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Notes -
In print I'm reading Nate Silver's new On The Edge. I'll probably write up a big summary when I finish it. It's relatively light pop-philosophy, the main thing I've gotten out of it so far is a desire to play more poker, so it'll end up costing me far more than the cover price. Silver remains much smarter than most of his critics, but much dumber than his ball-washers think he is.
Digital I'm starting Seeing Like a State. I'm not super far in, and I see why people read this and all of a sudden don't shut up about it and see it everywhere. I'm curious if, when talking about surnames which have only been mentioned so far, there will be comparative studies of cultures with more or fewer unique surnames. Sometimes I think Koreans didn't really get the idea with names, they're not very useful to distinguish.
On audio I'm finishing up the Years of Lyndon Johnson series from Caro. They're some of the best non fiction ever written, but if you're making a choice The Power Broker is much better. Caro loved Moses, for all his flaws, and gave Moses an arc, Moses as hero, Moses as God, Moses as villain. Caro HATES LBJ from the starting gun, and will perpetually think the worst of him; which becomes really obvious when he gives sketch biographies of LBJ's enemies which lapse into hagiography. Just after Caro spends a chapter examining how LBJ once told someone he ate eggs for breakfast, when his secretaries' notes show that he ate oatmeal, and how this shows LBJ's inherently duplicitous nature; he'll repeat some mythological bullshit about Coke Stevenson studying law by lantern light. Or he'll say that RFK "hated liars, couldn't stand them;" without interrogating his relationship with his famously adulterous brother, or allegations that RFK and JFK passed women around. The different standards are striking, and weaken the book. If one does want Caro's LBJ series, which is brilliant, read the first and the fourth, skip two and three. Most of the best parts of two and three are summarized and repeated in four, less some of the hagiography and throat clearing, so you won't miss much.
They wouldn’t be. For a long time you bought a specific surname to gain entry into the clan. The more people with the same name, the more power.
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2014/09/08/why-so-many-koreans-are-called-kim
Note that the Japanese colonisers issued a degree ordering everyone to take a Japanese surname so Seeing Like A State still works.
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