Overall Rating:

Date completed:

Length: 12 hrs

surely you’re joking mr. feynman!

Overall Rating: 8.9/10

Date completed: 7/12/20

Length: 5 hrs

man’s search for meaning - viktor e. Frankl

Part 1: Life in Concentration Camp

• Illusion of reprieve in concentration camps

• Three Stages of Camp life: Shock, Apathy, Liberation

• Abnormal conditions bring about abnormal responses

• Search for humor

• Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering, when we form a clear and precise picture of it

• Prisoner who has lost faith was doomed, lost spiritual hold

• That which does not kill me makes me stronger

• Life always has meaning

• After all the suffering, nothing to fear

Part 2: Logotherapy in a Nutshell

• Boredom brings more problems than distress

• Meaning is specific to specific person at specific time

• Each man is questioned by life for meaning

• Be responsible 

• Meaning from love

• Suffering can help you find meaning

• To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic, not heroic

• People unhappy about being unhappy

• People ashamed of being unhappy 

• Transitory existence

• Anticipatory anxiety

• Fear is the mother of the event

• Neurosis?

• Paradoxical intention

• Nihilists say being has no meaning

• Man is determinant

• Happiness can not be pursued, only ensued

• Prevalence of meaninglessness

• Unemployment neurosis

Part 3: Logotherapy Postscript 1984

• Tragic Triad: Pain, Guilt, Death

• Make the best of any given situation 

• Best is optimum

• Can’t force laughter

• Hyperintention

• No direction generation

• People have enough to live by, but nothing to live for

• Every moment we are dying

• Live as if you are living for the second time and acted as wrongly the first time as you are now

• Silly to take yourself seriously

Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Date completed: 7/10/20

Length: 2 hrs

tao te ching - lao tzu (Stephen mitchell)

Open Credits

• Book of the immanence of the way

• Or book of the way

• Lao Tzu deeply cared about society

• Taoism

• Moral in the deepest sense

• Evil is not a force to resist, but is in disharmony in universal process

• Translate his mind and words

• Unattachment from all things

• Book as a response out of kindness

• He who knows doesn’t talk, uses them as he would use gardening tools

2

• When people see some things as beautiful, others are ugly

• Being and not being create each other

3

• If you overvalue posessions, people begin to steal

• Practice not doing, and everything will fall into place

4

• Dao has infinite possibilities

5

• More you use Dao, more it produces

• More you talk, less you understand 

7

• Dao is eternal because it was never born, can never die

• Has no desires for itself, present for all beings

• Detached from all things, one with herself

8

• Content with low places that people disdain, like water

• Live close to the ground, in thinking, keep to the simple

• In conflict, be generous 

• In governing, don’t control

• In work, do what you enjoy

• In family, be completely present

• When you are content with yourself and don’t compete, everyone will respect you

9

• Fill bowl to brim, it will spill

• Sharpen knife, and it will blunt

• Chase money, your heart will never unclench

• Care about people’s approval, and you will be their prisoner

• Do your work, then step back. Only path to serenity.

10

• Deal with vital matters by letting events take their course?

• Step back from own mind to understand all things

• Having without possessing

• Act with no expectations 

11

• We work with being, but nonbeing is what we use

12

• Colors blind the eye, sounds deafen the ear, flavors numb the taste, thoughts weaken the mind, desires wither the heart

• Observe world, trust inner vision

• Allow things to come and go

• Heart as open as sky

13

• Success is as dangerous as failure

• Hope is as hollow as fear

• Balanced only when on two feet

• You can care for all things

14

• Look, and it can’t be seen

• Listen, and it can’t be heard

• Reach, and it can’t be grasped

15

• Ancient masters wisdom was unfathomable

• Fluid as melting ice

• Do not seek or expect

16

• Empty your mind of all thoughts

17

• When master governs, they hardly know he exists

• If you don’t trust the people, you make them untrustworthy 

19

• Let it run its course

20**

• Stop thinking, and end all your problems 

• Must you value what others value? How ridiculous 

22

• If you want to be whole, let yourself be partial

• If you want to be full, let yourself be empty

• If you want to be given everything, give everything up

• No goal, everything succeeds

24

• He who rushes ahead doesn’t go far

• He who tries to shine, dims his own light

25 

• Tao flows through all things

• Man, Earth, Universe, Tao, in that order are all great

• Tao follows only itself

26

• Good traveler has no plans

27

• Embody the light

• What is a bad man, but a good man’s teacher?

• What is a bad man, but a good man’s job?

• Secret to life

28

• Accept the world as it is

29

• World can not be improved 

• Master sees things as they are, without trying to control them

30 

• Violence always rebounds upon oneself

• Because he is content with himself, doesn’t need others

• Because he accepts himself, whole world accepts him

• Because he believes in himself, doesn’t try to convince others

31

• Enters battle gravely and with great compassion

32

• Knowing when to stop, you can avoid danger

• All things end in Tao, as rivers flow into sea

33

• Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom, mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

• Realizing you have enough makes you truly rich

34

• Unaware of greatness, so truly great

36

• If you want to get rid of something, allow it to flourish

• Subtle perception of way things are

37

• No desire, all things at peace

38

• Ordinary man reaches for power, never has enough

• Kind man does something, remains undone

• Ordinary man doing things, many more to be done

• Master concerns himself with depths, nor surface

41

• Path into the light seems dark

42

• Master embraces aloneness

43/44

• Gentlest overcomes darkest

• Value of nonaction

• If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never be fulfilled 

• If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself 

• Be content with what you have

• When you reason there is nothing lacking, whole world belongs to you

45

• True wisdom seems foolish

• Master allows things to happen, she shapes events as they come

46

• No greater illusion than fear

• No greater misfortune than having an enemy 

• Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe

47

• Without opening your door, you can open your heart to the world

• Without looking out your window, can see essence of Tao

• More you know, less you understand 

48

• True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way. No gain comes from interfering 

49

• trust people who are untrustworthy 

• Master’s mind is not understood, treats like own children

50

• Actions flow

• Doesn’t think or have any attachments 

• Ready for death

51

• Every being spontaneously honors Tao

• Gives birth to all beings

• Creating, without posessing

• Acting, without expecting 

• Guiding, without interfering 

52

• If you close your mind and judgements and trap it with desires, your heart will be troubled

• If you keep your mind from judging, your heart will find peace

• Seeing into darkness is clarity 

• Knowing how to yield is strength 

• Use your own light to return to source

• Practicing eternity

53

• Great way is easy, people prefer side paths

• Stay centered within Tao

55

• He who is in harmony with Tao is like a newborn child

• Let’s all things come and go effortlessly without desire

• Never expects results and is never disappointed 

• He is never disappointed, thus his spirit never grows old

56

• Those who know, don’t talk

• Those who talk, don’t know

• Block off senses

57

• Let go of fixed plans and concepts

• The more prohibitions you have, less virtuous you will be

• More weapons you have, less secure people will be

• “I let go of the law, and people become honest”

• Let go of all desire for common good

• Good becomes common as grass

58

• If a country is governed with tolerance, the people are comfortable and honest

• Higher the ideals, lower the results

• Try to make people happy, and you lay the groundwork for misery

• Make people moral, lay groundwork for vice

59

• For governing a body well, nothing better than moderation

• No destination in view

60

• Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself

61

• Humility means trusting Tao

• When you make a mistake, realize and admit it and corrects it

• Those who point out my faults are most bonevelant teachers

• If a nation is centered in Tao, nourishes own people, it will be a light to all nations in world

62

• Tao is center of universe 

• Good man’s treasure, bad man’s refuge

• Respect can be won with good deeds

• When you make a mistake, you are forgiven

63

• Act without doing

• Work without effort

• Think of small as large and the few as many

• Confront difficult while it is still easy

• Accomplish great task by series of small acts

64

• Prevent trouble before it exists

• The journey of 1,000 miles starts beneath your feet

• Have nothing, so has nothing to lose

• Reminds people of who they have always been

65

• When you know you don’t know, you’ll find own way

• Simplest pattern is clearest

• She competes with no one, so no one can compete with her

66

• Greatest treasures are simplicity, compassion, patience

67

• Best athlete wants his opponent to eb best

• Best leader follows will of people

69

• Rather than make first move, better to wait and see

• Better to retreat a yard than advance an inch

71

• Not knowing is true knowledge

• Presuming to know is a disease

• First realize you are sick, then you can move towards health

72

• When they lose their sense of awe, people turn to religion, when they no longer trust themselves, they depend on authority

73

• Tao is always at ease

74

• All things change, so you can hold on to nothing

• Trying to control future is like trying to take master carpenter’s place

76

• Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life

*77*

• Tao is a bow, with perfect balance and gives to what isn’t enough

• Those who try to control, go against direction of Tao

• Takes from those who don’t have enough and give to those who have far too much

• Acts without expectation

• Succeeds without taking credit and doesn’t think she is better than anyone else

78

• Soft overcomes hard

• Given up helping, so he is people’s greatest help

• True words seem paradoxical 

79

• Failure is an opportunity 

• If you blame someone else, no end to the blame

• Master fulfills own obligations and corrects own mistakes

• Demand nothing of others

80

• Content to die of old age without seeing everything

81

• True words aren’t eloquent 

• Eloquent words aren’t true

• Wise men don’t need to prove their point

• Men who need to prove their point aren’t wise

• More you do for others, happier you’ll be

• More you give to others, wealthier you are

Overall Rating: 8.4/10

Date completed: 7/1/20

Length: 19 hrs

tribe of mentors - tim ferriss

Intro

• What would this look like if it were easy?

• Sent questions to mentors after crisis at 40

• 11 Questions

  • 1. Books most gifted and why

  • 2. What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted you?

  • 3. How has a failure set you up for success?

  • 4. Gigantic billboard message

  • 5. Best or most worthwhile investment?

  • 6. Unusual habit you love?

  • 7. In last 5 years belief that has most improved life?

  • 8. Advice for smart college student entering world?

  • 9. Bad recommendations?

  • 10. What have you been better at saying no to? What helped?

  • 11. When you feel unfocused, what do you do?

• Common favorite books

  • Man’s search for meaning

  • Rational optimist

  • Better angel’s of our nature

  • Sapiens

  • Poor Charlie’s Almanac

• Best small purchase

  • Scooby snacks for hardworking soul :)

• Success based on uncomfortable actions taken

Samin Nosrat

• Paul Stamit Mushroom Complex

• Learn from each failure

• Advice is to let compassion guide you

Steven Pressfield

• “Issue with life is we live on the surface”

• Only bets on himself

• Platt river is a mile wide and inch deep

Susan Cain

Kyle Maynard

• Quad amputee

• Learn from failures

Quotes to Ponder

• “Focus is saying no to 100 other ideas, not saying yes” 

• “What you seek is seeking you”

• “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from lack of imagination”

Terry Crews

• “In order to have, you must do, and in order to do, you must be”

• “Visualize. Now.”

• David McRaney you are not so smart

• You need success of everyone in your field to create success

• Need to be prepared to move on at any time or have others move on

• Imaginary great grandchildren

• One wrong person in your circle can control your future

Debbie Millman

• “Busy is a choice”

• If you are not working harder than everyone else, you will not get ahead

• “Avoid compulsively making things worse”

Naval Ravikant

• Momento Mori

Matt Ridley

• Listen to books while you fall asleep

• Wrote Rational Optimist

Bozoma Saint John

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Expert has made all the mistakes that can be made in a narrow field”

Tim Urban

• Epitaph (death bed) test

Janna Levin

• “Life is the obstacles on the path”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Graham Duncan

Mike Maples Jr.

• “Integrity is only path you will never get lost”

Quotes

• “Formula for failure is trying to please everyone all the time”

• “Use common words to say uncommon things”

• “Pain is due to your estimate of the pain” - Marcus Aurelius

Soman Chainani

• Don’t let someone knock you off course before you finish

• “Give yourself something to look forward to every day”

Dita Von Teese

• “You can be a juicy ripe peach and some people will still not like peaches”

Jesse Williams

• “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”

Dustin Moskovitz

• Back Buddy is best purchase

Richa Chadha

• “Be so good no one can ignore you”

• Think about worst case scenario

Quotes Tim’s Pondering

• “Grudges are for those who feel like they are owed something, forgiveness is for people who can move on”

• “Height of cultivation runs to simplicity”

• “It is vain to do with more what can be done with less” - William Occam

• “Ignoring things is path to inner peace”

Max Levchin

• “Difference between winning and losing is not quitting”

• Look for a partner who will constantly impress you and theirself

• Take action. Now.

Neil Strauss

• “Learn more, know less.”

• Nonviolent Communication 

  • 5hr 9m hand with peace sign

• No two people’s interests are at conflict

• It you’re not being criticized, you’re not doing anything exceptional

Veronica Belmont

• Mindfulness

• “Fuck you, pay me”

Patton Oswalt

Lewis Cantley

• Find a profession you can do work easier than others and that allows you to be creative 

Quotes Tim’s Pondering

• “We aren’t seeking a meaning of life, but an experience of being alive”

• “If you must play, decide on rules, stakes, quitting time”

• “Nothing busy man is less busy with than living” - Seneca

• “Creation is better means of self expression and meaning”

Jerzy Gregorek

• “The Doctor and the Soul” 

• Reads a ton

• The Dao of Power

• Letters of a Stoic - Seneca

• When something bad happens, don’t be mad, just don’t be happy

• Take 100% personal responsibility 

• I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR CALMING DOWN PEOPLE

• “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life”

Aniela Gregorek

• Man’s Search for Meaning

• “See things imaginary and ask why not”

• Best investment spending time on experiences and personal education 

• “If you have nothing positive to say, don’t say anything.”

• “Negativity is pollution”

• Happiness jar, eating out jar

Amelia Boone

Joel McHale

Ben Stiller

• Be here now.

• No need to always focus on next thing

Quotes Tim’s Pondering

• “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone” - Henry David Thoro

• “What gets measured gets managed” - Peter Drucker

• “Morality is attitude towards people we personally dislike”

Anna Holmes

• “Follow your curiosity”

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Joseph Gordon Levitt

How to Say No: Wendy McNaughton

Vitalik Buterin

Quotes Tim’s Pondering

• “Names must your fear be before you banish it” - Yoda

• “Many a false step made by standing still”

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

• “Single biggest decision is to decide between temptations and opportunity”

Julia Galef

• Evaluate your systems, not individual decisions. You can fail, even with advantagous system

• If you can’t tell the better of two choices, they’re both good choices

Turia Pitt

• List of gratitude listenings

• Think of 3 things you’re grateful for

Annie Duke

• “When two differing opinions meet, you meet in middle”

• Be open to new ideas or opportunities

• “Disconnect failure from outcomes”

Jimmy Fallon

• Man’s Search for Meaning

• Likes to walk and also meditate

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “As to methods, there are millions, but principles are few. Focus on principles.”

• “Automation applied to efficient system will magnify efficiency”

Esther Parel

Maria Sharapova

• Tennis star

Adam Robinson

• Origins of Consciousness and Breakdown of Bicameral mind

• 1. With enthusiasm strive to make delight for others

• 2. Expect miracles

• 3. Whenever possible, connect with others

• Huge meditation guy

• Additional information does not always help...confirmation bias

• Buy food/drink for people behind you

Josh Waitzkin

• Tao Te Ching

Ann Miura-Ko

• Develop a philosophy of giving early on

Jason Fried

• Basecamp founder

• His favorite quotes:

• “Every great cause becomes a movement”

• “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is a difference”

• “Price is what you pay, value is what you get”

• “Everybody is somebody, but no one wants to be themselves”

• “Watch what people are cynical about, and you’ll find what they lack”

• “Life does not ask what we want, it presents us with options”

• “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”

• “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see”

• “Hang a question mark on things you have long taken for granted”

• “Knowledge is beginning of practice, doing is completion of knowing”

• “Nothing more useless than doing efficiently what should not be done at all”

• “In the hopes of reaching the moon, men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet”

• “Our fears are more numerous than our dangers”

• “Put one dumb foot in front of the other and course correct as you go”

• “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and value of nothing”

• “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted”

• “Lose an hour in the morning, chase it all day”

• Focus on writing skills for new grad

• You’ll always have less attention than time

• The further out the yes, the easier it is.

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Action may not always bring happiness, but there’s no happiness without action”

• “All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not to avoid danger, but rather to calculate. Make mistakes of ambition, not mistakes of sloth.”

Arianna Huffington

• Loves Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

• “Give yourself a retreat in your own mind”

• Likes meditation

Gary Vaynerchuk

• Macro patience, micro speed

Tim O’Reilly

• Way of Life According to Lao Chi

• Tao Te Ching translated by Vitter Viner

• “Create more value than you capture”

• Take a picture of a flower on your daily runs

• “Would I say yes it it were Tuesday”? 

  • One day the distant future will be now

• “Let life ripen and then fall, will is not the way”

Tom Peters

• CEOs don’t read enough

• Good manners pay off big time

Bear Grylls

Brené Brown

• Courage over comfort

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Simple willingness to improvise is more valuable than research”

• “No way to happiness, happiness is the way”

• “Reasonable man adapts to world, unreasonable man tries to adapt world to himself”

• “Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but when there is no more to take away”

Leo Babauta

• Zen buddhism

Mike D

• Transcendental meditation 

Esther Dyson

• Would you say yes if it was next Tuesday?

• Make new failures

Kevin Kelly

Ashton Kutcher

• “Shit or get off the pot”

• “Be polite and work really fucking hard”

Quotes Tim’s Pondering

• “If you don’t make mistakes, you aren’t making big enough decisions”

Brandon Stanton

Jerome Jarre

• You are 99 years old on your deathbed and you come back. What would you do right now

Fedor Holtz

• Ask the right questions

• Man’s Search for Meaning

• If you think you can or can’t you’re right

Eric Ripert

• Le Bernadin

• Alchemist

• 32 Yolks

• Happiness is not ready made, comes from your own investments

• 100 Elephants on a blade of grass

• Buddhist

• With a problem ask if you are able to make a difference now

Sharon Salzberg

• Buddha

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Anything built on a large scale or with passion, invites chaos”

• “Do not seek to follow the footsteps of the wise, instead, seek what they sought”

• “The things you own, end up owning you”

• “If you set your goals ridiculously high, you will fail above everyone’s success”

Franklin Leonard

Peter Guber

• Does everything 

• View career pyramid and conceive future as expanding opportunity horizon

  • Seize the day

  • View world as ever increasing set or realities

Greg Norman

• The Great White Shark golf pro

• “Your dreams are a blueprint in reality”

• Discovered buddhism

• yells FUCK, then DO IT NOW, DO IT PROPER

Daniel Ek

• “If you dare, you have gotten ahead of 99% of others”

• Cofounder of spotify

• Recommends book Blackbox Thinking

• Charlie Munger’s Speeches

• “Good things come to those who wait” is bad advice

  • “Good things come to those that work their asses off and never give up”

Hi David my name is Chris and I’m a Grooming P&E intern working virtually for South Boston. What are a couple of your favorite books that have lead the most to your business or personal development, or that you think every P&G employee should read?

Strauss Zelnick

• Ask “What am I missing” and listen to the answer

• Exercises 7-12 times weekly

• Write down 20 yr goals

  • watercolor picture

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else”

• “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be” - Lao Tzu

• “Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly”

• “If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan your mission carefully”

Steve Jurvetson

• 1st owner of Teslas after Elon

• Embrace lifelong learner

• Mental exercise is eclectic

Tony Hawk

• True success is finding a job you love

Liv Boeree

• Effective altruism movement

• The Passion Trap book

• “The actual consequences of your actions matter a lot more than the actions themselves

  • Deontologist vs Consequentialist

Annie Mist Porisdottir

• 5 Minute Journal or Spiralizer

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “I not only use all the dreams I have, but the ones I borrow”

• “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage”

• “Anger is what pain looks like when it shows itself in public”

Mark Bell

• “Either you’re in, or you’re in the way”

• Way to get strongest is to lift optimally, not maximally

Ed Coan

• Pause squats

• Play the long game

• Chiropractic care 4X per week

• Look at program and ensure it’s all doable

• Be nice and say nice things, otherwise walk away

• CPAP machine changed life

Ray Dalio

• “Think for yourself while being radically open-minded”

• Half of wealth to charity

Jacqueline Novogratz

• Recommends the Invisible Man

Brian Koppelman

• Morning Pages

Stewart Brand

• Brings back extinct animals

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Privilege of a lifetime is being who you are”

• “When jarred unavoidably by circumstance, revert to yourself and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help”

• “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”

• “Why do you go away? So you can come back and see the place you come from with new eyes and colors. Coming back from where you started is not the same as never leaving”

Sarah Elizabeth Lewis

• Responsibilities born of passion give you more creativity

Gabor Maté

Steve Case

Linda Rottenberg

• Crazy is good

• Instead of being superhuman, be less super and more human

Tommy Vietor

• “It will never get easier than right now to pursue your passion”

• Stop looking at your phone

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Don’t believe everything you think”

• “It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s so hard to remember sweetness”

• “Talk less, listen more”

• “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one”

Larry King

Muna AbuSulayman

• Take kids on long trips

Sam Harris

Maurice Ashley

• I wake up everyday thinking I am nowhere near my full potential 

• “I wake up each day with the firm conviction that I an nowhere near my full potential. Greatness is a verb”

• “I have miles to go before I sleep, so I will spend my remaining years desperately trying to progress”

• Authenticity 

How to Say No: Danny Meyer

• Owns Gramercy Tavern and Shake Shack

• Example of nice way to say no

John Arnold

• More optimistic the better

• Rational Optimist book

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Schedule is net for catching days”

• “Those who are determine to be defended will discover a provocation somewhere, but can not possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics and it is degrading to make the attempt”

• “Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often

• “If the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it”

Mr. Money Mustache 

• Key to a great life is having a bunch of great days

• Free for life when you have 20-30 times annual spending in bank

• Don’t earn to borrow to spend

• Freedom is fuel for creativity

David Lynch

• Transcendental meditation 

• Sit and desire ideas

Nick Szabo

Jujimufu

• “If you can’t laugh at it, you lose”

• Uses analytics

Dara Torres

Dan Gable

• Chin Up Bar

Caroline Paul

Darren Aronofsky

• “Originality happens on edges of reality”

Evan Williams

• Mindfulness meditation 

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Freedom from artificiality is enlightenment”

• “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily, not to dare is to lose onself”

Bram Cohen

• Don’t drink soda or juice, anything else is noise

Chris Anderson

• “People won’t want to help you if you don’t let go of tight control”

Neil Gaman

• Top 10 writers

Michael Gervais

• Every day is opportunity to create mastery

• Books

• Man’s Search for Meaning

• Daoism

• Mind Gym

• Inch and Miles

Temple Grandin

• “Obstacles are what you see when you take your mind off the goal”

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “True soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him”

• “Acquisition of riches is a change of troubles”

• “To handle yourself, use your head, to handle others, use your heart”

Kelly Slater

• The Dao of Health, Sex, Longevity

• Invest in friends

Katrin Tanja Davidsotter

• “The mind separates”

• Can always give your best effort and that’s always a win

Matthew Frasier

• Work on your weaknesses, not those of the successful 

• When overwhelmed, make lists

Adam Fisher

Aisha Tyler

• “Everything you want is on the other side of fear”

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Let first impulse pass, wait for second”

• “Emptiness is the fasting of the mind”

Laura R. Walker

Terry Laughlin

• 5 Steps to mastery

• 1. Choose a worthy challenge

• 2. Seek a sensei or master teacher

• 3. Practice

• 4. Love the plateau

• 5. Mastery is a journey

• Intrinsic goals > extrinsic 

Marc Benioff

• Mythical Man Month

  • Small teams

• Managing by Herald Genene at ITT

• Good Heart by Dali Llama

• “I can do all things”

Marie Forleo

• War of Art

• Relationship management tool Elmando Dialogue 

Drew Houston

• Anyagram test

• Most people live for 30,000 days

• Schedule time in advance for your rocks

• You don’t owe anyone lengthy explanations 

Scott Belsky

• “Great opportunities never have great opportunities in the subject line”

• Act now

• “Greatest lessons are about people”

• Team you join is huge and choose opportunities based on quality of people

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “You can do so much in 10 minutes time. Once gone, it’s gone. Divide time into 10 minute intervals and make best use of each 10 minutes.”

• “There will come a time when you think everything is finished, that is the beginning.”

• “All good things are wild and free”

Tim McGraw

• Bar complex

Muneeb Ali

• “When I’m old, how much would I be willing to pay to travel back in time and relive the moment I am living in bow”?

How to Say No: Neal Stephenson

• Thanks

Craig Newmark

• Effective communication matters, good works require accurate perception thereof

Steven Pinker

• “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?

• “Only way to yield to a temptation is to yield to it”

• “What is essential and optional in my life priorities? Will it matter in 6 months”

Gretchen Rubin

• Like book why we get fat

Whitney Cummings

• Book: Getting the love you want

• We’re attracted to people who have negative qualities of our primary caretakers

• In any interaction all I can contribute is my reaction and contribution

  • Handle with Grace

• Say no to almost everything

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “When your sparing partner scratches you, you don’t protest, yet you keep an eye on him with a healthy avoidance. Act this way with all things. Possible to avoid without suspicion or hate”

• “Fear is like fire, can work for you, or it can hurt you or kill you. Fear is a friend of exceptional people”

Rick Rubin

• Steven Mitchell’s translation of Tao De Ching

  • Timeless

  • Good person, parent, artist, good at anything

• Wherever you go there you are - book

Ryan Shea

• Be present and not preoccupied with the past or future

Ben Silbermann

• “I try to be a realistic optimist. I’m very clinical with where we are today but extremely optimistic with what we’ll get done in the future.”

• If you only engage with people who are problems, you’ll become the problem

Vlad Zamfir

• Absurd

• “No one is allowed to tell you how you view the world”

Zooko Wilcox

Stephanie McMahon

• Think of 3 things you’re grateful for

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary”

Peter Attia

• Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman

• “Can not solve a problem at the same level of consciousness that it was created”

• HRT is good

• Don’t fake you care

Steve Aoki

• Identify trends, don’t follow them

Jim Loehr

• Failure is opportunity to build resilience 

• “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of the intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the beauty in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that one life has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to have succeeded.”

Daniel Legreanu

• “To avoid criticism - do nothing, say nothing, be nothing”

Jocko Willink

• Work harder than everyone else

Quotes Tim is Pondering

• “Be the silence that listens” - Tara Brock

Robert Rodriguez

• Pomodoro

• Facile

Kristen Ulmer

Yuval Noah Harari

• 10 day Vipasana meditation retreat

• www.dama.org/retreat

• Suffering is a mental reaction generated by your own mind

Closing Thoughts

• “Don’t aim at success, the more you aim, the more you’ll miss it. Happiness can not be pursued. Listen to what conscious commands you to do and success and happiness will come.” - Man’s Search for Meaning

Ice Bath Epiphanies

• “Secret to winning any game lies in not trying too hard”

Point of Impact

• Only focus on what’s directly in front of you

Danger of Big Questions

• Excellence is next 5 minutes 

• Happiness is next 5 minutes

• I’ve had a life full of doubts, for no reason whatsoever

• No mistep can destroy you

• Sometimes you have to allow life to save you from what you want, to allow you to get what you need

• Adapt as you go

Power Broker

• Mental Toughness Training for Sports

• Feeding your mind is how you become your own best coach

• Growth requires discomfort 

• If you want to have more, do more, and be more, it begins with voice no one hears

Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters

• Street and sidewalks

• Try not to make same mistake twice

• The secret to winning any game is not trying too hard

• Answer hidden in plain sight

• What would this look like if it were easy?

• No one right answer. Only better questions.

Overall Rating: 8.8/10

Date completed: 6/15/20

Length: 23 hrs

tools of titans - tim ferriss

Foreward by Arnold Schwarzenegger

• Worst thing you can do is think you know enough 

How to Use This Book

• Life’s recipes. Learn things once and do them forever

• Toolkit for changing your life

• Why can’t you accomplish your 10 years in 6 months if you had a gun to your head?

• Questions are your pickaxes to unearth gems

• Over 80% have meditation practice, most don’t eat practice, many use chili pad device, listening to single songs on repeat, projects on spec work, failure is not durable, take weaknesses into strengths

• Find black sheep that fit your idiosyncrasies 

• Skip around

• Information without emotion isn’t retained

  • von restoff effect, primacy/recency effect

Section 1: Healthy

Amelia Boone

• Golf ball under foot

• Beet root juice

• 423 double unders

Rhonda Perciaville Practice PhD

• Teeth stem cell research

• Hot baths or saunas are awesome for recovery

Christopher Summer

• functional movement screen

• Gymnastics strength coach

• Three movements to practice: J Curl, Shoulder Extension, Thoracic Bridge

• Hitachi magic wand

Dominic D’Agostino

• Keto and Fasting

• More often you enter keto, faster the transition 

• Keto is when body using ketons instead of glucose

• Tim does 3 day monthly fast

• During fasts he consumes exogenous ketones and BCAA upon waking

• Caffeine is okay, adding salt to water is okay

• Uses Quest MCT Oil, Quest Coconut Oil Powder, bone broth, idebonome before flight, DCA if about to die of bad cancer for all diets

Patrick Arnold

• Created THG

• Legal ones are Err spray ersolic acid

• Metformin 

Joe De Sena

• Founded spartan race

• Completed badwater marathon, Vermont 100

• Death race

• Sweat like you’re being chased by police daily

Wim Iceman Hof

• BCAA, Whey, Hot/Cold cycle

• Wim Hof breathing

• Hugs heart to heart

Rick Rubin

• Sauna is good

Jason Semer

• Acroyoga

• World traveler with nothing

• Loves tea

• You can trust people

• Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu

Dr. Peter Atia

• Fasting

• Lateral plane exercises

Justin Mager

Charles Poliquin

• 59 seconds book rec

• Front squats

• Weird supplements

Slo Carb Diet Cheat Sheet

6 Item Gym Bag

Pavel Tsatsouline

• Grease the groove

• Turkish Getup

Laird Hamilton, Gabby Reece, Brian MacKenzie

• I’ll go first to say hi and smile first

• If you run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole

• Treat your kids as adults

• Man needs to respect woman in relationship 

• Exercise compassion every day

James Fadiman

• Psilocybin mushrooms are good

• Psychedelics give you what you need, not what you want

• LSD have very different effects at different dose levels

• Heroic dose: 5+ grams mushrooms or 400mg+

• Transcendental

• 200mg pyschotherapy or healing

• 100mg creative problem solving

• 50mg is museum/concert dose

• 10-15mg microdose can be helpful for depression

Martin Polando and Dan Engle

• Floatation Therapy

• Lucid dreaming lab

• 2 hr float

• Start with 2-3 floats in a month

• iowasca

Kelly Starrett

• Cossack Squat

• Overhead Squat

• Cat Camel stretch

• Acroyoga

• Burgeoner Warmup

• Compression Socks

• Sleep in extreme dark

Triple H

• Workout immediately after running to avoid jetlag

Jane McGonigal

• Opposite of play is not work, it’s depression

• Anything negative you say to someone could ruin their day

• Rules out future allies

Adam Gazzaley

• Have no fear

• Hires based off their passions

5 Tools for Faster and Better Sleep

• Chili Pad

• Hanging Upsidedown

• Sleepmask + Earplugs

  • Sleepmaster

  • 3 M earsoft FX

• Tea Sleepytime 

  • Yogi Soothing bedtime tea

• Tetris

5 Morning Routines

• Make bed

• Meditation (Headspace, Calm)

  • 15-20 minutes

• Hang

• Tea

• 5 Minute Journal or Morning Pages

Mind Training 101

• We fall to the level of our training

• CTFO before you BTFO

Three Tips from Google Pioneer

• #107

• Made search inside yourself as internal course

• Joy on demand is his meditation book

• Find a mindfulness buddy

• Never underestimate power of one breath

• Tell people to envision happiness for 2 other people, only thinking

• Bring to mind love and kindness for others

Coach Summer One Decision

• Show up, do the work, go home

• Refuse to budge or compromise 

Part 2: Wealthy

Arnold Schwarzenegger

• Never audition, make your own niche

• Arnold meditates while lifting

Derek Sivers

• Loves Tony Robbins

• It’s not what ya know, it’s what you do consistently 

• “Best plan let’s your plan change plans”

• Say yes to everything early on

• Don’t be a donkey (hay or water)

• If it’s not a hell yes it’s a no

• Lack of time = lack of priorities 

• “It won’t make you happy” for all products

• Treat life as a series of experiments

  • Stumbling on happiness

• Decide to be confident even if you aren’t 

• “We are whatever we pretend to be”

Alexis Ohanian

• Cofounder of reddit and first class of y combinator

• Jokes in the error messages

• What do you do that the world doesn’t realize is a big fucking deal?

Productivity Tricks

• Get most important stressful thing done

• Don’t overestimate the world and underestimate yourself

Matt Mullenweg

• If you’re bored in a conversation, problem is you

Nicholas McCarthy

• Aromatherapy and geranium oil

Tony Robbins

• Let your learning come to action

• Quality questions quality life

• State, Story, Strategy

• Is this a problem I need to think my way through or should I do something?

• Feel grateful every morning for 3 things

• Impossible to be angry and grateful simultaneously and no fear

• Imagine 3 things being done

• If you don’t have 10 minutes you don’t have a life

• 4 Tips of Best Investors

  • Capping downside

  • Find opportunities for little/no risk, high reward

  • Intelligent asset allocation decisions

  • Passionate about giving

• Man’s Search for Meaning

• Mindset - Carol Dweck

Casey Neistat

• YouTube inflection point occurred when he vlogged daily

• Can always work harder than the next guy

Morgan Spurlock

Morning Journal

• Bitching and moaning on paper for 5 minutes could change your life

Reid Hoffman

• Oracle of silicon valley

Peter Thiel

• Billionaire investor

• Do your 10 year plan in 6 months

Seth Godin

• Don’t keep track of bad things, keep track of positive metrics

• Start small to make something huge

• Book Recommendations 

  • Zig Ziglar

  • Leap First

  • Art of Possibility

  • Just Kids Patty Smith

  • Debt by David Craver

• Best purchase is chocolate company Rogue and Askanozi, Cacoa Hunters

• Send thank you note

James Altucher

• What am I embarrassed to be struggling with?

• If you can’t generate 10 ideas, generate 20

• Make random lists

• List of things I can get better at

• List of things I wanted to do as kids

• 10 ways to solve a problem I have

• Quest for single purpose has ruined many lives

Real World MBA

• Business School = Curriculum + Networking

• Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face

• Breaking rules to invest is bad idea for investing

• Rules on startup investing

Scott Adams

• Dilbert

• Positive Affirmations 

• Be best at one thing or very good at a few things

• Become a top 25% speaker

• Get unusual and be weird

Shaun White

• Set real goals and funny goals

Law of Category

• Be different and make your own category 

• Marketing 22 immutable strategies

• Don’t be #2 or be better, be different

Chase Jarvis

• “I create high dollar projects so I can make more art”

• If someone says yes quickly, you didn’t ask for enough 

• Play the long game 

• Haste makes waste

• Amplify your strengths

• Specialization is for insects

• Show your work - Austin Cleon

Dan Carlin

• Hardcore history

• Copyright your faults

Ramit Sethi

• I will teach you to be rich

• You don’t need beautiful emails

• 1,000 true fans

One Thousand True Fans

• Success need not be complicated

• Make 1,000 people extremely extremely happy

• Divide money you need by true fans

Hacking Kickstarter

Alex Blumberg

• Ask the dumb question no one is asking

• Describe the time when

• How did that make you feel, what did you learn from that?

• If the old you could see the new you, what would they say?

Ed Catmull

• Cofounder of Pixar

• To become an artist, learn to see

Tracy Dinunzio

• “When you complain, no one wants to help you” - Stephen Hawking

• Pick the right audience to suck in front of

Phil Lubin

• Things break for a company every time you multiply employees by 3 and 10

Chris Young

• “It all works out”

• Best jobs are the ones you make up

Daymond John

Noah Kagan

• Ask for 10% off coffee

• Aim for upstream things to fix to make rest of life easier

• Use a great router

• Best investment was Lasik Surgery

• You don’t find time, you schedule time

• Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman

• Find people to crush your excuses and add to insta feed

Kaskade

Luis von Ahn

• “Frustration is a matter of opinion”

Canvas Strategy (Ryan Holiday)

• Find canvases for other people to paint on

• Clear path for people above us, so one appears for ourself

• Most of what you think you know is out of date or wrong

• Attach yourself to people and organizations who are already successful

• Entitlement and sense of superiority is very bad

• Say little, do much

  • Be lesser, do more

Kevin Rose

• Bone broth

• Gut investing and EQ investing 

Neil Strauss

• Write 2 crappy pages a day

• “Be open to whatever comes next”

• “Compassion and love should be a priority”

Mike Shinoda

• Everyone has their own agenda

• “What are their inventives”?

Justin Boreta

• The Glitch Mob

• “Be the silence that listens”

• Should end life saying wow what a ride not skid in smoothly

• “Don’t force it”

Scott Belsky

• “Need to stop doing things you love to nurture something”

• What did they try, and why did it work?

• Every success was almost a failure

How to Earn Freedom

• Long term travel is very possible

• Common Sense

• Requires we walk through world in more deliberate way

• Vagabonding

  • Outlook on life

• Time poor

• Rastafarians

• Work gives you chance to find yourself

• Constructive quitting

• AWESOME CHAPTER

Peter Diamandis

• “Day before a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea. Where are you trying crazy ideas?” - Peter

• World’s biggest problems are world’s biggest opportunities

• When 99% people doubt you, you’re gravely wrong, or about to make history

• Stone Soup

• Tony Robbin’s “Date with Destiny”

• Capture more of shower time

• Singularity University

• Start with Why

• Moonshot is 10X bigger, reward is 100X more

• Is there a grand challenge or billion person problem?

• How will you disrupt yourself?

• Peter’s Laws

  • 2. When given a choice, take both

  • 3. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes

  • 6. When forced to compromise, ask for more

  • 7. If you can’t win, change the rules

  • No means begin again at one level higher

  • 16. Faster you move, slower time passes, longer you live

  • Best way to create future is to create it

  • 19. You get what you incentivize

  • 22. Day before breakthrough it’s a crazy idea

  • 26. Can’t measure it, can’t improve it

Sophia Amoruso

• Day that ends well starts with exercise

• People are capable of doing almost everything the people you admire are doing

B. J. Novak

• Schedule and pay for things in advance to prevent yourself from backing out

• To go big, aim small

How To Say No When It Matters Most

• “Discipline equals freedom”

• “The wisdom of life consists of the elimination of nonessentials”

• You are replaceable

• If you’re not saying “hell yeah”, say no

• Aristotle’s Golden Mean

• Life favors the specific ask

• “He who suffers before it is necessary suffers more than is necessary”

Section 3: Wise

BJ Miller

• End of life specialty 

• Don’t believe everything you think

• Star therapy and considering how meaningless everything is

• Pinot Noir Joseph Swan

  • Symbolism of delighting in something that goes away

• Rides a motorcycle with 3 prosthetic limbs

• To fix someone’s problem you just have to listen

Maria Papova

• brainpickings

• Doing great work because you love it is great

• Those who work much do not work hard

• *On the shortness of life - Seneca*

• Big Evernote fan

• Write to please yourself

• Alan Watts

Jocko Willink

• Discipline = Freedom

• 2 is 1 and 1 is none

• Exposing yourself to darkness to see the light 

• Methods for cultivating gratitude

• Be tougher

• Take extreme ownership of your world

• Jocko thinks about the enemy and what they’re doing

• Detach yourself from the situation 

Sebastian Junger

• If you don’t give men a good group to join they’ll make a bad one

• The point of journalism is the truth

• Getting most out of life is by doing the hardest things

• Courage of exploration and commitment of staying

Marc Goodman

• Use Uber so you don’t get kidnapped

• Personalized bioweapons

Samy Kamkar

• Hacker

• Need basic defenses in place in life

• Shirtless pics and animals

• Audio Molly

Tools of a Hacker

• Cover laptop camera

• Double authentication 

• Don’t use same password twice

• Disable phone picture metadata

General Stanley McChrystal and Chris Fussell

• Push yourself further than you think you can

• Put yourself in shared suffering

Shay Carl

• What advice are you ignoring because it’s cliché or trite

• Think about how old you are and think about a 10 year older version of yourself and what that person would tell yourself

• Work will work when nothing else will work

• Fake it til you make it

• Vlogging for mood elevation?

Will MacAskill

• Earning $68,000 puts you in 1%

• Do not follow your passion

Dickens Process

• What are your beliefs costing you?

• See it, feel it, live it

• When we feel pain in one time zone (past, present, future), we tend to switch to another

Kevin Costner

• “Do a job no one wants to do, so you can live your life doing whatever you want to do”

• “I usually know when I’m on to something when I’m a little afraid of it”

Sam Harris

• Meditation

• Psilocybin mushrooms lover

• Silent retreat awesome

• Listen to it

Caroline Paul

• “Secrets are a buffer to intimacy”

• The Things They Carried - Tim O’Brien

• Courage takes practice

• Life shrinks or expands to one’s courage

Fear Setting

• “Many a false step was made by standing still”

• “I am an old man and I have known many troubles, most of which did not happen”

• Do one thing every day you fear

• What is it costing you?

• What’s the worst that could happen?

• Inaction is greatest risk

Kevin Kelly

• Momento Mori

  • Remember you will die

• Create a new slot of success

Is This What I Feared?

Whitney Cummings

• “If something offends you, look inward”

• When you meet someone, say I love you before you meet them

• Neil Damon make good art

Bryan Callen

• “Happiness is wanting what you have”

• Voracious reader

• Read Joseph Campbell

Alain de Botton

• “Don’t attribute to malice that which can be explained otherwise”

• Don’t blame someone for not understanding you fully

• Epicruis, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Nietszhe, Russell

• Unbearable Lightness of Being

• Essays of Micheal de Montain

• “Appreciate what’s good about this moment”

Lazy: A Manifesto

• Everyone is busy

• People go “plan shopping”

• Time and quiet should not be luxuries

• Life is too short to be busy

Cal Fussman

• “Listening is not just about being quiet, it’s about being present”

• The Right Stuff - Tom Wolf best book

• “Listen.”

Joshua Skenes

• 3 michelin stars restaurant 

• Best book is cocktail techniques 

Rick Rubin

• Daily sauna use

• Chilipad

• Go outside as soon as you wake up

• Best art divides the audience 

• Make tasks laughably small

Soundtrack of Excellence

• Meditation in mornings

• If not, music on repeat

• Paul Oakenfold

Jack Dorsey

• “Breathe.”

• “I know nothing”

Paulo Coelho

• Wrote the Alchemist

• Procrastinates

Writing Prompts from Cheryl Strayed

• Generate ideas without judging 

• Lesson learned hard way

• Write about being loved

• What you were really thinking

• Kindness of strangers

Ed Cooke

• Considers how small he is from star’s perspective 

• Think in 3rd person

• Similar to star therapy BJ Miller describes

• Alan Watts

Amanda Palmer

• “Looking someone in eye is the antidote”

• “Take insults and wear it as a shirt”

• “Say less”

• Vispasana meditation 

Eric Weinstein

• Vocab Master

• “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, rethink things

Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg

• Blind belief in yourself

Tactics for Dealing with Haters

• 1. Doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it, only matters how many people do

• 2. 10% of people find ways to take anything personally 

• 3. When in doubt, starve it, ignore it, pour gasoline on it, engage

• 4. If you respond, don’t overapologize

  • Thanks for the feedback, always trying to improve 

• 5. Can’t reason someone out of something they didn’t reason themselves into

• 6. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity 

• 7. If you want to improve, be foolish and stupid

  • Only be ashamed when it’s truly necessary

• 8. “Living well is best revenge”

Margaret Cho

• FUCK

• Best way to diffuse attackers is to ask short questions “Why do you ask”

• “Those who are offended easily should be offended more often”

Andrew Zimmern

• Respect other cultures

Rainn Wilson

• Cinisism robs people of life

• Believe in yourself more deeply, you’re bigger than that

Naval Ravikant

• “Happiness is a choice and a skill”

• Don’t hang around people who engage in conflict 

• Three options you always have:

  • 1. Change it

  • 2. Accept it

  • 3. Leave it

• Five Chimps Theory

• Consistency bias

  • Tell your friends you’re a happy person 

• Tepanyaki Grill best purchase

• “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want”

• Naval’s Laws

  • “Be present above all else”

  • “Desire is suffering”

  • “Anger is a hot coal you hold until you can throw it at someone else”

  • “If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life don’t work for them for a day”

  • “Reading and learning is best skill”

  • “Total honesty at all times”

  • “Praise specifically, criticize generally”

  • “Watch all your thoughts”

  • “Enlightenment is space between your thoughts”

  • “Every moment has to be complete in and of itself”

• “There are no adults, everyone is making it up as they go along”

• Nothing we do lasts

Glenn Beck

• Alcoholic to radio star

• Be authentic

• You belong

Tara Brach

• Identify emotions and name them

• “Make friends with yourselves”

Sam Kass

• “75% of success is staying calm, rest you figure out”

• Never serve something you would not want to eat

• Pros bump up acidity level, ex) add lemon

• Secret to great eggs

• Take them out before you think they’re done

Edward Norton

• “If you want to be taken seriously, take things seriously”

Richard Betts

• “Wine is a grocery, not a luxury”

• 240 master sommeliers in the world

• Chenin Blanc from Mose

• Grenache from Rusden

• Zinfandel from Turley

• Smell with mouth open

Mike Birbiglia

Jar of Awesome

• Jar of good things

• Practice finding good and you’ll see it more often

Malcolm Gladwell

• Keep asking questions til you get it right

Stephen J. Dubner

• Freakonomics

Josh Waitzkin

• Learn the macro from the micro

• The little things are the big things

• End on a positive note

• Turn it on and off, HIIT and Meditation 

• Don’t be negative about weather

• Internal locus of control

Deloading Phase in Life

• Take breaks to decrease stress

Brene Brown

• Success measured by uncomfortable situations 

• Vulnerability comes before trust

Jason Silva

Jon Favreau

• Long term impact over short term impact

Testing the Impossible: 17 Questions that Changed My Life

• 1. What if I did the opposite for 48 hours?

• 2. What do I spend a silly amount of money on?

• 11. What if I could only subtract to solve problems?

• 13. Am I catching field mice or antelope?

• 15. What would it look like if this was easy?

Jamie Foxx

• Pull up bars are everything

• “On the other side of fear is nothing”

Bryan Johnson

• “Where are you afraid to get sprayed with water”

• “Everything you want is an inch outside of your comfort zone. Test it”

Brian Koppelman

• “You don’t find time, you make time”

• Morning Pages

Thoughts on Suicide

• Tim’s experience at Princeton

• Hoping for a miracle

• Fully set on suicide

• Life after could be worse

• Makes your pain 10X greater for family

• “Is this what I so feared”?

• If you can’t make yourself happy, make someone else happy

• Look at rain and see fertilizer and not the flood

• You are not flawed, you are human

Robert Rodriguez

• Everything is for a purpose 

Good

• Jocko Willink faces any adversity he says “good”

• Look at issue and say good

• But don’t ignore hard truth

• Dwelling on problem does not solve it

• If you can say “good”, you’re still alive

Sekou Andrews

• Most impressive poetic voice

• “You must want to be a butterfly so badly you are willing to give up being a catarpillar”

Conclusion

• What should I do with life?

  • Enjoy it

• Put fear in line

Overall Rating: 8.0/10

Date completed: 6/13/20

Length: 1 hr

stoicism for a modern World - adam holownia

Intro

• Helps people get through adversity

• Prosperity doesn’t last forever

• Not to give in to adversity, don’t trust prosperity

Ch1 

• Man’s Search for Meaning

• 1. Practice and learn from hardship

  • Intential difficultly

• “We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can choose how we react to them” - Epictetus

• If worst case does occur, you can deal with it

Ch2 Four Virtues (Wisdom, Courage, Justice, Temperance)

• 1. Wisdom is knowing what is good and bad

  • Judgment needs to be worked on constantly

• 2. Courage (moral courage)

  • Ability to do right thing

  • Sticking to principles or speaking your mind

• 3. Justice (morality)

  • Treat others well and do right thing as far as other people are concerned

  • About what is good for others

• 4. Temperance

  • Neither too much or too little

  • Do what is essential

  • Curb desires, but not to excess

Ch3 How a Stoic Uses YouTube

• Material goods should have no bearing on your happiness

• Embrace Change

• Change is inevitable and choose to live with it

• Change will never end

• Be careful, however less the number of 

• Don’t gossip about people

• Ignore negativity

• Trolling is not virtuous behavior

• Don’t be on YouTube if there is something else you should be doing

• Prioritize educational content over entertainment

• Time is a zero sum game

• “The attention you give to any action should be proportional to its worth” - Marcus Aurelius

Ch4 Zeno

• First Stoic

• “What you say may echo in eternity”

• “Begin to say something when you are certain it’s better than say something than nothing”

  • We have 2 ears and 1 mouth

• “Happiness is a good flow of life”

• “Life is long, it you know how to use it” - Seneca

Ch 5 Slave Epictetus (Discourses)

• That does not kill us makes us stronger

• Need adversity to make us stronger

• “Man is disturbed not by things, but of his views of them”

• Circumstances out of our control can not be good or evil, but our own decisions can be good or bad

• If you are getting emotional, consider if it’s your mind that’s causing it

  • Don’t adopt victim mentality

• “Work with material you are given”

• You are the result of the 5 people you spend time with

  • You either become like them or they emulate you

  • Dirt will rub off on you

  • Human nature shows it’s normal to be influenced

Ch 6 Seneca (Letters from a Stoic, 115 total)

• “Plant which is frequently moved never grows strong” - Seneca

• Recognizing an addiction or flaw is progress, but ignoring it is bad and leads to stagnation 

• “Most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd, but to think for yourself” - Peter Thiel

• In a time of peace, you must prepare for war

• A good character is only indicator of everlasting happiness

  • Clouds drifting in front of sun without decreasing its light

• Key is attitude and character

• Right character makes you unstoppable

• “Treat your inferiors how you want to be treated by your superiors”

• “Acknowledging failings is a sign of health”

• Is your play worth watching?

• “One can do nothing better than endure what cannot be cured”

Ch7 Marcus Aurelius (Emperor, wrote 12 books of Meditations)

• “Think of your many years of procrastination and the gods have granted you many periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage, it is time now to realize the nature of the universe, to which we belong, and of that controlling power whose offspring we are, and realize our time has a limit set to it, use it then to advance your enlightenment, which will be gone, and never in your power again.” - Marcus

• Many people waste time on meaningless activities

• Foster patience and diligence

• “Character is what you are in the dark”

• Takes courage to rethink your position

• Mine is a unique gift

• “Waste no time arguing what a good man should be, be one”

  • Actions speak louder than words

• Traffic example

Epilogue

• Any obstacle can be an opportunity

• If you have partial control, you should still try to achieve it

• Frame your goals into things you can control rather than what you can’t

  • Spend 2 hours per day on side project, rather than earning $1,000 a month

Overall Rating: 9.3/10

Date completed: 6/5/20

Length: 13hr 1m

The 4-hour workweek - timothy ferris

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect” - Mark Twain

D is for Definition

• Discussion of switching mindset

• Other people work for you

• Cash Flow first, pay day second

• Have mini retirements throughout life

• Less is not laziness

• The timing always sucks, time is never right, lights will never be green

• Many a misstep was made by staying still

• Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty

• What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do

• Measure of success is how often you do things that make you comfortable

• Chase excitement, opposite of happiness is boredom

• Dreamlining

E is for Elmination

• Occam’s Razor

• General process is DEAL

• Doing something unimportant well does not make it important

• Requiring a lot of time does not make it important

• What you do is infinitely more important than how you do it

• Pareto Distribution is 80/20 rule

  • Pareto’s Law

  • 80% output comes from 20% inputs

• Being overwhelmed is worse than doing nothing 

• Parkinson’s Law *

• 9-5 is Arbitrary *

• Need deadlines that create focus

• Ask yourself if you’re being productive or just active

  • Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?

• Identify top activities you use to postpone other work

• You are product of 5 people you’re closest with

• ARE YOU INVENTING THINGS TO DO TO AVOID THE IMPORTANT?

• Rescuetime.com

• Do not multitask

• Use impossibly short deadlines

• e.ggtimer.com/5minutes

• Don’t refleck back questions, use “Can I make a suggestion”, “I propose __”, “Let’s try ____”

• Be selectively ignorant

• Less is more, cold calling works

• READING FAST

• Begin reading third word in a line, stop at third to last word

• Reading too fast for comprehension 

• Use pen below reading to prevent backing up

• More is not better, stopping something is much better than finishing

• Ask for phone numbers of opposite sex twice per day

• Try to get 3 in 5 minutes 

• Ask 2-3 hours of questions if anything less than an A

• Be difficult when it counts, being assettive is good

• Limit email intake

• Never check first thing in morning

• Beg for forgiveness, don’t ask for permission

• Avoid meetings that are not important

• It is your job to train those around you to be effective and efficient

• Meetings should be held to make predefined decisions, always make an agenda

• Make meetings at odd times, use false time constraints

• Puppy dog close: let’s just try it once, reversible close

• Consider economies of scale, for batching

• There are seldom real emergencies

• Have set of responses to follow

• Geopolitical arbitrage and medical 

A is for Automation

Outsourcing

• Build a system to replace yourself

• Delegation

• Unless something is well defined, no one should do it

• Eliminate before you delegate. Do not delegate if it can be automated or streamlined

• Golden Rule #1: Each delegated task must be well defined and time consuming

• Golden Rule #2: Have some fun with it. Get silly

• Bangalore

• YMII: Your Man In India

• Remote or Local? Made in the USA does not have ring it used to

• Set an hour cap

• Never use a new hire or inexperienced person. Employees must sign NDAs

• Never use debit cards online for VAs

• Create new login for VAs

• Clear writing and clear commands come from clear thinking

• Q&A = Questions and Actions

• Get assistant and practice

• US and Canada $20+ iavo.com, cvac.ca, onlinebusinessmanager.com

• elance.com VA/PA/EA, guru.com, rentacoder.com

• Tryasksunday.com, b2kcore.com, taskseveryday.com $7/hr prepurchase hours, YMII.com for business or personal to complete work while you sleep

• Start small, think big

• Examine pain points

• Push outside your comfort zone

• Keep in sync for scheduling

  • busysync.com, spanningsync.com

• Criticism sandwich

• Delay Email Delivery

Income AutoPilot 1

• Infinite methods, few principles

  • Principles more important

• Dropshipping example

• 2.5% for credit cards

• Find your muse

• Find a market that already exists rather than trying to create one

• Be a member of your target market

• Most companies price in mid range

• 8-10 times markup for your own product

• 5 times markup is not enough

• Price high and justify

• Product should easily have its purpose or benefit explained in 1 sentence

• Cross selling

• Purchasing at wholesale price list (40% off retail)

• License a product, but it’s difficult

• labeling

• Information Products are 20-50x markups

• Expert Builder

  • Being perceived as an expert is better than being an expert

  • Need a credibility indicator

  • Contact mentors

  • Gain credentials

• Lifestyle design

• Go Niche or go home

• Alibaba, shopster, worldwideshipping, thomasnet.com

Income Autopilot II

• Google Adwords

• PPC: Pay Per Clickm m

• Lose win marketing

• Pay you if our product does not satisfy like Dominos, Cialis, BrainQuicken

• Lay down on ground in middle of day for 10 seconds, then continue

• Do with groups in mall or nightclub

• Catatonic

• Tons of websites for all this and call centers

L is for Liberation

Disappearing Act

• By working 8 hours a day you might eventually get to be a boss and work 12 hours a day - Robert Frost

• Why the hell not

• Always talk in terms of business need

• Prove increased output offsite

• When is more important than how

• Be super productive at home, less so at work

• What would I need to do to?

• Have you ever made an exception?

• Why not?

• Why?

• Employer on remote training wheels

• Leave if you can’t get what you want

• Earth Class Mail

• Marsona Sound Machine

Beyond Repair 

• Everything is reversible 

• How long could you survive on current resources?

• Be strict

• Don’t be melodramatic

• Unique is good so don’t be afraid of resume effects

  • Had a once in a lifetime chance

• “Double your rate of failure” - Thomas Watson

• Test assumptions before setting yourself to misery

• Are you playing a game not worth winning?

• Only those who are asleep make no mistakes

• Web consultant from London - Funny

Mini Retirements

• 3-4 per year

• Take you to a different world psychologically

• Learn to slow down

• Observe how you judge yourself and those around you

• Give a firm offer, not a question

• Can get private language lessons abroad

• Use orbitz, kayak, priceline

• Ticket to hub

• Get rid of things

  • Gives extra mental space

• Take less with you, absolute minimum

• Pack as if you were coming bakc in 1 week

• Bare essentials

  • 1 week clothing with semiformal shirt

  • Backup copies of documents

  • Cards and $200 bills in local

  • Cable bike lock

  • Electronic dictionary 

• Vagabonding

• Scout region, settle in favorite spot

• Best Places

• China - Shanghai

• Argentina - Buenos Ares

• Thailand - Bangkok

• Germany - Berlin

• Norway - Oslo

• NZ - Queensland

• Spain - Madrid

• Japan - Tokyo

• Do Not Go

• Africa, Middle East, SA, Mexico

• Which belongings create stress in my life? ELIMINATE

• If I had a gun to my head, how would I do it?

• 3 months out eliminate, 2 months out automate

• Virtualtourist.com

• gridskipper.com for exploring cities

• 100 dollars a day cities worldwide

• perpetualtravel.com

• 1800gotjunk.com

• freecycle.com

• onebag.com, pack light website

• Get a good accountant

• priceline.com for flights

• Ryanair and easyjet for Europe

• If you’re bored, it’s your fault

Filling the Void

• Go nuts and live your dreams

• Get out of postponement habit

• Retirees get depressed because of social isolation

• Have I lowered my standards to make myself a winner?

• Most big questions we think are a complete waste of time

• Most questions without answers are poorly worded

• If you can’t define it or act upon it, don’t worry about it

• Learning forever

• Blend mental and physical

• Benefits of learning language underestimated and difficulty overestimated

• Service is doing something for someone other than yourself

• Change one person’s life is a win

• NR = new rich

Top 13 Mistakes

• Don’t need perfection, it’s an impossible destination 

• Don’t make non time sensitive issues urgent

• Separate work and play

• Create meaning

Last Chapter

• Don’t dance so fast

Art of Letting Bad Things Happen

• You can turn off noise without the world ending, you’ll be liberated

• Value attention over time

• What is the one goal, it completed, would change everything?

Things I learned in 2008

• Books

• Seneca - Letters from a stoic

• Zorba the Greek

• No need to recoup losses

• Do not try to impress people you don’t like, only people you want to emulate

• Slow meals = life

• Meal time with friends and loved ones is a direct predictor of well being with those who make you feel good. 2-3 hours

• Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it

• Don’t keep strong informed opinions

• Expect small percentage to take things personally

• You’re never as bad as they say you are

• Untainted optimism, but stay hungry

• Are you having a breakdown or breakthrough

• Rehearse poverty regularly

• Better to keep old resolutions than make new ones

How to Travel With 10 Pounds or Less

• Trip enjoyment inversely proportional to amount of stuff

• Buy It There when needed

• Never buy if you can borrow

• MSR towel absorbant

• Flyclear.com

Choice Minimal Lifestyle

• Less is more

• Don’t postpone decisions when they’re uncomfortable 

• Slow carb meal

• Limit complaining to minimize regret

• 21 day no complaint

Not To Do List

• Do not agree to meetings without an agenda or end time

• Need friends outside of work

Margin Manifesto

• Less is more

• Niche is good

• Market to everyone, get no one

• Being busy is not being productive 

Holy Grail

• Multiple emails

• 99% email is same type of email

• If you don’t want to slip, don’t go where it’s slippery

Tim Ferriss Processing Rules

• Rules for VA

Proposal to Work Remotely

• Example

LIVING THE 4 HOUR WORK WEEK

Zen and Rock Star Living

• Outsource things that bother you most

• Start small, think big

Art Lovers Wanted

Photo Finish

Off The Job Training

Doctor’s Order

4 Hour Family and Global Education

Financial Musing

Star Wars

Restricted Reading

• Should strive for 2.5 pages/minute

• Fundamental Four

• 1. Magic of Thinking Big - David Shwartz

  • Don’t overestimate others and underestimate yourself

• 2. How to Make Millions with your Ideas - Dan S. Kennedy

• 3. E Myth Revisted - Michael E. Gerber

• 4. Vagabonding - Ralph Pots

• 5. Reducing Emotional and Material Baggage

• Less is More - Poverty 

  • How to do most with the least 

• The Monk and the CEO

• 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch

• Muse Creations and Related Skills - HBS

• This Business Has Legs - Peter Biehler

• Secrets of Power Negotiating - Robert Dawson

• Getting Past No and Bargaining for Advantage are also good

• Response Magazine

• JWGreensheet.com dissect best product campaigns

• Small Giants - Bo Burlingham

• Verge Magazine

Overall Rating: 9.0/10

Date completed: 5/28/20

Length: 280 pages

a guide to the good life - william irvine

Part One: The Rise of Stoicism

• If you lack an effective strategy for achieving your goal, it is unlikely you’ll achieve it

• Stoic school was founded by Zeno of Citium

• A life plagued by negative emotions (anger, anxiety, fear, grief, envy) will not be a good one

• The default strategy of life is to search for things that bring affluence, status, and pleasure

• Stoicism searches for tranquility by decreasing negative emotions and increasing positive ones

• If you do not have a philosophy of life, you run the danger of spending your days pursuing valueless things and will therefore waste your life

• Main founders were Epictetus, Macrus Aurelius, Musonius Rufus, and Seneca

• Stoics taught logic, physics, and ethics

• In stoic terms, a virtuous individual is one who performs well the function for which humans were designed

• Pursuit of virtue increases our tranquility, making it easier for us to pursue virtue

• There is nothing wrong with enjoying the good things life has to offer

• “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing” - Marcus

Part Two: The Psychological Techniques

Negative Visualization

• No matter how hard we try to prevent bad things from happening to us, some will happen anyways

• Method to avoid hedonic adaptation

• The easiest way to gain happiness is to want the things we already have

• Spend time imagining we have lost things that we value

• When we say goodbye to a friend, we should silently remind ourselves that this might be our last parting

• Among the deaths we should contemplate is our own

• “Live as if this very moment were our last” - Seneca

• Spend time reflecting on all the things we have and on how much we would miss them if they were not ours

• Say grace before a meal

• To be able to be satisfied with little is not a failing, but a blessing

• Projective visualization is imagining bad things we see happening to us instead of to others that it actually happens to

• Large difference between contemplating something happening to us and worrying about it

• Must prepare for changes that will deprive us of the things that delight us

• “All things human…are short lived and perishable” - Seneca

• You will someday eat your last meal, and soon after breathe your last breath

The Dichotomy of Control

• Wanting things that are not up to us will disrupt our tranquility, even if we get them

• We have complete control over our opinions, goals, values, and character

• Should concern ourselves with things we have some or complete control over

• Should internalize our goals, which will effect external performance

• Avoids frustration and disappointment

Fatalism

• Adapt ourselves to the environment into which fate has placed us and do our best to love the people whom fate has surrounded us

• Welcome whatever falls in our lot and persuade ourselves that whatever happens to us is for the best

• Be fatalistic with respect to past and present

• Can either spend this moment wishing it were different or we can embrace it

• Do not concern ourselves with things we do not have control over (past and present)

Self-Denial

• Besides contemplating bad things happening, we should sometimes live as if they had happened

• Should sometimes cause bad things to happen

• Stoics welcomed a degree of discomfort into their life

• Doing so will harden ourselves to misfortunes that might befall us in the future

• A person who grows to withstand minor discomforts will grow confident that he can withstand major discomforts as well

• A person who avoids all discomfort will likely be more uncomfortable than someone who periodically embraces it

• Stoics periodically forego opportunities to experience pleasure

• “If we cannot resist pleasures, we will end up playing the role of the slave” - Marcus

• Willpower is like muscle power

• If you don’t eat food, you will likely be pleased and praise yourself, nevertheless experiencing a genuine pleasure

Meditation

• The worse a man is, the less likely he is to accept constructive criticism

• If you are going to publish, you must be willing to accept criticism

• As we go about our daily business, we should simultaneously play the roles of participant and spectator

• Reflect on our practice of stoic techniques

Are we making progress?

• If we show progress, we will stop blaming, censuring, praising others, stop boasting about ourselves, and be more likely to blame ourself and not external circumstances, may even stop having dreams with negative pleasures, change in emotional life

• Experiencing fewer negative emotions

• We will, out of the blue, feel delighted to be the person we are, living the life we are living, in the universe we happen to inhabit

• Continue to practice, even when success looks hopeless

Part Three: Stoic Advice

Duty: On Loving Mankind

• Stoics advise us to seek tranquility

• Other people are the source of greatest delights (love and friendship), but also negative emotions

• “To count how many are jealous of you, count your admirers” - Seneca

• Stoic will not pause to boast about the service he has performed, but will move on to perform his next service, the way a grape vine moves on to bear more grapes

• When we awaken in the morning, rather than lazily lying in bed, we should tell ourselves that we must get up to do the proper work of man, the work we were created to perform

• “If we do the things we were made for, we will enjoy a man’s true delight” - Marcus

Social Relations: Dealing with Other People

• Prepare for dealing with other people before we deal with them

• Avoid befriending people whose values have been corrupted, for fear that their values will contaminate ours

• Avoid people who are simply whiny

• Seeksorrow = one who contrives to give himself vexation

• Be silent or have few words when we find ourselves in a group talking about gladiators, horse races, athletes, eating, drinking, and especially other people

• When we interact with an annoying person, keep in mind there are people who find us annoying. Should pause to reflect our own shortcomings

• Our annoyance at what he does is invariably more detrimental to us than whatever he is doing

• Do not spend time speculating about what neighbors are doing, saying, thinking, or scheming

• Social fatalism that people are fated to be a certain way

• “One of the best forms of revenge on another person is to refuse to be like him” - Marcus

• No sex outside marriage - oof

• In a good marriage, two people will engage in a loving union and each will try to outdo each other in the care they show for each other

• Few people are happier than a person who has a loving spouse and children

Insults: Putting Up with Put-Downs

• Insults are capable of causing you pain long after they have been delivered

• If I respect the source and I value his opinions, then his critical remarks shouldn’t upset me

• “I’m relieved you feel that way about me”

• Over time we will become increasingly indifferent to other people’s opinions of us

• We ourselves are the source of any sting that accompanies the insult

• Respond with humor, self-deprecating, wity, humor, or no response at all

• Shows we don’t have time for childish behavior

• Should teach people of disadvantaged groups methods of self-defense, rather than shielding them from insulting

Grief

• Emotions, such as grief, are to some extent reflexive, cannot control initial reaction

• Stoics aim to minimize grief, but crying is okay initially

• Negative visualization will make grief easier, since we have already imagined it happening

• Retrospective negative visualization is imagining we had never had something or someone after they are gone

• Example of Polybius suffering shows that the person we are sad about losing would not want us to grieve and disrupt life

• To empathize with someone, we should display outward signs of grief without allowing ourself to experience grief

Anger

• Anger is anti-joy, brief insanity

• “Being angry is a waste of precious time” - Seneca

• Should not experience anger, but we can fake anger to motivate others

• “We should fight our tendency to believe the worst about others and our tendency to jump to conclusions about their motivations”

• The things that anger us generally don’t do us real harm, but they’re mere annoyances

• By allowing ourselves to get angry over little things, we take what might be barely noticeable disruptions of our day and transform them into tranquility-shattering states of agitation

• Anger lasts longer than the damage done to us

• When we feel ourselves getting angry, consider its cosmic (in)significance

• We should apologize if we get angry

• Life is too short to spend it in a state of anger

Personal Values: Fame

• Price of fame is not worth the costs

• Do not care what others think

• Make the best of today

• Go out of our way to trigger disdain of others sometimes

• Many other people, including your friends and family, want you to fail in your undertakings

• Your success makes them look bad and therefore uncomfortable

Personal Values: Luxury

• Wealth is not worth pursuing, will not bring contentment

• Wealth has power to make people miserable

• We may lose our ability to take delight in simple things

• Should eat to live

• The pleasure connected with food is undoubtedly the most difficult of all pleasures to combat

• Richer does not mean you are better than someone less rich

• If you attain wealth, do not cling to it

Exile: Change of Place

• It’s the mind that makes us rich

• Happiness depends more on values than where you reside

Old Age

• Not having a philosophy can lead to not knowing what is worth pursuing and to midlife crisis

• Unless death intervenes, one day we will not have to imagine what it would be like to be old

• Many people go through life repeatedly making the same mistakes and are no closer to happiness in their eighties than in their twenties

• Stoicism well suited to our later years

Dying

• When it comes time to die, you will not feel cheated if you have a philosophy

• Tranquility in the midst of a storm

• Better to die with distinction than to live long

• Goal is to extract full value of the day

• People who think they will live forever are much more likely to waste life

Becoming a Stoic

• Practice negative visualization, self denial, replace search for fame and fortune with search for tranquility

• If you have a philosophy of life, decision making is straightforward

• Aim to practice stealth stoicism

• Start immediately

Part Four: Stoicism for Modern Lives

Decline of Stoicism

• Stoicism forgotten during twentieth century

• Over time we have gotten worse with our tendency for insatiability

• If we prevent an emotion, no need to bottle it up, we should stay in touch with emotions

• Should not be unhappy because you were once unhappy

• At best a loose connection between external circumstances and how happy we are

• If you consider yourself a victim, you will not have a good life

• No one has it in their power to ruin your life

Stoicism Reconsidered

• Become self-aware

• Enjoy affluence if we become wealthy

• We inherited most of the things we feel that are negative such as sex, search for fame, luxury, anxiety, anger

• Stoicism is a cure for disease

• Xanax example

• We are the source of our discontent

• Positive, analytical people

Practicing Stoicism

• Practice techniques one at a time

• First, negative visualization, then trichotomy of control, then internalize goals

• Become a collector of insults and butterflies

• Feel anxiety now to prevent more later

Overall Rating: 8.8/10

Date completed: 5/27/20

Length: 12hr 8m

I will teach you to be rich - ramit sethi

Sexy or Rich

• Victim game is huge

• Getting started > knowing everything 

• 85% of the way is good enough 

• Buy a book if you think about it

Credit Cards

• Outrage usually makes people do nothing, like with debt

• Pay bills on time

• Carefully search for reward cards

• Credit card churning

• Fees may be worth it

• Ask if they’ll waive fees

• Use cards secret perks

• End sentences with strength 

• Cite past call information

• No sympathy for people that complain without a plan

• Average student debt is $30,000

• Pay off debt aggressively

• Snowball or highest APR first

Beat The Banks

• 30 second test

• Schwab, Vanguard good

• Wells Fargo and Bank of America bad

• Get out of all fees

• Set up multiple banks and use online savings

• Pay no fees

Investing

• Most people don’t invest

Savings/Budget

• Set up meeting at work asking what you would need to do to be a top performer. 

• Ask to be compensated fairly

• Ynab

• Lastpass to store passwords

Investing

• Survivorship bias

• 1% fee is 26% returns

• 2% fee is 63% returns

Simple Investing

• Use bonds to offset risks

Finances of Life

• Pay off debt as soon as possible if it keeps you up at night

• Should invest and pay debt at same time

• Captive insurance, tax loss harvesting?

• Should talk about money with partner

  • How do you think about money?

• Contribute a proportional amount to your salary. 50/50 not fair

• Average wedding $35,000

  • Don’t judge people for expensive wedding

  • Little by little spend more than you intend

  • Average age 29 for men, 27 for women

Negotiating Salary

• 90% mindset, 10% tactics

• Remember no one cares about you

• Manager cares about how you make him/her look better and your contribution to company

• Frame it in value you can provide

• Highlight how you’ll help company

• “Let’s find a way to arrive at a fair number that works for both of us”

• Use another job offer to compete

• Find median amount for position

• Briefcase technique, Ramit Sathi

• Be cooperative, give concessions

• We’re pretty close, let’s see how we can make this work

• Smile

• Never lie

• Kelly Bluebook Value

• Toyota’s and Honda’s retain value

Car Negotiating 

• Do it mercilessly

• Use Fighting Chance

House

• No more than 2.5 yearly salary

• Put 20% down

• Not a good investment

• NYT is it better to rent or buy

• Don’t forget to find perks

• Can deduct mortgage expenses from taxes

• Owning house almost always more expensive

• Can save for things even if you don’t have a set date

• Manage priorities for expenses

Overall Rating: 6.0/10

Date completed: 3/30/20

Length: 10hr 48m

Lean mastery collection - jeffrey ries

LEAN SIX SIGMA

• Quality Improvement Method to find Defects

• Sigma Scale - Measure of Performance

• 3.4 defects/million is six sigma

• Design for Six Sigma - DFSS

  • Requires IDOV Approach

  • Identify, Design, Optimize, Validate

• Ch2 Different Roles of Implementing Six Sigma

  • Executive Management

  • Champions

  • Master Black belts

  • Black belts - supply ideas, execute project

  • Green belts - implementation of six sigma, can work on other projects

  • Yellow belts 

• Ask the 5 Whys

  • Takes 5 iterations to solve problem, but may need more

  • Cost Benefit Analysis

  • Using TVM and NPV

  • Sensitivity Analysis

  • Root Cause Analysis

  • Value Stream Mapping

• Work on identifying waste in business

  • Faster than necessary pace

  • Conveyance

  • Excess stock

  • Unnecessary motion

  • Costs of corrections of mistakes

  • Flowchart for business process mapping

• Ch5 Steps to Follow for Six Sigma

  • Do it right the first time

  • 1. Define

    • Look at process and find what needs improvement 

    • Form team and train

    • Identify Problem

    • Scope

    • Project charter

    • Stakeholder analysis

  • 2. Measure

    • Decide what parameters to use

    • Find key defects

  • 3. Analyze

    • Look at data

    • Find gap between current and desired performance 

    • Root Cause Analysis

    • Financial terms

  • 4. Improve

    • Find set of solutions 

    • Deisgn performance improvement plan

  • 5. Control

    • Devise project management plans

    • Sustain new process 

    • Document process

    • Transfer to management

• Ch6 Scope and Perfect Project

  • Solve project that’s hurting company

  • Such as revenue, cycle time, employee satisfaction

  • Use quantifiable terms

  • Ebit or Npbit check

  • Improve key performance indicator by over 70%

  • Systemic problem

  • Statistical problems

• Ch7 Transform your problem

  • Look at data

  • Use facts at hand and not intuition 

  • Can’t just throw time and money at problems

  • Turn problem into a statistical solution

• Ch8 Knowing goals and needs

  • Be aware and keep in mind

  • Zero in on problem areas

  • Look for Issues and common themes

• Ch9 Determine who is responsible for each part

  • Determiend by managers

  • Implement solutions and see benefits 

  • Don’t let deliverables fall through cracks

  • Needs mutual understanding 

• Ch10 Pick out Solution, Implementing, Following Up

  • Maybe start with pilot project 

  • Everyone needs to be involved with whole process 

  • Choose solution based on financials and tools

  • Evaluation and checking on it to see if it works

• Ch11 Common Issues with Implementation

  • Use best people for project

  • Complete six sigma understanding is necessary 

  • Don’t use for simple changes

• Ch12 How to get certified

  • Can provide more value to company

  • Determining management philosophy that is needed

  • Lean six sigma or six sigma

  • Consider future goals in project management 

  • Many different options

• Ch13 Tips to help

  • Develop mentoring process

  • Financial validation

  • Reduce standard deviation in your own projects

  • Map out the plan

  • Pick the right project

LEAN STARTUP

• Any new product or service

• Market risk is whether people want the product or service

• Do not rely on bad assumptions 

• Ch1 Lean Startup Options

  • Build, Measure, Learn

  • Minimal Variable Product: Initial investment and building only enough to do process (build, measure, learn) using least time and effort

  • Validated Learning

    • Focus on the right metrics, not just vanity metrics

  • Do several build, measure, learn cycles

  • Decide to pivot or stick with current baseline

  • False hypothesis can be a problem

  • Value capture pivot

  • Engine of growth pivot

  • Small batches

    • Do trials in batches

  • Concept of single piece flow

    • Finish something completely instead of doing it step by step in large batches

  • End on Accord

    • Anyone can end the process at any time (whole production line)

  • Continuous Deployment

    • Update live production systems every day

  • Kanban

    • Backlog (Items worked on but not started)

    • In progress

    • Build

    • Validated (positive review from customer)

    • All 4 stages known as buckets, which need room

  • 5 Whys

    • Find root cause

    • Find problems by bad process, not bad people

    • Can’t fix what hasn’t been brought to light

    • Start small, be specific 

  • Most problems come from lack of personal training 

• Ch2 Create a startup experiment 

  • Quantitative or Qualitative 

  • Need clear hypothesis or generate ideas from customers

  • Could use survey, data mining, focus groups, interviews, market experiments

  • Smoke tests

• Ch3 Growing a Startup

  • Easier to manage when small

  • Effective lead generation

    • Focus on revenue efficiency 

    • Need strategic planning and tracking

    • Aim for $1 spent on customer acquisition, get $2.50 back

  • Invest in good budgeting tool

  • Hive9

  • Collaboration

  • Be a die hard fan of first customers

    • Do not forget

  • SEO Audit for online pages

  • Know customers personally

  • Could send handwritten notes

  • Make more money with paid outreach than regular

  • Make customers happy

  • Look into influencer marketing

    • Helps co-build your brand

• Ch4 Six Sigma Basics

  • Get close to perfection

  • Z shift is 4.5, ideal is 6

    • Most score 1-2

  • Active rewards can help

  • Everyone must be on board with six sigma

  • Bigger the company, more inertia is needed

  • Look closely at levels to determine training

  • Needs to become a habit

• Ch5 Implementing Six Sigma

  • Team needs to be motivated to use it

  • Give everyone the tools they need

  • Need to prioritize six sigma outcomes

  • Quality is critical and so is customer

  • Provide positive reinforcement

  • Lots of excuses

  • Six Sigma is variation of lean system

• Ch6 Additional strategies

  • Kaizen - continuous improvement 

    • Always focus on improvement 

    • Finds current best practices

    • Optimizes normal procedures

    • Review after each stage

    • 1. Standardize every process

    • 2. Compare processes to determine areas to use elsewhere

      • Look at KPI - Key performance indicators 

    • 3. Look at what’s available 

    • 4. Repeat as needed

    • Dedicate time to review all processes to look for improvement 

    • Easy to follow steps without questioning it

  • Poke-Yoke

    • Failsafe procedures

    • Repetitive tasks

    • Relies on thorough understanding of steps

    • Determine areas with most potential to cause harm

    • Prevents mistakes before they happen

• Conclusion

  • Many problems unique to specific startups

  • Existing methods may not work

  • Take what you learn and test new things

  • Marathon, not a sprint

LEAN ENTERPRISE

• Ch1 Why Lean Matters to Enterprise

  • First discussed by MIT student at Toyota and GM

  • Standards to help all businesses

  • Eliminate waste, recuce cost

  • Only works for complete buy in

  • Continous Improvement based on Ginchy Ginbunsu, Kaizen, knowledge of challenges

  • Every challenge leads to growth 

  • Respect employees and customers 

  • Decrease costs by 5% than those elsewhere 

  • Wastes in 3 types

    • Moory - too much variety 

    • Mooda - 

      • Unavailable parts

      • Waiting Waste

      • Overproduction waste

      • Inventory Waste

      • Movement Waste

      • Underutilization of team

      • 3 categories (no added value and hard to remove, no value, regulation)

• Ch2 Creating a Lean System

  • Focus on customer retention 

  • Compare costs and results 

  • Search for areas of improvement 

  • Sustained improvement 

  • Failure is an opportunity for improvement 

  • Gather as much information as possible

• Ch3 Setting Lean Goals

  • SMART

  • Clear

  • Consider who when where why and how

  • Group goals and implement

  • Less goals the more realistic to complete

  • Begin with goals to make biggest difference 

• Ch4 Simplifying Lean as Much as Possible

  • Look at value stream map to find what makes value for customer

  • Plan, Do, Study, Act

  • Make list of logical steps

    • Overview of major stages

  • Consider flow of information

  • Consider transfer of knowledge

  • Collect data

  • Don’t make assumptions and get up to date on data

  • Pay attention to lead time

  • Look at the right KPIs

• Ch5/6

• Ch7 Kanban

  • Inventory Management 

  • Want to make sure stock stays at ideal levels at all times

  • Each process has an amount set by Kanban

  • Electronic Kanban

  • Kanban cards

  • Three bin system

  • Spare bin allows for uncertainty 

  • Just enough kanban cards for each product 

• Ch8 5S

  • Sorting

    • Remove anything that acts as an obstacle 

    • Everything has a space

  • Set in Order

    • Put in order they’ll be used

    • Readily at hand

    • No movement waste

    • Daily cleaning

  • Standardize

    • Can be applied throughout business structure

  • Sustain

    • Keep it up

  • Shine

  • Should be a part of natural process

• Ch9 Six Sigma

  • Z-shift

  • Standard is 4.5

  • 1 means customers get what they want 30%, 2 is 70%, 3 is 93%, 4 is 99%, 5/6 is above 99%

  • Levels (White, Yellow, Green, Black, Master Black)

  • 5 Laws

    • 1. Law of Market

    • 2. Law of Flexibility 

    • 3. Law of Focus

    • 4. Law of Velocity (more steps, less efficient)

    • 5. Law of Complexity (Simpler is better)

  • Apply to clearly defective processes

  • Find places where tact time is out of whack

  • DMADV or DMAIC

    • Define

    • Measure

    • Analyze

    • Improve or Design

    • Control or Validate

LEAN ANALYTICS

Complete guide to using data to build a better business

• Intro

  • Eliminates present waste

  • Analystics help determine where waste is present

• Ch1 What is Lean Analytics?

  • Find and address things to make biggest difference

  • Lean means improve 

  • Helps find and work with the right metrics

  • 3 Elements: Building, Measuring, Learning

  • Minimal Viable Product 

  • Lean Analytics focuses on measuring and learning

  • Focus on fundamentals 

    • Strive for perfection

    • System for pullthrough

    • Improve value stream

    • Respect customers

    • Deliver value

  • Need workers to take optimal steps

  • Improve value stream with plan do check act

  • 5S+

    • Sort

    • Straighten

    • Scrub

    • Systemize

    • Standardize

    • Safe

• Ch2 Lean Analytics Stages

  • Five Stages

    • 1. Find Problem

    • 2. Create MVP

    • 3. Find cost efficient way

    • 4. Economists and revenue

      • LTV/CAC ratio of 3 or greater

    • 5. Grow business

• Ch3 Lean Analytics Cycle

  • 4 Steps

    • 1. What do I need to improve?

      • Find KPI

    • 2. Create hypothesis

    • 3. Conduct experiment

      • Three questions? 

        • Who is target audience?

        • What do you expect target audience to do?

        • Why do you think they should accommplish the action?

        • Who will do what because why?

    • 4. Set up lean analytics and measure outcomes

• Ch4 False vs Meaningful Metrics

  • Most people use data wrong

  • Number of views is not most important, more important on engagement

• Ch5 Recognizing and Choosing good metric

  • Comparable over time

  • Understandable 

  • Ratio

  • Adaptability 

  • Watch out for vanity metrics

  • Focus on one at a time

• Ch6 Simple Analytical Tests

  • 1. Segmentation

    • Compare demographics

    • Find regular customers and break into groups

  • AB Tests

    • Change one thing

  • Multivariate Analysis

    • Change more than one thing at a time

  • Cohort Analysis

• Ch7 Understanding Project Type

  • Ecommerce

    • Online store

    • Need to be clear on customer relationship

    • Average online conversion is 2%

    • Shopping cart abandonment

    • Search efficiency 

    • Build up loyal base faster than customers disappear

    • Customer churn, lifetime value

    • Attrition rate (percent leaving)

  • Mobile App Companies

    • WhatsApp, Instagram

    • Customer lifetime value

  • Ad Based

    • Find user engagement 

    • Want regular contributors

  • Two Sided Marketetplace

    • Connect market and sellers

    • Airbnb

    • Ebay

• Ch8 Determine your Current State

  • Talk with potential customers

  • Stickiness

  • Make lean prototype 

  • Does it provide enough value to customer?

  • Promote WOM referrals

  • Need to prove you can make money

  • Expand to larger audience

• Ch9 Pinpoint the most pressing mettric

  • Find what stage you’re at

  • Look at list of all, find most relevant 

  • Decide next most important too

  • Look at one metric at a time

• Ch10 Tipes to make Lean Analytics more successful 

  • Need a lot of users

  • Minimum of 10,000 events

  • Make Big Changes before AB test

  • Measure properly

  • Use proper tools

  • Focus on main problem first

Agile Project Management

• Intro

  • Waterfull model is sequential design model - traditional

  • Quick Response to user changes

• Ch1 What is Agile Project Management

  • Way of handling project to fulfill goals

  • Continuous development

  • Understand origins of project management 

  • Why go agile?

    • Dynamic

    • Accommodates on the fly changes

  • Examples: Monday, Rike, Smartsheet, Trello

• Ch2 How to Implement Agile Project Management 

  • It’s an approach and mindset

  • Itterative improvement over time, lots of revisions

  • Must be ready to begin without set endpoint

  • 7 Steps

    • 1. Define Vision

    • 2. Create a product roadmap

    • 3. Create more refined roadmap

    • 4. Plan Sprints

    • 5. Daily 15 min meetings 

    • 6. Review Sprints

• Ch3 Agile vs Waterfall

  • Agile

    • Iterative

    • High client participation 

    • Dynamics

    • Unpredictable 

  • Waterfall

    • Large projects

    • Linear structure

    • Fixed

    • Predictable

  • 3 parts: Owner, Scrummaster, team

• Ch4 Scrum and Agile

  • Different

  • Scrum is a framework used in agile

  • Diet and recipe

  • Organized project team

  • Parts of Scrum

    • No experience needed

    • Product Owner

      • Has full say

      • Creates backlog

    • Sprint

    • Daily Scrum

    • Retrospective 

  • Basic Framework

    • One can learn in 10 minutes, years to become expert

  • Twelve Principles of Agile

    • 1. Customer satisfaction leading goal

    • 2. Changing environments embraced

    • 3. Service is delivered at high frequency 

    • 4. Stakeholders work with developers

    • 5. Stakeholder and team remains inspired

    • 6. Physical meetings best

    • 7. Functional project is success

    • 8. Agile fosters sustainable development with good pace

    • 9. Technical excellence and correct design

    • 10. Simplisticy

    • 11. Self organizing team develops right architecture 

    • 12. Regular meetings

  • Best scrummaster skills

    • Responsible for guiding team

    • Help serve owners

    • Need ability to change yourself and others

    • Listen

    • Coach others

      • Address early

      • Praise

• Ch5 Turning Agile

  • Driven by managers, followed by everyone

  • Managers need to be on board

  • Continuous improvement and transparency

• Ch6 Principles of Agile and Manifesto

  • 4 Key Values

    • 1. Individuals and Participation > Processes

    • 2. Working Software > Detailed Documentation

    • 3. Partnership of Customer > Contract

    • 4. Response to change > Plan

  • 12 Principles 

    • 1. Frequent software delivery 

    • 2. Withstand changes

    • 3. Working software

    • 4. Partnership

    • 5. Trust, motivation 

    • 6. Face to face interactions

    • 7. Working software is process

    • 8. Agile processes

    • 9. Technical specs

    • 10. Deliver simplicity 

    • 11. Self Organizing groups

    • 12. Followup meetings to ensure right product is created

• Ch7 Technical Agile

• Ch8 Implementation Challenges

• Ch9 Agile Methodology 

  • Scrum

  • Kanban

  • Crystal Orange/Yellow/Clear

    • Every project may require different approach 

  • DSDM

    • Iterations delivered fast

• Ch10 Keys to Successful Implementation

  • Benefits > Challenges

  • 1. Begin with correct project

  • 2. Define role of team

  • 3. Approximation of Efforts is Important 

    • Recommended

  • 4. Sprints

  • 5. Controlled Tension

  • 6. Stick to Methodology 

  • 7. Quality

  • 8. Improvement

  • 9. Implementation Openly

  • 10. Handle Expectations 

  • 11. Choose correct tools

  • 12. Revise and Improve

Kanban

• Intro

  • In conjunction with agile project management

  • Simple, visual system

• Ch1 Current Status of Kaban

  • System for restocking when required

  • Founded on true need

  • Minimizes shortages

  • Based off supermarkets

  • Picklist or Kitting are alternatives

  • Mooda - Wasteful

  • When Kanban may not be best

    • 1. Operator needs to turn around to complete job

    • 2. Two or more materials look too similar

    • 3. Rate for completion too short

    • 4. Inconsistent material usage

    • 5. Materials must be traceable

  • Operator clicks button to refill

  • Kanban still relevant in right situations 

• Ch2 How to Utilize Kanban in Non Manufacturing 

  • Three Parts: Board, List Card

  • 8 Board Parts

    • 1. Filled with moving cards

    • 2. People invited to a board

    • 3. Card description on back of card

    • 4. Cards can have tasks or checklists

    • 5. Limits included

    • 6. Cards can be tagged or labeled

    • 7. Due Dates on Cards

    • 8. Start small

      • Use for personal life

• Ch3 Applying Kanban for Lean Manufacturing 

  • 1. Downstream remove materials in exact amounts

  • 2. Upstream delivers exact amounts

  • 3. Movement does not happen without Kanba

  • 4. Every material a part of Kanban

  • 5. Downstream receives correct from upstream 

  • 6. Less inventory 

  • 7. Usage aligned with inventory

  • Pros

    • 1. Lowers cost and inventory levels

    • 2. Need is determined by demands of customer

    • 3. Production is to deliver, not to store

    • 4. Progress reports reach managers organically

    • 5. Decreases archaic inventory

  • Cons

    • 1. Must observe numbers being used

    • 2. Figure out reordering methods

    • 3. Two bin system

• Ch4 Kanban for Software

  • Can use Kanban or Scrum

    • Scrum requires time preparing and wrapping up

    • Kanban is task oriented

  • Benefits

    • Several tasks at once

    • Actions taken only necessary 

    • No planning

    • Problems matched with solutions

  • Three Rules

  • 1. Production is visual

  • 2. Columns sorted by priority 

  • 3. Minimize WIP

• Ch5 How Kanban Reduces Risk

  • Decrease Work In Progress

  • Risks discussed 

  • Work is visual

  • Decrease multitasking

  • Changes incremental 

  • Flow enhancement

  • Time and effort to adopt are worth it

• Ch6 Applying Kanban

  • Visual so everyone can see everything 

    • Transparent and helps communication 

  • Post its or digital whiteboard

  • WIP limited

  • Improvement constant

  • Size of team does not matter

  • Can give peace in own life

  • Gorgeous board

  • Can be up and running in few days

  • Easy to shift priorities 

• Ch7 Implementing Kanban Easily

  • Tool to flow information and materials

  • Rules

  • 1. Reduction Arranged

  • 2. Use colors for post its or bins

  • Customers need to be involved 

  • Source is orgination point

  • Support equipment reliable TPM

  • Lead times low

  • Customer’s products need inspection

  • Worth it in end

• Ch8 Kanban Digital Board for Production

  • Method of communication and teamwork

  • Manage planning and prioritization

• Ch9 Development Tips

  • Be clear

  • Assign team member to each

  • Can have more columns

  • Kanban is better than par

  • Switch in simple manner

SCRUM

• Intro

  • Approach is very different 

• Ch1 Basics of Scrum

  • Very adaptable

  • Development and Develop

  • Knowledge gained most effectively from experience

  • Scrum retrospective, daily planning, sprint planning

  • Team needs to commit to goals

  • Manage backlog by product backlog

  • Accountability shared by team

  • Team can pivot

  • Teams 3 or more

• Ch2 The Sprint

  • Scope clearly defined

  • Sprint no more than 1 month

  • Should be canceled rarely 

  • Less than 8 hours per month

  • Choose certain main goal

  • Development team divides up work

  • Same time every day

  • 15 mins max

• Ch3 Sprint Review

  • End of sprint review

    • Includes all stakeholders

    • Max 4 hours

    • Discuss successes and problems

    • Discuss new ideas looking back

  • Sprint Retrospective

    • Scrum master joins

    • Goal to understand how effective last sprint was

    • Look at people involved 

• Ch4 Artifacts of Scrum

  • Any work or value

  • Product backlog has everything that needs to be done

  • Include priority, description

  • Sprint backlog

  • Forecast for future

• Ch5 Scrum Master

  • Help team become better versions of themselves

  • Empathic culture

  • Growth, happiness

  • Best for team, not selfish

  • Needs to be concerned with all

  • Forming, Norming, Storming

  • Humble and humility

• Ch6 Scrum Transition

  • Will be very different 

• Ch7 Tips

  • Be aware of analysis paralysis for thinking too much about implementation 

  • Stretch goals bad

• Ch8 Stories from Trenches

  • Helps a lot

KAIZEN

• Intro

  • Improvement 

  • Small

  • Continuously strive to make it better

  • Suggestion sytems

  • Quality systems

• Ch1 Kaizen and Teamwork

  • Eliminate clutter

  • Organization

  • Small changes on periodic basis

  • Want people’s views outside process

• Ch2 Implementing Kaizen

  • Don’t blame others

  • Anything is possible

  • We can

  • Fix problems early

  • Clarify early

  • Follow statistics, not opinions

  • Embrace all suggestions

  • Plan day ahead of time

  • Set reminders

  • Everyone spends few minutes practicing kaizen

  • Plan do check act

• Ch3 5S

  • Sort

    • Eliminate unnecessary things

    • 4 categories urgent or important 

  • Set in order

  • Shine

    • Cleanliness

    • Use space optimally

    • Self discipline important

  • Standardize 

• Ch4 Step by Step Guide

  • Identify big processes 

  • Empower people

  • Foster atmosphere of positivity 

  • Pareto principle

  • Observe tiny details

  • Small meaningful rewards

• Ch5 Idea Sharing and Kaizen Boards

  • Visual tool to keep track of improvement ideas

Overall Rating: 9.0/10

Date completed: 3/19/20

Length: 2hr 16m

twelve pillars - jim rohn and chris widener

1. Work harder on yourself than on your job

• Human beings only life to not go to max potential 

• Only way things will change is if you change 

• Live a life of health

  2. Body, soul, spirit 3D health

• Gift of relationships

  3. Make the most of the gift of relationships 

• Cultivate like a garden

• Time, effort, imagination 

  4. Achieve your goals for what it makes of you

• Can’t change destination overnight but you can change direction 

  5. Proper use of time

• We must weigh the pain of regret for the pain of discipline discipline weighs ounces and regret weighs and tons

• days are expensive

  6. Surround yourself with best people

• What effect do my friends have on me?

• every relationship you have as a positive or a neutral or a negative affect on you and he would life

• to attract attractive people you must be tracked. To attract powerful people you must be powerful.

• 99% of life is your attitude

• Be a lifelong learner 

• formal education will make you a living, self education will make you a fortune 

• 7. Read books

  8. All of life is sales

• Concept of influence 

• Know your stuff, never take no for an answer, talk to lots of people 

  9. Income Seldom exceeds personal development

• profits are better than wages

  10. All communication brings the common ground of understanding

• find is a common ground.

• Communication is not just want to say it is how you say it when you say it’s empty receptiveness of the person you say it too.

• really listen.

• don’t just listen to wait to talk listen deeply for the other person and understanding.

  11. The world can always use another great leader

• Managers help people see you they are. Leaders help people see more than they are.

  12 Leave a legacy and lead a life that will help others

• Help others financially, spiritually, emotionally

Overall Rating: 8.0/10

Date completed: 2/25/20

Length: 9hr 51m

first break all the rules - marcus buckingham

• Don’t overpromote people

• Don’t pass the buck (doing things you don’t want to do for your team, but corporate wants. Make few promises, keep them all

• Have a desire to be close friends with employees

• Treat people differently

  Ch 1: Measuring Stick

• *Q1: I know what is expected of me

• *Q2: I have equipment and materials to do work

• *Q3: At work I have the opportunity to do what I do best

• *Q4: I have received praise in last 7 days

• *Q5: My supervisor cares about me

• *Q6: People at work encourage my development

• Q7: My opinions count at work 

• Q8: Mission of my company makes me feel my job is important 

• Q9: My associates are committed to doing quality work

• Q10: I have a best friend at work

• Q11: In last 6 months I have talked about my progress

• Q12: I have opportunity to grow

• Employees who respond positively to 12 items were overall more productive 

• Manager was critical player for corporate success 

• Link between employee opinion and business unit performance 

• Meet employees needs at basecamp and camp 1, then can build on it. (mountain climber example, can’t just skip to camp 3, can’t helicopter in to 17,000 ft or you’ll die)

• Don’t aim too high too fast (complex initiatives). Master basics first. If employee does not know what is expected of him, can’t expect he’ll be excited for a team

• Core of workplace Q1-Q6

• Hold two opposed ideas together at same time, but still function

  Ch 2

• gone fishing book

• Scorpion and Frog, Scorpion stings him because it’s in his nature

• Each person is motivated differently and has his own interests. There’s a limit to how much you can change someone. Make someone become more of who he is. Revolutionary insight. People don’t change that much.

• What Great Managers do:

• Core activities of a manager and a leader are very different 

• Don’t draw out what was left in

  Ch 3 Talent

• Great managers see talent in everyone 

• Same stimuli, different reactions

• Best drivers play what if game

• Best employees envision the recipient of their actions/efforts

• Filter is very important 

• Can you carve new talents?

  • Rarely, unless you can bring out what’s left in

• Neuroscience confirms that your filter makes you unique and is hard to change

• Help people discover talents 

• Talents hard to change 

• Skills you can

• Talents are not rare or special 

• All roles need talent 

• Everyone unique 

  Ch 4 second key

• Define outcomes and let people route themselves to outcomes 

• one best way is doomed approach

  • kills 

• Laws in Florida to prevent teacher’s judgements in grading

• If you expect the best from people, the best is what you’ll get

• Don’t script culture

• Southwest flights doesn’t use scripts and customizes to customer

• No steps lead to customer satisfaction

• How to make a loyal fan base? that advocate?

  • Customer needs base expectations before others

  • 1. Accuracy of service. Get what you order/want

  • 2. Availability of service and accessibility (locations everywhere and convienent)

  • 3. Partnership and genuine listening. Custom options. We understand what you are going through 

  • 4. Advice! Closest bond to organizations that help them learn and grow. More consultants.

  • Must select employees who can listen and teach

  • Meaning should stay constant, strategy should change over time and along with temporary business climate

  • Must change 5 year plan every year 

  • Strategy for most companies is market share instead of innovation (which is bad)

  Ch 5

• Spend the most time with your best people

• After selecting for talent and you have outcomes

  • Focus on each person’s strengths, manage weaknesses

  • Cultivate talents

  • Find the special thing about each person, and help them discover it. Deliberately look for something you like

• Stories of transformation and improving weaknesses aren’t real. Conventional wisdom is wrong, we don’t all have same potential

• Persistence directed at non talents is destructive as it can’t happen

  • Wasted

• Don’t treat everyone the way you want to be treated. Not everyone the same

  • Treat everyone the way they want to be treated, according to needs

• Spend the most time with your best people!

• Great managers productive to spend time with their best. Fairest thing to do, best way to learn, only way to stay focused on excellence

• Don’t assume your best know they are the best

• Don’t use average to estimate the limits of excellence

• Push best performers towards right edge of bell curve

• Educate people on other’s perceptions of them

• Nontalent and weakness are different 

• Devise a support system for a weakness

• Creating a plan to be well rounded is naive

• Make the most of uniquely imperfect people together

• There is no i in team

  • claimed that whole is important than parts

• Excellent teams built around individual excellence 

• Strengths and weaknesses of individuals complement one another

Ch 6

• Climb to our level of incompetence

• Higher is not always better

• Should create heroes in every role

• Assumption that varied experiences make employee more attractive is false

• Talents to manage and lead are different 

• Create heroes in every role

• Development of Talent Project

  • 10-18 years for world class competency 

  • Life is short, art is long

  • Must develop expertise

• Law field has it down well because same position through and through

• Rungs on later should not be the metric for success 

• If you measure and reward it, people will try to excel at it

• Salary should follow value someone provides

• Some roles performed excellently are more important and valuable than a higher, average employee (flight attendant and pilot)

  • Pay Scheme: Broadbanding

    • Overlapping salary ranges

    • Frontline employee earning more than their manager

    • Counterintuitive, but makes sense

    • Slows blind, breathless climb (makes employees ask why they’re always going up)

• Pay is a motivating factor for most people

• Every role performed at excellence should be valued

• Must provide alternative paths for employees

• If your company does not give you opportunities, you should revolt quietly (mentor vs manager)

  • Can make subpositions or fake roles

• Three stories and a new career

• Great managers don’t want employees with varied experiences, the source of energy should be external, not internal

• Driving force is self discovery (learning about talents that are already there)

  • Long process to find talents and nontalents

• Great managers level the playing field

• Feedback great managers give:

  • Quickly review past

  • Look at future

  • What they enjoy and how they can do more of that

  • Performance is constant

  • 4hrs/employee/year average

  • Help individual recognize and build on natural talents

  • Must be done alone

• Yes, should build personal relationships with employees 

• Does not need to intervene in employee life, but manager should care

• If an employee is consistently late, great managers recommend asking employee why and understand 

• Career “Path” kille learning

• Can do trial period for certain roles

• Tough love helps people because if someone does bad in the role, it’s not because they were bad, just bad fit

• Tough loves keep everyone whole

• Ch7 Keys

• Make sure talent interview stands alone

• Structured, focus interview

• Ask open ended questions

• Let interviewee reveal himself to you

• Believe his answers

• Regardless of detail candidate provides, if it takes 2/3 times to get good answer, they probably don’t do that often

• Find out what candidate is good at

• Great managers only ask questions they know how to expect top performers to respond

• Questions depend on type of job

• How you set expectations and how you motivate them are intertwined

• Want employee to be accountable for learnings and shortcomings for reason of self discovery 

• Conduct a 1-hour strength interview

  • 1. What keeps you here?

  • 2. What do you think your strengths are?

  • 3. Weaknesses?

  • 4. Goals for current role?

  • 5. How often would you like to meet with me?

  • 6. Any personal goals?

  • 7. What is the best praise you have received and why?

  • 8. Have you had very productive partnerships?

  • 9. Future growth and career goals? Skills?

  • 10. Is there anything else you want to talk about so we can work well together?

• Goal to help employee from his opinions. Answers tell you where he thinks he is

• How are you planning on growing?

• end of performance management ^

• Look in the mirror any chance you get

• Play last few weeks in your mind, likes and dislikes

• Keep track of learning and discoveries

• Make your work place a little better

• If your manager is too busy to talk with you, schedule a set meeting and provide set structure for efficient meeting. Review what you did and where you want to go in next 6 months

• Most people eventually need recognition, you should move

• If manager intrudes, tell him so and why it’s not productive 

• If manager disrespects you consistently, move

• If lacks four lane highways, can’t change (filter)

• What can company do to make friendly climate for great managers?

  • Helps turn talent into performance 

  • Best way to break conventional barriers:

    • A. Keep focus on and define role on outcomes

      • Accuracy, Availability, Partnership, Advice

    • B. Value World Class Performance in every role

      • Reward progress

      • Take every level seriously 

    • C. Study your best

      • Internal best practice discovery

      • Find more people like your best

      • Start university for sharing internal best practices (can share rules and guidelines too)

    • D. Teach language of great managers

      • Teach 4 keys and emphasis difference of skills, talents, knowledge 

      • Talents difficult to teach

      • Don’t fix bad people

      • Give employees feedback

  Final part: Gathering Force

• Make it “look” simple

• Battle competing interets of company, customers, employee and yourself

• Employees look to workplace for meaning and identity, prestige 

• Human nature is not uniform and power lies in idiosyncrasies 

• Unleash human’s nature as a manager

  Appendix A - Gallup path to business performance 

• Sustained profit increase from normal levels raises stock levels

• Many actions for fast growth, but are short term

• Want a robust revenue stream

• Driven by loyal customers

• Engaged employees drive customer loyalty 

• Need Q12, most employees need affirm levels

• Strengths are talents, not learned skills

  Appendix B: What great managers said

• Want to make talented people better, not fix someone else

• Great managers find the WHY about problems, and manage around weaknesses 

• Great managers place best manager in highest performing territory

• Clifton StrengthsFinder comparison

• List of strengths/talents

Overall Rating: 8.6/10

Date Completed: 7/29/2019

Length: 10hr 17m

range - david epstein

• Tiger woods early golf prowess

• Roger Federer wins for third year in a row

  • Feeling of being invincible

• Proactively sacrifice depth for breadth 

• Lazlo and 3 chess daughters

• Wicked domains versus kind domains

  • Similar to infinite games by Simon Sinek

• 1973 experiment with chess memory to recreate

• Savants

• The more a task switches towards big world creativity, the tougher it gets

• Google Flu Trends

• AI/ML needs stable structures and narrow worlds

• Cognitive entrenchment is when you can't see doors near you

• Travel on an 8 way highway

• Need to be successful adapters

• Computational thinking

• Fermi thinking

• Choose early, focus narrowly - tiger mother

• 10,000 hours school

• Suzuki association of the America

• Ch 4 Learning Fast and Slow

  • Math teachers and poor teaching with understanding math but not "making connections"

  • Charismatic teacher gave hints which turned making connections into rules problem

  • Hints are negative, does not produce lasting learning

  • Tolerating big mistakes can make good learning opportunity

  • Doing poorly now is essential for later productivity

  • Figure out type of problem before trying to solve it

  • Early childhood programs teach closed skills

• Ch 5 Thinking outside experience

  • Cancer solving

  • Duncker's Radiation Problem

  • Many small forces equals one large one

  • Danger of inside view

  • Using analogies to decode movies

  • Ambiguous sorting task

    • 25 cards of real world

    • Taking classes in a range of domains is beneficial

  • Ch 6 The trouble with too much grit

    • Narrow minds can make you blind to important things

    • Switching majors is a good idea

    • 6 months later, people who switched jobs were happy

    • Army people leaving right at 5 yr mark

    • Sunk cost fallacy

    • Switching is always better, helps find best match

  • Ch 7 Flirting with your possible selves

    • Better to act, then think

    • Let life flow you to success

    • Trying things is answer to find your talent

• Ch 8 The Outsider Advantage

  • Most clever solution was piece of knowledge outside normal curriculum

  • More opinions the better

  • Einstellung effect

  • Hard to win a competition with well known methods

  • Jill and muscular dystrophy

• Ch 9 Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology

  • Nintendo story from instant rice to toy factory

    • Yokoi

  • Candle and tack problem

  • The world is both broad and deep

  • Science is overflowing with people in a narrow specialty

  • Brewster's law

  • Breadth is tougher to grow

  • Individual creator in 4 or more genres was better than a team

    • Superman or the fantastic 4

  • Serial innovator

  • I'd be screened out if I was hired today people

• Ch 10 Fooled by Expertise

  • Looking through a keyhole

  • Hedgehog and foxes

    • Multiple goals and foci

  • Try to prove self wrong when you believe something

  • More wicked vs kind domains

  • An hour of basic training in foxy habits improved people

  • Generate lists of separate events with deep structural similarities

  • Easy to cherry pick knowledge to fit their theories

• Ch 11 Learning to drop familiar tools

  • Carter racing task

  • Safety and economic concerns

  • Is this the data we want to make the decision we need to make?

  • Challenger flight problem, with all engineers

  • Clinging to process tools bad

  • Unknown unknowns

  • People less likely to die when cardiologists are gone

• Ch 12 Deliberate Amateurs

  • Exploration lead to graphene

  • Principle of limited sloppiness

  • Be careful to not be too careful

  • H index

  • 1.96% chance patient has disease if detected

  • Systems maintain you in a trench, can be stuck in trenches

    • Often trenches are related

  • 1 in 10 papers has new combination of sources

    • More likely to be ignored and less noticed

    • Eventually surpassed conventional papers

    • More likely to be in top 1%

  • Truly original discoveries found by chance, hard to find by narrow goals

• Epilogue - Expanding your Range

  • Don't feel behind

Overall Rating: 7.8/10

Date Completed: 7/29/2019

Length: 10hr 17m

The richest man in babylon - george s. clason

• Make thy gold multiply

• Increase thy ability to earn

• You pay to everyone but yourself

• Should not be less than 10%

• Pay yourself first

• Wealth like a tree grows from a tiny seed

• Would you go to the bread maker to inquire about jewels?

• "Necessary" expenses will equal income

• 7 Cures for a Lean Purse

  • 1. For every 10 coins put in purse, take out 9

  • 2. Allow it to fatten with what we don't "need". Control thy expenditures

  • 3. Let gold multiply

  • 4. Guard thy treasures from loss

  • 5. Own thy own home

  • 6. Insure a future income

  • 7. Increase thy ability to earn

• Be in the front rank of progress, and do not stand still

• Attract good luck

• Man must master procrastination before he gets rich treasures

• Good luck can be enticed by accepting opportunity

• The 5 Laws of Gold

  • 1. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to those who save 10%

  • 2. Multiple money through employment

  • 3. Invest

  • 4. Gold slips away if not used well

  • 5. Gold flees the man who hopes for ridiculous returns

• Mentions slaves for investments lel

• Wisdom cannot be measured in bags of gold

• Wealth that comes quickly goeth the same way

• 10 years from this night what will you have

• Pay debts

  • 7/10 use, 2/10 debts, 1/10 save

• Work for master as hard as you can

Overall Rating: 9.3/10

Date Completed: 7/25/2019

Length: 4hr 41m

the art of exceptional living - jim rohn

• Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job

• There's the ones that do, and the ones that don't

• There are a half dozen things that will result in 90% of the success

• Discipline is bridge between thought and action

• Anyone can start the process

• If I would, I could. If I will, I can

• Philosophy is major determining factor for how life will turn our

• Failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day

• We lack ideas

• Can learn from other people's experiences whether they do right or right

• All leaders are readers

• You can be sincere and work hard all your life, and still be broke and confused

• 30 minutes/day of listening. Hear or read something challenging

• Every day don't miss a meal, not your 30 minutes. Ideas, examples, inspiration 

• Recommends Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

• Every home over 200k has a library

• Keep a journal

• 4 Major Lessons

  • Life and business are like the changing seasons

  • 1. Learn how to handle the winters

  • 2. All good will be attacked

  • 3. All values must be defended

• It's not what happens, it's what you do about it

• If you don't do something different, then things will be the same

• What can you do today that will make a difference?

• Discipline is major step to human progress

• Get excited about the ability to do the necessary things

• Habits set our directions

• Some people treat their dogs better than they do your kids

• Everything effects everything else

• When neglect starts, it diminishes self respect and value

• I could, I should, I will

• Rest very little, weeds take the garden

• How many languages can a child learn?

  • As many as the capacity you have to teach them

• If you help enough people get what they want, you can have anything you want

• Richest man in Babylon

  • What you do with what you have is more important than what you have

• Live on 70% of net income

  • How to allocate 30%

    • 10% to charity

• Find something and leave it better than you found it

• Taxes are how you feed the goose that lays the golden eggs

• Everything is worth a second look

• It's easy to dismiss things, EVERYTHING MATTERS

• Be around successful people

  • Who can I get around

  • Who can I spend time with to have positive influence

• Measurable progress

• Sharing goals, family goals, who would you like to meet, skills, investing goals

• Ask the major questions

• Strive to become someone people of substance people want to know

• Face the future with anticipation

  • Probably bought someone else's view

  • Future will capture your imagination

• MUST have goals, they are like a magnet

• Can make a living, or design a life

• Reasons come first, answers come second

• When you know what you want, and you want it badly enough, you'll find a way to get it