Man's Search for Meaning

Victor Frankl

I've read this multiple times.

"Live your life as if this is the second time, and you have already behaved as wrongly as you are about to do now."

Freedom without responsibility becomes random and meaningless.

Frankly survived the concentration camps of WWII. Half of this book covers that story. It's very compelling.

The second half covers Logo-therapy… the psycho therapy of finding meaning. Basically, you have to find your own meaning in life, in how you approach challenges, in how you make choices and especially in your attitude. Everyone's destiny and situation is different. Don't expect God or the Universe to tell you how to live. Since you are free, than is your choice.

Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo and the Battled that Defined a Generation.

by Blake J Harris.

This is the story of console video games in the early 90's focusing on Sega Genesis & Nintendo's SNES. I think the author had a lot of access to Tom Kalinske, the CEO of Sega of America as the book largely focuses on his story.

It's fascinating how Kalinske lead the Genesis a  huge success, but failed to lead Sega to create a strong next gen console. Clearly internal politics paid a huge part in this. Sega of Japan was never interested in following Kalinske's lead even though Kalinske had huge ideas and great foresight. He wanted to partner with Sony. When that partnership failed (Due to SOJ's cold response) Sony took the core tech and went on to create the Play Station. He wanted to partner with SGI. When that partnership failed (again due to SOJ), SGI took their core tech and went on to partner with Nintendo on the N64.

The book never really gets to the bottom of Sega of Japan's cold relationship with Kalinske and Sega of America. I think that says as much about Kalinske as it does about the book. Kalinske's failure as a leader was that he could never establish a relationship with SOJ. The employees their are largely faceless and unknown where as Sega of America is described in great detail. Perhaps if Kalinske had delegated or fostered the Sony and SGI relationships through SOJ, rather than trying to make them his own successes, then the Sega & Sony story would be very different.

This is a very readable book.

Colin Powell with Tony Koltz. It worked for me. In Life and Leadership

Powell's success, like so many other's, seams to be about doing a great job with the basics, simplicity, follow though and establishing respect and professionalism. This isn't a beep book, but it is filled with stories from his career. The chapter titles tell it all…

The Rules…

It aint as bad as you think, it will look better in the morning.

Get mad, then get over it.

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

It can be done. Presume things can be done until the facts and analysis pile up against it.

Be careful what you choose, you may get it.

Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.,

You can't make someone elses choices. Don't let someone else make yours.

Check small things.

Share credit.

Remain calm. Be kind.

Have a vision. Be demanding.

Don't take counsile of your fears or nayseyers,.

Perpetual optimism is  force multiplier.

Always do your best. Someone is watching.

Where on the battlefield.  Leaders should be at the point of decision.

Trust your troups.

Establish mutual respect.

We are mammels

Never walk past a mistake,.

The guys in the field are right. The staff is wrong.

It takes all kinds.

One team. One fight.

…

Provided feedback. Be tactful to those who ask. Keep it private and confidential.

Keep metings uninterrupted. Use lots of questions and debates.

Remain accessible.

Be sure correspondence is excellent.

No surprises.

Speak precisely.

Don't rush into decisions.

How much time do I have to execute? Take a third of that time to anayzie and decide. Use the remainder for subordinates to analyzie and plan.

Compete to win.

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Flash Boys-- by Michael Lewis.

This is a very clear story about High Frequency Trading.

People earn money, much money trading thousands of times a second. But these trades have entered a doom loop. If you can trade faster, you can earn more money than the competition. But this extra speed comes at a high price. High Frequency Traders are on a death spiral. They must by the latest tech, the latest network no mater the price. If they don't they will go out of business.

I still don't know how I should feel about HFT. Worst case, over the 20 years I've been investing in the stock market, they have cost me, maybe $50.00.  If you are a large institutional investor, then yes, HFT can eat into your earnings. But for small long term investors, like me, they are less relevant.

Tom Hodgkinson--- The Freedom Manifesto & How to be Idle.

I was expecting Thoreau. Hodkinson is not Thoreau. Thoreau preferred the simple life and if the simple life called for work, then so be it. Hodkinson wants us to be idle and if that means stretching the truth to stay on unemployment insurance a little longer…

Hodgkinson raises a good point though. We needlessly keep our selves busy, for no reason other than that's what's expected of us. Hodgkinson encourages us to let go of the rate race by any means necessary.

Maybe we can be happy by doing less. But we can also be happy by pursuing our opportunities, to push our limits and to find enrichment and engagement.

Bones, Fat & Bitter

All by Jennifer McLagan

Three very good, very themed cook books.

These books are a great source of inspiration.  The Brussels Sprouts and Chickpea recipe is worth stealing. It may be one of those recipes that  I make once or twice a week for the years. Everyone enjoyed it, and it's so easy.

I will also make more of an effort to save my chicken fat.

The Norm Chronicals

Stories about numbers and danger. By  Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter

Perhaps this book can be thought of as actuarial tables with stories.

I read an excerpt of this book and was fascinated. Unfortunately, the excerpt was the most interesting thing to me.  Not that the book is bad.

The excerpted chapter was bout how lifestyle affects your life. What happens if you exercise? Smoke? Drink? Are Sedentary? Eat vegetables? Eat Beef?

The numbers are all there. Unfortunately, even though I forget them now, I've already learnt the lessons-- Don't smoke. Exercise regularly, every day even, but after about 30 minutes of exercise there are diminishing returns. One drink a day is good for you. Two or more are not. Eat your vegetables.

Stay a away from radiation.

A 12 mile motorcycle ride is as about four times as risky as your average daily death risk.

There were many other stories there. Many. After you get out of the big risks, their contributes to your life expectancy are almost noise.

Take beef for example. Regularly eating beef slightly decreases your life expectancy. The change is measurable, but just barely. On average beef eaters will die a year or so sooner than non-beef eaters, however the distribution and overlap is huge.

Maybe that's the big lesson of the book. Outside of the big five (Eat your vegetables, exercise, sleep properly, don't smoke, maintain a healthy body weight) most activities have a tiny impact on your life expectancy. Sure radiation and extreme sports don't help. Just use common sense.

There is also a chapter on cancer. It's possible that about 20% of cancer is cured by the body. This is troubling since diagnostics are getting better and treatments can be tough on you. The rule of thumb may be, don't go looking for cancer unless you have health problems. Cancer diagnostics and treatments are not yet at the point where we should be very proactive.