought provoking and generated great conversation between my husband and I.

5 comments about The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope.

1. Wow. William Kamkwamba has restored my faith in humanity. What a beautiful story, a brutal tale of poverty, and a wonderful glimpse in to the mind of an incredibly bright man. I will recommend it to everyone that I know. Thank you, William!



2. THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND is definitely one of the most incredibly inspiring memoirs I have ever read. It tells the fascinating story of William Kamkwamba, a poor farmer's son in Malawi, Africa, a country struggling with widespread poverty. During a deadly 2002 drought and subsequent famine, life became a daily struggle to simply survive starvation. After discovering a diagram of a windmill in an old library textbook, 14-year-old William armed with a vision and admirable determination, builds his own windmill using discarded scraps. William's ingenious invention generates electricity for his home, which makes a profound difference in the lives of his family and the entire village. Repeatedly, I was impressed by his ability to persevere in spite of overwhelming obstacles. Eventually, his remarkable achievement receives worldwide acclamation.
   
   William (with co-writer Bryan Mealer) provides a compelling glimpse of the difficulties of his life that gave me a true sense of the harsh reality of poverty. He enlightened me with his knowledge of Malawi's culture and politics. As a science lover, I was enthralled by the steps William took in constructing his windmill! I thoroughly enjoyed this awe-inspiring book. It demonstrates how a dream, hope and dedication can change lives forever. I strongly recommend it for everyone!



3. This book reminds me of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", in that there are technical descriptions interspersed with a compelling story. The story is heartbreaking and takes the reader into the home of a rural Malawian family as they suffer through famine and not being able to send their children to school. It's real and very recent.
   
   If you're interested in the developing world and grassroots-style projects, this book is very worthwhile.



4. A gripping book that really makes you appreciate what you have. Many of us grew up trying to avoid school whenever possible, while young William is so desperate for education his family cannot afford that he tries to sneak into school. Eventually, he turns items others have thrown away into a working windmill.
   
   Inspiring as it is, what I took away from it is how dependent our achievements are on global connections and global supply lines. How many Williams are there, who might be just as brilliant and determined, but have not caught the attention of reporters, or who may not have had even the limited access to books and materials that William had? And while some people have pointed to this book as a solution to peak oil or the way to energy independence, I can't help thinking that if everyone was building windmills, parts would be in short supply. And if the supply lines were cut off somehow, it would not be possible to maintain and build such windmills forever.
   
   It's not a very long book, and still feels a bit padded with things that are unrelated to the main story. Still...well worth a read.



5. This is a truly inspirational book and also one of amazement. Thankfully this 14 yo boy was discovered.
   
   The book provides a glimpse into farm life that has seen little change for generations. The view into this life is truly extraordinary, especially for city folk like myself. It makes you want to live a more simple life, but certainly not in the same existence as this boy and his family. It's truly a harsh environment. Anyway, from there you learn the hardships of the boy and his family. The amazing part is how this boy creates a windmill from scraps and uses it to power various devices within his home and village. From there, he is discovered and things really begin to take off.
   
   It's an amazing story and peeks into the life seldom seen or appreciated/respected. The book is an easy read. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character).

1. I've read the book within a week! The book is well written! I recomend the book as a must book for everyone!



2. Subtitled "Adventures of a Curious Character", this memoir by physicist Richard Feynman plays up both aspects of "curious".
   
   As we follow Feynman's antics from MIT to Princeton to the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos to his adventures in Brazil, it's easy to see how Feynman's peers might have had the impression he was a bit odd. And yet the driving force in all of Feynman's activities was an unquenchable curiosity about the world around him and about the people he encountered.
   
   Feynman isn't the typical image that comes to mind when one thinks of scientists. Scientists who are "typical" don't learn to play the bongos and end up marching in Samba bands during Carnivale in Rio de Janeiro. Nor do they become established artists holding gallery shows to exhibit their drawings, or get reputations a major players in Las Vegas. And they certainly don't spend their time learning safe-cracking or investigating out-of-body experiences in isolation tanks. Feynman did all of those things while he was making major contributions to the field of particle physics.
   
   Feynman makes an effort at humility in places, but can't help reporting his exploits with a certain amusing swagger. He clearly enjoyed a life of being a royal pain-in-the-rear to many of the people he worked with, government officials especially. His efforts to be "helpful" were not always seen as such, especially his foray into safecracking at Los Alamos during and after the Second World War.
   
   Feynman discusses a whole range of fascinating topics in this book, spending relatively little time on physics and instead on concentrating on his many other interests, his interpersonal relationships (he was married three times, and also wrote quite a bit about his efforts to meet women in between), and his scuffles with government and university bureaucracies. In one amusing anecdote, he agrees to give a talk for a government program only on the condition that he will not sign his name more than thirteen times in the required paperwork. When a 14th signature is required for him to receive his check, he refuses and decides that he will just not take the money, only to be told that there is no legal way for the government NOT to pay him. Feynman got great enjoyment from giving the runaround to figures of authority.
   
   This is an enjoyable memoir that will be worthwhile to anyone interested in the personalities behind the science, and its descriptions of the Manhattan Project are a fascinating look at the beginning of the Atomic Age. The book is very accessible to non-scientists and makes for an entertaining read regardless of interest in or understanding of physics.



3. I must agree with both, the three-star and the five-star-reviewers. Feynman might just have been a jerk in some ways, yet it seems unmistakable, that at the core he was a sincere and honest man, even WITH his bar-hopping adventures, which appeared to me rather harmless. What I pondered quite a bit is his approach to things religious or the lack of it. Undeniably, religion has created some of the worst habits and behaviors in history. There are untold numbers of people 'of the cloth' - not merely the ones, who make this their calling, but too many who simply align with that direction - and in spite, have engaged in abominable behavior. Here, I much prefer an eccentric scientist who spends some time in bars, able to quit doing so at the drop of a hat, than religious leaders with dual personalities. Feynman, by completely removing religion as a distraction, could indeed follow his free, adventurous spirit and his remarkable honesty.
   
   I found it refreshing to read recollections by an accomplished person, written in the style of an everyday Joe, people like you and I. Lots of what is generally considered great art, is produced by people with tremendous personal hang-ups, yet people laud them as 'great accomplishments of humanity and its evolution' etc. What Feynman disliked and discouraged vehemently i.e. what is now evident as the 'dumbing-down' of the general public, is the 'not learning and behaving in constructive ways', something this country is experiencing more and more. We don't need a dumb public, offset by great art or science, we need a higher average level of 'being and understanding', where all engage in some art & some science and understand what they're talking about, thus making us a more considerate, meaningful species.



4. Feynman's apparent adoration of himself and his works lead me to suspect the veracity of his anecdotes. This book was a fun little read, perfect for a long plane trip, just don't expect any earth-shattering ideas or even much in the way of physics.
   
   I agree with the other reviewers: Feynman was deeply insecure and needed recognition more than most geniuses, but I'm not sure how much that takes away from this work. Rather, the affected naivete and fourth-grade writing style made it a bit difficult to stomach at times. But who expects concise, vibrant prose from a physicist? This is not a field known for producing literary masterpieces.
   
   Towards the end of the book, Feynman sheds some light on the Manhattan Project in his account of the physics programs at Los Alamos base. In a post-911 world, it is fascinating to learn just how lax nuclear security was in the 1940s. You might want to simply skip to those chapters.
   
   Definitely not worth buying.



5. A good friend loaned me this and I enjoyed it so much I bought one for my father at Christmas. He loved it as much as I did. It is more than an autobiography of a truly stunning intellect. Mr Feynman's curiosity is contagious and has caused me to open my eyes and question why things are the way they are. The stories are hilarious. I hope you enjoy it too.

5 comments about The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom.

1. This book comes highly rated and reviewed by leading newspapers and science magazines. I agree. It tells the life of one of the super great minds of all time not just of physics.
   
   He made many discoveries in the advancement of physics and quantum theorh. He postulated the existence of antimatter long before any pysical evidence. He won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1933.
   
   Paul Dirac spent his life in the company of other greats such as Einstein, Schrodingerer, etc. He was a teacher as well-spending the last years of his life at Florida State.
   
   I think if by reading a good biography you gain insight into another's life, you also gain insight into your own life.



2. I went to Cambridge in 1967 to 1970 and received my degree in Natural Sciences, particularly Physics. Prof. Dirac gave his retirement lecture while I was there and I arrived 3 hours early in order to get a seat, to discover that the hall was completely filled (including people hanging on for dear life at the back walls) and the overflow crowd already in the courtyard. I gave up and went home. I wish I had shown up a lot earlier, but I was young and foolish. This book does an excellent job of depicting the professional and personal life of one of the two great minds of the 20th century, the other being Einstein. As a physicist, later to go on to do research in theoretical physics and publish some puny papers (as most academic physicists do) I regarded Dirac as high-school basketball players regard Michael Jordan.
   
   Whether you are a scientist or not, this book will prove interesting, not least because of the notion, introduced to me for the first time, that Dirac may have had a high-functioning form of autism. Impossible to know, of course, as one cannot diagnose at a distance, but very consistent. A fascinating man who lived in the most interesting time for Physics since Newton, and whose contemporaries established our modern thinking of the laws of nature and looked up to Dirac as their thought leader for so long.
   
   Excellent book, highly recommended.



3. The biography of P. A. M. Dirac is compelling; beautifully written!
   Dirac was as contemporary of Albert Einstein, and his science and his life story share elements in common with that of Einstein.
   Yet there are hundreds of Einstein biographies, to my knowledge, this is a first for Dirac. While Einstein reveled in the glare of the press, Dirac shunned it.
   Both won the Nobel Prize in physics, Dirac for his pioneering role in quantum mechanics, his equation for the electron, his discovery of the positron, and his mathematics. His book Principles of Quantum Mechanics (1930) is still the bible in the subject.
   On top of this he pioneered quantum electrodynamics.
   While both protected their privacy, Dirac avoided statements to the press, and avoided the limelight going along with fame.
   His story is compelling: an abusive father, his reaction to a horrible childhood, a hate-filled home, the suicide of his brother. If anyone outside science knows anything about the private Paul Dirac, they are likely to know that he was a man of few words, answering questions with yes, no; or more likely "I don't know!"
   Perhaps Dirac felt that nature and science is expressed in the language of mathematics, and that words by comparison tend to be empty.
   And Dirac often argued that the more profound insight is more likely to be uncovered in a beautiful mathematical equation; as opposed to hard experiments!
   The author Farmelo (his earlier book It Must Be Beautiful) seems to be born to tell the story of Dirac. It is compelling, and the characters are brought to light, each in a portrait that makes them real: other scientists, Heisenberg, Bohr, and especially his lifelong friend and experimental physicist Peter Kapitza from the Soviet Union; later Nobel for his discovery of superfluidity of liquid helium.
   And his wife, the sister of the Princeton physicist Eugene Wigner; an extrovert, and in personality the opposite of Paul Dirac.
   At conferences Eugene Wigner, famous for his modesty, referred to his "famous brother-in law!"
   The periods of Dirac's life span his childhood in England, his career in Cambridge, his travels to the Soviet union before and during the Cold War, and his retirement in Florida, USA.
   I met him once at lunch when he was visiting his son in Aarhus where I was teaching at the time!
   There is some science in the book, but mostly it is about Dirac's life.
   It has become popular to speculate that geniuses might have suffered from some form of undiagnosed autism, to account for their character quirks. Personally I believe this is unlikely.
   Reviewed by Palle Jorgensen, February 2010.



4. Although I'm neither a physicist nor a cognitive
   scientist, I've long been interested both in Physics
   and in Cognitive Development (especially concerning
   autism and Asperger Syndrome). So, Farmelo's book
   on Dirac was doubly interesting to me, and it provided
   an excellent and quite readable narrative on
   the fascinating history and development of quantum
   mechanics as well as an illuminating biography of
   the "strange man" whose clearly autistic characteristics
   both enabled and hindered his Nobel-winning insights
   and discoveries about sub-atomic particles.
   
   The book requires more than a passing familiarity
   with atomic physics and vocabulary, but the author
   explains Dirac's work quite clearly, along with
   that of Einstein, Pauli, Bohr, and Schrödinger, all
   of whom struggled not only to understand Dirac's
   theories but also to understand his remarkably odd
   personality and behaviour.
   
   While there are indeed a few relatively minor
   editing flaws in this book, they did not
   detract at all from its two-fold goal of presenting
   an accessible description of a difficult topic
   of science along with an insightful biography of
   a "strange" genius. My only disappointment about
   the book was its lack of a section that at least
   attempted to explain the "beautiful mathematics"
   of Dirac's work. But I suppose that would have
   frightened off even more science-averse readers.



5. This is a beautifully written biography of Paul Dirac, one of the founding fathers of quantum theory, a towering taciturn genius marked by legendary reticence and an almost otherworldly literal-mindedness.
   
   Quantum theory basically describes matter and energy at atomic scales. Don't know anything about quantum theory? It doesn't matter: you will still find this delightful book gripping from start to finish because (a) Farmelo is a gifted writer, (b) the book is accessible to anyone with the slightest interest in physics or in the history of science, and (c) the development of the ideas underlying quantum theory will take the reader on a magical mystery tour that is at once exhilarating and stunning. The quantum world brazenly defies our naïve logical expectations of what is possible or even conceivable in the atomic realm; it is fantastical, beyond imagination, and yet virtually every technological advance in the past 50 years depends entirely on this proven bedrock of fog and mere probability.
   
   Dirac, the physicist, was an utterly brilliant and original theorist known for the elegance, beauty, and concision of his papers. Farmelo discusses his many accomplishments and critical contributions to quantum theory with admirable simplicity and clarity. This not a book on quantum theory, however, so you don't have to worry about understanding any mathematical formulas to follow the thrust of Dirac's ideas.
   
   Dirac, the man, was a fascinating enigma. Niels Bohr called him "the strangest man." As Farmelo notes, "even by the standards of theoretical physicists [Dirac] was profoundly eccentric." A man so solitary and reserved, and so unresponsive to and so unwilling to engage in even polite social banter, that "...his colleagues invented a new unit for the smallest imaginable number of words that someone with the power of speech could utter in company - an average of one word an hour, `a Dirac'."
   
   Farmelo catalogues many stories and anecdotes about this "strangest man." My favorite, because it so clearly demonstrates his inert literal-mindedness, is that, "According to one story, [his wife] once snapped at him while he was eating his dinner, `What would you do if I left you?' only for him to reply -- after a half-minute pause-- `I'd say "Goodbye dear'."
   
   This is a wonderful, entertaining book and a biography worthy of Dirac. You should read it. I think you will enjoy it immensely.

5 comments about My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance.

1. Very honest biography something along the line of Andre Agassi's book but with an entirely different subject. Good insite into academic life.



2. When he was a student, moving from South Africa to Columbia, Emanuel Derman became deeply attracted to particle physics and general relativity, subjects that dealt with the ultimate nature of matter, space and time. A life spent studying these topics would be a life devoted to the transcendental. Like in other disciplines, graduate students were socialized to view other options (teaching, industry, even changing to another type of work altogether) with contempt. Particle physicists added to this ingrained attitude the belief that their field is the source of the most fundamental knowledge, and they took some mischievous pleasure in denigrating other messier or more complex areas of physics.
   
   But physics is a harsh meritocracy. Most of the merit is concentrated in a small number of legendary figures at the top. "If you aren't Feynman, you're no one". In addition, academic posts were scarce, and many theoretical physicists who had once hoped to devote their lives to fundamental research were forced to become migratory laborers if they wanted to remain in academia, taking temporary short-term positions in universities and national laboratories whenever they became available. This is how Derman describes the progressive downgrading of his ambition: "At the age of 16 or 17, I had wanted to be another Einstein; at 21, I would have been happy to be another Feynman; at 24, a future T.D. Lee would have sufficed. By 1976, sharing an office with other postdoctoral researchers at Oxford, I realized that I had reached the point where I merely envied the postdoc in the office next door because he had been invited to give a seminar in France."
   
   So Derman decided to change course, and to embark in another career. After a stint at the Bell Labs, writing code and following bureaucratic rule, he did what many disgruntled physicists were beginning to do at the time: he moved to Wall Street, where his life as a quant became in earnest. Upon joining Goldman Sachs, he was lucky enough to begin a collaboration with Fischer Black, who had been lured from academia to a partner position and who was on his way to win the Nobel prize for the work he did on option pricing theory. Although he was unschooled in finance and had been in the field only for a few months, Derman was able to make a significant contribution to bond options theory, and the Black-Derman-Toy interest rate model won him lasting fame among traders.
   
   Derman's testimony on his mentor's personality is worth quoting at length: "Because he liked clarity, and perhaps because his training was not in economics, Fischer avoided excessive formalization. His papers were the antithesis of the unnecessarily rigorous lemma-filled research papers of financial economics journals... He was guided by his great economic intuition; though his mathematical skills were unexceptional, his instinct was strong, and he was tenacious in trying to attain insight before resorting to mathematics... He had a strong pragmatic streak; he was at least as much a practitioner as an academic, willing to devote time and attention to software, trading systems, and user interfaces. He thought that these were just as important as the models themselves." He argued that a trader should be judged on the rationale behind his or her methods and rewarded only if it is sound, irrespective of whether or not he or she profited in the most recent period. "It's crucial to judge the stories they trade on," he wrote about traders. "Stories can be wrong, but I am uncomfortable trading without one."
   
   As Derman describes it, a good quant is a jack-of-all-trades, simultaneously skilled mathematician, modeler and computer programmer, who prides himself on his ability to adapt to new fields and put his knowledge into practice. PhDs in physics or engineering fit this jack-of-all-trades bill pretty well. First, the mathematics of fiance closely resembles the mathematics of physics. Furthermore, physicists don't grow up wearing white gloves; they have no scruples about tackling tasks beneath their so-called dignity. They do their own math and programming; the willingness to do so is an essential part of graduate student and postdoc culture. So in this sense Derman was well prepared for his new work as a quant.
   
   In other respects, Derman's career change from ivory tower to trading floor required several personal adjustments. As he recalls, "When I moved to Wall Street the hardest attitude adjustment for me was to learn to carry out multiple assignments in parallel, to interrupt one urgent and still incomplete task with another more pressing one, to complete that, and then pop the stack." One the other hand, Derman liked the ways in which one could be usefully busy in quantitative finance. "There was always a program to write, a trading interface to design, a calculation to do. It was nice to be able to contribute without having to be extraordinary." By contrast, "a physicist spends about half of his or her time enthralled and the other half in depression."
   
   Until then he had basically worked out of love, and with complete disregard for financial incentives. He now worked for money, although passion, pride, and the pleasure of being thanked still played an important role. Influenced by what the others were doing, he did a very stupid thing: he left Goldman Sachs for a better paid position at Salomon, where is life was miserable, and he was all to happy to move back to Goldman when he was offered the direction of the Quantitative Strategies group.
   
   What especially impressed him about Wall Street in general and Goldman Sachs in particular was the absence of reverential fear. There was a general lack of respect for age and seniority that made him disregard his own age, and he liked that. He was relieved and exhilarated to discover that his employers appreciated solid skills and talents. He found a way of cutting through office politics by including in the programs he wrote for traders a swatch of code which measured how many times his program had been used: at bonus time, or to avoid mass layoffs, he was able to send a copy of the log to his bosses to prove his team's contribution to the bottom line.
   
   Derman came to see that creating a successful financial model is not just a battle for finding the truth, but also a battle for the hearts and minds of the people who use it. He noticed that successful salespeople and quants were prodigiously agile at using quick, back-of-the-envelope methods to compare bonds in terms of yield to maturity or option-adjusted spread. "You can get the answer to many complex derivative problems with less mathematics than you think," he remarked. On the other hand, he noticed that "as in any business, the salespeople liked tailoring and complexity because not only could you charge more for it, but it was also more difficult for a client to assess the value of the individual features. Complexity was also harder for competitors to copy."
   
   In the end, Derman's quarter of a life as a quant--he only stayed 17 years on Wall Street--was a life well spent. He was able to do something useful, gain recognition for his work, and earn a few bucks along the way. Derman notes that the word "quant" is often used in a pejorative sense--especially since the financial crisis of 2007-2008 the general public tends to see them as the mad inventors of weapons of financial mass destruction. But quantitative finance is a worthwhile pursuit--all the more so because of the risks involved in handling financial instruments. Economics as a modern science was born after the Great Depression when a lot of smart people entered the discipline to understand what had happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. If advanced economies now have a problem with their financial sector, then maybe the best way to solve it is to throw intellectual resources at it. Minds of the best caliber should be able to fix it. Indeed, there is no more pressing task.



3. No offense to the author, but his career doesn't deserve being in a book.
   
   Like most of us, Dr.Derman is an average person living an average life. I do not know what motivated him to write about his life in fine details. To be honest, I bought this book to read about Quants, how they predict stock and market trends, create and test sophisticated computer models, fail and succeed, etc. The book isn't really about it.
   
   The first half of the book is just about becoming a physicist and, eventually, failing at being a physicist.
   The second part is about working at different financial institutions and trying to understand what is going on...
   
   Again, I am upset that I was "forced" to read about this nice but pretty average person living some pretty average life for 120+ pages and actually paid for it...
   
   If you want to learn about Quants, go buy some other book.



4. This memoir has limited interest, even for me (a chemist who spent time at two of the author's academic haunts: Rockefeller U. and Penn). If you are or were in academia, you'll recognize the author's struggles in this milieu. Still, he seems a bit blinkered in considering Columbia as the navel of the universe in physics, even as he makes frequent mention of Feynman (Caltech - I did my post-doc there).
   
   His account of his career on Wall Street is unintentionally hilarious. He takes great pride in deriving models to assess risk (especially in fixed income instruments), but: (1) As one can read between the lines, his significant accomplishments are under the lead of Fischer Black; and (2) The collapse of these supposedly risk evaluated products in recent times implies that "quantitative finance" was certainly oversold. (Yes, I note that this was published in 2004 - well before the failure - first in the mortagage field and then across the entire credit markets - came to pass.)
   
   So there's a moral lesson or two to take away. First, no matter how lovely the math, do not place confidence in those equations. Second, all those models make assumptions that are ridculous, (e.g., on interest rates, residential real estate prices).
   
   If you can get this book through resale - I'm donating my copy to the Friends of Palo Alto Libraries. They'll probably price it at $0.50 which is about right. I do believe in markets but guys like Derman haven't a clue.



5. I preferred the later half more than the first half. I wonder if folks on the physics/phd side prefer the front half to the back half. I am glad to see someone speak so candidly about the trials and tribulations of being understood and appreciated as a quant. Truly, it is thankless, and though well paid, you can definitely get frustrated that you are not paid in the same manner relative to ROI vs. your peers. What is truly remarkable and makes this a must read is that it provides great insight into the human side of which every quant must learn to understand to the nuances.

5 comments about Einstein: His Life and Universe.

1. This biography of Einstein life was a great introduction into the scientific process and into Einstein's discoveries. I enjoy the mix of gossip about his life and the science that he was preforming along the way. Einstein's Relativity work was explains in a way to not go into to much detail, but left the reader with a good understanding. I found that this explanation of Relativity allowed me to understand it a little more and gave me the desire to research it more outside the book. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in science most in physics.



2. This was an enjoyable and very easy read. I loved the author's writing style: it was crisp, fast paced and moved the story along well.
   
   Einstein's life is explained fairly, certainly in a sympathetic light, but the author doesn't gloss over his flaws or ignore his mistakes either. Felt like a very complete look at Einstein's life.
   
   The descriptions of relativity and Einstein's other scientific theories are good, but not great. Someone without any scientific background will not feel overwhelmed. Having read Brian Green's Fabric of the Cosmos recently, I found his explanaitions to be clearer and easier to understand than those in this book, however. Someone with a more scientific background may have a different view, though.
   
   From this book, I felt like I got an excellent understanding of Einstein's life, and a pretty good look at his universe. To really get a good handle on Einstein's theories, I think something more is necessary.
   
   Overall, enjoyable and definately recommended. I read the Kindle version of the book and it is well formatted.



3. I was impressed with the amount of research that Walter Isaacson put into this book. He obviously worked not only to accurately capture who Einstein was, but also did a credible job of explaining Einstein's discoveries for a non-scientific audience.
   
   Where the book left me wanting was not the rendition, but the subject matter itself. There should be some expectation here; Einstein is larger than life and there is bound to be some disappointment once the pedestal is removed. To someone who studied Physics in college as I did (and yet has few advantages in understanding Einstein's work over everyone else), Einstein holds rock-star status. However, I found that were I offered dinner with past figures of my own choosing, Einstein likely would not make my short list.



4. We bought this as a gift for a friend who loves to read and wanted a book about this man.



5. I bought this for my 16 year old he loved it and now is considering Astro physics for college major.He said was a great read so if you know so in to physics and such you wont regret this purchase!

5 comments about Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.

1. Anyone who wants to understand Benjamin Franklin would be well served by reading Steven Johnson's book "The Invention of Air," which is mostly about Joseph Priestley but often mentions Franklin. The Johnson book does a fine job of showing that aspect of Franklin to which the disappointing Isaacson book gives short shrift: Franklin the scientist.
   
   The Isaacson biography is also sorely disappointing because it is so... what? So pedestrian, so conventional, so obviously a poor rehashing of much better Franklin biographies that preceded this one. One wonders why Isaacson even bothered to write the book. Money, perhaps? Whatever his motivation, the result is poor.
   
   I felt much the same about Isaacson's biography of another intriguing personage: Albert Enstein. In that book, Isaacson manages to fog up the science because the physics in question obviously overwhelms his ability to comprehend it, much less write about it.... although he tries anyway, to the dismay (and confusion) of the unfortunate reader.
   
   But Isaacson, as any layperson, could understand the science that Franklin explored and was so important to in his era. Indeed, Franklin was primarily known during his time as a scientist, not a politician/statesman. And Isaacson fails to capture that in his book. Instead, we just get another humdrum biography apparently churned out for a buck. Too bad.
   
   I do wish Isaacson would stop writing biographies---at least about those people I admire.



2. Well-written, readable, and balanced. Presents the unappreciated breadth and depth of Franklin's contributions while not glossing over his lack of emotional commitment. The chapter tracing the wax and wane of American appreciation of Franklin with the passage of time alone is nearly worth the price of the book.



3. The book was not in very good condition. Some pages were very loose and the cover was in just ok shape. I feel the need to buy this book again because I don't like reading a book I have to take such care with that it may fall apart.



4. I drive my kids to school and for a half hour twice a day they are a captive audience. Their ages are 7 & 11.
   I use that time to expose them to American history and literature via audio books. This was very listenable with 7 year old staying with 75% of the book. She is not mature enough to follow the passages on diplomacy and intrigue but that is expected. Both children have shared their knowledge of Ben Franklin with their teachers and with family. It is academic enough for the mature reader without the younger listener totally loosing interest.
   On the squabble meter of 1-5 its a 5 as there were no squabbles caused by disinterest during the drive.
   On the participation meter of 1-5 its a 5 as we stopped the CD many times as they wanted to discuss topics presented in the book.



5. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life is bar-none the best biography I have ever read.
   
   Walter Isaacson takes us on a journey with Benjamin Franklin from the cradle to the grave, through decades and generations of scientifically and personal achievements, setbacks and misfortunes.
   
   The book itself is easy to read, told through chronological glimpses at Benjamin Franklin's life rather than working towards an overall swiping grand achievement, a mistake, I believe, which is done by many biographers.
   Think of you own life?
   Do you want think that there is only one story of grand achievement to tell or many little stories which might give the reader a new perspective and an opportunity to know more about you than just a footnote in history.
   
   We all know Benjamin Franklin from history classes and the teacher might have mentioned his other notable achievements, however Mr. Franklin had many notable achievements - far too many to mention in a 45 minute classroom. This biography is a terrific sweeping read and full of insights.
   
   One of the best points about this book is that Benjamin Franklin, even though a loyal subject to the crown for most of his life, is a contemporary American - or certainly what we think of ourselves as and what we like to achieve: hard working, inventive, brave, curious, a PR maven and rich.
   
   A recommended read and a wonderful gift.

4 comments about The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

1. This is written in Olde English so it takes a bit of concentration and adaptation to fall into the pattern of speech. Excellent reading once you're into the way it is written!



2. This was an absolutely fascinating book written by Benjamin Franklin about himself. While the autobiography is unfinished, it does contain quite a bit of information about young Benjamin Franklin and his beginnings in the printing business and his later entry into public life. He also give significant detail into his reasons and methods for starting the first public library and the first public fire department. In the later part, the book also details his involvement in defending colonies against Indians. I've also purchased Walter Isaacson's book about Benjamin Franklin, which I'm reading next. Even though I have never been much of a history buff, this was definitely an interesting read.



3. This book is a kind of time machine that puts you straight into the Eighteenth Century. Benjamin Franklin comes over as a fearless and open character, although he is at pains to present himself as a solid and successful businessman in the printing industry. He is very much a man of his time. He concerns himself with God and self-improvement, then after he marries he says how glad he is that he did not catch VD from 'certain low women' beforehand. This, certainly consciously, echoes St Paul's advice on why people should marry.
   
   Within the text are probably whole layers of meaning and allusions to contemporary events and news culture that are lost on twenty-first century readers. He is certainly working within religious and classical traditions of what an autobiography should be: a conversation with God, carried on in public? or moral examples and advice to the young.
   
   Sometimes he is having a laugh at the autobiographical and literary form itself. For example, it is a commmonplace of Eighteenth Century Literature that you-the writer-had no intention of publishing your book until you were prevailed upon by your friends or the public. Franklin opens the second section of his autobiography with a letter purportedly from a Quaker who says that a life of Franklin would be worth even more than 'all Plutarch's Lives put together.'This must have raised a laugh in his local club, his 'junto' as he calls it.
   
   However, within the same pages, Franklin describes, clearly with pride, how he swims from Chelsea to Blackfriars in London-which is quite a physical feat, it being two or three miles. He is also at some pains to place much of his financial success on hard work, simplicity and the avoidance of alcohol. These aspects of his life would bequite important for his Low Church readers.
   
   Interestingly-as negative examples- he reports that his London workmates routinely down six pints of strong ale a day, both at home and in the printing office. For his contemporaries, this was unusual from the point of view of the English printers being not just drunkards, but -for his audience- very old fashioned. English people in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuroes -including babies hence the phrases 'tiny tots' 'small beer' etc.- drank beer and ale as drinking street pump water was correctly suspected to cause disease.
   
   Here, through the implication that beer drinking is old fashioned and unhealthy, especially when compared to American coffee drinking, Franklin is presenting his American readers with the idea that-once again- the Colonies, rather than being a backwater, are more modern that their British counterparts in the Imperial Capital of London.
   
   At the heart of his political thinking seems to be the moral rather than political idea that with moral virtue-and thus God- on your side, you are unstoppable, and sees the United States' future greatness to lie in this.
   He takes pains to connect political greatness with the moral quality and education of individual citizens, laying particular emphasis on literacy, and reports with pride how he helped to establish the first lending library in the United States, in Philadelphia.
   
   As a moralist rather than a politician, his republican beliefs do not seem as universal as, say, those of revolutionaries like Robespierre or Tom Paine. For him, the American Republic seems to be uniquely American. At one point he is pleased to report, and say that it is an aspect of his success in life that he has dined with a king, and names him as the King of Denmark. Tom Paine would never have dined with a king, unless it were to poison him!
   
   Now the non-PC bit as bang go his green credentials. The 1726 Journal has Franklin helping to kill and eat dolphins while travelling by sea. He says they are good to eat, and regards them as fish rather than mammals.



4. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. It lets you know how one of our American icons dealt with the ups and downs of daily life. Curiously, there are a number of typos ("h" for "b" and vice versa).

5 comments about The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science.

1. $25 for a kindle book???? They've got to be kidding--especially when there's a print version available for $1 more. This is outrageous and should send any interested readers straight to their local library.



2. Although I am an engineer, I did not appreciate the science and engineering ability of the Europeans in the 19th century and earlier. This book is a real education but written to entertain and educate at the same time. A beautiful presentation of human achievements that we now take for granted.



3. I got a new sense of wonder at the heavens and earth when I read this book, as well as an appreciation for the creativity required for scientific discovery.



4. It must be tough to be this Richard Homes and at a cocktail party where a guest comes up and says, "Gee, I loved your book `Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket,'" and have to explain that while you appreciate the compliment, that book is by the other Richard Holmes. Yes, History lovers, we are very fortunate that there are two Richard Holmes, one a marvelous biographer, this one, and the other among the finest military historians of the age, the other one, and after reading `The Age of Wonder' by this Richard Holmes, and `Redcoat' by that Richard Holmes, I've come to the conclusion that one can't go wrong in choosing either for one's next read. There are enough excellent five-star reviews of `The Age of Wonder' for me to add only that any book whose frontispiece is one of my favorite paintings, `The Orrery,' by Joseph Wright of Derby, is likely to be a hit with me, and it was. If you're interested in the period, you will be fascinated by the read. Then buy and read `Redcoat' and you'll be prepared if you ever find yourself at that cocktail party.



5. a gift to a scientific friend- he said he enjoyed reading about some of his childhood heroes

4 comments about My Dream of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer.

1. Anousheh Ansari's book, "My Dream of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer" tells a very human and family story worthy of readership by those interested in either human passion or space flight. It is an excellent premier for any person who has had a dream of success or even imagined flying aboard the International Space Station. I enjoyed the story it told of Anousheh and Hamid. I have had the good fortune and honor of meeting them both in New Mexico; and, Anousheh again in Arlington, VA. at a FAA/AST conference.
   
   It is my judgment, however, that the best Anousheh Ansari book is yet to be written - that entitled "Anousheh Ansari: The Space Entrepreneur." One of my more favorite passages of "My Dreams of Stars" is about a series of conversations between Anousheh and astronaut Thomas Reiter about the role of government and the commercial space launch sector in the future of human space travel. It is a story still being written at the White House, on Capitol Hill, at Cape Canaveral, at Wallops Island, in the Mojave Desert, or some struggling private space propulsion research laboratory.
   
   Anousheh Ansari should be ecouraged to do yet another new book. A new book by her should be focused outreach to business entrepreneurs in the United States and around the world --- an idea she started with the Ansari X-Prize. She has the proven business acumen to tell such a story with the proven "Keys to Success" of a Space Entrepreneur.
   
   "My Dreams of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer" is but an opening chapter in the real story now unfolding. Anousheh Ansari is in a unique position to be the ultimate Space Entrepreneur Advocate and New Space business implementer.
   
   Napoleon Hill's Keys to Success: The 17 Principles of Personal Achievement



2. I've nothing against hagiographies,sometimes even are kind of funny,but when the author ends believing what he writes then we get something ridiculous or even pathetic....This book is part of that select class.



3. "Call this a love story" is how this beautifully written memoir begins and it is! Anousheh is a woman who has a great heart which is filled with love for her family and husband, her native Iran and her adopted United States, and her dream of going to the stars. I think readers who don't care a thing about space will enjoy this book because it's not like any book any astronaut has ever written. It's filled with emotion and great descriptive passages. I would say it's more like "A Thousand Splendid Suns" than "The Right Stuff." I think the co-author Homer Hickam might have a little to do with that. I'm a Homer fan and read all he writes. I saw him at a book signing and he said he worked really hard to bring out the heart and soul of Anousheh because what people are really interested in is other people. Bottom line is I enjoyed living Anousheh's life with her. My heart was gladdened and in these times of trouble, what more can we ask of a book? Moms, your daughters will love this story. So will you.



4. I have been reading books about space since, well, since I learned how to read. Indeed this is how I learned to really read a book - since the books I had to read in school were lame. Nearly half a century later, I have read an unknown number of books that chronicle the life stories of those who have come to be involved with the exploration of space. Every book is different yet every book is the same since the paths that people took were similar and overlapping. Some came from Nazi Germany, others from small towns in America or Russia.
   
   But until now I had not read a story of someone who aspired to touch the stars from the midst of revolution-racked Iran.
   
   Such is the story of Anousheh Raissyan - better known by her married name, Ansari. In describing "My Dream of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer" I just want to tell you all that is in it - but that is Anousheh's task - done with the deft guidance of Homer Hickam. Homer first gained notoriety as the author of "Rocket Boys" - which also chronicled an improbable journey from a poor coal mining town in West Virginia to a long career at NASA. A better guide Anousheh could not have found.
   
   The story Anousheh tells begins in an Iran that was still ruled by the Shah. All too soon the fires of revolution swept up the entire nation - not just the young men, but old people and little girls. Yet through out this tumultuous and very dangerous time, Anousheh managed to find solace albeit fleeting by looking up at the stars at night and visiting them in her mind.
   
   As I turned the pages of this book I was reminded of a time in my life when these same events in Iran affected me. I was in graduate school in the early 1980s and had an office mate who I will simply refer to as "Reza". Reza came from a wealthy family in Teheran and was studying to be a doctor when the revolution exploded. He was caught outside the country and unable to return. With no access to families assistance he as stranded in a foreign country unable to get home.
   
   I often hired Reza to work with me as a house painter. He was happy for the work and worked his butt off. I saw something in Reza that comes through clearly in this book through Anousheh's words: an unflinching determination to not let life's current troubles get in the way realizing a dream. The more dire the circumstances, it seems the more pronounced her will to push through and surmount adversity.
   
   Eventually, Anousheh and parts of her family made their way to America. Unlike many newcomers she did not isolate herself from the cacaphony of opportunity that is America. Rather, she dived right in. Meeting her husband, she and others soon accomplished the quintessential American dream when their start-up made them millionaires.
   
   Throughout it all, that dream of stars would not go away. Augmented with what Elon Musk often refers to as "non-trvial resources" Anousheh went from dreaming about stars to thinking about actually visiting them. Eventually she acted on her dream and found herself training as a backup for another commercial space traveller in Russia. An unexpected medical disqualification with the prime passenger and suddenly she was mere weeks away for a trip into space.
   
   These days when you make one of these trips, you have to do something with the nortoriety. Everyone who does this finds a different way to do it. In Anousheh's case, she was suc an improbable space traveller that there was intrinsic interest that really did not need to be generated - just channeled.
   
   During her flight she sent updates from space that were posted in a blog. The claim from her PR flaks being made was that she was the "first blogger in space". Well, I got into nit picking and jumped on that since she was emailing from space - not blogging. But over the days as her mission proceeded I saw some startling things in the comments that appeared on her site. Many were in Farsi but many were in passable English. The sentiments came through loud and clear.
   
   For this instant in time she was pulling her fellow Iranians out of their own daily troubles and bringing them up into space with her. As improbable as her own life story was up to this point it now worked like a magnet on others like her back on Earth. Eventually, I felt compelled to write a retraction of sorts - you can read it
   I go there - to that moment - when I read these words.
   
   "My Dream of Stars" is an astonishing and almost improbable but very human journey from war torn Iran to outer space. In reading this book you get the impression that if Anousheh can do something like this then anyone can.
   
   The world is changing. Inevitably, life in space will change too. Some day soon, it will no longer be the sole province of practitioners of the "Right Stuff" from a small group of rich nations. Anousheh was the one of the very first people to see this change with her own eyes - and to redefine who gets to to go - and why. I have no doubt that she will continue to be a force for change back on Earth.
   
   This is her story.
   
   Keith Cowing, editor [..]