I’m pretty obsessed with the notion of a second brain. I’m super into carrying a notebook and have carried pocket notebooks since 2008. I’m on #48 in my series of notebooks, which is pretty bad, but crazy when you think how long I’ve been carrying them. The thought that my brain is porous and stuff slips through my mental grasps is pretty upsetting. Writing it down saves it in a way that I can return and look at it again in the future. ...
There is something to be said for knowing what you have so you don’t buy things you don’t need. That only partly applies to what I’m talking about here. This is clearly a luxury and a collection. At this point, none of this is necessary, and it’s more of a personal hobby. Since 2008, I’ve been carrying around a pocket notebook and writing instrument almost everywhere I travel. Constantly in my pocket. It’s funny because I also have a smartphone, and I take notes digitally and on paper. Why? I don’t know, and I guess there is something romantic about the paper discovery process of going through old notebooks and finding ideas. I recently went to a friend’s wedding and went through my old notes to find the initial guest list they had proposed back in 2016, just because I happened to write it down in my memo pad. The guest list turned out to be pretty close to who actually came, and it was a fun moment to have the notebook, take a picture of it, and share it with my friend. Also, at the wedding, I pulled out my notebook and had some guests write Haikus that we sent to the couple on their honeymoon (this tends to be a regular occurrence for me at weddings). ...
Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash Life is Short, Don’t Wait to Dance is a nonfiction work by Valorie Kondos Field about her life, beliefs and coaching philosophy. This book covers her history as a coach, how she ended up as a member of the UCLA hall of fame and brought the best out of her athletes. This book is worth the read. Even if you read this whole post, I won’t do it justice. ...
I started reading The Cult of the Amateur at the suggestion of a close friend. The main context of this book is that we as members of internet are somehow degrading the quality of external creative works like Music, News, and Movies. The author puts forth some interesting points, but mostly I disagree with his conclusions. His major argument is that free and cheap media will win out over the expensive expert media. I disagree. People will pay for quality. People would pay for better news if better news were available for a reasonable price. ...
This is a very interesting book by Joel Spolsky, titled Smart & Gets Things Done. It has a lot of good information about how to hire the right people for a technical company. Really this book is a collection of references and combination of thoughts. It refers to Peopleware, a book which I have started but never really finished. He also references various other postings he has made on his site. ...