July 2026
Intermediate
288 pages
6h 31m
English
Content preview from Positive Sum
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
INTRODUCTION: WHAT BREAKING MY NECK TAUGHT ME ABOUT CAPITALISM
How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?
—Plato1
I was flying through the air, upside down, when everything I thought I knew about winning and losing shattered.
I'd gained one hundred yards and bagged eight tackles in the first half—numbers that made even my non‐football‐fan dad, the Reverend Roy Swan, beam with pride. Things were going well. Then the call came, in the third quarter: “student body left.” As tailback, I took the pitch and followed my blockers downfield, 195 pounds of determined muscle. With one tackler left between me and the end zone, I timed my leap perfectly—or so I thought.
Running at full speed, my foot caught a shoulder pad as I leapt over two falling players. Instead of floating gracefully into the end zone, I flipped completely, my body rotating in the air before all my weight came crashing down on the crown of my head. The sound of my vertebrae crushing against each other echoed through me and out across the field. That moment in October 1980 ended everything I thought I knew about my future.
Lying motionless on a hospital gurney in New Jersey, the fluorescent lights burning overhead, I felt numbness creeping through my fingers and toes. As my mother wept beside me, medical staff whispered to each other. Their verdict: a single smashed vertebra, plus three dislocated vertebrae lodged against my spinal cord. Paralysis from the waist down. ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.