I’ve read over 100 business books, courtesy of ignoring homework and summers uninterrupted by school. Most business books begin to blur together after a while, because the concepts which they rely upon are, for the most part, the same. Theoretically, by reading any combination of business or self-help books with a discerning eye, you can pick up the key ideas for our generation. This series of posts will cover the books I’ve found most clearly illuminate those key ideas.
Photo by Kamil Porembiński, Click for Flickr
I’ve arranged the most useful books into a framework similar to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which distinguishes between habits of Independence and habits of Interdependence. It is exactly what it seems: Habits of Independence involve self-mastery, while habits of Interdependence involve success within an organization.
Stephen Covey’s classic is missing one element, though – being so focused on habits of individuals, it forgoes a bigger picture view that I found in other resources. So, to paraphrase Mr. Covey’s imperatives and add one of my own, I divided these resources into three categories, each of which I’ll cover in its own post:
Individual
Organizational
Universal
Make sure to sign up for updates at the end of the post to get the series as they come.
These are the three books I found the most helpful for developing a mindset of changing the world for the better, whether it’s your personal life, your business or organization, or literally tackling a world problem.
Disclosure: The links provided are Amazon Affiliate links. If you do decide to purchase through them, I receive a percentage of the revenue.
This is a classic, and for good reason. As advertised, it goes over seven simple, yet profound habits that will change your life for the better, if applied. Again, while they are simple concepts, it’s remarkable how easy it is to forget those steps when starting any new venture. I found Habits 4 and 5 the most shocking and useful:
Habit 4: Win Win Solutions (or nothing at all)
Habit 5: Seek first to Understand, Then to be Understood
A quick rundown of the 7 Habits can be found on Wikipedia for those who don’t want to buy the book or can’t afford it. Even so, you can find a copy at your local library or bookstore and leaf through it. It is worth writing the habits down on a piece of paper and carrying it with you until they are ingrained in your mind.
Getting Things Done is another classic, though I found it to be more of an actual toolkit than a mental toolkit. In it, David Allen describes a state of productivity Zen that can be achieved by having everything accounted for and in its proper place, in an exterior, trustworthy system. The most important concepts I got out of GTD were:
Commitments, problems, and ideas that are not written down or otherwise recorded negatively affect your energy and thus, your performance.
These thoughts must be placed into storage and reminder systems that are utterly reliable and thus not a source of worry in themselves.
Every project should have a “Next Action” that is actionable and explicit. “Meet with Mark” becomes “Call Mark to confirm meeting time and location”
David goes on to describe many systems that he uses to remain productive. After trying many of them, I finally heeded his advice to read the book more like a toolkit or a cookbook than a bible, and cherry picked the systems I liked.
This website covers almost everything in a thorough manner, but again, this book is well worth reading through. If we were computers, we could read something once and follow it to the letter, but we’re human. It sometimes takes a few hundred pages to hammer the thought in just right.
There is one driving thought behind all of Timothy Ferriss’s works, and that is the Pareto Principle:
From Wikipedia:
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
The 4-Hour Workweek applies that to concept to income. How can you best use your limited time on Earth, and how can you create disproportionate cashflow with almost insignificant behavioral changes?
There is such a significant body of tools and methods in this book that it is almost impossible to summarize other than what I have already said. Suffice to say that it is a compelling read.
In the next post, I’ll cover books I found useful for Organizations.
Questions? Comments? Did I leave out a book, or should I take one off the list? Comments are love, so leave a comment! And don’t forget to sign up for updates by email.
I watched the finale of the Sing Off, Season 2, and I couldn’t stop grinning. In fact, an hour and a half later, I still can’t help but grin a little bit when I think about it. As the season wrapped up, I became more and more convinced of a feeling that I’d had all throughout the show.
Every competition should be like this.
The artists were united by their craft, but they also weren’t pitted against each other. They were humble. They rooted for each other. The judges weren’t always completely professional, which is a good thing in my opinion, but they were completely honest and understandable. They had insightful things to say. They were supportive. The MC wasn’t an idiot.
And at the end, there were only winners left. Career wise, all of the groups were set and could book shows just by being on the show, and each one made it by virtue of talent. But besides career and skill, what I really meant was that, in the end, with two groups left, they spent more time hugging each other after the winner was announced than they spent paying attention to the MC who was trying to give them their prize. And that’s what singing is about. That’s what dancing is about. That’s what art is about. It’s about reaching out and bringing people together.
Fear is frustrating. Fear of failure…Fear is paralyzing.
Inadequacy drives me. Drives me forward like a slave driver, a whip of failure.
There is a direct correlation between the rate at which you experience failure and how fully you are living life, a direct correlation between your discomfort and the amount you’re growing. Do more. Do the unusual. Do everything. Finish things. Live more!
You will win this challenge, and then you will move onto the next challenge, and you will fail many, many times, if past history is any indicator, but then you will succeed. This month, you rewrite the endings to all your stories.
Again, I need to fail five times faster than your average person in order to learn the same stuff. So let me make a mistake.
So as it turns out, I did a lot of things wrong and a lot of things right. First of all, I got to Chinatown. From the very beginning of the trip, I visualized being right there in front of the rabbit statue, and I eventually did it. I wouldn’t say that was THE most important thing, though…if I wanted to, I could have packed my bag and then driven to Chinatown easily enough.
The most important thing was…that there was no ‘most important’ thing. The experience itself transcended any goals, brought me to what I thought my limits were and beyond. Lydia, one of my saviors, said that it was a rite of passage. Honestly, I don’t really know why I did it except that it was scary and I wanted to see if I could face that fear. In retrospect, it has definitely turned out to be a rite of passage, though to what place I’ve passed through to is a mystery. It’s a better place for sure; I know that much.
I spent the week before in cold chills with no concrete fear other than the magnitude of the task in front of me. To combat that, I focused on the image of taking that first step on the road, the dust rising around my shoes, committing to the path ahead of me. The image was concrete – I could practically feel the gravel grinding underfoot. The fear, on the other hand, was vague, and if it was a specific fear, I thought of a specific solution. I didn’t realize until now how much that helped. In my mind, concrete visualizations turned into successes even before I’d set foot outside and specific fears became problems that were overcome, a different kind of success. The cold grip of fear was still there, but I could do something about it. I realized that the unnameable fear came down to a lack of faith in myself. I normally think of myself as a confident person, so that came as a shock. It’s not until you test yourself that you know yourself.
Anyway, I came into this with a few preconceived goals, many of which were realistically impossible. Basically it comes down to making it all the way on foot and making it in two days. Technically, it’s possible, but much easier if you are prepared for it. These two goals caused me trouble from the start. I knew I wasn’t in the proper physical condition to do this; I’d never done anything physical long distance before, and I hadn’t done any special training for it. Furthermore, I have had very few successes with all nighters – I need my sleep. To convince myself it possible, I actually partially convinced myself that being on the move would awaken super powers that lay dormant in humans who never moved across the land like our prehistoric ancestors did. To some extent, I still think this is true. I am operating on very little periods of rest, fragmented across the trip…and I am still going. Well, sort of. The bit about not being physically prepared is still true, so while I’m still going, I am limping. And I doubt our prehistoric ancestors carried 30-40 pounds of gear everywhere they went.
However, it remains the case that I wasn’t completely convinced, so I packed a lot of 5-hour energy drinks and, most controversially in my mind, incomplete camping gear. I brought everything but the tent, deeming it too heavy to be able to complete a 130 mile trek in two days. I brought a self-inflating mat, a sleeping bag, and a small tarp, figuring that if it rained I would wrap myself up like a burrito. No, that doesn’t work. Yes, I am stupid. The worst part about all of this, though, was that it conflicted with both goals. There was no way I could bring all that gear and complete the trip in two days on foot. If I brought the tent, I might have been able to complete the entire trip on foot, but not in two days. If I ditched all of it, I would have a better shot at completing the trip in two days…if I was physically prepared, which I was not. I remarked on Facebook that leaving just the tent was a bad compromise and it turned out to be a terrible compromise, as I would find out in the middle of the storm from Hell.
Let’s see, other mistakes…bringing anything electronic besides my cell phone and the GPS. The chargers, the power strip, everything took up a lot of space and hampered organization efforts. Organization makes a big difference when you need to get to something in your pack fast. Not making sure my gear was waterproof. Bringing too many clothes and not enough of the right kinds, like socks. I could have left all of my underwear behind, as I stopped wearing any not even midway into the trip. Bringing my journal, again just conflicted with the time requirements, because when was I going to have the time or energy to journal when I’m constantly on the move? Packing only large quantities of rice for sustenance – initially, it did fine, but it’s incredibly heavy and mostly water weight. Something like matzo would have been better…light and full of carbs. Speaking of heavy things, I ended up throwing out a jar of peanut butter because it was insanely heavy and inconvenient to eat.
Anyway…
The Story
The week before I set out was a mess. I knew the various things that I wanted to get together, and I accumulated them in fits and bursts, throwing them in piles on the floor. Thursday, the day before, I began to carbo-load, which consists of a high intensity sprint followed by eating 12g of carbohydrates per 12kg of body mass. After doing the appropriate conversions, it came out to the equivalent of 1.68 pounds of rice…dry weight. So I started cooking rice. Honestly, I have no idea how much carbo-loading actually helped.
On Friday night, I got everything packed up, started cooking the last batch of rice to take on the road, and had dinner with David, Victor, Fong, Jeff, Ying Ying, and Pei, which was super kind of them. It gave me hope. I should have insisted on doing the dishes, but it was almost time to go. I got back and instantly knew something was wrong when I tried lifting my backpack. It was unreasonably heavy, possibly up to 40 pounds. DK stopped by to wish me luck, and we chatted while I put the finishing touches on the pack – reflective tape.
I had asked Don to give me a boost to just outside of town, so I left when Don and Wilson stopped by. They took me to the outskirts of town. I got out and started walking and Don and Wilson drove alongside for a while. We had a cinematic moment as Don strummed on his guitar and I sang Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Then I got back in the car and we turned around. I had forgotten bug spray. And I would need it. At about 9:30, we got to the actual dropoff point, which was about 5 miles farther than they had originally dropped me off. Along the way, the bugs were so thick it was as if the cornfields were snowing. They were highlighted by the headlights like a blizzard of blood sucking snow.
Oh. Exhaustion finally hit me. I’ll finish this in another post when I wake up.
UPDATE
I never passed out. Too busy replying to stuff and getting this nifty thing set up:
This pretty much traces my path. Most of the points are chronological, but not all. I went back here and there.
I’ll actually let you go through the points to see where I went and what I was thinking at the time. For an idea of what time passed, by the time I got to Paxton, it was about 7am and I’d been walking for 10 hours. I got to Loda at 8am, called a coworker who happened to live there (who I’d only just met the day before) and slept again for a bit. I headed out again. Sundown next was during the bus ride between Kankakee and Manteno. Joe Park, Richard Chen, and DK actually called while I was getting my shit together in Kankakee and really motivated me to keep going, but I remember this specifically because I had to cut my discussion with DK short as the sun was going down and I had shit to get in order, as I said.
OH, BY THE WAY
THANK YOU:
Jeane Choi, Spence Lome, Annie Choi – for the Camelbak! God, what a lifesaver! I don’t think I would have made it anywhere during daylight hours without that thing.
Matt Sanghwan Lee – for the GPS! I would have made it places, but I would have had no idea where the fuck those places were. I depended on the GPS a LOT.
DK - for the health kit (lolz yes, I said health kit), words of support, and visit just before I left.
Fong Fan, Jeff Zhang, Ying Ying, David Jung, Victor, and Pei – for dinner and support just before I left!
Jen Chen – for the ankle braces and painkillers!
Don Mach, Wilson Thai – for the warmhearted drop off and insect repellent! And texts throughout the trip!
George Wu – for helping talk me through it before, trying to anticipate problems ahead of time.
Joy House – for inspiring me. Seriously. You are bad ass.
Kin Fong, Perry Chu, Spencer Lome, Deen Farooq, Brent Trotter, Winnie Cheng and Nathan Cheng – for the words of advice on my blog. Definitely needed them! And Kin…What?! XD
Officer Berns – for the ride! If I’m ever in Loda again, I’ll ask around for you. My gratitude!
Sunny Choi, Leslie Elizabeth, Jake Chen, Peter Hu, Kyou, Sigmund Ku, Jamie Lang, Nathan Cheng – for the texts during the trip. These kept me going at checkpoints.
My family, Alyson Kung, Khin Way Kung, and Malina Chin – for picking me up and saving my ass and then treating me to dim sum!
Lydia and Alyssa Hernandez – I have no words, no way to convey my debt to you. You were angels in the darkness. Thank you so much for everything you did. Lydia, I hope your husband came back skunk-free!
Everyone – for your support and for giving me Hope! Truth is, I Love you. But next time I try to kill myself, one of you act like you care and try to stop me, alright? Haha, just kidding.
Probably couldn’t stop me anyway.
Weird Random Thoughts
I think rice vaporizes when it hits the stomach, because I didn’t take a sizeable crap the whole time.
I lost 5 pounds on this trip
My stomach shrunk…I filled up fast at dim sum
People who stop to ask if I need a ride are nice
People who scream as I pass are assholes
People warn me against hitchhiking and against people giving rides
I think more people are nice than are mean. And besides, the nice actions have more meaningful effects anyway.
Part of the reason I did this is to face my fear, like I said. But another part is because I wanted you to know that it’s possible, and to reach beyond what you think you can do.
Days I can eat just rice and furikake rice seasoning without hating it: 2
Times I wanna see large containers of rice in the near future: 0
Times people stopped to ask if I needed a ride: 7
Times people drove by screaming: 4-5
Times I screamed back: 1
Times I saw a glowing, ethereal memorial at the side of the road during the storm from Hell for someone who had died and thought the area was haunted: 1
Number of Clif Bars eaten: 2.5
Number of 5-Hour Energy shots downed: 4
Number of times I brushed my teeth, dry: 1
Number of times I showered (rain): 2
Number of times I showered (sweat): 2
Number of times I showered (soap): 0
Number of times I uttered “Truth, Love, Hope” with every step: Uncounted. Many, many times. It helped me keep moving.
Number of miles traveled (foot): ~55
Number of miles traveled (train): ~30
Number of miles traveled (bus): ~10
Number of miles traveled (squad car): ~30
Number of miles traveled (Wilson’s grocery getter): ~5
Number of brilliant ideas I had after waking up: 3
Number of brilliant ideas I had after waking up that turned out to be stupid and make me look like a fool or a lunatic: 1
The day is winding down. And another day, far longer, is winding up.
Tomorrow, I’m going to walk this route, from Urbana to Chicago’s Chinatown.
The night is calm. I am not sure that I can do this. I have a feeling that this battle alone, the one I am about to embark on tonight, while I meditate, will determine my success. In one mentality, I have already lost. I have not yet found the other.
My heart is beating faster just thinking about it. Visualizing the trail and the destination. Feeling the asphalt underfoot and the hot sun above. I chose this weekend for the full moon, but the forecast says it will be cloudy. Hopefully only during the day.
I tried carbohydrate loading today. I haven’t quite eaten the required 12g per 1kg of body mass in carbohydrates, but it hasn’t been a full 24 hours yet, so I have time. We’ll see how that works. I have to get a flashlight from the car and extra batteries. Attach the reflective stickers to my backpack and pack everything up – dump my extra pair of shoes in there, too. Pack up my various chargers and bring a power strip to steal electricity wherever possible. Hat for shade. Ankle braces. Knee braces. Pain killers. Thanks, Jen. Some Clif Bars, a 6-pack of 5-hour energy. Notebook to scrawl in. Cellphone. Video camera. Google Maps directions.
MUST BUY:
Extra batteries (AAA)
Pain killers (pills)
Baby powder
Sunscreen
Sunglasses
MUST DO:
Attach reflective tape to backpack
Pack everything away
Make more rice
Pack some rice
Freeze some rice
Fill iPod with songs
Wash water bottles
Fill with water
Bring Toilet paper
Meditate
Meditate
Meditate
Truth. Love. Hope.
~Brian Kung
*EDIT* Changing the parameters a bit. I’m going to bring stuff to sleep on and move only during the night when it’s cooler. There’s a heat advisory. This almost definitely means calling off my Monday appointment.
I just saw Inception, which was an excellent movie, but at the same time, I didn’t like it.
…what?
The acting is great. The action is inventive. The plot is a bit contrived. The cinematography is good as well, but beside all of these details, what makes Inception a good movie is the fact that it makes the viewer think. In fact, the entire point of the movie is contained in the last scene.
I won’t give it away, but it is intended to make you think.
Let’s start with the acting. I really don’t know how to detect bad acting. Let’s skip acting.
The action…what’s funny about the action is that it’s incidental to the movie. There is action in this movie, but it is not an action movie. It’s strange how the characters avoid getting shot…even a bit more so than most other movies. This can be forgiven, however.
The plot could have been more or less surreal without really affecting the quality of the movie because of the very nature of the plot itself, but the existence of the technology is not explained, nor are the motivations of the experts corralled into helping the main character. It’s populated by shady extra governmental militant corporations and unlikely characters. In fact, most of this movie seems to exist in the main character’s head. And they even mention the unreality of it all at one point.
Suspicious.
Now for the cinematography. I also don’t know how to evaluate that. There were some pretty scenes. I liked them. But let’s skip cinematography, because I’m an uneducated boor.
REALLY, though, the best part of this movie is that it makes you think, constantly. It’s about a technology that allows you to infiltrate other peoples’ dreams and steal information. But the dream reality is just as convincing as real life…it has to be, or the dream will start to implode as the dreamer realizes it’s a dream, and his or her subconscious will begin to eliminate any intruders. And you wake from a dream most easily when you die.
I guess the best way to reframe this movie as a philosophical exercise is exactly that, actually. What if life was a dream, and the only way to wake from it were to die? Would you ever know during your life?
That said, I didn’t like the movie, primarily because I couldn’t suspend my disbelief, and the movie turned out to be Shutter Island II. My subconscious immediately abstracted it out to the problem above, and I no longer cared about the movie or any of the multiple dreams the characters inhabited…
But there’s still something missing. Something I’m not seeing, or something that I glossed over. I just can’t think of it…
What I’m looking for is some positive message in this. Truth, Love, Hope, all that jazz. Someone help me out?
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated
