I run frequently and had heard some buzz about this book. I’m keenly interested in the amazing results that often come from ancient wisdom and using our incredible human body as correctly as possible. These are the exact ideas that author, Christopher McDougall touches on in his book, “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.”
The book has two main parts. First, it follows the story of the author as he investigates solutions to his own problems with running. Along the way he, meets, befriends, and races with members of a mysterious southwestern tribe known as the Tarahumara Indians and several other interesting characters. The second part of the book (which is mixed in with the story) contains various accounts of scientific study, an evolutionary history of running, and the modern history of the running industry. Here are some key points I found very interesting: Click to continue →
Koch Industries is the second largest privately held company in the world. In “The Science of Success,” the C.E.O. talks about the management philosophies that his company uses to be so successful.
In short, the techniques called “Market-based Management” (MBM) described in the book are string of very sensible ideas. The true power of the book is that it shows how to join these sensible ideas together into a cohesive and effective management strategy. In this review, I’ll briefly describe the points that really hit home with me. Click to continue →
As a dedicated member of the human species, I was curious when my advisor recommended this book about human evolution. The author uses an engaging approach to discuss the changes that took place as early primates from the Cretaceous period evolved bit by bit towards modern humans and beyond!
Baxter selects 19 individuals and follows each through a portion of their lives. The first is a tiny, rat-like primate living along-side dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and the last is a distant relative of humans living 500 million years in the future. As we get to know each individual we get a sense of what motivates them, how they live, and how they have built upon that which their ancestors used to be successful.
It is with a sense of sadness and triumph that I write these words. Last night I finished the last of author Tom Robbins’ books. It was a good one to end on. “Still Life with Woodpecker” expounded on the nature of love, outlaws, pyramids, and redheads. Being crowned with crimson myself, I tried to identify with the fanciful prose and witty remarks about my carrot-topped comrades.
I even went on to investigate my own redness. When I asked my mother (who recently did our family lineage) if the red hair was Irish or Scottish or what, she informed me that the rouge locks on my noggin were “from the Saxon Reds.” Ah yes. Visions of sea-faring Vikings wielding battle axes and the pagan god Thor wielding lightning and hammers flashed in my head. Anyway… back to the book.
Now that I’ve read all of Tom’s stuff, I guess I’ll have to find a new author to obsess over and kiss the ass of. Anybody have a good suggestion? I’ll leave you with some amusing and inspiring quotes.
“Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.”
“The analytically minded might conclude that persons with red hair tend to be either dangerous or funny.”
“In the world according to the positivist, the inspiring thing about scrambled eggs is that any way you turn them they’re sunny side up. In the world according to the existentialist, the hopeless thing about scrambled eggs is that any way you turn the they’re scrambled.”
“What limits people is that they don’t have the fucking nerve or imagination to star in their own movie, let alone direct it.”
I finished Tim Ferris’s book, The 4-Hour Work Week. This book is very inspiring, and takes a very different take on entrepreneurship than most books you’ll find on the subject. Tim suggests increasing efficiency in everything you do (both personal and professional) by applying the 80/20 rule and setting deadlines. (The 80/20 rule says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts) When you only do 20% of the things you were doing before, and you set deadlines so you complete them faster than you normally would… efficiency ensues.
So in addition to this efficiency point, Tim also suggests setting up little-to-no effort income streams in the form of small niche-market internet-based businesses. He recommends outsourcing everything to a handful of companies so that your only “job” is making sure everybody plays nice together.
Once you have your life efficiently outsourced and funded with a work-free business… you take unlimited vacations and party like a rock-star! That sounds like a pretty sweet deal. I think this review came off making his book seem overly simplistic and not realistic. That wasn’t my experience at all. I really felt like he gave good information on how to make his reality come true! In fact it got me very excited about the prospect of having a “muse” (his word for a hands-free income stream). I’ve been making some moves in that direction since then. This book is definitely worth a read, and will end up in the stockings of some of my friends this Christmas.
Also, check out Tim Ferris’s Blog. It has lots of interesting stories and ideas regarding his “lifestyle design.”
This book is another attraction in Tom Robbins’ impressive line of books. Tom is far and away my favorite fiction author; and although this isn’t my favorite book of his, its worth a read. It started off slow, but once the plot got going I couldn’t put it down. “Just one more chapter, then I’ll go to bed.” Yeah right!
Here’s the synopsis: A loin-cloth-wearing magician, a sexy, enlightened debutante-turned-gypsy, a hemorrhoidal scientist/author, a rogue athlete/drug dealer, and a roadside hotdog-serving zoo are the characters and participants in a caper that might have changed the world, but ended up vanishing in a puff of light. How’s that for a summary?! This book made me want to be a hippy and eat mushrooms. In fact, I made mushrooms for dinner last night! Let me leave you with some notable quotes that found nestled in the pages:
“The principal difference between adventurer and a suicide is that the adventurer leaves himself a margin of escape. (The narrower the margin, the greater the adventure”
“Romanticism and science are good for each other. The scientist keeps the romantic honest and the romantic keeps the scientist human.”
“The world is perpetually changing. It doesn’t do much else but change… Why do you want to stick your nose into it?”
I just completed this book, The Myths of Innovation, by Scott Berkun after receiving a recommendation (and borrowed copy) from my friend/colleague Jimi Malcolm.
This short, fast read talks about the myths that people have about the process of innovation, and some steps on overcoming these myths and innovating well anyway! Although I found the book inspiring and informative, I think I can sum up all of Berkun’s talking points briefly below and save you the trouble of reading the book : )
Work hard.
Work on meaningful problems.
Work on hard problems.
Work diligently and tirelessly, but take well-earned breaks to reflect. He belabors the point that innovation comes from persistent effort, not “ah ha” moments.
Frame and re-frame the problem you’re working on. By following the same rules and same metrics for success that everyone else follows, you’re doomed to mediocrity. Re-examine the problem and re-frame it.
Work really, really, really hard.
Finally, here is a video from the “Google Tech Talk” series. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’ll bet you can get the gist of the whole book over the 1 hour video.
Last night I finished Hackers and Painters. This book is a collection of essays by Paul Graham, a PhD computer scientist, entrepreneur, and accomplished painter. (All of the essays are also available on his website) He makes a lot of great points about economics, entrepreneurship, design, and society. He also rants ad nauseum about his belief that LISP is the best programming language ever.
One of my big take-aways from this book are that to be successful in a tech startup you must work very hard, and make a product that is beautifully designed and loved by users. Furthermore, you must continue working hard and improving constantly or you’ll get squashed by big competitors. If you can do this, then Graham claims success is inevitable.
While traveling I had a lot of time to read on planes and trains. I occupied that time with a book about a man unravelling the mysteries of life. This book, although it seems very fantastic at times, is put forward not as a fictional story, but as a real-life account of events.
In Tales of Power, the main character and author is the apprentice of an unusual, captivating, and gifted man named Don Juan. Don Juan tries to help Casteneda understand what he calls “The Way of the Warrior” which is a necessary step in learning the “Sorcerer’s Explanation.”I’m not going to comment on whether or not I think it is ‘real’ per se. What is for sure is that the ideas in the book about how to live well, and how to change yourself in pursuit of impeccability are inspiring, and of value to anyone. Let me share one of my favorite quotes:
“The self-confidence of the warrior is not the self-confidence of the average man. The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness.”
Since I’ve finished the book, I find myself very often wondering what a warrior would do in certain situations. I like looking at things in this way. I don’t have high hopes of one day becoming a sorcerer, but… what the hell, here’s hoping.
Another fantastic Tom Robbins book closed today in the playful sunshine of a sunset in Piedmont Park. Its been said on numerous occasions by me that this author can do no wrong. He has proven hilarious, engaging, and inspiring once more in “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.“Let me share briefly two of the many quotable sections discovered between the covers…
“If little else, the brain is an educational toy… The problem with possessing such an engaging toy is that other people want to play with it, too. Sometimes they’d rather play with yours than theirs. Or they object if you play with yours in a different manner.”
“Poetry is nothing more than an intensification or illumination of common objects and everyday events until they shine with their singular nature… How is this done? By fucking around with the syntax.”
I of course highly recommend this guy to everyone. It is fun and witty and will make you appreciate women and the world’s desperate need for their feminine touch.
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