A wonderful introduction to Greek mythology which I have always been curious about but never found a really accessible read. For my own remembrance I am just going to summarise some of the key characters and relationships here: The First Order – primordial deities – often the idea of the god and the thing they … Continue reading Mythos by Stephen Fry
Igor’s rules The UnRule: all theories and all methods have flaws. Nothing can be proved with absolute certainty is, but anything may be disproved, and nothing that can be articulated can be perfect. You only live once. Your time on earth is the only truly irreplaceable resource. If today was my last day, what would … Continue reading The unrules by Igor Tulchinsky, founder and CEO of WorldQuant
The book has a few essential ideas which are worth while but it takes quite a lot of background to get to them. Below are my key takeaways. The context for McChrystal was trying to get specialist units in very different parts of the military, who each worked incredibly effectively in their specific area, to … Continue reading Team of teams by General Stanley McChrystal – leading teams to work effectively together
As I don’t have time to do full write-ups on everything I get through, here is just a brief few comments on the books I chose to read in 2018 and the key things I want to remember of them. Roughly in the order I would recommend them for general consumption… 1. Man’s search for … Continue reading Books of 2018
The book picks up on several themes that I think are very important for understanding where the world is trending over the coming years. Politics Disillusionment picks up on the rise of anti ellitest autocratic and populist rulers (connections to The Demise of Western Liberalism by Edward Luce). Issues of identity, nationalism clash with global … Continue reading 21 lessons for the 21st century by Yuval Noah Harari
The basic idea behind this book is that in an age of increasing distraction, being able to really concentrate and do deep focused work is a super-power. He spends the first half of the book explaining why he believes this is the case and the second half offering some really pragmatic strategies for achieving this. … Continue reading Deep Work by Cal Newport
Viktor Frankl was a Jewish pioneer in psychotherapy. He was developing his own insights into psychology in Austria prior to World War 2. In the war he was arrested by the Nazis and transported to Auschwitz. In his book “Man’s search for meaning” he relays the experiences of surviving in a concentration camp and his … Continue reading Book review: Man’s search for meaning by Viktor Frankl
This book covers the rise of computers and AI over the period Kasprov’s chess career. But for me the interesting insights are into the rising impact of technology on our lives, and the roles of psychology in decision making. In my comments I have focused more on the takeaways I think are more widely applicable … Continue reading Deep Thinking by Garry Kasparov
Jason Zweig writes The Intelligent Investor column for the Wall Street Journal and is interviewed here by Shane Parish. Lots of useful stuff, starting for me from about min 26 of the podcast onwards, here are my highlights as well as some of my own complimentary thoughts: Financial advice 1. One of the biggest distorting … Continue reading The emotional side of investment decision making with Jason Zweig
This book is a sobering read. Luce’s hypothesis is that the world liberal elite “ruling classes”, particularly on the left, have lost touch with the heartland of their countries and that, together with new developments in technology and the rise of China, this is leading to some tectonic shifts in geopolitics which are evidenced in … Continue reading Edward Luce’s The Retreat of Western Liberalism
Here's something that inspired me... 