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The Fall (De Val) – Matthias M.R. Declercq

Matthias M.R. Declercq pulled of two remarkable things. Not only did he manage to find this extraordinary story about friendship, ambition and sacrifice, he was also able to write it down in exceptional fashion. The events described in ‘The Fall’ (‘De Val’) are real, but the book is not necessarily a biography. The story revolves around a group of five Belgian riders (flandriens) who are pretty well known in the… Read More »The Fall (De Val) – Matthias M.R. Declercq

Why We Sleep – Matthew Walker

  • Books

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker is one of the most profound books I have ever read. It has directly impacted my attitude towards sleep and subsequently altered my behaviour. Books that change your behaviour are rare and this is one of them. You should read it. We all know that sleep is important. But Walker dissects study, after study, after study to describe how important sleep exactly is, and… Read More »Why We Sleep – Matthew Walker

Humor schept evenwicht (Humor creates balance) – Jaap Bakker

  • Books

Jaap Bakker, a local storyteller from a small rural town in the Netherlands (Urk), has written down anecdotes and jokes from the last hundred years or so. Either things he experienced first hand or that were told to him. So expect hundreds of fun little stories. Stories anyone can identify with, about human interaction and small town life, that make you smile, laugh or even burst out. Needless to say,… Read More »Humor schept evenwicht (Humor creates balance) – Jaap Bakker

Use PostgreSQL REPLACE() to replace dots with commas (dollar to euro)

If you have set up your database tables correctly you might be using double-precision floating numbers to store currency values. This works great because dollars use dots to represent decimals. The problem starts when it’s not actually dollars you are storing but euros, and maybe you need to copy query output to Excel or LibreOffice Calc to work with these Euro values. Both of these spreadsheet programs don’t know how… Read More »Use PostgreSQL REPLACE() to replace dots with commas (dollar to euro)

The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker

Pick up any good management book and chances are that Peter Drucker will be mentioned. He is the godfather of management theory. I encountered Drucker many times before in other books and quotes, but I had never read anything directly by him. I have now, and I can only wish I had done so sooner. The sublime classic The Effective Executive from 1967 was a good place to start. After… Read More »The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker

Getting Things Done – David Allen

For some reason I had never read the David Allen classic Getting Things Done. But I found out that 18 years after its release it’s still a good introduction to time and action management. David Allen tries to make the natural, systematic. He does so by introducing a 5 step workflow: capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage. Allen does a great job of explaining these steps with real world examples… Read More »Getting Things Done – David Allen

Leonardo da Vinci – Walter Isaacson

  • Books

My favorite biographer, Walter Isaacson, did it again. He created a gorgeously illustrated book about the quintessential renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci. The book is based on the mind blowing — in number and content — 7200 pages of notes Leonardo left behind (which probably only accounts for one quarter, the rest is lost). As far as I am concerned this biography is the definitive introduction to this left-handed, mirror… Read More »Leonardo da Vinci – Walter Isaacson

Ten years on Twitter 🔟❤️

  • Tech

Today marks my ten year anniversary on Twitter! There are few other web services I have been using for ten years. Sure, I have been e-mailing and blogging for longer, but those are activities — like browsing — and not specifically tied to one service (e.g. Gmail is just one of many mail services). And after ten years, Twitter is still a valuable and fun addition to life online. But it… Read More »Ten years on Twitter 🔟❤️

Blue Bananas – Wouter de Vries jr. & Thiemo van Rossum

Blauwe Bananen (Blue Bananas) is a management book that was number one for 38 days on managementboek.nl. It is aimed at people who generally don’t read management books. So it sometimes tries to be unnecessarily funny, seemingly afraid to alienate the reader with otherwise dry concepts. Nonetheless the message itself is pretty solid. The theme being: how to become a blue banana. A blue banana is a business with a… Read More »Blue Bananas – Wouter de Vries jr. & Thiemo van Rossum

Plato – R.M. Hare

  • Books

Writing short introductions to classic philosophers are hard. This book tries, but falls a bit short as a true introduction. Plato, the first documented, Western philosopher set the pace for 25 centuries of philosophy. This book explains the culture and setting where Plato developed his philosophy, and their interrelation. It also touches on the main aspects of his philosophy as well as you could possibly expect in a short book… Read More »Plato – R.M. Hare

High Output Management – Andrew S. Grove

This classic management book started off with two confusing and underwhelming chapters, but ended up being one of the best three management books I have ever read. And I would highly recommend it to any manager. If you run into a book recommendation thread on Hacker News or someplace else where tech savvy people congregate, chances are, High Output Management will be mentioned. Published in 1983, updated in 1995 and… Read More »High Output Management – Andrew S. Grove

My music discoveries of 2018 part 2

  • Music

This is part 2 of my best music discoveries of 2018. Earlier editions are here: 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 (part 1). Hands down my favorite tracks of 2018 are still One. Sentence Supervisor with Yelena, and City Calm Down with Blood. I have played these tracks more than any other. Both were featured in part 1. But, make no mistake, the second part of 2018 also presented some amazing… Read More »My music discoveries of 2018 part 2