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[scottiedawg4]

Books, 2020

Summary

This will be a relatively short post this year. I'm planning to move my blog posts to a personal website in 2021, and am less interested in writing a fully-formed, detailed blog post here.

Count

In 2020 I read 49 books. This was down from the previous 4 years: 110, 75, 71, 77. The pandemic definitely made an impact. Less time commuting. More time doing mentally comforting things (e.g. music), than adding knowledge via non-fiction books.

Fiction v Non-Fiction

Of the 49 books I read, 48 were non-fiction. The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll has the distinction of being the sole fiction book I read in 2020.

Common Authors

I read multiple books by the same author only twice: Oprah Winfrey and Stanley McChrystal.

Publication Years

The oldest published book I read was The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll.

The newest published book I read was Little America by EPIC.

Books published in 2018 and 2019 dominated.

Average Rating

The average rating was 5.84. This was down from 2019, but up from 2018.

Top Books

Only 9 books were rated 8 or above:

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi -> {Rating: 10}

Of the 512 tracked books I've read, only 16 received a 10 rating from me.

This book took my breath away (no pun intended). I found myself completely stopping what I was doing while listening, entranced by the empathy, humanness, sadness, and joy coming from the written words.

The writing was beautiful, the topics both sobering and inspiring.

I will absolutely read this book again and again. Highly recommended.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig -> {Rating: 9}

This book has long been on my list, recommended by many sources. It's sort of an odd read; it has a slightly dated feel; it's a meandering story without clear aims, goals, topics, takeaways; it's about motorcycles. Except it's not about motorcycles. It's about the journey of life.

I enjoyed this book so much I bought a physical copy. I plan to re-read, taking notes and making highlights, to pull out the wisdom that I find most applicable.

You Are Special by Fred Rogers -> {Rating: 9}

This book would feel fake by almost any author. But you can feel the genuineness through every word. A wonderful book.

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss -> {Rating: 9}

This is the best book on negotiation I have read. This was a re-read for me--it helped me advocate for myself and get my biggest raise about 4 years ago.

Becoming by Michelle Obama -> {Rating: 9}

This book had a similar feel to the Fred Rogers book--the empathy and genuine is so evident on every page. Books like these give you hope.

Educated by Tara Westover -> {Rating: 9}

I'm fascinated by cults and those that escape them. Westover escaped and flourished, and her look back is riveting.

Range by David Epstein -> {Rating: 9}

Epstein explores whether breadth is better than specialization. In our increasingly knowledge-worker-oriented world, and one that will see technology take over even more of those jobs, breadth may be the optimal skillset.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande -> {Rating: 8}

This book was similar to When Breath Becomes Air. Dealing with death on a daily basis gives you a unique perspective on life.

Sandworm by Andy Greenberg -> {Rating: 8}

I loved Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zettel on the Stuxnet virus, so it was no surprise that I enjoyed this story.

Looking to 2021

2021 is my Year of Focus.

In the past I've read books that were the shortest (in an attempt to read the most books), I've just made lists of the books I most want to read, and I've done other random things.

For 2021, I went through every book in my To Read list, and added 2 Topics to each. Then I will read by Topic, going deeply into a Topic.

My first Topic for 2021 will be Race. Here are the current 26 books within that Topic: - Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho - How to Argue with a Racist by Adam Rutherford - How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones - The End of White Politics by Zerlina Maxwell - Blackout by Candace Owens - White Awake by Daniel Hill - Heavy by Kiese Laymon - So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo - Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett - The Poisoned City by Anna Clark - Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein - Hatemonger by Jean Guerrero - The Second Coming of the KKK by Linda Gordon - They Can't Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery - The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby - Writings on the Wall by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Separated by Jacob Soboroff - Rising Out of Hatred by Eli Saslow - The Big Lie by Dinesh D'Souza - The Sword and the Shield by Peniel Joseph - White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo - Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Tatum - Caste by Isabel Wilkerson - The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander - How to be an Antiracist by Ibram Kendi

Closely related to Race is Civil Rights (I had a hard time assigning only 2 Topics to each book). The 16 additional books under that Topic are: - Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo - Across That Bridge by John Lewis - Begin Again by Eddie Glaude - Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth - Economism by James Kwak - Evicted by Matthew Desmond - Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly - His Truth is Marching On by Jon Meacham - How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley - How the Other Half Learns by Robert Pondiscio - I Got a Monster by Baynard Woods - Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson - One Life by Megan Rapinoe - The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg - Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Peterson - X + Y by Eugenia Cheng

Those 42 books may carry me through 2021. In the event they don't, these are the other topics under consideration: - BIOGRAPHY - CAREER - CREATIVITY - CRIME - DESIGN - DYSTOPIAN - FOCUS - FUTURE - MENTAL HEALTH - PHILOSOPHY - PSYCHOLOGY - RELIGION - SERIAL - SPIRITUALITY - TRAVEL - WRITING

Happy reading to all in 2021!

[scottiedawg4]

2018: The Year of Volume Reading (that wasn’t)

In 2018 I started out attempting to read a large volume of books, by prioritizing the shortest ones.  This started out wonderfully, I read 20 books in January! That was followed by 10, 10, 9 in February, March and April.  Those 4 months constituted 69% of my reading for the entire year…..I just lost steam.    I finished 2018 with 71 books read, lower than either 2017 or 2016.

Average Rating (Enjoyment)

Admittedly, with every book I finished, the next book had to be AT LEAST as long, so the books got longer.  Since I was not choosing the books I most wanted to read, I was expecting my enjoyment of the books to be lower than in past years.  I was right:

My average rating was 5.4, a 10% decrease from my average enjoyment.  And a 19% decease from my 2017 “year of prioritized reading” average enjoyment.  As such, reading became a bit more tedious for me.  As the year continued, I slowly forgot about my volume reading and started picking books that were at the top of my heap.

My average rating on books finished in the first 4 months of the year was 5.1.  Since then?  5.8.  

Since I’ve begun tracking books read, only 3.24% of the 432 books have received a 10 rating.  In 2018, no book received a 10 rating.  

Publication Dates

56% of the books I read in 2018 were published in 2016-present.

The oldest? * 850-Meditations by Marcus Aurelius * 1926-The Richest Man in Babylon by George Samuel Clason * 1929-All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque * 1946-Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis * 1951-The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts * 1962-One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn

There were no differences in enjoyment between recently published books and slightly older published books.

Topic Areas

In 2016 I tracked the topics/genres of each book I read.  I got the metadata from Barnes & Noble.  After forgetting about it last year, I wanted to track this again this year.   However, I wasn’t able to get the same data from Barnes & Noble.  So I went with Goodreads, which provided much more general/generic/specific genres, unfortunately. 

Each book had 2-4 topic areas, so there is not a 1:1 mapping between topics and books read.

Anyways, here they are:

Here are my favorite books of 2018, in order:

* I Will Teach you to be Rich by Ramit Sethi * Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb * Remote by Jason Fried * Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard * When by Daniel Pink * Finish by Jonathan Acuff * Tao of Charlie Munger by David Clark * Relentless by Tim Grover * Rework by Jason Fried * Deep Work by Cal Newport * Find your Why by Simon Sinek * Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements by Mary Buffett and David Clark * Meditations by Marcus Aurelius * Unspeakable by Chris Hedges * The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim

I Will Teach you to be Rich by Ramit Sethi This book took me by surprise. It completely belied it’s “click-bait-y” name. Sethi teaches practical and basic financial literacy, in layman’s terms, while clearly acknowledging that “rich” is defined differently by different people.  Sethi even encourages readers to decide for themselves what their rich life looks like.  Once you know what YOUR version of a rich life entails (e.g. being able to fly and see relatives often, being able to work < 20 hours a week, no commute, owning a Bugatti, etc, etc), you can work to step towards it.

In a world where credit card debt, balance transfer offers, PMI, car loans, and investment antipathy are commonplace, this book dispels with myths, and preaches actionable, practical, systematic advice.

Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb Even though Taleb likes to write in a preachy, esoteric, back patting way (much like Gladwell), the content is rich and well explained.  Taleb believes that one must have “skin in the game” for many modern, social and economic systems and constructs to work efficiently.  Due to my economics background, I heartily agree.  When you look observe issues in America that adversely affect a minority (e.g. Flint water, health care/insurance, police brutality, immigration, legal system, global warming/pollution, etc), you see systems where all parties involved don’t have skin in the game to the same degree.  When incentives are mis-aligned, you have opportunity for one party who is incentivized by goals that are harmful to other parties.  

Adam Smith laid it out so well almost 250 years ago: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. “

Economic systems that required benevolence from many have failed spectacularly in history (at scale). Economic systems that didn’t require such benevolence have succeeded at a relatively higher rate. Our world enjoys a collective high standard of living, long life expectancies, higher levels of education, and more.

That said, one reality I’ve wrestled with is the reality that while economic systems that don’t require benevolence from the participants to “work”, while they most always create a higher “total standard of X [living, health, etc], they also ensure or have the constant byproduct of some participants having an unbelievably low standard of X.  

There may not be economic and social systems that can both maximize the “total standard of X” and also maintain some “minimum standard of X” but I think working to ensure that any system is designed to give all participants equal or closely equal skin in the game is a worthwhile end.

Remote by Jason Fried This book doesn’t grab the top spot this year, but had the greatest impact on my life this year.  

Working remotely is a concept that has only recently been gaining steam, due to a host of factors (general societal changes, technological advancement, and more).  It’s new, unknown to many, and scary to many (including me).

This year I became a remote worker.  I left my highly standard, safe, normal, office job (complete with office cubicle, bus commute, salary, employee appreciation dinner, corporate red tape, water coolers, shirt and tie), and accepted a job to work from home, remotely.  

It’s been life changing in the freedom it’s afforded me and my family.  As I learn more about myself I’ve realized that freedom of time is my definition of a rich life.  Working remotely has given me incredible freedom of time that I never knew was feasible.  I largely get to set my own hours, and have the freedom to spend time with my wife, dogs, cats, friends and family.

Now, it’s not all roses and bergamot oil and ghiradelli chocolates.  The remote worker has to be more technologically savvy, more self-disciplined, and more financially savvy.  There’s far more to figure out on your own.

But the freedom of time and freedom of choice is wonderful.

Remote by Fried and DHH de-mystifies what remote work is.  For anyone with the skills or interest in a remote career, read the book!

Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard Chouinard is the founder of Patagonia.  I love these biographical books on the life of a founder and the company they founded. It always shows that no successful company arose due solely to luck or timing. While those chance aspects always play some role, successful business arise due to passion, perseverance, failures and hard work. He also talks about the many principles he instilled in Patagonia that are not directly or inherently related to business success, e.g. doing good, protecting the environment. When by Daniel Pink Pink lays out how important Timing is to everything in our lives.  He shows example after example of differing rates of: infection from surgery based on when the surgery occurs, rates of parole granted depending on if the decision is made before or after lunch, and so many other eye-raising examples. it’s a fun read that will encourage you to think about timing in every aspect of your world. Finish by Jonathan Acuff Finish breaks down how forming more completable tasks and goals, and finishing them, is more important psychologically, than the tasks and goals actually being significant in and of themselves.  Tao of Charlie Munger by David Clark Munger has been Warren Buffett’s right hand man for decades. It’s interesting to read how incredibly successful people usually have a counterpart who never holds back with them.  You need that sort of honest opinion and brutal feedback. Relentless by Tim Grover Relentless deals with the mental aspects of complete dominance, specifically around sports. We tend to think of sports competitors as incredible athletes primarily, and businessmen as very intelligent, but often, it’s the mental strength that underlies success in each endeavor. Rework by Jason Fried I’m a sucker for anything Fried, DHH, Basecamp, etc.  They impress me as thoughtful, intelligent and good communicators.  Rework is a biography of sorts, telling their story while sharing the lessons they’ve learned to help current and future entrepreneurs. Deep Work by Cal Newport Deep Work is a cousin to Flow by Csikszentmihalyi or Focus by Goleman.  “work” or “productivity” follow an uber-Pareto Principle.  The times where we can get into true focus, deep work, and flow, is when the bulk of work gets done where the bulk of value gets created. It is prompting me to figure out the best ways to eliminate distractions to allow me to complete deep work more and more often.

2019

In 2019 I will be continuing the prioritized reading that I switched to in 2018.  Even though my To-Read list is curated by me, it’s still 900+books long.  Life is too short to read any book that isn’t in my top 150.  The books I’m most looking forward to reading in 2019:

* Principles by Ray Dalio * How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan * Bad Blood by John Carreyrou * Mastering Fear by Brandon Webb * Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss * Dare to Lead by Brene Brown * The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink * Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss * It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried * Dream Golf by Stephen Goodwin * Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb * Team of Teams by Stanley McChrystal * The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene * The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday * Atomic Habits by James Clear * Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett * The Book of Why by Judea Pearl * Thinking In Systems by Donella Meadows * The Anatomy of a Golf Course by Tom Doak * Astroball by Ben Reiter * The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene

Happy reading in 2019 everyone!

[scottiedawg4]

Using Data to Combat the Opioid Crisis

Wonderful article on how crucial the quality and consistency of data is when combating public health issues. 

[scottiedawg4]

2017: The Year of Prioritized Books

Sneak peek at my favorites of 2017:

In 2016, I strove to read the most books that I could.  That often meant prioritizing shorter books, over books that I would rather read.   Here's a long explanation of my reading process. Feel free to skip this section.

Reading Process: files, audiobooks, libraries, Dropbox, Docast.me. Overcast and more. 

I consume almost all my books via audiobook.  I keep a list of books I want to read (currently at 843), and constantly check the Seattle Public Library catalog for audiobook versions.  When they're available, I checkout, download, combine the multiple mp3 files into a single audio file, and save to Dropbox. Then I can shove them into Docast.me (a service that turns audio files in a Dropbox folder into a consumable RSS feed) and from there I can download them into my podcast player of choice, Overcast.  Overcast has three key features that I LOVE.  (1) Smart Speed. This features algorithmically cuts out silence. It does it seamlessly; nothing feels awkward. (2) Voice Boost. This smooths volumes.  (3) Sped up listening.  I usually listen to audiobooks anywhere from 1.83x to 2.66x speed.  Add in Smart Speed and the "true listening speed" ranges from 2x to sometimes over 4x.   I always try to tweak the speed to retention doesn't suffer.

Ranking Books on my ‘To Read’ list

I also rank all books by how much I want to read them.  #1 is currently Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss.  #843 is A Crowdfunder's Strategy Guide by James Stegmaier.

In 2017, I always grabbed the top book from my list that I had an audiobook file of. Hence, The Year of Prioritized Books.

I read 75 books in 2017, down from 110 in 2016.

However, my average rating of the books I read was up, 6.7 in 2017, compared to 6.0 in 2016.

Of the 75 books I read in 2017, 73 were Non-Fiction and 2 were Fiction.

The lone fiction: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (rated 5 by me) The Circle by Dave Eggers (rated 8)

My favorite books of 2017?

10s Shoe Dog by Phil Knight An incredible story of how Phil Knight built Nike and how it almost didn't work out, seemingly hundreds of times.  It's continually refreshing to read biographies of successful businessmen, and see how there's no substitute from hard and difficult work, sacrifice, help from friends and a solid dose of luck.  I was riveted for every bit of this book!

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink Jocko and his podcast are a shot of motivation for any soul. Jocko pulls no punches and draws on his elite military experiences to bring leadership principles to the masses.  The concept of extreme leadership can be transformative for any leader.

Radical Candor by Kim Scott I'm blunter than most, and Kim Scott's book showed how rare and valuable true radical candor is, and how it's so much more than just saying what you're thinking all the time. Being able to combine true feelings with deep empathy is paramount to deep human relationships.

Essentialism by Greg McKeown Greg delves into what's essential in our lives and how to find out. I'm finding personally that saying no more is much more important than I've realized.

This ‘trick’ by Warren Buffet is wonderful. 

9s Messy by Tim Harford Unshakeable by Tony Robbins Daring Greatly by Brene Brown Assholes by Aaron James The More of Less by Joshua Becker Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler Awkward by Ty Tashiro Emotional Agility by Susan David

The themes are very strong among those 12 books.   Human relationships, cutting out what doesn't matter, bluntness + empathy, humble leadership, determination and perseverance.

There are only 2 authors that I read multiple books of in 2017: Adam Alter, Drunk Tank Pink (8) and Irresistable (8) Robert Greene, Mastery (8) and The Art of Seduction (5)

What books did I not enjoy much? 3s The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes The Wisdom of Frugality by Emrys Westacott Modern Mindfulness by Rohan Gunatillake The Vaccine Race by Meredith Wadman

I read 11 books in June. 3 in May.

Books by Publication Year: 2017 - 19 2016 - 17 2015 - 9 2013 - 4 2009 - 4

In 2018, I'm going back to volume reading. I think I can get to 150 books read!  I then plan to go back to ‘prioritized reading’ in 2019.

I would always love recommendations!

Also, since I’m VERY guilty of reading almost exclusively Non-Fiction, I’d love recommendations for Fiction.  I plan to delve into some Daniel Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Pierce Brown, Neil Gaiman, Andy Weir, and some classics. 

Happy Reading in 2018!!!

-Scott

Shameless Twitter linking

@Dropbox @Docastme @OvercastFM @MarcoArment @SPLBuzz @iTunes @AmazonKindle @tferriss @ToolsofTitansTG @neilhimself @NikeUnleash @Nike @jockowillink @kimballscott @WarrenBuffet @TimHarford @GregoryMcKeown @TonyRobbins @BreneBrown @joshua_becker @steven_kotler @tytashiro @SusanDavid_PhD @adamleealter @RobertGreene @nealstephenson @Pierce_Brown @andyweirauthor

[scottiedawg4]

10 Key Youngsters for Seahawks Future

All are 24.7 years old or younger

1. DE Frank Clark Clark plays an extremely expensive position, and Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril are towards the end of their careers. While Clark is closer to his first payday than his draft date, he's still the most important player for the defense's continued dominance for years.

2. WR Tyler Lockett WR has also become an expensive position, albeit not to the level of DE/OLB or CB or QB.  Lockett has emerged as a complete WR; deep threat, route runner, great hands. Even though DB89 is in his prime, Kearse and Richardson may not be around after 2017. Lockett's youth and production is key to our WR group.

3. OT George Fant George Fant has impressive physical capabilities and little football experience. If he is able to be a competent NFL Left Tackle, the value will be enourmous to the Seahawks, considering he was an Undrafted Free Agent. Fant this high speaks more to his low cost than the probability that he becomes a competent NFL tackle.

4. RB C.J. Prosise In the New England and Philadelphia games last year, Prosise showed how much he transforms our offense.  Even with RW banged up and the OL super struggling, Prosise caused our offense to be a relative juggernaut. In the modern NFL, Prosise's flexibility as a runner and catcher allows the Seahawks to utilize multiple personnel packages, even without substituting, which stresses the defense.

5. DT Quinton Jefferson After the luxury of rotating Bryant, McDonald and more, the Seahawks have tried and failed to find a pass rushing Defensive Tackle. Jaye Howard would have worked out but he couldn't make the 53 on those DEEP Seahawks squads. Jordan Hill didn't work out. Jefferson is the new hope. Schneider pretty clearly saw a tier in last year's draft and traded up for Jefferson.  I bet Schneider also knew the 2017 draft was short on pass rushing DTs. It's likely that Jefferson would be a Day 2 pick in this year's draft. If Jefferson can stay healthy and provide interior pass rushing to complement Reed/Rubin base run stopping, Bennett's inside & outside pass rushing, and Avril 7 Clark's speed exterior rushes, the Seahawks defensive line will once again have a stable of talent able to keep each other fresh.

6. OL Germain Ifedi Ifedi is a complete conundrum. He's got the physical tools. He's been an OL for a while (i.e. not a DT convert or basketball convert or TE convert). He mauled three Jets defenders on a Seahawks TD run last year.

BUT, he was woeful for much of the year, looking lost on stunts.

As a 1st round pick, he has to produce well to return value to the Seahawks. But at this point his draft cost is a sunk cost. Ifedi is still a young player, with upside at a position group desperately needing it.

7. DT Jarran Reed Reed fell to the Seahawks, who went up to nab the undervalued run defender. Reed played great in his first year, filling his role as expected. If he adds any semblence of pass rushing to his game, his value leaps up.

8. TE Nick Vannett Vannett was one of the best in a weak 2016 TE draft class.  He's a pretty classic Y TE; more so than Graham and Willson. Because of Graham and Willson, Vannett saw few snaps with the offense last year. Graham and Willson are back, but I hope Vannett sees an expanded role that allows him to provide blocking and receiving. He could provide more personnel package flexibility. A 12 personnel package with Prosise, Graham, Vannett, Baldwin and Lockett causes problems for the defense. If the defense goes nickel to combat the 5 potential receivers, SEA can run heavy with 2 TE blocking and Prosise carrying.

If the defense goes heavy base to stop the run, SEA can split Grahm out and/or motion Prosise out of the backfield.

9. RB Thomas Rawls Running Back is the youngest position group the Seahawks have. It's also perhaps the core of their team identity. If Rawls can run tough and downhill, the entire offense runs better.

10. RB Alex Collins Collins took a long time to get going in his rookie campaign. Injuries slowed him down early, and once healthy, he didn't seem to have the decisiveness, vision, burst that we saw on tape. Late in the year he got more carries and got into better rhythms.

A 4 headed RB monster of Rawls, Prosise, Lacy and Collins would allow the Seahawks to have good, healthy RBs all year.

Young guys that didn't make the top 10: Deandre Elliott Tanner McEvoy Rees Odhiambo

Cornerback is the #1 position I would love to add a young stalwart in the draft. With Shead hurt until mid year, Lane playing poorly in 2016, and Thorpe and Elliott unproven at CB, the Seahawks have a need at CB. A drafted CB will have the opportunity to play a lot in 2017, something that can't be said for a drafted SS or FS. Adding two of King, Humphrey, Moreau, Witherspoon, Jones, Douglas, Stribling, White and Allen would vault the CB position from among the oldest and shallowest on the team, to among the youngest and deepest.

The Seahawks blue chip core defenders are really at their peak. It’s hard to come to terms that most do not have their best football ahead of them. It’s also tough to draft/develop their replacements when Avril, Bennett, Sherman and Kam are RIGHT NOW among the best in the NFL. Playing time just isn’t there for developing players. At least there are multiple starting DE, DT and CB on the defense.  It will be much harder to replace the single, highly-specialized positions on the defense.....MLB (Wagner), WLB (Wright), SS (BamBam), FS (Earl). 

The Seahawks are unflinching at rewards homegrown players that have bought into the culture and are leaders of the team. 

The Seahawks have also been unflinching about planning for the future and never letting emotion trump pragmatism when moving on from players.

[scottiedawg4]

Burger Blog, Aces and Ales, Las Vegas, CA

On an otherwise disappointing day in Vegas, we stopped at Aces and Ales for lunch. 

I got the great mac attack burger, overflowing house mac, Applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion with melted cheese and crack sauce. 

This burger was amazing, primarily because of the toppings.  The patty was barely medium. But man, the mac and cheese and bacon and crack sauce just made everything nom nom delicious. 

Beef = 5.0 Bun = 5.0 Toppings = 7.5 Fries = 5.5

Price = $15.39

OMVB = 13.74

Service = 6.0 Ambience - 6.0

BMVB = 18.42

This burger ranks 17/33 in OMVB and 10/32 in BMVB.

[scottiedawg4]

Burger Blog - MoMo’s, San Francisco, CA

The House Burger

cheddar cheese, chopped lettuce, onion, tomato, special sauce, bacon

This burger was cooked excellently. I’m finding out that my enjoyment of a burger is primarily driven on whether the patty is cooked medium or not. 

Beef = 6.5 Bun = 5.5 Toppings = 6.5 Fries = 5.5

Price = $20.90

OMVB = 13.00

Service = 5.0 Ambience - 6.0

BMVB = 15.92

This burger ranks 19/32 in OMVB and 18/32 in BMVB.

[scottiedawg4]

Burger Blog - In-N-Out, Vacaville, CA

I’ve had In-N-Out only a handful of times before and was quite excited to eat there again.

I got the cheeseburger. Simple. 

Basically, this burger broke my algorithm. Since I use price as a proxy (in the denominator of my algorithm), there is the possibility for a low price burger to score extremely well. That’s what happened here. 

Beef = 3.5 Bun = 5.5 Toppings = 6.5 Fries = 3.5

Price = $2.70

OMVB = 49.63

Service = 6.0 Ambience - 4.0

BMVB = 68.92

This burger ranks 1/29 in OMVB and 11/29 in BMVB.

At this price point, there is not a burger in it’s class. 

[scottiedawg4]

Burger Blog - Pelican Brewing, Pacific City, OR

I had the Brewpub Cheese Burger* All natural Oregon-grown beef with Tillamook™ cheddar cheese, served on a spent-grain bun with Kiwanda Cream Ale aioli, lettuce, and sliced tomato.

This burger was cooked and seasoned much better than the previous burger.  The bun was toasty and soft, yet crispy. The cheddar was fantastic. 

Beef = 5.5 Bun = 6.5 Toppings = 4.5 Fries = 6.0

Price = $13.99

OMVB = 15.69

Service = 2.5 Ambience - 6.0

BMVB = 17.28

This burger ranks 9/28 in OMVB and 11/28 in BMVB.

Unfortunately, they were very busy and the service was quite slow. 

[scottiedawg4]

Burger Blog - Rogue Public House, Newport OR

Lilly and I recently took a 2-week road trip down the west coast and back to Washington.  On the trip I had quite a few amazing burgers.  I’m taking this opportunity to resurrect my Burger Blog. 

First Up: ½ LB. KOBE BURGER $13 Celebrated as the World's Greatest Burger and rated twice the grade of USDA Prime, Snake River Farms raises their cattle hormone-free right here in the Pacific Northwest. Fresh hand formed burgers are cooked to order and served on a Kaiser roll with wasabi mayo, lettuce, tomato and onions. Built the way you want it! 

Unfortunately, this burger might have been the most underwhelming of the entire trip, despite the glowing description.  The kobe beef patty was not cooked medium as requested, and the seasoning of the patty was poor, both leading to boring and blah tasting meat, which is the #1 trademark of a great burger. The only saving grace was the wasabi mayo.

Beef = 3.0 Bun = 5.0 Toppings = 5.5 Fries = 6.5

Price = $13.00

OMVB = 10.27

Service = 6.0 Ambience - 7.0

BMVB = 16.81

This burger ranks 16/27 in OMVB and 12/27 in BMVB.

[scottiedawg4]

My great reading reawakening of 2016

I enjoy quantification and data. I started tracking books I was reading back in 2009, but my data shows 0 books read in 2010 and 2012; I fell down on my data gathering.

In 2013 I began again, spurred on by my older brother's "Book Club of One" which aspired to read a book a month. I'm pretty sure he met his goal for years.  However, I also selected 12 books for each year and never read the 12 books I selected in 2013, 2014 or 2015. In fact, in only 2014 did I read 12 books at all!

For 2016, one of my yearly goals was to read 20 books. I hadn't read that many books in a year since 2011.

In 2016, I read 110 books.

This was a result of two tools working in conjunction: Audio books and the iOS podcast app Overcast.

Overcast is designed for podcast subscription and playback and boasts two amazing features: Smart Speed and Voice Boost.

Smart Speed algorithmically removes silence between words. It's seamless. Nothing is choppy. (of course if I'm listening to dramatic readings or podcasts like This American Life, The Moth or 99% Invisible I lose a lot of the art). But for audio books it's amazing.

Voice Boost equalizes volume. Both features just work.

Add in variable speed playback (I go between 1.6x and 2.0x) and I can blaze through spoken audio, very, very, fast.  

Overcast displays the actual playback speed in real-time that includes gains from both Smart Speed and variable speed playback. Usually the actual playback speed hovers around 2.5x but can be a lot more for deliberate audio book narrators.

I use Docast.me and Dropbox to host my audio book .mp3 files and create a podcast RSS feed accessible by Overcast.

There's a decent amount of research on how well the human brain absorbs and understands spoken words, even at high speeds. That said, my 2017 reading goal focuses more on quality listening, note taking and application.

Onto my 2016 data 86% were Non-Fiction books 14% were Fiction

 My average rating (how much I enjoyed each book) was 5.99 (on a 1-10 scale).

Only 2 books received a 1 (The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and  The Art of Presence by Eckhart Tolle).

3 books received a 10 Grit by Angela Duckworth The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver Quiet Power by Susan Cain

My most common rating was 6 (30/110)

The average rating of Non-Fiction books was 6.22 The average rating of Fiction books was 4.53

Favorite 9 Books

 I read multiple books by the same author:

 I read 27 books published in 2016. 

I read 13 books published in 2013.

The oldest published book I read was The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1532) I also read The Book of Five Rings by Musashi (1645)

 Most Read by Month

I wanted to see which Subject Areas I read the most. I don't know of a good database or taxonomy of such Subject Areas.  So I went through each book's Barnes & Noble listing and listed down a few of the subject areas they list. Unfortunately, some are super general "Business" and some are very specific "Gothic Horror" or "Epidemiology & Biostatistics."

Most read area: Diets (10)

This is no surprise to me as Fitness and General Health are subjects I'm quite interested in.

Ranked by Rating Grain Brain by David Perlmutter Smart Fat by Steven Masley Eat Dirt by Josh Axe Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink The Prime by Kulreet Chaudhary Zero Belly Diet by David Zinczenko Happy Gut by Vincent Pedre Always Hungry by David Ludwig Wheat Belly by William Davis Eat It To Beat It by David Zinczenko

Self-Improvement (9)

Grit by Angela Duckworth Rising Strong by Brene Brown Quiet Power by Susan Cain The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins Awaken the giant within by Tony Robbins Walden by Thoreau Coach by Michael Lewis The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Biography (8) The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan Don't Give Up, Don't Give In by Louis Zamperini 32 Yolks by Eric Ripert The Book of Five Rings by Musashi I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai Gratitude by Oliver Sacks Wild by Cheryl Strayed Trump - How to Get Rich by Donald Trump

Business Life (6) Originals by Adam Grant The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney The End of Average by Todd Rose Getting Things Done by David Allen Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson Trump - How to Get Rich by Donald Trump

Economics (5) Think Like a Freak by Steven Levitt Freakonomics by Steven Levitt When to Rob a Bank by Steven Levitt Misbehaving by Richard Thaler Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty

Leadership (5) Start With Why by Simon Sinek The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

Organizational Behavior (5) Originals by Adam Grant Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg Getting Things Done by David Allen Purple Cow by Seth Godin The Alliance by Reid Hoffman

4 - Cognitive Science, Psychology, Social Psychology, Statistics 3 - Baseball, Civics, Cold War Fiction, Entrepreneurship, Personal Finance, Religion, Espionage & Intrigue, Mind, Nutrition, Organizational Innovation, Political Ethics, Political Philosophy, Political Theorists

  As I really got going in 2016, I prioritized the shortest books on my "To Read" list, to pad my numbers.

For 2017, my goals are more focused:

Read at least 30 books

Always select the top prioritized book on my list, regardless of length. This means that longer books may actually get read this year! 

Debt by David Graeber Cyberspies by Gordon Corera Money Master the game by Tony Robbins Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson Open by Andre Agassi The Age of Napoleon by Will Durant Future Crimes by Marc Goodman Titan by Ron Chernow

Listen to each book specifically looking for insights to apply to my life

The Top 10 books on my To Read list: How to Make a Spaceship by Julian Guthrie Shoe Dog by Phil Knight Negotiating the Nonnegotiable by Daniel Shapiro Focus by Daniel Goleman Messy by Tim Harford Bold by Peter Diamandis Drunk Tank Pink by Adam Alter Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian Payoff by Dan Ariely

 I’m unbelievably happy with how 2016 unfolded. I’m excited to continue reading books in 2017!

[scottiedawg4]

Inbox zero, nine apps. :-) 📭

[scottiedawg4]

Thanks for coming over Bear.

[scottiedawg4]

My lovelies 💕🐕

[scottiedawg4]

2Do to Todoist

2Do to Todoist

I love Task Management apps. I started small with Clear many years ago, moved to OmniFocus, then to 2Do, largely because of Federico Viticci moving to 2Do. (I love MacStories BTW)

Then, recently, I saw more and more about people moving to Todoist. The kicker was Federico during a Canvas podcast. To be clear, it usually was because Todoist was better; not because 2Do was bad. I still think 2Do is light years better than OmniFocus…..flexibility, ease of use, power, clarity.

BUT, I wanted to give Todoist a try.

First I built a spreadsheet and listed out all the features I could think of (41 criteria). Then I weighted each feature to my liking and created a score for each app (I just went deep dive on OmniFocus, 2Do and Todoist). To my surprise, Todoist came out waay in front.

Todoist - 441

OmniFocis - 297

2Do - 248

The raw numbers don’t mean much themselves; they just show relativity to each other.

So I migrated to Todoist.

Here are my thoughts:

Todoist has no concept of start date.

CON: I saw ALL tasks, even ones I couldn’t start. PRO: It forced me to make the DUE DATE be a lot more meaningful that I had been in 2Do.

2Do is EVERYWHERE

….iOS Share Sheet, Chrome plugin, Gmail plugin, Windows native, OS X native, web app, iOS app, etc. Because of that, I’m adding a LOT more things to Todoist than I was adding to 2Do. I had been using Simplenote, Drafts, Clear, Apple Notes and Due for some “reminder-y” things; now it’s all in Todoist.

IFTTT Integration

It’s a lot cleaner to use IFTTT to add a task to Todoist via Siri. Just add it to Reminders.app, and the IFTTT recipe takes it from there. On 2Do, I had to use the email to 2Do feature within an IFTTT recipe, and it just took a lot longer. Plus, it sent an email to me I had to delete.

I do wish IFTTT recipe’s fired more often. But I guess that’s what I get for free! And I’m quite alright with that.

Task Input and Metadata Input

Todoist was WAAAY easier than 2Do for task input and adding metadata. The Intelligent Input is great. Although when you’re adding Labels, once you hit enter, you can immediately hit “@” and add another tag. But if you add a priority and hit enter, you have to remember to hit space before you can add a Label or date or project.

Duration

Todoist has no concept of duration. I hacked it by adding Labels for certain time buckets.

Sorting

2Do lets you sort, in any view, by any piece of metadata. Todoist only allows you to sort by a few metadata, and only in Projects. So the Inbox, or Custom Filters don’t allow sorting within them. Which sucks.

Batch Changes

I wish I could batch change the color on Labels and Projects

I wish I could batch add Labels. EDIT: I figured out how to do this!!!

Templates

Templates—-awesome feature…haven’t been able to get it to work. I have an existing project; I export it as a .csv template……then I edit some stuff….add more rows….change metadata (NO CHANGING OF HEADERS). Then when I go to import back in, nothing imports. Can’t wait to really get it working…would transform many of my repeating projects.

Copy/Paste

I haven’t tried the “copy multiple lines of text” and “paste as multiple tasks” feature yet, but I’m excited to try. I prefer typing on a physical keyboard so am often enumerating tasks in a text file, before moving to my task management system.

Filters

When creating Filters, I wish there was an inline guide or something to help me out. It is easy to open up their support page on syntax….but I’m lazy.

Amazon Alexa

Can’t wait to try out the Amazon Alexa integration. I’m kind of trying it via the Roger iOS app right now. I didn’t buy the Lexi app before it left the US iOS app store. And I haven’t bought an Echo or Echo Dot. My Siri + IFTTT might be fast enough that I don’t need to purchase any dedicated hardware!

Calendar View

2Do’s calendar view that allowed you to drag and drop

Apple Watch

The Todoist Apple Watch app is quite slow. Slower than Clear, Wunderlist, 2Do. I don’t like having to force press to get to the different menus. I also don’t like having to tap into a task, then tap again to complete.

Schedule Repeat Upon Completion

It’s great that you can prepend repeating tasks with ! to have them scheduled out FROM the completion date…..very specific feature, but common to workhorse Task Management apps.

Markdown

I love that Todoist supports Markdown text formatting

Reminders

If I reschedule the Due Date of a task to sometime in the future, I wish the Reminder would be smart enough to update itself relative to the new Due Date. Currently it fires as set, which is unhelpful since the task was rescheduled.

Also, the automatic reminder upon task creation was just too many reminders, so I turned that configuration off. Of course, any Reminder in a task already created will remain. Which is annoying, but I think a better development choice than the alternative.

Calendar Integration

I added the Calendar URL to my Google Calendar via the Google Calendar web app. So now Todoist tasks are showing up in the Google Calendar iOS app. But they aren’t appearing in the Moleskine Timepage iOS app or the Fantastical iOS app. And yes, I went to the “View Calendars” menu in both apps…Todoist not there as an option to view…. **UPDATE: Todoist tasks have appeared in the Google Calendar iOS app. Still not in the Timepage app. **

Uncompleteable Tasks

Looks like you can no longer prefix an asterisk to a Todoist task to make it “uncompleteable”

Label Groups

I wish Todoist had Label groups.

Filter Groups

I wish Todoist had Filter groups

All in all, I’ve got a year of the premium subscription purchased, and 100% of my tasks are running through Todoist. We’ll see how long it lasts, but right now, it’s going great.

[scottiedawg4]

Numbers

Introduction

It feels either overly simplistic or trite or narcissistic to make statements like “I’ve always liked numbers” and “I have an affinity for numbers.” And even though numbers play a big part of everyone’s lives, I seem to have a passion for order, structure, numbers and data that is at least greater than average. Whether that passion came about by nature or nurture, I will explore both possibilities. At some point I’ll lay out my plan to leverage my passion for numbers into greater self-fulfillment, career enjoyment and perhaps even life flexibility.

We’ll follow this outline:

1. Introduction

2. Early education, up through high school

3. College education

4. Numbers in my jobs

5. Numbers in my current job

6. The future

My family is a numbers family. One grandparent was an engineering undergrad and army vet. Another grandparent worked in the business office of a credit union. Another grandparent saw a real estate buying opportunity when bad weather struck an open house day.

My father was an engineering undergrad and statistics graduate. My mother was a math undergrad and a statistics graduate. My older brother was an economics major.

So it’s not a stretch to assume that numbers were and are in my nature.

Our family placed a large emphasis on academics in general. Though thinking back I don’t recall a disproportionate emphasis placed on mathematics or related subjects.

Our family was also very interested in sports. Baseball was the main sport; and is probably the sport best geared for numbers and analytics.

The intersection of academics and sports definitely falls more in the sciences than in the humanities.

So it’s also not a stretch to assume that the nurture of my upbringing also facilitated my passion for numbers.

As a graduate student, my dad would do baseball research in his spare time, staking out computer lab time in the middle of the night to take advantage of maximum RAM availability. The outputs of that research were later used in his parenting to teach me greater self-control (I was an impulsive child). I remember sitting down to a stack of old computer printouts and having to comb through page-by-page, looking for data that fit some criteria laid out for me. While greater self-control is probably the longest lasting outcome of that exercise, my main takeaway was that Harmon Killebrew was really, really good.

There are many instances during my adolescent and teenage years of me constructing lists of various types.

On our Arch 286 computer I would make lists of my baseball cards. These were the days before robust functions like copy/paste or fill down, so I was left to type and retype “Ken Griffey Jr.” over and over and over again.

I would also make lists of baseball players for fantasy baseball purposes. I remember highlighting printouts, annotating changes I needed to make, and poring over the columns of statistical information, trying to decipher some bit of insight.

So is my love of numbers and analytics nature or nurture? I’d say it’s solidly both.

[scottiedawg4]

Pretty cool picture from Martin's walk off HR a week or so ago. Love Edgar.