book promotion, Newsletter

Inventors and Inventions

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2026 Free Sci-Fi& Fantasy Reads SEPTEMBER1080X1350

Inventors and their inventions are never divorced from the cultures and problems they were trying to solve. Both inventors and their creations are shaped by their environments. It’s not a surprise that seemingly identical inventions pop up almost simullataniously around the world. The ideas “come to mind” at the same moments in human history, driven by similar cultural pressures and similar problems. Language, agriculture, stone tools, paper, books, calculus, electricity, and even lightbulbs roll over human populations like waves. Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. And inventions build on each other — can’t develop metal weapons prior to discovering how to smelt; don’t need writing until the population gets large enough that transactions need to be recorded (yes, the first “stories” were spreadsheets); can’t have lightbulbs until there’s electricity to power them; don’t really need agriculture until the population pressure forces the issue of reliable food source without migration. We live in the age of accelerated pace of discovery. One individual can no longer know or read all there is to know, not to mention master it. And arguably one of the most civilization-changing discoveries is upon us — artificial intelligence. Whether or not the algorithms…

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Mental Model Traps, Newsletter

All We Need

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Happy Birthday Beatles!

All we need is good health and good relationships. At the end of the day, all we really need from life is good health and healthy relationships with people we love. Good health is not a given for humans. To be healthy, we need good nutrition, we need safe and comfortable housing, we need access to healthcare, we need a stable and peaceful environment (mental health is part of health). All of that requires that we have financial and social support structures. None of this happens in isolation — we can’t all grow our own food and perform self-surgery while building comfortable environments to live in. All those needs require strong social ties inside a stable and supportive community. As they say: people need people. We are not solitary animals. And even with all those needs met, we have to have strong, loving attachments to those we are particularly close to in addition to a stable, supportive community to live in. Human societies share responsibilities. And the more complex our needs and desires become, the more diverse expertise and cooperation are needed. It takes decades to become an experienced doctor. And while those individuals are in training, society needs to…

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Cultural Bias, Cultural Differences, Errors, Language, Metaphor Mistakes, My Books

The Imagery of Language

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he got it all wrong

I left Russia for America when I was thirteen — that’s a difficult age to make cultural and language adjustments. Others in my family are amazing at translating from one language to another; but I’m not particularly good at it. I find learning a new language and a novel way of thinking very hard. If fact, I get stuck in a language — when I think of something in English, it is extraordinary hard for me to retrieve just the right set of words in Russian. It feels like there is a physical divide in my brain between the regions that utilize English and those that work in Russian. For years, I’ve tried to learn French too, and all I have to show for it are just a few scatterings of words. But I love the musicality of French almost as much as that of Russian. I can feel the possibilities, even as I can only grasp a little bit of them. For a wonderfully nuanced discussion of being forced to exist in a new language, I strongly recommend a book by that title: Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language by Eva Hoffman. I particularly identify with…

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Background Knowledge, Book, Cultural Differences, Language, Newsletter, Perception

The Impact That Words Make

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Your lackadaisicalness is disadvantageous.

Words help us remember. Words sharpen our senses and help us give shape and texture to everything we observe. Words have interesting sounds and mouth feel. The word “zebra” doesn’t only conjure up a striped ungulate, it pleasantly vibrates on our lips and tongue. It’s fun to say. The word “power” pushes out with force. It can even produce spittle. It’s aggressive. The word “emolument” is slippery, almost slimy. It feels like something unpleasant is rolling in our mouth. “Sun” doesn’t only describe our star, but it feels bright. “Onomatopoeia” is a mouthful, and it describes words that suggestively sound like the ideas they represent. “Bang” is both the sound that something makes and the word used to describe that sound. “Splat” is another example of a word that mimics the sound. And so is “buzzer” — another word that makes our teeth vibrate. Human languages are full of onomatopoeic words. In our household we use the word “pook” to refer to farts. It’s a Russian word, but easily understood and remembered by an English speaker. Consider what happens when you look at a series of images. As they are flashed on the screen, you don’t need language to identify…

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Newsletter, Perception

Mathematical Landscapes Of My Childhood And Their Loss

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Mathematical landscape with girl flying over it

When I was a kid, I slept in my grandparents’ bedroom. First in a crib, then on a little couch in the corner of their room. My grandfather taught me math every night before I fell asleep. He drilled me on addition, subtraction, then multiplication. He used large numbers; and I always got the right answer. It was easy for me. Numbers formed a complex landscape that I could fly over. In the darkness, my grandfather would rattle out a problem — 337 + 781, for example — and I would fly over the beautiful hills and valleys until the answer would be right there. I loved that game. I then I would try to fall asleep really fast because my grandfather snored so loudly that if I didn’t I would never be able to due to the horrific noise. We played that game for years, until I was displaced from my grandparents’ room by my younger sister. I am currently reading a popular book on neurology, “The Man Who Tasted Words: A Neurologist Explores the Strange and Startling World of Our Senses” by Dr. Guy Leschziner. It explores many human variations in sensory perception either from birth or as…

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Background Knowledge, Book, book promotion, Cultural Bias, Newsletter

Natural Selection of Manmade Objects

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Gilgamesh

Can natural selection and evolution work on man-made objects and structures? Can it work on the stories we tell ourselves as a society? Products, architecture, and stories are continually evolving and selecting for traits that we and our influencers find more useful and appealing. Unfortunately, lots of interesting designs and solutions get overlooked along the way. Like evolution, luck is a major component of the force that decides what stays and what goes.

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