Steven
Key takeaways:
- Action is important. It's not enough to know/say what is right, you must actually live it.
- A few bad actions are enough to wipe out a lifetime of virtue.
- Contemplate your own mortality.
- Wealth/poverty, health/sickness, pleasure/pain: none of these are inherently good or bad on their own.
- Virtue seemed to be a resonating theme as the most important thing to pursue.
Key takeaways:
I didn't finish this book. It was strange. I didn't know what to do with a lot of his ideas, but there were a few pieces of gold that I took away. I didn't finish this book because the last 25% felt like he wrote this book just so he would have a platform to spread his rules for living. I disagreed with many of them, which I'm fine with, but the tone he used felt very abrasive–maybe I was in a bad mood while reading this book–but the last part was hard to get through, and eventually I stopped trying.
- When preparing for a disaster, we often use models based on the last disaster. The problem is, the last disaster was a surprise when it happened. The same will be true of the next one.
- When one person stands and rails against everyone and everything, I try to be cautious. They probably have some good in their views, but the odds that they have found the only way and everyone else is dead wrong seems unlikely. Presenting your ideas that way certainly makes it hard to take them seriously.
- Two brothers: One is a business man with a 9-5 job, the other is a cab driver. In a 9-5 job, your pay cheque is the same every week, you know how many hours you will work. As a cab driver, your pay will be different every week, and you could work 10 hours or 80. Which one is more fragile? The cab driver. They will learn to live with the instability and go for a stretch with reduced pay. They can sense changes and trends based on how many fares they have. The 9-5 may feel more stable, but if something goes wrong, you go from a steady job to nothing.
- A small forest fire burns up the deadwood. If you never allow small forest fires, eventually there will be a big one, with lots of deadfall to burn. It will likely be more catastrophic. In ancient civilizations, there was regularly small battles between neighboring cities and regions. Now, we don't experience those small battles, but the pressure builds until there is a large scale conflict, with more devastating results–like the world wars. Similarly, when we try to prevent the business cycle, fewer businesses go bust, times are good, until they aren't. Propping up the system without allowing deadfall to burn off leads to big market crashes and large scale recessions. Is it real stability or manufactured?
- We tend to over intervene when we shouldn't, and under intervene when we should intervene.
- Access to too much information and data makes it difficult to discern ‘noise' from ‘signal'.
- It's all about options. Most intelligent people are not necessarily making better decisions, they just have put themselves into a situation where they have more options to choose from.
- Order matters. Trying to earn 20% return if there is a chance you could return -100%, you're doing it wrong. Rather, focus on eliminating the risk of a black swan, then focus on earning returns. We often think success is the main concern of a business, with risk management being an afterthought. Success doesn't mean anything if you go bust. Make it so you can't go bust, then work on earning your returns.
- Wisdom when making decisions is more important that knowledge.
- I really enjoyed the section addressing ‘lecturing birds how to fly'. Birds knew how to fly, but a professor could go out and lecture them on how to fly. The professor is writing books, the bird is not. After a generation, people might be convinced birds know how to fly because we tell them how. This example is absurd, of course, but Mr. Taleb makes the case that this happens in business schools and other higher education. Instead, he proposes that many of the solutions we have today were discovered because some business person had a problem and tinkered with some solutions. When it worked, scholars started to teach lessons about it, and no one remembers that the problem wasn't solved by academics. ‘Science doesn't lead to inventions, tinkering does.'
- Barbell balance: If you keep 90% of your portfolio in cash and 10% in investments with a huge upside, the most you can lose is 90%. The amount you can gain is nearly limitless. If, instead, you invest 100% of your portfolio in moderate risk investments, your whole portfolio is at risk for limited upside. You might nicely make 7% per year, but when the black swan hits, all bets are off. In the reverse situation, you might lose every year, but when the black swan occurs–and it will–you have huge gains.
- Beware of over optimizing. If you optimize an airport so it functions smoothly everyday under normal load with no redundancy or waste, you will be in big trouble when under a significant loan. No one cares if there plane is 20 minutes early, but they will certainly care if their flight is 2 hours delayed.
- Bet on the jockey, not the horse. In venture capital, investors usually chose to invest in a person, not a specific product. Why? A person can change course. Their objectives change. When they are working on an invention, they might uncover something completely different. Tiffany's started as a stationary store. Dupont started as an explosives company. Raytheon started as a refrigerator maker. Nokia began as a paper mill, then moved into rubber shoes. Avon started in door-to-door book sales.
Key takeaways:
- I often remind myself how fortunate I am to be alive at this time in history. I've never been more grateful than I am as I finish this book. I can't imagine watching my family starve to death, knowing that no matter what I do, I can't fix it. It's heartbreaking knowing that there are many people in this position around the globe even now.
- This book wasn't intended to teach any financial lessons, but it was a good reminder to be cautious with money, even in the good times. It is easy to forget that hard times will likely come again.
- Be kind. You don't know what others are going through. In most cases, if you are better off than someone, luck played a big role in your circumstances.
Key takeaways:
Brought up, we were taught that the residential schools were terrible institutions, but I don't recall being taught much beyond that. This book takes a much wider view of the many ways Canada had tried to control and eliminate the indigenous way of life. As I read through this book, I tried to think of what it would look like if someone set up this system today, and I was part of the group being oppressed.
Key takeaways:
- Most recommendations are based on the assumptions that most people will make the same decision when presented with the same data. This book is about giving you the data and letting you decide for yourself. I'll summarize some of the data I found most surprising or relevant, but it is not necessarily a view that I share.
- Light drinking doesn't have any impacts on your child.
- Many of the food restrictions are around getting sick. Fish and deli meats do not warrant the fear.
- There is a wide range of healthy weight gain. Your doctor will probably worry about this more than the data supports.
- Try to pick a hospital with a low caesarian rate, don't go to a hospital with routine episiotomies.
- Doulas help cut down on tearing and C-section.
Key takeaways:
- The body knows what to do. For the most part, you can trust it.
- Moving around and letting gravity work for you is important.
- The mind and body are very connected. Staying relaxed and calm during labour greatly helps. Labour can slow or even reverse if the mother is stressed or uncomfortable with the environment.
- The main benefit was listening to the accounts of other people's experiences. It highlighted a wide range of possible scenarios and added a high degree of familiarity and comfort with the process–at least in theory.
Key takeaways:
- Engaging. It was nice to see someone work through the available data and use that to influence decisions. It seemed like on many issues the data suggests the best way forward is what works for your family. There were a few spots where there was a clear winner, but most of the time, that isn't the case. Take a deep breath and do what feels right for your family.
- Causation and correlation are not the same thing. REMEMBER THIS.
=== SLEEPING ===
- Co-sleeping is more dangerous. If you decide to proceed that way, no blankets or pillows.
- SIDS has the highest risk in the first four months. Best plan of action is a basinet in your room. After four months, it doesn't matter as much.
- Kids should sleep on their back with nothing in the crib.
- Sleep training works. It's not easy to hear your baby cry, but it's not harmful to the baby.
=== BREASTFEEDING ===
- It doesn't seem to matter whether you opt for breastfeeding or formula.
=== VACCINATION ===
- There is no evidence that vaccines are harmful. There is plenty of evidence that they are helpful.
=== STAY AT HOME ===
- There is little evidence that parents working has any harmful effects on your children. Do what works for your family.
=== EARLY EDUCATION ===
- You can't teach your kid to read until age 4+. Even if your kid starts to read early, it does not necessarily have any positive effects later in life. Sweden doesn't even teach kids to read until age 7.
- Baby Einstein and other similar ideas are good for entertaining, but there isn't evidence that they make your baby smarter.
- The type of daycare or preschool your kids go to doesn't matter, as long as they are safe and engaged.
=== DISCIPLINE ===
- Spanking doesn't help, and may even be harmful.
- Consistency is key.
- Don't threaten punishments you can't or won't enforce.
- Your kid being annoying doesn't warrant a punishment.
- You can't reason with toddlers. Accept that.
Key takeaways:
- I love reading books that challenge assumptions I hold. This book had page after page of research that made me think twice. Very fun and engaging.
- I particularly liked the section about mail that gets delivered without postage. The cost of perfectly ensuring every letter has a stamp is too high compared to the missed revenue on those few letters that make it through. In business, you need to make sure the effort is worth the end result and be okay with recognizing sometimes it's better to let things slide.
- I liked the chapter about tenure, veganism, and the review of the ‘Good to Great' companies.
Key takeaways:
- Great job writing about a complex topic and making it accessible. Many excellent metaphors were used throughout the book that nicely demonstrated concepts in a way that was easy to understand not just what was happening, but also why and how.
- I liked the section that talked about faith, but I think for a very different reason than Mr. Dawkins intended. He argues that faith is a handicap causing people to ignore evidence, and have such strong beliefs that they are willing to kill or be killed. Of course I would argue my faith is based on evidence and that the blind faith he describes is not the way that I approach my belief system. The part I found especially compelling was where he described faith as something that causes all kinds of evil in the world. I agree that I have seen that in many people, however my faith has pushed me to be more nice, kind, honest, and selfless than I would otherwise have been. I think my faith has been a net benefit to the world, at least in recent years, as my faith has evolved greatly.
Key takeaways:
- The ‘Smartest' Guys in the room...So ‘smart' they couldn't stay on top of all of their schemes. I'm often intimidated by really smart people because I wouldn't typically use that word to describe myself. This is a good reminder that someone calling themselves smart doesn't mean anything and that it takes more than raw brain power. Pride comes before the fall.
- Don't ignore your risk management team.
Key takeaways:
- I really enjoyed the chapter about hernias, and how computers tend to be better than doctors at diagnosing conditions. It's easy to think that my experience makes me better in most cases than a computer or algorithm could be, but that isn't the case. I expect this would be true outside of diagnosing disease, and should apply in other fields as well.
- The hernia chapter also discussed the success of a hospital that only repairs hernias. They are significantly more efficient and have a much higher success rate. Again, this could likely be extrapolated to other areas of life as well.
Key takeaways:
- If you are not careful, saying ‘yes' can become your default position. Have you ever found yourself stretched to thin? Would you rather to five things poorly, or two things well? Maybe one thing exceptionally? Do you catch yourself feeling busy, but not productive? The way out is the way of the Essentialist
- ‘Do less, but better.'
- It's not a new years resolution. It's about pausing constantly to ask, ‘Am I investing in the right activities?'
- I agreed with most components of this book, it seemed well supported, however I think there is a time early in a new career or young adulthood where it makes sense to be open to several opportunities until you find what you want to become an essentialist in.
- ‘Discern the vital few from the [trivial, mediocre, good] many'
- You can't have ‘ten top priorities.' Priority means one, the thing that comes prior.
- I like the concept where Frank O'Brian has a ‘thinking retreat. Once a month, he gathers his team into a room for a full day. No emails, no phones allowed. No agenda. The purpose is simply to think and talk. This meeting falls on the first Monday of the month, when everyone is at the top of their game. Clients know not to expect any response on that day. This allows them to take time to re-center on what is essential. That is nearly impossible to do without dedicated time to think. It's hard to grow or innovate without that space. The meeting also serves as a litmus test: if someone can't make the meeting because they have too much going on, either we are doing too much or we need more people. We don't get this time unless we force it into the schedule. It will not occur naturally.
- Focus is something we have, but it is also something we do. In order to have focus, we need to escape TO focus. An essentialist focuses the way our eyes focus, not by fixating on something, but by constantly adjusting to the field of vision. Turn off your phone, computer (literally). Take everything off your desk (literally) but a pen and a paper.
- Sleep is VERY important, both physically and mentally. Get eight hours of sleep. Take a nap during your lunch break. This supercharges your brain and is linked to high performance. Sleep deprivation is very harmful.
- The ability to prioritize IS the priority.
- Essentialism requires a systematic, rigorous approach to hiring. 1. Interview the candidate by phone - this strips away visual cues while forming first impressions. 2. Candidate is interviewed by multiple people throughout the company. 3. If they make it through several rounds of interviews, they are invited to spend a day working with the team. 4. After the day, management sends out a questionnaire to the whole team - instead of just the obvious questions, ask, ‘Would they love working here?' ‘Would we love having them work with us?' No offer or commitment is made at this stage. The objective is to allow both teams to see each other as honestly as possible. If the team isn't absolutely sure, then the answer is no.
- ‘If it isn't a clear yes, it's a no'
- ‘If I didn't already own this, how much would I spend to buy this?' ‘If I didn't already have this opportunity (job, project, client, etc.), what would I be willing to do to acquire it?'
- Rather than asking yourself, ‘What would I say yes to?' ask yourself, ‘What would I say no to?'
- Essential Intent: ‘If we could be truly excellent at only one thing, what would it be? How will we know when we have succeeded?' When looking at mission statements, grandiose is usually bad. Compare: ‘Eliminate hunger in the world.' vs ‘Build 150 affordable, green, storm resistant homes for families living in the lower ninth ward of New Orleans.' The concreteness makes it real, the realness makes it inspiring. This applies to way more than your work mission statement. Apply it to your life.
- I love this idea of saying no to most things firmly because you are so confident in what you want to do. The problem is, I'm not entirely sure what I want to say yes to, at the moment. Saying no FIRMLY is important. When you get a request you don't want to say yes to, but you are having a hard time saying an outright no, say: “I'll need to check my calendar and get back to you”, “No, but I know someone who might want to help”, or, simply say nothing, make it look like you are thinking about it, and wait for the other person to fill the void. People are so afraid of awkward pauses they will probably let you off the hook.
- We can say ‘no' and regret it for a few moments, or say yes and regret it for days, weeks, months, or years.
- Beware of sunk cost bias. ‘If I was presented with this project right now, in it's current condition, what would I be willing to do to acquire it?' An essentialist asks, what else could I do with this time or money if I pull the plug now?
- The Endowment Effect: Nobody has ever washed a rental car. We tend to overvalue things that we already possess. How much would you be willing to sell a mug you currently own for? How much would you be willing to pay for it if you didn't already own it?
- If something doesn't suit the essential intent, drop it. What is the obstacle, that, if removed, would remove the majority of other obstacles?
- Look for small changes we can make in the things we do often, rather than big changes.
- Done is better than perfect. Minimal Viable Product
Key takeaways:
- A nice, well explained summary of the ‘key' tenants of the faith, while acknowledging and leaving room for people to have differing views.
- C. S. Lewis is a master at examples.
- I found the section on pride to be especially convicting. I can be perfectly happy with what I have, but as soon as someone close to me has more, I suddenly become dissatisfied with something that had previously been enough.
- Do not worry about whether or not you feel love for a person. Act as though you do. In doing that, you will have loved the person.
- God operates outside of time. Imagine you are an author writing a story about Mary. You write, “Mary sat down at her table to eat.” You can then go back to the start of her story and fill in some details, then jump to the end of the book and adjust her ending. When you resume, Mary doesn't know anything happened, but you can move around outside of time and adjust the story.
Key takeaways:
This has long been a favorite. It was one of the first books I read on the subject of business, and for that reason it will always have a special place. I have re-read it several times and will likely continue that tradition.
- The Fluctuation: Panic is rarely worth the hype. “What will the market do?” “It will fluctuate.”
- The Edsel: Own your mistakes. You can rebound.
- Federal Income Tax: It is impossible to make a fair tax law that will please everyone. The same thing is true of every government initiative. Accept that, and while that should never stop you from pushing for a better solution, someone who only ever complains isn't likely to bring about a solution to the problem.
- A Reasonable Amount of Time: Don't play in the grey area. Just because no one has gotten into trouble in the past, doesn't mean that will always be true.
- Xerox: Stick to your principals, even when they are unpopular.
- Communication: Be explicit. Don't leave room for misunderstandings. Say what you mean, and have a culture where you mean what you say.
- Last Great Corner: Don't be arrogant, and don't play games you don't understand. While the exchange clearly treated Saunders unfairly, he was hardly likeable.
- David E. Lilienthal: Keep a journal. I was encouraged, Lilienthal didn't begin his career in the private sector until later in life. Even if the first part of your life is ‘typical', it is never too late to choose a new path, and changing late doesn't mean you won't be successful.
- Stockholders and Annual Meetings: Have a good relationship with your stockholders (or other interested parties) and don't take yourself too seriously. Mr. McCormack of Comsat seemed to genuinely enjoy the rowdy atmosphere.
- One Free Bite: How do you as a business or employee want to be perceived? Could not the majority of this mess have been resolved with clear communication and genuine respect?
Key takeaways:
- I probably view this as one of the most important books I've read so far. Few of us like thinking about what decline looks like. Fewer of us have plans for it. This book highlights the importance of doing that, and how big of an impact a good plan can have.
- We get to a point where medicine can't fix anything, merely push the problem down the road. We need to accept that.
- Medicine is surprisingly ineffective at lengthening life when it comes to terminal illnesses. Often life is only extended by a few months (sometimes it is even shortened) and the quality typically decreases by a disproportionate amount.
- Hospice care (focusing on how to enjoy today) can dramatically improve quality of life, often without any meaningful decrease in the length of time left.
- We need to ask ourselves: What are our hopes/goals? What are we willing to endure to achieve them? This takes the pressure off the caregivers to make difficult decisions. Example from the book, when his dad was sick, he said that as long as he could eat ice-cream and watch football, he wanted life to continue. If it came to the point where he couldn't do that, he didn't want further treatment. This way his kids didn't need to stress over whether further treatment was right or not.
I think everyone should read this book, especially if they have aging family or themselves are aging.
Key takeaways:
- I appreciated the way Mr. Obama somehow made being president seem both like a regular job and completely unlike a regular job at the same time. Reading this book, I was struck by how often I flipped between two thoughts: I could never be president, it sounds way too complicated, and I could probably handle being president, it doesn't sound that hard. I'll attribute that to Mr. Obama's ability to humanize the role, not my own ability to handle the pressures of being president.
- Being president is just management. While reading this book, the perspective I took away is that effective management is two parts: 1) Getting experts to work for you and balancing all the concerns your experts bring up simultaneously. If we solve this problem the way the environmental expert says, how will that work with the military expert's concerns? How will that impact the economy? 2) Getting the most out of the experts that work for you.
- No problem tat reaches the top office (president, CEO, etc.) has a clean, 100% solution. If it did, someone else down the chain of command would have solved it already. As the top official, you need to be comfortable weighing a mix of bad options and choosing the least-bad one.
Key takeaways:
- I enjoyed looking behind the curtain of the CIA.
- Perhaps I wasn't very engaged while reading this book, but I didn't feel like I had very many takeaways from this book.
- The one thing that jumped out at me most is that pride and arrogance are not appealing, especially when talking about yourself. Of course that is obvious, but reading a book like this is a good reminder to watch your tone.
Key takeaways:
- I liked this book. It helped me understand my style, why I am the way I am, and how to use my personality to be successful.
- This book started out really well, then I feel like the back half lost a lot of steam. I think this is probably a consequence of publishers requiring books to be a certain length. I understand why they do this, as I would probably have a mental block against buying a book that was only 50 pages, yet it is unfortunate because this book would have been more powerful if it was only 50 pages and left out some of the other ‘fluff'.
- The plane crash game seemed really powerful. 1. You have a list of 15 or so items recovered from a plane crash. You have to rank them in order of usefulness. 2. You get into groups to rank them. 3. Compare your individual and group rankings against the ‘answer key' created by a wilderness survival expert. If any individual scores higher than the group, you lose! It helps teach the importance of getting everyone's ideas and making sure to include the quieter group members.
- Presentation skills vs ideas. It is easy to get swept up by a good presenter even if their ideas aren't good. At the same time it is easy to ignore someone has good ideas but bad presentation.
- Right Solutions is a tech company that has employees submit ideas through an online portal. This helps offset the good idea/good presenter problem.
- The bus to Abilene: If someone suggests an idea because they think it is what someone else wants, and everyone else agrees because they think it is what the first person wants, you are on the bus to Abilene. You don't want to go to Abilene.
- “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job.”
- When Jim Collins was writing Good to Great, he found all of the companies were led by a quiet, unassuming CEO. The people who worked with these CEOs described them as “quiet, humble modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated.” Collins says, “The lesson is clear. We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos, but the institutions they run.”
- Re-read 2:04:30 for about five minutes. Good conversation about CEOs.
- Open floor plan offices don't seem to work. They lead to lower productivity, impair memory, high staff turnover, sickness and hostility.
- Since reading Range, by David Epstein I have been a big believer in innovation and groups of people from diverse backgrounds working together to solve problems. I had always assumed doing that as a group was the answer. This book suggests that it would be far better to give people time to consider the problems ahead of time, then after they have had a chance to brainstorm privately, you should get them together in a group.
Key takeaways:
- This book was horrifying. Reading such detailed accounts of the awful things people are capable of is stomach turning. Not just because you have to imagine what it would have been like to endure these atrocities, but because it brings you face-to-face with the fact that these acts were committed by normal people. If normal people could be made to do this, would I have been any better? Of course I believe I would have been one of the few to abstain and try to bring this senseless massacre to light, but it is naïve to dismiss the possibility out of hand. Build your integrity and character now, when there is little pressure to compromise, so that it is part of who you are, no matter the circumstances.
- You can condition people to do truly awful things. With the right methods, you can make ordinary people into monsters. Does it work the other way around?
- The message from the top is crucial to do this. If leadership encourages people to focus only on the numbers, the customer won't matter. If leadership encourages people to cut corners, they will. If instead leadership makes it very clear certain activities will not be tolerated or that certain actions are required, and that straying from these directives will be addressed, the people on the ground will follow suit.