July 2020

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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