I’m taking a short break to write my travelogue.
Reasons to continue
I’ve finally finished writing my travel journal, which has been piling up for two years, and I’m finally back to it until 2019. However, the April Italy diary will be forthcoming.
My writing pace has slowed down over the past two years, partly due to changes in my living environment.
By the way, what I am often asked by direct acquaintances is « How long have you been traveling? » Another thing is « You have a good memory.
Thanks in part to photos, social networking sites, and Google Maps timelines, I may indeed be good at remembering things on average. I think I’ve been pretty good at memorizing since I was a kid.
Whether that’s true or not, what you can at least say with certainty is that you’ve been in the habit of keeping a record of your actions for many years – you’re used to recording what you’ve done in the past.
I started writing this blog in 2005, and I started keeping a personal diary in 1994, so I have been recording my activities for 25 years. I was originally encouraged to keep a diary by a friend in high school, who advised me that writing a diary would improve my Japanese language skills.
However, although small-scale disclosure of information (including the desire for approval) in the form of personal blogs is now an old form, it is still
- 記憶の整理、できるだけ思い出を思い出せるようにしたい
- すべての投稿はデータベース化されており、これらはすべて自身のデータとして保存している、SNSサービスが終了してもすべて手元に残しておきたい
- 文章を書く能力、ひとに何かを伝える力の訓練を続けていきたい
- 歴史と文化の勉強を続けたい
- とりあえず長続きさせることはそれだけでも価値がある
So the recording method will eventually change again, but at least it will continue for a while.
reading
I know it’s sudden, but this is too little content, so I’ll try to write about reading. So I’ll write about reading. I’ve already talked a little about « Japanese language ability ».
I read exclusively on my Kindle. I rarely buy paper books anymore. Here’s a screenshot of my current Kindle, and my top 9 books. I excluded work, program and language related books.
Before I write about individual books (although I haven’t read many of them lol), I’d like to talk about when I read. I don’t watch movies on the plane. It’s because I don’t like them very much. Also, I don’t read books one by one, but I read them in turns according to my mood. I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m bored, so I have this style.
I’d like to take advantage of Amazon Associates from time to time, so I’ll be posting my thoughts on some of the books I’ve finished.
Homo Deus
ボリュームといえばまず「Homo Deus」でしょう。
長かった…、こちらはほぼ飛行機内で読みましたが、読み終わるには2回旅行に行ったと思います笑。もちろんですが前作「サピエンス全史」も完読しております。小麦や牛を見る目がかなり変わります笑。
話は戻しまして「Homo Deus」ですが、やや冗長すぎる記述も目立つのですが、相変わらず筆者の洞察力の深さには驚かされます。最近の中国とアメリカの貿易戦争の根幹にも関わる知財戦略の覇権争い、特にAI技術に関する進展における個人情報の取扱などを見ると、民主主義の限界も感じることもありますから、あながち彼の考える方向も間違っていないのかと思ってしまいます。結構恐ろしいことです。
Iran and the United States
歴史関係では、最近のIran and the United States問題をしっかりと理解するためにこちらの「Iran and the United States」を読みました。
It was published in 2013 and the US President at the time was Obama, so it’s a bit old, but it gives you a very good understanding of current issues. I also didn’t know that Obama had completely different responses to the front and back of the book. What impressed me the most was the last part of the book.
Let not the descendants of the Jews, who were liberated in Babylon more than two thousand five hundred years ago, contend with the descendants of Cyrus the Great, who liberated them.
To understand this, you need to know at least the Old Testament and the history of the ancient Orient. Equally interesting was « In fact, the Iranian public is not hostile to Israel. Neither does the Israeli (Jewish) public. » I wonder how true this is. I don’t know how true it is or what the evidence is, but it certainly makes sense in light of the long past history.
But again, maybe it’s because 2013 is a bit old, but I would have liked more description of the geopolitical impact of the US shale revolution, its current state, and its future development. I would love to see this book updated.
Deep Learning and Physics
This is a relatively recently published book. It is also a book that may be a little relevant to your work.
There are a lot of books on deep learning here and there, but they are all just about programming methods, such as how to use python’s tensor flow or keras. If I want to understand the theory well, I often find books that explain the basics of neural networks, but I don’t feel comfortable with them. However, it’s a little hard to read the original paper, so I thought it would be nice to have something that I can read quickly, and I found this book by chance.
こうした考え方自体がそもそもだめな気がしますが、でも実際あったぞー、といってもまだ読みかけです。「サクサクと読める」、「しっくりくる」、といい、という表現はあまり汎用的に使っていないかもしれない。自分にとってはかつて勉強した物理の視点を通して理解できるといいな、そんな意味で利用しているかもしれません。そしてまさにそんな待望の本が「Deep Learning and Physics」だったわけです。
If you know statistics, machine learning, or theoretical physics, you may have a different point of view from others, or in layman’s terms, an eccentric way of thinking? But I think this way of understanding is not bad, because it is not superficial, and you can deepen your understanding based on the historical background.
But I’ve only just started reading it. I’ll have to read it and think about whether it actually fits in.
For physics and machine learning, there was a conference earlier this year on the following topics, and I’d like to take a peek at some of the published materials in my spare time.
I’m not sure when I’ll be free, let alone when I’ll be free. This content looks like it wouldn’t offend me if I saw it at work, but unfortunately I can’t browse the google site….
The rest is just a small selection of business books that have become popular. I haven’t read many of them at all, but since they don’t require much effort to read, I’m planning to read them in my spare time.
These are the topics of reading that I rarely write about.
You may write more about your reading. I’d rather share it on social networking sites, especially Facebook, rather than here. I think it’s better to share on social networking sites, especially Facebook, because when I choose books based on my own taste, I end up being biased. It’s also effective to communicate with your family (well, my wife alone) like « What are you reading now? It’s also effective to communicate with your family members.
From next time onwards, I plan to return to my travelogue as usual.
