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Man, this book was a big deal.

I've continued in the series, and as good as Ender's Game is, Speaker for the Dead, the next in the chronological series, is better. Cried a hundred times all over my big man boobs in the middle of work. I encourage anyone who liked this book a little to go next to Speaker for the Dead because really Ender's Game was written purely to set that one up. Ender as an adult is even more interesting. https://www.audible.com/pd/B002V8N9VG

Ender/Bullying: You covered the bullying but skipped over something I found far more interesting - allowing bullying intentionally as a tool to further isolate Ender. This book did isolation very well.

Peter: I know this comes through in later books but at least in Ender's Game alone, Peter is obviously a serial killer in training. And yet, he goes on to become the Hegemon. He becomes great and important and, well, human. What did you make of that? To me Ender does to him what he ultimately does to the Buggers - he makes him human in his writing.

Video Game: The giant crystallized everything the book was really about. Beating the unbeatable and living with the aftermath/horror.

The 'Real' Game: I thought it was important that only a few of the kids came to realize that this game wasn't its own end result - that really it was manipulation by and for the grownups.

The Battle Room: The only battle where fighting in the fetal position looks cool.

Epilogue: To me, this was the best part of the book. It weirdly tied everything together, and gave beauty and redemption after all the killing.

Thanks for suggesting and doing an episode on this book.

After this weeks discussion of the United incident and the passive aggressive situations of "I am going to hold up my magic little black box so the world can see what you've done " and the discussion a few episides ago when The Veldt was discussed, the podcast has touched on some points that are played out in a show called BlackMirror. It's best described as:

>[E]ach episode has a different cast, a different setting, even a different reality. But they're all about the way we live now – and the way we might be living in 10 minutes' time if we're clumsy.

If you haven't seen it I would definitely check out on Wikipedia and Netflix. The Episodes are completely independent of each other and after listening to this episode I would recommend you watch Season 2 Episode 2 first. I would not recommend watching S1E1 until you understand the themes of the show.

Edit: I've watched a few because it makes you think about society and where we are at, what we value, where we are headed, and to think about if the possibly dark future ahead of us.

I put this in the Patreon (I lost the 50/50 back when... insert 1000 yard stare here) but I don't know if that is as visible as here.

>"I picture [engineers as] people who maybe go as far to the extreme of thinking that everything about the human experience and the world is explainable through numbers and data and studies as I maybe skew to the other side thinking everything about the world is explainable through abstractions and conversation and personalities and philosophy."

>Matt, may I please recommend you read the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"? I think it might resonate with you.

(I'm loving every minute of this podcast!)

I finished this episode today, then was looking for maple nut goodies... but came across this gem instead and immediately had to come share:

Poop Like A Champion Healthy Choice Ultra High Fiber Cereal https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0186GEX8E/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_M62SXQGW5D6XHM5VMWWE

I'm not going to read/listen to the book (too many already in the queue), but I did just watch Timeless S1E11 "The World's Columbian Exposition" (https://www.netflix.com/watch/80164772) which includes some imagery of the Expo and features the murder hotel.

Whenever I post random trivia like this I am reminded of this amazing comment I read years ago talking about folklore and its cousin metafolklore (aka folklore about folklore). In short "The stories we tell about folklore is folklore, it behaves as folklore behaves. Being meta doesn't really change its character."

Years later this comment is still with me due to this section buried in the middle.

"One way to think about these things is within the context of cultural capital: that glass flows in windows or that Ring Around the Rosie is about the plague are tokens of cultural capital, small demonstrations of acquisition. And, from a cultural capital perspective, debunking these things when they're false, as these two examples are, is another set of tokens that demonstrate an even greater amount of cultural capital.

Anyway, a big part of the appeal of these kinds of folklore is the sense of having peeked behind the curtain, to be in on a secret about something commonplace. ...

But of course this particular bit of folklore is false. And even if it were true, bits of knowledge about the world are not keys which unlock its secrets. That's the false promise of arcana."

Came here to say this. It pains me to know that Android users are still using their carrier's or Samsung's messaging app. Google Messages is OK, but I think it's best to pick an app that's cross platform/device. Signal, for example, works the same on iPhone, Android, PCs and Macs. Switch phones? No big deal. Own an iPad and a Samsung phone? Great, your texts are all in the same place. Send photos through it too.

Just like iMessage, there's no need to pull out your phone to send a text (like a savage) when you're at your computer.

You do get bonus features if the other person is also using signal, but most people aren't and that's fine. They'll never know the difference between you using Signal or any other app.

Anyway, there are a bunch of cross-platform messaging apps that do similar things. I think that's my favorite thing about Android. Anything can be the default app. Maybe Apple does that now too, it's been a while since I had an iPhone.

The moral of the story - try Signal or some other messaging app. Switch phones, float between operating systems, and send messages as one should in 2019.

Holy cow you guys need to read The Sports Gene. It's an in-depth look at all the factors that affect athletic performance including a healthy debate about things like the '10,000-hour rule' and what (exactly) can be learned.

The author actually did a TED talk if you want a taste but it pales in comparison to the real thing.

This was a fascinating episode. I took a class at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln by Dr. Jody Koening Kellas called the "COMM 471: The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication". I wish I remember more of the details in the class (I wasn't the best student), but I do remember that the class really made you think differently about functional ambivalence of communication. This episode really started to bring back memories and touch on some of the topics we discussed. Man, I wish I could remember more!

The book we had for this class was "The Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication" and Dr. Koening Kellas was a phenomenal professor!

​

https://www.jodykoenigkellas.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Close-Relationships-II/dp/0415804582/ref=pd\_lpo\_3?pd\_rd\_i=0415804582&psc=1

Rabbit trail comment for Destin and your shower reading! ESV waterproof bible! I picked one up after taking my youth group on a long weekend camping/concert trip and my bible got washed out! This has been a companion on ever camping trip since!

Waterproof Bible - ESV - Camouflage

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1609690141/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_BTQCKA9X0KK0TNJBYY68

My guess is that it's that Signal is more of an SMS app, whereas lockdown looks like it's aiming for a wider user-base. Imo, Session is the gold-standard but it should be a Signal fork iirc.

This is pretty awesome, also I'm on Android and I wasn't in able to get a screenshot in any of the obvious ways or with root.

Any reason why the app didn't go the decentralized route?

Also why not open source? I know a lot of people take comfort when they can actually dig through the source code. Bitwarden is a pretty good example of people favoring an open source security focused app.

Session seems to be the gold-standard for a secure messaging app, what does Lockdown offer that Session doesn't?

/u/MrPennywhistle , /u/feefuh if you use Google's texting app, then you can also use messages.google.com/web to text from your computer without using PushBullet. I know Destin has already made the switch back to iPhone, but I just thought I'd let you know there's a better way!

I happen to be halfway through reading "Raven Rock - The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself While the Rest of Us Die" by Garrett M. Graff Amazon link It's about the continuity of government and the secret bunkers that top gov and military officials were supposed to retreat to in the event of a nuclear attack.

Good timing! As a GenXer I grew up with the Cold War and this episode built on what I had already been thinking about!

Dang it, late to the party again :(

On regards to frat houses branding, I've been reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and it totally makes sense that people would do that and I totally get why the conversation went from religion to this.

There are at least two major factors to religions: faith & community. The book explains that they usually go hand in hand because the rituals and experiences shared by faith are incredibly powerful at strengthening the community bonds. Frat houses, I imagine, work in similar way, which is why they have such weird seeming rituals that actually makes a lot of sense because it boosts the group-thinking.

On the current state of life in North Korea, here's a summary of the picture as far as we know from defectors and a few other sources: https://smile.amazon.com/North-Korea-Confidential-Dissenters-Defectors/dp/0804844585/

One thing I was surprised about: since the 1990s famine, the government is no longer the main source of food/income for many citizens. There is an underground economy of contraband that many North Koreans are involved in, and survives because the bribe from the smuggler is more reliable than the salary from the government. Many people skip work to do this other economy, and bribe their bosses to claim that they showed up. Or bribe whoever is taking their boss's place while their boss skips work, too. South Korean CDs and MP3 files are quite common, and so North Koreans are not as cut off from the world as you might think.

Destin and Matt should read On Killing

This book was basically required reading in my platoon (1/4 Wpns, Errrah) back in the day.

Loved the episode, you guys work really well together. Just thought I'd mention a great book I read in regards to war and having to kill each other, is called On Killing by Dave Grossman (https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Psychological-Cost-Learning-Society/dp/0316330116) it goes into allot of the psychology, in how it relates to different soldiers in their respective roles (ground troops, pilots, sailors) would strongly recommend it!