Category: Newsletter Archive

The monthly newsletter covers the books I’ve read over the course of the month, any essays I wrote or challenges I undertook, and some other interesting articles, interviews, etc.   

Books

• The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
• How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens
• No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings
• What Owen Didn’t Know by Laurence Endersen
• The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Taleb
• Design for How People Learn by Dirksen Julie
• Game Thinking by Amy Jo Kim
• Invent and Wander by Jeff Bezos, Walter Isaacson

Full list of books read in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

Any book, which is at all important, should be immediately re-read

Essays

• None

Teacher’s Reference Guides

• On Chris Dixon – This “teacher’s reference guide” distills what I thought were some of Chirs Dixon’s more interesting blog posts and ideas. Don’t take my word for it, I’ve put together a complete compilation of his blog posts here that is well worth your time. Some of my key takeaways were around cryptocurrency (it allows computers to make commitments, amongst many other things, of course), the next paradigm shift will start off looking like a toy/hobby (what the richest and smartest do for fun on the weekends is what the mainstream will do in 10 years), and more related to network effects, startups, and venture capital.  

Monthly Challenges

• None

Other

• The Future of Reading Depends on the Future of Learning Difficult to Understand Things by Alan Kay
• The Babe Ruth Effect by The Consilient Observer
• Hexagons are the Bestagons by CGP Grey
• A Commencement Address Too Honest to Deliver in Person by David Brooks
• Essay Writing by Jordan Peterson (a file will download)
• Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson (podcast)
• Startups: The Very Beginning and What’s Different About Unicorns by Jessica Livingston
• China’s Cainiao Is Revolutionizing How Goods Get Delivered. Will the Rest of the World Follow Its Rules?
• From Buffett With Love
• Making Computers Better by Adam Wiggins

Amor Fati Amor.

Blas

“I never worry about action, only inaction.” – Winston Churchill 

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The monthly newsletter covers the books I’ve read over the course of the month, any essays I wrote or challenges I undertook, and some other interesting articles, interviews, etc.   

Books

• The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
• Obviously Awesome by April Dunford
• Invisible Engines by David Evans
• The Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno
• Inside the Tornado by Geoffrey Moore
• The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
• The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton Christensen
• Monetizing Innovation by Madhavan Ramanujam, Georg Tacke
• Positioning by Jack Trout, Al Ries
• Tape Sucks by Frank Slootman

Full list of books read in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

Any book, which is at all important, should be immediately re-read

Essays

• I created a supplemental template to accompany The Infinite Game (An Excel spreadsheet will download if you click the template link above).Within the essay, I reflect on the importance of defining your “life dimensions” – areas of life that you deem important enough to prioritize. For me, those are health, family, friends, work, community service, personal growth, and spiritual growth. I’ve put together this simple spreadsheet to help keep me accountable in each of these various realms and thought it might be helpful for others as well. 

Teacher’s Reference Guides

• I shared a “teacher’s reference guide” for the ideas found within The Latticework’s Worldly Wisdom discipline. The idea is to help keep these valuable ideas top of mind so that they can hopefully become second nature. It’s also a great exercise to compress and distill some of these rather complex ideas into as simple (but no simpler!) a form factor as possible, getting to its true essence.

Monthly Challenges

• Magic Mind – tried this nootropic for 2 weeks and really enjoyed it. I took the first one as a shot and became extremely focused, like uncomfortably focused. The rest of them I sipped on throughout the morning and that was better for me and everyone around me (they’re small, but potent!) Don’t think I’ll do this every month or on any sort of routine, but definitely enjoyed them and would recommend trying it out (no affiliation).

Other

• The Observer Effect with Daniel Ek
• What Working at Stripe Has Been Like by Patrick McKenzie
• The High-Return Activity of Raising Others’ Aspirations by Tyler Cowen
• Early Work by Paul Graham

Amor Fati Amor.

Blas

“Well, I guess the only good strategy is one that no one else understands.” – Ed de Castro, Data General

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The monthly newsletter covers the books I’ve read over the course of the month, any essays I wrote or challenges I undertook, and some other interesting articles, interviews, etc.   

Books

• Birth of the Chaordic Age by Dee Hock
• One From Many by Dee Hock
• The Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
• Emotional Equations by Chip Conley
• Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny

Full list of books read in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

Any book, which is at all important, should be immediately re-read

Essays

• None

Teacher’s Reference Guides

• On Dee Hock

Monthly Challenges

• Perfect Espresso – aiming to make the perfect espresso without spending $3,000. This $65 Staresso is far superior to the DeLonghi I used to have and, while it’s not coffee shop quality, it’s extremely simple to use, mobile, and the value is incredible

Other

• A fantastic 7-part podcast series with Dee Hock.
• A Triumph of Avoiding the Traps
• Different Wavelengths: Science Finds Hummingbirds See UV Light Invisible to Humans
• Speechify – not quite sure how I’ll use it yet, but seems like a powerful tool and the founder’s story is a great example of solving a problem you deeply understand
• Software Stack Investing – an incredible resource to deeply understand the modern software development stack companies
• BPR Interviews: Paul Graham
• The Computer Scientist Who Can’t Stop Telling Stories
• Dignity in Our Time by George Friedman
• A mentor and friend, Peter Kaufman, released a talk he gave at Redlands Forum – An Unsung Hero (YouTube, PDF) – regarding a remarkable, yet largely forgotten man, Frederick Taylor Gates. Gates’ book, Chapters in My Life, is well worth reading and re-reading

Amor Fati Amor.

Blas

“Q: You seem to have a pretty strong and clear philosophy and vision for the future of our society, but did you have one when you were 20? If so, how has that vision evolved or changed? PG: All I had when I was 20 was a collection of hunches. That software was going to take over everything, for example. This collection of hunches has now grown so much that it looks like a complete vision, but it really isn’t. And indeed, I wouldn’t want it to be. Ideology is constraining. I’d rather have a patchwork model of the world based on experience.” – Paul Graham

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The monthly newsletter covers the books I’ve read over the course of the month, any essays I wrote or challenges I undertook, and some other interesting articles, interviews, etc.   

Books

• The Life of Elbert Gary by Ida Tarbell
• Chase, Chance, and Creativity by James Austin
• The Four Steps to Epiphany by Steve Blank
• eBoys by Randall Stross
• The HP Way by David Packard
• Gridiron Genius by Michael Lombardi
• The Mutt by Rodney Mullen

Full list of books read in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

Any book, which is at all important, should be immediately re-read

Essays

• Challenging * Mattering = Meaningful – Distilled, the “meaningful” results from the combination of something challenging (PIPER in something that interests you) with something that matters (creating; doing something difficult that others find even more difficult than). When these circumstances come together and form something meaningful, it’s like blending tin and copper. The result is bronze, an alloy so much harder than would be expected that it appears a different metal.

Teacher’s Reference Guides

• None

Monthly Challenges

• Learn how two people work from home with a 9-month old 

Other

• Electronic Arts’ Trip Hawkins on Acquired
• Zoom Surprise: Some Good News with John Krasinski
• Rodney Mullen: From the Ground Up
• Signaling as a Service at Julian.Digital
• The Rise and Fall of Design Within Reach
• How a Goat Farmer Built a Doomsday machine That Just Booked A 4,144% Return
• My First BillG Review by Joel Spolsky
• Top Ranked ATP Men Make a Generous Move to Financially Support Their Unpaid Tennis Colleagues
• Life’s Work: An Interview with Jerry Seinfeld (h/t James Clear)

Amor Fati Amor.

Blas

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he’s always doing both.” – James Michener

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