Adam

At my work (Pluralsight / Code School), I noticed this book was on the list of recommended reading for leadership. After reading it, I realized just how many of the core concepts of this book have found their way into our culture and behavior here. Some of the top takeaways to me that this one recommends include: know why your organization exists, have monthly 1-on-1's with everyone on your team or your top people will leave, have a solid leadership team, inspire vulnerability based trust, understand core values, have productive and targeted meetings.

This is what I was waiting for when Season 6 of the TV show ended. Compendium Three covers issues 97-144, which go from the last ~2 episodes of Season 6 up to who knows where. With how different the series has been from the comic, I'm looking forward to being surprised and annoyed in all new ways as my expectations are dashed by the writers.

The definition of “stoic” and the pursuit of stoicism aren't something I was able to differentiate before reading this book. After, though, I realized how much close to home the concepts of stoicism are to strive to behave. It's not often that I encounter a philosophy, or a belief that rings so completely true with my core self.

There were a few concepts that were the most poignant to me. Having a “philosophy of life” is an interesting idea – a way of living. “Negative visualization”- spending time thinking about what could go wrong to appreciate what you have, and be less affected when things don't go your way. The idea of “control” over - things you have complete control (yourself), limited control how over, or no control over – and spending time on those you have complete control over. Asking if you're guided by own values, or following others. There were a few things I disagreed with, but those were usually authors interpretations of the original works, which I more agreed with.

Having used the online alias Dyogenez for 20 years, and having read everything by Diogenes before this, it was amazing to hear such a deep dive into the cynics way of life - and how similar it is to Stoicism.

Some of my favorite stories center around con-men – people who find a way to take advantage of others. In the movies this is generally robbing from the rich, but back here in reality this is people praying on the weak. This book is half history lesson of scams, and half analysis of them. The constraints and structure of a con is explored and deconstructed many times over, evaluating cons of different types.

Compendium 2 covers issues 49-96 of the comic. This is almost all Alexandia time. Issue #100 of the comic is where Season 6 of the comic ends, leaving this as the events leading up Neegan. Of the story arcs and compendiums, I think the TV show did this era a bit more justice with a number of side stories that weren't in the comics but were even more interesting. Still a page turner that kept me up at night saying “just one more issue”.

Despite it's awful reviews, I enjoyed the movie for WWZ. It's hard to read a review of it without people mentioning how much it butchered the book. For what it was it was great – but the book is able to explore on a level that would never work for a movie. The book itself takes place after World War Z, the zombie war. The narrator interviews a series of people from around the world as they elaborate on how they participated in the war. These range from the origins of the disease and how it spread, to how countries adapted with it, to submarines, to how humans faced off and eventually cleaned up after the war.

If you've ever wondered “I like zombies, but what would it be like if we did ?”, then you'll truly enjoy this book. It's much less about action and more about strategy and motivations to keep on living.

After the ambiguous ending to the TV show for The Walking Dead, I couldn't help but want to see what would happen next. Sure, the TV show is different from the comic, I get that, but still there's so many similarities that I immediately started reading through the comic to see what might happen.

The Compendium #1 covers the first 48 issues of the comic - up until after the prison arc. Everything happens so fast compared to the show, that it took some getting used to. This was the first comic I've read, but I can say it was addictive from the start. Even re-reading parts I'd watched in the show and determining the small differences between the comic was a lot of fun.

This one had interesting points, but as someone who focuses around systems and order, it was hard for me to imagine structuring systems in this way. The examples were interesting – things like the human body and vaccines as an example of a system that grows stronger after trauma.

After watching Browns Ted talks and hearing a number of recommendations, I knew I had to check out her books. Browns openness sets a tone for the reader, staying vulnerable and staying curious on how she can adapt. The core concept of the book - that embracing vulnerability is a path towards many things is best conveyed by one line from the book:

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”

While Daring Greatly focuses on vulnerability, Rising Strong takes a look at this too, but adds on compassion, curiosity, love, generosity and more as a route to happiness and integrity. A few months out I can't say I remember much about this book verbatim, but my Myers Briggs did change from “Thinking” to “Feeling”, so I think it had a bigger impact than I can put into words.

Early on, Ronson mentions “If you worry you might be a psychopath then you aren't one” to help keep us focused. The exploration into the world of psychopaths and mental health institutes takes an interesting path – going through Scientology and the other fields to find memorable takeaways on the current state of phycology and our still limited understanding of the mind.

I've always been fascinated by the idea of “flow”. The ability to dig deep into a topic and concentrate on it for long periods of time takes some time to nurture and practice to get good at - and when I stop practicing it gets more difficult. The focus on deep work and the advantages it can bring in this book range from learning, to execution to producing the best work you're capable of.

This book brought up some interesting feelings for me. I haven't been publicly shamed, but a number of the incidents documented here I was aware of when they happened – and took a sense of schadenfreude in the incidents. It's hard to understand just how out of proportion some of the responses from the media and public were though, which this book did a good job of highlighting – and following up on those shamed.

I was looking forward to this one for a long time. From the end of Firefight when more background on Calamity was revealed, I was aching to know more backstory. The evolution of the world, and the new salt city stood out. Even the new epics had time to shine in this relatively short book. To say much more is a spoiler, but if you've already read the first two, you'll probably enjoy the finale. Maybe not love and rave about it, but it's a worthy ending to a fun series.

The 3rd book in Browns Red Rising series doubles down on some of the grit that makes it different than other scifi books around while putting strategy in the forefront. The deceit and planning kept me on my toes – even when guessing I knew what was going to happen I was constantly second guessing myself. A great ending to one of the best series I've read since The Hunger Games.

With the new SyFy Magicians series airing, and a number of people recommending this series, I decided to give it a shot. While expecting a more campy Harry Potter adaptation, what I got was a present day magical tale – a combination of HP, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Apocalypse Now. In a book that could've gone very campy, it managed to stay serious. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes next.

While in a different time, and with a different goal from the original Mistborn trilogy, this one expanded on the world in unexpected ways. I'm always impressed how Sanderson can bring back an idea from books ago that was ambiguous and expand on it. This book gave me a Final Fantasy vibe –a combination from the time period, magic system, characters and a few familiar plot devices that somehow seem right at home in the world of Mistborn.

While reading Elon Musk's biography, he touches quite a bit on his time at Paypal, including working with Peter Thiel. When I realized Thiel also had a biography out, I knew it would be next.

This book leads with a question: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”. When I heard this, I had to pause the audiobook and think this one through. Before I knew it, I'd been stewing on this question for over an hour!

The next biggest takeaway was the idea that the next “big thing” won't be a tweak on existing piece of software, but a completely new market. Bill Gates won the operating system money. Google the Search Engine market. Facebook the social network. It's better to dive into a new category than try to copy an existing one.

The 2nd book in the Red Rising trilogy, this follow-up brings the story in an un-formulaic direction. Somehow this book was able to make the switch from personal battles to space battles without skipping a beat all while keeping motivations realistic.

In modern times, Telsa is thrown using terms like “conspiracy” and “magic”. His legacy has been revived in recent years, with theories about “the government” holding back various inventions of his. Even The Oatmeal (web comic) has jumped on board crediting Tesla as the inventor of just about everything electrical and wireless in the last 150 years.

This book puts these in perspective and helps separate the truth from the myth. The truth is, he was a very smart inventor at a time when a lot of major technical inventions were coming into being. Tesla made his money (which would be 10s of millions in todays dollars) by patenting his work and leasing it out to other companies. This goes against some of the Tesla conspiracy theories that circulate today.

What was interesting to me was that Tesla seemed myopic in pursuit of wireless power transfer, which eventually would bankrupt him. During this time he neglected radio transmission (which let Marcone take credit) and he overlooked X-rays in his experiments, only realizing them after someone else made the discovery.

Tesla seemed like a nerd who loved thinking of world changing electronics, but not always with a plan on how to roll them out to the world who would use them. This, coupled with a love for living the high life, meant that he was dreaming big and living big, but was not able to continually raise more funds needed to make wireless power a reality.

Great introduction to graph databases – specifically Neo4j and Cypher. The approach in this book was helpful - iterating on problems and showing how one potential solution brings up new problems if you don't think it through.

It's weird to read so much science fiction, then read a biography that sounds like it would work there as well. Somehow Elon Musk has stayed off my radar – I don't how. His past and present have intersected with many interests of mine, from Paypal, SpaceX, Solar City and Tesla, yet I've never looked into the man himself.

Reading this was like reading the backstory of Tony Stark (Iron Man) – even to the point where Robert Downey Jr met with Musk to help flush out the character. His rise with Paypal, his management style and lack of personal empathy over action show how he's put productivity and his goals ahead of any kind of personal relationships. With the recent successes of Tesla and SpaceX, I'm looking forward to see what he does next.

It's difficult to write a book on character without taking a strong opinion on what it takes to “have character”, but I felt like this one did. This left me without as much of a takeaway as I would have hoped. The main focus is on biographies of various people, looking into how they lived. The leading thread throughout these was relatively simple: develop your own beliefs, stick to them through the hard times, don't showboat and base your life on the journey rather than the outcome.

I'm kind of interested in estimation and forecasting. This book focuses on how people make broad guesses based on information - with a focus on improving and refining forecasts as new information comes in. This book focuses on the traits that make great forecasters. The top most is an open, growth mindset - being open to change and looking towards what's next. The other major focus is adapting when new data comes in. These traits and more are explored through a number of forecasters – some professional and some amateur.

As a standalone book, I don't know why anyone would want to read this. Now, I love Tolkien's world – I've read LOR multiple times, same with the hobbit. Seen the movies more times than I can count, including midnight releases for each of them. But even armed with this background, and other information gleaned from videos, Tolkien encyclopedias and other sources I couldn't get into this. It's amazing in what it is – a reference about the world – but it is not a compelling story. I think of this more as a glossary that goes at the end of LOR to help give background to the world.