How Music Works

I try to broaden my horizons and get out of my tech bubble, so I like to learn how artists think. I don't think I could do any better than David Byrne "How Music Works" which is surprisingly and satisfyingly technical, along with musical, and Patti Smith's "Just Kids" about her time in New York City starting out with artist Robert Mapplethorpe at the Chelsea Hotel. Amusingly, she meets Alan Ginsburg when he tries to pick her up thinking she is a young man. In the same vein, not books but documentaries, I learned a lot from three Andy Warhol documentaries on YouTube: "The Life of Andy Warhol", "Andy Warhol - The Complete Picture", and "BBC Modern Masters 1of4 - ANDY WARHOL" From those I learned about the art business, how much Warhol loved money (he left an estate or around 400 million dollars) and how much of this applies to today's world of art related NFT speculation.

A few highlights for me... Abundance - Peter H. Diamandis, Steven Kotler. Diamandis has an almost infectiously positive way of looking at the world. And a hope that's not just based on a philosophical belief but is backed up with hard data. Distrust That Particular Flavor - William Gibson. I never got into Gibson as a fiction writer, but this collection of essays, articles and talks immediately made me appreciate him as an amazing thinker, observer, and truly brilliant writer. This book is worthwhile for the pieces on Japan alone, but every single piece is wonderful. Finite and Infinite Games - James Carse. An old book but one I only just discovered. No book has every so subtly had an impact on my life every day. The finite vs. infinite way of looking at the world has changed the way I think and act completely on the inside, yet it's probably hardly noticable on the outside. An amazingly easy book to read, couldn't recommend it highly enough. How Music Works - David Byrne…