HN user
Currently just started myself on http://haskellbook.com/, their philosophy seems to be just something for you, teaching functional programming with haskell from well defined fundamentals to make sure everything clicks. If they deliver on the promise I am yet to find out!
The works of Alan Watts have been instrumental in providing me with a mental framework to notice exactly that kind of bamboozles, and many more. A lot of his ideas (or his intrepretations of others) seem to me like a straightforward cure for many of this information age ailments, I think a rehash for modern times is long overdue. I strongly recommend to look at least at a couple of essays of his, if only for the absolutely delightful prose.
Problem solving is fun and people like to compete.
AFAIK the drug was free for everyone without insurance, so the only ones who felt the actual price increase were the insurance companies. Am I wrong or there really is some merit to Shkrelis explanations?
And just to get at the topic of anti-establishement satire in poish literature, the prime example has always been Janusz Zajdel. Especially his late two most aacknowledged works, "Limes Inferior" and "Pardyzja" primarily depict totalitarian, dystopian systems and the means of people to game them. It is a great shame that he has been taken by cancer at a relatively young age because the world view he presented in his books was darker and more bitter compared to Lem.
Actually, on a polish fantasy convention Polcon Dukaj told a story about the attempted translation of "Lód". Hea gathered a group of seven people, Polish to English translators, russophiles, cultural experts and what not. He said, that after two days they gave up after not being able to agree on the first page. The historical and cultural baggage this book carries is just too great to be even remotely translated into english, although he also mentioned that there is a steggering amount of pirate translations into russian.