Recommended Readings

above Muir Beach

I have a long commute and one benefit from that is the time to read. Most of the time I read something on my phone, pieces I find by scrolling my Twitter feed or through a few choice websites, or from one of the newsletters I subscribe to. This year I've been trying to be more diligent about reading actual books as well, and tapping into the wonderful SF Public Library. Here's a sampling of what I've enjoyed, in print and digital, in no particular order:

from goodreads

Half of a Yellow Sun (novel): At the start of the year, my former roommate sent an email to her friends around the country and suggested we do a virtual book club, focused on writings from women of color. It was our own way of showing hashtag resistance, by educating ourselves, learning from other perspectives and voicing our own. The first book was Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose work I'd been wanting to read since I heard her featured by Beyonce (clearly, I had not yet found Adichie's amazing TED talk). This was the most well-written, captivating novel I'd read in the past year, hands down. It opened my eyes to a war in modern history that I'd never known about (even though, I learned later, another friend's family in Nigeria had lived through it). It also made me care for an ensemble cast of characters in whom I saw my own friends and family, from charismatic intellectuals to ambitious hard workers to reserved enigmas. I'll be picking up her other books soon enough.

from goodreads

Crazy Rich Asians (novel): I kept reading about the casting for the movie version of Crazy Rich Asians, and I remembered hearing about this when it came out and being excited because it was supposed to be like Gossip Girl, of which I was a fan, but about Asians & Asian-Americans, a group of which I am a part of. I never got around to reading it, though, but then this spring, a hairstylist told me how good it was, and with the movie coming out I decided to get to it. It was thoroughly entertaining; I had to google some of the brands and locations they name-dropped, I laughed at all the satire around stereotypes, and I realized I am a sucker for a romantic plot. I've since completed the trilogy, and look forward to watching the movie when it comes out.

Millennial Women and Money (Refinery29): On a more realistic/relatable scale of personal wealth, Ashley C. Ford delved into how being a young, female breadwinner impacts a relationship, especially in a time when many of us haven't seen that much (mainstream) precedence that we can use as a blueprint. The economy continues to change and the workforce along with it; good journalism like this reflects those changes and opens a dialogue to help people navigate through it all.

Age & Wisdom in the Tech Industry (HBR): "Wisdom is about pattern recognition," shares writer Chip Conley, a seasoned hospitality exec who joined Airbnb and now works with folks decades younger than him. Also: "I realized that we expect young digital-era leaders to miraculously embody relationship wisdoms, with very little training, that we elders had twice as long to learn." It was an eye-opening, and heartwarming, essay to read about the industry I work in, but it's also applicable to navigating the workplace in general. 

Doing Well by Doing Good (HuffPo): This wide-ranging interview with the CFO of Square was really inspiring. One of my motivations for being in the business world is to be able to make a social impact, and it's awesome to read about someone who's leading the way. Also, I had to click once I saw the series title was very similar to one of my Twitter lists!

Reese "Elle Tracy Woods Flick" Witherspoon (Glamour): Reese is the patron saint of women being underestimated. Her stories and advice here are priceless. The lesson she learned from Mindy Kaling was like a dagger through the heart. Witherspoon-Kaling 2020.

Life Lately: Around the Bay

Crissy Field

The past few weeks have been filled with a little of everything: a visit from my brother when he was finally introduced to the glory of Philz Coffee; another tubing trip down the Russian River when I got a little too much sun; a visit to Everlane; a viewing of Beautiful the Carole King musical, which I had been wanting to see back East on Broadway but was pleasantly surprised to learn had actually started in San Francisco; a day at a beautiful spa with girlfriends; and of course outings around San Francisco (finally) enjoying our Indian summer. Here's a round up:

Listen Up: Fun Podcasts

Serial Season 1 was the first podcast I listened to, and even though I was hooked on it, I didn't really cross over into other shows for a while. This past year, though, has been the Year of the Podcast for me. They're great to listen to while I am commuting, am on the plane when I don't want to be on the wifi, or am running/exercising, cooking, and tidying up. Once in a while I'll even put one on while getting ready in the morning. Here's what I have been loving:

Another Round with Heben and Tracy:

Buzzfeed

I first heard of Another Round last fall when Hillary Rodham Clinton decided to go on it. My husband and I listened to it in the car on the way to Big Sur and really enjoyed her interview. At the time we were just fascinated by what Hillary had to say and how the podcast hosts, Heben and Tracy, asked meaningful questions that had Hillary come off as human and relatable (she even cracked jokes!). So a while later I was thinking of downloading podcasts to listen to on the train, and when I looked up Another Round again, I was impressed by the caliber and variety of guests they featured. For one, they got Daveed Diggs and Lin-Manuel Miranda (separately) from Hamilton. They got Queen Latifah and Padma Lakshmi. And those folks are being real while sharing a drink with Heben and Tracy.

Recode Decode hosted by Kara Swisher:

Recode archive

First, I love Kara Swisher (Hoya Saxa!), and also, Recode is a great site for somone like me, who works in the tech industry). The podcast addresses a good mix of technology, current events and pop culture and they get some heavy hitters to talk to them. Her interview with Kim Kardashian has this priceless quote: "I truly was baffled when people still cared. They have seen me naked 500 times."

Open Account with SuChin Pak:

itunes

Personal finance from one of my childhood MTV heroines - what more could I ask for? This is produced by Umpqua Bank, which I recognize from its fairly new outpost in my SF neighborhood. Ms. Pak holds some fabulous conversations with folks both famous and not-so-much. One of the funnier episodes is "Will Work for Work: Ravi Patel and Lena Waithe" (you've probably seen them on TV) which features the wise words "Negotiation can be fun" and "All you have is your gut and your taste." (I've heard variations of this last one throughout my life - all you have are your integrity and your knowledge... character and intellect... agreed, agreed, agreed.) "Thank You Cake" with Paula Pell is also hilarious. Everyone shares their views on handling money and how they've learned them. But there are so many gems in this series, from an NBA player, a veteran, an immigrant, and a divorced couple, that it's just best to go and get started on it.

Bonus: 
Some new-to-me shows I've started checking out recently:

• Together - conversations hosted by a former divorce lawyer on how to strengthen relationships
• BackStory - episodes on American History; a friend recommended it because they had an episode on Alexander Hamilton
• Marketplace Tech - a quick daily podcast on current tech topics, recommended by a colleague who listens to it on her way to work in the morning

Pokemon Fever (Yes, I'm a Grown Woman)

Pikachu x1000 (Vox article)

I just didn't get into the Pokemon craze at all when I was younger. When I heard about the game coming out I wasn't surprised, but I also didn't pay much attention (for example, I thought it was virtual reality, not augmented reality). Then last Friday, a friend at work said she downloaded it at a family party, and that the Pokemon were even in our office. Later that day, I saw someone on the bus with the game open, apparently searching for Pokemon along our shuttle route. So later that night, after coming home from happy hour, I downloaded it, registered, and found a freakin' Pokemon perched near my armchair.

For much of the weekend I was tagging in at Pokestops and catching Pokemon while walking around San Francisco and even while riding Muni. And I realized how weird and kind of depressing the whole Pokemon story is, but hey, they are oddly cute and the game is oddly addicting. Like many others I enjoy the accidental/not-accidental social aspect of the game. Unlike other apps, you don't connect to social media accounts (yet) to find friends but since the game involves, literally, the real world, you come across a bunch of other people playing it. I was with my husband, standing on the sidewalk (it was empty, we weren't blocking anyone!) and showing him how the game worked. I was catching a Pokemon, and then a car pulled over. He teased me and said the folks in the car would laugh at me, but I knew what they were up to - we all held up our phones with big smiles, excited to be catching these cartoon creatures. I've exchanged quite a few knowing glances with other city dwellers in the last few days. Technology does bring us together, folks.

My favorite feature is the in-depth linkage of the Pokestops to city landmarks. Not only have I found new ones tucked away around San Francisco, but I now know the names of murals, sculptures and buildings that I pass by regularly. The Pokestops are even cooler, in my opinion, than the Pokemon (but I've only just reached Level 5 and haven't started with the gyms yet, I know, I'm lame).

You know what would also be good as augmented reality smartphone games? Monopoly. Mall Madness. Hungry Hungry Hippos. I hope there's some startups out there thinking of these.

Who knows how long this craze will last, or how many new Pokemon names I'll actually remember, but this was fun and made me feel like a kid again.

Tech Help

I've had a smartphone in my life for just over five years now. It's amazing that in a few short years your daily life can change so much because of new technology. All the toddlers growing up now won't know a world without smart phones and mobile apps! (My niece is already a pro with the iPad and she's only been alive for just over five years.) 

Due to work, family and personal obligations and aspirations, your life can get pretty busy. I always have my phone on me to look up info, snap a photo, and of course communicate with others. These are some ways I keep myself organized and motivated:

1. Schedule it on your calendar. Just give in to the cloud. It will just be that much easier to keep track of things, especially now that google reads your mail and automatically adds things to your calendar, and that calendars often link to map features so you can put in a precise location. Bonus points for blocking off your "me time".

Gmail Blog

1a. For conference lines, I use the Instant Meeting app, which syncs to your calendar and dials the conference codes for you automatically. If you have one of those jobs where everyone has a conference code, and/or you make your calls while on the road, this will save you so much time/brain energy:

meetingapps.com

2. Keep lists or notes (I really like Wunderlist and Swipes). Again, it makes it easier to keep track of things if you just record them. I have ongoing lists for things to do, groceries (which you can re-use by unchecking old items), books to read, vacation spots to look up, etc. Runner up is Swipes, which gives you that gratifying ability to swipe.

https://www.wunderlist.com/

http://swipesapp.com/personal/

3. Keep up with the world. Aside from work-related news and a couple general news headline emails, I subscribe to these daily email newsletters: The Skimm & The Broadsheet. They're both focused on women, in different ways - theSkimm was started by young women around my age to get the news in a digestible format and familiar voice to their peer demographic, and The Broadsheet has a more general news-y tone but gives you headlines on women in news/politics/business/culture. I look forward to reading both each weekday morning and feel like I'm not living under a rock.

http://www.theskimm.com/

http://fortune.com/newsletter/broadsheet

4. Keep yourself motivated. I found out about Shine texts in early December and now keep recommending it to friends. Right on the home page it says "We'll text you daily work hacks and reminders of why you're a badass." Uh, yea that made me up. So far, the texts have included gifs of Maya Rudolph, the Broad City girls, and Beyonce.

http://shinetext.herokuapp.com/

So there's 4 1/2 ways to simplify life and feel like you know what's going on. 

ucresearch:

Here’s an outtake photo (c. 1989) from the installation of the Cray Y-MP supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

Seymore Cray’s first supercomputer, the Cray 1, debuted in 1976 at another UC-run National lab Lab, Los Alamos.  It weighed 10,500 pounds.  It had 1 MB of memory and more speed (80 million computations in one second) than any other computer in the world.    

These supercomputers may not seem as impressive today (especially compared to smartphones), but it was a huge asset for scientists.  They used the machines to crunch through large data sets and solve problems too large for standard machines.

Amazing that a smartphone today would have more computing power than this thing.

Sidenote: That is how I must look when I try to fix something in my apartment or even just go digging to find something I put away months ago.