Reviews and Comments

Karsten W.

karstengweinert@wyrms.de

Joined 2 years, 1 month ago

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reviewed Pyongyang by Guy Delisle

Guy Delisle: Pyongyang (2006, Jonathan Cape) 4 stars

A Westerner's visit into North Korea, told in the form of a graphic novel. Famously …

Sinn fürs Paradoxe

5 stars

Das eine sagen, das andere tun — Delisle kann das perfekt in seinen Zeichnungen sichtbar machen.

Genial fand ich das Panel mit der Nadel: der Vater trägt eine Anstecknadel mit dem Bild seines Sohnes, der wiederum eine Anstecknadel des Vaters trägt. Wenn man weiter hineinzoomt,….

Donald A. Norman: The Design of Everyday Things (2002, Basic Books) 4 stars

The Design of Everyday Things is a best-selling book by cognitive scientist and usability engineer …

Ein Klassiker zum Thema Design

5 stars

Das Thema Design ist nicht mein Fachgebiet, ich bin nicht darin ausgebildet. Ich habe das Buch also als interessierter Laie / Anfänger gelesen.

Und für mich war es genau richtig.

Der Autor stellt Prinzipien vor, die bei der Entwicklung eines Produktes bedacht werden sollten. Das Konzept "Affordance" oder "Angebotscharakter" im Designkontext ist offenbar seine Erfindung. Dabei geht es darum, dass es eine Beziehung gibt zwischen Produkt und Nutzer, und diese Beziehung kann gestaltet werden, z.B. durch "Signifier" ("Bezeichner"), Feedback, "Mapping" und einem Systemmodell.

Dann gibt es ein Kapitel "Human Error? No, bad design", was mich ebenfalls sehr überzeugt hat.

Das ganze Buch ist unterhaltsam geschrieben, mit vielen Beispielen. Die Erstauflage des Buches erschien 1990 und wirkt dennoch nicht verstaubt auf mich.

Betty Edwards: Das neue Garantiert zeichnen lernen. Die Befreiung unserer schöpferischen Gestaltungskräfte. (Paperback, German language, 2000, Rowohlt, Reinbek) 5 stars

Geniales Buch, hat mich motiviert, ein altes Hobby wieder aufzunehmen!

5 stars

Das beste Buch zum Thema Zeichnenlernen, das ich bislang in der Hand hatte. Die Autorin Betty Edwards benennt fünf Grundtechniken, die durch leicht lesbaren Text vorgestellt und durch sorgfältige Übungen erfahrbar gemacht werden: 1) die Wahrnehmen von Randlinien, 2) Wahrnehmung von Raumformen (Negativräume!), 3) die Wahrnehmung von Größenverhältnissen (u..a. Perspektive), 4) die Wahrnehmung von Licht und Schatten, 5) die Wahrnehmung des Ganzen oder des Gesamtbilds.

Daneben streut die Autorin immer wieder spannende Erkenntnisse / Theorien aus der Psychologie ein. Ihre berühmteste These ist, dass Zeichnen den "subdominanten visuellen, perzeptorischen R-Modus des Gehirns" zugänglich machen kann, indem dem "verbalen, analytischen L-Modus" Aufgaben gestellt werden, die von diesem Modus abgelehnt werden. Eine solche Aufgabe ist es zum Beispiel, eine gezeichnete Vorlage auf den Kopf zu drehen und abzuzeichnen.

Eine andere psychologische Einstreuung, die mich beeindruckt hat, ist das Thema "optische Täuschungen", wonach das Gehirn, wenn nicht hinterfragt, Fehler beim Abschätzen von Größenverhältnissen …

Maximum Entropy Principle Applied

4 stars

The author applies the maximum entropy principle to calculate weights for survey responses given the first moments of population characteristics.

It is an example where as normalizing constraint in the maximum entropy problem formulation it is not required to that the weights sum to one. Instead, the sum is required to be the sample size.

Robert Seethaler: Der Trafikant (Hardcover, 2012, Kein + Aber) 3 stars

Auftragsarbeit?

2 stars

I read the book because Robert Seethaler was recommended to me, and in the book store this book had the most appealing blurb. Wien, Freud, the time just before the Nazis came to power in Austria.

Sometimes I wonder what I would do if I would have lived in the pre-Nazi time. Would I be a conformist? Would I close my eyes? Would I stand up? It is really hard to say, and the book did not bring me on a mental journey to figure that out. Or did I simply not get the main character? Why does he lie to his mother about Trnskie? Why does Franz suddenly decide to place Trnskie's trousers on the flagpole in the center of the city? This comes completely out of the blue, I mean, he does exactly what his "friend" Freud says to do. There is no explanation, no inner dialog (about …

Fritz Tanck: Ein Sommer für Robinson (Paperback, German language, Verlag Neues Leben) 4 stars

Home

4 stars

The plot of this book takes place in my old homeland Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in the sixties, when my mother was at the same young age as the main characters in the book. Furthermore, my mother knew the author Fritz Tanck personally: He was her math teacher!

Also, I recognized my home town Neubrandenburg at page 142 et seq. even though its name was not mentioned.

To me, it was a stimulating journey through the socialist mindset of the early German Democratic Republic. After graduation, young people had to make completely different decisions regarding their future than I had to make for instance. On the other hand, some things are the same everywhere, regardless of the political system. I really enjoyed Tanck's quiet but detailed narration of the love story.

Michael J. Gelb: Körperdynamik. Eine Einführung in die Alexander- Technik. (Paperback, 2001, Econ Tb.) 5 stars

Great Introduction

5 stars

This book was given to me by my Alexandert teacher when I asked her for a recommendation.

I like it. It is well-structured: a) basic terms, b) a in my opinion honest and enthusiastic exposition of the possibilities this technique has to offer (spoiler: it's not only about posture), c) exemplary, in my opinion sometimes pessimistic, exposition of the possibilites this technique has to offer when teached in schools, and d) a tentative list of suggestions for self-experimentation without teacher.

I am not sure if I would have understood the d) part as I do now after some Alexander lessons. I think lessons are some sort of shortcut to the experiences Alexander has to offer.

M. Scott Peck: Gemeinschaftsbildung (Paperback, German language, Blühende Landschaften) 4 stars

A Classic

4 stars

I have not read the book from cover to cover. But maybe it is a book where you look at the table of contents and pick out one or two chapters.

Community building is not easy and the book helps pave the way.

Would be nice if there was a newer book. A 35 year old book sometimes seems a bit dated with its references to the Cold War. Community building is gaining importance again, after Corona, etc.

Alice Munro: Too much happiness (2009, Alfred A. Knopf) 5 stars

Ten superb new stories by one of our most beloved and admired writers--the winner of …

Review of 'Too much happiness' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

From what I remember, Jonathan Frantzen is a fan of Alice Munro. If you don't have enough time to read a novel, read a story by Alice Munro -- that's his advice as I understood it. And that's what I did and enjoyed. A story reads in three hours, ideal for a slow afternoon in the park at the weekend.

There is probably a deep analysis, or even several, to each story. I'm not going to try to analyse the stories here in this review now. What I like, what I admire, is how Munro manages to take me out of the role of reader. The stories touch me.

I read "Dear Life" and "Too Much Happiness" in parallel. Some stories I have read several times: "Train", "Dimensions", "In Sight of the Lake" (inside?).

These books will certainly stay on my shelf and I will pull them out from time …

Siegfried Schrotta: Wie wir klüger entscheiden (EBook, German language, Styria Printshop Druck GmbH) 4 stars

Review of 'Wie wir klüger entscheiden' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is an exciting idea based, among other things, on measuring resistance rather than approval to proposals.

Chapter 2 compares this method with the traditional majority principle. Chapter 4 proposes concrete metrics. Chapter 5 reminds me in parts of Design Thinking. Chapter 19 makes reference to Plato's aporia or hopelessness or tension. Chapter 27 has additional very practical ideas.

I can imagine that today there is even more scientific evidence for the effectiveness of this method. For example, Sarah Brosnan's finding that while we have no inborn sense of fairness, we do have an inborn sense of unfairness when we experience it.