Recommendations#
Land use and transportation#
- Stroads by Not Just Bikes. Something can be a road – fast way to get between places – or a street – comfortable, human-scale for accessing places. Build something to be both and it succeeds at neither.
- The trouble with minimum parking requirements by Donald C. Shoup
- Barcelona Superblocks by The War on Cars with David Roberts, about how North American cities lack public spaces, which make us lonely.
Teaching & learning#
- The Case Against Grades by Alfie Kohn or A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart, about taking the joy out of learning.
- To the members of the Budget Council by Edsger W. Dijkstra on teaching elegant languages to new programmers.
- The Mundanity of Excellence by Daniel F. Chambliss on why are some people better at some things than others.
Sociology/Psychology.#
- What Shamu taught me about a happy marriage by Amy Sutherland. Treat other people like they’re exotic animals and you’re an exotic animal trainer – imperative to master for coaching youth sports.
- An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Human Values by Shalom H. Schwartz, about the consistent form of human values.