I’ve been using and loving Zequenz A5 blank notebooks for my morning pages. The paper is so smooth, and InkJoy Gel .07mm pens glide across it like butter.
Seneca said that wisdom is always wanting the same things and always rejecting the same things.
You don’t even have to add the stipulation that they are the right things. If they are consistent, they are right.
Consistency. I’ve been thinking about this word a lot with the upcoming presidential election. Its polarity has made inconsistencies stand out like tolerance at a MAGA rally. To value your rights but not a transgender person’s…that’s inconsistent. To love your gay friend but look down on Pride celebrations…inconsistent. To claim to support African Americans by protecting “black jobs”…inconsistent.
Our steps will vary, but our path should remain the same. Laws and policies are debatable. Humanity isn’t.
The people who fight for civil rights and women’s rights are the same people who fight for gay rights and transgender rights. They’ll be the same people in the future, fighting for the next minority group that will be attacked once the mob inevitably loses interest in its current targets. And they will lose interest because passions of the day don’t last. Kindness does.
Take Euripides, the ancient Greek playwright. Wildly unpopular and dismissed in his day (what modern mind isn’t?), his plays made people uncomfortable by challenging their long-held prejudices. He wanted them to think. He wanted people to question conventions, as they were often masks for injustice. His love and compassion for people, especially those unlike him—women, the elderly, peasants, slaves—was so deep that the sadness it caused nearly incapacitated him.
What’s interesting, as Edith Hamilton writes in her phenomenalbook The Greek Way(see below!), is that not long after his death, his popularity swung completely in the opposite direction. People were told incredible stories of what a great man he was. (To this day, more of his plays survive than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles combined.)
“Dogmatisms of each age wear out,” Hamilton writes. “The heterodoxy of one generation is the orthodoxy of the next. The ultimate critique of pure reason is that its results do not endure.” Even Euripides’ biting indictments of the social structure were forgotten. What wasn’t forgotten, what people remembered and so loved him for, found solace in him for, was his sympathy for humanity’s pain, his “courage to tear down old wrongs and never give up seeking for new things that should be good.” It was his kindness that outlasted everything.
Kindness. That sturdy thread that runs through the long line of great men and women. Through the people who root for others and watch out for them. The people who are eager to understand, eager to…
Be a benevolent interpreter
In An Emotional Education, Alain de Botton notes how quickly society judges a person’s worth based on their status. If a person falls on hard times, they’re told to pick themselves up; failure means they didn’t try hard enough. People mostly get what they deserve. “Those who are condemned and broken did something wrong; those who succeeded worked hard and were good.” Their status is an indicator of their decency.
But the ancient Greeks saw it differently: You could do all the right things and still fail. This was the idea behind their tragic dramas. Playwrights like Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles wrote of honest, decent people who made an understandable mistake or were victims of chance and were left ruined or put to death. Audiences were thrilled and frightened. If it could happen to him, they realized, it could happen to any of us.
That’s why we must be generous in our interpretations of others, give them the benefit of the doubt. We’re all doing the best we can with what we have.
This thinking, Alan de Botton says, is an exercise in being kind, yes. But it’s also a way of getting to the truth. Two things which, “when you dive deep into psychology, might be the same thing.”
Lift them up
There was one theme running through Rosanne Cash’s eulogy for her stepmother, June: her kindness.
“In her eyes, there were two kinds of people in the world: those she knew and loved, and those she didn’t know and loved. She looked for the best in everyone; it was a way of life for her. If you pointed out that a particular person was perhaps not totally deserving of her love, and might in fact be somewhat of a lout, she would say, ‘Well, honey, we just have to lift him up.’ She was forever lifting people up. . . . She saw into all your dark corners and deep recesses, saw your potential and possible future, and the gifts you didn’t even know you possessed, and she ‘lifted it up’ for you to see. She did it for all of us, daily, continuously.”
Fight hate with love
On her way home from school each day, Totto-Chan (whose full name is Tetsuko Kuroyanagi and is one of the most famous talk-show personalities in Japan) would walk by the tenements where Koreans lived. She didn’t know they were Korean, of course, as she was in the first grade. One day, a boy from another school named Masao-chan, who was maybe a year older than her, was standing on top of an embankment. With his hands on his hips and feet apart in an arrogant stance, he shouted at Totto-chan, “Korean!” His voice was full of hatred.
When she got home, she told her mother about it. “Masao-chan called me a Korean,” she said. Her mother put her hand over her mouth. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and her nose reddened. “Poor child,” she said. “People must call him ‘Korean! Korean!’ so often that he thinks it’s a nasty word.” He’s too young to understand, she continued. He probably thinks they are calling him a fool. And because it is said to him so often, he wanted to say something nasty to someone else. “How can people be so cruel?”
Wiping her tears, her mother calmly said to Totto-chan, “You’re Japanese and Masao-chan comes from a country called Korea. But he’s a child, just like you. So, Totto-chan, dear, don’t ever think of people as different. Don’t think, ‘That person’s a Japanese, or this person’s a Korean.’ Be nice to Masao-chan. It’s so sad that some people think other people aren’t nice just because they’re Korean.”
Totto-chan didn’t fully understand, but she did understand that people were mean to Masao-chan for no reason. She decided that if he called her ‘Korean’ again, she would reply, “We’re all children! We’re all the same.” Then, she would try to make him her friend.
Be fair
In his beautiful book Right Thing, Right Now, Ryan Holiday tells the story of famed lawyer Clarence Darrow. Late in his life, needing money, he agreed to do a speaking tour around the country debating other speakers onstage. His contract was $500 per event and $50 for expenses. After the first event, Darrow learned that the promoter made only $150 after costs and fees. Darrow was aghast at the unfairness of it. He gave his $50 expense money to the promoter and another $100 from his own check. Even later, when the profits had risen, Darrow kept his speaking fee to the original agreed on price. His partner explained, in admiration, “Mr. Darrow always leaned over backward to give men the best part of the deal.”
“At the end of our lives,” Ryan writes in the afterword, “we won’t care that much if people think we were hardworking or that the risks we’ve taken in our careers have paid off. We’ll want someone to say, ‘That was a good person. They were honest and decent and generous and loyal and kind. They made the world a better place.’”
Books Read This Month:
–Left of Bang by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley is a good supplement to The Gift of Fear, which, as I’ve said, reads in part like a thriller and is one of my favorite books. I think everyone, women especially, should read it. A favorite takeaway: be wary of unsolicited promises. Anyway, Left of Bang is also about spotting signs of potential danger. I mostly skimmed the more military-oriented chapters, but the stuff about people and how surprisingly predictable they are is fascinating and potentially life-saving.
–The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton is SO good. Oh my goodness, it’s phenomenal. (The pile of notes I’ve taken is almost an inch thick.) The ancient Greeks were the pinnacle of human excellence. The way they thought and the art they produced “has never been surpassed and very rarely equaled, and the stamp of it is upon all the art and all the thought of the Western world.” The Greeks LOVED life. They loved work, and they loved play. They loved leisure, which they used for intellectual pursuits. They were sociable. They thought for themselves. They found truth in both the rational and the spiritual, science and poetry. (A radical notion even today.) The mind and spirit were one. They were wise but not reclusive, lovers of wisdom with the charisma and vigor of a high school football captain. Seriously, this book is a masterpiece.
-I randomly came across The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr while browsing at Changing Hands Bookstore this month and was surprised I’d never heard of it. I blazed through it and got loads of good stuff on what makes a story—specifically a memoir, one of my favorite genres—work.
-I loved This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff. He shares his experience growing up with his free-spirited mother and his unpredictable, emotionally abusive stepfather. From reading Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir, I noticed specific reasons why this memoir works so well: One, Wolff’s adolescent voice is so distinct we don’t question it’s him talking to us. (Similar to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird). Two, he doesn’t tell us only the bad things his stepfather did. That would put us to sleep. What drives the story are the moments of hope mixed in, the times his stepfather was nice to him. And three, he endears himself to us with his candid telling of his shameful and embarrassing moments. Such a good read and one of my favorite memoirs.
-I usually plan which books I’ll read next, but I pulled Creativity Sucks by Phil Hansen off my shelf randomly during a break from writing. Thirty minutes later, I was still standing there reading. It’s an easy read about balancing the demands of daily life with creativity. What’s interesting is that I almost quit reading it a few times. Not because I wasn’t enjoying it, but because I thought I should be reading something…denser? But then I remembered (because the day before, I had read some of my journals from 2013) that a relatively light book played a part in where I am today. Had it not been for Jeffrey Gitomer’s The Little Black Book of Connections that I bought (with my mom’s credit card because I had no money) on a whim at the O’Hare airport, there’s a good chance I might never have started talking with Courtney. It’s a long story but my point is that if you’re getting something from a book, keep reading it. Anyway, one of my biggest takeaways was Hansen’s method for creating on demand, systematically. How else can we create consistently? I also loved his idea of separating the mental work from the physical. The mental work can be done during your commute, washing dishes, etc. That way, when you get to your desk, you can spend your time physically creating. Highly recommend!
Last week, my wife Courtney and I flew to Austin, TX. We then drove 30 miles southeast to the small town of Bastrop to visit The Painted Porch bookstore, where we met my favorite author and mentor, Ryan Holiday. (More on that next month!)
Back in Austin, we visited the LBJ Library, the Neill-Cochran House Museum, and the State Capital. We took walks around Lady Bird Lake. Everywhere we went, I found a sticker or pamphlet or business card to tape into my journal (which has started to double as a scrapbook.) As I added entries, I looked at earlier ones from this year—the ideas and insights and things learned and magazine clippings and doodles. I found some good stuff to share, things that have changed me and made me better. Things that I think you can use too.
1. Henry David Thoreau said if you think too many trivial thoughts, your brain becomes a mess of trivialities. I couldn’t stop thinking about that. A mess of trivialities.
This led me to think about the people I most admire, and what their thoughts probably look like. They probably don’t think much about personal irritations, or superstitions, or desires, or things that don’t matter. (If they did, they wouldn’t be able to accomplish what they do.) Their thoughts are likely big-picture and worldly. So I made an image in my journal as a reminder to keep my attention on better and higher things.
Whenever I have a trivial or obsessive thought—I wonder what he meant by that. Should I redo my hair?—I remember this image of the girl smiling as she focuses on bigger things, and I immediately forget whatever unimportant thing I was thinking about.
The point isn’t necessarily to elevate my thoughts, but to take my mind off the insignificant ones. Which, with time, might become the same thing.
2. In Lynda Barry’s What It Is (one of my favorite books about writing!) there’s a short comic strip of a writer deep in thought, trying to figure out what she should write a book about. Ten years later, someone asks what her book will be about. “Shh! I’m still thinking,” she replies.
We can’t think our way to good ideas. We have to roll up our sleeves. We have to do the work in front of us.
3. When you look back on your life, what you accomplished will mean far less to you than what you contributed.
4. Make time each day for your own work, and wear yourself out doing it.
Marcus Aurelius asks, “Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?” Why aren’t you running to do your work? Not to a 9 to 5, but to the work you’re naturally inclined to do?
Seneca said that only fools begin to live life just as it’s coming to an end. You can’t wait until you’re retired. You can’t wait until you feel like you’ve saved enough money or have fewer obligations. That’s never going to happen.
And isn’t that great news? We don’t have to wait to start living because there’s nothing to wait for!
We will never have the time, so we have to make it. I don’t have the luxury to read and write all day—I’m not sure anyone does—so I wake up a few hours early and do it in the morning. Then I do more during lunch. I look for opportunities throughout the day, too. When coworkers take a smoke break, I take a note break.
Because we can’t wait 10 years. We can’t wait 10 days. Our work must be done now, wherever we are. Because if we wait, we may never get the chance to do it at all. Besides, if you have excuses today, you’ll have excuses tomorrow, too.
5. Don’t think about how long it’s going to take. Just focus on doing a little work on it each day.
6. The best way to serve the world is to serve your work. And the best work is the work that connects the divine with the human.
7. In An Emotional Education, Alain de Botton says we’re unhappy because we think perfection is possible. But it’s not. The human condition is struggle and pain and weakness. There’s no cure, only consolation. He puts this idea beautifully:
“What we can aim for, at best, is consolation—a word tellingly lacking in glamor. To believe in consolation means giving up on cures; it means accepting that life is a hospice rather than a hospital, but one we’d like to render as comfortable, as interesting, and as kind as possible.”
8. A common reason for failed relationships is that one person, consciously or not, wants their partner to have only strengths. But, of course, no one has only strengths. Said differently, weakness-free people don’t exist. We’re all flawed. In fact, Alain de Botton pointed out, our “weaknesses” exist because of our strengths. The creative energy that makes her artistic may also lend to her messiness. The guy who can be frustratingly stubborn is also honest and loyal.
9. Despite what Shark Tank would have you believe, you don’t have to have millions of dollars worth of sales or be super well-known. You can sustain yourself and your work with 1,000 true fans.
11. In Novelist as a Vocation(another one of my favorite books about writing!) Haruki Murakami said the best way to express yourself as freely as possible is not to ask, “What am I seeking?” (which causes you to ponder heavy things and slows you up), but to instead ask, “Who would I be if I weren’t seeking anything?”
12. Start the clock. Ryan Holiday recently wrote about having a sense of urgency. About the importance of starting the clock on a project, getting the ball rolling as soon as possible. And about spotting bottlenecks quickly and fixing them quickly.
13. I found this gem in a poem of Ray Bradbury’s: “There’s no rest, there is only journeying to be yourself.”
15. The difference between genre and style. Genre is a category. Style is the life and humanity you give the art. As Jerry Saltz put it, “Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ is a classic country song; the vulnerability of her performance is what makes you die inside when you hear it.”
19. Don’t be satisfied with doing work that gets you by. Find work to be invested in.
20. Don’t live a boring life.
21. Burn with the ambition to be useful.
22. A great way to live: follow your interests and share them with the world.
Books Read This Month:
I added all 4 of the books I read this month to my favorites list. If you’re wondering why so many of the books I read I end up loving, it’s because I quit a lot of books I’m not loving. This section could also be called Books I Didn’t Quit This Month:
-I got so, so much from A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston (and not just because he’s my favorite actor). His career is the epitome of serving the work. Of doing his job. Of changing things up. I’ve heard of golden handcuffs (staying at a job that pays well but makes you miserable), but never velvet handcuffs (staying at a job because it’s comfortable and you’re “learning a lot”.) In a way, velvet handcuffs are more insidious than golden ones. The velvet is comforting, easily missed. In his mid-twenties, Bryan Cranston’s dreams came true when he landed a recurring role on the soap opera Loving. He we finally a working actor. He no longer needed a day job. He was making enough to live on and enjoying the work. About a year and a half into his role on Loving, his contract renewal was coming up. His manager Leonard Grant called him and asked what he wanted to do. “I like having a job,” Cranston answered. “I’m enjoying myself. Learning a lot.” His manager replied, “It’s velvet handcuffs. You’ve got to get out of daytime, or else you’ll wake up and it’s twenty years later and it’s all you’ve ever done.” Cranston realized Grant was right and immediately put in his two weeks.
–Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman. Wow…this is easily one of the best books I’ve read. It’s the incredible true story of how 29 people escaped through an underground tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall. There are tons of holy shit moments. I learned a ton of history and was never bored—two things I rarely put in the same sentence. Seriously, this book was so much fun to read.
–Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper. I LOVED this book. He talks about the importance of leisure, and how nothing of genius is accomplished without it. He says leisure is a form of silence where “the soul’s power to ‘answer’ to the reality of the world is left undisturbed. For leisure is a receptive attitude of mind, a contemplative attitude, and . . . the capacity for steeping oneself in the whole of creation.” Leisure isn’t about turning our brains off; leisure is about being fully alert and receptive! True leisure is impossible if we’re overworked. Further, overwork creates the dangerous illusion that we’re living a fulfilled life.
–Furious Hours by Casey Cep is another incredible true story. The first half of the book is about a reverend who murdered family members for insurance money…only to be shot dead at one of his victim’s funerals by a grieving relative. The second half is about one of the most famous authors of the time, Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), and her attempt to tell the story of the reverend. (She hoped it would be another In Cold Blood, the true-crime classic she helped Truman Capote write.) She spent about 10 years—the first few researching, the remaining trying to figure out how to tell the story—before abandoning the project entirely. There’s much speculation about why she never wrote another book after her wildly successful Mockingbird (not counting Go Set a Watchman, which was really just the first draft of Mockingbird). Maybe she thought she would never top her first book. Maybe perfectionism got the best of her. Whatever the case, she might have saved herself years had she decided how to tell the story—or move on to something else entirely—before researching. Perhaps she would have benefitted from Steven Pressfield’s advice in The Daily Pressfield, given to him by Randall Wallace, the writer of Braveheart: “The most important thing is the story. Get that first. What’s the drama about? Who’s the hero? Who’s the villain? How does it end? Once you get those, you can go back and fill in the research.”
“If your opinions on one subject can be predicted from your opinions on another, you may be in the grip of an ideology. When you truly think for yourself, your conclusions will not be predictable.”
“The greatest breakthroughs are missed because they look like really hard work.”
“If you can’t tell what you desperately need, it’s probably sleep.”
“To rapidly reveal the true character of a person you just met, observe them stuck on an abysmally slow internet connection.”
“The best way to advise young people is to find out what they really want to do and then advise them to do it.”
“Don’t define yourself by your opinions, because then you can’t change your mind. Define yourself by your values.”
“You are only as young as the last time you changed your mind.”
“You don’t need more time because you already have all the time that you will ever get; you need more focus.”
“If you’re not embarrassed by your past self, you have probably not grown up yet.”
“Perhaps the most counterintuitive truth of the universe is that the more you give to others, the more you’ll get. Understanding this is the beginning of wisdom.”
“If you are not falling down occasionally, you are just coasting.”
“Make others feel they are important; it will make their day and it will make your day.”
“Expand your mind by thinking with your feet on a walk or with your hand in a notebook. Think outside your brain.”
“If you ask for someone’s feedback, you’ll get a critic. But if you ask for someone’s advice, you’ll get a partner.”
“Whenever you can’t decide which path to take, pick the one that produces change.”
“Make others feel they are important; it will make their day and it will make your day.”
“The best way to learn anything is to teach what you know.”
“The more you leave behind, the further you will advance.”
“Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.”
“Listening well is a superpower. While listening to someone you love, keep asking them, ‘Is there more?’ until there is no more.”
“Your passions should fit you exactly, but your purpose in life should exceed you. Work for something much larger than yourself.”
“Experiences are fun, and having influence is rewarding, but only mattering makes us happy. Do stuff that matters.”
“The consistency of your endeavors (exercise, companionship, work) is more important than the quality. Nothing beats small things done every day, which is way more important than what you do occasionally.”
“What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days.”
“Make stuff that is good for people to have.”
“It is your destiny to work on things that only you can do.”
“You cannot get smart people to work extremely hard just for money.”
“Half the skill of being educated is learning what you can ignore.”
“Most articles and stories are improved significantly if you delete the first page of the manuscript. Start with the action.”
Advice on investing but also life: “Average returns, maintained for above-average periods of time, will yield extraordinary results.
“Occasionally your first idea is best, but usually it’s the fifth idea. You need to get all the obvious ideas out of the way. Try to surprise yourself.”
“Don’t bother fighting the old, just build the new.”
“Do more of what looks like work to others but is play for you.”
“The stronger your beliefs, the stronger your reasons to question them regularly. Don’t simply believe everything you think you believe.”
“The trick to making wise decisions is to evaluate your choices as if you were looking back 25 years from today. What would your future self think?”
“To be interesting, just tell your own story with uncommon honesty.”
“The main reason to produce something every day is that you must throw away a lot of good work to reach the great stuff. To let it all go easily, you need to be convinced that there is ‘more where that came from.’ You get that in steady production.”
“To get your message across, follow this formula used by ad writers everywhere: simplify, simplify, simplify, then exaggerate.
“Mastering the view through the eyes of others will unlock so many doors.”
“To meditate, sit and pay attention to your breathing. Your mind will wander to thoughts. Then you bring your attention back to your breathing, where it can’t think. Wander. Retreat. Keep returning to breath, no thoughts. That is all.”
“Five years from now you will wish you had started today.”
“To have a great trip, head toward an interest rather than to a place. Travel to passions rather than destinations.”
“It is impossible for you to become poor by giving. It is impossible for you to become wealthy without giving.”
“Try hard to solicit constructive criticism early. You want to hear what’s not working as soon as possible. When it is finished you can’t improve it.”
“There is no perfection, only progress. Done is much better than perfect.”
“Even if you don’t say anything, if you listen carefully, people will consider you a great conversationalist.”
“Art before laundry.”
“To succeed once, focus on the outcome; to keep succeeding, focus on the process that makes the outcome.”
“Being curious about another person’s view is the most powerful way to change their view.”
“If your sense of responsibility is not expanding as you grow, you are not really growing.”
“To write about something hard to explain, write a detailed letter to a friend about why it is so hard to explain, and then remove the initial “Dear Friend” part and you’ll have a great first draft.”
“Embrace pronoia, which is the opposite of paranoia. Choose to believe that the entire universe is conspiring behind your back to make you a success.”5
“The first step is usually to complete the last step. You can’t load into a full dish rack.”
“Re-visioning the ordinary is what art, literature, and comedy do. You can elevate mundane details into magical wonders simply by noticing them.”
“The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.”
“Very few regrets in life are about what you did. Almost all are about what you didn’t do.”
My reading goal this year was 5 books a month. I’m not sure why I chose 5. Probably because I knew I could do it but I’d have to stretch myself.
Reading 5 books a month wasn’t exactly easy, but it wasn’t the blood, sweat, and tears I thought it’d be. I only read what interested me. And I made a few tweaks to my routine so I could spend more time reading, but not feel like I was reading all the time.
Here are some things that helped me hit my goal:
1. Having reasons for reading. My reasons were my biggest ally in keeping me going.
2. Reading 2-3 books at a time. I realized that just because I wasn’t in the mood to read a book, didn’t mean I wasn’t in the mood to read any book.
3. Getting up an hour early to read.
4. Quitting books that weren’t holding my interest. (If I sensed my disinterest was because I wasn’t in the right headspace, I’d come back to it a few weeks or months later.)
5. Reading for 30 minutes to an hour before bed.
6. Varying the book length. If I was reading 2 or 3 longer books one month, I’d squeeze 2 or 3 shorter ones in the peripherals.
7. Consistently growing my personal library. As soon as I finished one book, I’d start another the same day.
I’ve found that I get the most out of reading when I go back through a book and take notes. It’s a simple process: after I read a book, I set it aside for a few weeks. Then, I’ll come back to it, read through the parts I underlined or highlighted, and if there is something that I still think, after a few weeks, is especially interesting, I’ll copy the quote/passage/idea/anecdote/insight onto a notecard.
These notecards are the building blocks of these emails. More importantly, they’re the building blocks of my understanding of the world. So even if I didn’t write, I would still go back through each book and take notes. Why? Because I can’t and wouldn’t want to remember everything I read. But if I can grab a few nuggets of wisdom from each book, if I can write down the insights, if I can keep them close to me and use them to grow as a person…well, other than hanging out with family, I can’t think of a better use of my time.
Anyway, I made a list of my favorite books I read this year. I feel like it’s cliche to say that it was tough to narrow down the list, but it’s true, so I’ll say it: it was tough to narrow down the list.
If I had to pick 9* books (I couldn’t whittle it down further than 9) that I got the most out of, it would be these:
I didn’t realize how much I got from this book until—no surprise—I went back through it to take notes. Murakami lays out his writing career: how and why he got started, what’s worth caring about, how he gets ideas for his novels, how he writes his novels, and how he balances life and writing. I took so many notes and lessons. If you’re a writer, read this book.
A 365, one-page-a-day guide to take you from step one of your project to, and through, the finish line. (I read it straight through though—no way was I waiting a year to get to the end.) It’s a distillation of the best advice from Pressfield’s books, podcasts, newsletters, blogs, workshops, interviews, stories, and emails. There’s new writing as well for context and clarity. I just love Steven Pressfield. His writing is straightforward, self-deprecating, kind, and encouraging. At the same time, his message is DEEP and spiritual. If you do any kind of creative work, you’ll want to read this and the rest of his books.
I was hesitant to read this because I wasn’t sure how transparent it would be. But then I saw that Isaacson referred to Musk as a man-child, and I dove right in. Wow…this is one of the best books I’ve read this year. It made me see Musk in a new light. It’s a long book but with the pictures at the beginning of each short chapter, you’ll fly through it. Add the personal and international drama, plots, subplots, lessons, and an inside look at Elon Musk and what drives him, and you get an incredibly difficult book to put down.
I chanced upon this book in a used bookstore and wow. I’m not sure how I hadn’t heard of this book before. A gem of writing advice from the master himself.
I had a revelation of sorts while reading this. Specifically, the part on Transcendentalism. Matousek describes Transcendentalism as a spiritual rebellion against religious establishments with hierarchical, sexist natures. Its aim is a more direct relationship with God. It “teaches that spiritual intermediaries are unnecessary for maintaining a close connection with God.” Wow. I finally have a name for something I’ve long felt but could not put into words. I’m eager to learn more about Transcendentalism and very grateful to have found this book.
This was the first Michael Lewis book I’ve read, and I’ve since bought a few more. This dude is hilarious. In Going Infinite, he tells the story of the aloof, bankrupt FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. Lewis’s descriptions of Sam are gold. For instance, when Sam was placed on house arrest, his parents bought a guard dog from Germany that could kill on command. The only people who knew the command were his parents. Sam didn’t care to know the command because he didn’t care to know much of anything outside of his businesses. That he lived in his own world would be an understatement. As Lewis writes, “It would be very Sam Bankman-Fried-like to be killed by his own guard dog.” This book made me laugh and was a pleasure to read.
It’s incredible how calm, with literal bombs dropping all around them, these people were. Their calm inspired my own; while in the thralls of this book, I distinctly remember a noticeable absence in place of the tension I normally felt in my chest at the sight of an “urgent” email. The best thing that I got from this book though was in the Sources and Acknowledgments section at the end. Larson tells us why he decided to add another book about Winston Churchill to the public collection, what he was curious about himself, and how he made this Churchill book different from all the rest.
Here are some others that I read for the first time that I especially loved:
*Note: the 9 best books list doesn’t include 3 of my favorite books that I reread this year: Ego is the Enemy & The Obstacle is The Way by Ryan Holiday and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
