Review: Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life

Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life by Ozan Varol
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ok, now we need someone from the business world to rewrite this book drawing actionable business conclusions for each of the author's points. I mean, the points were great, and the examples were fascinating, and maybe I'm just lazy, but I felt like a step was missing in terms of transferring/translating these points into steps to follow/actions to take/methods to use, at least in terms of business (maybe this book isn't for businesspeople?)

Regardless, some of my notes:

Once certainty ends, progress can begin.

Some good arguments against celebrating failure, and Failing fast. (Learning is more important than failing)

Don't ask yourself "what would you do if you couldn't fail"? but "What would you do if it didn't matter if you failed"?

Ask yourself "What have you failed at?" every day. You should fail at something every day. Otherwise you're not pushing yourself.

Where failure ends, complacency begins.

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Review: Born To Win: The Ultimate Seminar

Born To Win: The Ultimate Seminar by Zig Ziglar
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I'm on Chapter 6 (over 5 hours in) and he still hasn't stated anything practical. A very smooth talker who said we shouldn't read horoscopes because they're the work of the devil, and we've had 7 songs so far, by the Zig Ziglar singers (seriously, with titles like "The magic of believing"). A lot of talk like "You're gonna get a lot out of this course, but this course will also get a lot out of you", and "sitting on an acorn is a mighty slow way to get on top of an acorn tree". 

Right at the beginning he stated that we need to help others and we'll start reaping rewards. A tad simplistic, but good advice nonetheless. Since then, however, there hasn't been anything I can follow up on. I can get over the references to how great God and country are if he gives me something to work with. 

To be fair, he is probably the best speaker I have ever heard. 

But seriously, I'm over 5 hours in. Is he going to start dispensing any actionable advice? I know there is a worksheet, so something concrete should be coming up at some point. 

If it weren't for his reputation and the glowing reviews on Goodreads, I would be giving up on this. 

**Update**

I think I'm done. He just told an 'anecdote' about a lady who was being beaten by her husband regularly, and one day told him that next time he beat her she would take photos of the bruises and mail them to the newspapers and all his friends, and that he was "cured of his sickness just like that". And then another story about another man who beat his wife, so her friends beat him up and so he stopped his beating. Really not sure what the point is (I think he is trying to be poignant about wife-beating not being a 'disease' for some reason), but regardless, I think I'm done.

No star review because I didn't finish it. 

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Review: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'll start with my issues with the book:

First of all, Calvin Coolidge pretty much figured this out around 100 years ago. The author calls it "perseverance and passion". Coolidge called it "Persistence and determination". Here is the full quote:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

Sooo, yeah. Odd that the author doesn't even acknowledge this quote. Truth be told however, I always liked the quote, so the book was pretty much preaching to the choir from the get-go. 

Secondly, the book talks about finding something you're passionate about. In this book it is slightly more subtle than many other places (talking about pain and getting into the flow, etc.), and goes more into detail, but it's there. The issue I have with this, is I think most people are probably passionate about earning a living and giving a good life for their family. That's their main motivator for working, earning, getting promoted, etc. and I'm not sure that type of motivation works well for a book like this. Most shoemakers want to provide for their family more than change the shoe world. 

That's pretty much it. The rest is all good points, and I plan on keeping this book as reference 

By grit, she basically means what I would have called perseverance. She says it's perseverance mixed with passion, which makes sense. 

She admonishes Skilling at Enron for having a system that fired the bottom 15% each year, but GE did the same and it seemed to work well for them. 

I loved the anecdote of Scott Kaufman, who got rejected from Carnegie Mellon's cognitive science program, so he applied to their musical program, took psychology electives, took it up as a minor, and then changed his major to it. 

Strivers beat talented people because "as strivers are improving in skill, they are also employing that skill" (p. 50)

Having a long-term goal, but not knowing the intermediate goals needed to get there, is just positive fantasizing, which leads to disappointment, since you won't achieve your goal. (p. 65)

At a certain point the book seemed to concentrate more on children, and how to foster more grit in them, which, having a 2-year-old daughter, I really appreciated. I liked the KIPP pointers, as well as the things to say to children rather than the normal feedback you usually hear (p. 182)

Her points about follow-through are good as well (p. 228), and I think I will try applying the Hard thing Rule (p/ 241) in our family as well.

3.5 stars

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Review: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is probably the seminal book on happiness, and could very likely be a great book for people who need more of it in their life.

I did think it dragged on in certain parts, trying to relate "flow" to any and every circumstance imaginable, but there were plenty of takeaways. I guess my Kindle highlights are linked here so I can defer to them.

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Review: The 10x Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure

The 10x Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't think there's anything earth shattering here, but then again it might be because I ready many business books of this type. By and large, 10x means what it sounds like. He's less of the Tim Ferriss type of "find hacks" mentality, and more of the Gary V "hustle your ass off" mentality. I do like the way he puts it. Someone might think that to hustle means doing an extra sales call at the end of each day, or something along those lines. But by labeling it 10X, he makes it clear you need to think bigger. So you should be up making sales calls in your PJs and maybe even hire an intern or part-timer to get a sales team going (or something like that, I'm sort of inventing here) so you can make ten times as many calls as before.

I saw he has a TV show now (The Turnaround guy), which I'm interested in checking out.


Some of my notes:
Never diminish your target
Instead increase your input
Success is your duty
Average achievements are worse than no achievements, because people feel like they're putting in the effort already.
Don't get the victim mentality. If bad things happen to you, it's your fault, even when it isn't. Just think of a way to make sure it never happens again and move on.
Competing is copying
Don't let a good recession go to waste
Go all in (unlike with poker, you don' t have a limited number of chips)
You want new problems (means you're growing and doing new things).
Don't give Fear time to grow
Trying to avoid complaints is wrong (just another way of avoiding expansion). Complaints are direct ways customers give feedback. Encourage them, and you can improve.
Don't try to get money. Try to get wealth.
It's unethical not to achieve your full potential. You're robbing others of possible well-being
Be uncomfortable

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Review: The Artist's Journey: The Wake of the Hero's Journey and the Lifelong Pursuit of Meaning

The Artist's Journey: The Wake of the Hero's Journey and the Lifelong Pursuit of Meaning by Steven Pressfield
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It might just be my impression but I felt like he bit off more than he could chew here. This book is *much* more philosophical than the other books I've read by him ("Do the work" and "The War of Art"), and I felt like it missed the mark. He quotes Jung, Marx, Homer, Joseph Campbell, and many others, but just seems to pick and choose random quotes or tidbits. I couldn't help feeling like he wanted to sound philosophical, but wasn't sure exactly how.

I did like some of the points he made, such as how all artists create empathy through their art (not sure if it's all that true for songs, but definitely seems true for books, movies and paintings).

I also liked his notion of following the muse. I just don't think he had to justify it with so many odd references.

Probably 2.5 stars. I would recommend checking out some of his other books first.

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The Talent Code: Unlocking the Secret of Skill in Sports, Art, Music, Math, and Just About Everything Else by Daniel Coyle (Goodreads Author)

The Talent Code: Unlocking the Secret of Skill in Sports, Art, Music, Math, and Just About Everything Else by Daniel Coyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Actually an excellent book. From the renaissance to Korean female golfers of today to the Bronte sisters to the Z-boys in the 1970s, he examines clusters of talent and genius and how they came to be.

Oddly I feel like it should have been either shorter or longer. It would've made a great article, while as a book it could have expanded more into how we can apply what he says in different settings (have there been other studies on this? Are there differences between applying his steps to one main endeavor and trying to apply them to many different aspects in our life, such as getting better at our job, learning a new language, playing a musical instrument, and sports, all at the same time?).

Obviously I don't know enough to confirm or refute the science, and it sounded a tad snake-oil salesman-y at times, but it does seem like a very interesting premise. A step up from the whole "10 years' experience" or "10,000 hours rule" theories.


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Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam M. Grant

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam M. Grant
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not revolutionary by any means, but still has some interesting information and useful tidbits.

Some of my notes;
It's a numbers game more often than not:
Mozart composed more than 600 pieces, Beethoven: 650, Bach: over 1000. The more pieces a composer produces, the greater the chances of a hit
Picasso made over 1,800 paintings, 1,200 sculptures, 2,800 ceramics, 12,000 drawings.
Maya Angelou wrote 166 poems, 7 autobiographies.
Einstein had 248 publications
-->If you want to do original work, do a lot of work.

We prefer regular pics of friends, but inverted pics of ourselves (that's how we see ourselves)
Appeals to character work better than appeals to actions (please don't be a cheater, rather than please don't cheat).
Venting doesn't extinguish anger, it feeds it.


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7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness: Power Ideas from America's Foremost Business Philosopher by Jim Rohn

7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness: Power Ideas from America's Foremost Business Philosopher by Jim Rohn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this because I heard he was an influence on Jack Canfield, Tony Robbins, David Allen, etc. A lot of his material has therefore been repeated elsewhere, but it's still a short read (even completing his exercise toward the beginning) that was worth it to me.

Interesting to see how he says Not to forgive yourself for not having been productive (Make losing painful). While many others these days say the opposite, to accept it and move on without beating yourself up over it.

Some parts are dated (including the section telling us to take pictures as often as possible). And the Listening and Observing sections are much easier now (with youtube, podcasts, etc. etc.).

Many of these strategies can be found elsewhere today, but they are pretty much still the essentials.
I found the sections on Discipline, creating value, Time management, The "I've had it" moment (similar to Tim Ferriss's Harajuku moment) to be fundamental.

Some of my notes:
"What if you had to be rich? What if the very life of someone you love depended on your being able to afford the very best medical care?"
"If you must be addicted to something, be addicted to winning"
"Not "How much does it cost?", but "How much is it worth?""
"he doesn't have ten years' experience. What he has is one year's experience repeated ten times."
"You can't create more time, so create more value"
"develop an above-average handshake. Develop an above-average smile".
70/30 Rule in finances



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The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is probably excellent, but it's definitely for the CEO of a company; a company with employees that is well-established and/or plans on growing a lot. In essence, the target market is different from that of "The Million-Dollar, One-person business" or "The 4 Hour work-week".

If you are an entrepreneur, or working on your own, or just starting out, this book will most likely be useful in the future, when you're hiring and firing and wooing investors, but probably not now.

Some of my notes:
Engineering managers should be hired internally. Sales managers should be hired externally.
"If I had a tattoo for every CEO who said she hired the best in the industry, I'd be Lil Wayne"
There's no such thing as a good CEO, but only a CEO who is good for this job at this time.


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You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero

You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Forced slang and curse words, and a bunch of law of attraction advice. But some good advice mixed in with the bad, and a great general attitude. Probably a 2.5.


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Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip E. Tetlock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How many political forecasters have their past predictions analyzed before they're invited to make more predictions on TV? How many viewers check how accurate Jim Cramer has been over his career?

Some other notes I took:
- Medicine: from Ancient Greece to George Washington, bloodletting wasn't questioned.
- Galen said: "with my medications only the incurable die" --> confirmation bias (if they live it's thanks to him, if they die it's not his fault).
- Modern scientists (and all forecasters) need to ask themselves: what would convince me I'm wrong?
- The more ideological, the worse the predictions, and the less they admitted it.

Much of the material seems to build off of Daniel Kahneman's work, but still very good.


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Principles: Life and Work

Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I wish (hope?) more successful people would do something like this: lay down the principles by which they live their life.

Some gems in there, including finding ways to use disagreement to get the best ideas (if someone convinces you to change your mind it means you learned something, while the other person hasn't improved. Also, if you don't want the other person to feel bad, you might not give them all of your information, and their decision will be sub-par). Also the section about getting news from the media, and the part dealing with asking yourself whether you have the right to have an opinion.

The first part is his life story, which was probably more useful to me than the rest, since it gives his reasoning for many of the principles. I could have done without the neuroscience section.

The second half, Work Principles, should be Workplace Principles. Since I work alone I didn't find much there for me. Still, the first two parts (biography and Life Principles) were worth the price of the book.

Chances are, anyone who enjoys this interview will enjoy the book: https://tim.blog/2017/09/13/ray-dalio/


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