[This Week's Books] 'Do Not Apologize for Your Existence' and 5 More Titles

◆Do Not Apologize for Your Existence = This is a book about human psychology and behavior. The author, a female scientist diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age of eight and who has lived with ADHD, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and sensory processing disorder for a long time, interprets humans based on scientific knowledge such as biochemistry, physics, and statistics. It details the story of a five-year-old girl who thought she had "come to the wrong planet" and found the language of science, the only thing she could understand, reaching mysterious emotions like empathy, understanding, and trust. Through a lifelong record of treating her own life as a laboratory and accumulating failed experiments, the author argues that "if I can do it, you can too," asserting that everyone has the right to connect with others as themselves. (Written by Camilla Pang · Pureunsoop)

◆Quality Investing, a Record of Proof = This is a collection of columns and letters by the founder of Fundsmith, known as the "Warren Buffett of the UK." It gathers annual letters and columns sent to investors of his fund from the establishment of the Fundsmith Equity Fund in 2010 through 2022. The author is a prominent figure who achieved assets under management of 4 trillion KRW, a cumulative return of 570%, and an average annual return of 18.6% over ten years with a fund based on his so-called quality investing principles. He confesses that he lacks insight to predict future macroeconomic or geopolitical events and market reactions. He also admits not knowing well about recessions, inflation levels, or the interest rates needed to suppress them. However, he emphasizes focusing on the few things that Fundsmith's predictions have proven correct, which is "fundamental performance." (Written by Terry Smith · WaterBear Press)

◆Stock Investment, Kang Hwan-guk Asks and GPT Answers = This is a stock investment book co-written by a human and AI. ChatGPT created the table of contents, first draft, and recommendations, while the human author added content, translated, and supervised. Generally, when investment-related questions are asked to ChatGPT, it is known to provide quick answers based on accumulated information and experience. Of course, there are criticisms that ChatGPT’s answers can be vague. The author says that if questions are well-structured, appropriate answers can be obtained. Vague and general questions yield general answers, while specific and professional questions produce answers at that level. Through this questioning method, the book covers investment strategies, real investment cases, legendary investors’ principles, company analysis, and risk management. (Written by Kang Hwan-guk · Heritage Books)

◆The Physics of Space Exploration = This book contains reflections on the long journey of space exploration connecting the past, present, near future, and very distant future. It especially focuses on scientific knowledge related to manned space exploration. It interestingly explains scientific topics such as the fact that what we feel as gravity is not actually gravity, weightlessness created by free fall, future weightlessness experiences using hyperloop, initial velocity of spacecraft and escape velocity from gravity, and the effects of orbit and rotation on spacecraft launch and flight. It also thoroughly explains gravity assist navigation that can increase spacecraft speed without rocket propulsion, Earth defense from asteroid or comet impacts, methods to create artificial gravity needed for long-term manned spaceflight, and special phenomena occurring in artificial gravity based on scientific knowledge. It even uses special relativity theory to explain what will happen during manned space exploration to exoplanets in the very distant future. (Written by Yoon Bok-won · Dongasia)

◆Such an Amazing World = This is a research book on human and animal senses by a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist. It introduces many animals that defy our intuition, such as birds that map terrain by smell rather than sight, crickets with hairs sensitive enough to detect a single photon, and crocodiles with more delicate papillae than human fingertips. Stories that catch interest include scallops with 200 eyes that do not perceive situations as "scenes" but only detect "movement," and jumping spiders that use vision unlike typical spiders that sense the world through vibrations and touch. It presents various cases of perception through stimuli other than the five senses (smell and taste, color, heat, sound, surface vibrations, electric fields, etc.). (Written by Ed Yong · Across)

◆Humanity’s Last Blue Ocean Farm Business = There is an industry emphasized equally by Microsoft’s Bill Gates, legendary investor Jim Rogers, Google’s Eric Schmidt, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. That is the "farm business." The author, a management scholar, details the definition of the farm business, which has paralleled human history and holds infinite value for the future, and its development process from past to future. Based on topics such as smart farms that perfectly control crop growth and external environments right next to cities, AI agricultural robots that learn and perform all farming tasks from weeding to harvesting autonomously, and perfectly customized DIY foods tailored to customer preferences, the book analyzes the phenomenon of infinite diversification using the sixth industry and IoT (Internet of Things). (Written by Ryu Chang-wan · Sam & Parkers)

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