How will you measure your life?

by Clayton Christensen, James Allworth & Karen Dillon

Christensen wrote this fighting cancer.

What do I want to remember...

Beware of marginal thinking... the Netflix that kills Blockbuster. The occasional cheating that grows and kills your integrity.

Crap. I need to skim the book again, but my library loan expired.

March 17, 2019... Going through my notes, I see that I have read this book twice. I also took notes to skim the book before I updated this postg again...

Test Assumptions

Dune

By Frank Herbert

As part of my tour through classic sci-fi, I'm reading Dune for the first time. Dumping notes here...

The bad guys are effeminate, gay and have Russian names. The good guys have English. 

On taking something away from a movie or a book.

One of the purposes of this blog is it help me remember important lessons from a book or movie.

A fried who is taking a movie criticism course mentioned that in their classes, they frequently discuss the lessons, if there are any, of a particular movie.

One example-- they had an interesting discussion of the movie "Psycho" and the possible lessons in it. They conclusion was "Don't love your mother too much." That is a terrible lesson. As if the only reason someone is not a psycho is because he loves his mother's just the right amount.

Ringworld

By Larry Niven.

Another sci-fi classic. Nothing I really want to remember about this book. It's a fun read. Not particularly deep.

The Forever War

By Joe Haldeman

This is a classic of war-sci-fi. Apparently it's modeled on the authors experience in Vietnam, and the alienation he felt upon returning to society.

In the book, humanity is in a war against the Taurons. The actual war may have only been a few years, but owing to relativistic time dilation, it was stretched out to over a thousand years.

Through the war a soldier fights the Taurons, rising up in the ranks of the military. He periodically returns to earth, or it's colonies. Each return to civilian life is farther into the future due to relativistic time dailation. Each visit is more and more strange. 

Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts

By Marshall Goldsmith

Change is hard. Goldsmith doesn't suggest that even with constant coaching there is a very small change of making lasting change in an adult.

We can't make too many changes at once. The fewer we engage in the more likely we are to succeed. Goldsmith suggests that we can tackle one of each of...

1. Creating new behavior.

2. Eliminating an old behavior

3. Accepting something regretful

4. Preserving, or growing something positive. 

How do you do it? Well, he has someone call him every evening and ask him the same 10 questions and how well he performed on these topics during the day.

At the end of meetings, he suggests people ask themselves the following...

The Emperor of all Maladies. A Biography of Cancer

By Siddhartha Mukherjee


Cancer sucks.

The Emperor of all Maladies tells the history of Cancer. From it's ancient history as an untreatable disease. To modern times, where it's much more treatable, some of the time.

Cancer still sucks. The book isn't overly optimistic about curing it as cancer is an almost inevitable side effect of any creature that with cells that reproduce. It's not a question of if you will get cancer, but when, and to what degree. The author speculates that in the fullness of time, cancer will be chronically manageable condition. We will still get cancer. Treatments may keep it at bay for years.

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of Reading

By Maryanne Wolf.

Good book. It covers the history of reading, the developmental stages of reading, and the biology of reading.

Reading is special in that we have to learn how to do it. Our biology can't help but give us the ability to see, to hear, to learn language. On the other hand, reading doesn't come naturally. Parts of your brain must be repurposed to build the necessary skills. Learning how to read deeply changes your brain and how you think. It greatly increases our ability to understand symbols. 

It also increases our ability to see things from someone else's point of view. After all, an important part of reading, is hearing someone else's voice in your head. 

What I want to take away from this book-- read regularly. Not internet-style skimming, but long form, deep engagement and understanding.

There is a large section on dyslexia. Since our brain doesn't have inborn areas meant for reading, the presence of dyslexia means that something deeper is happening. For example, a dyslexic may also be slower at naming colors, or have poor timing in music.

In a dyslexic, the areas of the brain ordinarily used for reading can be involved with another task. This is the realm of the dyslexic who is strong in other areas. Unfortunately, just because you are dyslexic doesn't mean you are strong elsewhere. Frequently, the affected areas of the brain are just weaker than average.

The author has a call to action here. She wants us to find developmentally delayed readers early in life so that the appropriate interventions can happen early.

This came from....
https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/09/parenting-advice-children-stealing-behavior.html

The advice is timeless...

Dear Care and Feeding,

My family belongs to a house of worship. Last year at a gathering at the house of another member, “Andrea,” where I brought my two boys, I made a decision (affecting her children) that Andrea disagreed with, and long story short, she screamed me out of her house. (No child, hers or mine, was in danger; it was a “reasonable parents may disagree about this” situation.)

I believed Andrea’s reaction was over the top, even unhinged, but I also recognized that behind her reaction was a kernel of justifiable annoyance at the call I’d made. So, I wrote a letter of abject unequivocal apology and mailed it to Andrea.

In the year since, Andrea hasn’t said a word to me. Her husband has run into me solo and apologized for his wife’s behavior (I just said “OK” because how are you supposed to react to an adult apologizing for a spouse?), but I haven’t gotten so much as a friendly look from her.
I had decided to just avoid Andrea, but fate intervened: Her eldest and my older son are in Sunday school together, and they’ll likely be together for years to come. I’m seeing her or her husband every week.

This morning my son (who I guess doesn’t remember last year’s incident, though it shook him up at the time) blithely introduced me to their eldest with, “This is ‘Beatrice,’ my friend!”
Barring extraordinary circumstances, I’m stuck with Andrea. I’d like to know what you think I should do at this juncture. It chaps my ass that I made the most gracious apology possible and am still getting frosted out by this crankpot, but I don’t want to spend the next decade waiting for the other shoe to drop. I see three options:

1) Continue to pretend the space she occupies is empty air (and hope my son’s fondness for her daughter ebbs away?);

2) Try to thaw the ice wall gradually with smiles and have a nice day; or

3) Have a come-to-Jesus (ha) moment with her wherein I say something very explicit like “I’d like for us to turn over a new leaf.”

Am I missing an option?
Thanks,
—We Blew Right Past “Love Thy Neighbor”

Dear WBRPLTN,

Proverbs 26:4 says “Answer not a fool according to their folly lest thou also be like them.” The book of Matthew also has the old chestnut about casting pearls before swine. Your letter of apology is the pearl. Your former friend is the swine, metaphorically speaking of course. I have no doubt that you probably behaved in some way that was out of line in your screaming conflict with this person. And I have no doubt that they also probably crossed a line. This is how these things go. Rarely is it just one person who has created a conflict. It’s possible, of course, but not usually likely.

So whenever we have made some kind of error or taken some kind of action that is hurtful to another person, we then have a task ahead of us. The very first move is to put aside, just for a moment, the wrongs we think they have done. Not that those wrongs don’t matter—it’s just that we can never be fully honest about our own shortcomings while we are still steaming over the other person’s issues, valid as that steaming may be. Once we’ve done that, we sit down and look honestly at where we may have behaved poorly. Were we dishonest, selfish, mean, or insecure? Did we make something about us that wasn’t really about us? Did we jump to emotional conclusions because we were worried about protecting our own ego? Did we ignore red flags with the other person, because we were trying to get something we wanted out of the relationship?

Again, this isn’t to blame ourselves, but to try to grow and learn and not make the same mistakes in other encounters. Finally, we take a moment to apologize honestly for what we brought to the conflict, how we helped create it, how we might have been hurtful. Once we have done all these things, the rest is out of our hands. And that’s the way it should be. The point of this work is not to get the response we want from the other person: It’s to free ourselves from the entanglement and to give the other person what they are owed. If you will, the idea is to settle our karmic debt. If you borrow $50 from a person, return it, and they flush it down the toilet, then it’s no longer your problem. You have done your part.

When that’s not enough—when we have done all that and are still not satisfied—it’s usually because of a very specific reason. There is sometimes a part of us that uses an apology as just another combat strategy. We are hoping that if we prostrate ourselves, or present enough epic humility, then the other person will be impressed. The pettier parts of us may even wish that by being super nice, we’ll make them feel bad about themselves and about their own shitty behavior. Maybe if we really nail it, they’ll publicly announce that they’ve treated us terribly and how we didn’t deserve any of it. One can only hope. Lord knows I deserve it. They’ll come crawling back, and I’ll be like yeah thanks a lot but it’s too little too late, pal! Wait, what were we talking about again?

Oh, yes. The problem with this type of thinking is that it keeps us tethered to resentment, only now we are doubly resentful because our craven plan to hide a selfish motive under a good one hasn’t worked either. But staying mad is no good. We want to be free of that for a lot of reasons, but at the very least so that we can have this person stop taking up real estate in our thoughts without even paying rent. Your only job here is to keep your side of the street clean. If you have made your amends, and if you have looked at your part, then you are now free to let it go. A few simple “hi, how are you?” should suffice. If she returns the sentiment in kind, great. If not, move on in acceptance of the fact that whatever problem exists between the two of you belongs entirely to her now.

Art as Therapy

By Alaine de Botton and John Armstrong.

I always enjoy reading de Botton. He is a very well read and well thought writer. His words are clear and precise. Evocative without being dramatic. His sentences are not black and white. He communicates meaning that exists on spectrum. He chooses the precise words to communicate where his meaning is on that spectrum. No more, no less. The emotion without the hyperbole is refreshing.

If I learn nothing else from this book, it's to use "lovely" instead of "love" when I want to convey something positive-- "I love this coffee" v.s. "This coffee is lovely." Love is way overused for situations where we really mean that something is pleasant.

On to the book. de Botton and Armstrong hit on a great theme around art-- that much of art is made for something, To rebel against the system. To convey love. To honor a moment. Yet we catalog art by artist, time period and region.

Why not interact with art, according to the motives that we need, that improve our lives...

Art for the newly in love.
Art for those in pain. How to suffer successfully.
Art for those contemplating lives choices.
Art for politics.
and so on.

I smiled when I read the phrase "How to suffer more successfully?" It communicates that pain is a part of life, yet we can become better people if we engage with it properly.

Through many of these themes, de Botton and Armstrong discuss the 'why' of a particular work of art.

Perhaps through a deeper viewing, art can inspire us to be better people.

An Edible History of Humanity

Book written by Tom Standage

An interesting book that tells the history of mankind through the lens of the food we grow and eat.

Corn cannot grow without man's help. It cannot self seed. We have a similar symbiotic relationship with many plants and animals. Over centuries we have slowly evolved these plants to serve our needs.

"An army travels on it's stomach" Napoleon.

"The battle is fought and decided by the quartermasters long before the shooting begins" -Rommel

Standage argues that the food, or the lack thereof, is the deciding factor in many famous battles and that many empires were built on new ways for a traveling army to collect food.

For hundreds of years, the Roman army would only fight battles along the coast where ships could bring it food. 

Napoleon stripped his army down to the minimum number of people then had the army travel very wide. Sometimes in a formation that was over one hundred miles wide. This gave each group a defined area over which they could forage. As a result the army didn't have to bring days of food along with it.

Napoleon's failure in Russia happened in large part because the Tzar's destroyed food, orchards, granaries, fields and storehouses ahead of the path of the French army.

 The book concludes with a look at the green revolution and the future of food. Plants grow with fertilizer can have double the yield of plants grown without, yet fertilizer has a hard environmental impact. Our population is larger than that which can be supported by organic growing along. How do we balance this? There is no easy answer here.

Learn Better

There is a lot in this book. I will reread it at some point. Each of the below points is very deep. I'm trying to restate them in my own way. This will take some time.

Which is an important point of the book-- real learning takes time and effort.


Find Value
Create Targets. Have specific goals.
Develop Knowledge and skills. Get feedback on your performance.
Extend Expertise
Relate Skills
Rethink Understanding

Set Expectations
Break It Up
Promote Focus
Support Mistakes
Use Analogies
Promote Review

Update as of Jan 13, 2020...

key ideas...

To learn material, practice restating key ideas in your own words. Rereading isn't the best way to learn.

"People will often reread material, for instance, even though it's a weak approach to learning, or they'll use highlighters, which have very limited research base."

"Retrieval practice doesn't have to be written down, either. When I was in college, I worked as a teaching assistant for a class that relied on a form of retrieval practice, and once a week, I would gather a group of students a classroom and ask them rapid fire questions. The calss was relatively short, but it was easy to see the effects of the free-recall type of practice, and the more the students retrieved their knowledge, the more they learned."

"To paraphrase Davis, then, the thing to judge in any learner is, does he or she expand and have new ideas."

"Do not simply reread" Deslauriers would explain. "Attempt to 'do' each learning goal by generating your own explanations"

Polya's systemic approach to problem solving...
1. Understanding.
2. Devising a plan
3. Carrying out the plan
4. Looking back and learning from the solutions.

Read emails out load before hitting send. It makes it simpler to find gaffes and grammatical errors.

"It's more important to think about what you're doing, than it is to do it" Ray Magliozzi





'Do not simply reread' Deslauriers would explain "Attopt to 'do' each learning by by

How to Change Your Mind

By Michael Pollan

There is a fungus, ophiocordyceps unilateralis, that takes over an ants mind. After it's infected by the fungus, the zombie ant exhibits strange behavior that spreads the fungus to other ants.

This metaphor is not lost on Pollan. Sometimes psychedelic advocates are more focused on proclaiming how great psychedelics are than the problems they purport to solve. They are breathlessly excited about the hypothetical possibilities. The actual tangible changes are glossed over-- 'cause feeling spiritual is so important.   'cause a 1% chance is a lot. 

I'm not warming up to the use of psychedelic drugs. They can induce a mystical feelings in people. This is not always a good thing.

For example, the Church study of psilocybin concludes that those who took the drugs had deep mystical experiences that affected them for the rest of their lives. It implies the experience was only positive. The summary doesn't mention that two of the patients felt deeply anxious during the experience and that one had to be restrained because he wanted to run out into the street to proclaim the coming of the messiah.

Those who regularly use psychedelics seem to ignore the value of sober experience. This feels like it's an addictive drug with different vector-- spirituality instead of physical pleasure. Like most all drugs, their use is ultimately selfish-- the mystical experience is specific to you, probably can't be repeated, and can't be shared with others. You are emotionally, mentally and spiritually unavailable while on psychedelics.

The studies on psychedelics are big on discussing the individual mystical experience and get over excited by the hypotheticals. The facts of life afterward are often glossed over. Do addicts use less after psychedelics? (Yes, but the study was small) Do the depressed improve? (Yes. Again the study was small.) Do the healthy lead a more positive life? Sometimes, but the studies are small and quirky.

The Beginning of Infinity

By David Deutsch

There is a very deep and broad book, including (What I think is) a good explanation of the multi-verse

The central these of the book..

1. Problems are inevitable.
2. Problems have solutions.
3. Great explanations are the heart of great solutions. Great solutions don't overgeneralize. Great solutions offer deep insight. Great solutions offer progress.

I have to read this book again. Especially to understand the multi-verse chapter. 

I'm reading "The Road Less Traveled" and "The Beginning of Infinity" at the same time. They each have an overlapping theme that meshes up...

Life is difficult.
Problems are inevitable.
Avoiding solving problems and the emotional suffering inherent with them is the primary basis of all human mental illness
Problems are solvable
By solving problems we grow.

The odd lines are from "The Road Less Traveled." The even from "The Beginning of Infinity"


This is the 3rd time I've read "The Road Less Traveled" It's one of those books that I get something new from each time I read it. This time the books section on attention jumped out at me. That giving someone your attention is a very precious gift. That giving full attention is a lot of work. We must fully commit to doing it.

Put down your cell phone and listen.

The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence for Evolution...

Sometimes Dawkin's bombast bugs me. He is a very clear and engaging writer though.

I get the feeling that much about the Evolution debate would end if someone creditable started talking to creationists like they were mature adults and not like ignoramus.

I love this quote...


"Why would all those marsupials – ranging from tiny pouched mice through koalas and bilbys to giant kangaroos and Diprotodonts – why would all those marsupials, but no placentals at all, have migrated en masse from Mount Ararat to Australia? Which route did they take? And why did not a single member of their straggling caravan pause on the way, and settle – in India, perhaps, or China, or some haven along the Great Silk Road? Why did the entire order Edentata (all twenty species of armadillo, including the extinct giant armadillo, all six species of sloth, including extinct giant sloths, and all four species of anteater) troop off unerringly for South America, leaving not a rack behind, leaving no hide nor hair nor armour plate of settlers somewhere along the way? Why were they joined by the entire infraorder of caviomorph rodents, including guinea pigs, agoutis, pacas, maras, capybaras, chinchillas and lots of others, a large group of characteristically South American rodents, found nowhere else? Why did an entire sub-order of monkeys, the platyrrhine monkeys, end up in South America and nowhere else? Shouldn’t at least a few of them have joined the rest of the monkeys, the catarrhines, in Asia or Africa? And shouldn’t at least one species of catarrhine have found itself in the New World, along with the platyrrhines? Why did all the penguins undertake the long waddle south to the Antarctic, not a single one to the equally hospitable Arctic?"

Hiking the wonderland trail.

I dream of hiking around Mt Raineer on the Wonderland trail. I may never do that, but this book calls out a few shorter loop hikes that I may tackle.

Car camping vs backpacking. Maybe I just have to try backpacking a few times to see if I like it, and just get over the fact that I'll probably car camp more often.

The Organized Mind

I think this is the third time I've read the organized mind. I keep hoping for an easier lesson to learn from it, but no, it's lessons stay the same.

1... organize. Organizaiton is very personal, don't expect someone elses sytem to work for you.

2. Exteranlize your memory. Write things down. Put a key tray by the door. Keep a list of searchable contacts so that you know when and how you met someone.

3. Think Criticially. Satisfice. Think in terms of boundaries, and not exact aqnswers.

4. Have a junk drawn, even a mental junk drawer or ticker file. It's ok to have this, not every organizaiton system will cover everything.

5. Do the work of staying organized. This is where I fail most often. 

I think I will uninstall Facebook and other social media apps from my phone. Maybe I'll also start putting my phone in airplane mode when I'm in an important discussion.

Matter

By Ian M Banks

 

A fun adventure novel, Part of the Culture Series. Banks has a great imagination and loves putting his characters in amazing predicaments

 

The Year of Lear

by James Shapiro

The Year of Lear is about the Year that Shakespeare wrote King Lear, Macbeth, and Anthony and Cleopatra. It covers the time that influenced these plays. Some of this has become very relevant to modern times.

In 1606 Britain was dealing with it's own fake news problem. Equivocation. Demonic possession.

There were situations where you could commit a crime and then fake demonic possession as the excuse. Your punishment would be exorcism as you couldn't be held responsible for the devils actions.

The Year of Lear explores equivocation-- lying to people but being truthful to God. For example, suppose you committed a crime in the morning. While the police investigated you, you could say "I did not commit that crime" and then under your breath say "this afternoon." There was an elaborate line of reasoning that this was acceptable in the eyes of God. This all sounds very bullshitty today. But things are different at a time when a Catholic monk could be arrested for practicing his Catholic rituals.

Then there was Guys Fawkes and the conspiracy to blow up Parliament. Its interesting how Guy Fawkes from one perspective was an independent man trying to overthrow a corrupt government. From another perspective he was a Catholic conspirator trying to return the Papacy to Britain. 

The Stranger in the woods. The extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

By Michael Finkel.

Chris Night was a hermit. He lived 27 years in seclusion on the North Pond in Maine.

He is a most unsatisfying hermit. For those 27 years he supplied himself by breaking in to and stealing from the cottages on the North Pond. He conducted hundreds of these B&E's before he was caught and arrested.

There may not be much "Why" behind this story. After his arrest he talked to a few writers. The most that they could get from him was that Chris wanted to be alone.

The book covers a bit of hermit history and hermit culture (Hermit Culture?!?!?) Hermits have a history, a legend perhaps, of being wise people who stay away from society to contemplate in peace. After his return to civilization, people did seek Chris out for just that. Chris made it clear that he was not a source for hermit wisdom.

There are websites dedicated to hermits. You can get access to private chat rooms if you can prove that you are a real hermit and not just a looker. That amuses me.  

Robert Simonson

The Old-Fashioned,

A Proper Drink,

The Martini Cocktail

Every now and then I stumble upon a niche of history, of people that coexist alongside me but have been largely invisible. This niche has its own stories, it own heroes and villains, virtues and vices, great moments and ideals.

This time I stumbled upon cocktails.  Not craft alcoholic beverages like wine and beer, or mixed drinks like rum & coke, but cocktails. I've always known that cocktails have existed and I've enjoyed them on more than my fair share of occasions. But that idea that they have a story is a bit novel to me.

I'm not going to retell the story here. There are a few themes I'd like to remember.

That martinis, old fashion's & Manhattans are very honest drinks. That may be why they have such staying power. What is an honest drink? Its one that lets you easily tell if the bartender did a bad job, or cut corners.

Take a margarita... I love a good margarita. However, if the bartender used a cheaper tequila, more ice, or more citrus, then I would be hard pressed to notice.  With a martini, Manhattan or old fashioned, its all there in front of your face. The classic glassware lets you clearly see the drink. There is no ice in a martini or Manhattan. A good old-fashioned only has a few  cubes. The extra ingredients can't dilute the drink. You can taste if cheap liquor was used.

There is a cycle in the cocktail world where bartenders invent many fancy cocktails in an attempt to distinguish themselves from the crowd. If one of these new creations catches on (think the cosmopolitan) then cheaper variations appear.  This leads to a backlash where people start asking for the more honest (or old fashioned) cocktails. After a period of honest cocktails, bartenders start inventing new and fancy creations… and the cycle repeats.

The book talks about cocktail thinkers, cocktail memorabilia collectors, cocktail historians, cocktail gurus. All of this sounds like drinking, but with more flourish.

Trekking The North Country Trail

By Nimblewill Nomad.

I respect the Nomad. There are times when I want to do nothing but walk across the country. He puts himself through a lot, frequently (usually?) walking 25 miles in a day.

I'm not sure the details of this book matter unless you are trekking the north country trail.

 

 

 

The Secret Life Of Fat

By Sylvia Tara

Our body fat is so much more than a body organ that stores fat.

I was hoping to learn some easy tips on loosing weight. The book makes me not so optimistic about that. When you loose weight, your body becomes more efficient at processing calories. As you loose weight, it becomes more difficult to keep it off.

As always, exercise regularly, especially high intensity exercise. Intermittent fasting helps too.

I would love to know more behind the stories of people who have biologic defects that affect their fat—either packing it on or keeping it off. Are these people odd balls or common?

As usual, everything helps. Nothing cures.

 

1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed

By Eric H Cline

I don't now how this book got on my reading list. It is a highly recommended book, but it's more like a history textbook collapse of civilization at the late bronze age and the beginning of the iron age.

Why did civilization collapse at the end of the bronze age? Maybe bad luck… a combination of earth quakes, drought and invasions. The invasions are usually attributed to an unknown race called "The Sea People" It possible that the drought and earth quakes displaced many people and caused an up tick in piracy. These displaced people, from our point of view are the sea people. Back then they were just more marauders.

The book has a large amount of scholarly detail. This is not a speculative work.