The train tracks ran right by Bigmama's house in Cottondale, and the children were warned to stay off the tracks. But one night they were late, and the tracks were a shortcut, so they started off. And when there was no turning back, they heard the train coming.

Albert and his trusty mare, June, set off early on market day to sell their melons in town, thus beginning a mysterious chain of events in a thought-provoking journey that exposes ordinary life as an intricate sequence of action and reaction.

One of the world's great mathematicians shows why math is the ultimate timesaver—and how everyone can make their lives easier with a few simple shortcuts. We are often told that hard work is the key to success. But success isn’t about hard work – it’s about shortcuts. Shortcuts allow us to solve one problem quickly so that we can tackle an even bigger one. They make us capable of doing great things. And according to Marcus du Sautoy, math is the very art of the shortcut. Thinking Better is a celebration of how math lets us do more with less. Du Sautoy explores how diagramming revolutionized therapy, why calculus is the greatest shortcut ever invented, whether you must really practice for ten thousand hours to become a concert violinist, and why shortcuts give us an advantage over even the most powerful AI. Throughout, we meet artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs who use mathematical shortcuts to change the world. Delightful, illuminating, and above all practical, Thinking Better is for anyone who has wondered why you should waste time climbing the mountain when you could go around it much faster.

The ultimate collection of recipes to make real food, real fast -- with hundreds of ways to cook smarter, not harder. The Kitchen Shortcut Bible is for all of us who love to cook, but never seem to have enough time. Rather than a book of way-too-clever hacks, this is a collection of more than 200 ingenious recipes that supercharge your time in the kitchen without sacrificing high quality or fresh flavor. Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough come to this, their definitive guide to shortcut cooking, after twenty-nine cookbooks and decades of experience in the kitchen. Not only do they know about putting great meals on the table, they also know that most people's nightly question isn't "what's for dinner," but "what's for dinner in the next half hour?" They've got risotto in minutes, no-fry chicken parm, and melted ice cream pound cake. But these recipes aren't merely "semi-homemade." They've also got slow cooker confits, no-boil stuffed cabbage, and a fine holiday turkey straight out of the freezer, as well as new ways to think about sheet pan suppers, Asian noodle dishes without a wok, and no-churn ice creams. And no MacGuyver-ing either! There are lots of new ways to use the kitchen tools you already own, imparting concrete shortcuts that save time and make something good into something great. When dinner is a problem to be solved, this is your cheat sheet.

The Shortcut: Enlightenment in a box for only $149.99! Flip the switch & experience nirvana. This was the result of Terrance Gray's accidental invention: Headphones that harmonize brainwaves and create a state of complete non-thought. None of his retreats to fancy Buddhist monasteries ever brought him close to the enlightenment he achieved with his prototype. With the help of an angel investor he sells enlightenment wholesale and taps into a pent-up demand to bypass desire and escape the trappings of modern society. Shortcuts start selling by the millions, but not everyone is sold on the benefits of effortless personal transcendence. Terrance finds himself in the crosshairs of a new group, the Unified Unenlightened, who form to prevent the shifting of a global economy dependent on scarcity driven capitalism. Terrance is forced into hiding, where he has to confront a world struggling to adapt to a post-enlightenment world. Includes a bonus novelette ""Remove This Cup From Me.""

An influential scientist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) explains its fundamental concepts and how it is changing culture and society. A particular form of AI is now embedded in our tech, our infrastructure, and our lives. How did it get there? Where and why should we be concerned? And what should we do now? The Shortcut: Why Intelligent Machines Do Not Think Like Us provides an accessible yet probing exposure of AI in its prevalent form today, proposing a new narrative to connect and make sense of events that have happened in the recent tumultuous past, and enabling us to think soberly about the road ahead. This book is divided into ten carefully crafted and easily digestible chapters. Each chapter grapples with an important question for AI. Ranging from the scientific concepts that underpin the technology to wider implications for society, it develops a unified description using tools from different disciplines and avoiding unnecessary abstractions or words that end with -ism. The book uses real examples wherever possible, introducing the reader to the people who have created some of these technologies and to ideas shaping modern society that originate from the technical side of AI. It contains important practical advice about how we should approach AI in the future without promoting exaggerated hypes or fears. Entertaining and disturbing but always thoughtful, The Shortcut confronts the hidden logic of AI while preserving a space for human dignity. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in AI, the history of technology, and the history of ideas. General readers will come away much more informed about how AI really works today and what we should do next.

Dick Henry is the Shortcut Man, assisting people with their sticky situations in the belief that the shortest answer to many problems may not always be legal. In "Tribulations of the Shortcut Man," he reluctantly provides assistance to an old girlfriend, pole dancer Pussy Grace.