Tags:history
Console Wars
Now a documentary on CBS All Access. Following the success of The Accidental Billionaires and Moneyball comes Console Wars—a mesmerizing, behind-the-scenes business thriller that chronicles how Sega, a small, scrappy gaming company led by an unlikely visionary and a team of rebels, took on the juggernaut Nintendo and revolutionized the video game industry. In 1990, Nintendo had a virtual monopoly on the video game industry. Sega, on the other hand, was just a faltering arcade company with big aspirations and even bigger personalities. But that would all change with the arrival of Tom Kalinske, a man who knew nothing about videogames and everything about fighting uphill battles. His unconventional tactics, combined with the blood, sweat and bold ideas of his renegade employees, transformed Sega and eventually led to a ruthless David-and-Goliath showdown with rival Nintendo.The battle was vicious, relentless, and highly profitable, eventually sparking a global corporate war that would be fought on several fronts: from living rooms and schoolyards to boardrooms and Congress. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pitted brother against brother, kid against adult, Sonic against Mario, and the US against Japan.Based on over two hundred interviews with former Sega and Nintendo employees, Console Wars is the underdog tale of how Kalinske miraculously turned an industry punchline into a market leader. It’s the story of how a humble family man, with an extraordinary imagination and a gift for turning problems into competitive advantages, inspired a team of underdogs to slay a giant and, as a result, birth a $60 billion dollar industry.A best book of the year: NPR, Slate, Publishers Weekly, Goodreads
The Technological Republic
From the Palantir co-founder, one of tech’s boldest thinkers and The Economist’s “best CEO of 2024,” and his deputy, a sweeping indictment of the West’s culture of complacency, arguing that timid leadership, intellectual fragility, and an unambitious view of technology’s potential in Silicon Valley have made the U.S. vulnerable in an era of mounting global threats. “Fascinating and important.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Elon MuskONE OF FINANCIAL TIMES’ MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE YEARSilicon Valley has lost its way. Our most brilliant engineering minds once collaborated with government to advance world-changing technologies. Their efforts secured the West’s dominant place in the geopolitical order. But that relationship has now eroded, with perilous repercussions.Today, the market rewards shallow engagement with the potential of technology. Engineers and founders build photo-sharing apps and marketing algorithms, unwittingly becoming vessels for the ambitions of others. This complacency has spread into academia, politics, and the boardroom. The result? An entire generation for whom the narrow-minded pursuit of the demands of a late capitalist economy has become their calling.In this groundbreaking treatise, Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska offer a searing critique of our collective abandonment of ambition, arguing that in order for the U.S. and its allies to retain their global edge—and preserve the freedoms we take for granted—the software industry must renew its commitment to addressing our most urgent challenges, including the new arms race of artificial intelligence. The government, in turn, must embrace the most effective features of the engineering mindset that has propelled Silicon Valley’s success. Above all, our leaders must reject intellectual fragility and preserve space for ideological confrontation. A willingness to risk the disapproval of the crowd, Karp and Zamiska contend, has everything to do with technological and economic outperformance.At once iconoclastic and rigorous, this book will also lift the veil on Palantir and its broader political project from the inside, offering a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality.
Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques
A form of technical analysis, Japanese candlestick charts are a versatile tool that can be fused with any other technical tool, and will help improve any technician's market analysis. They can be used for speculation and hedging, for futures, equities or anywhere technical analysis is applied. Seasoned technicians will discover how joining Japanese candlesticks with other technical tools can create a powerful synergy of techniques; amateurs will find out how effective candlestick charts are as a stand-alone charting method. In easy-to-understand language, this title delivers to the reader the author's years of study, research and practical experience in this increasingly popular and dynamic approach to market analysis. The comprehensive coverage includes everything from the basics, with hundreds of examples showing how candlestick charting techniques can be used in almost any market.
Skyfaring
A poetic and nuanced exploration of the human experience of flight that reminds us of the full imaginative weight of our most ordinary journeys—and reawakens our capacity to be amazed. The twenty-first century has relegated airplane flight—a once remarkable feat of human ingenuity—to the realm of the mundane. Mark Vanhoenacker, a 747 pilot who left academia and a career in the business world to pursue his childhood dream of flight, asks us to reimagine what we—both as pilots and as passengers—are actually doing when we enter the world between departure and discovery. In a seamless fusion of history, politics, geography, meteorology, ecology, family, and physics, Vanhoenacker vaults across geographical and cultural boundaries; above mountains, oceans, and deserts; through snow, wind, and rain, renewing a simultaneously humbling and almost superhuman activity that affords us unparalleled perspectives on the planet we inhabit and the communities we form.
ছোটদের জন্য মানববাদ
২০১৪ সালে সেন্টার ফর সিভিল কারেজ থেকে প্রকাশিত ‘নাডা টপিচ পেরাটোভিজ (Nada Topić Peratović)’ এর ‘শিশুদের জন্য মানববাদ (Humanism for Children)’ নামে একটি বই বের হয়েছিল। সেই বছরই অক্সফোর্ডে অনুষ্ঠিত ওয়ার্ল্ড হিউম্যানিস্ট কংগ্রেসে বিশ্বের নানা স্থান থেকে আসা অসংখ্য বিখ্যাত লেখক, সাহিত্যিক, বিজ্ঞানী, দার্শনিক, মানববাদী বুদ্ধিজীবীদের মিলনমেলায় আমিও একজন বক্তা হিসেবে নিমন্ত্রণ পেয়েছিলাম।সেখানেই পরিচয় হয় এই বইটির লেখিকার সাথে। উনি আমাকে বইটি পড়ে দেখতে বলেন। পড়ার পরে মনে হলো, এরকম একটি বই বাঙলা ভাষায় খুবই প্রয়োজন। বিশেষ করে যারা নিজেদের সন্তানদেরকে মানববাদী, পরিবেশবাদী, মুক্তমনা, যুক্তিবাদী, বিজ্ঞানমনষ্ক, মননশীল, সকলের সমান অধিকারের পক্ষে কথা বলার মতো বিশ্ব নাগরিক হিসেবে গড়ে তুলতে চান, তাদের জন্য এরকম একটি বই খুবই জরুরি। আমাদের দেশের প্রচলিত শিক্ষাব্যবস্থায় যা সম্ভব নয়। সেখানে না বুঝে সব মেনে নিতে বাধ্য করা হয়, প্রশ্ন করতে নিরুৎসাহিত করা হয়, সব কিছুতে সম্মতি আদায় করা হয়। বাচ্চাদের রীতিমত ভয় দেখানো হয়- আর ভীতি কখনো জ্ঞানের জন্ম দিতে পারে না।মূল লেখিকার উৎসাহ এবং আগ্রহে বইটি বাঙলায় অনুবাদের সময় মনে হতে থাকে, বইটি বাঙলা ভাষাভাষীদের উপযোগী করে তুলতে হলে এর আমূল পরিবর্তন করতে হবে। মূল বইটির উদ্দেশ্য ছিল মানুষের সাথে মানুষের সম্পর্ক, ভালবাসা, মমত্ববোধ, একে অপরের প্রতি শ্রদ্ধা, মানবিক মূল্যবোধ এবং সকলের সমান অধিকারের বিশ্ব ভ্রাতৃত্ববোধের মানসিকতার সাথে শিশুদের পরিচিত করা। সেই সাথে মানবিক গুণাবলী, রাজনীতি, সমাজনীতি ও নারীবাদের বিভিন্ন বিষয়ের সমন্বয়ে মানববাদ সহজ সাধারণভাবে উপস্থাপন করা।এই বইটি ‘Humanism for Children’ বইটিকে ভিত্তি ধরে আমাদের বাঙলা ভাষাভাষী পাঠক পাঠিকাদের জন্যে তাদের উপযোগী করে রচিত হয়েছে। সে কারণে পুরোপুরি মূল বইটি অনেক অংশই এখানে রাখা হয় নি, আবার অনেক কিছু এই বইটিতে রয়েছে যা মূল বইতে নেই।পৃথিবীতে অনেক মানুষ নিজেদের মানববাদী মনে করেন, এবং তাদের একটি অংশ পৃথিবীর নানান দেশে সকল মানুষের অধিকার রক্ষায় সোচ্চার হচ্ছেন। যা ক্রমশ বৃদ্ধি পাচ্ছে। মানববাদীরা ঐক্যবদ্ধ প্রচেষ্টায় মানুষকে অনুপ্রাণিত করেন, বিভিন্ন মানবকল্যাণমূলক কাজে অংশগ্রহণ করেন। সেইসাথে, সুশিক্ষার এবং জ্ঞান আহরণের মাধ্যমে নিজেদের অধিকার ও স্বাধীনতা সম্পর্কে অন্যদের সচেতন করেন, যাতে অন্য নাগরিকগণ নিজেদের অধিকার এবং স্বাধীনতা সম্পর্কে সচেতন হন।‘ছোটদের জন্য মানববাদ’ নামের এই বইটি নানা বয়সের শিশু ও তাদের বাবা-মা বা অভিভাবকদের জন্য রচিত। যাতে শুধু শিশুরাই নয়, তারাও একত্রে বইটি পড়তে পারেন ও বুঝতে পারেন। বইটি শুরু থেকে শেষ পর্যন্ত পড়তে হবে, এমন নয়। বা বইটির সব কথার সাথেই যে সকলের একমত হতে হবে তাও নয়। শিশুদের কাছে যে অংশ বেশি আকর্ষণীয়, তারা যেন সেই অংশ বেছে নিয়ে তাদের বাবা-মা বা অভিভাবকদের সাথে পড়ে ও বিষয়গুলো নিয়ে আলোচনা করে। আবার যে সকল অংশের সাথে কারো দ্বিমত থাকবে, নিঃশঙ্ক চিত্তে সে যেন তা প্রকাশ করে। নানা বয়সের মানুষের কাছে বইটির ভিন্ন ভিন্ন অংশের ব্যাখ্যা হয়তো ভিন্নরকম হবে। এভাবেই বইটি মানুষের জন্য অনুপ্রেরণা, আলাপ আলোচনা, কোন বিষয়ে প্রশ্নের সূচনা ও গভীরভাবে চিন্তার বিকাশ ঘটাতে পারবে।‘সেন্টার ফর সিভিল কারেজ’ থেকে প্রকাশিত শিশুদের জন্য অবশ্যপাঠ্য মূল বইটির নারীবাদী, মানববাদী এবং মানুষের অধিকারের পক্ষে কাজ করে যাওয়া লেখিকা Nada Peratovic এর নামের একটি চমৎকার অর্থ রয়েছে। নাডা শব্দের অর্থ আশা, আর পেরাটোভিজ শব্দের অর্থ পালক। নাডা পেরাটোভিজ নামটির অর্থ হয় ‘আশার পালক’। যেই আশা সুন্দর একটি ভবিষ্যতের আশা। ভবিষ্যৎ প্রজন্মের জন্য আশা। তার বইটিকে ভিত্তি করে লেখা এই বইটিও পাঠকগণের ভাল লাগবে বলেই আমার ধারণা। তারপরেও, যেকোনো দ্বিমতকে আমি স্বাগত জানাই। দ্বিমত বা ভিন্ন কোন যুক্তি থাকলে, কিংবা কোন ভুল পেলে সেগুলো আমাকে অবশ্যই লিখে পাঠাতে পারেন।পিতামাতা বা অভিভাবকের কাছে ‘ছোটদের জন্য মানববাদ’ বইটি শিশুদের নানা প্রশ্নের উত্তরের জন্য সহায়ক হিসেবে কাজ করতে পারে। কিছু প্রশ্নের উত্তর ’সেন্টার ফর সিভিল কারেজ ফর চিলড্রেন’ আয়োজিত মুক্তচিন্তা একাডেমী এবং মানববাদী কর্মশালায়, এবং প্রাপ্তবয়স্কদের মানববাদী সংঘগুলোর থেকে পাওয়া যাবে।নতুন প্রজন্ম এই বইটি থেকে চিন্তার কিছু রসদ পেলে, আলাপ আলোচনার বিষয়বস্তু পেলে, জানার ক্ষুধা মেটানো নয়- তা আরো কিছুটা বৃদ্ধি করতে পারলেই আমি ভাববো, আমি সফল হয়েছি।সকলের জন্য শুভকামনা।আসিফ মহিউদ্দীনhttps://www.shongshoy.com
My Dear Bessie
AS HEARD ON RADIO 4'Utterly wonderful' NINA STIBBE, author of Love, NinaTwenty hours have gone since I last wrote. I have been thinking of you. I shall think of you until I post this, and until you get it. Can you feel, as you read these words, that I am thinking of you now; aglow, alive, alert at the thought that you are in the same world, and by some strange chance loving me. In September 1943, Chris Barker was serving as a signalman in North Africa when he decided to brighten the long days of war by writing to old friends. One of these was Bessie Moore, a former work colleague. The unexpected warmth of Bessie's reply changed their lives forever. Crossing continents and years, their funny, affectionate and intensely personal letters are a remarkable portrait of a love played out against the backdrop of the Second World War. Above all, their story is a stirring example of the power of letters to transform ordinary lives.
Another Great Day at Sea
In November 2011, Geoff Dyer fulfilled a childhood dream of spending time on an aircraft carrier. Dyer's stay on the USS George Bush, on active service in the Arabian Gulf, proved even more intense, memorable, and frequently hilarious, than he could ever have hoped. In Dyer's hands, the warship becomes a microcosm for a stocktaking of modern Western life: religion, drugs, chauvinism, farting, gyms, steaks, prayer, parental death, relationships and how to have a beach party with 5000 people on a giant floating hunk of steel. Piercingly perceptive and gloriously funny, this is a unique book about work, war and entering other worlds.
A Short History Of Myth
As long as we have been human, we have been mythmakers. In A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong holds up the mirror of mythology to show us the history of ourselves, and embarks on a journey that begins at a Neanderthal graveside and ends buried in the heart of the modern novel. Surprising, powerful and profound, A Short History of Myth examines the world's most ancient art form - the making and telling of stories - and why we still need it.
Still Broke
How America’s biggest company began taking better care of its workers--and why such efforts will never be enough. Fifteen years ago, Walmart was the most controversial company in America. By offering incredibly low prices, it had come to dominate the retail landscape. But with this dominance came a suite of ethical concerns. Walmart was accused of wiping out mom-and-pop businesses across the country; ruthlessly pressuring suppliers to cut costs, even if it meant closing up U.S. factories and moving production overseas; and, above all, not taking adequate care of its own employees, who were paid so little that many wound up on public assistance. Today, while Walmart remains America's largest employer, the picture is very different. It has become an environmental leader among businesses, and has taken many other steps to use its immense scale to have a positive social impact. Most notably, its starting wage has risen from $7.25 to $12, and employee benefits have improved. With internal and external threats to its business looming, the company began to change directions in 2005—a transformation that accelerated in 2014, with the arrival of CEO Doug McMillon. By undertaking such large-scale change without a legal mandate to do so, Walmart has joined a number of major corporations that say they are dedicated to practicing a new, socially conscious form of capitalism. In Still Broke, award-winning author Rick Wartzman goes inside the company's transformation, showing in novelistic detail how the company has gotten to where it is. Yet he also asks a critical question: is it enough? With a still-simmering public debate around the minimum wage and widespread movements by workers demanding better treatment, how far will $12 an hour go in today's economy? Or even $15? Or Walmart’s average wage, which now hovers above $17—but, even so, doesn’t pencil out to so much as $32,000 a year for a fulltime worker? In the richest nation on earth, how did the bar get set so low? How did America find itself relying on an army of low-wage workers without ever acknowledging their most basic needs? And if Walmart's brand of change is the best we have, how can we ever expect to build a healthy society? With unparalleled access to the key executives and change-makers at Walmart, Still Broke does more than document a remarkable business makeover. It interrogates the role of business in American life, and asks what the future of our economy and country can be—and whose job it is to make it.
The End of Loyalty
Having a good, stable job used to be the bedrock of the American Dream. Not anymore. In this richly detailed and eye-opening book, Rick Wartzman chronicles the erosion of the relationship between American companies and their workers. Through the stories of four major employers -- General Motors, General Electric, Kodak, and Coca-Cola -- he shows how big businesses once took responsibility for providing their workers and retirees with an array of social benefits. At the height of the post-World War II economy, these companies also believed that worker pay needed to be kept high in order to preserve morale and keep the economy humming. Productivity boomed. But the corporate social contract didn't last. By tracing the ups and downs of these four corporate icons over seventy years, Wartzman illustrates just how much has been lost: job security and steadily rising pay, guaranteed pensions, robust health benefits, and much more. Charting the Golden Age of the '50s and '60s; the turbulent years of the '70s and '80s; and the growth of downsizing, outsourcing, and instability in the modern era, Wartzman's narrative is a biography of the American Dream gone sideways. Deeply researched and compelling, The End of Loyalty will make you rethink how Americans can begin to resurrect the middle class.Finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize in current interestA best business book of the year in economics, Strategy+Business
Obscene in the Extreme
Few books have caused as big a stir as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, when it was published in April 1939. By May, it was the nation's number one bestseller, but in Kern County, California -- the Joads' newfound home -- the book was burned publicly and banned from library shelves. Obscene in the Extreme tells the remarkable story behind this fit of censorship. When W. B. "Bill" Camp, a giant cotton and potato grower, presided over its burning in downtown Bakersfield, he declared: "We are angry, not because we were attacked but because we were attacked by a book obscene in the extreme sense of the word." But Gretchen Knief, the Kern County librarian, bravely fought back. "If that book is banned today, what book will be banned tomorrow?"Obscene in the Extreme serves as a window into an extraordinary time of upheaval in America -- a time when, as Steinbeck put it, there seemed to be "a revolution . . . going on."
Read Write Own
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER‘A compelling vision of where the internet should go and how to get there.’ Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAIThe promise of the internet has been stolen.Over the last decade, a handful of giant companies like Facebook and Google have seized control of the web – sapping its dynamism and taking its profits for themselves.But there is a way to take it back.Here, a leading Silicon Valley investor argues that blockchains – the radically free and democratic new type of software design that underpins ‘web3’ – could return financial and decision-making power to the internet’s users. For the first time, we won’t just read and write on the internet – we will own it, too.‘A must for anyone who wants to better understand the real potential of blockchains and web3.’ Bob Iger, CEO, Disney‘A refreshing and radical new take at a time when we need fresh thinking more than ever.’ Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and author of The Coming Wave‘The most elegant and sophisticated argument for blockchain to date . . . Shines as a history of computing and the internet.’ Fortune