Category: English

  • My Year in Books

    It seems like I forgot to write a “my year in books” for 2024, but according to Goodreads I read 17 books that year — which also is the same amount as this year, 2025 .

    When Goodreads says 17, the true number is 18, because I have that one book I read each year (no, not the Bible) and which I have stopped registering in Goodreads. “The Daily Stoic: 366 Mediations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living” by Ryan Holiday. I keep re-reading it, but I am not sure I get any wiser.

    Come to think of it, I also read a book by a local author which I could not find in Goodreads. So 19 full books then. Along with numerous other books I have yet to finish.

    So, what did I read in 2025?

    Well, I once again visited Midkemia, the world from the riftwar saga by Raymond E. Feist. This time following the adventures of the offspring of the heros from the first books.

    I also finished the Dune series written by Frank Herbert. It is a facinating universe, but it is not an easy read. I have not yet seen the movies, but I suspect they are easier to follow than the books.

    Then I discovered that Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, wrote a book back in 2001 together with David Diamond: “Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary.” It was a fun read.

    Bill Gates, co-founder and long term CEO of Microsoft, came out with his own book this year: “Source Code: My Beginnings”, so I obviously read that as well. There is no big secret that Linus and Bill ended up with two very different philosophies when it comes to computer software.

    Without naming every book I read, I will have to mention two books that stood out this year:

    1. “Patriot” by Alexei Navalny
    2. “Carless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism” by Sarah Wynn-Williams.

    For most people I would recommend reading the second book, Carless People, since it (most likely) affect you directly. It is about Facebook, and it does not paint Facebook, its parent company Meta, or the leadership (Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg) in any good light.

    Facebook does not want you to feel good. They are not doing anything for you. They just want to make money. If you click on ads and buy more things if you feel sad, well, they will make you feel sad.

    I also read “No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram” by Sarah Frier, and since Facebook bought Instragram, the book confirms a lot of the story told in Careless People.

    When it comes to Patriot, it is the story of Alexei Navalny. A patroit killed by his own country — or rather the regime of his own contry — Russia.

    The book opens with Alexei waking up from coma in a hospital in Germany after being poisoned in Russia. When he becomes better, he decides to return to Russia. His return flight is redirected, and he is arrested upon entering Russia because he, get this, has not checked in with Russian authority while he was in a coma in Germany.

    There is a part about his upbrining, and how he learned not to fear the crooks and thieves in Putins regieme. The last part of the book is a diary, word for word, written while in prison.

    You already know where this is going. There is no happy ending. But I find some comfort in knowing that Navalny did this for all the right reasons, and he accepted his fate. You have to sacrefice something if you want a better future.

    The book now has its place on the shelf directly above a book about Putin, written by Masha Gessen (also killed by Kremlin), because Alexei is bigger than Putin — both literally and figuratively. Putin is a small man with no moral, while Alexei truly loved his country and its people.

    Currently I am reading “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama (I found Michell Obamas book an easier read) and “Nexus” by the always intresting Yuval Noah Harari (Sapiens, Homo Deus).

    I am reading a few more books than those two at the moment. But only 4 or 5. Because, why not.

    I read a lot of non-fiction, which probably is why the amount of books I read each year is so low. Non-fiction just takes a lot more concentration.

    So, there it is. My Year in Books.

  • New Year’s Resolution

    No–I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I don’t believe in them. I believe that you can start a habit any god damn time you want, and not at a magic date that occur once a year.

    Having said that; I do have a few things I think would be nice to start around now, at the beginning of the year. But that is purely coincidental.

    Say “no” more often

    This blog post is already off to a good start. The first word, after the title, was “no.” So far, so good.

    In the film “Yes Man” from 2008, Jim Carrey’s character start saying “yes” to everything, and good things start to happen. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember this movie very well. It probably goes well for a while, and then bad again.

    But saying “no” has nothing to do with missing out. It is more about conserving energy for what really matters. Could I elaborate? Sure. Will I do so? Fuck no. See. It’s easy.

    Cultivate good habits

    What is a good habit? Who knows. But I know that starting a day with a fresh cup of coffe and a book, while at the same time watch the sun rise, is pretty darn relaxing. It is so good that I top it of with two or three more cups of coffe. Fucking A.

    Then there are more mundane things, like; taking a walk after work and get some fresh air, be more mindful, do meditation, do the dishes.

    These were just examples of habits. They are not necessarily on my list. I just say I will try to cultivate more of them.

    Concrete goals

    Last year I decided to sleep more outdoors. But when I finally “found the time”, and the weather was on my side, I was not prepared. I did not have any clear plan ready. Needless to say; I did not sleep as much as I wanted outdoors last year.

    So, I need a better plan with more concrete goals. Otherwise it is just a wish list. Just like “eating healthy” won’t get you anywhere near healthy. But a meal prep plan might.

    More mountains. More kayaking. More everything! Now I just need to make a list of where, when and what (do I need to prepare in advance.)

  • It is still shit

    Charlie Munger once said: “If you mix raisins with turds, they’re still turds.” Meaning, you can’t make a bad investment better by mixing it with a better one.

    Nowadays, when everything seems to be about artificial intelligence (AI), I think this statement might make sense:

    “If you mix AI with shit, it is still shit.”

    Ok, so it is not the same. AI is not the raisins, it might actually be just more shit. Shit mixed into shit. Point is: AI won’t fix everything it touches, regardless of how much Microsoft tries to push Copilot into everything from Excel to Notepad.

    If your product sucks, fix it. Don’t think AI will magically make it better.

  • Time Management

    There is this book I have read every year for 3 years now. Actually, I read it every day1. It’s The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. I read one page per day, and each page has its own date on top.

    There are quite a few pages that has piqued my interest and which I have marked and underliened. October 30th was one of those. It is about self-improvement and prioritization .

    The average person somehow manages to squeeze in twenty-eight hours of television per week—but ask them if they had time to study philosophy, and they will probably tell you they’re too busy.

    And this applies to a lot more than philosophy. A lot of people—myself included—use the “I’m busy” card often, but what then do we spend our time on?

    I have set a limit for 10 minutes per day on Instagram, and it has shown me how fast those 10 minutes goes. In those same 10 minutes I could have emptied the dishwasher and taken out the trash.

    I’m not saying you shouldn’t use Instagram or watch TV. Just be mindful of what you have spent your time on the next time you are tempted to say “I haven’t had time” or “I’ve been too busy”.

    1. If I miss a day, I’ll just catch up when I’m back home. ↩︎

  • Understanding your business

    There are many interesting new technologies out there. And as a manager, you may want to attract and hire developers with these skills.

    But while doing this, you may have forgotten what actually keeps the light on; a codebase written in C that only one person knows.

    No amount of front end developers will help once this person is gone.

    By always prioritizing — and internally praising — new initatives, you are communicating that the core business is not imporant.

    So, as a manager, make sure you understand the business you are in. Whether you know it or not, you are responsible that the legacy codebase gets the love and care it needs.

    It doesn’t help if your product can integrate with a thousand other platforms if your backend isn’t running.