Category: books

I wanted to read something from this author for a while and finally got this book.

I enjoyed the beginning with all the analysis about David vs Goliath. The underdog wins 68-70% if follows the underdog rules. And underdog tactics are hard. The story about the female basketball team that just pressed the rivals and won games is hilarious. The summary is the advantage has always disadvantages and the disadvantages has advantages.

Effort can trump ability and that conventions are made to be challenged.

Any fool can spend money. But to earn it and save it and defer gratification, then you learn to value it differently

Another concept is the inverted U that follows nearly everything of consequence. There is nothing such as infinite good. All positive traits, states, experiences have costs that at high level may begin to outweigh the benefits. Examples: School classes with very few students, children from rich families matching their parents (as they dont go through the same problems as the parents)

So being bigger, stronger and richer is not always in our best interest.

Other concept is the “Being big fish in a small pond or being small fish in a big pond”. For this he uses the example of the Impressionism art. And I learned many new details about how they all worked and supported together. For the them, the big pond was the Salon, where only the considered best, were exhibited. But that would kill their meaning as artists. So they created their own pond, it was smaller compared to Salon but they were the big fish there, and time has put them in their place. As well, the inverted-U applies here too. Another example for the big fish/small pond theme, is education. I was surprised about the amount of drop-outs in the top universities compared with the non-top ones. And this touched a fiber. I believe, I am engineer because I studied in the UCM. If I had attended the Polytechnic University, maybe I wouldn’t finish it or I wouldn’t enjoy networks as much. Why that happens? You form your impressions locally, comparing with people on the same boat as you. So you are surrounded by genius, you are going to have a hard time if you are not one of them. The countries with higher suicide rate are in theory, the happiest countries…. This reminds me to Instagram… And there is an inverted U here too. If it is too hard, you fail, but you need some difficulty. That brings me to climbing and work. You want to be the weakest (climbing/engineer) in the room so you work/push harder to be better. I spent 7y in a firma being the dumbest, I learned a lot! I improved a lot, never caught up with the others, and didnt care, I compared with myself, and could see the improvement. Like climbing, I try hard routes, that’s the only way to improve. The obstacle is the way. But again, the inverse-U, too hard, you fail. I can’t solo El Capitan. And somehow, I feel that learning bachata, I feel too clumsy.

Dyslexia is another example of David vs Goliath. The examples of the founder of IKEA and his adventure in (communist) Poland and Gary Cohn. Your learning difficulties make you find alternatives.

Another character, Emil Freireich. He developed the chemotherapy program, while working with dying kids… “There are things that either build you up or put you down” I think we can choose most of the times.

There is another topic that covers Martin Luther King‘s activities, London Blitz , Northern Ireland conflict and Brownsville NY. This is regarding the limits of power. And that applies to school classes.

Most revolutions are not caused by revolutionaries, but by the stupidity and brutality of governments.

When people in authority want the rest of us to behave, it matters the most, how they behave. This is the principle of legitimacy:

1. The people who are asked to obey authority have to feel like they have a voice.
2. The law has to be predictable. The rules for tomorrow are going to be roughly the same as today
3. Authority has to be fair. No groups treated differently.

The near miss

What is right? Most often as not, is simply the way that people in power/privilege close the door on those on the outside.

And many things in life, are actually just “time and chance” although we love to find logic to all. (I am impressesed/scared with so many interpretations of that text…)

The last is a bit harsh. It is about forgiveness and is connected to the power points above. And follows the inverse-U, the three-strikes law didnt do that good. Putting people in jails is expensive. We need a different approach. Not easy at all to do that, even more if your kid is killed cold blood.

This is an ebook I bought because it was an offer and I have read some other books from the author.

I didnt have a clue about the book for a start. So it is about the booming years of Silicon Valley from James Clark. It starts with Silicon Graphics, that just learned that XFS was opensource from them, and other interesting bits, then Netscape, the 1st browser, JavaScript, HTTP cookies, SSL, etc that eventually ended being Mozilla! and the idea came from Marc Andreesen (that is actually a co-founder of the VC Andreesen Horowitz). Then founded Healtheon, that I have no clue about but looked like a killing business in a 1.5T healthcare market…. it doesnt look like the healthsystem in USA is any better? And that finishes there. As well, there is a lot story about the boat Hyperion, that looks a bit boring in some part.

The good things, it how at the Healtheon startup, he wanted to make millionaires the engineers. And as well, there is an important point in the Silicon Valley boom “caused” from many Indian engineers produced by the equivalent of India MIT: IIT.

It is interesting how Micro$oft was at the end “killing” those business as they wintel platform became better at graphics and MS had a monopoly of the workstations so installing a browser from a 3rd party wasn’t going to be made easy….

It is not one of the best books from Michael Lewis, but was nice to read the Silicon Valley history from another point as we mostly remember the companies that have survived till today.

Via a random youtube video I found something called the Silva Method and decided to read about it. I haven’t found any live solution. I dont want to go to the claims of the method, just wanted to focus in the meditation part and unlocking.

My goal is to improve. I want a clear, calm mind, and I want to learn more, faster and efficiently.

I completed this book after reading about Scott Jurek. Ultramarathons are more famous nowadays thanks to the Internet so it is really interesting how he managed such a feats in that field, with no much money from sponsors and being vegan at that time!

There are many vegan recipes in the book. I want to try some of them: Minnesota Winter Chilli and others sweeter.

Regarding running, he mentions specific points: stretching, speed, stride, foot landing, core, progress, interval training, breathing (nose), shoes, posture.

Stotan = Stoicism + Spartan = I love it. (from Percy Cerutty)

I like how he talks about his upbringing in nature and then becoming a professional ultramarathon. The illness of his mother calls home…

And there is this quote from Kurt Cobain:

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are

It is interesting that he mentions that ultra sports attracts a lot of ex-addicts (alcohol, drugs, etc). It is kind of a different type of addiction.

One thing I see repeated in many people/books that achieve something great. They have gone some shitty things in life one way or the other. If there is no pain in your life, you dont fight, you dont thrive.

I read this book based on this recommendation video. It’s tiny but got to the point.

• History can’t be a science, it can be only an art by establishing a meaningful order in the chaos of materials, a philosophy by seeking perspective and enlightenment.

History is affected by many elements:

• Geology /Geography: This was initially critical for creating civilization ( Egypt-Nile, Tigris/Euphrates-Mesopotamia, etc) But its influence diminishes as technology grows (Singapore, Israel, etc)
• Biology: We are subject to the processes and trials of evolution. Life is competition. Life is selection.We are all born unfree and unequal. We are subjects to our DNA, psychology and tribe. Nature loves differences as the necessary ingredient for selection and evolution. Inequality grows with the complexity of civilization, and to keep that under control, liberty must be sacrificed (Russia 1917). Life must breed, shrinking population are conquered by the growing ones (Religion pushed for having families…) But if we grow too much, nature will give us pestilence, famine and war.
• Race: Civilization is a co-operative product that nearly all people have contributed, it is our common heritage and debt.
• Character: Evolution during recorded time has been more social than biological. The imitative majority follows the innovating minority. History in the large is the conflict of minorities. New ideas should be heard, but need proper scrutiny to flourish, as the “roots” will always feed a try.
• Morals: Moral codes differ because they adjust themselves to historical and environmental conditions: hunting, agriculture and industry. The written history is usually quite different from the history usually lived. Perhaps discipline will be restored in our civilization through the military training required by the challenges of war. The freedom of the part varies with the security of the whole.
• Religion: It was fear that first made the Gods. Catholicism survives because consoles and brightens the lives of the poor. Religion has many lives (types) and a habit of resurrection (remove one, another will take its place). Moral disorder may generate a religious revival. Religion has helped the states to keep the social order. And, as long as there is poverty, there will be gods.
• Economics: For Karl Marx, History is economics in action. One of the secrets of bankers is to figure out the fluctuations of prices, they know history is inflationary, and that money is the last thing a wise man will hoard. The concentration of wealth is a natural result of the concentration of ability and regularly recurs in history. And is periodically alleviated by violent or peaceable redistribution (systole/diastole)
• Socialism: This is part of the last point about the rhythm of concentration/dispersion of wealth. The fear of capitalism has compelled socialism to widen freedom, and the fear of socialism has compelled capitalism to increase equality.
• Government: The first condition of freedom is its limitation. Plato’s political evolution: monarchy, aristocracy, democracy and dictatorship. Democracy is the most difficult of all forms of government, but has produced the best results. If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created, the road to dictatorship is up to grabs.
• War: It is one of the constants of history. Peace is an unstable equilibrium, which can be preserved only by acknowledged supremacy or equal power. A world order will not come by a gentlemen’s agreement. States will unity in basic co-operation only when they are in common attacked by outsiders.
• Growth and Decay: History is a cycle of civilizations. They decline due to the failure of its political and intellectual leaders to meet the challenges of change. Most civilizations pass on part of their culture to the next ones (Greece->Rome->Western World)
• Progress in science and technology has brought some evil (nuclear energy, ultracommunication, processed food,etc) With great power comes great responsibility.

History is above all the creation and recording of heritage (passing culture)

Finished this book, and it is a gem! It is better than expected and very funny. The author is an advertising executive and the book goal is to teach you to think in a non-logical way. As an engineer, I feel that everything has to be logical and reasoned but Rory gives plenty of examples all over the book about logic not being always the only answer. I have highlighted so many lines that I think I can copy the book. It refers to behavioural economics (state agent showing 3 places, so you pick the ones they want you to pick, how to make a train join faster without faster trains (sol: make it more enjoyable)) and politics (Trump 1.0 victory, Brexit victory, etc)

So the two lessons from the book is to understand how the marketing works (as a consumer so you can understand it and it doesnt have to be logical…) and how you should be less logical so you can find different and still valid solutions.

Even this is mentioned to relationships, something that actually hit me…

Some videos from Rory (that I would like to watch)

The lost genius of irrationality

Behavioural Economics, Humas and Advertising.

I read this book a second time without realising. The first time was several years ago, I think it was one of first English books bough in paper. The second time was a cheap deal at 99p for the ebook.

And, I enjoyed it. The thrill, the twists, really engaging. It reminds to “The Pillars of the Earth” It is funny how this reminds me to all the bank crashes we had in 2008/9 and even last year in Silicon Valley. We don’t learn.

After reading “After Born To Run”, I decided to buy another of the author’s book. Somehow I had low expectations… I read a bit the intro but somehow it has been beyond what I expected. It mixed history from Ancient Greece, World War II, fitness, nutrition, psychology, philosophy etc. It is a weird cocktel but it worked great!

It is quite brilliant how he tries to mix the fiction of classic Homer‘s Iliad with real facts and personal traits. And how Crete is the origin of all Greece history and heroes, and therefore Western Culture. As well, I never imagined Crete was so important during the WWII as it seems it delayed the invasion of Russia and then doomed the Germans. At the end of the day, the book is about the kidnapping of a Nazi general in Crete. And it is actually an Odyssey. I didnt about Churchill Dirty Tricks and all the characters involved. You dont need to born Rambo to be a war hero. Just check Paddy’s and Xan‘s.

Regarding fitness, he mentions the Fascia Lata and Fat-As-Fuel concepts. Mark Allen is mentioned one of the greatest triathlete that I didnt know and as a curiosity, he had a splash when he discovered the concept of Fat-As-Fuel concept (a.k.a Paleo diet). And the training and fat-as-fuel is mentioned from Phill Maffetone (and it seems he has a very interesting life)

He has a big go against Gym culture (Arnold Schwarzenegger being a target) as it destroyed what humans have done for millennia: natural movement. And the closest to that is parkour . It gives a good history lesson about the origin of Parkour and its figures like Georges Hebert. As well, the author has a go to the Gatorade-link industrie and hydration wasn’t really a problem in long distance running.

Regarding Fascia training he mentions Steve Maxwell (link1, video)

In general, very interesting and entertaining book with a wide range of topics!