Sailing

Sailing by Jeremy Evans

Sailing the Inside Passage to Alaska. A Practical Guide to Sailing the Inside Passage. By Robb Keystone.

Every now and then I want to get a sailboat and get away from it all. With COVID, I thought I'd read up on the topic. While sailing still looks enjoyable, These two books cured me of the urge to sell the house and start sailing.

Sailing from Seattle to Mexico, and back, has been described as sailing uphill both ways. The winds constantly blow to the east, so going is slow. Most ports have extensive sand barges by them, so you have to time your landings well. The weather can be bad, so you may get stuck at a port of days. 

When you sail to Alaska, the winds can be low. You will probably spend 40% of your time powered by gas and not wind. 

The Biggest Bluff. How I learned to Pay Attention, Master myself and Win

 By Maria Konnikova

Konnikova, has a PHD in Psychology and has written a lot about decision making. She decides to see what it would take to become a world class poker player-- someone who has to control her emotions, and play the odds well. She enlists a coach (who is a world class player) and trains intensively for months. Within a year she became a poker world champion. 

"Less certainty. More inquiry." Is the mantra her coach uses with her. With probabilities you can never be certain. You can only ask are you being consistent within the odds? Are your opponents?

There are many layers of analysis to poker. The first is just knowing the probabilities and playing accordingly. This is called Game Theory Optimal or GTO. Next layer-- Learning if your opponents are playing GTO, are they gambling? are they working smartly within the GTO framework? For example, the person who is loosing the most at the table, may not be the weakest player. They may be having bad luck. The other way around, is someone winning because they are on a run of good luck, and not playing GTO. Over the long haul, GTO players will wine more than gambling players...

but... great players can predict what GTO players will play and use that to their advantage. 

Tells are way more complicated than TV would have you believe. Take hands that are easy to judge, v.s. hands that are hard to judge. You are going to take more time thinking through a hand that is hard to judge. This is a big tell that you have such a hand. 

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps that Explain Everything About the World

By Tim Marshall

This is an excellent summary of today's world geopolitics, and the way geography influences them. Of course our politics and economies are driven by the activities of people. Geography is the playing field. It helps or hinders what a country can do.

Examples...

A large portion of China's fresh water comes from rivers that originate in Tibet. It would be a crises if Tibet ever restricted access to those waters. Of course China wants to control Tibet.

While India and China are right next to each other, they have had very few conflicts, or deep trading relationships. This is because they are separated by the Himalayas. 

Russia only has one warm water port-- in the Crimea. Their other ports freeze over for three or four months of the year. The route from Crimea to the Atlantic takes them through waters controlled by the Ukraine and Turkey. Of course they don't want the Ukraine or Turkey to become NATO allies. 

Random situation I want to remember...

When pressing a Chinese official about human rights. The official responded "Why do you think your values will work in a culture that you don't understand?"

Every Tool Is a Hammer

 By Adam Savage

This is a fun read. Savage shares his tips, tricks & philosophy on making things as well as the stories that formed him.

What I want to take away...

1. Spend time thinking about how you work. Be willing to experiment, to change things up and to learn.

2. Take the time to do the right job. Don't rush. Don't waste. 

3. Check lists are a powerful tool for project management.

4. Put your tools away and clean up at the end of the day. Treat your workplace as something important, a place that lets you be efficient and effective. 

5. When you are thinking of buying a new tool, borrow one, or buy one cheap. Lean about how you will use it, and if it is genuinely useful. Once you destroy or return the cheap tool, then you are better prepared to buy something expensive.  

6. Every tool can be a hammer.

Books to read

The Trouble with Physics

by Lee Smolin.

Theoretical physics has a problem. The Standard Model of particle physics hasn't greatly advanced since the late 80's yet it has important gaps. 

These gaps should be filled with new models of particle physics. The leading contender to supersede the Standard Model is String Theory. Yet, in String Theory's 35 years of existence it has not made any interesting predictions. String Theory has also had some big misses-- failing to predict dark energy for example. 

Other contending models, such as Loop Quantum Gravity, haven't faired much better. 

This book digs into the why's and the what's behind this problem. 

Solutions and other Problems

By Allie Brosh.

"Nobody should have to feel like a pointless weirdo. Especially if they are."

Brosh may not have realized it, but she has discovered nihilism. This discovery sends her life into a downward spiral. 

There are parts of this book where I couldn't turn away. I won't give the details away. Part of the effectiveness of the story is the sudden wallop of reality.

The Gene: An Intimate History

 By Siddhartha Mukherjee

Mukherjee covers the history, the discovery, the exploration, the complexities and some of the future of our genes.  

The Edge of Physics

 By Anil Ananthaswamy.

The author tours the sites of different large scale physics, cosmology and astronomy experiments-- the LHC, the telescopes on Hawaii, the Neutrino detectors in Russia, the antarctic and mines in the U.S. Along the way he discusses the history of the projects, the science behind them, and the major problems they are tacking in physics and cosmology-- What is dark matter? Dark energy? Do we live in a multiverse? How can we unify Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.

Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude.

By Raymond M. Kethledge & Michael S. Erwin.

This book profiles many great leaders who spent regular time in solitude. They used this time to clarify their thoughts and to write. To improve your leadship, you should do the same. 

An important point is to use the you solitude to think about important problems, to focus, to flesh out their solutions.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

By Richard P. Rumelt

A good strategy has an essential logical structure that I call the kernel. The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action. A good strategy is not just what you are trying to do, but why and how you are doing it. A great deal of strategy work is trying to figure out what is going on. Not just deciding what to do, but the fundamental problem of comprehending the situation. 

If you fail to identify and analyze the obstacles, you don't have a strategy. Instead you have either a stretch goal, a budget, or a list of things you wish would happen. 

Business competition is not just a battle of strength and wells; it is also a competition over insights and competencies.

Compare change in our life during those that occurred between 1875 and 1925. During these years, electricity first hit the night and revolutionized factories and homes. In 1880 the trip from Boston to Cambridge and back was a full day's journey or horseback. Only twenty years later that trip was a twenty minute ride on an electric streetcar. With the streetcar came commuting and the suburbs. The sewing machine put decent cloths in everyone's reach. Electricity powered the telegraph, the telephone and the radio. Railroads knit the country together. The automobile came into common use and revolutionized American life. Highways were first built. IBM's first automatic tabulating machine was built in 1906. Modern advertising, retailing and consumer branding was invented. 

Making a list is a basic tool for overcoming our own cognitive limitations. The list itself counters forgetfulness. The act of making a list forces us to reflect on the relative urgency and importance of issues. And making a list of "things to do, now" rather than "things to worry about" forces us to resolve concerns into actions. 

Successful Aging

By Daniel J. Levitin.

A book that has a very concise set of conclusions spread out over hundreds of supporting stories...

1. Don't retire. Don't stop being engaged with meaningful work.
2. Look forward. Don't look back. Reminiscing doesn't promote health.
3. Exercise. Get your heart rate going. Preferably in nature.
4. Embrace a moderated lifestyle with healthy practices.
5. Keep your social circle exciting and new.
6. Spend time with people younger than you.
7. See your doctor regularly, but not obsessively.
8. Don't think of yourself as old-- other than taking prudent precautions.
9. Appreciate your cognitive strengths-- pattern recognition, crystallized intelligence, wisdom, accumulated knowledge.
10. Promote cognitive health through experiential learning: traveling, spending time with grandchildren, and immersing yourself in new activities and situations. Do new things.

Books to look up...

The Logic of Perception by Irv Rock

Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to better Ideas by James L Adamas.

Tips...

Take 0.25 - 0.5 mg of melatonin three hours before you go to bed to reset your body clock.

 

The Amber Spyglass.

By Philip Pullman

I enjoyed this book, though there was a lot of tying off of the various plot threads that had popped up in the previous two books. 

Factfullness

by Hans Rosling

The book has two themes... First, the world is improving at a far better rate than we'd expect. Gone are the days of first-world excess vs. third-world poverty. The majority of the world lives somewhere between the two. 

Most of the world has access to electricity. More than 80% of all children are vaccinated. Since vaccines must be kept refrigerated, that means the electricity, maintenance and support to for this refrigerated network, must be healthy and world wide. 

Why don't we know this? Why do we think the world is crappier than it is? Rosling covers this...

1. Gap... Things are rarely A. vs. B. They are a continuum between A & B. What is this continuum like?

2. Negativity. We expect, and look for bad news. We don't pay attention to good news or boring news.

3. Straight lines-- We expect growth to follow straight lines. It rarely does. The curve will bend.

4. Fear-- When something scares us we over guard against us. We have to remember that Risk = Danger * Exposure. If we are not exposed to a danger, we should not trust our fear.

5. Size-- Judge things in proportion. A single number is rarely useful. What was that number last year? Two years ago? How big is that number in proportion to the rest of the problem? The rest of the world?

6. Generalization-- we put things in categories. This may not be true. What are the differences within a category? What are the similarities across category? 

7. Destiny-- Things change. Slow change is still change. Statistics from 10 years ago can be very different today.

8. Don't use a single tool to analyze your problems. Develop a toolbox.

9. Blame-- Resist pointing your finger. We stop thinking about root causes when we can blame someone. We really need to go beyond that to deeply understand a problem

10. Urgency. Things are rarely so urgent that you need to react quickly and dramatically. Take small steps. Validate.

Rosling suggests that many First world companies are missing business opportunities in the rising middle class world. The first world population is growing much more slowly than the middle-world.  

Digital Minimalism

By Cal Newport.

Newport makes a strong argument that we should sharply reduce the time we spend on smart phones and with social media. We are at our happiest and at our best, when we focus, when we actually have a conversation, when we actually engage in focused leisure.

Social media, with it's blips and sips of conversations and likes is a distraction that drags us down.

Using social media to arrange actual conversations... that is keeping in touch with someone. Facebooking for hours, skimming, clicking likes, that is unhealthy. It's an addiction.

Use technology intentionally, with a deep seated philosophy and set of goals.

The cost of a thing is the amount of life you had to exchange for it.

Reclaim leisure. Prioritize demanding activity over passive consumption. Use skills to produce valuable things in the physical world.

Dreyer's English

By Benjamin Dreyer.

Dreyer knows the style and rules of English far better than I every will. Several times he admits that there are more exceptions in English, than there are rules. At the end of the day the only rule is "Does it look right, and is it clear, to someone who knows and loves the language?" Convention, Consensus, Clarity & Comprehension.

Somethings to remember...

Stop using very, rather, really, quite, in fact, just, pretty, of course and actually. Sentences can be shorter and more clear without them. 

Read your prose aloud. It's one of the best ways to determine whether your prose is well-constructed.

If you can append "by zombies" to the end of a sentence, then you have written the sentence in the passive voice.

Use the series (Oxford comma.) It's more clear.

High Output Management

By Andy Grove.


On career reviews... "There are three L's to keep in mind when delivering a review; Level, listen, and leave your-self out."

On managing the unexpected... "The motto I'm advocating is 'Let chaos reign, then rein in chaos'"

The book contains three ideas...

The first is an output-oriented approach to managment.

The second idea is that the work of a business, of a government bureacracy, of most forms of human activity, is something pursued not by individuals, but by teams"

"The output of a manager is the output of his or her organization."

Third idea-- High managerial productivity depends largely on choosing to perform tasks that possess high leverage. A team will perform well only if peak performance is elicited from the individuals in it.

"If a person is not doing his job, there can only be two reasons for it. The person either can't do it or won't do it. Either he is not capable, or not motivated. This enables a manager to dramatically focus her efforts. All you can do to improve the output of a team is motivate and train. There is nothing else."

"How you handle your own time is, in my view, the single most important aspect of being a role model and leader."


"As a rule of thumb, a manager whose work is largely supervisory should have six to eight subordinates. Three or for is too few. Ten is too many."

Solitude. A return to self

By Anthony Storr.

I was hoping this book would provide a powerful case for Solitude. I starts to, but then meanders off and in the direction of Freud and his thoughts on social life. It concludes that pursuit of the whole needs both interpersonal relationships, and time alone.

"When a person is encouraged to get in touch with and express his deepest feelings, in the secure knowledge that he will not be rejected, criticized, nor expected to be different, some kind of rearrangement or sorting-out process often occurs within the mind which brings with it a sense of peace; a sense that the depths of the well of truth have really been reached."

"The capacity to be alone thus becomes linked with self-discovery and self-realization; with becoming aware of one's deepest needs, feelings and impulses."

"It appears, therefore, that some development of the capacity to be alone is necessary if the brain is to function at its best, and if the individual is to fulfill his highest potential. Human beings easily become alienated from their own deepest needs and feelings. Learning, thinking, innovation, and maintaining contact with one's own inner world are all facilitated by solitude."

Twilight of the Idols by Neitzsche

Every now and then I like get the urge to read classic books. This time, I thought I'd try Twilight of the Idols by Nietzsche.

I don' t think I'm going to make all the way though this book. Nietzsche doesn't really agree with me.

First off. I think he is less philosophy and and more like self-help. He is a lifestyle coach. He wants us to live vibrant, exciting & meaningful lives and has major problems with any system of values that doesn't nurture that.

But, in his thrust for vibrancy, he looses depth. While there is a lot to be said for living like that. Sometimes it's good to slow down. To be more thoughtful.

Thinking in Systems

By Donella H. Meadows.

Systems exist wither we like it our not. From Meadows perspective, everything is part of a system. The end of one system, and the beginning of the next is an arbitrary point that we choose for our convenience, and not because that's the actual reality.

When you analyze a system, don't zoom in too much and loose perspective, or zoom out too much and end up with something academic. Scale the system definition to the size of the problems you are engaged with.

Problems and the way out...

I like the way that Meadows calls out "Problems and the Way Out" not "Problems and Solutions." The solution to many system solutions isn't a black or white flip of the switch, but a lot of work to slowly change the path of the system.

Problem-- Policy Resistance-- when the actors try to pull the system in a direction other than the desired new goals.
The way out-- Let go. Bring in all the actors and use the energy formerly expended on resistance to seeking mutually satisfactory ways for the goals to be realized.

Problem-- the tragedy of the commons.
The way out--
1. Educate and exhort everyone so they understand the consequences, or
2. Strengthen the feedback link, regulate, or,
3. Privatize

Problem-- Drift to Low Performance
Allowing future performance to drift based on past performance, especially if there is a negative bias in perceiving past performance.
The way out-- Keep performance standards absolute

Problem-- Escalation. There is a reinforcing feedback loop carrying the system into an arms race.
Solution--
1. Avoid getting into this trap
2. Refuse to complete
3. Negotiate a new system with balancing loops to control the escalation.

Problem-- Success to the successful. Winners have a reinforcing feedback loop that allow them to keep winning more.
The way out--
1. Diversification. The system has to support diversification.
2. Strictly limiting the faction of the pie any one winner my have.
3. Policies that level the playing field. Policies that devise rewards that do not bias the future competition.

Problem-- Shifting the burden to the Intervenor. Superficial solutions that do not solve the underlaying problem.
The way out--
1. Avoid getting into this situation.
2. Take the focus off short term relief and put it on long term restructuring. Do so quickly. The longer you wait, the harder the withdrawal process will be.

Problem-- Seeking the Wrong Goal.
Systems are very sensitive to the goals of the feedback loops, and not necessarily the goals of the designers.
The Way out-- Specify indicators and goals that reflect the real welfare of the system. Be careful to not confuse effort with result or you will end up with a system that is producing effort, not result.

Shakespeare: The World As a Stage

By Bill Bryson

What's fascinating about Shakespeare is how little we actually know about him. We have copies of most of his plays. We have some legal records, his birth, marriage, will & death certificates and a few mentions of him in various public records. And that's it. We know next to nothing about who he was like as a person. We have no personal letters. No letters from friends. No personal effects. Everything we know about him personally is conjecture. This book covers the endless conjecture, and how it came to being.

That we know so little of him isn't that surprising. We know very little about anyone who lived at that time. In addition, for any Shakespeare's artifacts to have survived to today, they would have had to survive calamities such as the Globe Theater fire of 1613, the Great London fire of 1666, and the bombings of London in World War 2. It is surprising is that we have as much as we have.

And the conspiracy theories... that someone else wrote Shakespeare's plays. The book emphatically disagrees with them. There is no evidence that someone other than Shakespeare wrote his plays.

Talking to Strangers

Malcolm Gladwell books are fun to read regardless of how solid the intellectual foundations are.

In Talking to Strangers, Gladwell argues that humans have three biases that break down when we are dealing with strangers.

Default To Truth-- We presume that people are telling the truth unless the evidence is overwhelming. We had to behave this way, or society would break down. This works against us when we a stranger deceives us. It also means we should not think harshly of people who were deceived by strangers. It's the way we are wired.

Transparency-- we think that the way we express our emotions, is the way everyone expresses their emotions. Everyone, especially strangers, will express their emotions differently. We should not judge someone because they didn't express their emotions the way we did.

Coupling-- Our actions are associated with the opportunities to take that action. Make it more difficult to commit suicide one way, and the suicide rate will go down. The suicidal won't find another way to kill themselves. Maybe the stranger is acting a particular way because of the time and the place, not because the stranger is bad.

How should we deal with strangers? With caution and humility

Mojo. How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get it Back When you Need it

By Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter

I've read this book before, but I can't find the notes. 

I appreciate reading Goldsmith.Goldsmith focuses on executive coaching. I wish there was a version of this book for people who aren't executives. I can still take much away from it. 

I intentionally reread this book since I am starting a new job. 

Five qualities we need to bring to an activity in order to do it well are...

1. Motivation,

2, knowledge,

3, ability,

4, confidence,

5, authenticity...

Four ingredients to have great Mojo..
1. Identity... who do you think you are?
2. Achievement... what have you done lately?
3. Reputation... who do other people think you are?
4. Acceptance... what can you change? What is beyond your control?

Four Pointless Arguments...

1. Let Me Keep Talking... Talking when you should listen.

2. I've had it rougher than you. People don't change their mind because someone else has had it rougher than they. Kids don't listen when you say "When I was your age I....

3. Why did you do that? You can't judge everyone's actions through the lens of "Am I being respected, or disrespected?" People will do things that annoy or enrage us. It's almost impossible to get to the bottom of why they did them. Don't waste your time trying.

4. It's not fair. 

"These four loosing arguments all have the same end result. We don't change the outcome. We don't help our organizations or our families. We don't help ourselves. We only lower our Mojo."

Change you or it. Don't keep whining about it. Don't be passive aggressive.

Tools for building Mojo...

1. Establish Criteria that matter to you.

2. Find out Where You're Living. 

3. Be the optimist in the room. But realistic, but optimistic. 

4. Take Away one Thing. Simplify. Focus

5. Rebuild One Brick at a Time

6. Live your mission in the small moments too.

7. Swim in the blue water...Find your niche. Don't copy everyone else.

8. Think though when to stay and when to go.

9. Hello, Good bye. Be prepared for abrupt exits.

10. Adopt a metrics system-- measure yourself in real ways. Against targets that affect your criteria. 

11. Measure the bad things. Not just the good. Reduce the bad things.

12. Influence Up as Well as Down.

When Goldsmith coaches someone he asks they...

1. Let go of the past. You cannot change the past. 

2. Tell the truth. Not just what they want to hear. 

3. Be supportive and helpful. Be encouraging, not cynical or sarcastic. 

4. Pick something to improve yourself, so everyone has skin in the game, rather than just judging. 

Peter Drucker's five questions for solving problems...

1. What is your mission? Why does your organization exist in the first place? What are you trying to accomplish for your customers?

2. Who are your customers? Describe the person you wish to satisfy with your actions.
3. What does your customer value? What is it that you do especially well that you are uniquely suited to provide to your customers? How can you exceed the standards set by your competition?4. What results are you trying to accomplish? How do you measure success?5. What is your plan? How do you go about satisfying your customers and getting the results that are most important?

Why We Sleep

By Matthew Walker Phd.

An interesting book, though it has it's limits. We can describe far more about sleep, than we can prescribe ways to improve it. For years, I've gone through bouts where I walk up at 3am and stay awake for an hour or so. I was hoping to find a cure for that. But no.

To the best of our knowledge, to get the best sleep...
1. Stick to a schedule.
2. Exercise, but not late in the day.
3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine
4. Avoid Alcohol before bed.
5. Avoid large meals before bed.
6. Don't take naps after 3pm
7. Relax before bed
8. Take a hot bath before bed.
9. Have a good sleeping environment, cool, low noise, no bright lights
10. Expose yourself to 30 minutes of sunlight a day, morning is best.
11. Don't lay awake in bed.

The Power of Habit: Why we Do What We Do in life and Business...

By Charles Duhigg

Much of this book lines up with "The Tipping Point" There is an important core to this book that I want to remember...

How to change habit loops. We all have many habits. They are of the form...

Stimulus... Habit... Reward...

The Habit could be smoking, could be nail bighting, going to Facebook, getting angry.. any of thousands of things. Most people try to break a habit with self discipline... don't do that! Resist! Duhigg suggests we spend time to understand the stimulus and the reward.

1. Every time we engage in a habit, record the time, what you were doing, and what you were feeling. 

2. Record the rewards of the habit.

3. When you understand what stimulus kick off a habit, develop a specific plan to deal with the stimulus, and figure out a satisfying reward.

For example, I want to go running every morning. Instead, I just get out of bed and make coffee. In this situation, try laying out your running closes the night before and set up the coffee maker. Now, get dressed first thing in the morning, and have coffee as a reward when you get back.

You will have to play around with identifying the stimulus, and finding the appropriate rewards. Sometimes they may be simple... to relieve stress, breath deeply for a few seconds, instead of having a candy bar.  Sometimes they may be complicated... If I habitually put off financial planning because of anxiety, then what? Reward myself with a nice bottle of wine?

I want to combine this with Goldsmith's Triggers. The ideas that we will be more successful if we limit our personal change at any one time to...

1. Creating new behavior.

2. Eliminating an old behavior

3. Accepting something regretful

4. Preserving, or growing something positive. 

The Four Agreements

Principles

By Ray Dalio. I need to read this book again.

Dalio is a very driven, analytic man. He leads his life and his business in a very rule driven, principled way. This book is about those principles...

Embrace reality and deal with it. An accurate understanding of reality is the essential foundation for any good outcome. Don't confuse what you wish were true with what is really true.

Be radically opened minded, and radically transparent.

Look to nature to learn how reality works.

Evolving is life's greatest accomplishment and its greatest reward.

Understand nature's practical lessons.

Pain + Reflection = Progress

Weigh second and third order consequences. Don't overweight first-order consequences relative to second and third-order.

Own your outcomes. Don't worry about looking good-- worry about achieving your goals.

Look at things from a higher level.

Face harsh realities. Don't let pain stand in the way of progress

Don't blame bad outcomes on anyone but yourself

1. Have clear goals.
2. Identify and don't tolerate problems that stand in the way of your goals.
3. Accurately diagnose problems to get to their root causes. Why? Why? Why? What? How?
4. Design plans that will get you around them.
5. Do what's necessary to push the designs to results

Weakness doesn't matter if you find solutions.

Appreciate the art of thoughtful disagreement
Triangulate your view with believable people who are willing to disagree.
Recognize the signs of closed-mindedness and open-mindedness

Learning, being open minded, growing, can be painful. Use pain to guide you to quality reflection

Get to know your blind spots.

Understand that people are wired very differently. Find out what others are like

Learn how to make decisions effectively.

The biggest threat to good decision making is harmful emotions. Decision making is a two step process. Learn first, then decide.

Look at the data through time.

Make decisions as expected value calculations
Prioritize by weighing the value of additional information against the cost of not deciding.

Simplify!

Thinking -> Principles -> Algorithms -> Great decisions

Cultivate meaningful work and meaningful relationships.

Treat your org as a machine.

Tough love is effective for achieving both great work, and great relationships.

Get, and stay in Sync. Disagree well. By open minded and assertive.

If you run a meeting, manage the conversation.

Find the most believable people who disagree with you and try to understand their reasoning.


Don't get stuck in disagreement. Escalate or vote!

Once a decision is made, everyone should get behind it. Don't allow mobs rule.







Make believe-ability weighted decisions.
Operate by principles
Systematize your decision making.

Deep Work

By Cal Newport.

1. Work Deeply...
1.1. Choose a regular daily time to work deeply, or... cut everything out of your life to work deeply.
1.2. Make a ritual... A Ritual must address

• where you'll work and for how long.
• How you'll work once you start to work. Ban internet usage? Interruptions?
• How you'll support your work? Exercise? Keep your mind clear?

Consider making a grand gesture to support work.

Consider collaborating to support work. It has to be the right kind of collaboration.

1.3 Execute like a business.

• Focus on the Wildly Important
• Act on Lead Measures
• Keep a compelling Scoreboard
• Create a Cadence.

1.4 Be Lazy

• Downtime leads to insights.
• Downtime Helps recharge the Energy needed to work deeply
• The work that evening downtime replaces is usually no that important

1.5 Embrace Boredom

• Don't take breaks from distraction. Take Breaks from Focus
• Regardless of how you schedule your Internet blocks, you must keep your time outside these blocks absolutely free from Internet use.
• Schedule internet use at home, and at work. Practice concentration.

1.6 Mediate Productively-- a period f time where you are occupied physically, but not mentally-- long walk, long shower. Focus on a well defined problem.

• Beware of distractions and looping.
• Structure Your Deep thinking
• Invent a memory palace.

1.7 Quit Social Media

• You're justified using a network tool if you can identify any possible benefit to its use, or anything you might possible miss out on if you don't use it.
• Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweighs its negative impacts.

1.8 Apply the law of the vital few... In many situations, 80% of a given effect is due to just 20 percent of the possible causes.

2. Drain the Shallows

• Schedule Every Minute of Your Day
• Use paper and pen. 
• Quantify the depth of every activity as shallow or deep.
•  Budget your shallow work.
• Finish your work by 5:30. Have a shut down ritual.

3.1 Make People who send you E-Mail do more work.

3.2 Communicate when you will, and won't, respond to email. "If you have an opportunity or introduction that make my life more interesting, email me at.... I'll only respond to those proposals that are a good match for my schedule and interests."

3.3 Do more work when you send emails. Tee the responder up to do the same. 

"When responding to email, take the time to answer the following key prompt: What is the project represented by this message, and what is the most efficient (in terms of messages generated) process for bringing this project to successful conclusion?"

Or don't respond. Don't reply to email that...

• Is to ambiguous or otherwise makes it hard for you to generate a reasonable response. 
• It's not a question or proposal that interests you.
• Nothing really good would happen if you did respond. Nothing Really bad would happen if you didn't

Other quotes...

"His 2013 bestseller, Give and Take, promotes the practice of giving of your time and attention, without the expectation of something in return, as a key strategy in professional advancement"

"David Brooks summarizes this reality more bluntly. 'Great creative minds think like artists but work like accountants'"

"Christensen wrot for a book titled The 4 Disciplines of Execution, which built on extensive consulting case studies to describe four "disciplines""

"Develop the habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don't, you'll never find time for the life-changing big things" -- Tim Ferriss