Monday, June 9, 2025

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

Cal Newport
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central Perpetual Titles
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A New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and IndieBound bestseller

"Brilliant and timely"—Oliver Burkeman

~ Do Fewer Things. Work at a Natural Pace. Obsess over Quality. ~

From the New York Times bestselling author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work, a groundbreaking philosophy for pursuing meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload


Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?

Long before the arrival of pinging inboxes and clogged schedules, history’s most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this timely and provocative book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to radically transform our modern jobs. Drawing from deep research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of storied thinkers–from Galileo and Isaac Newton, to Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe–Newport lays out the key principles of “slow productivity,” a more sustainable alternative to the aimless overwhelm that defines our current moment. Combining cultural criticism with systematic pragmatism, Newport deconstructs the absurdities inherent in standard notions of productivity, and then provides step-by-step advice for cultivating a slower, more humane alternative.

From the aggressive rethinking of workload management, to introducing seasonal variation, to shifting your performance toward long-term quality, Slow Productivity provides a roadmap for escaping overload and arriving instead at a more timeless approach to pursuing meaningful accomplishment. The world of work is due for a new revolution. Slow productivity is exactly what we need.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

細胞之歌 : 探索醫學和新人類的未來 (The Song of the Cell)

辛達塔.穆克吉 (Siddhartha Mukherjee)
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「我們終歸要回到細胞」
我們得要了解細胞,才能了解人體。
我們需要它們,才能了解醫學。
但最基本的是,我們需要細胞的故事,來講述生命和我們自己的故事。

普立茲獎得主、《萬病之王》《基因》作者——辛達塔.穆克吉最新作品,本書是一部生命基石的歷史,交織了他擔任醫師的生涯。

《細胞之歌》融合了尖端研究、無可挑剔的嚴謹學術、勇敢無畏的報導,和流暢優美的散文,形成百科全書式的研究,讀起來就如文學作品般扣人心弦。~《歐普拉日報》(Oprah Daily)

◆ 2023年美國PROSE Awards生物與生命科學卓越獎
◆ 2023年肖托誇獎
◆《經濟學人》、《歐普拉日報》、紐約公共圖書館等評為「年度最佳書籍」

本書談的是細胞的故事,是發現包括人類在內,所有生物體都是由這些「基本粒子」構成的記述。這是關於這些自主的生命單位——組織、器官和器官系統合作,有條不紊地累積,能夠促成深奧形式的生理功能:免疫、生殖、知覺、認知、修復,和再生的故事。而反過來,它也是講述在細胞功能失調,使我們的身體由細胞生理變為細胞病理——細胞的功能障礙導致身體功能失常,會是什麼樣的故事。最後,這是關於我們對細胞生理學和病理學日漸深入的了解如何引發生物學和醫學革命,促成革命性的醫藥誕生,以及人類如何因這些醫藥而改變的故事。

本書提醒我們,所有與生物機能相關的分子機制,都存在「細胞」之內,在特定的細胞環境中才能發生作用。作者身為臨床腫瘤醫師,對於「細胞」失靈、變態的後果特別有感。他甚至提醒我們:新冠大疫其實揭露了我們對於涉及的免疫機制與細胞的無知。我們需要更多的知識,更需要謙卑。~~王道還/生物人類學者

穆克吉在《細胞之歌》中巧妙地結合科學知識與人性故事,透過詩意的比喻和接近偵探小說的筆法,帶領我們深入探索細胞世界,並揭示這些微小生命單位在醫學、科學和人類生活中的重要性。 本書涉及癌症、心臟病、不孕症、憂鬱症等病患,展示了科學研究如何實際影響人們的生活。在探討免疫療法、幹細胞、基因工程等領域的最新進展時,不僅揭示了科學的希望,也指出了其中的挑戰,並透過一系列感人故事展示了這些科學發現如何改變人們的生命。~~黃貞祥/清華大學生命科學暨醫學院分子與細胞生物研究所副教授副教授

如果你還沒有感到生物學的偉大,《細胞之歌》就會讓你嘆為觀止。這是一堂大師講座。——蘇珊.歐沙利文(Suzanne O’Sullivan),《衛報》(The Guardian)

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, June 2, 2025

The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking

Leor Zmigrod
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Named a best book of the year by The Guardian and The Telegraph

Why do some people become radicalized?
How do ideologies shape the human brain?
And how can we unchain our minds from toxic dogmas?


In The Ideological Brain, Leor Zmigrod reveals the deep connections between political beliefs and the biology of the brain. Drawing on her cutting-edge research, she exposes the complex interplay between cognition and environment that predisposes some individuals to inflexible ways of thinking. The human brain faces a set of dilemmas every day: how to achieve coherence from fragmented sensory inputs and how to attain connection with other people in an increasingly atomized and isolating world. Ideologies offer a shortcut, providing easy answers, scripts to follow, and a sense of shared identity. But ideologies also come at a cost: demanding conformity and suppressing individuality through rigid rules, repetitive rituals, and intolerance. Once ideologies grip our minds, they fundamentally transform the way we think, act, and interact with others, making us less sensitive and adaptable.

Guiding readers through her innovative experiments, Zmigrod uncovers the hidden mechanisms driving our beliefs and behaviors and argues that our politics are not superficial but rather woven into the fabric of our minds. Her results show that ideologues across the political spectrum struggle to change their thought patterns when faced with new information. While some individuals are more susceptible to dogmatic thinking than others, all of us can strive to be more flexible, and Zmigrod ultimately explains how we can keep our minds open in the face of extreme ideologies. Eye-opening, provocative, and unforgettable, The Ideological Brain is a groundbreaking book that challenges us to resist black-and-white thinking and reassess our closest convictions.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

導演的起點 : 100位華語電影導演, 第一部作品誕生的故事

程青松
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100位華語電影導演‧100個拍電影的起源
第一手作者論‧最貼近真實的創作訪談

沿著點點微光摸索,歷經無盡的徬徨,
直至交出宛如面試般的「首部作品」,
以導演之名,放眼世界。


透過本書一窺侯孝賢、楊德昌、魏德聖、王家衛、陳可辛、周星馳、張藝謀、賈樟柯、婁燁……當今華語電影世界的100名導演,與他們的第一部作品。或許當時沒有經驗,但有足夠的激情,回溯過程中與現實層面的拉扯、妥協,資金的調度和挹注,笑談自身的想法與觀眾反應,無所不言,真心吐露的心境轉折,讓我們重新挖掘電影的本質。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)

Monday, May 26, 2025

The Language of Cyber Attacks: A Rhetoric of Deception

Aaron Mauro
online access from Bloomsbury Collections
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Many cyberattacks begin with a lure: a seemingly innocent message designed to establish trust with a target to obtain sensitive information or compromise a computer system. The perils of clicking an unknown link or divulging sensitive information via email are well-known, so why do we continue to fall prey to these malicious messages? This groundbreaking book examines the rhetoric of deception through the lure, asking where its all-too-human allure comes from and suggesting ways in which we can protect ourselves online.

Examining practices and tools such as phishing, ransomware and clickbait, this book uses case studies of notorious cyberattacks by both cyber criminals and nation-states on organizations such Facebook, Google, and the US Department of Defence, and in-depth, computational analyses of the messages themselves to unpack the rhetoric of cyberattacks. In doing so, it helps us to understand the small but crucial moments of indecision that pervade one of the most common forms of written communication.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

城市拾遺 : 探尋港九歷史遺跡

陳天權
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歷史建築研究者陳天權,穿梭大街小巷,帶領大家尋覓隱沒於港九都市某個角落的歷史遺跡蹤影。

今天香港僥倖留存下來的文物建築,大多數已獲評級,成為珍貴的文化遺產,但隨着城市發展,一些構築物或舊物,例如牌坊、門樓、界石、奠基石、紀念碑和雕像等,卻因不屬於建築物而被大家忽略。當中包括物件(如十九世紀的八角形鐵水缸)、構築物(如戰時公共食堂和爐灶、子午線標記石柱)、遺址(如兵頭花園的神社遺跡、英華女學校幼稚園校舍),它們與建築物一樣,可以讓人回望過去,了解城市發展的因由,每一件的背後,都能道出一段引人入勝的故事。

本書精選四十項港九市區「非建築類別」遺跡加以介紹,可為我們深入接觸香港歷史,提供一些線索。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)