THE CHAOS THEORY

“The Little Prince” by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

There’s nothing like reading a classic book given by a dear friend, on a rainy Sunday, that reminds us of the simplest lessons that are somehow forgotten as we get too busy growing up. Lessons that are narrated through the kind of imagination fit for one of those Tim Burton movies.

It is about the “silly” ego, ambitions, entitlements, sorrow, greed, lies, and seriousness, that grown-ups slowly develop as they get older, which make them look foolish from the perspective of a child.

It is also about the little things in life that bring us joy, things that we cannot buy with money, things that can make time stood still. Because “it is only with one’s heart that one can see clearly”, said the fox, and “what is essential is invisible to the eye.” A truly heart warming book.

“A Billion Lives: An Eyewitness Report from the Frontlines of Humanity” by Jan Egeland

Jan Egeland is a remarkable human being. He has an illustrious long career that include positions at Amnesty International, the Norwegian Red Cross, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and most prominently his work as the undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations, which is what the book is mostly about.

During his tenure he met warlords, mass murderers, dictators, as well as peacemakers, relief workers, and human rights activists. And it weren’t just during some ordinary occurrences at the office.

Instead, he negotiated face to face against warlord Joseph Kony in Ugandan jungle, became the intermediary between FARC and the government of Colombia for their peace agreement, dealt directly with a difficult Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, helped broker the Oslo Peace Accords 1993 between Israel and Palestine, and again years later help to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and coordinated the intricate disaster relief in many places including Iraq after the 2003 US-led attack, Ivory Coast after the civil war, and the boxing day Tsunami 2004.

Although not all of his attempts were successful – such as the unresolved violence in Darfur, and the collapse of the Oslo Accord after Benjamin Netanyahu took over power – it seems that Egeland can manage to untie the most complicated knots in almost every disaster and war zone in the world, and created a better pathway towards compromise for his successors.

And this memoir shows the minute by minute account on how these humanitarian deals and coordinations were planned, debated, compromised, failed, re-attempted, and finally achieved in the room, which is a demonstration of a masterclass on negotiation and diplomacy. Very well written, gripping from start to finish, five stars.

“Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator” by Ryan Holiday

At the age of 25, before he wrote about Stoicism, Ryan Holiday wreck havoc the media and marketing world by telling the insider’s truth of what he personally experienced and witnessed as a professional within the industry. As Holiday remarked, “[m]y job is to lie to the media so they can lie to you. I cheat, bribe, and connive for bestselling authors and billion-dollar brands and abuse my understanding of the internet to do it.”

He was most certainly not the only one doing this, however, in fact later on as the book progresses he mentions some of the best (or worst?) in the industry, the creme de la creme of the media manipulator, who funnel millions of dollars to online publications to get page views, control the scoops and breaking news that fill our Facebook and other social media feeds, and some tricks and unbelievable sins that would make our jaw drop in disbelieve.

But before any of this, he first confessed to his own sins. “I have flown bloggers across the country,” Holiday admitted, “boosted their revenue by buying fake traffic, written their stories for them, fabricated elaborate ruses to capture their attention, and even hired their family members. I’ve probably sent enough gift cards and T-shirts to fashion bloggers to clothe a small country. Why did I do all this? Because it was the best way to get what I wanted for my clients: attention.”

And that’s the key word that is repeated again and again in this book, attention. All of these clickbaits, polarisations, provocative comments, advertisement placements, social media algorithms, and all the sensational and viral contents are all generated to grab our attention in an increasingly saturated world for, well, attention.

Because the truth of the matter is, as the philosopher and journalist Chris Hedges wrote, “[i]n an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we neither seek nor want honesty or reality. Reality is complicated. Reality is boring. We are incapable or unwilling to handle its confusion.”

So instead, according to Holiday, “[t]he most powerful predictor of virality is how much anger an article evoked.” In other words, the fake news and fake headline that “feel true”, information that is distorted into something that will stick to the emotional spectrum of the audience, which ultimately will turn into something that spreads and drive people to click on the news.

Indeed, the reality on the ground is the media don’t actually care about the issues they are provoking much outrage about, and neither do social media. Instead, they only care about what it means for them: how much traffic and time spent on site that these issues generate.

As Holiday puts it, “[t]hings must be negative but not too negative. Hopelessness, despair—these drive us to do nothing. Pity, empathy—those drive us to do something, like get up from our computers to act. But anger, fear, excitement, laughter, and outrage—these drive us to spread. They drive us to do something that makes us feel as if we are doing something, when in reality we are only contributing to what is probably a superficial and utterly meaningless conversation.”

This, in essence, what helps create the artificial modern world where everybody are competing to get their 15 minutes of fame, where “netizens” can quickly take down and belittle some people as quickly as making them a superstar trending topic, which make the rise of the clickbait culture, polarising online debates, and the rise of yotubers, instagram influencers, etc, a little bit more sense.

As Holiday commented, “It used to be that someone had to be a national hero before you got the privilege of the media and the public turning on you. You had to be a president or a millionaire or an artist. Now we tear people down just as we’ve begun to build them up. We do this to our fameballs. Our viral video stars. Our favorite new companies. Even random citizens who pop into the news because they did something interesting, unusual, or stupid. First we celebrate them; then we turn to snark, and then, finally, to merciless decimation. No wonder only morons and narcissists enter the public sphere.”

Moreover, this book also provides tremendous insights into the inner workings of the online publishing industry (or what Holiday refer as blogs) as well as social media, with all their structures, and their means for surviving and thriving. It touches the complicated subject of subtle corruption (which involve no direct bribe money) and how it is being done rampantly, the ugly picture of the economics behind the spread of news online, how to create the perfect clickbait articles, even how reality TV sucks in viewers.

It also exposes the problem of journalistic credibility, such as the scary rate of reporters using wikipedia as a source (and how a simple edit on the wikipedia page can lead to a false or advantageous reporting from the media), and the ever increasing revolving door problem between bloggers and the giants that they supposed to report on with objectivity, as Holiday commented: “what blogger is going to do real reporting on companies like Google, or Twitter when there is the potential for a lucrative job down the road? What writer is going to burn a source if they view their job as a networking play?”

Reading this book has made me able to differentiate between a real investigative reporting and a viral scoop taken from smaller blogs or social media. I can now see the invincible hands working behind a viral story, or when there’s a story fabricated from thin air to generate more clicks, or when a multiple media deliberately use an already misled claims and watch it spread like wildfire, and I can see all the progress of the scoop in the scale between obscurity and viral sensation.

Ironically, many firms now require their employees to read Trust Me I’m Lying, while many blogs and journalism schools also ask their writers and student to study this book. It is similar like how Michael Lewis’ Liar’s Poker – a book that exposed the rotten culture of 1980s Wall Street – somehow attracts people to work at Wall Street. Although at this point it makes perfect sense for these people to understand all of these tricks (for better or worse), but still, this tells a lot about the state of the industry. The mad men of the 1950s Madison Avenue would be very proud.

“The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” by Michael Pollan

How can people in France or Italy are able to eat all the “unhealthy” meals filled with pasta, bread, and the likes of foie grass but can wind up healthier, thinner, and happier compared to those who consume supposedly healthy diet of low-carb, high protein, and good fat?

This book is the long history of our meal since the dawn of civilisation. The author, journalist Michael Pollan, went back to the very beginning of the food chain to track the process of food manufacturing, from the nature to the plate. And the result is this best-selling book that has since become one of the main go-to guides for healthy eating for more than a decade.

So, what did Pollan discover? The Omnivore’s Dilemma is about the three core food chains that sustain us today: 1. The organic 2. The hunter-gatherer 3. The industrial. While they differ greatly, all three food chains are systems with similar functions that are linking us to the fertility of the earth and the energy of the sun, through what we eat. Even the Twinkies. As Pollan remarks, “all life on earth can be viewed as a competition among species for the solar energy captured by green plants and stored in the form of complex carbon molecules.”

And a food chain is a system for passing on those calories to species that lack the plant’s ability to synthesize them from sunlight. And this lies the problem with the industrial food chain, as the supposedly natural carbon molecules are being greatly modified for profitability.

As Pollan explains, each of us can only eat approximately 1500 pounds of food a year. And unlike many other products – such as shoes or CDs – there is a natural limit to how much food that we can consume until we reach our ultimate limit. This is a bad news for the food industry and its Wall Street investors, with the food industry’s natural rate of growth is only around 1% per year (in the US).

This left corporations like McDonald’s and General Mills with 2 options if they hope to grow faster: 1. Figure out how to get people to spend more money on the same amount of food, or cutting the cost of production for the same amount of food 2. Figure out a way to make people eat beyond their natural limitations. And the food industry pursue these 2 strategies simultaenously and complementarily, mainly by using cheap (but unhealthy) corn for cost cutting.

Indeed, there are around 45,000 items in the average American supermarket, and more than a quarter of them now contain corn. One of the most common examples for cost cutting is replacing sugar with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), because HFCS is few cents cheaper than sugar (thanks to government subsidy) and the change went unoticed by the consumers, such as the one conducted by Coca-Cola and Pepsi in 1984. Besides in soda drinks, HFCS can also be found in bread, candy, canned fruit, sweetened yoghurt, juice, and many more, including in salad dressings.

As Pollan remarks, “very simply, we subsidize high-fructose corn syrup in this country, but not carrots. While the surgeon general is raising alarms over the epidemic of obesity, the president is signing farm bills designed to keep the river of cheap corn flowing, guaranteeing that the cheapest calories in the supermarket will continue to be the unhealthiest.”

And with all the nutritions aren’t met with these “junk” food, in search for the required amount of nutritions our body then demands us to eat more and more food and snacks, which normally also still lack the nutritions needed, thus leads to the epidemic of obesity (but fulfilling the corporations’ 2nd goal to make people eat beyond their natural limitations).

Moreover, in the quest of cutting down the cost of production, the meat industry also opted to use these subsidied corn to replace grass as the main source of feeding for cows, with an added advantage of speeding up the fattening process for the cows since corn is a compact source of caloric energy.

As Rich Blair – a person who runs a “cow-calf” operation (the first stage in the production of a hamburger) – commented “in my grandfather’s time, cows were four or five years old at slaughter. In the fifties, when my father was ranching, it was two or three years old. Now we get there at fourteen to sixteen months.” And Pollan added, “cows raised on grass simply take longer to reach slaughter weight than cows raised on a richer diet, and for half a century now the industry has devoted itself to shortening a beef animal’s allotted span on earth.”

As a result of these changes corn-fed cows get fatter in a much quicker time. And their flesh also marbles well, giving it a texture and taste that American consumers have come to like. In the industry terms, it seems that the factory is becoming more efficient in increasing production at a lower cost.

However, according to Pollan, “this corn-fed meat is demonstrably less healthy for us, since it contains more saturated fat and less omega-3 fatty acids than the meat of animals fed grass. A growing body of research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with corn-fed beef.”

So, how to counter the health problems? They inject the cows with antibiotics. As Pollan discovered, “what keeps a feedlot animal healthy—or healthy enough—are antibiotics. Rumensin buffers acidity in the rumen, helping to prevent bloat and acidosis, and Tylosin, a form of erythromycin, lowers the incidence of liver infection. Most of the antibiotics sold in America today end up in animal feed, a practice that, it is now generally acknowledged (except in agriculture), is leading directly to the evolution of new antibiotic-resistant superbugs.”

This partly explains why French and Italian people are healthier despite their [perceivedly bad] diet. Because they eat more high quality organic food, they do less snacking because they eat more good fat and in overall they meet the required nutritions. In addition, they also use less chemically altered vegetables oil (that will trigger insulin resistance), they use non gmo food, no artificial vitamins, and all other changes as a result of industrialisation of the food chain.

Or in other words, the French and Italians simply eat real food while in America people eat a manufactured, chemical-filled, substance that they label as food.

The remaining of the book then tells the story of Pollan’s journey to several places in America to experience first-hand how organic food chain (aka real farming) and hunter-gathering food chain should look like. And the result of this reporting is a massive game changer. Since the book was published in 2006, the reactions within the food industry have been overall positive.

In Pollan’s own words, “there are now more than eight thousand farmers markets in America, an increase of 180 percent since 2006. More than four thousand school districts now have farm-to-school programs, a 430 percent increase since 2006, and the percentage of elementary school with gardens has doubled, to 26 percent. During that period sales of soda have plummeted, falling 14 percent between 2004 and 2014. The food industry is rushing to reformulate hundreds of products to remove high fructose corn syrup and other processed-food ingredients that consumers have made clear they will no longer tolerate.”

Moreover, Pollan continues, “sales of organic food have more than doubled since 2006, from $16.7 billion in 2006 to more than $40 billion today. The kind of grass-finished beef and pastured eggs that Joel Salatin produces at Polyface Farm were so exotic in 2006 that national sales figures for them didn’t exist; now, you can find these foods in many supermarkets, and both categories are growing by double digit percentages each year. (Carl’s Junior, the fast food chain, introduced a grass-fed hamburger in 2014.) From California to Georgia, there are now hundreds of farms modeled on Polyface’s intricate choreography of animals. And Joel Salatin himself has become an international celebrity farmer, a social type I don’t think existed in 2006.”

Hence, when today you see an evolution towards organic eating, ethical farming, and an overall healthy living, you can trace back the evolution to this book as one of the main instigators. A must read for those who care about where our food is coming from.

“Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World” by Tim Marshall

The current rising tension between NATO and Russia over Ukraine can be explained by the 2nd paragraph of the introduction of this book:

“If God had built mountains in Ukraine, then the great expanse of flatland that is the North European Plain would not be such encouraging territory from which to attack Russia repeatedly. As it is, Putin has no choice: he must at least attempt to control the flatlands to the west. So it is with all nations, big or small.”

Indeed, Ukraine plays the role of a geographic buffer for Russia against the North European relative flatlands. Because there’s no mountains like the Himalayans (that provide natural borders between China and India), Russia “needs” to control the immediate countries that borders with NATO-allies Europe. Hence, their vested interest on controlling Ukraine and Belarus.

Tim Marshall also argues that if Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova ever going to join NATO it will spark a war. This scenario is like Canada or Mexico decide to join the Russian alliance (remember the Cuban missile crisis?)

And so, here we are. With NATO trying to lure Ukraine into joining them, Putin, as a reaction, is trying to put a Kremlin puppet in Ukraine so that they won’t join NATO.

Because for Russia to lose control over Ukraine is like China losing their strong grip over Xinjiang (which borders with 8 other countries in China’s West). It’s all about geographic buffers, while the natural resources are bonuses.

So who’s to blame in this scenario? All of them. It’s assholes against assholes, playing politics and war games over someone else’s country. Ukraine is analogically caught in the middle of a custody battle between 2 toxic parents.

“Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

Years ago, in the attempt of reducing the rate of urine spill at their mens toilets, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport made a tiny change that successfully reduced the spill by 80%: they draw a tiny fly in the middle of the urinal, which subconsciously led men to aim at the fly whenever they take a piss.

Meanwhile, in an information campaign about energy conservation, a simple change in word framing made such a big difference: from (a) “If you use energy conservation methods, you will save $350 per year”, to (b) “If you do not use energy conservation methods, you will lose $350 per year.” While the 2 options are basically the same information, option (b), framed in terms of losses, turns out to be a far more effective incentive than option (a).

Moreover, as it turns out you’re likely to be overweight if you have a lot of overweight friends, so too a group of friends tend to have the same political views (which underline the power of social influences), while large plates and large packages can influence people to eat or consume more, and self-control issues often appear because we underestimate the effect of arousal.

This is a fun book about the small margins that can make such a big difference, or what the authors refer as nudges. It is those small, seemingly menial, changes in behaviour or environment or design that can make a long lasting impact. It is a book heavy with scientific findings, written by two behavioural economists, one of whom just happens to won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

As it is the norm in behavioural economics, the book is built around one underlying thesis: that in the end we are homo sapiens (humans) with emotions and irationalities, and not homo economicus (the super sensible and logical being illustrated in standard economic textbooks). As the authors remarked, “[t]he bottom line, from our point of view, is that people are, shall we say, nudge-able. Their choices, even in life’s most important decisions, are influenced in ways that would not be anticipated in a standard economic framework.”

And this is what the book is about, the triggers, the hacks, the incentives, a.k.a the nudges that influence people in making decisions. More specifically, the book guides us into the intriguing world of choice architecture, which uses these nudges as tools for behaviour altering or for directing decision making towards specific choices.

And there are a whole plethora of nudges, such as: Mental accounting, channel factors, priming, peer pressure, setting a default option, feedback loop, mappings, taxation (discouraging tools), government regulations, information disclosure (that creates a social pressure), and many more. Even the design of everyday items such as a remote control (volume and channel switch buttons are bigger than others) can become a nudge.

The only drawback of the books is the later chapters become focused on specific US government issues a little too much, while the goldmine of the subject (the many more types of nudges) are only listed briefly in chapter 16 and 19, akin like the season 8 of the Game of Thrones (it could’ve been epic if given the proper coverage, but instead the materials are being rushed – but maybe this is why the authors decided to expand the book in a new edition).

Nevertheless, I’ve always been fascinated by behavioural economics, and this book in the end of the day still brings out the very best findings on the field, presented in a fun approach. Very well done.

“Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. by Ron Chernow”

There are so many things that we can learn from biographies, and this one is a prime example for that. This is an 834 pages book filled with everything imaginable about John D. Rockefeller. What his legendary demeanour was like, his decision makings in business, the way he carries himself throughout crisis, about his parenting style, his relationship with the people around him, his extended family and their dynamism and later their philanthropic activities, his difficult upbringing with a volatile father, and so much more.

He is notoriously calm and composed, a stoic and cautious character. He rarely speaks when it is not necessary, and thus he gives the controlled aura of a mysterious person. He is hugely reliable and resilient, famously frugal, daring in design but cautious in execution, strangely humble and compassionate for a man in his position, and above all he’s pious and devoutly religious. There are so much to learn from Rockefeller the person behind the legend.

The book also portrays vividly how raw the business world back then, which attracts a predatory style that became consolidated by the brutality of Rockefeller and his Standard Oil, which turned the wild west of oil capitalism into a monopoly. With this in mind, the book is also a lesson on free market capitalism, and how if left uninterrupted it can easily turns into a predatory capitalism that reach its pinnacle in a form of monopoly or near monopoly, like what happened with Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.

Indeed, this is not an all-rosy biography, as the great man himself can turn into the notorious robber baron that he became known for. This is why this book is such a thorough biography, it doesn’t show black or white, but it covers all the spectrum of colour that makes a Titan.

“Aesop’s Fables” by Aesop

This book is a collection of Aesop’s most famous fables. Some are so blunt and honest, like the story of the ass and the lap dog. Some are funny, such as the bear and the travellers. Some are well known, such as the boy who cried wolf. But most of them have some common traits: they are simple and inspirational, with lessons that have stood the test of time.

At the introduction of the book, G. K. Chesterton highlighted some interesting insights into the world of fables and fairy tales. Firstly, fables are stories about talking animals, plants, or forces of nature with human-like characteristics, while fairy tales are mostly human characters that involve good and evil traits and may or may not have magical capabilities.

Secondly, the fables in this book are not necessarily written by Aesop but rather collected by Aesop, just as Grimms’ fairy tales are well known as the best collection of fairy tales instead of written by the Grimm brothers.

Thirdly, the origin of the fables themselves are mostly lost in history and have since become anonymous, universal, and have been passed down from generation to generation, which is a common theme in the earliest human history.

And finally, through the analogies of animals we can learn so much about human emotions, about our shortcomings, about our hopes and dreams, about finding our place in the social hierarchy, about justice and injustice, about hard work that result to nothing if we doing it wrong and pure damn luck that result to everything, and so much more.

Here are some of my favourite moral stories from this book:

• If you are wise you won’t be deceived by the innocent airs of those whom you have once found to be dangerous.
• Notoriety is often mistaken for fame.
• Look and see which way the wind blows before you commit yourself.
• Persuasion is better than force.
• Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.
• Boasters brag most when they cannot be detected.
• Better poverty without a care than wealth with its many obligations.
• We may often be of more consequence in our own eyes than in the eyes of our neighbours.
• Misfortune tests the sincerity of friendship.
• Do not waste your pity on a scamp.
• You cannot believe a liar even when he tells the truth.
• Look before your leap.
• Show gratitude where gratitude is due.
• Give assistance, not advice, in a crisis.
• They complain most who suffer least.
• Do not attempt too much at once.
• What is worth most is often valued least.
• Heaven helps those who help themselves.
• Revenge is a two-edged sword.
• If you choose bad companions no one will believe that you are anything but bad yourself.
• If you attempt what is beyond your power, your trouble will be wasted and you court not only misfortune but ridicule.
• Injuries are never forgotten in the presence of those who caused them.
• Precautions are useless after the event.
• A man is known by the company he keeps.
• Advantages that are dearly bought are doubtful blessings.
• Servants don’t know a good master till they have served a worse.
• It is no use being your own master unless you can stand up for yourself.
• Think twice before you act.
• Rude shocks await those who take to themselves the credit that is due to others.
• It’s no use trying to hide what can’t be hidden.
• What’s bred in the bone is sure to come out in the flesh.
• There is no virtue in giving to others what is useless to oneself.
• All men are more concerned to recover what they lose than to acquire what they lack.
• Do not promise more than you can perform.
• Happy is he who learns from the misfortunes of others.
• Better servitude with safety than freedom with danger.
• Those who pretend to be something they are not only make themselves ridiculous.

Imagine old age wisdom taught through hundreds of classic short stories. This is what this book is ultimately about. I enjoyed reading it so much.

“A Brief History of the Freemasons” by Jasper Ridley

For a topic as shady as a secret society, a book needs to be super clear between facts, myths, and false stigmas, and should be able to present them all in a narrative that is clean and concise. This book just barely live up to that standard. In fact, it actually provides more [unnecessary] details that makes the puddle even muddier.

The book doesn’t feel like the history of the Freemasons per se, but rather the historical context of European politics during which the Freemasons were born, developed, and then rose to prominent. And the real history of the Freemasons themselves is scattered all over the narrative, and often appear with unnecessary revelation. Such as a whole series of mini-biographies of people’s activities that had nothing to do with Freemasonry, but with an ending of something like “he was a Freemason.” Or worse, after a long story it turns out that “he was not a freemason” after all.

Perhaps more disappointing for me, the book doesn’t really address all the hand gestures and the secretive rituals that they are infamous for. It doesn’t reveal when and why they build the lodges for, they just somehow appear in the story with no further elaboration. Or most importantly, the book doesn’t specify the main objectives of the existence of the Freemasons, or whether they are a centralised organisation with a leader on top or more like a franchise with regional bosses.

Although to be fair, in chapter 17 the book cited Dr. Eduard Emil Eckert’s book “The Order of Freemasons” that shows that the aim of the Freemasons is to overthrow the established religion and government in every country in the world (a bombastic statement that was cited without further explanation! A common thing for this book).

But I digress. I normally avoid these kind of books, because there cannot be a complete historical account about an organisation or society that remains secretive in nature. Not unless it is written by a former member or a whistleblower. But yet I still pick up this book, because in the old map of the old part of my city Jakarta, there are numerous buildings that were once blatantly named Freemasons Lodge. And I thought that I could pick up any background materials from this book, before I visit these places myself. For this purpose, this book provides me with the bare minimum.

The Freemasons were originally stone masons, builders of bridges and castles, that started off their organisation as a group of illegal trade union. They all accepted the doctrines of the Catholic Church, during the great battle between Vatican and the Protestant movements. But the organization then transformed between 1550 and 1700 to become an organisation of intellectual gentlemen who favoured religious tolerance and the simple thinking that a belief in God should replace theological doctrines. This, and their eventual meddling on politics, made them increasingly become the target of scrutiny and scapegoating (which, according to the book may or may not be justified).

Benjamin Franklin was a Freemason. Winston Churchill was a non-active member. Kemal Ataturk was a Freemason. Russia’s Peter the Great may or may not joined the Freemasons. Brazil’s Emperor Pedro I, Captain James Cook, Dr. Joseph Guillotin (the inventor of the Guillotine), General Douglas MacArthur were all a Freemason. 15 of the 41 US President (at the time of the writing) have been Freemasons. Some of the Cardinals in the Vatican were Freemasons. Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Alexander Flemming, and many more famous people were all Freemasons, while Mozart was very interested in Freemasonry, where 8 of his compositions had some connection with the subject.

What does this all tell us? Without the much-needed elaboration, absolutely nothing significant. Which makes this book feels like only touching the surface of a potentially revelationary findings. More readings are definitely required, but for an introduction I guess this book is suffice.

“The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway

The first read in 2022. A tale of perseverance during a difficult circumstance, as well as the struggle for meaning and success in life. Narrated through the simple story of a failing fisherman against his big fish. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”, Santiago says, which is encouraging during this start of a possibly another turbulent year.