Steven

Didn't love it, didn't hate it.

I loved The Road. I enjoyed No Country for Old Men. I thought I loved Cormac McCarthy.

Then I read Blood Meridian. HATED it. I found it boring. I tried another (I forget which one now-Child of God, maybe?), and gave up after a few chapters. This book was neutral. I don't regret reading it, but I'd never recommend it to anyone. It felt like a story that didn't have a purpose.

Maybe I don't care for McCarthy after all.

This doctor seems highly unlikeable to me, and the book rambles often. Interesting to read about the subject, but many parts of the book did not relate to each other, and we jumped between topics frequently in a way that didn't drive the story forward.

I liked most of this book. It's not a part of history that I know much about. I think it did a reasonable job showing both sides of the conflict.

This was an interesting read, but I felt like I couldn't really figure out who Jack was.

In parts, they made him seem like an outsider, hick who didn't just started a business on a whim and got luck, in other parts they made him seems like a wizard who knew exactly what he was doing.

Sometimes, he seemed like he opposed most of what the Chinese government does, in other parts they made it sound like he worked with them.

Sometimes he sounded like a ‘for the people' leader, other times it seemed like he didn't care much about people.

Regardless, he is clearly a brilliant man, with unusual drive and foresight.

Interesting book about an interesting man. I didn't know much about him before this.

“I'm so relatable, I'm just like you. I've grown so much and done so much work on myself.”

It felt like a long, barely interesting story to generate some public sympathy. I'm not entirely sure why I read this book. I don't care about the royal family or celebrities. I care less now, somehow.

Because of my lack of interest, I know very little about the royal family. I doubt they provide a lot of value to the world, and I'd bet they are dysfunctional. Because I don't care to read any more about them, I'll assume this book is 50% accurate and that a book written by the other side of the family would be about as reliable. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

I'm confident growing up in this environment would do weird things to a person. Your mom dying while you were young, the weird family dynamics, the public's inexplicable interest in your life, having every part of your entire life, no matter how trivial, dictated by ‘protocol', and having your actions, wardrobe, friends and romantic partners, word choice, etc. all being heavily scrutinized...You're going to be a weirdo.

What really irked me was the constant concern that he was ‘in danger' because people were taking his photo. I'm a private person, I would hate people following me around, taking my photo, and telling stories about me, but I guess I view that as the cost of having an otherwise exceedingly cushy life. Talking non-stop about wanting privacy, then leaving and seeking out a lot of publicity (books, Netflix specials, interviews with Oprah...) makes it seem as though maybe you like the attention more than you care to admit. I imagine if you leave the royal life behind, and live a completely normal life otherwise, most of the paparazzi will get bored eventually and move on.

“We want to leave the royal family. What? You're cutting us off?” That felt like a pretty obvious eventuality to me. I'm surprised he was surprised on that point.

Sorry you were dealt a bad hand. I'd hate to have had the life you did, but I thought you came across whiny in this book.

This was not a good book. It had some interesting stories, but the way the idea of being so ‘hard' you can endure anything was shared left me scratching my head.

- “I'm so hard I can run a marathon on broken legs.”
- “I'm so tough that I can do chin ups until my hands rip apart.”
- “My mind is so calloused that I can run until I shit myself.”

I think perhaps David's mind is so calloused it's not working anymore. Why would I want to be tough enough to run on broken legs? If my legs are broken I want to be ‘tough' enough that I can give up on a dream and go to the hospital.

David has done some cool things, but I see very little point in any of it. This book was not for me, and I don't think it's for most people. I rolled my eyes through most of it.

Good book. It provided some good reminders and interesting perspectives. Nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking, but I think most people would benefit from reading it.

- Use caution when using highly successful people as role models, rather look for broad trends and patterns. Uber successful people are much more likely to be affected by good luck and long tails. Lessons from their lives don't necessarily apply to yours.
- Business is about tails. 50% of what you do may flop, 25% may be neutral, and 23% may be good, but the 2% that is wildly successful will make the biggest difference. Make lots of bets.

This series got more and more boring with each book. I couldn't finish, nothing was happening. The first couple books were good, then it became progressively less and less interesting.

Long, and into the weeds. I was hoping it would focus more on the banking, but it was more about the family. Interesting nonetheless.

Key takeaways:

- Connectors know a vast number of people and serve as hubs for social networks. They naturally bring different groups together. This makes them critical in spreading ideas.
- Mavens are informations specialists. They accumulate knowledge or spot trends and love sharing it with others. They influence others by providing reliable, persuasive information that helps people make decisions.
- Salespeople are charismatic and can persuade others to act. They amplify the appeal of an idea or product, making it more attractive and convincing to others.

Example: A Maven identifies a new product or trend. The Connector spreads this information to a wide and diverse audience, building a base of early adopters. The Salesperson helps persuade hesitant individuals to adopt it, drastically increasing the uptake.

All three are necessary to create an epidemic.

- A good salesperson

Key takeaways:

- Find a way to be content in all circumstances.
- Live your life with your end in mind.
- If the culture doesn't work for you, don't use it.

Haunting, mesmerizing, engrossing, terrifying.

Interesting read, it just felt way too long. I felt like each chapter could have been a few paragraphs and I would have had the same takeaways from this book.

Key takeaways:

I don't agree with the authors of this book in several areas. One caveat they make is that industries that are safety focused (like healthcare, construction, etc.) or heavily regulated (financial services, etc.) do not work well with many of the principles in this book.

- Rules and policy are only required if you have sloppy or bad employees. If you have quality employees, these things will be drastically less important.
- Talent Density: You are better off to have a few MVPs than many average performers. Increase your talent density by a) hiring exceptional people; and b) letting go of everyone else.
- A negative team member brings the team down more than a positive person moves it up. This point was especially impactful when thinking about negativity in leaders.
- You want to be surrounded by stunning colleagues exclusively.
- Say what you feel with positive intent. Anyone in the organization can give anyone feedback, if done well.
- When a team member comes to complain about someone to you, respond with, “‘What did this person say when you told them about this?”
- “Speak up either to dissent or to augment.”
- 4A feedback model:
1. Aim to Assist: Feedback must be given with positive intent.
2. Actionable: Feedback must focus on something the recipient can do differently.
3. Appreciate: When receiving feedback, appreciate it. Consider the message with an open mind, rather than getting defensive.
4. Accept or Discard: When receiving feedback, after considering it, you get to choose if you will follow it.
- As a leader, ask for feedback during your reviews with staff.
- If an employee is out of line, don't immediately create a new policy–address the employee. Most of these situations can be treated as one-offs.
- Pay people top of market, then expect them to be top of market. If they aren't, let them go with a generous severance.
- In many cases a top performing team member can accomplish as much as to mid-performing team members. You're better off to hire one top performer and then two mid performers and pay them appropriately.
- Teach everyone how to read financial statements so people can see how their work impacts the business.
- If you don't trust your employees to make decisions in line with their jobs, you shouldn't have them on the team.
- Give your team autonomy and ownership. Your employees should have “chips”. They can spend them on any bet they like. Don't judge them on any individual bet, but rather their ability to make good bets over time. Are you building a stack of chips, or are you running out?
- It's disloyal to the company to disagree with an idea and not express it.
- Farming for descent: If you have a new initiative you're working on, you have to go looking for people that disagree with you before you put it into play.
- When you have an idea, share it with the team. Ask them to rate this idea on a scale of -10 to +10 and include comments. This helps to gauge not only the level of descent but also the reason for it. Receiving more negative than positive responses doesn't mean you don't go ahead, but it gives you some feedback to consider before you proceed.
- We can't make good decisions without good data. We need to use some combination of gut feeling and data.
- You're not a family, you're a team. You are only on this team because of your work output. Keeper test to perform when determining whether to let someone go: Would you try to stop them from leaving if they mentioned a competitor offered them a job? If not, you shouldn't have them on the team.
- If you didn't have them on your team already, would you hire them?
- 360 feedback. Have a process where you can receive feedback from your managers, people on the same level as you, and people who report to you.
- Lead with context, not control. If your team can't handle this or you don't trust them enough for this, are they the right people? For example: “Our goal is to strengthen client relationships while managing costs. Travel if it will significantly impact a deal or partnership.” Now employees know what is expected of them, they can make decisions on their own, as long as they work toward that goal.

Key takeaways:

Of course, we have the benefit of hindsight now, but it's difficult to imagine making some of these mistakes, especially given these were supposed to be geniuses.

- Profit needs to be balanced with risk management and stability.

Key takeaways:

- Every hire should raise the bar. Every hire should raise the average of the department.
- Relentlessly lower costs for customers. What changes can we make to consistently have the lowest rates?
- Our customers are smart and informed.
- Jeff focuses predominantly on two things: The customer experience and offering the lowest prices.
- Just in time innovation misses the mark. We need to anticipate customer needs and build solutions before they know they need it. Use this to look for ways to save your customers money. It delights and wows them. For example, if we have a member with a large amount of money in their chequing account, or a member who is paying more fees on their accounts than necessary, or a member who signs a loan and the rate drops before we advance, and we call them to tell them about ways to save money, it will build loyalty. Yes, it will cost us some money, but enough experiences like this will build a loyalty that will be hard to shake. If we lose $250 per year in service fees, but gain a 25 year mortgage that won't leave, we are ahead. If we pay a little more in interest on deposits, but we get a lifetime member, and their family's business, we are ahead.
- If you take a long view, shareholder and customer values align. What's good for the customer is good for business.
- Operations must serve the purpose, they are not the purpose themselves.
- Keep fixed problems fixed. It's not enough to fix a problem, it needs to stay fixed.
- As a leader, your job is to make a few good, high quality decisions each day, not thousands.
- Good failure: Trying something new they has big potential to work, then failing. Bad failure: Doing something you've done before with poor execution. That's sloppy.
- What will still be true in 10 years? Focus on these things. Effort spent in these areas will continue to pay dividends. Customers will still want lower costs, faster shipping, and better service.
- Type 1 vs type 2 decisions. Type one decisions are one way doors. Once you have made this decision, you are stuck. It's not easily reversed. You need to live with the consequences. Type 2 decisions are two way doors. If things don't go the way you expect, you don't need to live with the consequences for long. These can be reversed without too much difficulty or damage. You can make type 2 decisions quite quickly. You want to make type 1 decisions differently.
- Slow decision making is bad for morale.

Did not finish. I had a hard time caring enough to follow along. I got about 25-30% of the way through and couldn't be bothered to keep going.

Key takeaways:

- Interesting read. Prepare for disasters before they happen.

Key takeaways:

These are the points I took away from Jeff's style, not necessarily points that I agree with or aspire to.

- Be relentless. Set your goal and work toward it without wavering.
- Expect a lot from your team. Be okay to lose people if they don't share your vision, passion, or style. Be okay to remove people if they don't produce.
- Predict the future. Knowing what is coming will allow you to stay ahead. Jeff seems unusually good at this. Be willing to cannibalize your existing business to move forward. Ex: Jeff saw the future of reading was digital. To be a leader in that business he had to hurt the bookstore component of his business.
- It's all about the customer experience.
- Offer the lowest prices.
- Be frugal, incredibly so.
- Have ‘Jeffisms', a set of values that are easily expressed in short, concise ‘mantras'.
- Never stop.

On a separate, side note, I should read more books of successful businesses and their leaders. I found many parts of this book hugely inspiring, even if I don't aspire to be like Jeff.

Very interesting to read about Jennette's experiences, which are completely different from mine, and I struggle to relate to.

I'm glad I read this book.

Key takeaways:

- A great–or terrible, I suppose–example of blindness caused by hubris. Be very careful being 100% confident of anything–it makes it hard to change your mind in light of new evidence.

Key takeaways:

- Sometimes, we need to change to move forward. Sometimes, change will move us backward. It can be hard to know which way the change will move you.
- Core values will help with this.

I really enjoyed this book. I love learning about how people work subconsciously.

Key takeaways:

- People almost never order the most expensive thing on the menu, but they will order the second most expensive. The example provided: Add a new, more expensive option, and your current most expensive option will look more appealing. Revenue increases, even though few people order the new item. As a practical takeaway, I see this with our account packages.
- People like to make comparisons between things that are similar. The example provided: If you are house shopping and look at three houses, two contemporary houses and one colonial, most of the time you will ignore the colonial because you can't easily compare it to the other two. Then when comparing the two contemporary houses, if one has a bad roof you will likely choose the other because it is the better of the two. Can we recreate this with account packages?
- Anchoring is incredibly powerful, even if the number used to anchor you isn't related to what you are purchasing. If we mention how much higher rates were X number of years ago, would that make the current rates seem better?
- If you see a restaurant with four people waiting outside for a table, you are inclined to think it is a good restaurant and may join the line. The next person to walk by sees five people waiting, and is even more inclined to join the line. It is entirely possible that none of the people in line have any idea whether the restaurant is good or not. You can do this to yourself (self-herding). Say you normally make coffee at home, but one day stop at Starbucks because you didn't have time to make coffee at home. Next time you need coffee you are tempted to think, ‘I purchased coffee there last time. I must have found good value.' So you shop there again. Now you can point to two instances where Starbucks was worth your business, and the ‘line' grows.
- Free is a big motivator. If you have a product worth $5, and you offer it to one group for $0.01 and another group for free, you will have significantly more uptake with the free option, even when controlling for the inconvenience of needing to pull out your wallet.
- If we can find a way to help our members save more money, we will benefit from the increased deposits. We have the same goal. If NCU members save 15% when the average is 5%, we will have a significant advantage.
- Honda had many routine service items on their vehicles. Customers had a hard time staying on top of them and bringing them in every few months to service different parts. They switched to a more generic schedule: bring your car in every six months and have it receive many different service checks in that one visit. Somethings were checked well before they needed service, but customers had no problem following the new schedule. Can we do a similar concept with financial checkups? At 21, come in for a lesson on credit and the benefits of long term investing. At 25 come in for a mortgage preapproval, even if you aren't planning to purchase a house yet. At 30 come in for a conversation about RRSPs. At 45 come in for a conversation about retirement planning. At 65 come in for a conversation about retirement income, etc.
- More exotic, detailed explanations changed the way people view items and made them value them higher.
- Going to the movies, if you tell your friend it received great reviews, they will enjoy it more.
- There are two parts to marketing: Attracting new customers and selling to existing customers.
- Our products should have a unique component that we can point to and say, ‘See, this is better than the competition!'

It was an interesting story. I didn't really like the style, but I can appreciate why this is a classic.