davidduckworth

[davidduckworth]

2019 in Books

2019 was another fairly slow reading year. No excuses really. I just didn't manage to get into a proper rhythm and the desire for doing other things trumped that of reading.

1. Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (3/5)

By Stephen Fry

My Take: Myths are just so…. wierd! I enjoyed the retelling of some of these timeless stories which just, for the most part, make no sense. It’s interesting how Gods have come to represent ‘beyond human’ and perfection, but the Greeks myths infuse Gods with both virtue and vice — vengeance, passion, cruelty, avarice. Gods are more extreme version of humans. I find it interesting how some of these stories have survived and continue to inspire creatives all over.

2. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (4/5)

By Stephen Hawking

My Take: Much needed refresher of descriptions and explanations of foundational physics, much of which I had forgotten. I enjoyed the historical elements of the basic premise that every theory is provisional, just a hypothesis no matter how much facts seem to agree with it. I love that our foundational understanding of the universe and it’s physical laws come from two theories that are largely at odds with each other: general relativity and quantum mechanics. The discussions around space, time, the expanding universe, elementary particles, and black holes are enjoyable-though I must say I’m already in need of another refresher.

3. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (1/5)

By Cal Newport

My Take: I was really hoping to like this book. The truth is that I struggle to focus on just one thing at a time and my mind tends to wander on to the next thing. But, I didn't really learn much of anything new and a lot of the book felt like fillers and obvious advice — focus on what's important, avoid social media, do the hard tasks early in the morning, email and the internet are attention hogs, add routines and habits that force you into the behaviours you want, etc…

4. Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (4/5)

By Ed Catmull

My Take: As you would expect from experts in story telling, the book weaved in the narrative of Pixar with business lessons. Creativity flurishes in enviroments with flat structures, candor, truth-seeking, trust, prototyping, iteration, mentorship. Specifically, found the braintrust (a group of trusted colleagues with their own circle of competence who will be honest with each other in pursuit of better outcomes) to be an interesting management tool to instantiate some of these concepts. Another interesting concept was thinking about how you can reduce the consequence of failure by keeping a project in a development phase for longer, where the costs of exploration and iteration is low. Once you commit to a path, it's much harder to change direction.

5. Why We Sleep (2/5)

By Matthew Walker

My Take: I've always been fond of sleep — but for some reason it's not one of those things that I prioritise over say a good night out with family/friends, Netflix (apparently Netflix's biggest competitor is sleep according to Reid Hasting), or a large dosage of link-hopping on the interwebs. I've always felt that sleep is largely a waste of time, and that if I can reduce the amount of time sleeping I'll gain more time in deliberate consciousness. This book is a good reminder of our body's physical limitations and how critical of a process sleep is for learning, memory, decision-making, creativity, happines, working, longevity (get the point here?). While the benefits are clear (if somewhat hyperbolic), trying to implement the advice is where the rubber hits the road. I'm working on scheduling sleep consistency, no screens in bed, no caffiene in the afternoon, ideal sleep setup. Unfortunately, I have a feeling a newborn baby won't help for this resolution in 2020.

6. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (4/5)

By Anthony Bourdain

My Take: I've been following Anthony Bourdain since his break away shows No Reservations from 2005ish onwards, but never managed to read the book that started his popular ascent. His untimely death in 2018 for some reason really spoke to me though I hadn't seen any of his shows for some time. Kitchen Confidential really brought it all back for me with his irreverant, 'bad-boy' take on food, travel, kitchens, and culture. It's a wonderful read both for it's narrative and kitchen tips. Owning and working in a restaurant is one of those things that sounds idyllic in theory, but the realities are grueling and Bourdain really brings that to life.

7. The Design of Everyday Things (4/5)

By Donald A. Norman

My Takeaways: Good design is harder to notice than bad design because good design makes itself invisbile. Defining what to design (i.e. finding the right problem) is one of the most difficult parts of the process, so avoid specifying the problem for as long as possible. There is no such thing as an average person — so don't design for one. One of the main contributing factors to bad design is the incremental addition of complexity of devices, due to continuously added features. User-centered design involves simplifying the structure of tasks, making things visible, getting the mapping right, exploiting the powers of constraint, providing feedback, designing for error, and explaining affordances using signifiers.

8. How Not To Die: Discover the foods scientifically proven to prevent and reverse disease (3/5)

By Michael Greger

My Takeaways: I picked up this book in an effort to learn more about nutrition, partially because I wanted to lose weight and partially because I wanted to see whether eating healthier would lead to feeling more energized and to better outcomes. I'm not sure eating better helped, but definitely won't hurt. The main premise is to just eat more plants along with the same nutritional advice you'd expect: minimize processed foods, sugar, alochol, eat more raw veggies, tumeric, flaxseeds, nuts, fruits, wholegrains. A dispointing part of the book is that it felt Greger cherry-picked research as most nutrition gurus do. In any case, for the past year the book has inspired me to be more plant-based and it's something I expect to continue without being extreme about it — there's just no downside really

9. Andrew Carnegie (3/5)

By Joseph Frazier Wall

My Takeaways: This was my big biography for 2019. And by big I mean 1200 pages big. I didn't dedicate much time to the backend of Carnegie's life which had more to do with his perspectives on philanthropy and giving away his wealth — not a problem I have today. A true rags to riches story (I mean from nothing to literally the richest man in the world), the book does a good job of setting the historical context and providing a good narative of Carnegie's life, beliefs, and businesses. True wealth derives from owning things that appreciate in value exponentially, not from a high salary. Carnegie was lucky to be in the right place (Pennsylvania) in a booming industry (railroads) at the right time (American industrialisation) with access to the right people as mentors and supporters (J Edgar Thomson). These relationships and connections proved essential for Carnegie to build his steel empire and wealth. His relationships with his businesses managers (Frick, Schwab), attention to detail, ruthless pursuit for cost-cutting and innovation, and approach to competitive threats stood out to me.

10. The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) (4/5)

By Philippa Perry

My Takeaways: I was graced with the news that we were expecting a baby boy earlier in the year and my wife gifted me this wonderful little book on how to approach child rearing. One's default's behaviour towards one's children are often determined by what your parents did, but that's often not the best approach. What stood out to me is the obvious really — that one should treat one's child like an independent person and strive to build a geniune, loving relationship with him/her. Don't manipulate, distract, lie, train… but teach, explain, support, listen, comfort, understand, be truthful. All behaviour is communication.

11. Principles: Life and Work (4/5)

By Ray Dalio

My Takeaways: Part platitudes and banal advice, part unconfounding clarity and an approach to life and work that is hard to argue with. Regardless of what one's philosophy is to life, Dalio's argument is it's important to have one and know what it is. That it's important to be thoughtful about how we spend our time on this earth. Think for oneself. Embrace reality, especially when it's painful. Be radically open-minded, but assertive and confident at the same time. Learn how to make effective decisions. Despite the self-helpy nature of the book, I enjoyed it.

[davidduckworth]

Compounding

Compounding is the exponential increase resulting from cumulating effects. 

It's most commonly applied in finance, as “the ability of an asset to generate earnings, which are then reinvested to generate their own earnings. In other words, compounding refers to generating earnings from previous earnings.”

In practical terms, investing $100 at 6% interest at the beginning of year 1 will yield $6 at the end of the year for a total of $106. In the next year that $106 at 6% interest will generate $6.36 of interest for a total of $112.36. Notice how without adding any additional money the interest generated went from $6 to $6.36. This is compounding at work. Exponential effects from cumulative advantages. 

Despite being a relatively simple concept, the true power of compounding is often underestimated. 

Warren Buffet has written several essays on the power of compounding in personal finance and probably my favorite example is from his 1965 letter to shareholders where he writes:

The saga of trading acumen etched into history by the Manhattan Indians when they unloaded their island to that notorious spendthrift, Peter Minuit in 1626. My understanding is that they received $24 net. For this, Minuit received 22.3 square miles which works out to about 621,688,320 square feet. While on the basis of comparable sales, it is difficult to arrive at a precise appraisal, a $20 per square foot estimate seems reasonable giving a current land value for the island of $12,433,766,400 ($12 1/2 billion). To the novice, perhaps this sounds like a decent deal. However, the Indians have only had to achieve a 6 1/2% return to obtain the last laugh on Minuit. At 6 1/2%, $24 becomes $42,105,772,800 ($42 billion) in 338 years, and if they just managed to squeeze out an extra half-point to get to 7%, the present value becomes $205 billion

Naturally useful in personal finance, it just means that one should start saving and investing sooner rather than later, so that as your base (i.e., the principal invested) increases so does the interest earned on the base. This is particularly important when thinking about your retirement strategy. 

But, I like to think about compounding in other areas. Namely, in small choices repeated over time. 

Everyday decisions don't seem to matter in the short-term. Who cares if you eat the burger or do salad? Should you do the hard work or take the shortcut?  Should you call your parents? Should you exercise today? What happens if you grow revenue by 5% or 6% week on week? 

Repeated over time, the compounded effect of those small changes makes all the difference. And that's true as much in business as it is in life. 

[davidduckworth]

2020

As a new decade begins, we'll try something (again).

I've been meaning to write more since my teenage years.... but never got past the first few posts. It's a 'New Years Resolution' that I've made time and time again, only to lose steam after the holiday period when the rhythms of real life kick-in. 

As with anything of significance the key, I suppose, is consistency.

It seems silly to jump on the bandwagon of New Year Resolutions - especially given the perennial lack of success with these and it's easy to be cynical. 

But, sometimes all we need is a reason to get started - and a new calendar decade seems like as good a reason as any. 

Let's see if this one sticks.