Books N’ Stuff: An internet users perspective
“Books N’ Stuff: A perspective on books and reading”
I used to be quite an avid book reader when I was younger, however, that has diminished as I have been pulled further and further into the internet rabbit hole. But, my perspective on books hasn’t changed at all, for I have gotten back into it with a new Kindle. For the majority of the time I use my computer, I was watching Youtube, it has taught me quite a lot of things, ranging from electronic design and manufacturing to 3D printing. Most people laugh at me when I say that Youtube has been my most influential teacher over the years. I guess that is mostly fueled by a surge of child-focused, clickbait content. Sadly, that usually overshadows all the educational channels out there, which provide top-notch explanations for things usually unexplainable unless you listen to a lecture.
But books still are a viable option right? Well, in all honesty, books can bring some serious education to most people. However I have always viewed books as something of the past, so I have moved away from them in the past few years. Last year, I acquired an e-reader with Kindle unlimited, it showed me that books are still very relevant and enjoyable. 1984 was probably one of the most enjoyable books I have read yet, with a few productivity and efficiency books following close. I have learned much from these, they took a while to catch on with me but I soon realized how peaceful the world can be if I just sat down and read a nice book. Sometimes it’s just a nice break, while still getting to learn a ton of stuff. A recent read was “Life is short And so is this book” By Peter Atkins, it’s an eye-opening short book that I quite enjoyed, mostly because it was able to make the most out of the meager 67 pages of content. I have also started “Bushido: The soul of Japan” and “Do it Today”, both are extremely eye-opening for a normally quite closed-off person. I am mostly trying to make my daily schedule more efficient while leaving enough time to work on projects and taking a walk. These resources were quite influential in building that new schedule, which I hope to share thoughts on soon. Another reason I began to read more books was writing my semiconductor manufacturing series. In that series of articles, I tried to grapple an understanding of silicon chip manufacturing while also learning about the process that makes the magic happen. The books which I have put in the sources section on those articles were incredible in shaping my understanding of photo-lithography and the life of Andy Grove, it’s something that I was very surprised about. Once you get deeper into topics like semiconductor manufacturing, it gets harder and harder to find information on these processes. It’s a cool topic to research about, and although I am not that deep down its rabbit hole yet, I still enjoy the process. Another cool topic I had a hard time grappling with was parts sourcing, which intrigues me quite a lot. These topics have always been quite centered in the electronics industry and have vast resources of both books and websites dedicated to explaining or facilitating them. Books, however, I have observed as a much more powerful and simple resource to get a topic as advanced as these across to the average person. Sometimes, books are just the way to go. There are quite a few photo-lithography research books from the 90s which were incredibly interesting to read over.
Books are not ever-evolving on a single book basis, however, that makes them a great time capsule of information. Sure, our understanding of the world was not the same 200 years ago, but it shows how much we have progressed over the years. Instead of craving for new information, why don't we look at the past? For as Mark Twain once said “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme”, remember that when you look at items from a bygone era, instead of viewing books as inferior to the internet, look at the points where it can do things better.
As I have learned over the years, don’t underestimate things. As long as you correct your perspectives, or have multiple perspectives on a single opinion, your ability to discover new things and understand underlying topics will be greatly improved.
As always, thanks for reading this short installment of Conductoraculus. Have a nice day!
-Joe
