Tamagochi

Not good even as introductionary material

Reviewed: 02-10-24

I was expecting to refresh my knowledge on systems theory, instead I've got a social justice activist handbook with lots of errors and oversights. It has not aged well since it was written in the 90s, to say the least.

One outstanding example of faulty reasoning can be found in the early chapters of the book. It was trying to explain population dynamics using double balancing loops. The idea is simple: there is reinforcing rate of fertility that causes population to expand and a controlling rate of mortality which reduces it's size. Therefore if fertility is greater than mortality, the stock should expand and the reverse should be true. Sounds plausible? Not at all if you look into the issue deeper, because mortality is a function of fertility plus life expectancy and is not, in fact, an independent loop.

The activists took this faulty idea and ran the field with it. Fearing rapid population explosion they have made changes to reduce the fertility rate (the alternative of increasing mortality thankfully was not tried). The most famous example is China's one child policy which proved to be disastrous and was cancelled, albeit too late. It resulted in millions of slaughtered baby girls and the country now faces rapid population collapse of some 50% over the next 50 years. Millions more will die alone and in poverty. And it all can be traced to a bunch of well meaning but naive scientists who thought they had figured it out.

Another glaring fault of the book is that it discounts human agency and morality as irrelevant. It reduces crime, poverty, drug use and other social problems to systemic processes and absolves individuals from personal responsibility. Effectively it encourages victim mentality, reserving the role of "saviors" (and the positions of power) for the activist kind. That's how wealthy people had been sent to die in camps during bolshevik revolution, and more recently anti-white racism has been justified as a means to reduce anti-black sentiments.

Meadows other book "The Limits to Grow" is full of the same mistakes btw and had sabotaged human progress since it's release.

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2 people found this helpful

The only book worth reading on Trump's presidency

Reviewed: 11-23-23

While other memoirs mostly shat on the Trump's legacy, Kushner takes time to properly explain the president's vision, style and achievements. Throughout the book he maintains a positive outlook for US. If you have only listened to media's accounts of those 4 years, you will learn a lot new information from this direct account and might even change your views on some things.

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Boring and superficial

Reviewed: 12-11-18

Liked the idea of the book but execution was so poor and cringy that could not get past initial chapters. It was just silly to read about adult 30 year somethings acting like teenagers because of a cool technological contraption. The content is tailored towards female readers thus male characters are very shallow.

Voice performances on the other hand were superb. Yet they alone do not compensate for a poor plot.

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Fair overview of PC trends on campuses

Reviewed: 10-22-18

I liked this book because it clearly articulates on current trends in educational system and draws reasonable conclusions.The authors introduce themselves as left-leaning progressives but their critique and suggestions would mostly appeal to supporters of the right. Go figure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Removed one star from the review because of one glaring omission: there was no mention of school shootings and bullying. It is an important source of parental and children distress and should not be downplayed when talking about safety.

If you liked the book I would also recommend the classic title "Closing of the American mind". It offers a much broader historical view on our current educational problems.

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Decent action flick

Reviewed: 07-31-16

Decent action flick with light sci-fi elements. Good narration. Not much of lasting value though.

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1 person found this helpful

Outstanding value

Reviewed: 03-30-16

This is by far the most inspiring book I've read in years. The content and narration are really excellent. I wish I could have read it earlier.

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28 people found this helpful

A delight to my ears

Reviewed: 09-28-15

I've only heard about Felicia occasionally before and damn this chick rocks. Wish I have discovered her earlier. Voice acting was superb and made me laugh out loud A LOT. She surely knows the stuff she's talking about (more even than most male gamers). The last few chapters about gamersgate and depression very especially touching and inspiring.

Highly recommend it.

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The kids are not alright

Reviewed: 12-22-14

Glowing reviews from other people have tricked me into believing this was the next best thing in YA since "Catcher in the rye". Oh, how deceived I was.

So what's not to like on the Jellicoe Road? To start off most of the characters are supposed to be 17-ish something, but their real maturity level is more of 10 year old kids. Their main concern is looking tough and playing imaginary wars. Why are they doing it? No one knows and no one cares to even think about it. Actually there's hardly any thinking taking place in the heads of those children at all.

The main girl, Taylor, is especially annoying because of her constant self-absortion, hostile mood swings and "I want my mommy but I won't admit it to anyone". Honestly I wished to smack her headfirst into a wall of bricks more than on one occasion.

Lastly, narration was below average. The main voice was unpleasant to listen to as it always seemed to be on the verge of hysteria. For example the same tone was used to describe a serene view from the top of the tree and when someone attacked the character. In dialogs it was very hard to discern who spoke what because all of them used the same tones. Really frustrating.

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