I have a hunger for knowledge, for knowing how things work, and a hope to gain a bit of wisdom in the process. To this end I seem to be always in the middle of reading three books and listening to an endless stream of podcasts. That’s just “my thing”, and recognize that it doesn’t have to be yours. However, most of the current research indicates that just like our physical self, our mental self is either growing–becoming stronger, more resilient, more competitive–or becoming less so. All determined by the exercise we put it through and the raw materials we feed it. As you are visiting this site, you are probably interested in being more instead of less!
This page is here to share what I am currently OCDing over. You are invited to email me with your brain food du jour. Hopefully, it will find its way onto this page.
Timothy Ferriss
Amazon and Audible
The 4-Hour Workweek has been a best seller for several years. Being the eternal skeptic that I am, there is the tendency for me to think that anything the masses approve of is, by definition, something I want to stay away from. And so I did for years. But eventually the unrelenting chatter about this book and its revolutionary perspective on work broke down my defenses.
Timothy Ferriss makes some startling claims in the book, not only about how to game your work life, but about his own accomplishments as well. He lays claim a couple times to being a champion martial artist. However, as I understand the researchable facts, there is no public record of him being a champion, or anything else. He claims to lecture at Princeton University. The reality is that he does a guest lecture for one class once a semester, and is not listed at Princeton as a lecturer. He does hold a Guinness Book entry for most number of Tango spins in a minute, though I’m not clear on how this is evidence of any special knowledge, skills, or philosophical mastery on his part. He also claims to have become wealthy by starting and running his own company that marketed a health drink that purports to improve brain function. Of course there is no scientific research to back up the claim, no FDA approval, nor any evidence that the product is anything but one of thousands of such “promise everything, do nothing” snake-oils that have made many unethical marketeers wealthy over the centuries.
With this as a backdrop, should you or I want to take business advice from this man? Surprisingly, the answer may be “yes”.
The reason is that Timothy is, if nothing else, a master gamer. He studies the rules of the game, finds its weaknesses, and like the very smart rat in a maze, he crawls over or tunnels under the barriers to get to the prize before anyone else. If one can utilize this strategy without a breach of ethics, I count that as working smarter, not harder!
This is my view of the heart of his work. Can you get away with only working 4 hours a week at your job? Not unless you are a master snake-oil salesperson. Can you get far more accomplished in far less time? Absolutely, and I’m convinced anyone reading this book will find at least a few treasures they can take back to the job to make themselves and the organization better, smarter, and more effective.
This book has been widely acclaimed as the latest “Great Ideas in Business” books. Tony Hsieh is co-founder of Zappos, the largest online shoe store. As you read on keep in mind that “largest” does not necessarily mean “successful”.
Delivering Happiness is part brief autobiography (how much of an autobiography can you have being under 30 years old?), part “here are my brilliant ideas for how to conceive, start, and run a business”. Tony has some interesting and different ideas on how to run a business. He is more strongly oriented towards creating a corporate culture than any other business guru. However, I’ve got a problem with Tony and the book. It’s the same I have with most of the gurus. Proof (or at least viable evidence) and replication. Tony was at the right place at the right time once and pretty much by accident made millions in the process. Out of boredom he joined what was to become Zappos. 10 years later he has made Zappos the largest online store specializing in footwear, with sales over $1B per year.
But Zappos has always been on the verge of failure and is completely dependent on an ongoing 100 million dollar line of credit with their banks. This tells me that they have less than $1M (less than 10%) in profit. This would not be considered a successful situation for any business. For all of the hype about how brilliant Tony is, he hasn’t proved that culture is the key to business success. I wish he had–I’m a huge believer in developing corporate culture, one based on integrity, contribution, and “doing what is right”. He as not demonstrated that if you build the right culture the profits will follow. He has not demonstrated anything except that he was successful at making money by accident one time in his life, and his Zappos isn’t it. More disappointing is he discusses the dozens, possibly over a hundred other companies he helped start, most of which failed, none of which had more than marginal success.
So like most of the other business gurus, he provides neither proof nor evidence of his ideas, and has not been able to replicate his one (apparently accidental) success. Not someone I would consider a viable role model, leader, or even teacher.
James W. Loewen
Amazon and Audible
I’m not fond of history. Perhaps it is because I live in “the ol’ Southwest”, with a substantial population of “native americans” (to be humble, I haven’t the slightest idea what the current politically correct term is for the descendants of the earliest settlers of North America). Perhaps it is because I was always unbelieving in the stories told in my school history books. It may be because of the absurdly obvious blatant BS our government hands us every day and demands we swallow as “The Truth”.
I’ve never been fond of history. In fact, I rate it down at the bottom of “things I don’t care about”, right next to geography. But this book brings history alive. I am trusting that it is as honest as the author claims, for unlike most of my interests, I simply cannot devote time to researching the validity of its contents. But in these pages you will find the REAL story behind history, based on official documents written by those who were witness to the events. No more 2-dimensional “chopped down his fathers cherry tree and acknowledged the act” (of course a fabricated story) historical figures. We become immersed in the multi-dimensional nature of the original settlers of this continent, founders of this nation, and the wars that follow. Though in part I’m sickened by the level of inhumanity of our past behavior (measured by current standards), I am also inspired by the ability of enlightened minds to eventually win out (at least on occasion).
This is my first time hearing Tom read his own material. Once I got past the “Ben Stein on caffeine" tone of his voice, I began to love the book. This is not one of the typical business books by Tom or anyone else. This is very brief real-world examples of how the very smallest and simplest things and actions can have the most significant impact in our business, relationships, and life. I suspect this will become one of the few books that I listen to multiple times because it doesn’t demand deep concentration, it’s entertaining, and if put into practice could be life-changing.
It seems as though every marketing expert is proclaiming Twitter and Facebook to be the new holy ground for marketing success. Of course, there are very few statistics to back this up, except that businesses are flocking to these two for online advertising–because their marketing experts tell them to. Looks like circular reasoning to me, but perception is often reality, or soon becomes so.
With that bit of cynicism behind me, I had no idea how much there was to Twitter, or how the concept of sending micro messages could be used so creatively as in the real-world examples presented in this book. Whether Twitter is the 2010 version of the pet rock, or the prototype of bigger things to come, it certainly couldn’t hurt your business to explore how to take advantage of this new medium to develop customer loyalty and spread your message. This book is very much the “EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about Twitter” resource. I strongly suspect the developers of Twitter weren’t aware of half the ideas in this book!
