Tadas Paplauskas

Books I've Read in 2025

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My book choices over the past few years felt a bit stale, and I wanted to mix things up, so this year I’ve made an effort to read more Lithuanian authors.

Sveiko proto motinystė by Austėja Landsbergienė

Being a short book that covers a wide topic, it offers mostly generic advice and personal observations for modern, middle-class parents. If you’ve read any decent parenting book before, you’re unlikely to find much new here. However, it’s not a bad thing - being such an easy read from the best-known child educator in Lithuania makes it a good book to give to grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other extended family who spend considerable time with your child, helping them align on common rules and principles.

Vilnius Poker by Ričardas Gavelis

Pretty much a cult classic and the most difficult book I’ve read in a while - with breaks, it took me something like 3 or 4 months to read through it. I was about to give it up at multiple points, but could not stop. Quite an intense and unique experience that will not be for everyone. P.S. It’s always cool to read a book about your own city.

Nuo Baltijos iki Bengalijos, Indijos palmių paunksnėje (#6) by Antanas Poška

I stumbled across this book while researching Lithuania’s motorcycling history on some random evening. Turns out, almost a hundred years ago, Antanas Poška and Matas Šalčius hopped on a motorcycle and went on an epic road trip through Europe, Africa, and Asia. Later on, they parted ways, and Antanas continued alone. It would take him 8 years to complete the trip. There was quite a bit of drama - Antanas and Matas did not get along. Matas ended up writing his own book Svečiuose pas 40 tautų, which would not even mention his fellow traveler. Antanas ended up writing his own book - or rather, 8 of them. I got my hands on the 6th out of 8 books, the one describing the author’s adventures in India. I was hooked. It’s one thing to read a travel story and live vicariously through the author’s eyes. It’s even more thrilling to read a road trip story from almost a century ago about places and cultures that are very different today. In 2026, I’m reading through the remaining 7 books.

Vilniaus džiazas by Ričardas Gavelis

Some time after Vilnius Poker I felt ready for Gavelis again. Well, this one’s even weirder :). Not as good as the first book, though.

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

I mean it’s Stephen King, so you know it’s gonna be better than 90% of the stuff out there. This time, we’re getting into the mind of a psychopath, and King paints a convincing, compelling character. That said, I don’t intend to read the sequels to this book. I have the same complaint here as before - it’s just too bloated, and King needs a stronger editor.

How Life Imitates Chess by Garry Kasparov

The only book I did not finish. Feels like a book written because enough people told Garry, “Hey, you should totally write a book!” It may have been intended to further his political ambitions or simply for his ego. Kasparov has clearly had an interesting life and would have plenty to teach me. Yet, somehow this did not translate into a compelling book - trying to fit chess techniques to life gets stale, fast. Skip it.

Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost

Continuing my newfound fascination with travel books, I picked this up at a yard sale. The entertaining, funny, and cheeky take on Vanuatu history definitely got me scouting it out on Google Maps and checking flight prices. Spoiler alert: it’s too long and too expensive.

My Nigeria: Five Decades of Independence by Peter Cunliffe-Jones

Another random book picked up at the same yard sale. Part memoir, part history book on Nigeria’s transition from colonial rule to independence. The critical analysis is well balanced with compelling storytelling, and I never found myself bored. Not the type of book to make you wanna visit the place, though.

We Bought a Car

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When people mention that they have read my blog (which happened like three times), they usually recall the posts about living without a car.

Since apparently that is the most memorable thing I’ve done in recent years, I decided to write an update.

After exactly three years of living without a car - two of which with a child - we finally bought one.

The reason? The child seat. It seems like a very trivial reason, but that’s about it.

My child outgrew the newborn baby seat, which weighed 3 kg, and we bought a new one for toddlers, which weighs 13 kg. That’s one of the lighter ones!

On weekends when we needed a car, the process was: wake up 20 minutes earlier, go out and pick up a vehicle from a car-sharing app, drive it back home, then carry the baby seat to the car, and finally mount it into the vehicle. Only to repeat the whole process in reverse in the evening.

If I didn’t already have back problems, I would likely develop them by now anyway.

After a few such trips, I started considering that I deserved a moderately priced used car to ease this pain in the ass.

It felt wasteful because we only need the car once a week at most. We will not be driving much more than 5k kilometers in a year. Still, every time I had to go through this dance, I felt I deserved better.

To justify the expense and minimize future maintenance, I opted for a very basic, economical, and used family hatchback. At least it has bitchin’ alloys.

I will spare you the numbers, but it still doesn’t make sense financially. I will almost certainly spend more on the car than I have spent on car-sharing apps in any given year, even accounting for a 10-15% increase in annual spending. If I avoid major repairs over the next five years or so, I might come out ahead. If I don’t, that’s also okay for the sake of convenience.

Additionally, if you’re looking for a startup idea, consider building an ultralight, super-safe child seat that doesn’t pinch your fingers every time you need to carry it.

A love letter to Husqvarna Vitpilen 701

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This was the first motorcycle I bought with my heart and not my head.

It’s wildly impractical.

You cannot take much for trips, since the only practical luggage options are a tank bag and a backpack.

The Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 had the most powerful single-cylinder engine ever installed in a mass-production motorcycle, until the Ducati Hypermotard 698 Mono was released last year. It surpassed it by only a couple of horses.

Unfortunately, getting 75 horses out of a single-cylinder engine means that anything below 4K RPM feels like a pogo stick, and everything above 6K RPM makes my hands numb from vibration.

Suspension is great for spirited riding on perfect tarmac and too hard for anything else.

Cafe racer ergonomics and clip-ons mean my wrists hurt after 30 minutes of riding or even sooner in the city traffic.

It’s not the best bike for commuting, touring, or anything apart from carving corners. It’s not the most comfortable and doesn’t sound that great, either.

So I’m thinking about changing it for something more sensible and practical.

There’s just one problem: I love the damn thing.

Just look at it.

It’s a beautiful, minimalist, modern motorcycle that looks like it came straight out of a sci-fi movie. The design is clean and sharp, and there is nothing else like it on the road.

I wanted it since the day I found out it exists. It took around five years for the stars to align, and I finally got it in 2024.

I’m in my second season, and still, every ride feels like an occasion. Riding it feels exactly like a child’s idea of motorcycling.

The chassis is so well-tuned and light that it feels like a bicycle with a motor; even a noob like me can corner confidently. Change the stock mirrors for the ones mounted on the bar ends, and it’s the closest feeling to flying without leaving the ground.

I love that it’s a cafe racer with a supermoto engine that goes BRAAAAAP as I accelerate from red lights. Such torque on a 160kg motorcycle makes it feel like you’re sitting on a rocket.

It’s brilliant, weird, and quite unnecessary. If that isn’t a definition of art, I don’t know what is.

This guy gets it.

Books I've Read in 2024

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For the 7 years in a row now, I aim to read roughly 1 book per month. While I don’t take this goal too seriously, and the last time I hit it was 2020, it still provides some motivation.

This year, I rediscovered audiobooks - the list would be much shorter without them. I still do not enjoy audiobooks as much as my Kindle or paper books - it’s too easy to get distracted and kinda ruins the ritual aspect of reading - but that’s a reality of my life.

For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor

All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor

I’ve read the first book two years ago. I can only repeat what I said then - it’s mostly a fun, light read, but it still manages to explore some profound ideas and have some touching moments. The series is repetitive, and the writing isn’t excellent, but I still enjoyed it. If you like Andy Weir’s stuff, you’ll like this too.

The Downloaded by Robert J. Sawyer

It was a freebie with an Audible subscription. The synopsis sounded interesting, and it was just 5 hours, so why not?

As with every Audible’s in-house production, the quality is bombastic, but the story is pretty meh. It says a lot that I don’t even remember how it ends by the time I’m writing this a year later.

On Writing Well: Audio Collection by William Zinsser

This became part of my sleep routine because I LOVED the reader’s voice. Very meditative, but I can’t really say how much of the book I retained. There’s some good, pragmatic advice, and I’ll probably have to listen to it again.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

It was one of the most important books written in the last century, and I finally got around to reading it. Aspects of it will be familiar to anyone who knows a thing or two about concentration camps. However, the way Frankl writes about his experiences and the lessons he draws from them are still compelling and inspiring. Miles better than any self-help book you can find. Must read.

A Brief History of Intelligence by Max Bennett

My second favorite book of the year. Interestingly, this was written by some AI entrepreneur, but you couldn’t tell. Very accessible and comprehensive despite complex topics. This is a strong recommendation for anyone interested in AI or neuroscience. I will be re-reading it in the future.

I liked it so much I wrote a short summary.

Blood on Snow (Kraujas ant sniego) by Jo Nesbø

A nice and short, formulaic, scandi thriller. The most brutal part was the poor translation to Lithuanian, which kept taking me out of the story.

The Nickel Boys (Nikelio berniukai) by Colson Whitehead

It’s a fictionalized account of a real-life reform school in Florida, and it’s as brutal and sad a story as you could imagine. Still manages to put some good twists and turns, even though you have a pretty good idea of how it will end. Well-earned Pulitzer Prize.

Vilnius’ Myths (Vilniaus padavimai) by P. Vingis

A short collection of myths and legends about Vilnius city spanning close to millennia, from pagan times to the 19th century. Really helps to see the city and streets you see daily in a different light.

I have no idea what I'm talking about

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 21:52:11 +0300

I have no idea what I’m talking about here, and you should not trust me.

A decade ago, I predicted bitcoin would fail. You could argue it kind of did: its promise to disrupt legacy currencies and banking clearly wasn’t fulfilled for the same reasons I outlined in that post. It’s not widely used as a currency or a medium of exchange by real people - it’s just a speculative asset.

Yet it is still very much around, and it’s not going anywhere. I already felt it was overhyped when trading at $300-$600 back then. In 2024, it’s holding somewhere around $60k. Seems I severely underestimated the market for speculative assets.

Then I wrote something about meme stocks and bubbles. Well, GameStop is still trading way above where it was before 2021. Stocks overall are way above their 2021 price, back when it already felt overpriced. I’m glad I did not decide to wait for them to crash and kept dollar-cost-averaging the whole time.

I also wrote why Apple Car would make sense, and three years later, they canceled the whole project. Oh well.

Back when the war started, I really felt that Putin would not get away with this. Of all the things I’ve been wrong about, this one hurts the most. That might still end up being true, but I wouldn’t bet on it anymore.

I don’t know if I would bet on anything anymore. Next time, I should put my money on the opposite of whatever I think about the future.

I have a problem with Poor Things

Sun, 14 Jul 2024 14:28:16 +0300

Photo by Nikita Pishchugin on Unsplash

Warning: major spoilers ahead.

Before I dig in, I still very much enjoyed the movie. The cinematography, set and costume design, and actor performances were terrific. It was just the right combination of weird, funny, and macabre. In one word—refreshing.

Now, onto the problematic part.

In essence, this is a coming-of-age story, except the main character, Bella (Emma Stone), is a toddler, and everyone else is an adult predator.

Filmmakers try to mask this by establishing that “she develops at an accelerated pace” for some reason. See, it’s okay, she’s not really a child.

Except that we see Bella discover her sexuality right after being sedated for having a typical toddler tantrum. By the middle of the movie, she’s had sex with multiple men yet still walks like a child. By the film’s end, she still cannot write well, suggesting she cannot be much older than an early teenager.

My main issue is her portrayal as having total agency, even though, mentally, she’s a toddler. We are supposed to believe that nothing bad ever happens to her, no rape, no violence. Even when we know that in real life, children and mentally ill people are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Even if something bad happens off-screen (“some men enjoy that you do not like it,” as told by the brothel madame), we see no consequences. Bella either shugs it off or treats it as a fascinating learning experience.

I wasn’t abused as a child myself, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.

I’ve seen some interviews with filmmakers, and they emphasized that sexual exploration is just part of Bella’s journey. Sure, we also see her read books, briefly discuss philosophy, and supposedly attend socialist meetings. Most of these feel shallow and either don’t lead anywhere or merely move the plot along. The majority of Bella’s supposed “maturing” happens through sexual exploration, or at least along with it.

Even characters who don’t have an explicit sexual interest in Bella are still horrible people. Godwin (William Dafoe), Bella’s father figure, tries his best to isolate her from the world yet fails to protect her from an obvious predator, Duncan (Mark Ruffalo). Max (Ramy Youssef), supposedly the most decent of them, is an enabler and voyeur.

It’s telling that they needed to introduce a whole new cartoon-level villain in the third act to make every other male character seem better in comparison. As if winking to the audience, “See, it could’ve been worse.”

I feel any empowering or feminist messages this movie tried to communicate are muddled by simply ignoring the topics of sexual abuse and trauma. I don’t think suspension of disbelief is enough here. You cannot have one without the other. Especially when there are better examples of exploring similar controversial topics with much more nuance.

You can feel the difference when a director shows something for the audience’s benefit to help get the point across. That’s called good filmmaking.

Equally, you can feel when they indulge and include something for their benefit, voyeuristic pleasure, or whatever else. I feel like there was some of that going on here.

I also cannot help but feel that without beautiful cinematography, set and costume design, and great actor performances, it would be “that weird pedo movie.”

Summary of A Brief History of Intelligence by Max Bennett

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The fact that Brief History of Intelligence is written not by a researcher or academic but a CEO of an AI startup, might give you a pause - it certainly did it for me. He may have hired a great ghostwriter, his editor did a lot of the heavy lifting, or it’s all just raw talent, but you could never tell it’s a hobby project - the book is well-written, engaging, and informative.

The book does a good job summarizing the major evolutionary leaps that led to human-like intelligence, explaining the ingenious techniques and tricks evolution came up with. The author then draws parallels to the current AI tools, which are based on lessons from the natural world. The book, however, focuses only on large language models (LLMs), the AI branch that most readers are best familiar with.

It was so good that I decided to do something I’ve never done before—summarize the book in this blog for when I want to revisit it later.

Breakthrough #1 - steering

Steering allowed early organisms to navigate their environment by categorizing stimuli into “good” and “bad.” That kind of intelligence emerged six hundred million years ago from coral-like life. Hormones such as dopamine and serotonin were also a product of this breakthrough, which still guide many of our behaviors today. Pleasure, pain, satiation, and stress were also direct results.

Breakthrough #2 - reinforcing

Five hundred million years ago, life acquired the capability to learn to repeat behaviors that lead to good or bad outcomes. It happened within the first vertebrates, which today we would call fish. This breakthrough also gave us time perception, curiosity, fear, excitement, disappointment, and relief.

Breakthrough #3 - simulating

One hundred million years ago, in small mammals, a newly formed brain structure called the neocortex allowed for the simulation of possible outcomes of actions before taking them. It allowed mammals to plan or recall past events, leading to more complex behaviors and more efficient learning by imagination.

Breakthrough #4 - mentalizing

Ten to thirty million years ago, in early primates, the neocortex grew in size and complexity, allowing for mentalizing—predicting the behavior of themselves and others based on their mental states. Now, these animals could anticipate their own future needs, understand the intents and knowledge of others, and learn skills through observation! This, in turn, allowed for even more complex social structures, cooperation, and politics.

Breakthrough #5 - speech

The speech was the breakthrough that enabled the accumulation of thoughts and knowledge across generations. You no longer needed to see someone get poisoned by red berries to learn they are inedible - your mom telling “red berries bad” was enough. There is no unique brain structure responsible for speech in humans. What’s unique to humans is the learning “program” - a set of behaviors - that teaches you speech. That is why teaching children languages gets increasingly harder as they age.

Summary

Each breakthrough was built on top of the previous one. Who knows what breakthrough #6 will be, but it seems increasingly likely to be artificial superintelligence. Max argues that we are already seeing the first signs of it with large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPTs. While still very different and inferior to humans, biology will not constrain their evolution. Considering it took only a few billion years to go from single-cell organisms to a human intellect, it’s hard to imagine what will become of us in another few billion years. Whatever it is, it’s sure to be exciting.

The Only Three Productivity Hacks That Made a Difference for Me

Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a random shower thought: where did all the productivity gurus go?

If you were online around the 2010s, you probably remember the names Tim Ferris (4-Hour Work Week), David Allen (GTD—Getting Things Done), Leo Babauta (Zen Habits), Lifehack.org, or dozens of others. They had countless productivity hacks to help you do more in less time. I know because I followed all of them.

Once the self-help industry moved on, these gurus had to pivot into self-improvement, minimalism, or just plain consulting. There are only so many ways to reinvent the to-do list.

Of all the countless tips and tricks I’ve read over those years, only three have stuck with me. Listen up; I’m about to save you much time.

The first one is so simple you’ll roll your eyes at me: What gets written down gets done. It has to be on paper because only then does it feel important. Also, no UI can replace the feeling of physically crossing an item off the list.

The second one is the two-minute rule. If the task takes two minutes or less to complete, do it immediately. If the task is more complex than that, figure out what you can do in two minutes to move it forward. This keeps me from over-planning every errand and helps build momentum on those slow days.

Finally, I’m about to do a bait-and-switch on the third one because it’s not a hack but a mindset shift.

Pretend you are a different person each day. There’s yesterday-you, today-you, tomorrow-you, and so on. Taken together, all of you’s form a community, which is your entire life.

Stay with me.

Like all healthy communities, you should help each other. Say you are too lazy to unload the dishwasher; you’ll do it tomorrow morning. But if you-from-tomorrow is another person, then it’s kind of a dick move, isn’t it. Wouldn’t you prefer your future self to think of you as a nice guy instead?

Some days will be more meaningful than others, but you should still contribute something on any given day. Whether you clean the kitchen, go to the gym, or apply for that dream job - do your part.

This works so well because humans are naturally social creatures, we are hardwired to help each other, sometimes to a borderline people-pleasing level. So why not use that instinct on yourself?

A brief CFMoto 300CL-X review by some amateur

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 21:46:12 +0300

I knew I wanted to ride a motorcycle in Tenerife as soon as we bought the plane tickets. I’ve been riding for 5 years, but never abroad or in the mountains. I wanted something light and nippy, as on most roads in Tenerife, you can only go up to 60-80 kph anyway. I didn’t have strong preferences for a bike, so I went with what the nearby rental store had available that day—a CFMoto 300CL-X.

~30 hp in ~150 kg bike isn’t impressive, but it’s enough on an island. Due to the altitude, quite a few horses were lost on the way up to Teide, but we collected all those horses coming back down. It’s a good-value bike, but you can feel it’s been built down to a price. Like most single-cylinder engines, it sounds like a lawnmower, the plastics feel cheap and toy-like, the suspension is pretty uncomfortable, and the bike generally has little charm.

This is an excellent entry-model bike, though, and I’d get one if I needed a daily beater in the city. The position is upright and comfortable. The bike is cheap and cheerful, should be reliable or at least simple to fix, and you wouldn’t care about minor dings or scratches. For the weekend rides, I’d like something more memorable.

Tenerife itself outshines any motorcycle. It’s the best riding destination I’ve been to so far. My only regret is renting the bike for just one day. If you have a license, you owe it to yourself.

Living Without a Car (2nd Year Update)

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I sold my car two years ago with no plans to replace it. I already explained why here and updated you on the first year here.

Back by popular demand, here’s our 2nd year! Jk, one friend asked how it’s going, so why not rerun the numbers?

The numbers

This is what we, a family of three, spent on transportation in our 2nd year living without a car. Drumroll:

Bolt car-sharing, ride-hailing, scooters: €540.97 (39 rides)
Spark car-sharing: €561.05 (13 rides)
CityBee car-sharing: €15.45 (1 ride)
Public transport: €19.8 (33 tickets)
Total: €1137.27 (€94.77 per month)

For context, car ownership over 5 years cost us €10,825 (or €180.42 per month).

What’s new

The total costs were up by 22% compared to the first year. A big reason for that is us opting to use car-sharing more since baby chairs - even the lightest ones - are a pain to drag around with you.

Obviously, we barely used any scooters or bicycles.

Bolt entered the ride-sharing market with aggressive pricing, which I was glad to take advantage of.

Also worth mentioning is the two months we spent abroad. If you divide the total by the 10 months during which it was actually spent, the average monthly cost is €113.73.

No changes to the central thesis: living without a car in Vilnius is still a non-issue. Still cheaper than owning a car, even if a bit less convenient with a baby.

What’s next?

I already bought a new bicycle which is more comfortable and fit to carry a baby. We tried it out, and it has been received well so far, so I have high hopes that we will depend much more on bicycles this year. Still no need or plans to get a car.