More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
January 5 - October 21, 2018
The Double Helix by James D. Watson and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.
And specialize—the great human achievement is to specialize as a producer of goods or services so that you can diversify as a consumer. Self-sufficiency is another word for poverty.
“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” –Niels Bohr Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner
“Elon Musk: The World’s Raddest Man.” Tim’s TED Talk, “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator,”
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, which won the PEN/Bingham Prize.
I used to resent obstacles along the path, thinking, “If only that hadn’t happened life would be so good.” Then I suddenly realized, life is the obstacles.
Infidel.
Sam Barondes’ book Making Sense of People has had a big impact on my thinking, and I sometimes give a copy to people in the midst of hiring someone or even deciding whether to get engaged.
“Ego is about who’s right. Truth is about what’s right.”
“Integrity is the only path where you will never get lost.”
Ego is about who’s right. Truth is about what’s right.
“Diversity in counsel, unity in command.” –Cyrus the Great Founder of the Achaemenid Empire, known as the “king of Persia”
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. The greatest work of fiction I’ve ever read, with the simplest theme: All of us come with baggage and wounds and pain; all of us. But recognizing that common, human bond is what helps us transcend that pain.
“You can be a juicy ripe peach and there’ll still be someone who doesn’t
like peaches.”
“You can be a juicy ripe peach and there’ll still be someone who doesn’t like peaches.”
I find that most things that are universally accepted are mediocre and boring.
“Be so good that they can’t ignore you”
“Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.” –Robert J. Sawyer Hugo and Nebula Award–winning science fiction writer
“The difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting.” This famous line from Walt Disney
Over the last couple decades, I’ve noticed that the best, most enduring partnerships in business (and in life) are among people who are constantly growing together.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a masterpiece of explaining the sequence of discoveries that led to the development of the
atomic bomb in an historical context.
“The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop “Leaving One” by Ralph Angel “A Cat in an Empty Apartment” by Wisława Szymborska “Apples” by Deborah Digges “Michiko Nogami (1946–1982)” by Jack Gilbert “Eating Alone” by Li-Young Lee “The Potter” by Peter Levitt “Black Dog, Red Dog” by Stephen Dobyns “The Word” by Mark Cox “Death” by Maurycy Szymel “This” by Czeslaw Milosz
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.
How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery by Kevin Ashton.
“Follow your curiosity, wherever you can find it.” Embracing a curious mind and always trying to learn more—about others, about yourself, about the world and our place within it—is an important way to express yourself, and it’s pretty cheap, too, often free!
“Things are never as good or as bad as they seem.”
Hearos Xtreme Protection NRR 33 work
Persistence matters more than talent.
The student with straight As is irrelevant if the student sitting next to him with Bs has more passion.
“Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.” –Ralph Charell Author of How to Make
Leadership on the Line by Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky, because it is the most honest book I have ever read on leadership, and you can tell that by the book’s subtitle, Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading.
“Live. Give. Forgive.”
Her TED Talk, “Why You Think You’re Right—Even If You’re Wrong,”
When something goes badly, I don’t automatically assume I did something wrong.
I think most recommendations are bad because they’re one-size-fits-all.
“Take more risks.” “Don’t be so hard on yourself.” “Work harder.” The problem is that some people need to take more risks, while others need to take fewer risks. Some people need to ease up on themselves, while others are already too self-forgiving. Some people need to work harder, while others are already skating on the edge of burnout. And so on.
The books Superforecasting (by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner) and How to Measure Anything (by Douglas W. Hubbard) have some good advice on how to improve your ability to make accurate predictions. And Decisive (by Chip
Heath and Dan Heath) explains four of the biggest judgment errors (like framing your decision too narrowly, or letting temporary emotions cloud your judgment) and gives tips for combating them.
One distraction I’ve learned to avoid is consuming media that’s just telling me things I already know and agree with (for example, about politics).
That stuff can be addictive because it feels so validating—it’s like venting with a friend—but you’re not learning from it, and over time, I think indulging that
impulse makes you less able to tolerate other perspectives. So I broke my addiction by, essentially, reminding myself how much time...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Her popular TEDx Talk, “Unmask Your Potential,” details her incredible story of triumph over adversity. What is the book (or
The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester. A canal digger
Born to Run
The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape.
Annie’s Analysis,
Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, focuses on strategies for great decision-making.
