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 Science of Hitting by Ted Williams
• The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger
• The Second Law by PW Atkins
• The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom
• How to Lie With Maps by Mark Monmonier
• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
• Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
• The Nature of Explanation by Kenneth Craik
• The Information by James Gleick

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

• None

Monthly Challenges

• No coffee – I typically only drink a cup a day and still didn’t feel great the first 3-4 days. After that, though, I definitely noticed I was sleeping better and that I wasn’t ever jittery. I don’t think I’ll cut out coffee for good, but I’m glad I did it for a month and now have a new-found respect for good tea

Other

• Derek Sivers’ Podcast – <5-minute episodes that are thoughtful and worth listening to
• h/t James Clear for the following great speeches: Creativity in Management by John Cleese, Personal Renewal by John Gardner, Claude Shannon on Creative Thinking, Roadkill on the Information Highway by Nathan Myhrvold
• When to Trust Your Gut
• Work on These Things by Tyler Cowen
• Charting Culture
• Incredible vision and storytelling by Scott Harrison and Charity: Water
• Rise Above it or Drown: How Elite NBA Athletes Handle Pressure
• Reality Has a Surprising Amount of Detail by John Salvatier
• Nadal on 60 Minutes
• Unenumerated: Genoa
• The Woman Shaking Up the Diamond Industry
• Jurgen Klopp’s Authentic, Infectious, Aura and Ultimate Mission
• Hard Startups by Sam Altman

Amor Fati Amor.

Blas

“It is not the amount of knowledge that makes a brain. It is not even the distribution of knowledge. It is the interconnectedness.” – Howard Bloom

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First, an enormous thank you to all those who are serving others and helping to make the world safe again. It is inspiring  (and important) to see who steps up in times like these and who retreats. Secondly, while these are uncertain times, they can serve as fodder for great things. Maybe we can more closely connect with others, near and far? Maybe we come to better ourselves in some way, meditating on what truly matters to us and reassess if we’re heading in the right direction? From every negative a positive, every weakness a strength. 

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

• Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte
• Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte
• Visual Explanations by Edward Tufte
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Info by Edward Tufte
• Marc Andreessen’s Blog Archives 
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries, Jack Trout
• The Wit and Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew 

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

• My Learning Process – I’ve gotten a lot of questions these past several months on my learning process. This essay briefly shares some big picture strategies and concrete tactics that I’ve found helpful. This is by no means the “right” way, simply what has seemed to work for me so far.

Teacher’s Reference Guides

• On Edward Tufte – the godfather of data visualization. His books are beautiful and aim to be “self-exemplifying” – meaning he wants to convey his ideas through the actual books. Learned a ton and it changed how I think about presenting information

Monthly Challenges

• Eight Sleep blue-light blocking glasses (no affiliation) – They only block 60% of blue light, but, according to my Apple Watch, increased my depth of sleep by about 10% for the month. Could also be due to not going out to eat as much, hardly drinking this month, or other factors but will probably keep wearing them…
• Andreessen’s 3×5 index cards – in his guide to personal productivity, Andreessen talks about his tactics for being productive and I decided to implement this suggestion. I’ve always kept an extensive Wunderlist, but the physical note with my 3-5 most important things for the next day really served to focus my attention and keep me on track. I’ll absolutely keep this up.

Other

• Age and Outstanding Achievement (found via Marc Andreessen’s Blog Archives)
• The Road Not Taken by Andy Dunn
• Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny
• A bit behind but recently discovered the Acquired Podcast and am really enjoying it
• Interview with Don Valentine
• Russell Ackoff – If Russ Ackoff had given a TED Talk, Studio 1, Systems Thinking
• Discussions About Modernization by Li Lu
• Lee Kuan Yew Reflects

Amor Fati Amor.

Blas

“I was never a prisoner of any theory. What guided me was reason and rationality. The acid test I applied to every theory was, would it work?” – Lee Kuan Yew

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