7 Lessons From Papyrus on How Books Began

When you hear the word “book,” what comes to mind?

A cover, back cover, and spine? Sheets of paper bound to flip from left to right? Printing machines?

Books are recent, but their fascinating origins stretch back thousands and thousands of years. That’s precisely what Irene Vallejo tells us in Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World.

Here are 7 lessons I took away from this book:

#1. Kids didn’t learn with easy books.

My dad bought my sister a book with Franklin the turtle every time she won an exam. Like her, we grew up reading books for kids: easy sentences filled with images.

But kids in Ancient Greece didn’t have easy books. They learned with the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. To make things worse, ancient Greek didn’t have spaces, paragraphs, or punctuation marks…and teachers were ruthless.

#2. Book copyists worked for centuries.

In Athens, getting a book meant sending someone to Alexandria, Egypt to copy it. Sometimes I complain when it takes a month to receive a book.

#3. Titles, binding, and pocket books are recent inventions.

For centuries, we had rolls instead of books.

To read a scroll, you rolled it with your left hand while unrolling it with your right one. When finished, you rolled it back up as a courtesy for the next reader. Instead of titles, librarians categorized books by their opening sentences.

#4. Books were read out loud.

In school, I learned to read sitting in a circle taking turns to read a passage from an easy story. Then, we had to do it in silence.

But in ancient times, reading out loud was the norm. Reading a book was like a small prayer, a soft monologue.

#5. Iliad and Odyssey were best-sellers.

Probably every educated citizen in Ancient Times knew about them. Even kids learned to read with them.

#6. Education included the body as well as the mind.

Apart from reading, men had to work on their bodies as part of their education. A privilege reserved for higher classes and free men. Slaves were meant only for manual labor.

To strengthen their bodies, men trained outdoors or in gymnasiums showing off their bodies…while naked. Next time you see some “bros” posing and taking selfies in front of a mirror after lifting some weights at the gym, remember it used to be worse in ancient times.

#7. Books won’t die.

Books haven’t always looked the same: clay, stone, leather, papyrus, codices, paper… But they have endured the test of time. eBooks, summaries, TikTok, or AI aren’t a real threat for books. We’ve had them for centuries. And we will for more.

10 Simple Habits That Improved My Digestion

Burnout brought stomach issues I couldn’t ignore.

In 2023, one day, I suddenly had to rush to the bathroom after eating. I wanted to finish my work so fast that I skipped meals and developed poor eating habits.

After many doctor visits, here’s a compilation of 10 ideas for better digestion and eating habits.

1. Eat at consistent times.
2. Eat liquids and solids separately.
3. Chew every bite at least 10 times.
4. Remove distractions like phones and news while eating.
5. Follow the right order to avoid glucose spikes.
6. Stop before you’re completely full.
7. Pause briefly after finishing.
8. Drink water with lemon or apple cider 30 minutes before meals.
9. Drink chamomile or spearmint tea after eating. Spearmint tea is my favorite.
10. Leave at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast.

A word of caution: this is not medical advice, just what worked for me.

Friday Links: Big change, fake 7zip, and mourning our craft

Hey there.

Here are 4 links worth sharing this week:

#1. Something big is already happening. AI may not be disrupting markets, like most CEOs claim. But it’s definitely changing job descriptions. Saving is one step to prepare.

#2. Someday we will tell our grandkids that dad once wrote code by hand. We’re the last in a generation of coders. Now is the time to mourn our craft (4min).

#3. A fake 7-Zip download turned PCs into zombie machines (10min). It all started with the wrong url. We’re still the weakest link.

#4. Postman from beloved API client to an “everything” app (5min). It’s become “a completely feature-creeped product.”

And in case you missed it, I’ve been writing on my blog about my social media free week (1min). Here are my day 1 (2min) and day 2 (1min) updates. In the meantime, I’ve picked two books and worked on another book project. (This won’t be about coding. More updates soon!)

(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… Street-Smart Coding, 30 lessons to help you code like a pro. From Googling to clear communication, it covers the lessons you don’t learn in tutorials. It’s now out on Kindle and paperback on Amazon.

Until next Friday. Keep coding smartly

Cesar

Day Four Without Social Media: Real Connection

On my fourth day without social media, I noticed how email has reshaped my morning.

I know I should protect my sacred hours by staying away from distractions first thing in the morning. Anyways…

Checking my email for health insurance paperwork changed my mood. And soon I was thinking about my book pages stats and sales. They’re not a feed, but as addictive as social media. I lost track of time checking stats.

Avoiding feeds was easier when I closed my laptop and went to a cafe to chat with my family. It wasn’t just coffee. And by choosing a local cafe, we supported our community over major chains.

We embraced social media’s promise of connecting us via the internet. But we’ve forgotten to truly connect in real life.

TIL: How to Remove a File From a Git Commit

I’ve hired AI as my code reviewer.

When I write code, AI reviews it. For that, I feed Copilot with a diff to review. But I always have to Google how to diff two branches.

To avoid Googling it every time, here it is:

$ git diff development..mybranch > diff

Today, by accident, I committed the actual diff. So I had to remove it from a commit. I wasn’t sure if I needed a git rebase or something else. I had to Google it.

Again, to avoid Googling it every time, [Source]

$ git reset --soft HEAD~1  # Undo the last commit, keeping the changes
$ # Do your thing
$ git commit -c ORIG_HEAD  # Commit, using the last message

Et voilà!