Nerdy Roop

“We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there, you begin to get a clearer, yet still imperfect, picture.” Ever wondered about the story of your ancestors? We may know the story of our parents, to an extent grandparents but what about our great ancestors? What was their story? What did they have to fight for to enable us to lead the life we are leading? What choice did they make that had a lasting effect into our lives? Homegoing definitely makes you think about multi generational choices and struggles and how it was passed through to the children over centuries and continents. Yaa Gasi’s storytelling is extremely gripping, fast paced but the characters are detailed enough for you to root for them, feel their struggles/dilemmas. The long lasting effect colonization has on country years after they left. The book completely lives up to the hype and applauds. Very well written.

“Epiphanies are rare. And when they appear in origin stories, they’re often oversimplified or just plain false. We like these tales because they align with a romantic idea about inspiration and genius. We want our Isaac Newtons to be sitting under the apple tree when the apple falls. We want Archimedes in his bathtub.” Story of Netflix has always made me curious. I was well aware about their David and Goliath reference wrt Blockbuster but always wondered what could have triggered this idea of making Netflix synonymous to movie rentals and now streaming. As Marc Randolph correctly pointed out that it was not an overnight epiphany but perseverance and hard work. It was a treat to read this memoir of how a startup is born and what makes them persevere through the brutal dot com crash.