How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big - Book Review

 Book Review #42

Many who've endured my presentations, have often seen me kick things off with a Dilbert toon. As I draft this review of Scott Adams' "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big," the Dilbert mastermind is in the fight of his life—undergoing treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. Yet, I firmly believe he'll conquer this hurdle, just as he triumphed over many setbacks before, emerging to inspire us all for years to come.

Adams' guide is a masterclass in witty, unconventional wisdom, brimming with life-changing insights that turn failure into fuel for success. Here are a few standout takeaways

- Systems Over Goals: Goals are in a constant state of failure until achieved, while systems focus on consistent actions that improve your odds of success over time. Systems-oriented people succeed more often.

- Energy Management: Personal energy is the most important metric to track. Make choices that maximize your energy, as it impacts all areas of life, including work, relationships, and health.

- Talent Stacking: Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success. Combining multiple mediocre skills can create a unique and powerful advantage.

- Selfishness Done Right: Prioritize your own health, fitness, career, and relationships first. When you’re at your best, you can help others more effectively.

- Happiness: Happiness is fleeting but some determinants of happiness include eating right, exercising, sleeping well, imagining a great future, having a flexible schedule, and doing things you can improve at.

- Failure as a Resource: Failure is not an endpoint but a tool for learning and growth. Extract value from every failure and use it to improve your systems. Treat failure as a friend and learn from it. It’s the raw material for success.

- Psychology and Perception: Understanding human psychology is essential for success. People are not always rational; they often act based on emotions and biases. Learn to use psychology to influence and persuade.

- Luck and Optimism: While you can’t control luck, you can create conditions for it to find you. Optimism helps you notice opportunities, take risks, and stay energized.

- Affirmations: Repeating positive affirmations can help focus your mind, boost optimism, and increase your energy, making you more likely to succeed.

- Key Skills: Develop essential skills like public speaking, business writing, psychology, persuasion, technology, social skills, voice technique, grammar, and accounting. These skills significantly increase your chances of success.

Scott Adams emphasizes a practical, systems-based approach to life, focusing on energy, skill-building, and leveraging failure to achieve success and happiness.

#bookreview #Dilbert #ScottAdams

From Strength to Strength - Book Review

Book Review #41

I picked up 'From Strength to Strength; Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life' by Arthur Brooks with the usual gusto of a mid-career professional (who still assumes that AI cannot replace his unique book reviews). But the book's message was clear: whether you're an everyday professional (like most of us) or a high-achiever, we are all ultimately doomed to face a terrifying professional decline and a crisis of purpose🤦‍♂️ 

Brooks even gave this misery a name: the 'Striver's Curse.' For me, the book was at the same time validating and also horrifying. So, in the spirit of group therapy, I've summarized the diagnosis and the proposed treatment plan for this general condition 🙌

- Professional decline is a reality; for some starting in their 40s and for some in their 50s, and its effects are proportional to your level of success (more pronounced for the more successful). Note: Charles Darwin personally considered his career a disappointment.

- With age fluid intelligence (raw problem-solving ability) wanes, but crystallized intelligence (accumulated knowledge and wisdom) grows. With age, people are better at combining and utilizing complex ideas and are better at telling a story from data. So seek your success in roles that require leadership, mentorship, and storytelling.

- “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.” When you are young, you have raw smarts; when you are old, you have wisdom. A career that relies on fluid intelligence will decline early while one based on crystallized intelligence will decline later

- Many successful people suffer from "success addiction," prioritizing being "special" over being happy, becoming workaholics killing personal relationships.

- 90 percent of CEOs “admit fear of failure keeps them up at night more than any other concern.” Sadly people who fear failure don’t take pleasure from their accomplishments.

- Rather devote the back half of your life serving others with your wisdom. True satisfaction comes not from major achievements but from mindfulness and appreciating small, present moments.

- Strong relationships and friendships are the safety net against the loneliness of decline. The best marker for happiness at midlife and beyond is if you can rattle off names of few authentic, close friends.

- Long-term happiness is significantly influenced by controllable factors like avoiding smoking, managing alcohol, a healthy weight, regular exercise, and coping skills.

- Ancient wisdom, from the Greek concepts of love like Agape, the Vedic stages of life (varnashramas specifically vanaprastha), or Buddha's eightfold path teaches that true fulfillment requires shifting focus from worldly success to spiritual growth, wisdom, and selfless service.

If you have read this far, then you probably need this book 😄 

#BookReview #Mindfulness

Autobiography of a Yogi - Book Review

 Book Review #40

Managing a slow reading pace with an ambitious book list feels like a challenging race against time and the art of prioritization. Autobiography of a Yogi suddenly propelled to the top of my reading list when I recently learned that Steve Jobs pre-ordered copies of the book for his memorial, and soon enough I saw chess prodigy Gukesh receiving the same book from Rajinikanth after his world championship win.

Yogananda Paramahamsa wrote the book in 1946, chronicling his life, blending personal anecdotes, mystical encounters, and timeless spiritual wisdom. A few big themes emerged for me

1️⃣ Being a relentless seeker: Ultimately only the seeker gets the wisdom. From childhood, Yogananda is consumed by a insatiable thirst for spirituality and his quest for a guru leads him to Sri Yukteshwar, the ethereal Babaji and Therese Neumann among others.

2️⃣ The Kriya Yoga: Sri Yukteshwar teaches him the practical techniques of Kriya Yoga, which is the union (yoga) with the Infinite cosmic consciousness through breath mastery. The Self Realization group even today offers this sacred science of breath & energy control, for anyone who seeks to experience the divine.

3️⃣ Interconnectedness: As we delve deeper, the autobiography transforms into a profound meditation on the interconnectedness of all things. He interweaves personal anecdotes with deep philosophical insights, revealing the underlying unity that across faiths, especially Eastern & Western faiths (Hindu, Christian, Muslim, etc.)

4️⃣ The Body's relative lack of importance: Yogananda learns from his guru that the body is a treacherous friend. Give it its due; no more. Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness. Imagination is the door through which disease as well as healing enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness and the unrecognized visitor will flee!

5️⃣ In your brain vs. In your being: True understanding goes beyond a large vocabulary. Sacred writings inspire inward realization when slowly absorbed, not just read. Wisdom isn’t grasped with the eyes but felt deeply within. The rishis conveyed profound truths in a single sentence that scholars debate for generations. When a truth moves from your brain to your being, you embody its meaning in a transformative way.

6️⃣ Reflections on Life’s Purpose: "Autobiography of a Yogi" helps you look beyond material existence and connect with a higher consciousness. It emphasizes meditation as a tool for self-discovery and underscores the importance of discipline, devotion, and divine will.

7️⃣ An Invitation: "Autobiography of a Yogi" is more than a biography; it is an invitation to explore the uncharted territories of our own inner being, to question our limitations, and to awaken our infinite potential.

The book cements the universal relevance of Indian spirituality which transcends dogmatic definitions of religiosity which sadly often finds appeal.

#bookreview #kriyayoga #spirituality #interfaith
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Poor Charlie's Almanack - Book Review

 Book Review #39

After reading "Poor Charlie's Almanack", I wondered what is an 'Almanack' or 'Almanac'. The etymology is obscure and it typically means a regularly published listing of current information about one or multiple subjects. The only other Almanack I read (Naval Ravikant's) was based on his tweetstorms whereas Charlie Munger's Almanack is basically wisdom from 11 of his speeches. While not a brisk read, the book is undoubtedly packed with wisdom. The book is like a dense proteinaceous meal that has to be chewed and digested slowly. And if you cannot read it yourself here are his key pearls of wisdom

— There is no better teacher than history in determining the future. There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book. Charlie was a biography nut and says that if you make friends among the “eminent dead” who had the right ideas you will be better educated

— Munger believes a successful investment career boils down to only a handful of decisions. If he likes a business, he takes a large bet and holds the position for a long period

— When it comes to investments, instead of making superficial stand-alone assessment's of a company’s financial information, he analyses both the internal workings as well as the larger, integrated ecosystem in which it operates. He calls the tools he uses to conduct this review his multiple mental models

— Understand the power of compounding and the elementary math of permutations and combinations. If you don’t then you go through a long life like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest

— It is not enough to think problems through forward. You must also think in reverse. “Invert, always invert”. For instance, if you want to help India, the question you should consider asking is not “How can I help India?” Instead, you should ask, “How can I hurt India?”

— You must think in a multidisciplinary manner. You must routinely use all the easy-to-learn concepts from the freshman course in every basic subject

— Life can be brutally hard. The three things to cope life's challenges: Have low expectations. Have a sense of humor. Surround yourself with the love of friends and family

— Three things to look for in a career: Don’t sell anything you won’t buy yourself. Don’t work for anyone you don’t respect and admire. Work only with people you enjoy

— Intense political animosity should be avoided because it causes much mental malfunction, even in brilliant brains

— The psychology of misjudgment is a terribly important thing to learn with about 25 little principles that interact. Terribly smart people make bonkers mistakes by failing to pay heed to it. In fact, you never get totally over making silly mistakes

— Lollapalooza is Charlie's favorite word. Preparation, Discipline, Patience, Decisiveness when they come together form the dynamic critical mass for a cascading of positive effects (the lollapalooza)

Enjoy this intense book if you can. 

#bookreview #lifelessons #investing #CharlieMunger

The Emperor of All Maladies - Book Review

 

Book Review #38

Over the past 2 months, I read a very serious book on Cancer titled "The Emperor of All Maladies". Siddhartha Mukherjee attempts to answer questions like How old is cancer? Where are we in our war on cancer? Can this war even be won? Here are my learnings from this mammoth volume

- Cancer is not a modern disease. Autopsies on 1000 year old mummified bodies have shown bone tumor (osteosarcoma) and 2 million year old jaw bones show signs of lymphoma.

- Cancer comes from 'karkinos', the Greek word for “crab.” The tumor, with its swollen blood vessels around it reminded Hippocrates of a crab. 'Onkos' or tumor means a mass or a load - oncology comes from this word.

- Cancer is an age-related disease. Civilization did not cause cancer, but by extending human life spans—civilization unveiled it.

- Cancer is caused by uncontrolled growth of a single cell unleashed by mutations/changes in DNA . Cancer is built into our genomes: the genes that unmoor normal cell division are not foreign to our bodies, but rather mutated, distorted versions of the very genes that perform vital cellular functions. Mutations in cancer genes accumulate with aging; cancer is thus intrinsically related to age.

- The foundational work on cancer was done by German pathologist Rudolf Virchow. He stumbled upon pathological hyperplasia—cancer, uncontrolled growth of cells, looking at cancerous growths through his microscope. Uncontrolled cell division created masses of tissue (tumors) that invaded organs and destroyed normal tissues. Tumors also spread from one site to another—metastasing—in distant sites, like the bones, brain, or lungs.

- Sidney Farber is the father of modern chemotherapy and in 1947 he used aminopterin discovered by Yellapragada Subbarow to induce remissions among children with leukemia. Before chemotherapy, doctors had only two strategies: excising the tumor surgically or incinerating it with radiation (Curie's radium). Just imagine antisepsis and anesthesia were only discovered around 1846.

- Mary Lasker and her group of activists (Laskerites) started the war against cancer, lobbied to get the 1971 US National Cancer Act passed. This has led us to a better understanding of cancer in the next 4 decades. Proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressors are the molecular pivots of the cell. They are the gatekeepers of cell division. Gene by gene, pathway by pathway, we now understand the biology of cancer. Complete maps of mutations in many tumor types will soon be complete, and the core pathways fully defined

- Early detection and Prevention are also major strategies in the war against cancer

- Even the discovery of major oncology drugs like Herceptin, Gleevec were providential and went through major activism and overcoming internal challenges before their commercial success. The war on cancer is far from over but we have made huge strides.

The book is an essential read for anyone wanting to understand this killer disease 

#bookreview #oncology