2023 Readings

• Richard W. Hamming, You and Your Research (1995).
• Ivan Sutherland, Technology and Courage (1996).

2023 Watchings

• Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story (2019).

2022 Readings

• Lichael Lewis, Flash Boys (2014).
• Gian-Carlo Rota, Ten Lessons I Wish I Had Learned Before I Started Teaching Differential Equations.
• Underwood Dudley, What To Do When the Trisector Comes (1983).
• Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1847).
• Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (1847).
• Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932).
• Nick Lane, The Vital Question (2015). To live can be defined as a spectrum: Life is about structure, genes, evolution (e.g. hibernating tardigrades & inactive viruses) while living is also about interaction with the environment. Phyiscal law of going towards higher entropy doesn't always mean physical disorder (hydrophobic molecules can "naturally" fold themselves into protein whilst increasing entropy). Black hole in biological origins: "There are no known evolutionary intermediates between the morphologically simple state of all prokaryotes and disturbingly complex common ancestor of eukaryotes." Serial endosymbiotic theory of eukaryotic origin. Primordial soup theory. Redox (reduction-oxidation) with electron transfers & proton gradients as univeral mechanism of all life. In regular photosynthesis, electron donors are water & acceptors are oxygen (which has a quantum "tug" on the electon), but primitive forms of photosynthesis includes using minerals for donors & other oxidants for acceptors. Alkaline hydrothermal vents is a suitable environment for formation of organic molecules, common on wet rocky planets. Environments are rich in H2 and CO2, but they do not react. Natural proton gradients across thin semiconducting mineral barriers theoretically drive the formation of organics and ultimately emergence of cells within pores of vents. To grow, these early cells required leaky membranes, capable of retaining molecules needed for life without cutting themselves off from flux of protons. The use of antiporters (H+ swapping Na+) gives energy advantages to develop an efficient proton gradient, allowing cells to leave and survive throughout oceans. An ultra-rare event that jumps prokaryotes (bacteria) to eukaryotes (complex organisms) occured through endosymbiosis of a bacteria entering in an archaea. The host (archaea) and endosymbiont (bacteria) has conflicts, such as intron invasion and exchange of DNA, optimizing genetics of bacteria (losing almost all genetic material) to be energy efficient for upkeep of larger cell. This rare event gives a fragile, small population vulnerable to extinction. Evolution of two sexes (efficiency in transfer of mitochondria) brings programmed cell death (apoptosis), mosaic mitochondria & trade-offs between areobic fitness and fertility, adaptability and disease, ageing and death. The supply of free-radical leaks from mitochondria determine whether more of them must be produced for energy increase, but too much would lead to apoptosis. This "threshold" of free-radicals differs among species, which may determine lifespan, metabolic rates & anatomy/functions.
• John Berger, Ways of Seeing (1972). Essay 1: Sight is more fundamental than words. Reciprocal nature of sight. Image is a sight detached from place and time and preserved, and importantly, it embodies a way of seeing. Not only does it show the thing being seen, but how the viewer sees it from an infinity of other perspectives. When a camera "reproduces a painting, it destroys the uniqueness of its image, ... its meaning multiplies and fragments into many meanings." Essay 2: Set of Images. Essay 3: Man's presence is dependent upon the promise of power which he embodies (exterior to the man). A woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself. Woman has two selves: the surveyor that constantly watches herself and the surveyed that is watched by others. Importance of considering who the viewer of a painting is (what appearance is the subject trying to make?). Nakedness (being oneself without clothes) vs nudity (seen naked by others, on display). Essay 5: Use of oil paint (w/ greater potential for texture, depth, volume) as means of depicting status of individuals of art (e.g. portraits, still life, animals, property). In contrast, genre paintings depict the abject poor, the antithesis of wealth & righteousness. Expressions may seem cold, distant as if viewer is not on the level of owner.
• Daniel Goleman, Social Intelligence (2006). Low vs high "roads" in our brains (fast emotional impluses vs slow rational reflections). Qualities of rapport. I-You vs I-It (Us-Them). Narcissists, machiavellians, psychopaths (neurological disorders causing lack of empathy & social morals). Our biological genes determine which proteins could be produced, but social setting affects which ones are produced at what quantity (classical nature vs nurture debate). We can change traits by changing social settings. Role of parents in raising children (foundation to lean on, redirecting support). Love (3 ways: attachment, caregiving, sex). Attachment (3 types: secure vs avoidant vs anxious attachment). Fundamental differences in males & females (styles of desire: search for success vs lust, dealing with hardships: venting vs forgetting/surpressing). Contagion of emotions (a metaphysical social highway) and social responsibility of all to maintain good emotional flows. Biological impact of emotions (through release/suppression of hormones) nurtured or worsened by social setting. Emptional depletion in medical field (doctors, nurses) due to more focus on efficiency and less on emotional support (bad?). Optimal achievements due to balance of stress (too little: boredom, too much: anxiety). Effective rehabilitation of prisoners (social guidance through mediated connections) to remold brains & bad habits, esp in young. Stereotypes (not necessarily bad) with negative emotions following (necessarily bad) due to a Us-Them outlook on people (caused by a lack of interaction across segregated communities).
• M. Lynn, R. Simons, Predictors of Male and Female Servers' Average Tip Earnings (2000). Data collection in mid-sized restaurant in Texas. Attractive waitresses earned larger sales-adjusted tips than did less attractive waitresses. Attractiveness had no effect on the tips of waiters. Servers with higher self-rated service abilities and self-monitoring earned larger average sales-adjusted tips. Server sex and previous work experience had no effects on tip earnings. None of the indep. variables predicted lunch tips. Highest tipped employees were beautiful females, highly competent males, and high self-monitors of both sexes. However, the study is correlation in design, so causation cannot be inferenced. May contribute to managerial decisions, such as retention of employees and hiring.
• L. Tickle-Degnen, R. Rosenthal, The Nature of Rapport and Its Nonverbal Correlates (1990). Essential components of rapport are: mutual attentiveness (focus of two individuals directed at each other), positivity (mutual friendliness and caring), coordination (an image of equilibrium, regularity, predictability, not necessarily positive), all pairwise independent from each other. Development of rapport as such: Initial interactions are awkward, drawn from a "repertoire of socially appropriate behaviors" and "rigidly cirumscribed by culturallly acceptable and stereotypical behavior." Later, these restrictions are loosened, with more predicable behaviors understood by each individual. As familiarity increases: Attention is constant, Positivity decreases, Coordination increases. However, it is hard to determine the nonverbal correlates of rapport (really depends on context): Molecular measures consist of counts or durations of specific behaviors such as head nodding or eye contact, Molar measures are defined in terms of the psychological impression (higher-level of integration of cues). Molecular measures more appropriate for initial interactions (due to "predominance of basic approach-and-avoidance forces and the evaluative demands of the situation... [resulting] in relatively static approach-and-avoidance cues that could be measured easily at the molecular level"). Molar measures for progressed interactions ("with development of rapport across time, stereotyped, static cues would be replaced with idiosyncratic,dynajic cues"). Gestalt (unified) measures for coordination is justified. In nonhelping contexts (e.g. peer to peer, vs helping context, e.g. therapist to patient), a partner's smiling, head nodding, forward lean, and direct body orientation aid in creating a positive interaction for the other, in the view of an outside participant. Posture mirroring and directed gaze are slightly less associated with positivity (note that this is only for positivity). Further studies suggested about the weight of these qualities in the other two components of rapport, weighing in different contexts & goals, and progression of relationship.
• Barton Biggs, Hedgehogging (2006). Triangle investment dinner. Raising capital for hedge funds. Funds of funds (and banks as funds of funds of funds) advantages of diversification but double layer of fees. Process of raising capital thru networking at conferences. Don't judge a hedge fund by its most recent performance. Value vs growth/momentum investing. Secular market cycles and "fake" bull markets in secular bears. Private equity & VC funds vs hedge funds. Yale's endowment funds w/ Swensen. Dangers of groupthink and advantages of the individual investor. Hanging onto fortune: gold, art, jewelry. Characteristics of John Keynes.
• Jeffrey D. Sachs, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (2005). Extreme (unable to sustain living conditions) vs moderate (barely above lc) vs relative poverty. Crucial part of ending poverty is to help countries get on the bottom rung of the economic ladder of progress (by ending extreme poverty, which is difficult to get out of), e.g. Malawi, Bangladesh, India, China. Everyone was poor in 1800s (not much difference), but technological differences contribued to a big difference today (misconception is that the rich took from the poor, but this isn't a zero sum game). Historical industrialization of Britian, followed by the rest of the world (not due to superiority, almost 100% geography). Bolivia & Poland's struggles of hyperinflation + crushing foreign debt (debt cancellation required). Economic growth or decline of a nation similar to a differential equation representing some evolution in a state space depending on initial value (e.g. investment): bigger investment leads to exponential growth, while lower investment leads to decay. Role of international consulting firms in development. Public financing for general infrastructure (rather than niche businesses) due to increase in returns to scale, risk of monopolies of nonrival goods/services, less adversion to spillovers, not much money returns. Free trade zones (industrial zone with special conditions applied in order to encourage foreign companies to set up export-oriented manufacting facilities) in East Asia. Lifeline tariffs. Constant lack of funding from IMF and World Bank. Importance of predictability of donors.
• James O'Brien, How to be Right in a World Gone Wrong (2018). Liberal stances on Islamophobia, LGBT rights, feminism. Orwell-like brainwashing of the general media (e.g. Trump). Income, wealth distribution, poverty struggles in current and future generations (points out how bogus it is to compare situations among generations, how old think young aren't working hard). Very blunt and sometimes provocative writing, but makes very good points on the objective reality of these problems.
• Geoffery West, Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies (2017). The 1/4 power rule governing complex life. Dichotomy between individuals/companies and cities in lifespan. Fractal dimensions, space filling curves/surfaces, and how our bodies utilize organs with high fractal dimensions (for greater density). Integration of rigorous, theoretical, proof-based physics into the burgeoning field of biology and its implications. Metabolism rates (ATP production) are exponentially dependent on temperature. Cities as being epicenters of innovation, wealth, growth vs crime, pollution, poverty. Metabolic rates determine how fast we age & our lifespans. Finite-time singularities of city growth; Malthusian theory (open ended growth is catastrophic due to inability to keep up with demand). Sublinear power law (power of 0.85) of city infrastructure (economy of scale) vs superlinear (1.15) of socioeconomic qualities. Milgram's six degrees of sepearation. Dunbar's number of hierarchy of social circles. Zipf's law. Superlinear scaling of city growth (hard to kill) vs sublinear scaling of organisms & companies (eventual fate is to die). One establishment per 22 people in a city ratio. Qualities of cities preserved for decades (Silicon Valley successful because of San Jose, not other way around). Half life of public U.S. companies is 10.5 years.

2022 Watchings

• Michael Curtiz, Casablanca (1942).
• Denis Villeneuve, Prisoners (2013).
• Christopher Nolan, Memento (2000).
• Mary Harron, American Psycho (2000).
• Tate Tyalor, The Help (2011).
• Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).
• Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction (1994).
• Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption (1994).
• J.C. Chandor, Margin Call (2013).
• Netflix, Queen's Gambit (2020).
• Netflix, Love, Death and Robots (2019).
• Glenn Ficarra, Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011).
• Milos Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).
• Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
• Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight (2008).
• Christopher Nolan, Batman Begins (2005).
• Ridley Scott, Blade Runner (1982).
• John G. Avildsen, Rocky (1976).
• Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future 3 (1990).
• Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future 2 (1989).
• Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future (1985).
• Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge (2016).
• Curtis Hanson, 8 Mile (2002).
• Lin-Manuel Miranda, tick, tick... BOOM (2021).
• Naoki Urasawa, Monster (2004).
• Tobe Hooper, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003).
• 강윤성, 범죄도시 (The Outlaws) (2017).
• Lee Isaac Chung, 미나리 (Minari) (2020).
• Lana Wachowski, The Matrix Resurrections (2021).
• Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained (2012). Christoph Waltz.
• Blake Edwards, Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).
• Terence Young, Thunderball (1965).
• Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal (1957).
• Guy Hamilton, Goldfinger, (1964).
• Steven Spielberg, Catch Me If You Can (2002).
• Anthony Minghella, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).
• Ridley Scott, Gladiator (2000).
• Hernán Jiménez, Love Hard (2021).
• Spike Jonze, Her (2013).

2021 Readings

• Hans Rosling, Factfulness (2018). Negativity instinct of the world due to media (world is getting much better than you think). 4 Income Levels (per day): 1 billion - 0-2 USD, 3 billion - 2-8 USD, 2 billion - 8-32 USD, 1 billion - 32+ USD (2017 statistics). Population growth isn't naively exponential since birth rates are also changing (decreases from 10 children to 2 children as income increases). Destiny and blaming instinct amongst people can lead us astray.
• Eugene Fama, Random Walks in Stock Market Prices (1965).
• William James, Great Men, Great Thoughts, and the Environment (1880).
• Kyoko Tazawa, Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (2016). Optimal stopping algorithms, 37% rule in the secretary problem. Levels of caching in our minds & physical work. Forgetting curve as an exponential distribution. Exploring vs exploiting (e.g. trying out new restaurants vs going to the best ones repeatedly). Sorting algorithms & optimal effort required to sort (e.g. libraries sorting books vs. putting them in front). Dangers of overfitting. Exponential backoff in networking (internet vs social) of delay lengths of 2, 4, 8, etc. Latency, bandwidth, & throughput in social settings. Using game theory to develop policies in which the best strategy is honesty (e.g. a modified version of prisoner's dilemma).
• Alice Schroeder, The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life (2008). Buffet's early years & his characteristics to collect. Importance of integrity in business during difficulties in new media industry. Never bought something which he didn't understand (avoided tech stocks).
• Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). A paradigm can be thought of as a box which scientists, through "normal science," try to fill with more experiments (increase percision, test boundary conditions, expand scope, etc.). Pardigms determine which questions are asked (e.g. calculations of force within Newtonian mechanics, but answering what force is is only within the scope of the paradigm brought on by relativity. Determines the educational process & content to new students & researchers. Allows scientists to make assumptions and establish axioms that are useful for tackling scientific problems. A scientific paradigm exists, a series of evidence/experiments that is inconsistent eventually disrupts the scientific community, albeit resistance through new modifications, increased complexity, etc., until no more can be taken and a brief period of crisis occurs, leading to a revolution brought upon by a new idea. Quite pointless for two entities in different paradigms (e.g. Aristotilean vs Galilean) to argue since their arguments are dependent on completely separate axioms, and so one's logic in one's own box fails in the other box.
• William P. Thurston, On Proof and Progress in Mathematics (1994). Role of mathematicians: not merely proving more theorems or getting more answers, but another integral part is understanding and insight (e.g. computationally printing the first thousand primes is not satisfying. Rather, a mathematical description on the pattern of primes). Definition-Theorem-Proof model of mathematics (start with few axioms of certain structures, and we try to prove certain facts about these structures stated in propositions by some deductive pathway from these axioms). Understanding mathematics in different levels (e.g. derivative as slope of tangent line vs as a Lagrangian section of the cotangent bundle), through language, vision, logic, metaphor. Communication of mathematics within a field is easy, but notation, procedures, conventions may be very different across fields. Motivation of people to do mathematics (knowledge, social setting, status), and Thurston's thoughts on people avoiding the new field of foliations since he was known to be "cleaning it out." These evacuations were quite disappointing since there is not enough room for "theorem credits" (even though the generation of new theorems is dependent upon countless people, not just one). Issue of mathematicians wanting a result in order to quote it, rather than to learn it.
• P. Lockhart, A Mathematician's Lament (2009). The lack of intuition & motivation behind current math curriculums in middle/high school. Quite understandable from a mathematician's point of view, but not sure how effective it is to the outside reader.
• Claude E. Shannon, A Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948).
• Tara Westover, Educated (2018).
• Gregory Zuckerman, The Man Who Solved the Market (2019). Stochastic differential equations in hedge funds.
• Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851).
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature (1836).

2021 Watchings

• Robert Zemeckis, Cast Away (2000).
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds (2007).
• Paul Feig, Spy (2015).
• Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men (2007).
• Netflix, Billions (2016).
• Netflix, D.P. (2021).
• Netflix, Squid Game (2021).
• Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho (1960).
• Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (1941).
• Terence Young, Dr. No (1962).
• Netflix, Suits (2011).
• Netflix, Breaking Bad (2008).
• IBM, A Boy and His Atom: The World's Smallest Movie (2013).
• Terence Young, From Russia with Love (1963).
• Christopher Nolan, Inception (2010).
• Hideo Nakata, Ringu (1998).
• Adam McKay, The Big Short (2015).
• Chad Stahelski, John Wick 3 (2019).
• Chad Stahelski, John Wick 2 (2017).
• Chad Stahelski, John Wick (2014).
• Justin Lin, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006).
• Richard Schenkman, The Man from Earth (2007).
• Clint Eastwood, American Sniper (2014).
• Harold Ramis, Groundhog Day (1993).
• Shinichiro Watanabe Cowboy Bebop (1998).
• Mamoru Kanbe, The Promised Neverland (2019).
• Goro Taniguchi, Code Geass (2006).
• Various, Jojo's Bizarre Adventures: Phantom Blood (2012).
• 이정볌, 아저씨 (Ajeossi) (2010).
• 최동훈, 타짜 (Tazza) (2006).

2020 Readings

• George Orwell, 1984 (1949).
• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818).
• Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953).
• Robert Greene, The Laws of Human Nature (2018).
• John Carreyrow, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (2018).
• Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).
• Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (2015).
• John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939).
• Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1532).
• Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera (1911).
• William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954).
• Peter Thiel, Zero to One (2014).
• Bruce Rosenblum, Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness (2006).
• Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor (1949).
• George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945).
• J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, (1951).
• Steven D. Levitt, Freakonomics (2005).
• Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861).
• Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos (2003).
• Michio Kaku, Hyperspace (1994).
• Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe (1999).

2020 Watchings

• Tom Hooper, Les Miserables (2012).
• 봉준호, 기생충 (Parasite) (2019).
• Jean-Jacques Annaud, Enemy at the Gates (2001).
• Michael Cimino, The Deer Hunter (1978).
• Gus Van Sant, Good Will Hunting (1997).
• Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind (2001).
• James Marsh, The Theory of Everything (2014).
• Robert Luketic, 21 (2008).
• Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
• Robert Zemeckis, Forrest Gump (1994).
• Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather (1972).
• James Cameron, The Terminator (1984).
• James Cameron, Terminator 2 (1991).
• James Cameron, Terminator 3 (2003).
• John Dahl, Rounders (1998).
• Netflix, Stranger Things (2016).
• Matthew Brown, The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015).
• Rian Johnson, Knives Out (2019).
• Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island (2010).
• Baz Luhrmann, The Great Gatsby (2013).
• Gabriele Muccino, The Pursuit of Happyness (2006).
• Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away (2001).
• Makoto Shinkai, Your Name (2016).
• Takahiro Omori, Hotarubi no Mori e (2011).
• Mamoru Hosoda, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006).
• Mamoru Hosoda, Wolf Children (2012).
• David Fincher, The Social Network (2010).
• Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
• Jordan Peele, Get Out (2017).
• Morten Tyldum, Imitation Game (2014).
• Shoten Yano, Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance) (2014).
• Hiroshi Hamasaki, Steins;Gate (2011).
• Kenichi Kawamura, Steins;Gate 0 (2018).
• Tetsuro Amino, Shiki (2011).
• Shingo Natsume, One Punch Man (2015).
• Naoto Hosoda, Mirai Nikki (Future Diary) (2011).
• Noriyuki Abe, Bleach (2004).
• Tetsuro Araki, Death Note (2006).
• Yoshiyuki Asai, Charlotte (2015).
• Tomohiko Ito, Sword Art Online (2012).
• Shuhei Morita, Tokyo Ghoul (2014).
• Shuhei Morita, Tokyo Ghoul √A (2015).
• Kenichi Shimizu, Parasyte, the Maxim (2014).
• Tomohiko Ito, ERASED (2016).
• Akiyuki Shinbo, Nisekoi: False Love (2014).
• Shinichi Omata, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War (2019).
• Tatsuyuki Nagai, Toradora! (2008).
• Shunsuke Tada, Kuroko no Basket (2012).
• Yuzuru Tachikawa, Death Parade (2015).