Solid, quick read. Solid leadership framework. This is a good foundational approach. Take a topic, practice it, learn. Rinse. Repeat.

Tiger Mom/10,000 hours to mastery or breadth of experience. This question has always interested me. My friend, Harry Joiner, advocates for mastery. "Be a hammer."

Epstein's conclusion sums it up nicely:

Finally, remember that there is nothing inherently wrong with specialization. We all specialize to one degree or another, at some point or other. My initial spark of interest in this topic came from reading viral articles and watching conference keynotes that offered early hyperspecialization as some sort of life hack, a prescription that will save you the wasted time of diverse experience and experimentation. I hope I have added ideas to that discussion, because research in myriad areas suggests that mental meandering and personal experimentation are sources of power, and head starts are overrated

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A clear-eyed account of learning how to lead in a chaotic world, by General Jim Mattis--the former Secretary of Defense and one of the most formidable strategic thinkers of our time--and Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine. Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis's storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas--and short-sighted thinking--now facing our nation. He makes it clear why America must return to a strategic footing so as not to continue winning battles but fighting inconclusive wars. Mattis divides his book into three parts: Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. In the first part, Mattis recalls his early experiences leading Marines into battle, when he knew his troops as well as his own brothers. In the second part, he explores what it means to command thousands of troops and how to adapt your leadership style to ensure your intent is understood by your most junior troops so that they can own their mission. In the third part, Mattis describes the challenges and techniques of leadership at the strategic level, where military leaders reconcile war's grim realities with political leaders' human aspirations, where complexity reigns and the consequences of imprudence are severe, even catastrophic. Call Sign Chaos is a memoir of a life of warfighting and lifelong learning, following along as Mattis rises from Marine recruit to four-star general. It is a journey about learning to lead and a story about how he, through constant study and action, developed a unique leadership philosophy, one relevant to us all.

This is an incredible book. There are a lot of notes. (And I skipped the first chapters covering the history.) I am trying a new approach to highlighting the passages I found especially relevant. Bold, larger font, and even LARGER font. Tell me if you like it.

Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety.

These remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life.

Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists inadvertently catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research. 

The true subject of Pollan's "mental travelogue" is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both suffering and joy, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.

Top 10 book for me. I've already read it twice. 🙂 Make sure you get the updated version. There is so much to like in Walker's theory and supporting analysis. Its not the coach. Its not the high paid perennial all-star. Its the person that goes out and GRINDS.

A bold new theory of leadership drawn from elite captains throughout sports— The seventeen most dominant teams in sports history had one thing in common: Each employed the same type of captain—a singular leader with an unconventional set of skills and tendencies. Drawing on original interviews with athletes, general managers, coaches, and team-building experts, Sam Walker identifies the seven core qualities of the Captain Class—from extreme doggedness and emotional control to tactical aggression and the courage to stand apart.

Excellent book especially considering the times in which we are living. (2020). I took so many notes that I decided to only show the summaries and passages that really jumped out at me. Much to think about. Shows how changes in work, family structure, women's roles, and other factors have caused people to become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and democratic structures--and how they may reconnect.

This is a short book but it is full of impactful thoughts. I like to read these books slowly - one page, one small chapter at a time and spend the day reflecting on it before moving on. There were many instances where Merton's reflections really got in my head and stuck there.

Teach me to bear a humility which shows me, without ceasing, that I am a liar and a fraud and that, even though this is so, I have an obligation to strive after truth, to be as true as I can, even though I will inevitably find all my truth half poisoned with deceit.

Chew on that for a little while.

I first read Walden in the late 1980's in college. I had no idea what I was doing. This is a fact that becomes more and more clear as I age. Thoreau wrote this to be like a "bible". It is not meant to be read over a week or so for a college class. It is meant to be absorbed. Slowly. And that is exactly how I approached it this time around. I am glad I did.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

This is a quick, must read.

Chaos should not be the norm.

They run 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off projects. Sprints/release cycle for 6, 2 weeks to review and plan the next 6 weeks.

They don't use goals. They don't set targets for the sake of setting a target. They don't have a product road map. Promises lead to rushing. Promises pile up like debt and they accrue interest.

They opt for depth not breadth.

CALM REQUIRES GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH ENOUGH.

Hancock challenges the archaeological orthodoxy's view that North and South America were the last places to be settled by humans.

Hancock posits a theory that an ancient globally distributed system of ASTRO-ARCHITECTURE that created monuments on the ground which mimic patterns of certain constellations in the sky. Since before he wrote Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock has been searching for a lost ancient high civilization.

The design of the sacred architecture of the world is ruled by geometry. Hancock uses Richard Dawkins' term "meme" to describe this system of behavior being passed from one individual to the other.

Stonehenge, the Pyramids, Angkor Wat, Serpent Mound, Ohio - all are concerned with deliberate orientation to the sky - some honor the solstices. Architectural, astronomical, geometrical memes across different parts of the world AND across many different time periods.

A quote from the book:

"Contrary to the mainstream, my broad conclusion is that an advanced global seafaring civilization existed during the Ice Age, that it mapped the earth as it looked then with stunning accuracy, and that it had solved the problem of longitude, which our own civilization failed to do until the invention of Harrison’s marine chronometer in the late eighteenth century. As masters of celestial navigation, as explorers, as geographers, and as cartographers, therefore, this lost civilization of 12,800 years ago was not outstripped by Western science until less than 300 years ago at the peak of the Age of Discovery."