Richard Feynman; Ambition and How Sound Works ā Live and Learn #5
Welcome to this edition of Live and Learn. This time with booknotes on Sam Harris's book Lying, a timelapse on how Salamanders grow and some travel photos. Enjoy.
āØ Quote āØ
When we say we are a pile of atoms, we do not mean we are merely a pile of atoms, because a pile of atoms which is not repeated from one to the other might well have the possibilities which you see before you in the mirror.
ā Richard Feynman - source
š Book Notes š
Lying by Sam Harris. Lying (intentional deception) erodes trust on both sides. It damages relationships in unforeseen ways, needs maintenance and leads to psychological stress. Because of that it is almost never a good idea to lie. The book notes explore these ideas in more detail.
Links
Sound by Bartosz Ciechanowski. What is sound really? How is it generated? How does a box of air connect to Fourier Transforms, Standing Waves, Interference and the Doppler Effect? And why are guitar strings getting higher in pitch if they are under more tension? This post answers all of this.
Salamander Timelapse by National Geographic. A hauntingly beautiful timelapse of a salamander growing from a single cell into a full salamander. It makes you wonder about life, and how it works. And how a cell can store all of the information that is necessary to produce the intricate shapes of a complicated organism like a salamander. If you find this interesting, check out the FAQ of Michael Levin. He's working hard to find out, how this stuff works.
Physics Lectures by Richard Feynman. If you want to feed your curiosity and learn some physics ā this is a wonderful place to start. How do atoms work? What is electricity? What is relativity?. I knew these awesome lectures were freely available online as a written version, but didn't know that there is also an audio version for them on Spotify.
How I Ended up Non Ambitious by LessWrong. Where do ideas and ideals come from? How to think about who we are, who we want to be? And why? Thinking deeply, about what we want, and why we want it, often helps to clarify things and re-adjust where we want to go. This article made me stop and ask myself, do you want to be ambitious? If so, why?
Chip Manufacturing Ecosystem by Steve Blank. A detailed article about how the semiconductor industry works. Main takeaway ā our modern world runs on modern chips. And the tech stack to develop chips is so complicated that companies specialize in single steps of this process. Some only manufacture, others only design, others only build the tools for designing etc. Finally, whoever owns the infrastructure has a huge leverage on political, economical and military power. The US and China currently fight for this control.
š· Photography š·
I am traveling in Tenerife currently and it's mesmerizing here. Traveling, for me, is about photography, and I want to share a few pictures from the last two weeks.
š¶ Song š¶
Us - A COLORS SHOW by FKJ.
I hope you found this newsletter useful!
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Cheers,
ā Rico