Hidden Potential – Adam Grant

Hidden Potential by Adam Grant
Date read: 8/9/24. Recommendation: 8/10.

This is a great complementary book to Range by David Epstein, that focuses on dispelling the belief that greatness is mostly born. Grant illuminates how we can achieve greater things by focusing on the forces fueling our progress. The book is built around three sections: developing character skills, creating structures to sustain motivation, and building systems to expand opportunity. I love the sections about asking for advice, not feedback, character vs. personality, and the power of writing to clarify your thinking. Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Character:
“Character is often confused with personality, but they’re not the same. Personality is your predisposition—your basic instincts for how to think, feel, and act. Character is your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts.” Adam Grant

“If personality is how you respond on a typical day, character is how you show up on a hard day.” Adam Grant

The primary character skills that matter most are proactivity, determination, and discipline. 

Discomfort:
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” Helen Keller

Becoming a creature of discomfort requires three kinds of courage: “to abandon your tried-and-true methods, to put yourself in the ring before you feel ready, and to make more mistakes than others make attempts.” Adam Grant

Similar to voluntary hardship: “Embrace, seek, and amplify discomfort.” Adam Grant

Writing:
“Writing is more than a vehicle for communicating—it’s a tool for learning. Writing exposes gaps in your knowledge and logic. It pushes you to articulate assumptions and consider counterarguments.” Adam Grant

“Unclear writing is a sign of unclear thinking.” Adam Grant

Reading:
Reading improves comprehension and activates analytical processing. Reading is the key to building critical thinking skills. While listening helps promote more intuitive thinking.

Pay attention to what you pay attention to: “If we want our kids to enjoy reading, we need to make books part of their lives. That involves talking about books during meals and car rides, visiting libraries or book stores, giving books as gifts, and letting them see us read. Children pay attention to our attention: where we focus tells them what we prize.” Adam Grant

Growth mindset:
Absorptive capacity: “Absorptive capacity is the ability to recognize, value, assimilate, and apply new information.” It hinges on how well you acquire new information and the goal you’re pursuing when you filter new information—ego or growth?

Seek advice, not feedback:
People suck at giving feedback, it focuses on past performance. Instead, ask for advice, and it shifts people’s mindset to focus on more specific suggestions and constructive input. 

Useful Not True – Derek Sivers

Useful Not True by Derek Sivers
Date read: 6/17/24. Recommendation: 9/10.

One of my favorite things about Derek’s book is that he never tells you what to do. There’s never a checklist at the end of each chapter pretending to give you the answer or steps to follow. His books are just observations and stories. The value is in how you see yourself reflected and the connections they lead you to. In Useful Not True, Derek invites us to reframe our ideas around adopting thoughts because they’re useful, not because they’re inherently true. My favorite chapters focus on choosing beliefs for the actions they lead to, meaning as something that’s all our own, and judging individual ideas rather than attempting to classify someone as exclusively one thing—brilliant, foolish, right, wrong, etc. There is no other writer who is as succinct and thought-provoking.

Check out my notes below and Derek’s website to grab your copy.

My Notes:

“This book is about reframing. It should persuade you to adopt thoughts because they’re useful to you, not because they’re true.” Derek Sivers

Perspective:
Your perspective might be useful but it’s not the entire picture. “No picture is the whole picture. Everyone selects an angle and presents just one point of view.” Derek Sivers

 Ground yourself in today’s actions:
People claim the power of visualization but none of us know how we’re going to react to what happens. It could be surprisingly good or bad once you get beneath the surface (Parable of the Chinese Farmer). Focus on today’s actions.

Judgments disguised as facts:
“People try to pass off judgements as facts. For example:
Calling someone ‘needy’ means ‘I couldn’t give that person what they wanted.’
Calling someone ‘stubborn’ means ‘That person didn’t give me what I wanted.’
Notice that words like these sound like facts about the person being judged, but they tell you more about the person judging.” Derek Sivers

Rewrite the rules:
“Rules set expectations and the terms of the game. They’re a useful starting point, but they’re not the final answer.” Derek Sivers

“The world is as negotiable as a flea market in Marrakesh. Only a fool doesn’t haggle. Whenever presented with rules, think of it as a game that can be changed.” Derek Sivers

Being wrong isn’t a threat:
Adopt a scout mindset (see Julia Galef): “It’s helpful to be wrong or confused. Being wrong makes you try a different approach. Feeling confused makes you clarify or question your assumptions. It’s intellectual humility.” Derek Sivers

Experiencing events that aren’t actually happening:
We can’t waste so much of our lives spiraling through arguments, conflicts, and threats in our heads when, in reality, actual events aren’t nearly that dire. Imaginary conversations are an obsessive trick we use to keep ourselves safe. Not everyone is an enemy. Not every passing comment is a threat. No one is spending that much time thinking about or plotting against you.

You are the strange one:
“Did ancient people really worship Zeus, Athena, Odin, Loki, Thor and all of that? They knew those were just stories, right? Foreigners have weird beliefs we call superstitions. But when it comes to our own beliefs? No no no! Those are just true!” Derek Sivers

Use beliefs to your advantage:
“Beliefs cause emotions. Emotions cause actions. Choose a belief for the action it will cause.” Derek Sivers

“What is the point of beliefs if they don’t shape actions?” Derek Sivers

Judge the contents not the box:
Best-selling book filled with wisdom but a few sentences were found to be plagiarized so people dismiss the whole book. “That’s the problem with judging a box instead of its contents. It’s seeking ‘true’ instead of useful. When any aspect of a package is flawed, it no longer feels ‘true’, so all of it is discarded. Then you lose the benefits — the baby with the bathwater.” Derek Sivers

One idea you disagree with doesn’t mean a person is “bad” or “unintelligent.” People can have both good ideas and bad ideas.

Meaning:
“Nothing has inherent meaning. Whatever meaning you project into it is your own.” Derek Sivers

Meanings are useful, not true: “Meanings can help you feel your life is important, with a narrative and purpose. Meanings can help you make peace with events out of your control. Meanings can give you a reason to persist in difficult times. But they’re internal, not external. They’re yours, not others’.” Derek Sivers

Let your voice evolve:
“Great artists change their trademark style, to keep growing. Stop defining yourself in a limiting and over-simplified way. You have different aspects to your personality…Directions take turns. Going one way can work until it doesn’t. To get you where you want to go next, what direction is needed?” Derek Sivers

Is it useful? What are you going to do with it?
“Instead of asking if it’s true, ask yourself if it’s useful to you.” Derek Sivers

Think Remarkable – Guy Kawasaki

Think Remarkable by Guy Kawasaki
Date read: 6/2/24. Recommendation: 5/10.

Guy shares lessons from some of the great entrepreneurs, leaders, and thinkers (from his podcast) to explore how we might make a difference and live remarkable lives of our own. I enjoyed the unconventional approach to pursuing new ideas (focus on defining a subcategory, not an entirely new category), starting with simple questions, gaining first-hand knowledge, and embracing a growth mindset along the way. The recommended additional reading at the end of each chapter also offers an exceptional curated list of books if you want to source out some new material. The big drawback is that it doesn’t feel so much like a book as it does a summary of his podcast without adding anything new or original. Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Remarkable:
Being remarkable = how you transform your life and the world.

This is built upon growth (build your foundation), grit (implement your aspirations), and grace (uplift and inspire). 

“A remarkable individual is someone who has committed to an outcome in spite of the odds or the circumstances. They revisit that goal every moment they can. Even if it’s not physically doing something, they’re thinking about it. They’re envisioning it. They have the audacity to love themselves enough to constantly re-mark, re-put that mark on their sight, on their heart, on their soul, on their tongue, on their limbs, to work towards something that most people can’t see. That’s remarkable.” Halim Flowers

Growth mindset:
“What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t happened yet.” Anne Frank

A fixed mindset is what keeps people trapped in comfort and convenience, instead of trying something new or embracing the obstacles in their path. See Carol Dweck’s Mindset for an overview of fixed vs. growth mindsets. 

“Growth and comfort never coexist.” Ginni Rometty

Does this path have a heart?
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever, because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference.” Steve Jobs

Building wisdom:
Reading: “Reading is a form of alchemy because it changes us…It can transport us to places that we haven’t been before. It can give us experiences that we wouldn’t have otherwise, and then those experiences become part of us.” Elizabeth Gruner

The power of first-hand knowledge: Toyota has a principle of “genchi genbutsu” (go and see for yourself) which tells people to get their hands dirty, see the factory floor, visit dealers, spend time with customers when they’re using the vehicles. Similar to product discovery, it’s a super power and helps you build an appreciation for the people doing the work or using the product. 

Lower the stakes:
Your purpose and your passion are high bars to start with. Lower the stakes. “In reality, it can take years to find your passion—indeed ‘find’ is the wrong word because it implies that once you find something, the process is over. Truly, you develop your passions—it’s rarely love at first sight.” Guy Kawasaki

Forget building a new category. Focus on a subcategory (e.g. Tesla defining an electric subcategory in cars, GoPro with action cameras, etc.). 

You want to be a large fish in a large pond.

“It’s cheaper to create a niche within a category because people have a basic understanding of what you do. It is easier to explain a Kindle e-reader as a subcategory of tablets than as a totally new market.” Guy Kawasaki

Focus on simple questions:
“Remarkable people don’t usually start with grandiose plans of crushing or dominating the universe. They start with small and simple questions that over time yield the result of making a difference: Isn’t this strange? Is there a better way? Why has no one done this before?” Guy Kawasaki

• Identify assumptions that represent gaps and flaws in the status quo.

• Encourage a broader range of curiosity and collaboration.

• Reframe how people view problems by simplifying complicated issues.

Tell good stories:
“Be authentic. Good stories ring true and do not require ungodly leaps of faith. They align with your product or service and provide substance to your marketing and branding.” Guy Kawasaki

Hire people smarter than you:
Benefits: expansion of knowledge and skills, enhanced decision-making, deeper and better team, high-performance culture. A players attract A players. 

Expand your perspective:
Ask yourself this question: “At the end of my life, am I going to wish I did more ___ or more ____?”

Types of regrets:
Via Daniel Pink: Foundation regrets (exercise, wellness, savings), boldness regrets (inaction), connection regrets (relationships), moral regrets.

Other lessons from Guy’s parents:
Still waters run deep: “Don’t create a ruckus. Don’t hassle people. Don’t try to teach people a lesson.” Guy Kawasaki

Don’t be cheap: “Don’t negotiate just to exercise your power. Let people make a profit and a living.” Guy Kawasaki

The Song of Significance – Seth Godin

The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams by Seth Godin
Date read: 5/23/24. Recommendation: 8/10.

Our work matters. And the old way of working built upon mechanizing people, redundant tasks, “management,” and compliance, are no longer serving us. As Godin discusses, we’re all faced with a choice in how we approach leadership and our work: do we want to lead, create work that matters, and build alongside people who care? This is the song of significance. It’s up to us to create the conditions for both ourselves and others to pursue meaningful work through trust, agency, and dignity. Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

The choice is ours:
Decision we are all faced with: “To lead, to create work that matters, and to find the magic that happens when we are lucky enough to cocreate with people who care.” Seth Godin

Best job factors:
In a survey of 10,000 people describing the conditions of the best job they ever had, the top four characteristics were: 1) I surprised myself with what I could accomplish, 2) I could work independently, 3) The team built something important, 4) People treated me with respect.

People want agency and dignity.

Song of significance:
Work that matters, creating a difference, being part of something, and doing work we’re proud of.

“This is what motivates people to do the work that can’t be automated, mechanized, or outsourced.” Seth Godin

“Work is the expression of our energy and our dreams.” Seth Godin

“Bigger isn’t the goal, better is.” Seth Godin

The most valuable skills:
“What companies need has shifted, and suddenly. Instead of cheap labor to do the semiautomated tasks that machines can’t do (yet), organizations now seek two apparently scarce resources: creativity and humanity. Both skills involve dealing with other humans, creating strategies, and finding insights in a fast-moving world.” Seth Godin

“The planet does not need more successful people, but it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind.” David Orr

Management vs. leadership:
“We shouldn’t be doing management to our employees. If we’re good, though, we might be able to do it with them.” Seth Godin

“You tell me where you’re going and what you need. You make promises about your commitment and skills development. I’ll show up to illuminate, question, answer, spar with, and challenge you. I’ll work tirelessly to make sure you’re part of a team of people who are ready to care as much as you do.” Seth Godin

“Management runs a race to the bottom; leadership offers a chance to run for the top.” Seth Godin

Create conditions for other people to do work that matters: “Leadership is the art of creating something significant.” Seth Godin

“If you want to lead, you’ll need to be trusted. One way to do that is to make promises openly and consistently—and then keep them.” Seth Godin

Conforming:
Racking up meaningless points: “Work and school and our leisure time are becoming an endless hamster wheel, with small treats doled out for behaviors that feed corporations, not our souls.” Seth Godin

“How many followers do you have online? How much can you fit in? Here’s today’s dot, go stand on it.” Seth Godin

Disrupt yourself:
“What got us here isn’t going to get us there.” Seth Godin

Microsoft, under Steve Ballmer, chose convenience over significance and nearly rendered themselves obsolete. 

“The people you hire to follow instructions are rarely the people who will help you build something of innovation and substance.” Seth Godin

“Great work creates more value than compliant work.” Seth Godin

“Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” Kathrin Jansen

Our job is to dance with fear: “And dancing with fear requires significance, tension, and the belief that we’re doing something that matters.” Seth Godin

“Change is the essence of work. Industrialism fears change; significant organizations cause it.” Seth Godin

“We don’t apologize for change because change is the point.” Seth Godin

Tension:
“Without tension, we wait. Without a deadline, we meander. Without urgency, it’s easier to stall.” Seth Godin

“Tension is not something to avoid. You can’t walk outside on a sunny day without casting a shadow, and you cannot create significant without encountering tension.” Seth Godin

“Significance is inconvenient.” Seth Godin

“You don’t need more time. You simply need to decide.” Seth Godin

Trust:
Joni Mitchell worked with Jaco Pastorius and Herbie Hancock on her breakthrough album, Mingus. Herbie asked Jaco if they were supposed to play the music as it was written. “She wants you to paint. That’s something you can do, Herbie. Paint.”

“Jaco and Herbie brought genius to that record. And Joni brought the guys to provide large blanks for them to paint.” Seth Godin

“Culture that is based on goodwill and connection is more resilient, faster moving, and more productive than one that is based on mystery, selfishness, and power. Don’t hoard. Don’t hoard information, interoperability, access, or love.” Seth Godin

Read Write Own – Chris Dixon

Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet by Chris Dixon
Date read: 5/12/24. Recommendation: 9/10.

Regardless of your views on web3, blockchain, and crypto, this is worth reading. Dixon discusses how the internet evolved, the pitfalls of big tech, and the three types of networks—protocol networks, corporate networks, and blockchains. As he explains, just as internet startups undercut the high prices of traditional businesses, blockchain networks expose the soft underbelly of corporate networks: high take rates. While the future won’t unfold exactly as he details, the book is a useful exercise in challenging ourselves to consider if there’s a better way. One where builders and creators reap more of the rewards from our work and our content, rather than being exploited by large technology companies. Remember, “If it’s free, then you’re the product.”

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Networks are the killer app of the internet:
Web, email, social apps, payment apps, marketplaces are all networks. 

Pitfalls of Big Tech:
How big tech architects networks: “To restrict and constrain startups, impose high rents on creators, and disenfranchise users. The negative effects of these design choices are threefold: (1) they stifle innovation; (2) they tax creativity; (3) they concentrate power and money in the hands of a few.” Chris Dixon

Facebook and Twitter cut off third-party companies that were building apps on their platforms in the early 2010s. No new startup activity takes place on top of social networks and no new startups have survived because the biggest platforms are anticompetitive.

Anticompetitive: “Amazon learns which products in its marketplaces are top sellers and then undercuts their makers with its own cheap basic versions…It would be as if Target controlled not just its store shelves but also the roads that all stores build on.” Chris Dixon

“If it’s free, then you’re the product.”

Network design:
Network design = the way nodes connect, interact, and form an overarching structure.

“Network design determines outcomes.” Chris Dixon

Three types of networks:
Protocol networks: open systems controlled by communities of software developers and other network stakeholders (email, web). Money and power flow to network edges, incentivizing systems to grow around them.

Corporate networks: owned and controlled by companies, instead of communities (Facebook, Uber, Venmo, etc). Similar to walled gardens that are controlled by a single groundskeeper or a cathedral. Money and power flow to the network center (companies who own the networks) and away from users and developers at network edges. 

Blockchains:  Software that governs a network of hardware devices and establishes inviolable rules, solving for problems where all power and money naturally flow to the middle (as with corporate networks), and better align incentives. Similar to a bazaar, rather than a cathedral or walled garden. “They can connect people in social networks while empowering users over corporate interests. They can underpin marketplaces and payment networks that facilitate commerce, but with persistently lower take rates. They can enable new forms of monetizable media, interoperable and immersive digital worlds, and artificial intelligence products that compensate—rather than cannibalize—creators.” Chris Dixon

“Asking ‘What problems do blockchains solve?’ Is like asking ‘What problems does steel solve over, say, wood?’ You can make a building our railway out of either. But steel gave us taller buildings, stronger railways, and more ambitious public works at the outset of the Industrial Revolution. With blockchains we can create networks that are fairer, more durable, and more resilient than the networks of today.” Chris Dixon

“Networks built on blockchains can combine the best features of prior networks, benefiting builders, creators, and consumers and ushering in a third era of the internet.” Chris Dixon

Blockchains:
“Whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on the periphery doing menial tasks, blockchains automate away the center. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer directly.” Vitalik Buterin 

“Blockchains are a software abstraction that overlay on top of physical devices. They’re state machines. Just as the meaning of “computers” once shifted from people to machines, so too has the term since encompassed not just hardware but software as well.” Chris Dixon

“Blockchains are by design resilient to manipulation. They are built on top of a network of physical computers that anyone can join, but that is extremely difficult for any one entity to control. These physical computers maintain the state of the virtual computer and control its transitions to new states. In Bitcoin these physical computers are called miners, but the more common term today is ‘validators’ since what they’re really doing is validating state transitions.” Chris Dixon

“Blockchains are useful for enabling coordination among people who don’t have preexisting relationships. They are most useful when they are not just multiplayer but massively multiplayer—in broad use across the internet.” Chris Dixon

Encourage bottom-up, emergent economies: “Token rewards are like land grants, incentives given to contributors for various activities. Tokens confer ownership, enshrining property rights. Take rates are like city taxes, fees the network charges for access and transactions. DAOs are like city governments, responsible for overseeing the development of infrastructure, resolving disputes, and allocating resources to maximize the network’s value.” Chris Dixon

“Blockchains provide a sensible organizational structure for networks. Tokens are the natural asset class.” Chris Dixon

Tokens:
“The read era of the internet was defined by the website which encapsulated information. The read-write era was defined by the post, which encapsulated publishing, making it easy for anyone, not just web developers to reach broad audiences. The internet’s latest phase—read-write-own era—is defined by a new simplifying concept: tokens, which encapsulate ownership.” Chris Dixon

“Blockchains represent a radical departure from the status quo. Through tokens, they flip the script on digital ownership—making users, rather than internet services, owners.” Chris Dixon

“In the physical world, people would be upset if they had to start over whenever they visited a new place. We take for granted that we have a persistent identity and can take objects from place to place. The concept of ownership is so deeply embedded in our lives that it’s difficult to imagine how the world would look if that were taken away. Imagine if the clothes you bought could be worn only in the venue you bought them in. What if you couldn’t resell or reinvest in your house or car? Or what if you had to change your name wherever you went? That is the digital world of corporate networks.” Chris Dixon

“The digital world would be a better place if ownership were as widespread there as it is in the physical world.” Chris Dixon

“Tokens have all earmarks of a disruptive technology. They are multiplayer, like websites and posts, the disruptive computing primitives of earlier internet eras. They become more useful as more people use them—a classic network effect that primes them to be much more than mere playthings. The blockchains that underpin them are also improving at a rapid rate, driven by platform-app feedback loops that generate compound growth. Tokens are programmable, so developers can extend and adapt them for myriad applications, such as social networks, financial systems, media properties, and virtual economies. They are also composable meaning people can reuse and recombine them in different contexts, amplifying their power.” Chris Dixon

Rewarding users for constructive contributions to the network: “Blockchain networks use token incentives to motivate developers.” Chris Dixon

“Tokens provide a new way to skip advertising and acquire customers through peer-to-peer evangelism. Tokens empower individuals to become stakeholders in networks, not just participants.” Chris Dixon

Authentic communities are the best way to go viral: “Bitcoin and Ethereal don’t have companies behind them, let alone marketing budgets, and yet tens of millions of people own their tokens.” Chris Dixon

“Blockchain networks bake community ownership into their core design.” Chris Dixon

Disruptive technologies:
“When disruptive technologies debut, they’re often dismissed as toys because they undershoot user needs.” Chris Dixon

This is the reason Western Union passed on acquiring the phone ; they couldn’t understand how rapidly it would improve and how it would serve its primary customers, businesses, and railroads. And the same thing happened with Dell and Microsoft with smartphones. 

Disruptive technologies are also misaligned with incumbent business models. No startup is going to beat Apple at making or selling better phones. “A more interesting startup idea would be something that makes phones less valuable. This is something Apple is far less likely to pursue.” Chris Dixon

Rise of corporate networks:
Early-mid 2000s everyone was building toward an open web with Web 2.0. Communicating through open APIs to improve the internet experience for users. Then the iPhone debuted, smartphones exploded, and power became concentrated with a select few. By 2013 Americans spent as much of their time on their phones looking at Facebook, as the entire rest of the web. Corporate networks shifted from “attract to extract” model, sacrificing interoperability and open ecosystems. It’s a natural progression, companies generally always do whatever it takes to maximize profits. Otherwise, they die.

Composability:
A property of software that allows smaller pieces to be assembled into larger compositions. “The power of composability is that once a piece of software is written, it never needs to be written again.” Chris Dixon

Composability hasn’t reached its full potential because the rules are constantly changing in corporate networks and developers need financial resources to host and run the software. Blockchain networks provide strong commitments that their prices and access rules won’t change. And the network itself covers its own costs by distributing token rewards to its validators. 

“Blockchain networks turn ‘Don’t be evil’ into ‘Can’t be evil.’ Their architecture provides strong guarantees that their data and code will forever remain open and remixable.” Chris Dixon

Take rates:
“Just as internet startups undercut the high prices of traditional businesses, blockchain networks expose the soft underbelly of corporate networks: high take rates.” Chris Dixon

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter share almost nothing with network participants, extracting about 99 percent of their networks’ primary revenue source, advertising. Great for their profit margins, but terrible for creators who provide content without reciprocation. 

“Early network participants create significant value for corporate networks, yet they rarely receive fair compensation for their efforts.” Chris Dixon

Popular blockchain networks (Ethereum, Uniswap, OpenSea) have very low take rates (0.06%-2.5%), allowing money to pass directly to network participants (users, developers, creators). 

“Thick networks claim more profits for the center of the network and create thin complementary layers, with lower profits, for creators and software developers. Thin networks do the opposite, generating less profit for the network core and more profit for complements.” Chris Dixon

“Roads should perform basic functions, but you don’t need them to be hotbeds of innovation…On the other hand, you do want lots of creative entrepreneurs building around the roads: creating new shops and restaurants, constructing new buildings, expanding neighborhoods, and so forth. Roads should be thin, and their surrounding should be thick. Social networks should be thin utilities, like roads. They need to support basic features and be reliable, performant, and interoperable. That’s about it. The rest of the features can be built around the network.” Chris Dixon

“The web developed as a thin network—and look at the results. The network itself is a simple protocol (HTTP), and all the innovation happens on top, at the level of websites.” Chris Dixon

“The broader societal goal should be to build new tech stacks where users, creators, and entrepreneurs are not squeezed but rewarded.” Chris Dixon

Counter arguments:
“A reasonable skeptic might doubt the viability of a specific network or whether the world needs blockchain networks at all. Maybe the internet has enough networks. Maybe corporate networks are sufficient and will keep winning, either because users are too locked in already or because they’ll always outcompete blockchains in areas like user experience.” Chris Dixon

Future:
“In 2007, the big question for mobile was, what kinds of mobile apps would matter? Today the big question for blockchains is, what kinds of blockchain networks will matter? Blockchain infrastructure only recently matured enough to support internet-scale applications. The industry is likely now nearing the end of its incubation phase and entering its growth phase. It is a good time to be asking what a killer blockchain network might look like.” Chris Dixon

“For the internet to be an accelerator of deep creativity, it needs a better economic engine. Creating new jobs isn’t just nice; it’s necessary. As new technologies like AI automate work, social networks can be a counterweight that provides people with fulfilling career opportunities.” Chris Dixon

How to Live – Derek Sivers

How to Live: 27 conflicting answers and one weird conclusion by Derek Sivers
Date read: 5/3/24. Recommendation: 9/10.

True to form, Derek Sivers offers a succinct, thought-provoking read that examines conflicting philosophies. The book considers independence AND commitment, orienting yourself toward the future AND placing greater value on what has endured, focusing on the immediate seconds in front of you AND thinking super-long-term. In the end, living well is about balance and holding competing ideas in mind.

Check out my notes below or Derek’s website to see top highlights and grab your copy.

My Notes:

Self-sufficiency:
“Whoever you blame has power over you, so blame only yourself.”

“You can’t be free without self-mastery.”

“If you are proud of what you made, it was a success.”

Commitment:
“You can stop seeking the best option. Pick one and irreversibly commit.” 

“When you can’t change your situation, you change your attitude towards it.”

“Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”

Trust:
“Trust helps your happiness more than income or health.”

“Be absolutely honest with everyone. Stop lying, completely. You lie when you’re afraid. You live to avoid consequences. Always say the truth. Take the painful consequences.” 

Stillness:
“In your most peaceful moments, your mind is quiet. You’re not thinking you should be doing anything else.”

“There’s no deeper happiness than wanting nothing.”

Perspective:
Loosen the grip your current concerns have over you: “A year from now, will it be important? Ten years from now? Zoom out as far as you need to make it unimportant. Then you’re free of it.”

Challenge:
“Striving makes you happy. Pursuit is the opposite of depression.” 

“Everything good comes from some kind of pain. Muscle fatigue makes you healthy and strong. The pain of practice leads to mastery. Difficult conversations save your relationships.” 

“Wealth brings the pain of responsibility. Fame brings the pain of expectations. Love brings the pain of attachment. If you avoid pain, you avoid what you really want.” 

Seek discomfort: “The softer the chair, the harder it is to get out of it.”

Communication:
“To communicate clearly, you have to think clearly. Writing is refined thinking.”

“Small talk is just a way of matching the other person’s tone and mood. It helps them be comfortable with you.”

“Whenever you’re thinking something nice about someone, tell them.”

Fulfillment:
“Shallow happy is what you want now. Deep happy is what you want most.”

“Shallow happy is trying to conquer the world. Deep happy is conquering yourself.”

Momentum:
“Don’t be the dragon in the mountain, just sitting on your gold. Don’t lose momentum in life. Once you’ve done it, take it with you and do something else.”

“Jump into action without hesitation or worry. You’ll be faster and do more than everyone else. What takes them a month will take you an hour, so you can do it ten times a day.” 

Create:
“The way to live is to create. Die empty. Get every idea out of your head and into reality.”

“Most people die with everything still inside of them.”

“Which would you rather be? Someone who hasn’t created anything in years because you’re so busy consuming? Or someone who hasn’t consumed anything in years because you’re so busy creating?”

“Originality just means hiding your sources.”

Moderation:
“Balancing everything is how to live.”

Hidden Genius – Polina Marinova Pompliano

Hidden Genius by Polina Marinova Pompliano
Date read: 4/8/24. Recommendation: 9/10.

After interviewing thousands of top performers, Pompliano has assembled the mental frameworks they use to navigate life and understand the world. This book surprised me in all the best ways because it feels like a practical, modern-day philosophy book. There’s no fluff, and it doesn’t rely on hacks, it’s about systems. Pompliano gives readers a no-nonsense guide to the art of living well. I loved the chapters on creativity, mental toughness, risk-taking, and embracing the constant act of self-discovery.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Creativity:
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect the experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” Steve Jobs

“But here’s the catch about doing something truly original: It’s sometimes messy, which makes it vulnerable to criticism—especially by incumbents.” Polina Marinova Pompliano

Mental toughness:
Accountability mirror: Face your insecurities to overcome them. When David Goggins wanted to become a Navy SEAL, he looked at himself in the mirror and said, “You’re fat, you’re lazy, and you’re a liar. What are you going to do about it?”

Voluntary hardship: Do something that sucks every single day. Helps you shift to offensive mindset and gets you out of comfortable routines. “I brainwashed myself into craving discomfort.” David Goggins

Choose the path of most resistance: “To exist in this world, we must contend with humiliation, broken dreams, sadness, and loss. That’s just nature. Each specific life comes with its own personalized portion of pain. It’s coming for you. You can’t stop it. And you know it.” David Goggins

Listening to yourself vs. talking to yourself: “When you listen to yourself, you hear all the negativity and all the reasons why you can’t go on…but when you talk to yourself, you can tell yourself the things you need to hear in order to overcome the challenge ahead of you.” Polina Marinova Pompliano

Control your inputs:
“Who wrote the software running in your head? Are you sure you actually want it there?” Elon Musk

Multidisciplinary approach:
“We think we are in this one-room house. Books help us realize we are in a mansion. Reading is a way to find the lost parts of us.” Matt Haig

Moving target:
“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you’ve ever been. The one constant in our lives is change.” Dan Gilbert

“In order to understand who you are, you must first understand who you are not.” Polina Marinova Pompliano

“Once we’ve reached a certain level of success, we get comfortable and complacent. We wrap our identities around jobs, relationships, and material possessions—all things we could lose. Over time, we begin to trust ourselves less, and leave our destinies in other people’s hands. It’s the one thing preventing us from unlocking our own hidden genius: We are scared to bet on ourselves.” Polina Marinova Pompliano

Broken Money – Lyn Alden

Broken Money by Lyn Alden
Date read: 4/2/24. Recommendation: 9/10.

Alden arms readers with an understanding of the evolution of money—where it came from, where it’s going, and what’s at its foundation. She digs into the modern financial system, financialization, the long-term debt cycle, currency debasement, and digital currency. It’s particularly relevant to today’s economic environment—in order to understand where we’re heading, we must understand how we got here and how things have transpired in the past. Similar to Ray Dalio’s The Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, in that regard, but far more detailed. A great read for those interested in finance, economics, and wealth preservation.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Primary question:
“Who controls the ledger?”

“The answer, geopolitically, is that in the telecommunication age, whichever country has the most economic and military prowess is likely to have the primary control over the world’s ledger, unless or until there is a better solution, or until no single nation is large enough to force its will onto the rest of the world.” Lyn Alden

Currency debasement:
“Problems inevitably arise in every realm, and time and time again authorities inevitably turn to the creation of more currency to soften those problems and devalue various debts in a non-transparent way.” Lyn Alden

“When the government establishes a central bank, and especially if it outlaws gold ownership, it takes monetary power away from the people and gives it almost entirely to the banks and government authorities. People at that point have limited ability to custody their own scarce and liquid assets, and instead must rely on the central banking ledger; they must therefore submit to the risks of currency debasement and must give up most of their privacy. Government officials can now more easily take purchasing power away from savers—not just through transparent taxation but also through non-transparent inflation of the money supply—and channel it toward their goals.” Lyn Alden

Governments learned taxes were too transparent, people could see what they were paying for. Whereas printing more money over time was less obvious and allowed them to achieve the same outcome. “…this new capability represented a tremendous power shift from those who use the ledger to those who control the ledger.” Lyn Alden

“Rather than blaming individual politicians for handling the budget of countries poorly or blaming individual central bankers for handling private sector credit poorly, I instead point mainly toward sound money principles being nearly impossible to implement with the current level of monetary technology that we’ve had over the past century and a half. With the ability for central banks to print fiat currency as needed, and the speed of hard physical monies (e.g., gold) being too slow to present a realistic alternative payment system compared to fiat currency ledgers, it inevitably shifted political incentives toward constant fiscal deficits, constant credit growth, and constant currency devaluation, with little or no resource for those who disliked this situation.” Lyn Alden

Gold vs. fiat:
20th century was the only time in history, on a global scale, where weaker money (fiat) won adoption over harder money (gold). “And it occurred because telecommunication systems introduced speed as a new variable into the competition. Gold, with its inherently slow speed of transport and authentication, couldn’t compete with the pound, the dollar, and other top fiat currencies with their combination of speed and convenience, despite gold being in scarcer supply.” Lyn Alden

Speed: “This mismatch or gap in speed had been a foundational reason for the greater and greater levels of financialization that the world has seen over the past century and a half.” Lyn Alden

World reserve currency:
Many people think there must be a world reserve currency…”The world is instead shifting toward a multipolar, neutral reserve currency system, rather than a system where one country issues far-and-away the most dominant world reserve currency. No country, whether the United States or China or anyone else, is big enough to issue a fiat currency that the whole world can use and would want to use. The only thing that can be big enough is a form of supranational money; one that has natural scarcity and is not issued by a government.” Lyn Alden

“No structure, even an artificial one, enjoys the process of entropy. It is the ultimate fate of everything, and everything resists it.” Philip K. Dick

Qualitative easing vs. qualitative tightening:
QE: The Federal Reserve can create new base money through QE. Creates new bank reserves out of thin air, buys existing assets like Treasuries or mortgage-backed securities with new reserves.

QT: The Federal Reserve can also decrease the amount of existing base money by performing QT. Sell Treasuries or mortgage-backed securities for reserves and therefore delete those reserves. 

Inflation:
2% inflation target = prices double every 35 years

Price deflation is a good thing: “Ongoing productivity gains should make prices lower over time, not higher. Central bankers do everything in their power to make sure prices keep going up. To put this another way, central bankers do everything in their power to ensure that deflationary productivity gains are continually offset by a greater amount of currency debasement, so that nominal prices of goods and service keep marching higher at a slow and steady pace despite becoming more efficient to produce.” Lyn Alden

But deflation is bad for highly leveraged financial systems. That’s why policymakers and economists fear it. 

“There is little or no political incentive to run a surplus in any near term, and so it is rarely ever done.” Lyn Alden

Bitcoin:
Volatility due to how new it is as an asset class. Monetized from zero to more than a trillion-dollar market cap in its first 12 years. Only held by small fraction of global population. “Only once it is closer to its total addressable market, with extremely high levels of liquidity and user adoption, can its notorious price volatility realistically diminish.” Lyn Alden

Guaranteed to be cyclical (higher-highs, higher-lows): “A new type of emerging money cannot be widely adopted quickly This is because if too many people adopt it at once, it drives up the price and incentivizes leveraged buyers to enter it. This leverage eventually causes a bubble to form and to pop, which sets the price back and disillusions people for a while until it builds the next base and grows from there. Due to the attachment of leverage, Bitcoin cannot realistically have a fast and smooth adoption curve like non-monetary technologies can.” Lyn Alden

Generations – Jean M. Twenge

Generations by Jean M. Twenge
Date read: 3/11/24. Recommendation: 9/10.

Questions the previously held view that generations are forged by events and instead suggests that generations are shaped, to a much greater degree, by the technology we grow up with and the underlying trend toward individualism and a slower life. Twenge’s goal is to demystify generational differences. She analyzes a huge amount of data over the past 100 years, covering gender, income, politics, marriage, etc. The entire book is fascinating but the recurring theme around the deterioration of mental health is particularly interesting to explore. Reading between the lines, there are lessons on how to protect your own well-being and better relate between generations. It’s relevant to everyone, but particularly important for parents.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Generational differences:
Major events don’t shape generations, technology does: “Generations differ because technology has radically changed daily life and culture, both directly and via technology’s daughters individualism and a slower life.” Jean M. Twenge

Focus of this book: demystifying generational differences may help reduce intergenerational conflict. 

“Gen Z doesn’t believe that gender is fluid because they were born after 9/11; they believe gender is fluid because that is the next step for an increasingly individualistic and online culture. Millennials aren’t marrying later because they were young during the Great Recession; they are marrying later because adult development has slowed as technology created the triple trends of more protected children, more years of education to prepare for information-age jobs, and medical advances enabling longer life spans. Gen Z isn’t depressed because of the economy; they’re depressed because smartphones and social media created an atmosphere of constant competition and severed them from in-person human interaction.” Jean M. Twenge

“Rising individualism waves through the story of each generation.” Jean M. Twenge — Silents harnessed this went they fought for abolition of racial segregation and overturned laws that discriminated based on gender. Boomers did when they protested the Vietnam War draft and challenged rules about what women could/couldn’t do. Gen X’ers valued self-confidence and harbored distrust. Millennials took positive self-views to another level and supported LGB rights. Gen Z makes the argument that everyone can choose their gender, and there are more than two. 

Individualism: “Mask mandates were a difficult sell in a culture that had embraced full-throated individualism for five decades.” Jean M. Twenge

“All cultural systems have trade-offs, and individualism has brought Americans a culture with unprecedented freedom, diverse voices, and a belief that people can be who they want to be. However, it also created more distrust of others, and a fragmented social fabric. Leaving social rules behind to favor the individual brings both freedom and chaos, both liberation and disconnection.” Jean M. Twenge

Slow life: This has grown with each generation, delaying traditional milestones. Children are now safer but less independent. “By the time Gen Z came along, the slow-life strategy was at full scream, with driving, working, and even sex delayed.” Jean M. Twenge

“We have taken technology’s priceless gift of time and used it to watch funny videos and lust after other people’s lives—diverting but not always enlightening or beneficial.” Jean M. Twenge

“As the primary instigator of generational and cultural change, technology presents the ultimate trade-off. Technology has given us instant communication, unrivaled convenience, and the most precious prize of all: longer lives with less drudgery. At the same time technology has isolated us from each other, sowed political division, fueled income inequality, spread pervasive pessimism, widened generation gaps, stolen our attention, and is the primary culprit for a mental health crisis among teens and young adults. This is the challenge for all six generations in the decades to come: to find a way for technology to bring us together instead of driving us apart.” Jean M. Twenge

Silents (born 1925-1945):
The most mentally resilient generation we’ve seen…they married young, which created challenges but led them to have children and value family, key protective factors against mental distress as you age. 

Boomers (born 1946-1964):
Whether or not someone experiences depression, has an enormous amount to do with the surrounding culture. It’s extremely rare in traditional hunter-gatherer tribes, as well as traditional agricultural societies. It’s what clinical psychologist Steve Ilardi calls “a disease of civilization.” 

Boomers were far more likely than previous generations to suffer from depression and poor mental health. Contributing factors were unprecedented acceleration in individualism and technology. More specifically, television allowed people to begin forming unrealistically high expectations. Boomers were the first generation that grew up with TV and were bombarded with advertising from a very young age of all the things they should want or aspire to be like. Trend would only accelerate with rise of social media and reality TV in the 21st century. 

“We blindly accept soaring expectations for the self—as if some idiot raised the ante on what it takes to be a normal human being.” Martin Seligman, Psychology Today, 1988

Boomers explored individualism through groups (seminars, protests, festivals): “For Boomers, self-focus was new: Most grew up in the more collectivistic 1950s and early 1960s, so the individualism of the late 1960s and 1970s was uncharted territory. To this day, Boomers frequently talk about the self in terms of a ‘journey’ or a ‘voyage.’” Jean M. Twenge

Generation X (born 1965-1979):
“For Gen X, though, individualism wasn’t a journey—they were born at the destination…Gen X learned from their Silent and Boomer parents that the self came first.” Jean M. Twenge

Rise of self-confidence: In early 1950s, 12% of teens agreed with statement “I am an important person.” By the late 1980s, 80% of teens agreed. And while self-confidence doesn’t predict success, it does help protect against depression. And depression plateaued between Boomers and Gen X’ers. Potentially because of resilience built during their free-roaming childhoods and independent teen years.

Millennials (born 1980-1994):
Raised the stakes on the individual self…went from important to paramount. 

First generation in American history where the majority of 25-39 year-olds are not married (roughly 45%).

Mental health: happy as teens, depressed as adults. Last generation that remembers growing up and not being connected all the time. Shaped their lives, but did not define their earliest memories.

Mid 2010s, rates of depression among Millennials began to soar. Lots of contributing factors, but again, ballooning expectations had something to do with it and the level of disappointment many faced in their adult lives. Social media and the online outrage machine was in full swing. Marriage and religion tanked, and along with it social bonds and community offered by those institutions. Technology changed the way people judged their lives and stripped away in-person interactions.

“In the individualistic culture Millennials have known all their lives, individual freedom is valued over the tight social bonds of institutions like marriage and religion. Although individualism has many upsides, its risks include isolation and loneliness and their bedfellows unhappiness and depression. The lone self is a weak foundation for robust mental health: humans need social relationships to be happy and fulfilled in life. That is especially true as people age past young adulthood. This might be why Millennials were happier as teens but not as adults—individualism and freedom feel good when you are young but empty when you are older.” Jean M. Twenge

Outrage machine: “Bad news, anxiety-provoking news, and news that incites anger sells, none of which is good for mental health.” Jean M. Twenge

“Millennials’ lives and mental health have been influenced by online interaction, but most spent their formative years before it completely took over. Who did spend their teen years in the age of the smartphone? That would be Gen Z.” Jean M. Twenge

Generation Z (born 1995-2012):
Concerned with authenticity, confronting free speech issues, pushing the norms of gender, and struggling with mental health.

Gender: Gen Z young adults are much more likely to identify as either trans or nonbinary than other generations. Only 1 out of 1,000 Boomers identify as trans, 23 out of 1,000 Gen Z young adults do. 

Mental health: Number of teens and young adults with clinical-level depression more than doubled between 2011 and 2021—full-blown mental health crisis that was building long before COVID. Increase in mental health issues is a generational shift. And it began appearing in the early 2010s. 

Early 2010s were defined by smartphones and social media. Went from optional to mandatory. “The case for technology, especially social media, causing the rise in mental health issues among young people relies on four primary pieces of evidence: 1) timing, 2) impact on day-to-day life, 3) group-level effects, and 4) the impact on girls.” Jean M. Twenge

“Teen depression and digital media use increased in lockstep. Internet use, social media use, and smartphone ownership rose as depression rose.” Jean M. Twenge

Consistent across countries and geographies…UK, Canada, Australia, US. 

Isolation: Average teen spent more than 8.5 hours a day with screen media in 2021. Digital communication took over, became the norm, and squashed in-person gatherings. Teens spend less time with each other (hanging out, driving, going to parties). 

“TV time is only weakly linked to unhappiness and gaming (which is more popular among boys) is pretty much a wash until it reaches 5 hours a day. But unhappiness starts to trend upward after just an hour a day of social media use for girls.” Jean M. Twenge

“Believing that the cards are stacked against you is an example of what psychologists call external locus of control. If you have internal locus of control, you believe you are in control of your life. An external locus of control is the opposite: the belief that nothing matters, because it’s all up to luck and powerful other people to determine what happens. That is unfortunately occasionally true, but it’s also a defeatist way of looking at the world—and it’s more common among Gen Z.” Jean M. Twenge

Relentless – Tim Grover

Relentless by Tim S. Grover
Date read: 3/4/24. Recommendation: 8/10.

Having trained and worked with some of the greatest athletes for decades—Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade—Grover details their mindsets, how they operate, and what drives them. The common thread between top performers is that they’re relentless, ruthless, and trust their instincts. It’s a great counter to many of today’s popular self-help books that talk about reducing stress, embracing slow productivity, and maintaining balance. Grover shares insightful, counterintuitive advice on running towards stress, imposing your standards, and seeking respect over friendship. Not for everyone, but if you’re in the mood for a book about cultivating a killer mindset, check this one out.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

On criticism that his book isn’t prescriptive enough:
“‘It doesn’t tell you what to do.’ That is 100 percent accurate. Why should anyone want to be told what to do? The whole point of this book is that in order to be successful, to truly have what you want in your life, you must stop waiting to be told what to do and how to do it. Your goals, your decisions, your commitment. If you can’t see the end result, how can anyone else see it for you?” Tim Grover

Trusting yourself:
Working with NBA legends: “He flew two thousand miles to hear these two words: Don’t think.” Tim Grover

“This book is about following those instincts, facing the truth, and getting rid of the excuses that stand between you and your goals.” Tim Grover

“Here’s the key: I’m not going to tell you how to change. People don’t change. I want you to trust who you already are…” Tim Grover

“When you become too focused on what’s going on around you, you lose touch with what’s going on deep inside you.” Tim Grover

Standards:
“From this point, your strategy is to make everyone else get on your level; you’re not going down to theirs. You’re not competing with anyone else, ever again. They’re going to have to compete with you.” Tim Grover

“Physical dominance can make you great. Mental dominance is what ultimately makes you unstoppable.” Tim Grover

Cleaners:
Most intense, driven competitors. Refuse limitations. Do whatever it takes. Addiction to success defines you.

“Why do I call them Cleaners? Because they take responsibility for everything. When something goes wrong, they don’t blame others because they never really count on anyone else to get the job done in the first place.” Tim Grover

Dark side:
“Cleaners have a dark side, and a zone you can’t enter. They get what they want, but they pay for it in solitude. Excellence is lonely. They never stop working, physically or mentally, because it gives them too much time to think about what they’ve had to endure or sacrifice to get to the top.” Tim Grover

All Cleaners have slow-burning anger, but it never becomes blind rage. Channel this into results, staying steady and unemotional. Get to work. 

“A Cleaner thinks, if I’m feeling nervous, how the fuck are they feeling? They have to deal with me.” Tim Grover

Pressure:
“Most people run from stress. I run to it. Stress keeps you sharp, it challenges you in ways you never imagined and forces you to solve issues and manage situations that send weaker people running for cover. You can’t succeed without it. Your level of success is defined by how well you embrace it and manage it.” Tim Grover

“Everyone wants to cut back on stress, because stress kills. I say bullshit. Stress is what brings you to life. Let it motivate you, make you work harder. Use it, don’t run from it.” Tim Grover

Presence:
“The loudest guy in the room is the one with the most to prove, and no way to prove it. A Cleaner has no need to announce his presence; you’ll know he’s there by the way he carries himself.” Tim Grover

Respect, not friendship: “Kobe rarely goes out with teammates, he’d rather work out or watch game film. And he’d much rather have your respect than your friendship. Michael was the same, so was Bird. They relied on their small inner circles of trusted friends—not teammates—who didn’t need to be entertained or impressed.” Tim Grover

Make your own decisions:
“To Cleaners, trusting others is the same as giving up control, and they usually have a painfully hard time with that. Cleaners have this in common: at some point they learned they could only trust themselves…it forced them to rely on the sheer power of their gut instinct, and they realized that to survive and succeed, they could never take their hands off the wheel.” Tim Grover

“Michael was insistent on handling his own responsibilities. He didn’t wait for a security guy or a driver or a stylist or a ticket manager to take care of things; he took care of things himself. I’m always amazed to see superstars who can’t do anything on their own; they hand over all of their responsibilities to others, and then they’re surprised when they don’t get the results they wanted.” Tim Grover

The truth is simple:
“The truth is simple. It requires no explanation, analysis, rationale, or excuse; it’s just a simple statement that leaves no doubt…But highly successful people rarely get to hear the truth; they’re surrounded by assistants and security and aides and the PHDs who go to tremendous lengths to keep their place in the circle of trust by managing the truth, shoveling polite opinions and puffy compliments, and generally keeping the boss happy.” Tim Grover

Same as Ever – Morgan Housel

Same as Ever by Morgan Housel
Date read: 1/29/24. Recommendation: 8/10.

People are obsessed with trying to predict the future. In Same as Ever, Morgan Housel cautions us against trying to predict specific events and instead focus on predicting people’s behaviors, which have remained the same for thousands of years. We still respond to fear, greed, uncertainty, and social persuasion in the same ways that we always have. If we want to understand a rapidly changing world, it’s far more effective to focus on what stays the same. Each of the 23 short stories in this book offers a different framework to help us understand risks, consider opportunities, and build more meaningful lives. We would all benefit from spending more time reflecting on the wisdom we’ve earned through our past.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Focus of the book:
Base predictions on people’s behaviors, not specific events. “Predicting what the world will look like fifty years from now is impossible. But predicting that people will still respond to greed, fear, opportunity, exploitation, risk, uncertainty, tribal affiliations, and social persuasion in the same way is a bet I’d take.” Morgan Housel

In victory, know when to stop:
“An important life skill is getting the goalpost to stop moving. It’s also one of the hardest.” Morgan Housel

Moderation:
“Money buys happiness in the same way drugs bring pleasure: incredible if done right, dangerous if used to mask a weakness, and disastrous when no amount is enough.” Morgan Housel

Challenging assumptions:
“You gotta challenge all assumptions. If you don’t, what is doctrine on day one becomes dogma forever after.” John Boyd

Evaluate probabilities and play to the 51%:
“Most people get that certainty is rare, and the best you can do is make decisions in which the odds are in your favor….But few people actually use probability in the real world, especially when judging others’ success.” Morgan Housel

Uncertainty blinds us:
People claim they want an accurate understanding of the future. But this is a lie. They want certainty. And they will ignore reality to get here. 

“We need to believe we live in a predictable, controllable world, so we turn to authoritative-sounding people who promise to satisfy that need.” Morgan Housel

Patience + scarcity:
“Most great things in life—from love to careers to investing—gain their value from two things: patience and scarcity. Patience to let something grow, and scarcity to admire what it grows into.” Morgan Housel

It’s supposed to be hard:
Pain is a necessary, important part of life. The more you come to accept this, rather than always seeking shortcuts, the better off you’ll be.

Seinfeld on getting asked if he could have outsourced writing to a consulting company like McKinsey to keep the show going: “If you’re efficient, you’re doing it the wrong way. The right way is the hard way. The show was successful because I micromanaged it—every word, every line, every take, every edit, every casting.” 

“If you can get your work life to where you enjoy half of it, that is amazing. Very few people ever achieve that.” Jeff Bezos

Margin of safety:
“The purpose of the margin of safety is to render the forecast unnecessary.” Benjamin Graham

Master of Change – Brad Stulberg

Master of Change by Brad Stulberg
Date read: 1/22/24. Recommendation: 9/10.

The modern self-help twist on Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile. Stulberg explores “rugged flexibility,” arming readers with the mindset they need to navigate a rapidly changing world and thrive in, rather than resist, life’s instability. The result is a similar concept to antifragility but packaged in a way that’s more accessible than Taleb’s framing. Stulberg offers readers a system for embracing change and leans on stories from artists, athletes, and scientists to bring his ideas to life.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Adaptation:
“In the vast majority of situations, healthy systems do not rigidly resist change; rather, they adapt to it, moving forward with grace and grit.” Brad Stulberg

Allostasis: Stability through change. Term coined by Peter Sterling (neuroscientist) and Jospeh Eyer (biologist).

“Following disorder, living systems crave stability, but they achieve that stability somewhere new.” Brad Stulberg

Rugged flexibility:
Stulberg’s equivalent of Nassim Taleb’s “antifragility.” See Antifragile book notes for references.

Applies non-dual thinking to stability and change: “To be rugged is to be tough, determined, and durable. To be flexible is to consciously respond to altered circumstances or conditions, to adapt and bend easily without breaking.” Brad Stulberg

“This is rugged flexibility, the quality you need to become a master of change, to successfully navigate disorder and chaos and endure over the long haul.” Brad Stulberg

Resisting change:
“Remember, life is change. If you fear change, then, in many ways, you fear life—and chronic fear becomes toxic both in self and in the culture at large.” Brad Stulberg

Reality is your friend:
“Once you accept something as an immutable reality in the present moment, you give yourself to stop wishing it away or trying to manipulate it on your terms. This allows you to direct all of your energy toward acceptance and moving forward.” Brad Stulberg

Dopamine Nation – Anna Lembke

Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke
Date read: 1/3/24. Recommendation: 8/10.

Dopamine Nation is categorized as a clinical psychology book, and it is certainly that, offering strategies for those struggling with addiction, depression, and anxiety. But it’s equal parts philosophy. Lembke reflects on the modern world where we have constant access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli—everything from social media and news to drugs and food. And she offers a refreshing perspective, challenging us to embrace pain and its importance in our lives, rather than numbing ourselves at the first sign of discomfort. As her book notes, our obsession with empathy has run wild and must be paired with accountability if we want to drive lasting change and live more balanced lives.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

I do whatever I want, whenever I want:
“Over the past three decades, I have seen growing numbers of patients like David and Kevin who appear to have every advantage in life—supportive facilities, quality education, financial stability, good health—yet developing debilitating anxiety, depression, and physical pain. Not only are they not functioning to their potential; they’re barely able to get out of bed in the morning.” Anna Lembke

Pain is necessary:
“Prior to the 1900s, doctors believe some degree of pain was healthy….By contrast, doctors today are expected to eliminate all pain lest they fail their role as compassionate healers. Pain in any form is considered dangerous, not just because it hurts but also because it’s thought to kindle the brain for future pain by leaving a neurological wound that never heals.” Anna Lembke

We spend our entire lives running from pain and even the slightest discomfort, trying to distract ourselves each step of the way. 

“The reason we’re all so miserable may be because we’re working so hard to avoid being miserable.” Anna Lembke

“Pain to treat pain. Anxiety to treat anxiety.” Anna Lembke

“What if, instead of seeking oblivion by escaping from the world, we turn toward it? What if instead of leaving the world behind, we immerse ourselves in it?” Anna Lembke

Assuming responsibility: 
Victim narrative: “Patients who tell stories in which they are frequently the victim, seldom bearing responsibility for bad outcomes, are often unwell and remain unwell. They are too busy blaming others to get down to the business of their own recovery. By contrast, when my patients start telling stories that accurately portray their responsibility, I know they’re getting better.” Anna Lembke

“One of the jobs of good psychotherapy is to help people tell healing stories…We as mental health care providers have become so caught up in the practice of empathy that we’ve lost sight of the fact that empathy without accountability is a shortsighted attempt to relieve suffering.” Anna Lembke

“But if the therapist can help the patient take responsibility if not for the event itself, then for how they react to it in the here and now, that patient is empowered to move forward with their life.” Anna Lembke

How to Know a Person – David Brooks

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
Date read: 11/20/23. Recommendation: 8/10.

David Brooks has been my favorite author this year—his focus on the messiness of life and learning to invest more of yourself in what matters just hits differently as you get older. I absolutely loved The Road to Character and enjoyed this latest book just as much. As Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen…” And to be clear, most of us suck at this. Myself included. But Brooks offers a practical guide and exploration of how we can try to develop one of the most important skills we can invest in—learning how to truly see and illuminate another person.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

The power of being seen:
“There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.” David Brooks

“In how you see me, I will learn to see myself.” David Brooks

“The purpose of this book is to help us become more skilled at the art of seeing others and making them feel seen, heard, and understood.” David Brooks

“To be able to understand people and be present for them in their experience—that’s the most important thing in the world.” Mary Pipher

Pitfalls:
“On social media you can have the illusion of social contact without having to perform the gestures that actually build trust, care, and affection. On social media, simulation replaces intimacy. There is judgment everywhere and understanding nowhere.” David Brooks

“Politics doesn’t make you a better person; it’s about outer agitation, not inner formation. Politics doesn’t humanize. If you attempt to assuage your sadness, loneliness, or anomie through politics, it will do nothing more than land you in a world marked by sadistic striving for domination. You may try to escape a world of isolation and moral meaninglessness, only to find yourself in the pulverizing destructiveness of the culture wars.” David Brooks

Illumination:
“Respect is a gift you offer with your eyes.” David Brooks

“Nothing in life is of any value except the attempt to be virtuous.” Iris Murdoch

Interpretation:
“Experience is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happens to you.” Aldous Huxley

Stop asking “What happened to this person?” Start asking “How do they interpret what happened? How do they construct their reality?”

“We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.” Anaïs Nin

“A person is a point of view. Every person you meet is a creative artist who takes the events of life and, over time, creates a very personal way of seeing the world.” David Brooks

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” George Bernard Shaw

Identity:
If you find what is sacred to a person, there you will find rampant irrationality (paraphrasing psychologist Jonathan Haidt). “A person with an overreactive defense architecture is thinking, My critics or opponents are not just wrong, they are evil.” David Brooks

“Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve.” Thornton Wilder

Be Water, My Friend – Shannon Lee

Be Water, My Friend by Shannon Lee
Date read: 11/9/23. Recommendation: 9/10.

Be Water, My Friend captures a loyal Bruce Lee fan base, but Shannon Lee’s enthusiasm for her father’s philosophy and her personal commentary delivers a book that holds its own. The core tenet of the book is that fluidity leads to growth and evolution. Martial arts reflect personal growth in this way and there’s no better teacher than Bruce Lee. The emphasis on “life is motion, find a way to move with it” builds upon ideas in the Tao of Jeet Kune Do, but in an accessible way for an audience who might be more interested in philosophy than martial arts. Beautiful sections on awareness, enthusiasm, experimentation, purpose, and movement. One of my favorite books that I’ve read all year.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Bruce Lee’s background:
Martial arts was his chosen love, started practicing wing chun gung fu in Hong Kong at 13 years old, and he practiced every day until his death at 32. 

His sifu (teacher) was Yip Man, who was trying to teach a fiery young Bruce Lee the importance of gentleness, fluidity, and pliability, not just strength and cunning. 

“Never assert yourself against nature. Never be in frontal opposition to any problem, but control it by swinging with it.” Yip Man

Movement:
Bruce Lee lived every aspect of his life according to the philosophy of movement. He was interested in concepts and tools that applied to real-life situations. “He didn’t deal in points earned or light touches landed, as was the style of the day in high-level competitions. He called that kind of point-oriented, competitive fighting, with so many rules on how to score without causing injury, ‘dryland swimming.’” SL

“Like flowing water, life is perpetual movement.” Bruce Lee

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” Heraclitus

Awareness:
“For many of us, life happens to us. We get trapped in unconscious patterns of living and forget that there are, in fact, many choices and many ways to be fully involved in the creation of our lives. To say it another way, we want to be fully alive versus merely subsisting. And to do that, we have to be paying attention.” SL

Movement is life: “Pliability is life; rigidity is death, whether we are speaking of the body, the mind, or the spirit. Be pliable.” Bruce Lee

“Don’t put all your focus and energy into your career so that one day you will be content and happy. Work on being content and happy and bring that into your career and the rest of your life.” SL

Purpose:
What you do and who you are is not as important as how you express your “what” and your “who” in everything you do. SL

Self-actualization: “It is to know oneself and express the uniqueness of oneself for the world with such skill and with such ease that, like water, it will flow naturally from you.” SL

“And you don’t get to express your best self out in the world without a healthy dose of personal inventory and integrity. It takes work to make your insides match your outsides.” SL

“But only you will really ever know whether your life was good for you.” SL

“All goals apart from the means are an illusion. There will never be means to ends, only means.” Bruce Lee

“Life is a process, not a goal; a means but not an end; a constant movement rather than an established pattern.” Bruce Lee

Letter at age 21: “I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence, greater than determination, greater than vision. It is all of these combined. My brain becomes magnetized with this dominating force, which I hold in my hand.” Bruce Lee

Martial arts:
“Proficiency in martial arts is the practice of keeping centered and skillfully responsive under the direst of circumstances: the threat of physical harm.” SL

Yin and yang:
Not opposites, but complements. They work together to form a whole. “And so it is with water. Water is gentle yet powerful. Soft, yet strong. Flowing, yet deep. And so it is with life.” SL

Experimentation:
(Before JKD) By 1964, Bruce Lee had established a second martial arts school in Oakland, CA, called the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute (another was in Seattle) where he taught a slightly modified form of wing chun, the martial art he had learned in Hong Kong as a teenager. “I say ‘slightly modified’ because my father had started to contemplate and experiment with shifts in technique—these were very small deviations from the traditional norm, such as a slight angling of the foot here, more movement at the waist there, quicker initiation of movement in response to an opponent.” SL

But he was still just 24 years old at the time and a bit of a loudmouth. “He was also bucking tradition in ways that annoyed the Chinese kung fu old guard in San Francisco’s Chinatown community. My father would give demonstrations at the Sun Sing Theater in Chinatown, and he would talk loudly and brashly about how many of the Chinese Martial arts were bogged down by unnecessary, wasted motions, using the term ‘classical mess’ repeatedly to disparage other traditional kung fu styles. He would then challenge people to come up onstage and see if they could best his technique.” SL

“As if that weren’t enough to ruffle feathers, he also opened his schools to people of all races and backgrounds. In the eyes of the kung fu establishment, traditions were meant to be adhered to, and while the occasional non-Chinese might find their way into Chinese kung fu classes from time to time, there was certainly not an open-door policy to the general public. Bruce was disrespectful ‘ruining’ the old ways, and for the traditionalists in Chinatown, this would not stand.” SL

“In late 1964, the San Francisco Chinatown community issues a challenge against my father. They’d had enough of this bold young man and his rebellious ways, and they were going to do what they could to silence him. They proposed a challenge match to be fought at my father’s school in Oakland. If their champion won, Bruce Lee would cease teaching, and if my father won, he could continue on unimpeded.” Page 57 for full story. 

Bruce Lee won the fight, which lasted three minutes, after his opponent took off running after the exchange of initial blows. Lee had to grab hold and attack him from behind while running, something traditional martial arts hadn’t prepared him for. Despite the victory, he was disheartened that traditional wing chun hadn’t prepared him for this “anything goes” scenario. The traditional practices were too specialized, too rigid. This was the great revelation of his martial arts career and led to the seeds of jeet kune do. 

Jeet kune do (JKD):
Jeet kune do = the way of the intercepting fist.

“When my father created his martial art of jeet kune do (JKD), he took great care to establish deep philosophical principles to accompany it. These philosophies were meant to engage the mind and the spirit as well as the body and were a key component to guarding against rote drilling and perfunctory training. JKD emphasizes formless and non-telegraphic movement—movement that happens so instantaneously and in perfect response to the actual situation that the opponent cannot see what’s coming. The philosophy attached to JKD is meant to root the practitioner in a fluid and present state to keep him or her flexible and capable of initiating and responding to change. And one can only respond to change if one has enough mobility in approach to do so.” SL

Starting ideating on JKD in 1965, formally named it in 1967. 

One of the first teachings of JKD is the on-guard position. It was the starting stance from which all movement ignites. It was based on his study and understanding of the laws of physics and biomechanics, as well as other combative arts—wing chun, boxing, fencing. Bruce Lee saw a certain amount of tension as a necessary component of being on guard. You’re coiled, ready to strike. Not too rigid, not too relaxed. 

Purposefully unbalancing yourself: “To be balanced is to be more or less at rest. Action, then, is the art or method of unbalancing toward keeping oneself moving forward, learning and growing.” Bruce Lee

When Bruce Lee started JKD, it was an extremely unorthodox approach for fighting arts of the time. He advocated for forgetting what you think you already know, emptying your mind, and making room to let knew information in. This doesn’t mean forgetting. It means opening your mind and your approach to each experience with a willingness to consider something new. 

“Never be for or against. The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind’s worst disease. Do not like or dislike, an all will then be clear.” Bruce Lee

When developing JKD, looked to standard martial arts for inspiration and information, but also looked beyond at Western boxing, fencing, biomechanics, and philosophy. 

“He admired the simplicity of boxing, incorporating its ideas into his footwork and his upper-body tools (jab, cross, hook, bob, weave, etc.). And from fencing, he began by looking at the footwork, range, and timing of the stop hit and the riposte, both techniques that meet attacks and defenses with preemptive moves. From biomechanics, he studied movement as a whole, seeking to understand the physical laws of motion while understanding biological efficiencies and strengths…He was open to all inspiration and all possibilities.” SL

Core tenants of JKD: “Research your own experience. Reject what is useless. Accept what is useful. And add what is essentially your own.” Bruce Lee

Art of relaxed concentration: “The warrior’s instinct was not to be confused with animal instinct. Like a visceral reaction, it came from a combination of wisdom and discipline. It was an ultimate reasoning that went beyond reason, the ability to make the right move in a split second without going through the process of thinking.” Eiji Yoshikawa

Jeet kune do requires us to be the quintessential version of ourselves. 

Reality is your friend:
Despite feeling troubled after the Oakland fight, he could have pushed that off to the side without examining it. But he did examine and turn it over. “But because he took heed and gave serious attention to the entirety of his experience, in particular the troubling bits, he created a new art form and philosophy and went on to change the landscape of martial arts globally.” SL

Let the problem lead you: “We shall find truth when we examine the problem. The problem is never apart from the answer; the problem is the answer.” Bruce Lee

Pure seeing versus sticky mind:
Pure seeing = not projecting your own preferences and opinions during an experience so you can see it for what it is. Similar to Scout Mindset by Julia Galef.

Sticky mind = moment in an encounter when you get stuck trying to enforce some strategy you have that’s separate from what’s actually happening in the present moment. In martial arts this often reveals itself when fighters get caught up in what they want the fight to be, rather than what the fight actually is as its unfolding. And this spells disaster, as you’re unable to demonstrate the flow, presence, maturity, or ability to respond appropriately. Your mind is stuck. Your cup is too full. Bruce lee advocates for “emptying your cup.”

Workouts:
March 27, 1968, Bruce Lee did 500 punches with his right hand, 250 punches with his left, series of ab exercises, 7 sets of leg raises, sit-ups, sidebends. Did another 500 punches with his right hand, 250 with his left. Cycled two miles, followed by one more set of 500 punches with his right hand. 

Enthusiasm is king:
“When we are enthusiastic, we are inspired by life. We are in joy; we are eager.” SL

Born Standing Up – Steve Martin

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Date read: 10/18/23. Recommendation: 9/10.

Steve Martin details his early years, influences, and the lightning strike of his stand-up success that was decades in the making. I love studying people who you can tell are doing what they believe they were meant to be doing. Martin is certainly one of them. His story resonates on many levels—finding something that feels true in childhood, taking risks to eliminate a nagging sense of what if, imitating your way to originality, struggling to find consistency, and eventually reaching a place where your craft no longer serves you like it once did and relearning how to find your way forward. Entertaining, insightful, and one of the best comedic biographies out there.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Influences:
TV had a huge influence on Steve, it’s where he found Laurel and Hardy, who were clever and gentle. That’s where he learned that jokes are funniest when played upon oneself. He watched Jack Benny’s variety show and learned how funny a slow burn was. He would watch The Red Skelton Show and memorize Red’s routines and perform them the next day during “sharing time” at grade school. 

Disneyland:
Summer of 1955, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA. They were hiring kids Steve’s age to sell guidebooks on weekends and during the summer in the park. Steve pedaled his bicycle two miles to Disneyland, was pointed toward a souvenir stand a few steps inside the main gate, spoke with a vendor named Joe, and got the job. He was issued a candy-striped shirt, a garter for his sleeve, a vest with a watch pocket, a straw boater hat, and stack of guidebooks. They were sold at 25 cents each and he received two cents per book. Earning up to two dollars every day. They were sold in the morning when people poured through the gates. By noon he was done but didn’t have to leave, had free admission the the park. Became a regular employee at age 10.

As he wandered Disney and found shortcuts and hidden treasures, two places captivated him. “One was Merlin’s Magic Shop, just inside the Fantasyland castle gate, where a young and funny magician named Jim Barlow sold and demonstrated magic tricks. The other was Pepsi-Cola’s Golden Horseshoe Revue in Frontierland, where Wally Boag, the first comedian I ever saw in person, piled a hilarious trade of gags and offbeat skills such as gun twirling and balloon animals, and brought the house down when he turned his wig around backward. He wowed every audience every time.” SM

“Here I had my first lessons in performing, though I never was on the stage. I absorbed Wally Boag’s timing, saying his next line in my head…I studied where the big laughs were, learned how Wally got the small ones, and saw the tiny nuances that kept the thing alive between lines. Wally shone in these performance, and in my first shows, I tried to imitate his amiable casualness.” SM

“Merlin’s Magic Shop was the next best thing to the cheering audiences at the Golden Horseshoe. Tricks were demonstrated in front of crowds of two or three people, and twenty-year-old Jim Barlow took the concept of a joke shop fay beyond what the Disney brass would have officially allowed…I loitered in the shop so often that Jim and I became buddies as I memorized his routines, and I wanted more than ever to be a magician.” SM

“With any spare money I had, I bought tricks, memorized their accompanying standard patter, and assembled a magic show that I would perform for anyone who would watch, mostly my parents and their tolerant bridge partners.” SM

At age 15 (August 1960), a job opened up at the magic shop and Steve got the gig. “I stood behind a counter eight hours a day, shuffling Svengali decks, manipulating Wizard decks and Mental Photography cards and performing the Cups and Balls trick on a rectangle of padded green felt. A few customers would gather, usually a young couple on a date, or a mom and dad with kids. I tried my first jokes—all lifted from Jim’s funny patter—and had my first audience that wasn’t friends or family.” SM

As he demonstrated tricks 8-12 hours/day, started to improve, channeling his impression of Jim. 

Later a man named Dave Steward took over as manager of Merlin’s, a former vaudeville performer, whom Steve learned a lot from. Like his opening joke, the glover into dove trick where he threw a white magician’s glove into the air, it hit the floor and lay there, he stared at its then went onto his next trick. First time Steve had seen laughter created out of absence so he borrowed this and used it in his own routine. 

Steve learned to throw everything at the audience, costumes, lights, music, everything. But originality was not yet on his mind. He started to lean more into comedy, because that seemed to have a clearer path forward, like Stan Laurel, Jack Benny, or Wally Boag. And advanced magic tricks cost too much. 

Knott’s Berry Farm:
At age 18, Knott’s Berry Farm needed entertainers with short acts. Steve auditioned with his thin magic act at a small theater and got the job at the Bird Cage Theatre. 

“At the Bird Cage, I formed the soft, primordial core of what became my comedy act. Over the three years I worked there, I strung together everything I knew including Dave Steward’s glove into dove trick, some comedy juggling, a few standard magic routines, a banjo song, and some very old jokes. My act was eclectic, and it took ten more years for me to make sense of it. However, the opportunity to perform four and five times a day gave me confidence and poise.” 

Over time learned it was not magic he was interested in but performing in general. 

Evolving beyond imitation:
Eventually, in his early 20s, realized how important originality would be and that comedy could evolve. “I would have to write everything in the act myself. Any line or idea with even a vague feeling of familiarity or provenance had to be expunged. There could be nothing that made the audience feel they weren’t seeing something utterly new. This realization mortified me. I did not know how to write comedy—at all. But Id did know I would have to drop some of my best one-liners, all pilfered from gag books and other people’s routines, and consequently lose ten minutes from my already strained act…After several years of working up my weak twenty minutes, I was not starting from almost zero.” SM

Started testing his concept of creating tension but never releasing it. No formal punch lines. What would audience do with all that? They’d eventually have to pick their own place to laugh out of desperation. 

Also gave himself a rule: “Never let them know I was bombing: This is funny, you just haven’t gotten it yet. If I wasn’t offering punch lines, I’d never be standing there with an egg on my face. It was essential that I never show doubt about what I was doing.” The act would go on with or without them. 

Taking the leap:
“I concluded that not to continue with comedy would place a question in my mind that would nag me for the rest of my life: Could I have had a career in performing?” SM

Writing career:
In 1967, landed a writing job on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Started painfully and was uncomfortable contributing anything of his own. He faced pressure to deliver, was unsure of himself, and felt doubt from other professional writers on the show. One afternoon was asked by Tommy Smothers to write an intro for a sketch dealing with television. Steve went upstairs to his office and couldn’t come up with anything. Suddenly a line occurred to him, but it belonged to his roommate, comedian Gary Mule Deer. Steve called him and got his approval to use it. Then he went downstairs, handed the line to Dick Smothers: “It has been proven that more Americans watch television than any other appliance.” Two highly experienced writers came up and asked if he wrote that joke, he said yes, and they said good work. Afterward, he was much more relaxed and able to contribute more to the show. 

Early Act:
In the early days (1960s), Steve’s act was a catchall, cobbled together from juggling, comedy, folk, banjo playing, weird bits he’d written in college, and magic tricks.

With practice, Steve’s act became more physical. Singing, dancing, etc. “My teenage attempt at a magician’s grace was being transformed into an awkward comic grace. I felt as though every part of me was working.” SM

“Between 1973 and 1975, my one-man vaudeville show turned fully toward the surreal. I was linking the unlinkable, blending economy and extravagance, non sequiturs with the conventional.” SM

Consistency:
“It was easy to be great. Every entertainer has a night when everything is clicking…What was hard was to be good, consistently good, night after night, no matter what the abominable circumstances.” SM

After years on the road, now had four hours of material to pick and choose from. 

Hitting his stride:
Dave Felton, Rolling Stone, on Steve’s act: “This isn’t comedy; it’s campfire recreation for the bent at heart. It’s a laugh-along for loonies. Disneyland on acid.”

His audience developed more like that of a rock-and-roll band than that of a comedian. 

“This lightning strike was happening to me, Stephen Glenn Martin, who had started from zero, from a magic act, from juggling in my backyard, from Disneyland, from the Bird Cage, and I was now the biggest concert comedian in show business, ever.” SM

When he started playing arenas, he could no longer experiment. Eventually, he lost touch with what he was doing and suffered an artistic crisis. Walked away from stand-up and never did it again. 

Film:
Determined to parlay his success from stand-up into motion pictures. 

Carl Reiner’s influence: “His memory was sharp as cheddar, and he would spontaneously relate anecdotes relevant to our work.” SM

The world of moviemaking had changed me. Carl Reiner ran a joyful set. Movies were social; stand-up was antisocial. I was not judged every day by a changing audience. It was fun to have lunches with cast and crew and to dream up material in the morning that could be shot seven different ways in the afternoon and evaluated—and possibly perfected—in the editing room months later.” SM

“I got another benefit: my daily observation of Carl Reiner. He had an entrenched sense of glee; he used humor as a gentle way of speaking difficult truths; and he could be effortlessly frank. He taught me more about how to be a social person than any other adult in my life.” SM

The Artist's Way – Julia Cameron

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Date read: 9/5/23. Recommendation: 9/10.

The definitive guide to discovering and developing your creative self. Cameron takes a true self-help approach with journaling invitations, activities, and exercises that help guide readers to tap back into their creative souls. And the invitations are actually helpful—this is coming from someone who ignores 90% of prompts in books. But these held real value. The new-age, recovery-style 12-step program likely alienates some readers, but if you’re willing to look past that there’s a lot to love about this book. And the message of channeling ourselves into more meaningful work is one we can never hear too many times.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Questioning previously held beliefs:
“Nothing dies harder than bad idea. And few ideas are worse than the ones we have about art.” Julia Cameron

“As you learn to recognize, nurture, and protect your inner artist, you will be able to move beyond pain and creative construction.” Julia Cameron

Creativity:
“What we play is life.” Louis Armstrong

“If you want to work on your art, work on your life.” Chekhov

“The function of the creative artist consists of making laws, not in following laws already made.” Ferruccio Busoni

Relaxed concentration:
“A mind too active is no mind at all.” Theodore Roosevelt

“I will tell you what I have learned myself. For me, a long five or six mile walk helps. And one must go alone and every day.” Brenda Ueland

It takes time:
“Nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small it takes time—we haven’t time—and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” Georgia O’Keeffe

“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” Henry David Thoreau

“We learn by going / Where we have to go.” Theodore Roethke

Focus on your story:
“You need to claim the events of your life to make yourself yours.” Anne-Wilson Schaef

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It always comes back to the same necessity: go deep enough and there is a bedrock of truth, however hard.” May Sarton

“To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.” Robert Louis Stevenson

“No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.” Agnes De Mille

“Be really whole

And all things will come to you.” Lao-Tzu

Risks:
“The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf.” Shakti Gawain

“Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.” Ovid

“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it.” Goethe

“Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.” Margaret Young

“There is the risk you cannot afford to take, and there is the risk you cannot afford not to take.” Peter Drucker

“Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.” Claude Bernard

“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” André Gide

Tao of Jeet Kune Do – Bruce Lee

Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee
Date read: 8/8/23. Recommendation: 8/10.

Compilation of Bruce Lee’s notes and essays published after his death. But don’t dismiss this as a martial arts handbook. It’s much more than that, showcasing Lee’s personal philosophy of formlessness, fluidity, and adaptability. Lee challenges the rigidity of traditional martial arts, emphasizing creativity, practicality, and emptying your mind so you can be present for the fight in front of you.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Beginnings:
Classical wing chun style that Bruce Lee began studying was developed 400 years before he was born. 

Jeet Kune Do (JKD):
The Tao of Jeet Kune Do is not complete, Bruce Lee’s art was ever-changing.

To understand JKD, you must throw out all ideals, patterns, and styles. Throw away even the concepts of what is or isn’t JKD. 

Formlessness: “Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and since Jeet Kune Do has no style, it can fit in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do utilizes all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any techniques or means which serve its end.” Bruce Lee

“The art of Jeet Kune Do is simply to simplify.” Bruce Lee

“Agreeing to certain patterns of movement to secure the participants within the governed rules might be good for sports like boxing or basketball, but the success of Jeet Kune Do lies in its freedom, both to use technique and dispense with it.” Bruce Lee

“A Jeet Kune Do man faces reality and not crystallization of form. The tool is a tool of formless form.” Bruce Lee

Self-knowledge is the basis of JKD: “Jeet Kune Do is the art not founded on techniques or doctrines. It is just as you are.” Bruce Lee

“In jeet kune do, the goal is self-knowledge through breaking free of unexamined tradition and being fully involved in the reality of the moment with no attachment to prescribed routines.” Linda Lee Caldwell

“With the philosophical underpinnings of fluidity and adaptability as its central theme, Lee was adamant that he did not invent a new style when it came to jeet kune do. Instead, his overall approach to martial arts was to unify martial artists by focusing on fighting ‘as is,’ thereby eliminating the need for styles, tradition, and formality that rests on set patterns. And because of his objection to stringently held traditions, jeet kune do can use all ways yet be bound by none. Philosophically, Lee eliminated the duality of ‘for or against.’” Tommy Gong 

Rigidness of martial arts styles: 
“In the long history of martial arts, the instinct to follow and imitate seems to be inherent in most martial artists, instructors and students alike. This is partly due to the human tendency and partly because of the steep traditions behind multiple patterns of styles.” Bruce Lee

“Instead of facing combat in its muchness, then, most systems of martial art accumulate a ‘fancy mess’ that distorts and cramps their practitioners and distracts them from the actual reality of combat which is simple and direct. Instead of going immediately to the heart of things, flowery forms (organized despair) and artificial techniques are ritualistically practiced to simulate actual combat.” Bruce Lee

Real combat is not fixed, it’s alive. There’s freedom in nonconformity of style. 

“When, in a split second, your life is threatened, do you say, “Let me make sure my hand is on my hip, and my style is ‘the style.’ When your life is in danger do you argue about the method you will adhere to while saving yourself?” Bruce Lee

“A so-called martial artist is the result of three thousand years of propaganda and conditioning.” Bruce Lee

“He then becomes a slave to the pattern and takes the pattern to be the real thing.” Bruce Lee

“The second-hand artist blindly following his sensei or sift accepts his pattern. As a result, his action, and, more importantly, his thinking become mechanical. His responses become automatic, according to set patterns, making him narrow and limited.” Bruce Lee

“I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves…when you understand the root, you understand all its blossoms.” Bruce Lee

“Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by none and, likewise, uses any technique or means which serves its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.” Bruce Lee

“It symbolized the oppression that rigid traditions and formal styles had on their student. ‘Organized despair,’ as Lee called it, contributed to the ‘death’ of independent inquiry and stunted the complete maturation of a martial artist. Ultimately, Lee concluded that sales divide martial artists instead of unify them, thereby restricting the growth of the individual.” Tommy gong

Creativity:
“Research your own experience; absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.” Bruce Lee

“Art lives where absolute freedom is, because where it is not, there can be no creativity.” Bruce Lee

Fluidity:
“If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.” Bruce Lee

“When there is no center and no circumference, then there is truth. When you freely express, you are the total style.” Bruce Lee

“A real street fight is unpredictable and your enemy may be an expert in any fighting style, you must not be surprised in the fight. Therefore, it is important to research and understand every fighting style in order to win.” Bruce Lee

Relaxed concentration:
“Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.” Bruce Lee

“The mind is originally without activity; the way is always without thought.” Bruce Lee

“With all the training thrown to the wind, with a mind perfectly unaware of its own working, with the self vanishing nowhere, anybody knows where, the art of Jeet Kune Do attains its perfection.” Bruce Lee

In JKD focus is on keeping your mind in a state of emptiness. Bruce Lee believed all movements come out of emptiness. Emptiness is where sincerity, genuineness, and straightforwardness are found. Emptiness ensures that freedom of action is never obstructed.

Scout mindset:
“It is the ego that stands rigidly against influences from the outside, and it is this ‘ego rigidity’ that makes it impossible for us to accept everything that confronts us.” Bruce Lee

Simplicity:
“The height of cultivation runs to simplicity. Half-way cultivation runs to ornamentation.” Bruce Lee

Find yourself in the work:
“All goals apart from the means are illusions.” Bruce Lee

Intuition:
“The deluded mind is the mind affectively burdened by intellect. Thus, it cannot move without stopping and reflecting on itself. This obstructs its native fluidity.” Bruce Lee

Compassion:
“It is compassion rather than the principle of justice which can guard us against being unjust to our fellow men.” Bruce Lee

The Gifts of Imperfection – Brené Brown

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
Date read: 8/2/23. Recommendation: 9/10.

Whereas Robert Greene’s niche is human nature and power dynamics, Brené Brown’s is vulnerability and shame. In The Gifts of Imperfection, Brown advocates for wholehearted living built upon authenticity, worthiness, and the realization that your story matters because you matter. Brown focuses on a familiar problem—what she refers to as a “midlife unraveling,” where the universe challenges you to let go of who you think you are supposed to be and embrace who you are. Brown relies on her background as a researcher and pulls from personal stories to land her message of developing our capacity for courage, compassion, and connection.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Embracing your story:
“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.” Brené Brown

“She could never go back and make some of the details pretty. All she could do was move forward and make the whole beautiful.” Terri St. Cloud

Reckoning:
Midlife unraveling = challenged by the universe to let go of who you think you are supposed to be and embrace who you are.

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s out of fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.” Brené Brown

Wholehearted living:
Engaging with life from a place of worthiness.

“It’s; so much easier to say, ‘I’ll be whoever or whatever you need me to be, as long as I feel like I’m part of this.’ From group-thinking to gossiping, we’ll do what it takes to fit in if we believe it will meet our need for belonging. But it doesn’t. We can only belong when we offer our most authentic selves and when we’re embraced for who we are.” Brené Brown

Authenticity:
“Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.” Brené Brown

“Authenticity demands wholehearted living and loving…it’s how we invite grace, gratitude, and joy into our lives.” Brené Brown

“To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight—and never stop fighting.” E.E. Cummings

“When we value being cool and in control over granting ourselves the freedom to unleash the passionate, goofy, heartfelt, and soulful expressions of who we are, we betray ourselves.” Brené Brown

Perfectionism:
“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” Anna Quindlen

“Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame…It’s stopping us from being seen.” Brené Brown

“Healthy striving is self-focused—How can I improve? Perfectionism is other-focused—What will they think?” Brené Brown

Creativity:
“When I make creating a priority, everything in my life works better.” Brené Brown

Early inclinations:
“What one loves in childhood stays in the heart forever.” Mary Jo Putney

LifePass – Payal Kadakia

LifePass by Payal Kadakia
Date read: 7/15/23. Recommendation: 9/10.

Payal Kadakia’s story makes this book worth picking up. Lots of wisdom around how to navigate your own creative entrepreneurial journey. But as she demonstrates, it starts with revealing more of yourself. Only by putting yourself out there can you open yourself to the right opportunities and self-select out of the wrong ones. The generic self-help exercises at the end of each chapter are forgettable. But it’s easy to look past those.

Check out my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.

My Notes:

Post-college (Bain):
Took a job at Bain & Company (management consulting) because it looked good on her resume and made her parents proud. For 2.5 years worked 70 hours/week as an associate consultant, then six months before contract renewal was sitting in her manager’s office receiving negative feedback for the first time. She questioned Payal’s reliability and commitment to clients. “If you really want to further your career as a consultant, your clients are going to have to come first. I don’t know if that’s the case for you.”

Her manager was referring to the fact that Payal was studying dance and performing with a troupe, Bollywood Axion, outside of consulting on nights and weekends. Six months before they had a big performance on the same day as an important client meeting and she chose to be at the show. Her manager didn’t make a big deal about it then, but 6 months later it was rearing its head and impacted the way her boss saw her.

Her initial instinct was to dive back into work and prove to her boss that she was worthy of staying on as a consultant. But as she worked harder she realized she would have to give up dance, what she truly loved doing, which wasn’t a compromise she was willing to make. 

“I realized my boss was completely right. I wasn’t fully committed to being a consultant. I wasn’t making Bain my everything, because it simply wasn’t enough for me.”

Warner Music Group:
When her contract was up at Bain, Payal found a job in 2008 working on licensing agreements for digital music at Warner Music Group. It paid less and wasn’t as prestigious, most of the people in her life looked at her like she was crazy. But this was the most comfortable compromise at that time, she wasn’t quitting to dance full time and was giving herself more predictable hours. She had a steady income, work ended at 5 p.m. every day and she could attend dance classes and rehearsals all evening. 

This was a period of transition. Also left Bollywood Axion and started choreographing her own dance pieces (something she found to be a powerful expression of herself). Led her to start her own dance company that showcased Indian dance as an art and culture beyond merely a form of entertainment and fun. Started Sa Dance Company. 

Sa Dance Company:
Applied to participate in an annual Indian dance festival in downtown Manhattan. NYT dance critic, Alastair Macaulay, decided to do a piece on the festival in the next day’s arts section and Sa would be on the Saturday morning cover. Huge half-page image of Sa in motion, dancers looked radiant—a sign she was on the right track. She felt like the universe was telling her to believe in herself and what she was doing.

Spent the next several months planning Sa’s weekend-long Premier NYC Showcase. Dove into making her own production, writing her own story, creating new choreography, and rehearsing for hours with the dancers with the goal of sharing the beauty of Indian dance. To reserve the theater, Payal fronted $20k, her entire savings account. It was on her to sell tickets to break even. Had to sell 1000 tickets to cover her costs. All three shows sold out. 

Sitting in her office at Warner, she realized there was still a disconnect between the person she was at work and the life she wanted for herself. 

San Francisco:
During the Warner and Sa years, she spent all her time working and dancing. But in the summer of 2010, one of her close friends (Parul) invited her to San Francisco for her birthday. This helped create some distance and the change of pace helped her gain new perspective. 

At the birthday gathering, she chatted with Parul’s friends, who all seemed to be developing apps, starting companies, or embarking on some type of entrepreneurial journey. People were pursuing exciting, creative projects as actual career paths. Unlike anyone she knew in New York.

On Sunday night red-eye flight back to New York, her mind was racing. Idea of creating something of her own as her career fascinated her. How could she create something that provide the same type of freedom and inspiration? She gave herself two weeks to come up with an idea for something she would be passionate about creating. 

Back in NYC, as she settled into the week, she opened her laptop and looked for a ballet class to attend. She searched websites for different studios across the city, comparing schedules, researching their instructors, mapping out their locations. Two hours later looked up and had thirty browser tabs opened and realized she wasted her afternoon without finding anything. Entrepreneurial epiphany: why wasn’t there one place you could go to find and book classes?

This was the earliest inkling for ClassPass, an app to give people the opportunity to keep moving and try new things, and as a business, it became a new path for my life that aligned my calling with my career. 

Leaving Warner:
Created business plan and built up courage to leave her job. The day she quit got a message from the vice chairman of Warner asking her to come to his office. He wanted to hear about what she was doing next. He told her he wanted to invest, gave her a check for $10k and introduced her to David Tisch, who was heading up Techstars (one of hottest tech incubators in NYC). 

ClassPass:
Built beautiful product, homepage colors were just right, launched to fanfare and publicity, but then zero bookings came through. Social media, brand partnerships, press hits were not leading indicators of success. The false signals of success shielded them from seeing the real problems right in front of them. Hadn’t fully understood the challenges our customers were facing in getting to class. Reservations were the most important metric. 

1.5 years after visiting SF, went back to try to raise capital, met with big-name VC firms. None of them wanted to give her money. And no one was signing up for classes on their website. Sent email blast to 10k subscribers asking people to sign up for a free class, and not a single person converted. 

Decided to launch something new with a value prop that was more enticing. There wasn’t anything motivating customers to book classes through their site. Passport idea allowing them to bundle together trial classes at different studios to explore new classes over the course of a month. But this was only available to new customers for first month. Sales improved but then people dropped out or used new emails to sign up for another month, upsetting the studios when people returned at discounted prices after their initial trial. 

Eventually pivoted into a subscription service for fitness classes that allowed customers to return to classes they liked and continue exploring month after month.

Years later ClassPass was acquired by Mindbody, thanks to a connection and partnership she cultivated with Rick Stollmeyer (their founder) in the early days.