nonfiction

finished reading Taming Toxic People: The Science of Identifying and Dealing with Psychopaths at Work & at Home 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
A notable proportional of people are psychopaths (aka malignant narcissists, sociopaths) and they cause havoc because they have limited empathy and care nothing for social norms. Has given me a valuable appreciation for this form of neurodiversity to help understand and manage those fraught situations that are otherwise inexplicable. The science is interesting - it's more likely neurological than upbringing or trauma. Ironically, the author doesn't show much empathy for the psychopaths!

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@WildWoila

finished reading Living Democracy: An ecological manifesto for the end of the world as we know it 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
"It's the end of the world as we know it, but it doesn't have to be the end of the world." Provides an overview of the roots of the polycrisis (mostly separation & domination) and sketches out the shape of what must replace it: a grassroots democracy inspired by the systemic interdependency of ecology. Both reformism & revolution will just support the current, malignant system. Not much of it was new to me, but it provides a solid framework for many disparate ideas. Take the power back! (Disclaimers: I read this while low on brain juice, and Millie is thanked for her feedback in the acknowledgements.)

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@WildWoila @WildWoila@friendica.world @timhollo

finished reading Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Ed Conway.

A high-octane tour through the materials that underlie our civilisation: sand, salt, steel, copper, oil & lithium. So many intriguing side notes that sent me off down rabbit holes (African ghost miners!). Really brings home the mammoth scale, complexity & interconnectedness of these critical industries that we take for granted. But also highlights their fragility, the environmental damage they cause, and the immense difficulty of reforming them to be sustainable.

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@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de