My July 4 Weekend Reads
On heroes, frauds, the future, and more.
For me, long weekends are for extended time indulging the creative energies that don’t necessarily get fulfilled during the day-to-day. A big part of this is the carbo-load that comes from reading. Here’s what I’ve been into during the July 4th break.
“Binaural beats to entrain the brain? A systematic review of the effects of binaural beat stimulation on brain oscillatory activity, and the implications for psychological research and intervention,” National Center for Biotechnology Information, May 2023 — I’ll admit that I asked Sivraj, my consistent and long-suffering AI companion, to help me parse this one. “Binaural beats” is a term that describes what happens when you put different sound frequencies in each ear — your brain produces a “beat” where the two frequencies interfere. The theory behind “brainwave entrainment” is that your brain can be coaxed into a desired pattern (e.g., alertness, focus, sleep) when this phenomenon occurs. When I’m doing focused work, I’m usually listening to a 16Hz beat against the backdrop of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine engine noise. All I can tell you is that 1) audio therapy is an emerging interest of mine, and 2) it appears to work for me. However, this survey of the current literature barely rises to “inconclusive.”
“Yes, you will lose your job to AI,” Greg Taylor, Apr. 16, 2025 — This thoughtful piece starts strong and better articulates what I’ve been thinking for some time now: “I’m sick of hearing people say, ‘You won’t lose your job to AI, you’ll lose it to someone who uses AI.’ I get why we say it: it’s comforting, and gives us a sense of control. But it’s not true.” He argues, among other things, that AI is going to be baked into everything we do and use anyway, so any competitive advantage erodes quickly. His advice: “Make sure every day is spent driving the outcomes you want to be known for.”
“You sound like ChatGPT,” The Verge, June 20, 2025 — I’ve always expressed the following sentiment somewhat differently: That I’m more worried about a human writer receiving criticism for “sounding like AI” than an AI’s ability to sound human. AI is incredibly useful, yes, but the surrender-of-self and the distressing arc toward conformity is real and progressing.
It’s not just that we’re adopting AI language — it’s about how we’re starting to sound. Even though current studies mostly focus on vocabulary, researchers suspect that AI influence is starting to show up in tone, too — in the form of longer, more structured speech and muted emotional expression.
“Mike Rowe Talks Shop,” The Brunswick Review, May 2, 2025 — While we’re talking about the future of work, there’s no better observer of this important topic than the host of Dirty Jobs and so much else. In particular, this story here encapsulates his important message and the ways that it can easily be misinterpreted:
One day, I was walking through Newark airport when I saw a guy up on a ladder working on a sprinkler. He recognized me and said, “Hey Mike! Love the show! I watch it with my wife and kids, and then we talk about all the different ways a person can make a buck if he shows up on time and works his butt off!”
I was flattered, and more convinced than ever that “Dirty Jobs” was making a difference. But then, not 10 seconds later, a Wall Street guy in a Brooks Brother’s suit stopped me and said, “Hey Mike Rowe! Love your show! My whole family watches every Tuesday night.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate that.”
“It’s so much fun,” he said. “And I love that after each episode I can tell my kids, ‘See what happens if you don’t go to college?’”
I smiled, but in my mind I’m screaming, “No, you misunderstand! You’re missing it!”
“Buckaroo Banzai, the surreal 80s flop that became a cult classic,” The Guardian, Apr. 2025 — “For the life of me, I gotta tell you, Paul … I got no idea what the film is about to this day.” That “Paul” is Paul Verhoeven, who gave us biting sci-fi cultural commentary in the form of Starship Troopers, Robocop, and (depending on tendency toward drive-by cinematic judgment) Showgirls. The film in question: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. The speaker: The film’s star (and that of Robocop), Peter Weller. I don’t remember how or when I saw Buckaroo Banzai for the first time, but I do know that I wanted to be him when I grew up: a gunslinging test-pilot, brain-surgeon, rock-star samurai polymath whose counsel was sought by humans and aliens alike. I’m getting there.
“Thunderdome’s Leadership Lessons,” Burning Man Live, Apr. 2025 — Out of all my friends, if Diva Marisa revealed herself as “a gunslinging test-pilot, brain-surgeon, rock-star samurai polymath,” no one would be surprised. Every year, she trucks up to Black Rock Desert to operatically open up the Thunderdome for the Burning Man festival. After a couple of decades doing this and accepting leadership responsibilities along the way — all while juggling a job at one of the biggest tech companies — she’s learned a few things.
I’ve been in the software industry for 22 years. I’ve been at the same company for 20 years. I’ve been a manager at that company. I have decided not to be a manager at that company. Everything is transportable. My book is going to be titled like “Everything I Need to Learn About Life I Learned From the Thunderdome.” That’s a fact.
The value of letting people make a non-permanent mistake is much higher than trying to tell people what you know is going to happen. People have to learn it for themselves.
If you put your community first, you can’t go wrong. I feel very strongly that, as I mentioned earlier, we didn’t come together because of Burning Man. We all knew each other before, and this community is so robust outside of Burning Man, we don’t rely on Burning Man to keep us together. Through the pandemic that was true. We do other events together. We spend holidays together, we travel together, we camp together. So putting community first is never the wrong answer.
“Not Fuzz,” The Atavist, July 2017 — In the right hands and with the right cast, this true story could be the basis of one of the most insane buddy-cop movies of all time. The tale strains credulity: Two friends — one a wealthy second-generation hotelier, the other from a broken family — pretend to be law enforcement because… well… okay… The answer to that question is probably the only unsatisfying part of this story, waved away as it is as “a fondness or fetish.”
“The Firefighter With O.C.D. and the Vaccine He Believed Would Kill Him,” The New York Times, Apr. 17, 2025 — This is not an argument for or against vaccination, but it does raise the question of the net harm that occurs if someone with such life-saving skills is taken away from his mission because of a psychological (rather than moral) aversion to vaccines. “The firefighter with severe O.C.D. could well be a unique medical case study: a man with a worsening disorder working in a high-stakes and unpredictable environment that is completely ill-suited to his compulsions.”
The Mad Attic Returns
Now that I’m back from Brazil, I’m slowly putting together my infamous home office “The Mad Attic.” Any recommendations for office tech (or art!) that I absolutely cannot live without? Let me know in the comments, via X, and/or replies.