Tim O'Reilly shares his favorite books, running shoes, and a cure for colds

Kevin Kelly and I interviewed Tim O'Reilly on the Cool Tools podcast.

Our guest this week is Tim O'Reilly. He's the founder of O'Reilly Media, a company the spreads the knowledge of innovators through technology books, online services, magazines, research, and tech conferences.

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Show notes:

Unix regular expressions

"This is an enormous power - you can write scripts that allow you to do magic with text."

Amazon Echo's Alexa

"Whoever did the design work on Alexa did it brilliantly."

Gan Mao Ling and Black Elderberry

"If you feel like you are coming down with a cold, take these in combination. I have found it incredibly reliable in knocking out colds."

Also: Astragalus Supreme as an immune system booster, and Juvenon ("I felt like it took 10 years off my life, in a good way, making me 10 years younger. I take a generic version called Anti-Aging LX")

Altra Men's Instinct 3.5 Running Shoe

"Running shoes with a really wide toe box. It's a bit like running barefoot inside the shoe."

"These books have become part of my mental toolchest:"

The Way of Life, According to Laotzu translated by Witter Bynner.

"My personal religious philosophy, stressing the rightness of what is, if only we can accept it. Most people who know me have heard me quote from this book. 'Seeing as how nothing is outside the vast, wide-meshed net of heaven, who is there to say just how it is cast?'" (From Books That Have Shaped How I Think)

The Meaning of Culture, John Cowper Powys

This book is a part of my regular mental toolbox. Powys makes the point that the difference between education and culture is that culture is the incorporation of music, art, literature, and philosophy not just into your library or your CV but into who you are. He talks too about the interplay of culture and life, the way that what we read can enrich what we experience, and what we experience can enrich what we read. [via]

The poetry of Wallace Stevens

"Stevens is my favorite poet, and this is the most commonly available collection of his poems. His meditations on the relationship of language and reality have entranced me for more than thirty years. I keep reading the same poems, and finding more and more in them. Also someone I quote often. Special favorites are 'Sunday Morning,' 'An Ordinary Evening in New Haven,' and 'Esthetique du Mal.'" [via]

Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, by Alfred Korzybski

"OK, General Semantics was the 30s equivalent of pop-psychology in the 70s, but there are some great concepts there. 'The map is not the territory.' The idea is that people get stuck in concepts and don't go back to observation. My friend George Simon applied General Semantics to psychology, and gave me a grounding in how to see people and to acknowledge what I saw that is the bedrock of my personal philosophy to this day. There are many popular introductions to General Semantics on the market, and also a fun science-fiction book, A.E. van Vogt's The World of Null-A."

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