Books I have read in 2017 and their relation to my professional life (Part II)

Reading is one of my passions. I read every day a big amount of literature of a varied spectrum. Mainly scientific literature in digital form. Alone for our work in AGISI.org, Colin and I have distilled hundreds of papers, articles, blog posts, comments, video transcripts, and books in areas like Computer Science, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Psychology, and Economics, to name the most relevant ones.

But there are also other genres and formats that keep my attention and, without explicitly seeking for it, they not only nurture my soul but also relate to my professional life. Or maybe they do, intentionally. Or maybe I feel they do, on purpose. If not, how it comes they transform me into a feverish being that enters their stories as if I were part of them! It must be how books smell... I love that.

In part I, six of these books are briefly commented. This post is the continuation of that list.

7. Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling secrets from the greatest mind in Western civilization, Michael Tierno (Hachette Books, 2002)

I bought this book because one of the things that fascinate me the most is how great screenplay writing is done. My impression was that great movies are not great because of prize-winning performances but because of captivating stories that great performers convey to us. So I was not disappointed when I read Michael Tierno's book. He exhaustively dissects the foundations of screenwriting using Aristotle's book Poetics, which is considered the bible for storytellers, and there I found the essence of why movies like Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction are gigantic.

“Instead of 'write what you know,' Aristotle is telling you to write what you can truly feel, or truly experience in your heart.” — Michael Tierno

Relation to my professional life: Two thoughts on this. First, about the supervision of students. Even when students are not pro-active, we should do whatever is in our hands to instruct them not only in the scientific method but also in how scientific writing is done. There is a lot we can take from Michael Tierno's book for doing this. Second, science and technology writers have so much to learn from both his guidelines and Aristotle's work! I put under this umbrella scientists and people that write about science and tech alike, and am including myself, of course. Paraphrasing Tierno, we all must first understand how scientific findings work before we can make them happen on paper. Unfortunately, there is much scientific echo out there that affects society and the world we live in more than the actual science behind it! Take for example the case of all dystopian scenarios with Terminator-like robots that are assuming an advance in tech which we are far away from witnessing (if at all). I agree we should prepare and discuss possible ways science and tech can go wrong, and it is indeed necessary, but I find it quite irresponsible to write about technology and its social implications, for example, without addressing its actual development and based on fictive suppositions.

8. Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners and the greatest race the world has never seen, Christopher McDougall (Profile Books, 2010)

This was a great read. An inspiring one. I have written before that for a “late” 5K runner like me, Christopher McDougall's book came as a fantastic it-is-never-too-late trophy for my latest craziness, amazing passion: the need and will to run. Together with Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (see part I), Born to Run is not a book only for (wannabe) runners but also “for anyone who has ever dreamt of venturing beyond one's comfort zone,” as you can read on the back cover of the edition I bought. These are the kind of books that make us better persons and, ultimately, make us more human.

Relation to my professional life: In the same way I adapted my running technique after reading Christopher McDougall's book, I am constantly modifying my teaching technique by paying meticulous attention to my students (how do they react, learn, and evolve) and to myself (how do I feel, learn, and grow).

9. Origin, Dan Brown (Bastei Lübbe, 2017)

This was my first non-technical book in German. I have lived in Germany since 1999 and teach Computer Science in German, too, but reading a thriller in that language is something else. I have read all other Dan Brown's books in their Spanish versions and wanted to have the English version this time but didn't realize I was ordering the German edition. So I embarked on a new challenge and, even when I paused to read the other four books I was reading at that same time, I did finish Origin. Like in other Dan Brown's books, Professor Robert Langdon takes you through a maze of guessings and discoveries, all around two central questions, “Where did we come from?” and “Where are we going?” the answers to which futurist and inventor Edmond Kirsch wants to reveal.

Relation to my professional life: There are lots of realistic and plausible references to Artificial Intelligence, my professional specialization, in the book. I enjoyed Dan Brown's approach. And I also thought a lot about how important it is that we develop transparent, responsible, and accountable Artificial Intelligence for a future that will necessarily surround us with products of this constantly changing and exciting field.

10. Never let me go, Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber & Faber, 2006)

I was following the tweets of the Nobel Prize about the winner in Literature in 2017 when I first read about the British author Kazuo Ishiguro and his work. Germans say that all good things come in threes (and some add that also all bad things come in threes), so a few minutes later and after a short research, I was ordering three of Ishiguro's books. I read two of them once they arrived a couple of days later, the wonderful The remains of the day and Never let me go. The genre of the latter is dystopian science fiction, speculative fiction, so you can guess why my special interest in reading this book.

Relation to my professional life: Farther, much farther than we could expect it could be possible in our lifetime, but I would say my general view is similar to that for Origin above.

11. When breath becomes air, Paul Kalanithi (Random House, 2017)

This was a very touching book. Heartbreaking. Paul Kalanithi's book brought me nearer to understand the feelings of a neuroscientist that perfectly knows what is happening and what will happen to himself when battling severe cancer. We lost my cousin after a brain surgery from whose coma she never awoke. This was one week after Kalanithi's dead, in March 2015, as I found out later. My cousin was only 43 years young.

Relation to my professional life: The last book I commented on part I, Option B, that student of mine I talk about, he underwent much of what my cousin did prior to her surgery. The only difference: my student is alive. Kalanithi's book brought me nearer to both. I have learned also a lot about resilience, friendship, compassion, and how to face adversities.

12. Why?: What makes us curious, Mario Livio (Simon & Schuster, 2017)

This is an amazing book about curiosity. Astrophysicist Mario Livio takes you by the hand from the fundamentals about the different kinds of curiosity, over the neuroscience behind the brain mechanisms that activate the desire for knowledge, to some of the curious minds in history and from our times.

Relation to my professional life: A lot. Understanding intelligence is one of our goals in AGISI.org and learning about curiosity is showing substantial relations to intelligence. Furthermore, I consider myself a very curious person ever since I can remember. You are right when you guess I have always loved to ask the why's and learn new things. And I ask for doing it in my teaching.

(Special thanks to Colin for his idea and suggestions)

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Which are the literary genres you prefer?

Are you a curious person?

Please, share your thoughts in the comments below!