Probably the best single source about Reliability-Centered Maintenance I've ever come across. It's informative and clearly lays out every step of the process, with good warnings about common pitfalls, and relevant examples.

Because of who I am as a person, I find myself thinking about ways to apply some of the lessons from this book outside of it - especially as it relates to decision making. There's lots of ways of thinking in here that make lots of sense, and I always want to apply things like that.

I don't recommend anyone who is not a reliability engineer read this. I personally found the history of it fascinating, but I highly doubt anyone else wants to know how a plane crash led to your e-bike being designed the way it is.

Definitely the best source in the field for this type of work!

Reading How to be both, I found myself constantly surprised by how apt the title is. The book is split into two sections - 'eyes' and 'camera', set respectively in Renaissance Italy and modern day England. Half of the printed editions of this book have Eyes first, and the other half have Camera first. As I kept reading, I found so many connections between them - places where eyes could be camera, and camera could be eyes.

The characters themselves are also... Both. They are mirrors and completely different to each other. They are both so compelling and they each have a vulnerability about them that I felt worked so well for this story.

This is also a book that is deeply, deeply, about art. Art permeates every fibre of the characters and the story. We see colours being mixed, we see discussions of an artists intent, we see different perspectives of art and are asked to hold more than one perspective. We see art as political and a vessel for joy. We see pieces resonating and hitting home.

It is largely written in a stream-of-consciousness type style, which I found a bit inaccessible for the Eyes section. The prose is absolutely beautiful and so poetic, but the combination of the style and the Renaissance Italy way of speaking caused me to have to read some things aloud as it simply washed over my brain. I think this might have been less of an issue in editions with Camera first.

In a world of false dualities, this is a work that ponders what happens outside of binaries and oppositional ways of thinking. It challenges us to be more than one thing, to think more than one way, to keep space for more than one feeling. It challenges us to be both.

This was fascinating to read, and I particularly enjoyed Le Guin's notes and justification for translation choices - particularly the choice to undo some of the choices made in Western eras of misogyny and Christian imperialism. I thought the poems flowed nicely and preserved the wisdom in the text.

I know there are more academic versions of this text available, but I thought this one was an excellent starting point. Le Guin captures so much but also provides sources and points to further reading in particular different styles. If anyone is considering reading this, I haven't regretted it - though it is important to note some of the text itself is more aimed on informing governance of a region rather than living an individual life.

As a long-time Le Guin reader, I found this really helped me to recontextualise some of her other works - they are often underpinnned by some of the ideas held in here. I really highly recommend this for anyone who wants to expand their philosophical horizons, or understand Le Guin better.