The article, written by his friend under the pseudonym Aadil Pickle on a site called Alexandria, includes a photo of Riley holding open a book to a page titled “Wouldn’t It Be Funny If.” Riley owns four copies of this book. Gave one to Aadil when Aadil complained about his own creative process. The book is called The Motern Method.

So of course I bought it.

It arrived, sat on my nightstand for a week, then I read it in one sitting.

Farley is an interesting cat. He's a songwriter (?) from Danvers, Massachusetts who has released over 26,000 songs. He's made over a dozen feature-length films. He writes books. Few of them hits by any traditional measure. Yet he makes roughly $200,000 a year doing this.

I can’t help but make the comparison, he’s the blue-collar Rick Rubin. Both books read like the Tao Te Ching, collections of aphorisms about the creative life delivered in their own voice. Farley self-published (of course) The Motern Method in three months, because why not?

The writing is simple. Short chapters, short sentences. Every phrase lands like a proverb you already knew but hadn’t yet said out loud. The kind that sting a bit because the reason you haven’t done the thing isn’t that you lacked information, it’s that you lacked nerve.

I wish more people would do this.

The discovery chain for this book is itself a demonstration of the method. A friend sends a link. That link leads to an interesting person. That person found another interesting person who wrote a book about his process. You read it in an evening. Organic discovery, all the way down.

An absolute blast. Funny, honest, and creative. Highly recommend.

Follow the rabbit hole

Vitals: The Motern Method by Matt Farley. Self-published, 2021. 136 pages.

The Rabbit Hole: Riley Walz (Alexandria) | Matt Farley (Archive)

Pairs Well With: Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act, Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile

Highlights

12 passages I dog-eared.

Tell Everyone

Tell everyone about the plan for project.

It’s more creative and interesting than small talk. And it’s a great motivator.

Because now you have to complete the project.

Otherwise, all those people will think you’re a failure.

This might not be true. In fact, those people probably don’t care whether or not you finish your project. But you care. You will feel like a failure each time you see them.

At your darkest moments, when you’re ready to quit, you can imagine all those people scoffing at you. Imagine them thinking you’re a failure.

Imagine them being disappointed in you.

Imagine them rolling their eyes next time you tell them about an idea.

Then get back to work.

Say Yes to your ideas

If you come up with an idea for a project, then you should treat that idea with the respect it deserves by following through on it.

Your idea might be simple. Your idea might be brilliant. It could be very serious. It could be very silly. It could be something that inspires you to work. It could be something that you don’t really want to do.

In all cases, you gotta do it. No matter what.

Why?

Because your brain will get mad if you don’t listen to its ideas. Your brain will think, “If my ideas aren’t being listened to, then I’ll stop coming up with ideas!”

That’s why you have to do it even if you think it’s a bad idea. Your brain won’t offer the next good idea until you’ve seen the bad idea to fruition.

Friends and Family

Friends and family will not react to your work in a way that makes you feel good.

Presenting your work to them is an excruciating experience.

You’ll watch needily as they take in what you’ve created. You’ll interpret their facial expressions, their breathing patterns, etc., looking for a sign that they like it or don’t like it. You’ll watch with exasperation as they get distracted and stop paying attention to what you’ve created. And then they’ll say something nice, which you will interpret for the next several weeks. Was there a subtle insult mixed in with that compliment? Did they mean it? They might compliment the el current work by mentioning that it’s better than your previous work. Of course, that’ll only make you defensive about your previous work. It can get really uncomfortable.

None of this is their fault.

It’s your fault.

They don’t know the proper way to react to art made by someone they know. Nobody does. It’s an inherently uncomfortable thing. They’re used to taking in art that is made by someone they would never dream of meeting. Or they simply never really think about how art is made. It’s just something they take in without much analysis.

Now you’re coming to them with a work of art, and a huge amount of desperation.

It’s awful for your friends or family to be put ine that situation.

You are like a child showing a drawing to a od parent.

Only that child is much better at accepting from insincere praise, then moving on to the next project.

Self Promotion Self promotion is ugly.

Self promotion is stinky.

That’s why world-famous artists hire other people to do it for them.

You are not a world-famous artist. You can’t afford to hire someone to tell the world about how great you are. You need to do it yourself.

Even if you could afford to pay someone else to do it, is it really right to do that? These hot-shot artists act cool and humble, all the while they are paying another person to promote them and their work. Is that cool? Is that humble?

Musicians have billboards with their names and faces on them. If you ask them, they say that the record company did it. But that musician didn’t have to sign with the record company. When they signed, they knew that the record company would use every ugly, stinky, shameless method to promote them. You don’t want to play that game.

You can do the dirty work yourself.

It’s much more honest.

So when you’re feeling reluctant to promote your work, just remember that all your favorite famous artists are doing way more to promote themselves, and with fewer scruples. They appear in commercials for credit cards. They write songs for insurance companies. They do private concerts for evil dictators.

You wouldn’t do any of those things.

But you can promote yourself. You can send out press releases about your work. You can run an advertisement for journalists, asking them to write articles about you.

your work. You can contact It doesn’t have to be all business. Your selfpromotion can incorporate your own personal 201 51 taste and style so that it feels a little less ugly, a little less stinky.

Ideally, you wouldn’t have to promote your work.

You could just release it, and then collect a fair wage from sales.

Until then, it’s ok to be scrappy and shameless.

Craft, Then Art

You usually need to practice your craft a long time before you can create art.

This is not always the case.

But, generally, if you want to write songs, it’s best to be proficient with a musical instrument. If you want to paint a masterpiece, it helps if you’ve learned how to work with paint. Etc. Etc.

It’s also helpful to study the art. If you want to make movies, it helps to watch lots of movies. If you want to write a novel, you should read lots of novels.

Do all of this with purpose.

You aren’t learning an instrument just because.

You are learning it because it is a step in the noble process of eventually creating something great.

You aren’t just watching a bunch of movies. You are actively studying the art of filmmaking.

Keep Your Day Job

It feels wrong that you need to work a day job.

After all, you are filled with creative energy.

There’s so much you could accomplish if your days were free.

But don’t quit your day job!

You don’t want to be a starving artist.

There’s no pride in only working on your art if your art isn’t earning you any money.

Sleeping on couches? That sounds so romantic.

But who paid for the couch? Someone who works a day job. And that person feels great resentment toward you if you use their couch for more than a couple nights. It’s not right. It’s not fair.

If you’re always looking for a place to sleep each e night, maybe that means you’re not really using all your time to work on your art.

Exercise

Arts and athletics don’t often get lumped into the same category.

But they should be!

Athletics of any kind are great for creativity.

Creativity is frequently a sit-down kind of activity. Sitting down all the time is not good for you in many ways. For the purposes of our book, sitting down is bad because it limits your opportunities for inspiration.

You can force the inspiration by sitting down and thinking really hard. Seriously. This can work.

And you should employ that method sometimes.

But another method is to let the inspiration come to you while you’re doing something else. Exercise is a very good way to make that happen.

Fund Your Own Projects

There’s something not quite right about asking people to pay for the creation of your project.

This goes for movie directors who are given tons of money by a studio to make a movie. This goes for musicians and writers who accept advances from corporations.

It also goes for you when you start a funding campaign to pay for the creation of your artwork.

There’s just something underhanded about it.

You want the joy of creation without the pain of paying for it.

It’s one thing if you get to the point where your fans are willfully donating to the cause because they appreciate your work and they want to help you make more. Are your funders doing it for that reason, or just because they feel bullied into donating? If most of the funding is coming from friends and family, then odds are they feel bullied. You’re like a niece or nephew who shows up with a bunch of cookies that your aunt and uncle feel obliged to purchase for a school fundraiser.

But you’re not a cute niece or nephew. You’re old enough to fund your own project.

How devoted to this project are you?

If you’re truly devoted, then you need to be the one who works hard to make it happen. That means making sacrifices. That means aggressively saving money. It should hurt.

If you’re asking someone else to pay for it, then it just feels like you don’t really care that much.

There’s a certain laziness to that approach which will trickle down through the entire project. If it’s someone else’s money on the line, then you won’t be as committed to the project as you would if it were your money.

Vicariously Tap Into Universal Feelings

Feeling uninspired?

Engage with someone else’s art until something about it inspires you.

As soon as that inspiration comes, get to work on your own art.

For example, you could watch a sad movie. If it fills you with emotions, immediately start writing a song that expresses those emotions. You can even write the song from the point of view of a character in the movie.

bit. But No matter how interesting your life is, you might run out of direct experience to write about. That’s when you use your imagination to insert yourself into other works of art, and create something out of that.

The most important thing to remember is that you’re not just being entertained. You’re actively engaging with a work of art. You’re taking notes.

This isn’t cheating. Works of art have always inspired other works of art. Continue the tradition.

It doesn’t Need to End Up Like You Thought It Would

You wanted to make something funny, but it turned out sad.

You wanted to make something inspiring, but it turned out comical.

You wanted to make something funny, but it i turned out scary.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Your audience will come to it with no expectations. They’ll enjoy it (or not) for what it is, not for what you intended it to be.

Projects can evolve over the course of their creation. You can fight it if you want. But it’s probably easier to just follow the direction that the project is naturally going in. Go with it. Be surprised by your own creation as it reveals itself to you.

**Note:** The importance of embracing emergence

Self Promotion vs. Organic Discovery

Self promotion works. It’s worth the effort.

Organic discovery works much better. It’s much less effort.

Self promotion means you are trying to convince someone to explore your work.

Organic discovery means someone just finds your work on their own.

played along for If you tell someone they need to check out your work, it suddenly becomes a chore to them. If they just find it on their own, it becomes a treasure that they went searching for. They’re proud to have discovered it, and therefore more likely to enjoy it.

ing unconventionally to be So what does that mean for you? Should you not bother with promotion?

No. You should still promote your work. It really works sometimes.

But you can also view your output as a self promotion tool. If you create a lot of stuff, then that means there’s more stuff out there for people to discover. Once they’ve discovered it, they might be tempted to explore more of your work.

And since you created a lot of stuff, there’s a lot of your work for them to discover.

Start stressing personal elegance at your next misfortune. … The only article Lady Fortuna has no control over is your behavior. Good luck.

Commentary

I came to Taleb's work backwards, stumbling into Skin in the Game in late 2019. It felt like walking into an intellectual salon with the heavy weights of history realizing I'd been shadowboxing my whole life. It's the kind of writing that turns you upside down shaking the lint from your pockets - after which I found it impossible to go back to my previous reality. Reading the fifth book of the Incerto first was like first stumbling into the final scene of The Matrix, watching Neo bend reality without understanding how he first learned to see through the illusion.

That experience sent me back to the beginning, and now, almost five years to the day, I'm embarking on a mission to re-read the Incerto, in order this time1: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game. My second reading of Fooled by Randomness hit differently. What once felt like intellectual mountaineering - concepts and characters floating just beyond my grasp - now feels like revisiting a wise but cantankerous mentor who delights in demolishing everything you thought you knew about probability, success, and the treacherous nature of randomness in our lives.

Reading Taleb is like learning a new language - one that helps you decode the complex grammar of reality. Fooled by Randomness isn't just his opening statement, it's a foundational perspective on reality - the one that opens the other four doors of the Incerto. Once you grasp the principles in Fooled by Randomness, you can't help but see the world differently. And maybe that's the point: not to make us more certain, but to help us become more comfortable being uncomfortable. As Taleb writes, "Probability is not a mere computation of odds on the dice or more complicated variants; it is the acceptance of the lack of certainty in our knowledge and the development of methods for dealing with our ignorance."

What I’m stealing

On Survival and Randomness

The core of Taleb's wisdom lies in his understanding of how randomness can either destroy or empower us. These are the principles I find myself returning to daily:

• Frequency of success is irrelevant if a single failure is too costly to survive

• Things that come with the help of luck can be taken away by luck rapidly and unexpectedly

• Things that come with little help from luck are more resistant to randomness

• No rare event should harm me. In fact, I would like all conceivable rare events to help me

• Take the best of what the past can give you without its dangers. Use statistics and inductive methods to make aggressive bets, but do not use them to manage risks and exposure

On Intellectual Rigor and Modern Myths

Beneath Taleb's arrogant wit lies a deep commitment to clear thinking. His most powerful insights about knowledge and uncertainty have become my intellectual compass:

• Mathematics is principally a tool to meditate, rather than to compute

• A random series will always present some detectable pattern. Beware of fitting the data

• Due entirely to luck/randomness - A counterintuitive point is that a population composed of only bad managers will produce a small amount of them with great track records

• Beware conflating the absence of evidence for evidence of absence

• It is not the estimate or the forecast that matters so much as the degree of confidence of the opinion

On the Path to Excellence

Here lie the practical insights about achievement and recognition that challenge conventional wisdom:

• There are routes to success that are nonrandom, but few, very few, people have the mental stamina to follow them. Those who go the extra mile are rewarded. Most people give up before the rewards

• Whenever I hear "work ethic" interpret as inefficient mediocrity

• Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they win or lose

• The nonlinear effect behind success in anything: It is better to have a handful of enthusiastic advocates than hordes of people who appreciate your work. Better to be loved by a dozen than liked by the masses.

On Cultural and Personal Wisdom

Finally, these are the broader philosophical insights that have shaped my worldview beyond mere probability and risk:

• Embrace a natural interest in a variety of intellectual subjects

• Age is beauty, the new and the young are generally toxic

• Nothing can be more bland than translated poetry

• We do not need to be rational and scientific when it comes to the details of our daily life‚ only in those that can harm us and threaten our survival

• Art is a tool for the investigation of Truth

• We are mere animals in need of lower forms of tricks

Supplemental Resources

fooledbyrandomness.com

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

I got sucked into the implications of the difference between Montaigne and Descartes‚ and how we strayed by following the latters quest for certitudes. We surely closed our minds by following Descartes‚ model of formal thinking rather than Montaigne, brand of vague and informal (but critical) judgment.


Hard work, showing up on time, wearing a clean (preferably white) shirt, using deodorant, and some such conventional things contribute to success they are certainly necessary but may be insufficient as they do not cause success. The same applies to the conventional values of persistence, doggedness and perseverance: necessary, very necessary.


Black swans, those rare and unexpected deviations, can be both good and bad events.


few claim that art is a tool of investigation of the Truth‚ rather than an attempt to escape it or make it more palatable.


Probability theory is a young arrival in mathematics; probability applied to practice is almost nonexistent as a discipline.


My colleague Bob Jaeger (he followed the opposite course of mine of moving from philosophy professor to trader) presents a more potent view of the dichotomy: There are those who think that there are easy clear-cut answers and those who dont‚ think that simplification is possible without severe distortion (his hero: Wittgenstein; his villain: Descartes). I am enamored of the difference as I think that the generator of the Fooled by Randomness problem, the false belief in determinism, is also associated with such reduction of the dimensionality of things. As much as you believe in the ‚keep-it-simple-stupid‚ it is the simplification that is dangerous.


(his hero: Wittgenstein; his villain: Descartes).


Things that which came with the help of luck could be taken away by luck (and often rapidly and unexpectedly at that). The flipside, which deserves to be considered as well (in fact it is even more of our concern), is that things that come with little help from luck are more resistant to randomness.


it does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.


what the French call a coup de foudre, a sudden intense (and obsessive) infatuation that strikes like lightning.


Note that such use of mathematics is only illustrative, aiming at getting the intuition of the point, and should not be interpreted as an engineering issue. In other words, one need not actually compute the alternative histories so much as assess their attributes. Mathematics is not just a numbers game it is a way of thinking. We will see that probability is a qualitative subject.


one does not observe the barrel of reality.


The interesting thing about these physicists did not lie in their ability to discuss fluid dynamics; it is that they were naturally interested in a variety of intellectual subjects and provided pleasant conversation.


Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost.


As a derivatives trader I noticed that people do not like to insure against something abstract; the risk that merits their attention is always something vivid.


Much of what rational thinking seems to do is rationalize ones actions by fitting some logic to them.


the mental probabilistic map in one’s mind is so geared toward the sensational that one would realize informational gains by dispensing with the news.


volatility seems to be determined not by the actual moves but by the tone of the media. The market movements in the eighteen months after September 11, 2001, were far smaller than the ones that we faced in the eighteen months prior‚ but somehow in the mind of investors they were very volatile. The discussions in the media of the terrorist threats, magnified the effect of these market moves in people’s heads. This is one of the many reasons that journalism may be the greatest plague we face today the world becomes more and more complicated and our minds are trained for more and more simplification.


Any reading of the history of science would show that almost all the smart things that have been proven by science appeared like lunacies at the time they were first discovered.


Age is beauty, almost always, and the new and the young are generally toxic.


The American public was recently exposed to one of these characters with the Unabomber, the bearded and recluse mathematician who lived in a hut and took to murdering people who promoted modern technology. No journalist was capable of even coming close to describing the subject matter of his thesis, Complex Boundaries,as it has no intelligible equivalent complex number being an entirely abstract and imaginary number that includes the square root of minus one, an object that has no analog outside of the world of mathematics.


The Monte Carlo man‚ realism without the shallowness, combined with the mathematician‚ intuitions without the excessive abstraction. For indeed this branch of mathematics is of immense practical use, does not present the same dryness commonly associated with mathematics. I became addicted to it the minute I became a trader. It shaped my thinking in most matters related to randomness.


Mathematics is principally a tool to meditate, rather than to compute.


For instance, someone with no formal knowledge of geometry can compute the mysterious, almost mystical Pi. How? By drawing a circle inside of a square, and shooting random bullets into the picture (as in an arcade), specifying equal probabilities of hitting any point on the map (something called a uniform distribution). The ratio of bullets inside the circle divided by those inside and outside the circle will deliver a multiple of the mystical Pi, with possibly infinite precision. Clearly, this is not an efficient use of a computer as Pi can be computed analytically, that is, in a mathematical form, but the method can give some users more intuition about the subject matter than lines of equations. Some people’s brains and intuitions are oriented in such a way that they are more capable of getting a point in such a manner (I count myself one of those). The computer might not be natural to our human brain; neither is mathematics.


a mathematician would be interested in improving mathematics (via theorems and proofs). I proved incapable of concentrating on deciphering a single equation unless I was motivated by a real problem (with a modicum of greed); thus most of what I know comes from derivatives trading options pushed me to study the math of probability. Many compulsive gamblers, who otherwise would be of middling intelligence, acquire remarkable card-counting skills thanks to their passionate greed.


The two greatest minds to me, Einstein and Keynes,


As for Keynes, to the literate person he is not the political economist that tweed-clad leftists love to quote, but the author of the magisterial, introspective, and potent Treatise on Probability. For before his venturing into the murky field of political economy, Keynes was a probabilist.


I never considered myself better than an unenthusiastic equation solver and was rarely capable of prowess in the matter‚ being better at setting up equations than solving them. Suddenly, my engine allowed me to solve with minimal effort the most intractable of equations. Few solutions became out of reach.

**Note:** This is how i feel about LLMs


I have two ways of learning from history: from the past, by reading the elders; and from the future, thanks to my Monte Carlo toy.


Our minds are not quite designed to understand how the world works, but, rather, to get out of trouble rapidly and have progeny. If they were made for us to understand things, then we would have a machine in it that would run the past history as in a VCR, with a correct chronology, and it would slow us down so much that we would have trouble operating.


There are instances where I like to be fooled by randomness. My allergy to nonsense and verbiage dissipates when it comes to art and poetry. On the one hand, I try to define myself and behave officially as a no-nonsense hyperrealist ferreting out the role of chance; on the other, I have no qualms indulging in all manner of personal superstitions. Where do I draw the line? The answer is aesthetics. Some aesthetic forms appeal to something in our biology, whether or not they originate in random associations or plain hallucination. Something in our human genes is deeply moved by the fuzziness and ambiguity of language; then why fight it?


regardless of whether the poetry was obtained by a Monte Carlo engine or sung by a blind man in Asia Minor, language is potent in bringing pleasure and solace. Testing its intellectual validity by translating it into simple logical arguments would rob it of a varying degree of its potency, sometimes excessively; nothing can be more bland than translated poetry.


Four decades ago, the Catholic church translated the services and liturgies from Latin to the local vernaculars; one may wonder if this caused a drop in religious beliefs. Suddenly religion subjected itself to being judged by intellectual and scientific, without the aesthetic, standards. The Greek Orthodox church made the lucky mistake, upon translating some of its prayers from Church Greek into the Semitic-based vernacular spoken by the Grecosyrians of the Antioch region (southern Turkey and northern Syria), of choosing classical Arabic, an entirely dead language. My folks are thus lucky to pray in a mixture of dead Koiné (Church Greek) and no less dead Koranic Arabic.


We do not need to be rational and scientific when it comes to the details of our daily life—only in those that can harm us and threaten our survival. Modern life seems to invite us to do the exact opposite; become extremely realistic and intellectual when it comes to such matters as religion and personal behavior, yet as irrational as possible when it comes to matters ruled by randomness (say, portfolio or real estate investments).


Darwinian ideas are about reproductive fitness, not about survival.


Whenever there is asymmetry in outcomes, the average survival has nothing to do with the median survival.


it is just that reality does not have the same closed and symmetric laws and regulations as games. This competitive nature got him into ferocious fighting to “win.” As we saw in the last chapter, markets (and life) are not simple win/lose types of situations, as the cost of the losses can be markedly different from that of the wins.


Sadly, I learned quite a bit from Niederhoffer, mostly by contrast, and particularly from the last example: not to approach anything as a game to win, except, of course, if it is a game. Even then, I do not like the asphyxiating structure of competitive games and the diminishing aspect of deriving pride from a numerical performance. I also learned to stay away from people of a competitive nature, as they have a tendency to commoditize and reduce the world to categories, like how many papers they publish in a given year, or how they rank in the league tables. There is something nonphilosophical about investing one’s pride and ego into a “my house/library/car is bigger than that of others in my category”—it is downright foolish to claim to be first in one’s category all the while sitting on a time bomb.


centuries). I suddenly felt financially insecure and feared becoming an employee of some firm that would turn me into a corporate slave with ‚ work ethics‚ (whenever I hear work ethics I interpret inefficient mediocrity). I needed the backing of my bank account so I could buy time to think and enjoy life.


the difference between Newtonian physics, which was falsified by Einstein‚ relativity, and astrology lies in the following irony. Newtonian physics is scientific because it allowed us to falsify it, as we know that it is wrong, while astrology is not because it does not offer conditions under which we could reject it. Astrology cannot be disproved, owing to the auxiliary hypotheses that come into play. Such point lies at the basis of the demarcation between science and nonsense (called the problem of demarcation).


I am an exceedingly naive falsificationist. Why? Because I can survive being one. My extreme and obsessive Popperism is carried out as follows. I speculate in all of my activities on theories that represent some vision of the world, but with the following stipulation: No rare event should harm me. In fact, I would like all conceivable rare events to help me. My idea of science diverges with that of the people around me walking around calling themselves scientists. Science is mere speculation, mere formulation of conjecture.


Like Pascal, I will therefore state the following argument. If the science of statistics can benefit me in anything, I will use it. If it poses a threat, then I will not. I want to take the best of what the past can give me without its dangers. Accordingly, I will use statistics and inductive methods to make aggressive bets, but I will not use them to manage my risks and exposure. Surprisingly, all the surviving traders I know seem to have done the same. They trade on ideas based on some observation (that includes past history) but, like the Popperian scientists, they make sure that the costs of being wrong are limited (and their probability is not derived from past data). Unlike Carlos and John, they know before getting involved in the trading strategy which events would prove their conjecture wrong and allow for it (recall that Carlos and John used past history both to make their bets and to measure their risk). They would then terminate their trade. This is called a stop loss, a predetermined exit point, a protection from the black swan. I find it rarely practiced.


beware the middlebrow: A small knowledge of probability can lead to worse results than no knowledge at all.


Nero Tulip,


By living on Park Avenue, one does not have exposure to the losers, one only sees the winners.


The first counterintuitive point is that a population entirely composed of bad managers will produce a small amount of great track records.


This “reversion” for the large outliers is what has been observed in history and explained as regression to the mean. Note that the larger the deviation, the more important its effect.


Again, one word of warning: All deviations do not come from this effect, but a disproportionately large proportion of them do.


Remember that nobody accepts randomness in his own success, only his failure.


survivorship bias


We need to know the size of the population from which he came. In other words, without knowing how many managers out there have tried and failed, we will not be able to assess the validity of the track record. If the initial population includes ten managers, then I would give the performer half my savings without a blink. If the initial population is composed of 10,000 managers, I would ignore the results.


I am fitting the rule on the data. This activity is called data snooping. The more I try, the more I am likely, by mere luck, to find a rule that worked on past data. A random series will always present some detectable pattern. I am convinced that there exists a tradable security in the Western world that would be 100% correlated with the changes in temperature in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.


Plutarch


people patronize what other people like to do. Forcing rational dynamics on the process would be superfluous, nay, impossible. This is called a path dependent outcome, and has thwarted many mathematical attempts at modeling behavior.


which ones achieved early sales and, over time, which firms dominated.”


As I said in Chapter 3, mathematics is merely a way of thinking and meditating, little more, in our world of randomness.


Once again the important fact is knowing the existence of these nonlinearities, not trying to model them.


Our emotional apparatus is designed for linear causality. For instance, you study every day and learn something in proportion to your studies. If you do not feel that you are going anywhere, your emotions will cause you to become demoralized. But reality rarely gives us the privilege of a satisfying linear positive progression: You may study for a year and learn nothing, then, unless you are disheartened by the empty results and give up, something will come to you in a flash. My partner Mark Spitznagel summarizes it as follows: Imagine yourself practicing the piano every day for a long time, barely being able to perform “Chopsticks,” then suddenly finding yourself capable of playing Rachmaninov. Owing to this nonlinearity, people cannot comprehend the nature of the rare event. This summarizes why there are routes to success that are nonrandom, but few, very few, people have the mental stamina to follow them. Those who go the extra mile are rewarded. In my profession one may own a security that benefits from lower market prices, but may not react at all until some critical point. Most people give up before the rewards.


I am also realizing the nonlinear effect behind success in anything: It is better to have a handful of enthusiastic advocates than hordes of people who appreciate your work—better to be loved by a dozen than liked by the hundreds. This applies to the sales of books, the spread of ideas, and success in general and runs counter to conventional logic. The information age is worsening this effect. This is making me, with my profound and antiquated Mediterranean sense of metron (measure), extremely uncomfortable, even queasy. Too much success is the enemy (think of the punishment meted out on the rich and famous); too much failure is demoralizing. I would like the option of having neither.


Normative economics is like religion without the aesthetics.


This is the most significant distortion and the one that carries the most consequences. In order to be able to put things in general context, you do not have everything you know in your mind at all times, so you retrieve the knowledge that you require at any given time in a piecemeal fashion, which puts these retrieved knowledge chunks in their local context. This means that you have an arbitrary reference point and react to differences from that point, forgetting that you are only looking at the differences from that particular perspective of the local context, not the absolutes.


evolutionary psychology,


This might be a platitude to those who frequent the Greek and Latin classics, but we never fail to be surprised when noticing that people a couple of dozen centuries removed from us can exhibit similar sensibility and feelings. What used to strike me as a child upon visiting museums is that ancient Greek statues exhibit men with traits indistinguishable from ours (only more harmonious and aristocratic). I was so wrong to believe that 2,200 years was a long time. Proust wrote frequently about the surprise people have when coming across emotions in Homeric heroes that are similar to those we experience today. By genetic standards, these Homeric heroes of thirty centuries ago in all likelihood have the exact identical makeup as the pudgy middle-aged man you see schlepping groceries in the parking lot. More than that. In fact, we are truly identical to the man who perhaps eighty centuries ago started being called “civilized,” in that strip of land stretching from southeastern Syria to southwestern Mesopotamia.


The real problem is, as I have mentioned, that such a natural habitat does not include much information. An efficient computation of the odds was never necessary until very recently. This also explains why we had to wait until the emergence of the gambling literature to see the growth of the mathematics of probability. Popular belief holds that the religious backdrop of the first and second millennia blocked the growth of tools that hint at absence of determinism, and caused the delays in probability research. The idea is extremely dubious; we simply did not compute probabilities because we did not dare to? Surely the reason is rather because we did not need to. Much of our problem comes from the fact that we have evolved out of such a habitat faster, much faster, than our genes. Even worse, our genes have not changed at all.


I will present the theses of two watershed works presented in readable books, Damasio’s Descartes’ Error and LeDoux’s Emotional Brain. Descartes’ Error presents a very simple thesis: You perform a surgical ablation on a piece of someone’s brain (say, to remove a tumor and tissue around it) with the sole resulting effect of an inability to register emotions, nothing else (the IQ and every other faculty remain the same).


Joseph LeDoux’s theory about the role of emotions in behavior is even more potent: Emotions affect one’s thinking. He figured out that much of the connections from the emotional systems to the cognitive systems are stronger than connections from the cognitive systems to the emotional systems. The implication is that we feel emotions (limbic brain) then find an explanation (neocortex). As we saw with Claparède’s discovery, much of the opinions and assessments that we have concerning risks may be the simple result of emotions.


We think with our emotions and there is no way around it.


What is less unpleasant: to lose 100 times $1 or lose once $100? Clearly the second: Our sensitivity to losses decreases. So a trading policy that makes $1 a day for a long time then loses them all is actually pleasant from a hedonic standpoint, although it does not make sense economically.


One example to illustrate further option blindness. What has more value? (a) a contract that pays you $1 million if the stock market goes down 10% on any given day in the next year; (b) a contract that pays you $1 million if the stock market goes down 10% on any given day in the next year due to a terrorist act. I expect most people to select (b).


The most common one concerns the interpretation of evidence. They most commonly get mixed up between absence of evidence and evidence of absence,


I translate it well, the journalist claims to provide an explanation for something that amounts to perfect noise. A move of 1.03 with the Dow at 11,000 constitutes less than a 0.01% move. Such a move does not warrant an explanation. There is nothing there that an honest person can try to explain; there are no reasons to adduce.


Finally, a proper confidence level needs to be given to the factor itself; if it is less than 90% the story would be dead. I can understand why Hume was extremely obsessed with causality and could not accept such inference anywhere.


I managed to build an instinctive way of knowing if something serious is going on. The trick is to look only at the large percentage changes. Unless something moves by more than its usual daily percentage change, the event is deemed to be noise. Percentage moves are the size of the headlines. In addition, the interpretation is not linear; a 2% move is not twice as significant an event as 1%, it is rather like four to ten times. A 7% move can be several billion times more relevant than a 1% move! The headline of the Dow moving by 1.3 points on my screen today has less than one billionth of the significance of the serious 7% drop of October 1997. People might ask me: Why do I want everybody to learn some statistics? The answer is that too many people read explanations. We cannot instinctively understand the nonlinear aspect of probability.

Note: This is very Demming-esq


is not the estimate or the forecast that matters so much as the degree of confidence with the opinion.


We can see that my activity in the market (and other random variables) depends far less on where I think the market or the random variable is going so much as it does on the degree of error I allow around such a confidence level.


believe that I need my emotions to formulate my ideas and get the energy to execute them.


I am just intelligent enough to understand that I have a predisposition to be fooled by randomness—and to accept the fact that I am rather emotional. I am dominated by my emotions—but as an aesthete, I am happy about that fact. I am just like every single character whom I ridiculed in this book. Not only that, but I may be even worse than them because there may be a negative correlation between beliefs and behavior (recall Popper the man). The difference between me and those I ridicule is that I try to be aware of it. No matter how long I study and try to understand probability, my emotions will respond to a different set of calculations, those that my unintelligent genes want me to handle. If my brain can tell the difference between noise and signal, my heart cannot.


This mechanism I also call Wittgenstein’s ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler’s reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using the table to measure the ruler.


Recall that the accomplishment from which I derive the most pride is my weaning myself from television and the news media. I am currently so weaned that it actually costs me more energy to watch television than to perform any other activity, like, say, writing this book. But this did not come without tricks. Without tricks I would not escape the toxicity of the information age.


What is the trick? I have the volume turned completely off.


A little brooding revealed that my life until then had been governed by mild superstitions, me the expert in options, the dispassionate calculator of probabilities, a rational trader! It was not the first time that I had acted on mild superstitions of a harmless nature, which I believed were instilled in me by my Eastern Mediterranean roots: One does not grab the salt shaker from the hand of another person risking a falling out; one is to knock on wood upon receiving a compliment; plus many other Levantine beliefs passed on for a few dozen centuries. But like many things that brew and spread around the ancient pond, these beliefs I had taken with a fluctuating mixture of solemnity and mistrust. We consider them more like rituals than truly important actions meant to stave off undesirable turns of the goddess Fortuna—superstitions can instill some poetry in daily life.


We need tricks to get us there but before that we need to accept the fact that we are mere animals in need of lower forms of tricks, not lectures.


probability is not about the odds, but about the belief in the existence of an alternative outcome, cause, or motive. Recall that mathematics is a tool to meditate, not compute.


let us go back to the elders for more guidance—for probabilities were always considered by them as nothing beyond a subjective, and fluid, measure of beliefs.


As the skeptics’ main teaching was that nothing could be accepted with certainty, conclusions of various degrees of probability could be formed, and these supplied a guide to conduct.


One author from antiquity who provides us evidence of such thinking is the garrulous Cicero. He preferred to be guided by probability than allege with certainty—very handy, some said, because it allowed him to contradict himself.


What characterizes real speculators like Soros from the rest is that their activities are devoid of path dependence.


My lesson from Soros is to start every meeting at my boutique by convincing everyone that we are a bunch of idiots who know nothing and are mistake-prone, but happen to be endowed with the rare privilege of knowing it.


Stoicism is not the stiff upper lip, but the illusion of victory of man against randomness.


one of the greatest poets who ever breathed is C. P. Cavafy. Cavafy was an Alexandrian Greek civil servant with a Turkish or Arabic last name who wrote almost a century ago in a combination of classical and modern Greek a lean poetry that seems to have eluded the last fifteen centuries of Western literature.


While shaken with emotion. No stiff upper lip. There is nothing wrong and undignified with emotions—we are cut to have them. What is wrong is not following the heroic or, at least, the dignified path. That is what stoicism truly means. It is the attempt by man to get even with probability.


The stoic is a person who combines the qualities of wisdom, upright dealing, and courage. The stoic will thus be immune from life’s gyrations as he will be superior to the wounds from some of life’s dirty tricks. But things can be carried to the extreme; the stern Cato found it beneath him to have human feelings. A more human version can be read in Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic, a soothing and surprisingly readable book that I distribute to my trader friends (Seneca also took his own life when cornered by destiny).


Start stressing personal elegance at your next misfortune. Exhibit sapere vivere (“know how to live”) in all circumstances. Dress at your best on your execution day (shave carefully); try to leave a good impression on the death squad by standing erect and proud. Try not to play victim when diagnosed with cancer (hide it from others and only share the information with the doctor—it will avert the platitudes and nobody will treat you like a victim worthy of their pity; in addition, the dignified attitude will make both defeat and victory feel equally heroic). Be extremely courteous to your assistant when you lose money (instead of taking it out on him as many of the traders whom I scorn routinely do). Try not to blame others for your fate, even if they deserve blame. Never exhibit any self-pity, even if your significant other bolts with the handsome ski instructor or the younger aspiring model. Do not complain. If you suffer from a benign version of the “attitude problem,” like one of my childhood friends, do not start playing nice guy if your business dries up (he sent a heroic e-mail to his colleagues informing them “less business, but same attitude”). The only article Lady Fortuna has no control over is your behavior. Good luck.


research on happiness shows that those who live under a self-imposed pressure to be optimal in their enjoyment of things suffer a measure of distress.


But if you randomize your trigger point, sometimes overreacting at the slightest joke, people will not know in advance how far they can push you. The same applies to governments in conflicts: They need to convince their adversaries that they are crazy enough to sometimes overreact to a small peccadillo. Even the magnitude of their reaction should be hard to foretell. Unpredictability is a strong deterrent.


One single observation can invalidate a general statement derived from millennia of confirmatory sightings of millions of white swans. All you need is one single (and, I am told, quite ugly) black bird.*

A discovery always begins with the simple and innocent desire to understand. You invent new actions not because you want to do something new and original, but because you can't get where you want to be with the existing techniques. Without any reference point, without someone to guide you, you have to listen to what your body is telling you. You have to get used to feeling your body in a new way.

Commentary

Mathematica by David Bessis is the rare read that bridges complex mathematical thinking with practical wisdom. I found myself highlighting passages with such frequency that it rivaled my experience with Nassim Taleb's Anti-Fragile - a personal benchmark for transformative reading.

This book held me hostage. I literally neglected all non-essential aspects of life to sit and read it. I find this to be fleetingly rare so I tried not to fight it. Instead, allowing my exuberance to pull me through each page.

My excitement for this work stems from my personal journey with mathematics. Like many, I fell into the "I'm just bad at math" trap during my freshman year of high school, resigning myself to the limited world one inhabits with that mindset. Over the past couple of decades, I've made a concerted effort to override this self-imposed limitation.

My first significant breakthrough came by way of Nassim Taleb's Skin in the Game, which showed me how mathematical concepts could be communicated in accessible, non-mathematical language.

What makes Bessis' book extraordinary is how it illuminates Taleb's thinking process in ways that Taleb himself might find too obvious to explain. It's like being given a window into the machinery behind Taleb's popular theories and principles.

I've heard Taleb mention on podcasts that he writes his books purely from intuited conjecture, only later hunting down academic citations to support his ideas.

For anyone who has read Taleb's work, this seems almost impossible - how could someone intuit such sophisticated frameworks for probability, decision-making, risk, and uncertainty?

Bessis' book not only explains how this is possible but offers practical applications to develop our own intuitive thinking skill by borrowing from mathematics greatest thinkers.

In the end, what Bessis has created here isn't just another book about mathematics. It's a manifesto for intellectual growth, a roadmap for developing better intuition, and a kick in the pants to anyone who's ever said "I'm just not good at math."

What I’m stealing

1. Be interested in things with an unwavering commitment, intensity and tenacity

2. Listen to the dissonance between intuition and logic

3. Repeatedly collide your intuition with reality

4. Intuition is your strongest intellectual resource

5. Big ideas are ridiculously simple

6. Words don’t come easily and don’t come right away

7. Listen to what your body is telling you, get used to feeling your body in a new way

8. Books should be at our service, rather than the reverse

9. One person’s clear mental image is another person’s intimidation

10. Listen to the voice of things

11. Progress is always slow because the body needs time to transform itself

12. The essence of mental plasticity is to transform audacity into competence

13. Nothing is more exciting than a big glaring error

14. Understanding is making something intuitive for yourself. Explaining something to others is proposing simple ways of making it intuitive

15. It’s normal not to understand

16. Approach the search for truth like a martial art

17. Doubt is a forcing function for clarification and specificity

18. Rationality is a guide rather than the ultimate judge

19. Candor and sensitivity are powerful intellectual weapons

Supplemental Resources

Eric Nehrlic, Urepentant Generalist

Rene Descartes Discourse on Method and Mediations on First Philosophy

Math is Still Catching up to the Mysterious Genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

To be passionately curious means to have the ability to be interested in things with an unwavering commitment, with an intensity and tenacity that never fails.

the magic power of mathematicians isn't logic but intuition.


In their minds, the ideas are luminous, simple, and powerful. On paper, they become stunted and sad.


There's a way to become good at math. This method is never taught in school. It doesn't resemble any academic method and goes against the traditional tenets of education. It tries to make things easier rather than more difficult. You can compare it to meditation, yoga, rock climbing, or martial arts. It includes techniques to overcome our fears, conquer our flight reflex in the face of the unknown, and find pleasure in being contradicted. The method's exact scope is actually broader than math. It's a universal method for reprogramming our intuition and, in that sense, it's a method for becoming more intelligent.


They know very well that being bad at math means they won't be able to go into any number of professions, including some of the most prestigious and best paid. Maybe they don't understand why math is so important, but they know that it is. They feel excluded, which gives them an excellent reason for hating it.


I want to convince you that the only possible explanation is that it's all a giant misunderstanding. People aren't good at math because no one has taken the time to give them clear instructions. No one has told them that math is a physical activity. No one has told them that, in math, there aren't things to learn, but things to do.


Studying math the same way that you study history or biology is useless. You might as well take careful notes during a yoga class so that you don't forget anything. If you don't practice any breathing exercises, it's worth nothing at all.

Explaining math is getting others to see things they've never seen before.

Sure, your intuition is wrong every now and then, but not always. Often it's right. And you can make it so that it's right more often. You can train it to see more clearly and distinctly. Starting from the same point as you, mathematicians construct a visionary intuition that is powerful and trustworthy. They get there using simple methods, like those taught in this book.

your intuition is your strongest intellectual resource. In a sense, it's your only intellectual resource.

That's why you never have complete confidence in logical arguments and you're much more at ease with what you understand intuitively.


If you've been able to do these things, rest assured: you have the genetic potential and the intellectual faculties to become very good at math. From the biological perspective, that's all that's needed. The other ingredients aren't genetic, and they're also at your disposal. It's simply a matter of sincerity, patience, desire, and courage.

The big ideas are always intuitive and always simple. They're even ridiculously simple.

This is a universal law of human cognition. It states that our science was invented by humans and that humans are, at the deepest level, all made of the same stuff.

The great discoveries are made by people who are simply trying to understand. They just want to make things clear for themselves.


And when you think you see a math whiz, it's never really a math whiz, it's always just someone who has a way of seeing numbers that turns calculations that you find complex and scary into something easy and even obvious.

The main difference between a math whiz and you is that their bag of tricks is bigger than yours and they're more used to playing with them.

If you find that the math you do understand is too easy, it's not because it's easy, it's because you understand it.


This is what happens when you run up against the limits of language.

In order to express what you feel, you have to invent new words, or create a new usage for words that already exist. Fleeting impressions cease being fleeting only after you find a way to pin them down with words. It takes time to get there. Words don't come easily, and they don't come right away.

The initial phase of a discovery is a spiritual experience. You think outside of language. The world is illuminated. You have epiphanies.

You see things that until then were hidden. Things so new they don't yet have a name.


Understanding a mathematical notion is learning to see things that you could not see before. It's learning to find them obvious. It's raising your state of consciousness.


But math, because it relies on unseen actions, can't be learned through imitation.

A discovery always begins with the simple and innocent desire to understand. You invent new actions not because you want to do something new and original, but because you can't get where you want to be with the existing techniques. Without any reference point, without someone to guide you, you have to listen to what your body is telling you. You have to get used to feeling your body in a new way.

Finding the solution means thinking what had been unthinkable. It's like augmenting the cognitive capacity of human beings.

To truly learn a movement, you have to understand it beyond words. You have to feel it within your own body, and find it natural and intuitive.

Math is mysterious and difficult because you can't see how others are doing it. You can see what they're writing on the blackboard or on a sheet of paper, but you can't see the prior actions they performed in their heads that enabled them to think and write those things.

Math itself is simple but the mental actions that allow us to make sense of it are subtle and counterintuitive. These actions are invisible.

We can't simply imitate what others do. We lack the adequate words to explain how to do it, and in any case words will always miss the main point: what we really feel inside ourselves.


But they know that getting lost is a normal stage in the understanding process. They won't get upset. They won't pretend to understand what they can't understand. They won't even try to take notes. They'll simply stop listening.

If they really want to understand, they'll find another way.


If you really want to, if you have enough time for it and you've chosen the right book, it's well worth the effort. Get ready for a few months of hard work. This initiation rite will transform you. In my lifetime I've really succeeded in reading only three or four math books.

I don't regret the time and effort. It gave me unexpected powers, as if I'd drunk a magic potion. This power remains with me today. But the potion was hard to swallow.


In fact, you should do whatever you feel like doing. You can leaf through the book for ten seconds, one hour, or three monthswhatever. The underlying principle is never to force yourself to follow the pages in order, but to follow your own desire and curiosity.

The book should be at our service, rather than the reverse. It will never work if we try to read a math book like a "normal" book, if we let the book dictate the pace, if we wait for it to take us by the hand  and tell us a story. We're not there to listen passively. We don't have the patience and, frankly, we're just not interested.


In the end, the page that interests us the most may end up being the least difficult for us. First of all because we're interested in it: interesting things are a whole lot easier. And also because it's necessarily tied to something we already understand-otherwise it wouldn't interest us.

Following your desire is the only way of giving the book a real chance. If you start at the beginning, you run the risk of getting discouraged by page 2.


At a profound level, math is the only successful attempt by humanity to speak with precision about things that we can't point to with our fingers. This is one of the central themes of this book and we'll come back to it a number of times.

What is rare, and what our culture doesn't push you to do, is to be aware of your capability for synesthesia and to try to develop it systematically. Secret math is a mental yoga whose goal is to retake control over our ability for synesthesia.

He told me how an idea had been invented and how you need to understand it "morally."

"Morally" understanding something means being able to explain it to yourself intuitively and cite the reason why it's true: the moral of the story.


The trips mathematicians take allow the diffusion of new ideas with an efficiency otherwise impossible. We love long-term stays. We need time to talk, take coffee breaks, scribble on the blackboard, and pick up the discussion the next day with a question that came to us when we woke up. A Japanese mathematician, Kyoji Saito, wanted to understand the "thoughts between the lines" of one of my articles, so he often invited me to Kyoto. For my part, it allowed me to better understand the "thoughts between the lines" of his articles. These types of trips are part of a mathematician's life.


"Bad" teachers are the ones who recite the 198 steps to assemble the toaster as if that were the end of the story. "Good" teachers do their best to explain what a toaster is. They constantly look their students in the eyes, because it's in their eyes that they will know if they've understood.

"One person's clear mental image is another person's intimidation, Thurston wrote.

It's hard to share mental images, as they are evanescent and profoundly subjective. Our common language is incapable of transcribing them with precision. It's precisely because our intuition is so secretive and so unstable that logical formalism was invented.


for the most creative mathematicians, mathematics is a sensual and carnal experience that is located upstream from language.


Grothendieck had a different explanation: "The quality of the inventiveness and the imagination of a researcher comes from the quality of his attention, listening to the voice of things."

Interrogating things, listening to the voice of things, means trying to imagine them, examining the mental images that form within you, seeking to solidify these images and make them clearer, working at unveiling more and more details, as when you try to recall a dream.

mathematical understanding  is achieved by gradually modifying the way we represent things to ourselves, and making them clearer, more precise, closer to reality.


Our prodigious faculty for learning and invention has its origih in our unconscious ability to constantly reconfigure the fabric of associations of images and sensations that, literally and figuratively, comprise the real structure of our thought.


It is in this continuous effort to articulate the inarticulable, to define what is as yet unclear, that the particular dynamic of mathematical work (and perhaps as well all creative intellectual work) is perhaps found.

Mathematical writing is the work of transcribing a living (but confused, unstable, nonverbal) intuition into a precise and stable (but as dead as a fossil) text.

Or, rather, it would be a simple job of transcription if the intuition was from the outset precise and correct. But intuition is rarely precise and correct from the outset. At first it's vague and wrong, and it always remains a bit so. Through the work of writing, intuition becomes less and less vague and less and less wrong. This process is slow and gradual.

In that sense, mathematical definitions have the power of creation: they bring things into existence. It may seem silly to speak so pompously, but that's what really happens.

When you see things that others don't yet perceive, sharing your vision requires finding a way to get others to re-create those things in their own heads. A mathematical definition serves this purpose. It provides detailed instructions allowing others, starting with things they are already able to see, to mentally construct those new things.


But before getting to this simple understanding, while you still don't have the right mental images, you'll have to go through a lot of trial and error.


Writing mathematics, that is, transcribing mental images with enough clarity and precision to allow others to understand and reproduce them, is an art.

 What makes it so difficult is that your mental images are often a lot less clear than you think.


the art of mathematical writing is really a dual task of the clarification of ideas and the refinement of language.


Learning to write math is learning to have clear ideas. Wouldn't it be a shame to deprive yourself of that?


The others aren't blind. They are biologically capable of seeing the same shapes as you. But they haven't yet learned how. Their brain receives the same raw visual information but doesn't structure it in the same way.


Mathematical comprehension is precisely this: finding the means of creating within yourself the right mental images in place of a formal definition, to turn this definition into something intuitive, to "feel" what it is really talking about.


The real pleasure of mathematics is waking up one day and realizing that you can see stars in your head, which you'd never been able to do before.

The secret techniques of mathematicians aim to facilitate and accelerate this intuitive understanding. Mathematicians use logic and language as an apparatus for learning to see.


If you've never learned to think in multiple dimensions, you've missed out on one of the great joys of life. It's like you've never seen the ocean, or never eaten chocolate.


Visual intuition makes certain mathematical properties clear, that without the mental image wouldn't be clear at all. This is why transforming mathematical definitions into mental images is so important.


Contrary to common belief, it's never abstraction that makes math difficult to understand. Abstraction is our universal mode of thinking. The words that we use are all abstractions. Speaking, making sentences, is to manipulate and assemble abstractions. In that respect, four-dimensional geometry isn't any more abstract than two dimensional geometry. The problem with four-dimensional geometry has nothing to do with abstraction. The problem is that it's hard to visualize and hard to draw.


Vector spaces are usually represented by letters and linear maps by arrows connecting these letters. But when I chose to picture vector spaces as bigger or smaller barrels (according to their dimension) and linear maps as bigger or smaller pipes (according to their rank) connecting those barrels, then all the exercises on these concepts suddenly became obvious.

It wasn't much. That was a tiny subject and there were plenty of other exercises that I was unable to solve. But in this subject, not only was I able to solve the exercises, they became as obvious to me as 1,000,000,000 I = 999,999,999. They became so obvious that it seemed absurd that you'd even have to ask, and even more absurd that there were people who didn't know how to solve them.

These barrels and pipes made my life simpler, but where did they come from? Was that how you're supposed to do it? What was going on in other people's heads? How were they imagining mathematical concepts?


The second approach consists of refusing to learn. It takes on math as a sensory experience. The sole function of mathematical statements is to help you generate mental images, and only these images will lead to comprehension. Once you have the correct mental images, everything else becomes clear.


At the time, thankfully, this didn't last long. After a few weeks, without any conscious effort, I ended up accepting the idea that you could reason with letters, that is, reason with numbers without knowing the actual number. I understood that not knowing the actual number was in fact the whole point. Reasoning with letters was a way of reasoning with all numbers at once. It was doing an infinite number of computations with a finite number of words.


I knew perfectly well that they were false. It was obvious. But since it was so obvious, was I able to say exactly in which way they were false?

Today, when I try to describe this intellectual method, I sum it up like this: I began to listen to the dissonance between my intuition  and logic,


I failed to express myself clearly.

I didn't have the right words to talk about these issues. It took me decades to find a proper way to talk about them.

**Note:** Taleb mentions a similar sentiment. Thinking for 20 years before writing his books.


In the space of a few weeks, my way of studying was transformed.

I began to use class as a benchmark for my intuition. I tried to predict what the teacher was going to say. Most of the time I got it wrong, but that let me figure out where my intuition was already correct.

The things I understood, I understood so well that I could rely on them and concentrate on the others.

I kept going back to what I didn't understand until I understood why I didn't understand it


Behind our false beliefs about mathematical intelligence, behind our superstitions and inhibitions, there lies our ignorance about menral plasticity and the laws that govern it.


It's important to be able to guess what is true, what is false.

Then I don't remember statements which are proved. I try to have a collection of pictures in my mind. More than one picture, all false but in different ways, and I know in which way they are false.


Mathematical work isn't a series of lightning insights and strokes of genius. It's first of all a work of reeducation based on the repetition of the same exercises of imagination.

 Progress is slow because the body needs time to transform itself.

It doesn't help to force it, which may end up hurting you. You just need to commit to a regular training schedule, keep your cool, keep going even when it seems you're not making any progress. It's like going to the speech or physical therapist, except you're all alone and inside your head.


A conjecture is a mathematical statement that someone believes is valid but isn't yet able to prove. Making a conjecture is feeling something is right without being able to say why. It is by nature a visionary and intuitive act.


I don't know what Thurston really saw, but when I look at his mathematical work, I haven't the slightest doubt that he saw many things I don't. His style of writing gives the impression that he's just trying to share them with us. He'd love to show the things directly, in real life, but he knows that's impossible. So he writes math papers.


And maybe you've already had the fascinating experience of waking up one morning and knowing, without even having opened your eyes, that it snowed during the night, because the texture of the silence has changed.


No human is capable of solving these equations in the way that school teaches us to solve equations, by applying a conscious and mechanical method. But the specificity of our mental plasticity is to:

give us an unconscious means of solving problems without ever stat ing them, by training our minds to recognize a multitude of subtle patterns that evade our consciousness.


You have the same magic abilities as anyone else. It's just a question of will, patience, and openness to the world.


As for echolocation, it seems that you can get significant results by working an hour per day for two to three weeks. In the end, it's a bit like learning how to drive.

When you want to learn a new sport, a new language, or a new job, you go through a similar process. You have to throw yourself into it and accept that you'll be feeling about for a bit, thinking that you'll never be any good, until the moment you find, as if by magic, that you're getting the hang of it.

The essence of mental plasticity is to transform audacity into competence.

The process is slow and invisible, and at first success seems unachievable: that's the biological reality of our learning mechanisms.


That's why we so often limit ourselves to learning only what's of ficially possible to learn (things that have introductory or professional development courses), what you can learn by imitating others, or what comes naturally.

The rest, the secret and invisible apprenticeships, are said to be "gifts," "talents," "supernatural powers." No one tells us that we can learn to see in five dimensions, get our bearings through echolocation, or tell the sex of dogs and cats by looking at their heads, so we never even try.


Reconnecting with your early childhood capacity for learning means to stop believing in these absurd stories of gifts and talent. It means to become once again capable of devoting ten or twenty hours  to something that may or may not be impossible, without being distracted by the feeling of your own uselessness. It means to rediscover the world with an open mind, trying something just to see what happens, for fun, because you want to.

My basic technique hadn't changed: lending an ear to the dissonance between my intuition and logic. This technique remained my instrument for exploring the world,

I stopped believing that our way of seeing and thinking about the world was a given fact, and that we each had a predefined amount of intelligence that we had to make do with.

In place of that, I began to believe that we had the freedom to ceaselessly refashion our way of seeing and thinking, and to construct our own intelligence day after day.

This change of approach had one initial practical consequence: I became a creative mathematician. I began to have ideas no one had had before, to see things no one had seen before, to prove theorems no one had yet proven at first easy theorems, and later in my career theorems that had till then seemed far beyond my capabilities. Mathematical creativity has the reputation of being a great mystery that science can't explain. In my experience, however, it emerged as a natural phenomenon once I had adopted the correct psychological attitude.

System 3 - When I need to make an important decision in my life, if my intuition tells me to choose option A and my reason tells me to choose option B, I tell myself there's something going on and I'm not ready to make the decision.

That's the moment to resort to what I call System 3.

lending an ear to the dissonance between my intuition and logic.

I force myself to translate my intuition into words, to tell it like a simple and intelligible story. Vice versa, I try to picture what logical reasoning is actually expressing, to experience it in my body, to hear what it's trying to say. I ask myself if I really believe it. I fumble about. It takes time but it's not a real effort. It's more like a meditation on running water, something going on in the background that might stop and start, then all of a sudden become clear days, months, or even years later.

I'm personally incapable of thinking against my intuition and I have serious doubts as to the sincerity of people who claim they can.

**Note:** The IYI

Your intuition will always be more powerful and better informed than the most sophisticated of language-based reasonings.

My intuition isn't any less fallible than yours. It's always getting things wrong. I have, however, learned never to be ashamed of it. I don't disdain my mistakes, I don't push them aside, because I don't think that they betray my intellectual inferiority or some cognitive biases hardwired in my brain. On the contrary. Nothing's more exciting than a big glaring error: it's always a sign that I'm not looking at things in the right way, and that it's possible to see them more clearly.

When I'm able to put my finger on an error in my intuition, I know it's good news, because it means that my mental representations are already in the process of reconfiguring themselves.

My intuition has the mental age of a twoyear-old-it has no inhibitions and always wants to learn. If you stop mistreating your own, you'll see that it's exactly like mine, only asking to be allowed to grow.


System I has an edge: it isn't bound by the constraints of language and writing.

The most important messages, the ones you should always bear in mind, are these:

1. You can reprogram your intuition.

2. Any misalignment between your intuition and reason is an opportunity to create within yourself a new way of seeing things.

3. Don't expect it all to come at once, in real time. Developing mental images means reorganizing the connections between your neurons. This process is organic and has its own pace.

4. Don't force it. Simply start from what you already understand, what you can already see, what you find easy, and just play with it. Try to intuitively interpret the calculations you would have written down. If it helps, scribble on a piece of paper.

5. With time and practice, this activity will strengthen your intuitive capacities. It may not seem like you're making progress, until the day the right answer suddenly seems obvious.

You'll need a number of training sessions. Exactly how many, I don't know. It's not worth tiring yourself out-better to split it up into short five-minute sessions, and think about it in the shower or while on a walk. Above all, take your time. It's good to think about it only once a week or once a month. Most important, keep at it and don't let it drop. It will come eventually.

Understanding something is making it intuitive for yourself. Explaining something to others is proposing simple ways of making it intuitive.

But a few people choose to rely on their System 3. They're not aware that they're doing anything special. Math just feels easy to them. It doesn't even feel like work. They're just seeing pictures in their heads, and spending a couple of minutes a day looking at these pictures and asking themselves naïve questions.


There are no tricks. There never were any and there never will be.

Believing in the existence of tricks is as toxic as believing in the exisof truths that are counterintuitive by nature.


Look ing for and finding the right way of seeing things is the driving force of mathematics. It's the main source of pleasure you can take from it.


When you give free rein to your imagination, it is nearly without limits.

These domains each have their own vocabulary and intuitions. It's like they correspond to different ways of using our bodies, different  regions in our brains, different ways of focusing our attention

**Note:** Referring to the different domains of mathematics, but applies more broadly than that.

the probabilistic approach is a sort of kung fu that focuses your attention on a single number while your subconscious does all the heavy lifting.


If you want to validate your intuition and transform it into rigorous thinking, if you really want to understand why the average is 50.5 rather than 50, you need to listen to yourself, to your unconscious processes and their mechanisms.


To get to really know a mathematical object, you have to observe in for a long time, with intensity and detachment, with curiosity and open-mindedness. You need to take the time to play with it and create an intimate relationship, a relationship that takes place outside of language.


mathematical intelligence was something you constructed for yourself. It's the natural byproduct of a physical activity that everyone is free to practice: mathematical imagination.

Mathematics is the science of imagination. Between those who allow themselves to imagine, observe, and manipulate mathematical objects and those who don't, there's an enormous divide.


Contrary to popular belief, logic isn't the enemy of imagination.

It can even be a close ally. The real enemy of imagination, that which blocks understanding and makes us feel like fools, is fear.

Fear is our real limitation.

paying attention to the dissonance between my intuition and logic

Mathematics is a practice rather than knowledge.


You're at the edge of what's socially acceptable. Your credibility is at stake. If you acknowledge how lost you are, you'll look like a fool.

The social norm is to let it go.

This situation is typical of all failed math conversations, those we learn nothing from, those that serve only to reinforce our certainty that we're the worst of the worst.


I have fashioned a method by which, it seems to me, I have a way of adding progressively to my knowledge and raising it by degrees to the highest point that the limitations of my mind and the short span of life allotted to me will permit it to reach.


there are two levels of understanding. The first level consists of following the reasoning step by step and accepting that it's correct.

Accepting is not the same as understanding. The second level is real understanding. It requires seeing where the reasoning comes from and why it's natural.

It's normal not to understand. It's normal to be afraid. It's normal to have to struggle to contain your fear. It is, in fact, precisely what's at stake.

Descartes. In order not to leave any doubt, he opens his book with a sentence in the form of a slogan: "Good sense is the most evenly distributed thing in the world!"


we all know that rationality serves a purpose, just as we all know that math is extraordinarily powerful. Even if we have a hard time explaining why.

Discourse on Method is a self-help book whose message is simple: we have the ability to construct our own intelligence and selfconfidence.

If you open Discourse on Method looking for a glorification of System 2, you'll be sadly disappointed. Descartes's great innovation was to put intuition and subjectivity at the heart of his approach to knowledge. He was distrustful of established knowledge and what was written in books. He placed little credit in authorities. He preferred to reconstruct everything by himself, in his head. His method closely resembles that of Einstein, Thurston, and Grothendieck. It is, of course, System 3, the slow and careful dialogue between intuition and logic, with the aim of developing your intuition


. However, this is precisely where Descartes has the most to teach us.

As long as we conflate rationality and logic, as long as we reduce truth to its social and linguistic dimensions, as long as we see it only as a matter of consensus or authority, we completely miss the point of the Cartesian approach.

For Descartes, truth was a matter of life and death. He perfectly embodies this singular and powerful aspect of mathematical psychology his relationship to the truth is physical, almost carnal: “I constantly felt a burning desire to learn to distinguish the true from the false, to see my actions for what they were, and to proceed with confidence through life.”

Descartes cared less for easy truths, those that are supposed to be true because tradition or such-and-such a person says so, or simply because they seem true. What interested him were solid truths, those that weren't going to change overnight, the ones you can rely on to become stronger and more confident, to make the right choices in life.

He approached truth as a martial art, an instinct you develop and that becomes embodied in action.

Everything else‚ the philosophical arguments, the "opinions" of intellectuals with no skin in the game was all just talk and of no interest to him: "For it seemed to me that I could discover much more truth from the reasoning that we all make about things that affect us and that will soon cause us harm if we misjudge them, than from the speculations in which a scholar engages in the privacy of his study, that have no consequence for him."

He had forced the Christian world to consider this existential question: is the truth necessarily what is written in books, or do we, as human beings, have the ability to discover it ourselves?

A bit later, Descartes realized that the dictionary was damaged.

Then the man and the books disappeared. Without waking up, Descartes interpreted the dictionary as a symbol of science and the etry collection as a symbol of philosophy and wisdom. The substance of the dream was precisely that: it is necessary to reconstruct science while being inspired by the techniques of poets who, through "the divinity of enthusiasm" and "the force of imagination," are able to uncover "the seeds of wisdom (which are found in the spirit of all men, like the sparks of fire in stone)."

Descartes thus invented rationality. Upon awakening, he was convinced that the Spirit of Truth had descended upon him to "open the treasures of all the sciences" by revealing that truth is not to be found in books, but in our heads. We have the ability to discover it ourselves, by the power of our thought.

For Descartes, the experience of understanding mathematics is the sole means of understanding what "understanding" really means.


This lead him to adopt a dualist stance: he imagined a separation between mind and body. Our mind is of an immaterial nature, created by God in his image, and thus capable of attaining Truth as if by magic.

You can't doubt with words, you can doubt only silently, in your head. Doubt is personal and intimate. If you only pretend to doubt, if you don't go all the way, if you don't take the plunge, it's worth nothing.

It's only through a relentless confrontation with doubt that forces you to clarify and specify each detail until it all becomes transparent that you're finally able to create obviousness, doubt is a technique of mental clarification. It serves to construct rather than destroy.

His "burning desire," as we've seen, was the exact opposite: "to proceed with confidence through life."


Descartes discovered that when we make a sincere attempt at introspection, when we're attentive to our cognitive dissonance, when we force ourselves to grasp our most fleeting mental images and put words to them, when we have the courage to face the internal contradictions of our imagination, when we have enough calm and selfcontrol to look beyond our prejudices and see things as they really are, it has the result of modifying our mental representations, of making them more powerful, solid, coherent, and effective.


Practiced right, doubt can induce a state of profound compre hension that amazed Descartes, as it amazes all those who experience it. It's an experience that leaves you transformed, and that in itself is well worth the effort.

Doubt is not only the secret behind Descartes's achievements, it's also the secret of his incredible chutzpah.

Seen in this way, Discourse on Method is a master class in self-confidence. His version of rationality is concrete, personal, rooted in our deepest aspirations. The whole point is to make us stronger:
"This assurance is one side of a mindset, whose other side is an openness to doubt: an attitude of curiosity that excludes all fear as regards one's own mistakes, that allows us to detect and constantly correct them."

This last quote, taken from Grothendieck's Harvests and Sowings, perfectly summarizes this fundamental lesson from Descartes, and captures a unique aspect of the mathematical ethos.

“Arrogant people who love being contradicted, show-offs who smile when you prove them wrong, dogmatists ready to change their mind in a heartbeat: I've encountered this singular attitude only among very good mathematicians.”

In losing the possibility of imitation, we lose much more than our main learning method. We also lose our main driver of desire.


If I could show it, the math that goes on in my head would intrigue a lot of people. But it serves no purpose to say so, since I don't have any means of showing it.


As an adult, I've developed my own way of making use of the special state of mind just before falling asleep. Rather than focusing on subjects that preoccupy me, I've learned to simply let myself be filled with them. The nuance is subtle but fundamental. Focusing is thinking intensely, in search of solutions. It never works and it keeps you from sleeping. Being filled with something means contemplating it without a goal, in a decentered and disinterested manner. It's almost like dreaming.

I might be wrong, but it seems to me that this technique of falling asleep increases my chances of waking up the next morning with interesting ideas.


If you want to practice switching viewpoints, here is a good exercise:

1. Choose a random reference point around you, for example, the corner opposite from you in a room, or the window of a house when you're walking in the street.

2. Try to imagine what you'd see if you were looking in your direction from this reference point.

It's not a binary exercise in which there are those who can and those who can't do it. The exercise is hard for everyone.


creativity is simply the ultimate form of understanding, which itself is but a natural product of our mental activity. It emerges when we force ourselves to continue looking at things that intimidate us until they finally become familiar and obvious.


Here is an exercise of the imagination that helped me a lor when I was trying to improve in these subject areas. I looked at an object, for example, a bottle of shampoo sitting in the bathroom, and asked myself the following question: if my body were shaped like the bottle, how would it feel physically

When you're sincerely preoccupied with something, when you're in trouble, when you have problems at work or problems at home, you instinctively call on the method used by mathematicians.

At night, in your bed, you try to understand the issue. You mull it over. You replay in your head mental images that you dig up from the depths of your memory and imagination. You play Lego with these images. You try to organize them, fit them together and assemble something meaningful, something that makes sense

Descartes's method has the effect of modifying your mental representations and your intuitions and gradually reinforcing their internal consistency.

It's in fact the whole point of the approach. By anchoring our convictions in indisputable evidence and rigorous deduction, we can turn them into certitudes that, over time, become as strong as reinforced concrete.

Except that sometimes these certitudes are false.


Here is the reason why there was a riddle: human language is structurally incompatible with logical reasoning, and we can never have 100 percent certainty in truths expressed in human language and arrived at through deductive logic.

That goes for all kinds of "truths," the ones coming from official science and the ones coming from our small everyday reasoning that we employ all the time.

Outside of mathematics, rationality remains under constant threat from the fragility of our language and our way of perceiving the world.

without this rigidity, no language can be compatible with logical reasoning. It may be annoying, but that's how it is.

In the end, rationality should be used as a guide rather than an ultimate judge. The reality that's before our eyes always merits more attention than the certitudes in our heads. Rationality is great, but empiricists do have a point.

Trusting reason too much, using human language as if it had all the attributes of mathematical language, as if words had a precise meaning, as if each detail merited being interpreted and the logical validity of an argument sufficed to guarantee the validity of its conclusions, is a characteristic symptom of paranoia. When applied outside of mathematics and without any safeguards, mathematical reasoning becomes an actual illness.


To find out, to understand how math really works and what it can really do for us, we cannot continue to overlook its most direct practical aspect: math works on our brain and modifies how we see the world.


Is the elephant young or old? Dangerous or harmless? Is it angry? Does it have a lot of self-confidence? Do you feel sympathy or distrust?

You've never taken a class on interpreting drawings and yet you know how to answer these questions, immediately and without any effort. All that from a few lines drawn on a page.

How is such a miracle even biologically possible?


Intelligence is what is called an emergent property: individually our neurons are primitive and limited, but vast assemblies of neurons make incredibly sophisticated behaviors "emerge" that can't be attributed to any neuron by itself these large-scale behaviors are what we call intelligence.


From the outset in this book, I've discussed a number of power ful and mysterious phenomena that have perplexed me throughout my mathematical career: mental plasticity, the inevitable ambiguity of human language, the role of time and trial and error in trying to understand things, the necessity to ask stupid questions, the feeling of obviousness that comes after the fact.

another phenomenon takes place in the background. It happens at a much slower pace, and is so discrete that we can't perceive it. The correct metaphor isn't lightning, but organic growth. It's the process through which we learn. It's the basis of what we have called System 3, our ability to gradually modify the way we represent the world to ourselves.

Math is first and foremost an inner tool. Its main purpose is to enhance human cognition, With the correct exercises of imagination, we have the ability to develop an intuitive and familiar understanding of mathematical notions. We can appropriate them and make them an extension of our bodies.


They can understand mathematical objects only in a perceptual manner, via false human interpretations, approximations, translations from mathematical vocabu lary into human language.

In fact, this is precisely why math is so beneficial for us: it forces us to enrich our human vocabulary and our human perception.

from a purely practical standpoint, math is indistinguishable from fiction.

Learning math is an activity of pure imagination.


Yes, ideas come unexpectedly, "as if summoned from the void," but that's normal. Yes, plasticity is a slow and silent mechanism that occurs without any real effort on our part, provided we're exposed to the right mental images. Yes, we learn precisely when we force ourselves to imagine things that we don't yet understand, which unfortunately is the same exact thing that most people run away from. Yes, paying attention to the small details that trouble us is of the utmost importance, and the fastest way to learn is to follow the path of maximum perplexity. Cartesian doubt, within this framework, can be interpreted as an "adversarial" hack to accelerate our learning.


How do you teach math to someone who believes that their intuition and perception of reality are given and impossible to reprogram?


Yet using our imagination isn't navigating an ethereal layer of the cosmos. Nor is it a parasitical activity that we should seek to suppress. It is, instead, a genuine physical activity that is central to human cognition.


If we day dream, it's because this allows us to fabricate understanding. What we imagine modifies the actual wiring of our brain and literally changes the way we see the world.

There are a thousand and one ways to imagine. We haven't yet learned to recognize them all, and still less to name them. Think, meditate, reflect, visualize, analyze, fantasize, reason, dream: we use these words haphazardly, without really knowing what they mean, and without realizing how much they have in common.

It's through this vagueness that all the misunderstandings slip in.

No one cared to even tell us that there are right and wrong ways of using our imagination. Some make us stupid. Some make us crazy.

And some have the power of making us incredibly smart.

34 Now that we're teaching machines the secrets of intelligence, it's about time we start teaching humans.


The secret math, the one that deals with human understanding, will never possess the rigor and objectivity of official math. Because of this, it will never be considered as a "serious" topic.

This "nonserious" topic, however, is arguably much more important than most properly mathematical questions.


Failing to place human understanding at the center of mathematics is failing to acknowledge the very nature of mathematics.


I have tried to approach it in my own way, starting from a simple premise: talking about math as I have experienced it, in the simplest way possible, examining what it really consists of, the things you do inside your head, and how to approach it concretely.


This is precisely why math is difficult: it requires looking straight at what is beyond our comprehension. We must become genuinely interested in it. We must force ourselves to imagine it and put words to all our impressions, without being distracted by our constant feeling of inferiority. And we must do that precisely when our instinct tells us to run away as quickly as we can.

I know now that my candor and my sensitivity are my most powerful intellectual weapons. The mathematical approach is one of integrity and being in tune with oneself.

My advice is to have no shame in starting at the beginning, with the most classical and elementary proofs. Since it won't be easy for you to know if you really understand them, try explaining them to someone else, perhaps a child.

When we try explaining things to others, we often realize that our own ideas aren't as clear as we thought. It's a painful and humiliating experience, but one that you can get over, and it's precisely by getting over it that you get ahead in math.

The later works of Wittgenstein are an excellent complement to this chapter as well as to chapter 19. The most accessible is perhaps On Certainty, a short text assembled posthumously from his notes (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1975).


Proofs without Words: The Example of Ramanujan Continued Fractions notes: http://www.xavierviennot.org/coursIMSc2017/lectures_files/Ramanujan  Inst_2017.pdf; video recording

Other works cited in this chapter:

Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, Principia Mathematica, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910).


 


 

While running is not as obviously creative as music, it too is an outlet for human expression and requires well-honed technique beyond the physical realm. Just as with dance, there is a rhythm and a beauty to running that transcends mere pavement pounding and elevates the act of running well to artistry.

Commentary

I bought this book on a whim several years ago at a used book store. Just recently, I felt compelled to pick it up. The descriptions, references, and quotes made this an unexpectedly fun read. It turned out to be the perfect timing in my running journey to read it.

I suspect that if I had read this at the start of my running practice, it would have been far less valuable. I did find a handful of facts I wish I would have known much earlier in my athletic career, so I might recommend flipping through the contents of it if you are just starting out. However, this is definitely a book written for a runner by a runner. I would put this in the same category of books as Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons. The deeper you go into the practice, the more insightful they become. I suspect I will revisit this one frequently as my running skill progresses.

From a technique standpoint my running form was not terribly far off from this, but I have been tightening up the loose bits and focusing on implementing and maintaining the pose in my daily runs and I have experienced the following:

1. My calves are sore as hell, but they are adapting.

2. I am running at the same sustained pace while keeping my hear rate about 20 beats lower. (a portion of this is definitely the slightly lower temps, but still significant)

3. Post run my legs and body are far less fatigued.

4. It’s easier to maintain the pose the faster I run

5. My feet are much quieter interacting with the pavement

6. When I’m able to disassociate my upper and lower body I really feel zoned in, like I can run forever.

What I’m stealing

1. Injuries are the biggest enemy of consistency.

2. Transfer the force of gravity into horizontal movement

3. Stride frequency, not length, is the key to running faster.

4. Minimize bounce and maintain a high stride rate.

5. Disassociate the body from the legs

6. Reduce tension and concentrate on muscular elasticity

7. Develop a heightened level of sensitivity to my movements.

8. Great running is a physical manifestation of extremely strong mental ability.

Supplemental Resources

I can’t help but be moved by her performance.

Oddly enough, Army Holistic Helath and Fitness Drills I shared in MNTS #47 uses the Pose Method in their training instruction.

Pose Method website

Pose Method YouTube

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

If you want to be healthy - run, if you want to be handsome - run, if you want to be smart - run.

Ancient Greek aphorism

The Racers run smoothly, with a fine tuned stride like a Wankel rotary engine.

No wasted energy, no fighting the street or bouncing along like a jogger.

These people flow and they flow very fast.

Hunter S. Thompson

Journalist Hunter S. Thompson, whose quote from his book The Curse of Lono opened this chapter, vividly described this transition from "The Racers" to "The Runners" as he described the Honolulu Marathon:

The Runners are different. Very few of them flow, and not many run fast. And the slower they are, the more noise they make. By the time the four-digit numbers came by, the sound of the race was disturbingly loud and disorganized. The smooth rolling hiss of the Racers had degenerated into a hell broth of slapping and pounding feet.

injuries are the biggest enemy of consistency

In Gary Guten's book, he notes the four factors that contribute to sports injuries: change, alignment, twisting, and speed. The first one, "change", is very common with runners and refers to a sudden increase of mileage, distance, frequency, or intensity of training by more than 10% per week. In other words, the runner wants to see some fast improvement and instead commits the most basic training error of all, overdoing it and winding up injured instead of faster


I wanted the runner to get the maximum benefit out of the gratuitous forces of gravity, muscle elasticity and inertia and minimize voluntary muscular efforts that require the expenditure of energy.


Instead of pounding the pavement, you now are virtually hovering above it. Listen. Instead of thud, thud, thud you now hear tap, tap, tap. Focus on the tapping. As your leg speed increases, you want the tapping to become less and less audible. Each brief tap is your only contact with the ground. You are no longer thudding the full weight of your body through the pavement, you're keeping it suspended above the pavement. This is the Incredible Lightness of Running.


Whatever you cannot understand, you cannot possess.

Goethe


When you understand one thing through and through, you understand everything.

Shunyro Suzuki


In fact, the role that gravity plays in human movement is so critical that you could say trying to run without understanding gravity is like trying to sail without understanding the wind.

Remember, the boat doesn't use the force of the sailor to move forward; it is the skill of the sailor in capturing the force of the wind that moves the boat forward. In running, it will be your skill in transferring the force of gravity into horizontal movement that determines just how far and fast you can run.

Simply put, superior running technique is the art of releasing the body to fall freely.


Running is simply the changing of support from one leg to the other. Simple as that. One instant, you are in the Running Pose supported on one leg, the next you are in the Running Pose supported on the other leg. Your only objective is to alternate your Running Poses from one leg to the other as quickly as possible. Running is what takes place in between. Running happens.


How fast a body moves is determined entirely by how quickly (Fig.13.2) and efficiently (Fig. 13.3) it changes its support. Interestingly, the perfect change of support comes from the body's willingness to fall.

All the muscular effort to remove the foot from the ground comes from the hamstring. The action of the hamstring initiates the release of the foot from the ground and sets up the direction of the shin and foot movement under the hip.

we don't want to think about trying to use the legs to move the body forward

Instead, all we need to do is pick the foot up under the body nothing more. With respect to the ground, the vertical movement of the body should be minimized as much as possible. The feet move up and down under the body. The body itself remains as still as possible.

In order to reorient that mindset, focus on the lower trunk of your body as you run. Disregard the watch and the visual cues and feel your trunk, in all its stillness, moving forward. The trunk isn't doing any work, yet as the turnover rate of the legs beneath it gets faster and faster, you can actually feel the trunk accelerate. This is the feeling you're looking for - a complete disassociation between the body, which is being accelerated by gravity, and the legs, which are merely changing support at an increasing rate.

The hamstring lifts the foot from the ground, the body begins to fall, the foot returns softly to the ground, and the body stays upright while moving forward. The faster you change support and alternate your poses, the faster you run. It's just that simple.

The lesson here is that the faster a runner's stride, i.e. the faster he changes support from one foot to the next, the faster his forward speed will be. Stride frequency, not length, is the key to faster running.


In his 1997 book Daniels' Running Formula, the respected American coach Jack Daniels noted that there is data from his many years of practical observation that indicates elite runners tend to run with a stride frequency of not less than 180 strides per minute, which he links to good technique.


There's a common phrase race commentators use when the form of a competitive runner begins to deteriorate in the latter stages of a race and it couldn't ring any truer. "It looks like the wheels have come off," they say, and when you look at the runner, you know exactly what they mean. The form and efficiency are gone and the runner is now struggling to finish, no longer a contender for victory.

The meaning of the wheel concept is really very simple: to move with wheel-like efficiency, we must minimize bounce (vertical oscillation), land with support directly under the body and maintain a high stride rate. The Pose Method of Running is designed to accomplish all three of these goals.

While running, you must always remain is this pose as you change support from one foot to the next. By faithfully staying in the pose you maximize the use of your muscular elasticity and resilience and thus reduce your energy expenditures. In fact, a 1964 study (2) indicated that mechanical efficiency of running increased up to 50%, due to contributions from elastic storage and return of energy...

The payoff to "elastic" running is that you can maintain a high stride rate without "going anaerobic" and using up your body's available energy supply of ATP (adrenotriphosphate), the fuel of your highest intensity sprints. Elastic running gives you the ability to run faster for greater distances and still keep something in reserve (1, 3 & 4).

if we attempt to run with a longer stride, we slow down. Why? Again, the answer is simple. In order to lengthen the stride, we thrust the leg out in front of the body. As soon as the leading foot strikes the ground, it is planted there until the entire body passes over it. So, instead of changing support very quickly, the long stride means that it changes very slowly, which interrupts the pull of gravity and slows the forward progress of the body.


The faster you change support, the more permission you give to your body to freefall.

And the faster you fall, the faster you run. Your running speed is directly related to your stride frequency or cadence.

do everything in your power to avoid unnecessary effort and tension. Concentrate and use your muscular elasticity to pull your foot just off the ground, making only the effort necessary to break the point of contact between foot and ground. Focus your efforts on carefully synchronizing your increased stride frequency with the rate at which your body is falling forward and you will soon be running faster...and further... than you would ever have imagined

it's quite a lot to think about. You've got to keep all your joints bent, constantly fall forward, land on the balls of your feet, pick your foot off the ground as rapidly as possible, keep your trunk very still, focus on a rapid stride rate, etc.


Let gravity do the work of returning your foot to support. What this means is that as soon as you have used your hamstring to lift the foot from the ground, you must completely relax the leg and "let" it fall softly back to the ground. Doing this will synchronize the return of the foot to support with the passage of your body over that spot, meaning that your footfall will be exactly where it is supposed to be, in line with your trunk, neck and head.


Practice and thought might gradually forge many an art.

Virgil


The Greeks, those masters of thought, gave us the word "technique", from the root word "techne", which means "art" or "mastery.

While running is not as obviously creative as music, it too is an outlet for human expression and requires well-honed technique beyond the physical realm. Just as with dance, there is a rhythm and a beauty to running that transcends mere pavement pounding and elevates the act of running well to artistry.

Let's return for a moment to the discussion of the previous chapter where we compared learning to run to learning to play classical piano. When a musician is playing the piano, his or her skills directly depend on personal sensitivity in hearing, music tone,  rhythm, etc., which have to be developed to an extraordinary level and then translated into the performance. In a sense, the pianist shuts out the outside world and develops a protective bubble occupied only by music.

As runners, we must develop the same heightened level of sensitivity to our movements.

to truly appreciate what we are doing as runners, we must identify these sensations and then develop them to a heightened state. The two most important sensations are gravity and free falling, but to develop them, we have to "tune in" to other feedback: the contact of our feet with the ground, a feeling of effortlessness, shortened time on support, and an overall sensation of lightness.


As you get more and more skilled in developing your running sensibility, you'll become more sensitive to critical sensations like muscular elasticity, effortless increase of cadence and an overall sense of flow in your movement.

what you "feel" would be hot coals. As you're making these light skipping movements, imagine that every time your foot touches down it has just touched a blazing white-hot coal. Your reaction will be swift and purposeful.

The Pony

Stand in the Running Pose, both knees slightly bent, the ankle of the non-support foot slightly elevated (Fig. 24.3). Simultaneously lift the ankle of the support foot while allowing your body weight to shift to the opposite leg, which is relaxed and falling. Sounds simple, doesn't it. It is, but you have to focus on the following sensations in order to it properly:

1) Initiate every movement by lifting the support leg, not by pushing down on the non-support leg;

2) Lift the support ankle vertically, with neither forward or backward direction;

3) Shift your weight without inducing any muscular tension;

4) Allow the non-support leg to fall.


Foot Tapping

Instead, you want to lift the ankle, vertically, so that the ankle, hip, shoulder and head remain in a straight line. So instead of lifting the knee, you want to lift the ankle.


Concentrate on the following:

1) Rapid firing of the hamstring. If you are working with a partner, have him or her gently tap your hamstring every time your foot touches down. This will cue you to fire your hamstring and initiate early muscular contraction.

2) Keep your entire musculature relaxed after the initial firing of the hamstring. If you're successful at this, your leg will decelerate as it is going up, then accelerate as it drops back down. Both the slowing down and the speeding up will be due to gravity, not muscular effort. Remember - don't continue lifting your leg. Just fire the hamstring once and then let gravity take over.


This progression is key in creating the simple biomechanical framework of the Pose Method: the hamstring does the work and gravity pulls you forward.


As you run, you can quickly run through that checklist over and over again, until it becomes a sort of mantra for your run.

1) Check the pose: Am I relaxed and balanced? Am I landing lightly on the ball of my foot, with my foot directly underneath my body? Are my knees still bent?

2) Check the fall: Do I have any muscular tension? Am I braking myself with any body part? Am I leaning with my whole body?

3) Check the foot pull: Am I pulling my foot...and not my leg?

Am I pulling the instant my foot touches the ground? Aml pulling straight up?

As you settle into the run, this mantra or formula for your run can be shortened into a rhythm. Pose-fall-pull, Pose-fall-pull.


From a technical standpoint, it is actually easier to run fast than it is to run slowly in the Pose Method. Where before you might have run like a wheezing pick-up truck, with the Pose Method you now have the technology of a race car built into your body, and everybody knows that race cars love to move fast. At slow speeds, you are staying too long on support, you are standing up too straight, you are landing with too much of a thud, but as you accelerate, everything smoothes out. Your running machine begins firing on all cylinders.


In keeping with the old aphorism "Mens sana in corpore sano", we have to realize that not only does "a healthy body contain a healthy spirit', but the converse proves the rule, without a healthy spirit, you are unlikely to have a truly healthy body.

Great running, like excellence in golf, gymnastics or ballet is really a physical manifestation of extremely strong mental ability.

by stripping away all of the excess and wasted energy in reducing the act of running to its elemental form, we have increased the dependence on mental strength. The technique of the Pose Method is more than just the mechanics of running; it is an integrated approach that demands utter concentration.


 
 

For me, the trick to it wasn't just in keeping my mouth shut: it was in learning how and when to lower the volume in my head, so that once I made up my mind, I wouldn't rethink or unthink a wellconsidered decision my gut had already signed off on.

Commentary

Reading Authentic felt like hanging out with your grandpa—wholesome, corny, but in a satisfyingly nostalgic and charming way. Somewhat surprisingly, I picked up echoes of Munger, Taleb, and Thorpe, and Walton throughout the memoir. Paul Van Doren was a man of his era, but the wisdom he shares is timeless.

As a Southern California native, I’ve always been a bit of a Vans diehard. If I were held at gunpoint and forced to choose just one style of shoe for the rest of my life, it would be, without hesitation, the Vans Authentic 44 DX Anaheim Factory edition. My love for their classic simplicity only grows stronger with time—it’s the perfect all-purpose shoe for Southern California living. Nothing else comes close.

I bought1 my first pair of Vans in 1996 and have had multiple pairs in rotation2 ever since. Sadly, my introduction to Vans came through the cold-cured “Wally,” which arguably defined the dark ages in Vans' history. During that era, the leadership was less than competent, shipping all manufacturing to Korea, where the shoes were “cold-cured” instead of heat-cured through Vans’ traditional vulcanizing process.

What I’m stealing

1. Get your hands dirty. Cut out distractions. Find a way to keep everything moving forward.

2. When you have good people with you, the odds are with you, too

3. Beauty lies in simplicity

4. Companies are built person by person, not brick by brick

5. If you do things better than most, the odds are in your favor

6. Teach by good example

7. There is dignity in being of service — dignity and pride in a job well done.

8. Instigate and fuel discourse

9. Don't bet the ranch if you don't have all the details

10. When someone affords you a chance to rethink a hasty decision, consider accepting that act of mercy with grace

11. Figuring out who isn't going to win is just as important as knowing who is

12. Don’t rethink or unthink a wellconsidered decision your gut had already signed off on

13. Be a dedicated student of probability and the nature of chance

14. Success is more important than who gets the credit for it

15. Think outside of traditional productivity metrics when aligning incentives

16. The only reason things don't get done is because someone doesn't want to do them.

17. No chasing after pigeons

18. You don't know what you don't know, and if you don't know, ask.

19. “No’s” are opportunities to innovate.

20. Take a genuine interest in how your customers live life with your product

Supplemental Resources

A Brief History of Vans: "Off the Wall" Since '66

Pillowheat.com - “stock hunters & collectors by trade. we scour the earth for deadstock rarities & deliver vintage heat which is.....as cool as the other side of the pillow!"

The J.Crew x Vans collabs are always excellent.

I haven’t listened to this yet, but I have it the queue.

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

it crystallized for me what I would be willing to work my ass off to avoid


What I considered most important about people was their attitude, their integrity, and their desire to do things the right way.

Without knowing it at the time, I was initiating what would eventually become the Vans empire by molding the inclusive, people-centric family vibe that became our signature Vans culture. I was building it person by person, not brick by brick


Over the years and throughout his life, he devised all sorts of gadgets. He also happened to be a checkers champion and a hell of a card player. He could engineer anything, build anything, fix anything, and outsmart just about anybody about anything. His projects were endless, and he loved doing them. Dad was a very wise, gifted, and creative man.

if you do something no one else can do, or do something better than most, the odds are in your favor for success.

The property's crowning glory was Dad's workshop.

Actually, his shop was a series of buildings: there was a utility room, a boiler room, a woodworking shop, a packing room, a printing room, and a saw room.


My parents taught me so much, more than I ever learned in school. Most of the positive attributes I still carry with me were taught by their good example. My parents taught me long ago that people were the most important thing in your life-more important than money or prestige or possessions. My father believed that family always came first. So do I-that's how I've conducted my own life and run my business.


Even back then there were child labor laws, but none of us-parents or children-ever questioned the expectation that we would contribute to the group. Neither of my parents offered validation or gratitude in exchange, and I didn't need it. We all participated in the family business, and there was dignity in being of service-dignity and pride in a job well done.


The Van Dorens were a raucous, loudmouthed bunch. My people communicate in decibels, and when we fight, man, do we fight. Whoever bellowed loudest won.


If the Van Dorens had a coat of arms, it would feature a lasagna and a bullhorn.


My father made it his job to instigate and fuel discourse and did so, I think, to get our dander up, to get us to take a position. All my childhood, there was always an argument about something. We were always looking at something two different ways.


He had just taught me a painful lesson: don't bet the ranch if you don't have all the details. I would argue that's another lesson best learned early.


That afternoon, Dad also taught me a lesson in strategy: when someone affords you a chance to rethink a hasty decision, consider accepting that act of mercy with grace.

The truth is that almost everything in life hangs in the balance of likelihoods or odds. That sounds ominous, but it should be of some comfort that odds are driven by basic arithmetic anyone can understand. In other words, math.

In almost every race, there are many unknowns and even more variables. And in almost every race, it's just as important to figure out who isn't going to win as who is.


Dad had taught me to watch and listen carefully to what was being said around me. His lessons in situational listening taught me the wonders of keeping my mouth shut. I'd listen to the owners, jockeys, and oddsmakers and then distill what I'd overheard.cd For me, the trick to it wasn't just in keeping my mouth shut: it was in learning how and when to lower the volume in my head, so that once I made up my mind, I wouldn't rethink or unthink a wellconsidered decision my gut had already signed off on.

I was a dedicated student of probability and the nature of chance.

As far as I could tell, the bottleneck hinged with the stays,


It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out that Randy's routines, methods, and procedures did not make sense.


If someone had a better idea than mine, of course I would adopt that. I really didn't care if I didn't get credit. I didn't need credit; I needed success.


The boss was telling me, "Don't do it."

I said he was wrong and then I proved it. Most people won't do that-which is why things don't get done.


I really had to hustle to get everything in place. The next day, the moving truck arrived. For most of that night, I set up furniture and unpacked every single box. When I was finally done in the wee hours of the morning, I thought the house looked like a model home.

**Note:** Surprise and delight


No surprise, they did. What was not to love? This was California in the sixties, the land of endless sun, snazzy convertibles, and the Beach Boys.


Back in Massachusetts, I had gotten into the habit of washing my car at least once a week. As the kids got old enough, they would come out and help. I would hose and they would wipe.

Since the weather in California was nice virtually all year round, I expanded the family tradition. Every day when I got home from work, I would call out, "Hey, kids! Dad's home!" and everyone would troop out to the driveway with buckets and hoses.


It might sound like I was a slave driver, but we had a lot of fun splashing and sudsing and catching up with what everyone had done that day.


We followed this same routine most every day for years.


My daughter Cheryl says, "It taught us responsibility, and that there was no value in not doing things the right way."

If Serge's company was going to make the uppers for Randy's West, I wanted it done right. I devised a simple sample kit that would instruct anyone on how to stitch a tennis shoe upper correctly.

, "Honestly, I don't know how you are ever going to defeat the union."

I knew I wouldn't have to; the workers themselves would do it when they realized I was on their side, which I was.


The reason I had developed the idea of incentives in the first place was because I'd had a problem with production quotas versus quality. When I focused on production numbers, quality went down.

When I worked on quality, production went down. It was frustrating.

Finally, I convinced the workers that if they produced the quota for eight hours of work and made whatever parts they were assigned to produce at top quality, but did it in fewer hours, they were free to go home early that day.

We eventually reached the point where we agreed that if the workers accumulated enough hours, we'd allow them to take Friday off. The goal was to make in four days what used to take five days.

This meant they worked a four-day week but were paid for five days.

As long as they maintained their production quotas and quality, everyone was a winner.

That day at the US Open of Surfing, Duke Kahanamoku was there along with Fred Hemmings, a world champion surfer who went on to become a Hawaii state senator later in life, as well as Butch Van Artsdalen, Corky Carroll, and Paul Strauch. They were all wearing matching blue Hawaiian shirts.

When Duke Kahanamoku came by our booth to check out the shoes, I introduced myself. Looking at those shirts, I was suddenly struck by an idea. iceb dod "Say, I could make you a pair of sneakers that match your shirt


Really, I have found the only reason things don't get done is because someone doesn't want to do them.


no chasing after pigeons


Navajo white was the color of choice.


one of the most important business lessons: you don't know what you don't know, and if you don't know, ask.


My mother was Catholic, and I was raised going to church, but by that point in my life, I didn't go very often. I couldn't deal with things like confession: you could rob a bank, but if you went ahead and confessed it the next day, it was okay. That didn't wash with me.


Those annoyingly sticky soles would turn out to be a huge selling point for skateboarders, so eventually I learned to love the sticky.


The soles were cracking across the ball of the foot after only a short time in use. We ended up adding nine vertical lines to the pattern over the ball area to create a denser woven pattern there-and voila! Our signature feature.

Our bread-and-butter was style no. 44, a classic deck shoe that later became known, aptly, as "the Authentic." Deck shoes were the kind of casual footwear popular all over the country then, but ours was the first to feature an extra-thick waffle sole. Our version of the generic shoe shape called a CVO, which stands for circular vamp oxford, came in both canvas and suede: since any material being vulcanized must be heat resistant, the upper material is typically  limited to suede, leather, and cotton with metal hardware. There were five eyelets for the laces.


we offered our four standards in canvaslight blue, navy blue, loden green, and white-and we carried them in sizes for men, women, boys, and girls. The suede shoes came in white, blue, gold, and red.


The first supplier to reject us was the guy we had contracted to make our shoeboxes. He reneged on a deal we had made, and ultimately refused to work with us at all, ever. I took the opportunity to come up with a new type of box.


My novel solution was to use a single, flat piece of cardboard, which could be folded with a built-in, folddown lid. I might have held a grudge against Japan for Pearl Harbor, but the origami I'd seen when I'd first visited my backer Serge there had inspired me.


the sign over our first retail store would read "House of Vans."


Getting a pair of Vans should be a really terrific and satisfying experience. That's the difference: people wear Vans all day, every day.


the mom is really the boss of the family. Mom is almost always the one who decides when, where, how, and everything else about shopping for the family. This changed my entire perspective on our core market.

We had to get more moms. Selling shoes to moms took longer, because our shoes just lasted for a while, and sometimes they wouldn't come back for sixteen weeks or so. We just kept sewing our shoes with moms in mind-that's what we did, for years and years and years.


I had noticed that almost everyone wore white cotton socks with their sneakers, regardless of style. Why not sell white socks in our stores?

We contacted the rep for the Trimfit brand


store walls would be painted the usual Navajo white, with blue trim.


The formula we came up with for the placement of a Vans store was to choose a small, free-standing building on a busy street, rather than one that was sandwiched between two other stores. That seemed to work best for us


Mel was the one who pointed out to me, during a conversation about a mural for one of our first half-dozen buildings, the importance of opening a business not just on a busy street, but in a location where drivers had a right-hand view of the outside wall.


But from that time on, we never opened a store with the exposed wall on the left side of the street


Our lines of customers got so long that we decided to institute a sort of fast-track reservation system. We gave people a ticket to come back during a certain time slot later in the day. That way, they wouldn't have to waste time standing in line but could go right into the tent when they returned.

The system worked great, and our customers really appreciated the efficiency.


The best advertising decision we made at the fair was to put every sale we made into one of our large, bright-red handled bags with the name Vans emblazoned across both sides. They were roomy and sturdy, so most people would put all their fair purchases and doodads into our bag. By the end of each day, there were hundreds of ing our brand.


When skateboarders adopted Vans, ultimately, they gave us an outward culture and an inner purpose.


Our patternmaker called it the "jazz stripe.


I guess I always felt that my wife did not appreciate what I did.

Sometimes if things weren't going right at Vans, I didn't come home for days. I wasn't running around; I was working.


a lack of focus always jams things up, while putting on blinders has the potential to serve a greater good. What I am saying is when leaders limit distraction, they're better able to lead.


Spicoli. Not only did he skate and surf, but he was also in a band



If jealousy is a lack of confidence, then greed is an excess of ego,


It strikes me that I always seem to remember being slighted or snubbed-even the illusion of it-more keenly than I do being rewarded. For me, I remember when someone overlooked or  dismissed me more clearly than the times I was chosen or I made my own choice.


To give customers what they want, you have to know what they want. To that end, VF launched a Global Consumer Insights Assessment, a comprehensive survey of twenty-six thousand customers in twelve countries to determine who and what constituted our core market. Imagine that!

They asked customers what they liked about Vans, how they viewed themselves in terms of subculture, and how our shoes fit into their lives. The marketing team actually went into people's homes and even into their closets to see what they wore for both clothing and shoes and asked them what they do in life.

in 2007 Vans also decided to reissue the very first authentic Hawaiian-print surfer shoe I had made for him


accessible brand to people around the world, not just because of the focus on action sports, but also because of the company's "center point, creative selfexpression.


If I have to tell you what I stand for, I'm not doing something right.


California is Vans' "secret sauce.

It's a Southern California by-the-beach company. If you shut down a collaborative gathering there, you really lose something vital.


when you have good people with you, the odds are with you, too. And the longer I live, the more I see the truth of it


hard work, honesty, and caring for people are what yield success. The beauty lies in simplicity, so don't overcomplicate things. Instead, focus on blocking and tackling, consistently, one day at a time.

**Note:** XI

What I've accomplished comes down to one thing: my knack for identifying and then solving problems. What I do better than anything else is cut out distractions. If a system isn't working efficiently, I can see where it's jammed, eliminate the problem, and find a way to keep everything moving forward

**Note:** xiii

Pay attention to the people using your product or even better, work with them to create something completely new.

**Note:** xiv


Many of my guiding principles are equally simple, and they've served me equally well. Don't sit still or rest on your laurels. Do the work-don't just look on as others do it. My famous credo: get your hands dirty.

**Note:** xv


I also say find honorable people to be your partners, work with creative people, and be fair. Be kind. Give a shit about how you treat people and be aware of how your actions might disturb or distress them. In other words, don't be a jerk. Stand up for others. Until our last breath, we can do something good for someone else.


got their hands dirty and worked for tacos

**Note:** xvi


 

When people ask me what it took to become a scratch golfer, my simple answer now is, “I learned to control the face of the club at impact.”

- Jon Sherman

Commentary

As a former competitive, low-handicap golf obsessive, I’ve read my fair share of golf books. The vast majority of them, I cannot recommend. However, The Four Foundations of Golf is one of the best, and it will join the short stack of books alongside Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons and Dave Stockton’s The Art of Scoring, which I deem required reading for any serious golfer.

Sherman lays out many facets of the game that I’ve intuitively grasped over the years but does so with simplicity, clarity, and rigor—no small feat.

I believe golfers of all levels will take away different insights from Four Foundations, and it’s a book to revisit as one's skill progresses.

I wish someone had handed me this book when I first caught the golf bug. I spent countless hours on the range and course, working on swing mechanics and shot patterns that, in hindsight, play an insignificant role in skill progression and the overall enjoyment of the game.

What I’m Stealing

• Avoiding three-putts, improving speed control, and modestly increasing make rates inside of 10 feet is a realistic recipe for lowering scores.

• Understanding your dispersion patterns and tendencies is key to optimizing strategic play.

• Greens in regulation is the most meaningful statistic for lowering handicaps.

• Advance the ball as far as possible while avoiding major trouble.

• Start every hole thinking “driver first,” then find a compelling reason not to hit it.

• Successful tee shots are more about keeping the ball in play and avoiding trouble than hitting fairways.

• Fairway bunkers, trees, penalty areas, and out-of-bounds cost golfers far more strokes than ending up in light rough.

• “Pin avoidance” saves strokes. Resisting the urge to aim for the pin is a universal concept that helps all golfers.

• Once proficient at reading greens, shift focus almost entirely to speed control.

• Green speeds vary daily. Constantly recalibrate. This is a skill in itself.

• Randomize practice sessions by introducing changes with each repetition.

• Experiment with ball position and tee height.

• Learn to control the clubface at impact.

• Elite professionals and amateurs have a driver dispersion of 60-70 yards.

• Track the Following in Each Round:

  • Fairways hit.

  • Successful tee shots: advancing the ball near your average distance with a clear path to the green and a reasonable lie (including light rough).

  • "Oops Swings"—when your ball ends up in a recovery situation, penalty area, or out of bounds.

• Putting skills: speed control, face control, and green reading ability.

Give up a significant amount of control. Embrace the randomness.

Supplemental Resources

Two pivotal moments took my golf game to new heights almost overnight. The first was learning how to properly sequence my body to generate clubhead speed. The second was mastering the path/face ratio. The path/face ratio is perhaps the least intuitive concept in golf, but once you understand and practice controlling it, your ability to manage curvature and dispersion becomes virtually limitless.

The course strategy outlined in the video below completely transformed my psychology off the tee box. Similarly, I’ve developed a simplified version of this. One of my favorite hacks for lowering scores is using the in-cart GPS screen (when available) to locate the widest part of the hole and hit a club that advances the ball to that distance. The number of times I’ve hit what felt like a huge block or slinging draw off the tee, only to end up a few feet into light rough using this strategy, has saved me from countless double bogeys. Knowing you’re aiming for the broadest part of the hole is also liberating psychologically.

Towards a Biomechanical Understanding of Tempo in the Golf Swing

My thoughts on tempo are that it is the outcome or side effect of proper sequencing. Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott, Ernie Els, Fred Couples, and Ben Hogan are often considered tempo gods, and I can guarantee they didn’t spend much time practicing with a metronome. By sequencing the backswing properly and building inertia, the slight pause at the top happens naturally as the body changes direction and unloads stored energy to generate clubhead speed, resulting in a natural tempo.

There are also examples of successful swings that likely fall outside of the ratio described in the paper—such as Hideki Matsuyama's.

Four Foundations of Golf Website

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

Keep reminding yourself that you don’t need to be perfect to play your best golf; you need to be patient. At a minimum, one part of your game can feel like a struggle on any given day.

Putting is perhaps the most difficult and misunderstood part of golf. Golfers have their best chance of holing putts inside of 8 feet, and outside of those distances, it becomes more of a test of speed control and proximity.

Three-putt avoidance and improved speed control are how most players lower their scores while modestly increasing their make rates inside of 10 feet.

Putting is not as influential in scoring differential as we first assumed. Broadie assigned 15% importance to putting in determining any player’s score. It turns out putting is much harder than we all thought, and it’s harder for golfers to separate themselves from one another with the flat stick.

I always liken golf strategy to playing poker, or even gambling in general. You have to weigh the odds and try to make rational decisions on every shot, but your emotions make that very difficult to do.

Smart strategy in golf is like smart investing. Have a long-term view, and avoid the temptation to make decisions based on short-term disruptions.

The majority of this book is about helping you limit double bogeys. This concept is so important to me that the phrase "fighting the war on double bogeys" is the official tagline of my website Practical Golf. Double bogey avoidance is crucially important when it comes to strategy.

Aggressive decision-making, particularly on approach shots and greenside wedges, is counterproductive.

Think of birdies as an occasional bonus. Overall, you should not pursue them; it will create more mistakes than it’s worth.

A typical PGA Tour player averages about 3.5 birdies per round, and most of those occur on Par 5s.

start thinking of yourself as a disciplined golfer that plays the wise odds on each shot.

It is a very low-percentage play based on my tendencies.

I am thinking about what I can do to avoid the main trouble on the hole,

I have a plan going in, and I decide on each shot based on the hole layout and my tendencies.

If you're playing a shot into the wind, spin and trajectory are your enemies. A nicely executed punch shot will keep the ball low and reduce the spin on the ball. Despite executing those shots well on the practice tee, I've found I tend to strike it heavy or hook the ball too much in an actual round. It requires muscle memory outside of my normal swing, and I don't find enough practice time to make it work. Do you know what I do to solve this problem? I use more club. If my standard shot called for a 7-iron, I take a 4 or 5-iron. The lower loft on the club will take care of lowering the spin and trajectory on its own.

Strategy changes on approach shots. I believe that shifting into a more conservative mode will yield lower scores. The primary goal is to land the ball on the putting surface regardless of the pin position.

A golfer's ability to hit a green in regulation is perhaps the most crucial statistic for lowering handicaps. It’s one of the few traditional statistics that I believe is still a predictor of scoring.

The optimal strategic play combines the dispersion of your shots with how far you are from the hole.

Rich showed me how his team improved their performance using strokes gained analysis and Mark’s app, Golfmetrics. Then he showed me how he planned all of his players’ tee shots for each round using a combination of satellite imagery from golf courses and his players’ dispersions that he verified with launch monitor testing. He could map out optimal targets and club selections based on the typical shot patterns. Rich told me it had improved the players’ confidence off the tee and helped their scoring averages. They were able to hit driver where it made sense on a line that mitigated the risk from big trouble and lay back on holes where the landing area between big trouble was too narrow.

reaction was, “wow...that makes complete sense!!!” Naturally, I wanted to know where he got the idea from, and he told me it was from a guy named Scott Fawcett. His DECADE course management system was becoming extremely popular amongst college teams (eventually, the NCAA banned his seminar because they deemed it an unfair advantage). In a nutshell, Scott analyzed shot distribution data from tons of elite players using strokes gained analysis, as well as satellite imagery of golf courses to determine the optimal club selection and aim off the tee. I would urge all of you to search YouTube and watch the video “NGCAA Driving Video” - a lightbulb will likely go off in your head. I also highly recommend his DECADE app.

advance the ball as far as possible while avoiding the big trouble.

Overall, if you want to play your best golf, I fully agree with Scott Fawcett’s philosophy, which states you start each hole thinking driver first, and then you have to find a good reason not to hit it.

Successful tee shots are more about keeping the ball in play and avoiding trouble than hitting fairways. Fairway bunkers, trees, penalty areas, and out of bounds cost golfers far more strokes than hitting it in light rough.

No matter what level of golfer you are, “pin avoidance” can save you strokes. I know coaches who teach strategy to professional golfers and top-level college players who have improved their players’ scores by convincing them not to aim at pins. I’ve seen major championship winners who admitted that going for the pin most of their career prevented them from winning more. Resisting the pin is a universal concept that can help all golfers.

No matter the situation, if you can resist the urge to pin hunt, you will save strokes!

More skilled ball strikers can use yardages closer to the middle of the green more often. However, always avoid playing to the front of the green yardage even if the pin is there! As you get closer to the hole, particularly inside of 100 yards with your wedges, you can adjust your target a little closer to the hole. But always aim away from the pin, and closer to the center of the green - avoid being short-sided at all costs!

Remember, if you make a bogey, you are keeping pace with PGA Tour players.

once you become more proficient at reading greens, you must shift your focus almost entirely to speed control.

I highly recommend using the DECADE app or Golfmetrics. Another solution would be from a popular GPS app called 18Birdies.

Two of my favorites are Blue Golf (www.bluegolf.com) and the 18Birdies App, which you can use on your phone.

I have found the following formula from Andrew Rice, a top 50 instructor, to be helpful when hitting into the wind: 5 mph = 5% of the total distance + 5 yards 10 mph = 10% of the total distance + 5 yards 15 mph = 15% of the total distance + 5 yards 20 mph = 20% of the total distance + 5 yards

The following formula from Andrew Rice can help estimate club selections when hitting shots downwind: 5 mph = 2% of the total distance 10 mph = 3% of the total distance 15 mph = 5% of the total distance 20 mph = 7% of the total distance

Random practice introduces some kind of change on each repetition. Some research indicates that it is more effective at building long-term skills and improving performance.

No matter what method of practice you choose, engagement and focus are critical factors for success.

Another experiment I love to do is altering tee height. Start adjusting your tee in low, medium, and high positions. See how it changes your impact location on the driver’s face (or other clubs you use off the tee). Your goal is to reduce strikes towards the bottom of the face and get them more towards the center or above it.

In 2004 he published his findings in the best-selling book Tour Tempo, and then again in 2011 with Tour Tempo 2 (which offered an update with the short game). He also has created various training aids, the most popular being his series of tones that golfers can use to help hone their tempos. I did not stumble upon John's findings until around 2016. I'm thrilled I did because understanding the concept of tempo has made me a better ball striker and plenty of readers of Practical Golf as well.

The paper is entitled “Towards a Biomechanical Understanding of Tempo in the Golf Swing.”

Garrity believes that once the players figured out they could speed up their swings while maintaining the proper swing tempo, they started to add considerable distance while maintaining control.

The first step is working with the tones from the Tour Tempo app (you can find it on most app stores through your phone, which costs $24.99).

I have found a couple of other methods that are a little easier but will require further investment. Currently, Garmin has two GPS watches with a tempo training feature - the Approach S60 and Approach S62.

found a product called the Divot Board.

FACE TO PATH RELATIONSHIP

When people ask me what it took to become a scratch golfer, my simple answer now is, “I learned to control the face of the club at impact.”

YouTube - search for “The Royalty of Shot Shape.” It’s a great video from Andrew Rice explaining these concepts using chess pieces.

However, I’d suggest that doing more blocked practice with your driver and repeating the same setup (once you figure out what works best) over and over again can help ingrain positive habits and produce better results on the course. That’s why I’ll spend some time exploring how experimenting with ball position and tee height is so beneficial.

Tee Claw

most elite professionals and amateurs have a 60-70 yards driver dispersion.

Another helpful cue is how your shoulders/spine are titled at address and focusing on weight distribution. A common side effect of moving the ball up in the stance is that a golfer will feel like they need to place most of their weight on the lead foot. This can cause your spine and shoulders to tilt forward. As a result, this can cause a downward angle of attack.

Speed control requires more feel and adjusting technique (another way to describe skill). It’s hard for any golfer to expect to develop speed control if they cannot play or practice it much. Whether you’re playing the same course, or different ones all the time, green speeds change daily. You have to adjust and recalibrate constantly.

Alternatively, if you are not using a stat-tracking system, you could use my definition of a successful drive as a better measuring stick. You could track the following three scenarios in each round: Fairways hit Successful tee shots: you advanced the ball close to your average distance, have a clear path to the green, and a reasonable lie (think light rough). “Oops Swings” - whenever your ball ends up in a recovery situation, penalty area, or out of bounds.

The three primary putting skills are speed control, face control, and green reading ability.

The biggest problem I see is relevancy. Every golfer has multiple puzzle pieces in their swing. The goal is to make them all fit together to hit functional golf shots by satisfying various impact fundamentals. When you start taking random pieces, like changing your takeaway or your wrist angles at the top of your swing, and inserting them into your swing puzzle, often they don’t fit.

Fit For Golf app.

You can learn more at www.fitforgolf.blog

DST Compressor training aid

Overall, golf has so much randomness that you will have to give up a significant amount of control.

One of the few nuggets of wisdom he did impart on me sticks out to this day. He told me that he tries to do everything exactly the same when he plays in tournaments. While that might sound generic, Tom said that even the rhythm he walks and picks up his tee after a shot is identical.

When I'm criticized unjustly (from my viewpoint, at least), or when someone I'm sure will understand me doesn't, I go running for a little longer than usual. By running longer it's like I can physically exhaust that portion of my discontent. It also makes me realize again how weak I am, how limited my abilities are. I become aware, physically, of these low points. And one of the results of running a little farther than usual is that I become that much stronger. If I'm angry, I direct that anger toward myself. If I have a frustrating experience, I use that to improve myself. That's the way I've always lived. I quietly absorb the things I'm able to, releasing them later, and in as changed a form as possible, as part of the story line in a novel.

Commentary

I first read Kafka on the Shore fifteen years ago, at the recommendation of a friend who was an English major. For some strange reason, I can still recall vivid feelings and details from the book—the metaphysical undercurrents, and even the dark green Miata with gold rims. Murakami’s writing has a way of sticking with you like that.

Before reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, I listened to the Founders podcast episode on it, which is not my usual order of things. But I was so struck by what David Senra outlined that I knew I had to experience the book for myself.

Right now, I'm in a season of life where I relate deeply to Murakami. In an almost eerie similarity, I started writing and running at the age of 33. Working to improve at both has been profoundly enriching, and I look forward to continuing both practices into old age.

After reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, I feel like Murakami and I would have been fast friends—kindred spirits, if you will. While I’ll likely never write a novel, I do plan to run my first marathon in 2025. I believe the insights Murakami shared about the writing process have deeply infiltrated my consciousness, in a way that will pay dividends for the rest of my life.

What I’m stealing

1. Keep up the rhythm. Get the flywheel spinning at a set speed. Let momentum carry you.

2. Embrace the void.

3. Quietly absorb things for release later.

4. Commit to practices that reveal physical and mental potential.

5. Tinker away like the village blacksmith.

6. There is honor in physical decline.

7. Taking time, in many cases, is the shortcut.

8. Always grasp a concrete lesson, no matter how small.

Supplemental Resources

Blog post with some cool pictures and info on his hi-fi setup - Murakami’s Listening Room

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

I think that one more condition for being a gentleman would be keeping quiet about what you do to stay healthy. A gentleman shouldn't go on and on about what he does to stay fit.

Somerset Maugham once wrote that in each shave lies a philosophy. I couldn't agree more. No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative, even meditative act.


To keep on going, you have to keep up the rhythm. This is the important thing for long-term projects. Once you set the pace, the rest will follow. The problem is getting the flywheel to spin at a set speed-and to get to that point takes as much concentration and effort as you can manage.


The point is whether not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.


Sometimes when I run, I listen to jazz, but usually it's rock, since its beat is the best accompaniment to the rhythm of running. I prefer the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gorillaz, and Beck, and oldies like Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Beach Boys. Music with as simple a rhythm as possible. A lot of runners now use iPods, but I prefer the MD player I'm used to. It's a little bigger than an iPod and can't hold nearly as much data, but it works for me. At this point I don't want to mix music and computers. Just like it's not good to mix friends and work, and sex.


I just run. I run in a void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void.


So the fact that I'm me and no one else is one of my greatest assets. Emotional hurt is the price a person has to pay in order to be independent.


When I'm criticized unjustly (from my viewpoint, at least), or when someone I'm sure will understand me doesn't, I go running for a little longer than usual. By running longer it's like I can physically exhaust that portion of my discontent. It also makes me realize again how weak I am, how limited my abilities are. I become aware, physically, of these low points. And one of the results of running a little farther than usual is that I become that much stronger. If I'm angry, I direct that anger toward myself. If I have a frustrating experience, I use that to improve myself. That's the way I've always lived. I quietly absorb the things I'm able to, releasing them later, and in as changed a form as possible, as part of the story line in a novel.


To tell the truth, I didn't think I had much aptitude for business either. I just figured, though, that since failure was not an option, I'd have to give it everything I had. My only strength has always  been the fact that I work hard and can take a lot physically. I'm more a workhorse than a racehorse.


And it was at that exact moment that a thought struck me: You know what? I could try writing a novel. I still can remember the wide open sky, the feel of the new grass, the satisfy ing crack of the bat. Something flew down from the sky at that instant, and whatever it was, I accepted it.


I shipped it off without making a copy, so it seems I didn't much care if it wasn't selected and vanished forever.

This is the work that's published under the title Hear the Wind Sing. I was more interested in having finished it than in whether or not it would ever see the light of day.


Running has a lot of advantages. First of all, you don't need anybody else to do it, and no need for special equipment. You don't have to go to any special place to do it. As long as you have running shoes and a good road you can run to your heart's content


I only began to enjoy studying after I got through the educational system and became a so-called member of society. If something interested me, and I could study it at my own pace and approach it the way I liked, I was pretty efficient at acquiring knowledge and skills.


I'm struck by how, except when you're young, you really need to prioritize in life, figuring out in what order you should divide up your time and energy. If you don't get that sort of system set by a certain age, you'll lack focus and your life will be out of balance.


In other words, you can't please everybody.

Even when I ran my bar I followed the same policy. A lot of customers came to the bar. If one out of ten enjoyed the place and said he'd come again, that was enough. If one out of ten was a repeat customer, then the business would survive. To put it the other way, it didn't matter if nine out of ten didn't like my bar. This realization lifted a weight off my shoulders. Still, I had to make sure that the one person who did like the place really liked it. In order to make sure he did, I had to make my philosophy and stance clear-cut, and patiently maintain that stance no matter what. This is what I learned through running a business.


The main thing was not the speed or distance so much as running every day, without taking a break.


The more I ran, the more my physical potential was revealed.


For the reasons I give above, I think this physical nuisance should be viewed in a positive way, as a blessing. We should consider ourselves lucky that the red light is so clearly visible.


At any rate, that's how I started running. Thirty-three+ that's how old I was then. Still young enough, though no longer a young man. The age that Jesus Christ died.

The age that Scott Fitzgerald started to go downhill.

That age may be a kind of crossroads in life. That was the age when I began my life as a runner, and it was my belated, but real, starting point as a novelist.


One other way I keep healthy is by taking a nap. I really nap a lot. Usually I get sleepy right after lunch, plop down on the sofa, and doze off. Thirty minutes  later I come wide awake. As soon as I wake up, my body isn't sluggish and my mind is totally clear.


This may be the reason why, while I'm training for my next marathon-the New York City Marathon-I'm also writing this. Bit by bit I'm remembering things that took place when I was a beginning runner more than twenty years ago. Retracing my memories, rereading the simple journal I kept (I'm never able to keep a regular diary for very long, but I've faithfully kept up my runner's journal) and reworking them into essay form, helps me consider the path I've taken and rediscover the feelings I had back then. I do this to both admonish and encourage myself. It's also intended as a wake-up call for the motivation that, somewhere along the line, went dormant. I'm writing, in other words, to put my thoughts in some kind of order. And in hindsight-in the final analysis it's always in hindsight-this may very well end up a kind of memoir that centers on the act of running.


Let's go back to 1983. A nostalgic era now, back when Duran Duran and Hall and Oates were cranking out the hits.

In July of that year I traveled to Greece and ran by myself from Athens to the town of Marathon.


Greece is the home of the original marathon course,


Nothing in the real world is as beautiful as the illusions of a person about to lose consciousness.


I think certain types of processes don't allow for any variation. If you have to be part of that process, all you can do is transform-or perhaps distort-yourself through that persistent repetition, and make that process a part of your own personality.


Muscles are like work animals that are quick on the uptake. If you carefully increase the load, step by step.

they learn to take it. As long as you explain your expec tations to them by actually showing them examples of the amount of work they have to endure, your muscles will comply and gradually get stronger.


Our muscles are very conscientious. As long as we observe the correct procedure, they won't complain.

If, however, the load halts for a few days, the muscles automatically assume they don't have to work that hard anymore, and they lower their limits. Muscles really are like animals, and they want to take it as easy as possible; if pressure isn't applied to them, they relax and cancel out the memory of all that work.


I have to maintain a certain tension by being unsparing, but not to the point where I burn out.

These are tactics that all experienced runners learn over time.


While I've been in Japan a new short-story collection of mine, Strange Tales from Tokyo, has come out, and I have to do several interviews about the book. I also have to check the galleys for a book of music criticism that's coming out in November and meet with people to discuss the cover. Then I have to go over my old translations of Raymond Carver's complete works. With new paperback editions of these coming out, I want to revise all the translations, which is time consuming. On top of this, I have to write a long introduction to the short-story collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, which will be published next year in the U.S. Plus I'm steadily working on these essays on running, though nobody in particular has asked me to. Just like a silent village blacksmith, tinkering away.

**Note:** Village blacksmith


Even if there were two of me, I still couldn't do all that has to be done. No matter what, though, I keep up my running. Running every day is a kind of lifeline for me, so I'm not going to lay off or quit just because I'm busy. If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I'd never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All I can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished.


Even if the skill level varies, there are things that only runners understand and share. I truly believe that.


: focus-the ability to concentrate all your limited talents on whatever's critical at the moment. Without that you can't accomplish anything of value, while, if you can focus effectively, you'll be able to compensate for an erratic talent or even a shortage of it.


focus and endurance-are different from talent, since they can be acquired and sharpened through training. You'll naturally learn both concentration and endurance when you sit down every day at your desk and train yourself to focus on one point. This is a lot like the training of muscles I wrote of a moment ago. You have to continually transmit the object of your focus to your entire body, and make sure it thoroughly assimilates the information necessary for you to write every single day and concentrate on the work at hand. And gradually you'll expand the limits of what you're able to do.


This involves the same process as jogging every day to strengthen your muscles and develop a runner's physique. Add a stimulus and keep it up. And repeat. Patience is a must in this process, but I guarantee the results will come.


How much can I push myself? How much rest is appropriate-and how much is too much? How far can I take something and still keep it decent and consistent? When does it become narrow-minded and inflexible? How much should I be aware of the world outside, and how much should I focus on my inner world? To what extent should I be confident in my abilities, and when should I start doubting myself.


Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest.


When we set off to write a novel, when we use writing to create a story, like it or not a kind of toxin that lies deep down in all humanity rises to the surface. All writers have to come face-to-face with this toxin and, aware of the danger involved, discover a way to deal with it, because otherwise no creative activity in the real sense can take place. (Please excuse the strange analogy: with a fugu fish, the tastiest part is the portion near the poison.


remember to get the audience to laugh to put them at ease.


Since I was on autopilot, if someone had told me to keep on running I might well have run beyond sixty-two miles. It's weird, but at the end I hardly knew who I was or what I was doing. This should have been a very alarming feeling, but it didn't feel that way. By then running had entered the realm of the metaphysical.


Thick, meaningful clouds, like something out of a nineteenth-century British landscape painting, covered the sky.


the most significant fallout from running the ultramarathon wasn't physical but mental. What I ended up with was a sense of lethargy, and before I knew it, I felt covered by a thin film, something I've sinced dubbed runner's blues. (Though the actual feeling of it was closer to a milky white.)


And time does its job much more faithfully, much more accurately, than I ever do. Ever since time began (when was that, I wonder?), it's been moving ever forward without a moment's rest. And one of the privileges given to those who've avoided dying young is the blessed right to grow old. The honor of physical decline is waiting, and you have to get used to that reality.

Competing against time isn't important. What's going to be much more meaningful to me now is how much I can enjoy myself, whether I can finish twenty six miles with a feeling of contentment. I'll enjoy and value things that can't be expressed in numbers, and I'll grope for a feeling of pride that comes from a slightly different place.


Vernon Duke, "Autumn in New York."


"18" Til I Die," the name of a Bryan Adams hit. It's a joke, of course. Being eighteen until you die means you die when you're eighteen.


Seventy percent of the records I bought were jazz, the rest classical, plus a few rock records. I'm a very (or perhaps I should say extremely) enthusiastic record collector.


In order to get there you have to stubbornly, rigorously, and very patiently tighten all the screws of each individual part. This takes time, of course, but sometimes taking time is actually a shortcut.

**Note:** On learning to swim


It's precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive or at least a partial sense of it. Your quality of experience is based not on standards such as time or ranking, but on finally awakening to an awareness of the fluidity within action itself.


My time, the rank I attain, my outward appearance all of these are secondary. For a runner like me, what's really important is reaching the goal I set myself, under my own power. I give it everything I have, endure what needs enduring, and am able, in my own way, to be satisfied. From out of the failures and joys I always try to come away having grasped a concrete lesson. (It's got to be concrete, no matter how small it is.)


The title of this book is taken from the title of a shortstory collection by a writer beloved to me, Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.


 

My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever.

- Thucydides

Commentary

I don’t know how to put this any other way, but reading The History of the Peloponnesian War was a brutal slog. It’s an intensely detailed history of an intensely complex and tragic war. It took me about five times longer to complete than the vast majority of books I read, and according to online opinions, most people recommend reading select bits and pieces rather than the entire book. However, I believe in zigging when others zag (You never know when you will stumble across some esoteric alpha). So I slogged through it and read it from cover to cover, just over 600 pages.

The speeches and oratory examples were the highlights throughout. My favorite was ‘Pericles’ Funeral Oration’, which had me so fired up I was ready to go to war. I’ve included it in its entirety below (it’s lengthy, you’ve been warned). I also found it hilarious that one of the most decisive battles was won because they took an early and expeditious lunch break.

Next day, earlier than before but with the same plan of campaign, the Syracusans went into action against the Athenians by land and sea. For a great part of the day the two fleets held out against each other, attacking and counter-attacking just as they had done before; but finally Ariston, the son of Pyrrhicus, a Corinthian and the best steersman in the Syracusan fleet, persuaded their naval commanders to send to the appropriate officials in the city and order them to move the market down to the sea as quickly as possible and to compel all who had provisions to sell to bring them down and sell them there, so that they could get the sailors ashore at once, have their meal close by the ships and then, after a short interval, make another attack this very day on the Athenians when they were not expecting it.

The commanders took this advice; a messenger was sent and the market was got ready. The Syracusans suddenly backed water, went back again towards the city, and immediately disembarked and had their meal on the spot. The Athenians, on their side, were under the impression that the Syracusans had backed away towards their city because they thought they were beaten, and so they disembarked in a leisurely way, and began to attend to their various jobs, including the getting ready of their meal, in the belief that they would certainly not have to fight again on that day. Suddenly, however, the Syracusans manned their ships and sailed out to attack for the second time. The Athenians, in great confusion and most of them still not having eaten, got aboard in no sort of order and with considerable difficulty managed to put out against the enemy.

The primary and lasting takeaway for me, which Thucydides predicts in the intro to Book One, is my now intimate knowledge that human nature has changed very little in the past 4000 years. A fact that is equal parts comforting and disturbing.

It will be enough for me, however, if these words of mine are judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or other and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future.

What I’m stealing

1. The power and importance of oratory and debate skills

2. Examples and early indicators of a declining democracy

3. When opponents are evenly matched, the aspect of surprise and/or catching an opponent off guard is a highly decisive edge.

Supplemental Resources

Some thoughtful context via Reddit on why you should read History of the Peloponnesian War.

Three dudes discussing their experience and thoughts while reading. I related to pretty much everything discussed. I would recommend listening after reading the book.

I have not read How to Think About War but I suspect it could be an excellent entry point if the idea of slogging through the full text is giving you hives. As an aside, I’m tempted to buy a complete set of the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers by Princeton Press for the home library.

PERICLES' FUNERAL ORATION (emphasis my own)

In the same winter the Athenians, following their annual custom, gave a public funeral for those who had been the first to die in the war. These funerals are held in the following way: two days before the ceremony the bones of the fallen are brought and put in a tent which has been erected, and people make whatever offerings they wish to their own dead. Then there is a funeral procession in which coffins of cypress wood are carried on wagons. There is one coffin for each tribe, which contains the bones of members of that tribe. One empty bier is decorated and carried in the procession: this is for the missing, whose bodies could not be recovered. Everyone who wishes to, both citizens and foreigners, can join in the procession, and the women who are related to the dead are there to make their laments at the tomb. The bones are laid in the public burial-place, which is in the most beautiful quarter outside the city walls. Here the Athenians always bury those who have fallen in war. The only exception is those who died at Marathon, who, because their achievement was considered absolutely outstanding, were buried on the battlefield itself.

When the bones have been laid in the earth, a man chosen by the city for his intellectual gifts and for his general reputation makes an appropriate speech in praise of the dead, and after the speech all depart. This is the procedure at these burials, and all through the war, when the time came to do so, the Athenians followed this ancient custom. Now, at the burial of those who were the first to fall in the war Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, was chosen to make the speech. When the moment arrived, he came forward from the tomb and, standing on a high platform, so that he might be heard by as many people as possible in the crowd, he spoke as follows:

‘Many of those who have spoken here in the past have praised the institution of this speech at the close of our ceremony. It seemed to them a mark of honour to our soldiers who have fallen in war that a speech should be made over them. I do not agree. These men have shown themselves valiant in action, and it would be enough, I think, for their glories to be proclaimed in action, as you have just seen it done at this funeral organized by the state. Our belief in the courage and manliness of so many should not be hazarded on the goodness or badness of one man's speech. Then it is not easy to speak with a proper sense of balance, when a man's listeners find it difficult to believe in the truth of what one is saying. The man who knows the facts and loves the dead may well think that an oration tells less than what he knows and what he would like to hear: others who do not know so much may feel envy for the dead, and think the orator over-praises them, when he speaks of exploits that are beyond their own capacities. Praise of other people is tolerable only up to a certain point, the point where one still believes that one could do oneself some of the things one is hearing about. Once you get beyond this point, you will find people becoming jealous and incredulous. However, the fact is that this institution was set up and approved by our forefathers, and it is my duty to follow the tradition and do my best to meet the wishes and the expectations of every one of you.

‘I shall begin by speaking about our ancestors, since it is only right and proper on such an occasion to pay them the honour of recalling what they did. In this land of ours there have always been the same people living from generation to generation up till now, and they, by their courage and their virtues, have handed it on to us, our country. They certainly deserve our praise. Even more so do our fathers deserve it. For to the inheritance they had received they added all the empire we have now, and it was not without blood and toil that they handed it down to us of the present generation. And then we ourselves, assembled here today, who are mostly in the prime of life, have, in most directions, added to the power of our empire and have organized our State in such a way that it is perfectly well able to look after itself both in peace and in war.

'I have no wish to make a long speech on subjects familiar to you all: so I shall say nothing about the warlike deeds by which we acquired our power or the battles in which we or our fathers gallantly resisted our enemies, Greek or foreign. What I want to do is, in the first place, to discuss the spirit in which we faced our trials and also our constitution and the way of life which has made us great. After that I shall speak in praise of the dead, believing that this kind of speech is not inappropriate to the present occasion, and that this whole assembly, of citizens and foreigners, may listen to it with advantage.

'Let me say that our system of government does not copy the institutions of our neighbours. It is more the case of our being a model to others, than of our imitating anyone else. Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. And, just as our political life is free and open, so is our day-to-day life in our relations with each other. We do not get into a state with our next-door neighbour if he enjoys himself in his own way, nor do we give him the kind of black looks which, though they do no real harm, still do hurt people's feelings. We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in public affairs we keep to the law. This is because it commands our deep respect1.

'We give our obedience to those whom we put in positions of authority, and we obey the laws themselves, especially those which are for the protection of the oppressed, and those unwritten laws which it is an acknowledged shame to break.

‘And here is another point. When our work is over, we are in a position to enjoy all kinds of recreation for our spirits. There are various kinds of contests and sacrifices regularly throughout the year; in our own homes we find a beauty and a good taste which delight us every day and which drive away our cares. Then the greatness of our city brings it about that all the good things from all over the world flow in to us, so that to us it seems just as natural to enjoy foreign goods as our own local products.

‘Then there is a great difference between us and our opponents, in our attitude towards military security. Here are some examples: Our city is open to the world, and we have no periodical deportations in order to prevent people observing or finding out secrets which might be of military advantage to the enemy. This is because we rely, not on secret weapons, but on our own real courage and loyalty. There is a difference, too, in our educational systems. The Spartans, from their earliest boyhood, are submitted to the most laborious training in courage; we pass our lives without all these restrictions, and yet are just as ready to face the same dangers as they are. Here is a proof of this: When the Spartans invade our land, they do not come by themselves, but bring all their allies with them; whereas we, when we launch an attack abroad, do the job by ourselves, and, though fighting on foreign soil, do not often fail to defeat opponents who are fighting for their own hearths and homes. As a matter of fact none of our enemies has ever yet been confronted with our total strength, because we have to divide our attention between our navy and the many missions on which our troops are sent on land. Yet, if our enemies engage a detachment of our forces and defeat it, they give themselves credit for having thrown back our entire army; or, if they lose, they claim that they were beaten by us in full strength. There are certain advantages, I think, in our way of meeting danger voluntarily, with an easy mind, instead of with a laborious training, with natural rather than with state-induced courage. We do not have to spend our time practising to meet sufferings which are still in the future; and when they are actually upon us we show ourselves just as brave as these others who are always in strict training. This is one point in which, I think, our city deserves to be admired. There are also others:

'Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft. We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about. As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it: the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it. Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the state as well: even those who are mostly occupied with their own business are extremely well-informed on general politics - this is a peculiarity of ours: we do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.

We Athenians, in our own persons, take our decisions on policy or submit them to proper discussions: for we do not think that there is an incompatibility between words and deeds; the worst thing is to rush into action before the consequences have been properly debated. And this is another point where we differ from other people. We are capable at the same time of taking risks and of estimating them beforehand. Others are brave out of ignorance; and, when they stop to think, they begin to fear. But the man who can most truly be accounted brave is he who best knows the meaning of what is sweet in life and of what is terrible, and then goes out undeterred to meet what is to come.

'Again, in questions of general good feeling there is a great contrast between us and most other people. We make friends by doing good to others, not by receiving good from them. This makes our friendship all the more reliable, since we want to keep alive the gratitude of those who are in our debt by showing continued goodwill to them: whereas the feelings of one who owes us something lack the same enthusiasm, since he knows that, when he repays our kindness, it will be more like paying back a debt than giving something spontaneously. We are unique in this. When we do kindnesses to others, we do not do them out of any calculations of profit or loss: we do them without afterthought, relying on our free liberality. Taking everything together then, I declare that our city is an education to Greece, and I declare that in my opinion each single one of our citizens, in all the manifold aspects of life, is able to show himself the rightful lord and owner of his own person, and do this, moreover, with exceptional grace and exceptional versatility. And to show that this is no empty boasting for the present occasion, but real tangible fact, you have only to consider the power which our city possesses and which has been won by those very qualities which I have mentioned. Athens, alone of the states we know, comes to her testing time in a greatness that surpasses what was imagined of her. In her case, and in her case alone, no invading enemy is ashamed at being defeated, and no subject can complain of being governed by people unfit for their responsibilities. Mighty indeed are the marks and monuments of our empire which we have left. Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now. We do not need the praises of a Homer, or of anyone else whose words may delight us for the moment, but whose estimation of facts will fall short of what is really true. For our adventurous spirit has forced an entry into every sea and into every land; and everywhere we have left behind us everlasting memorials of good done to our friends or suffering inflicted on our enemies.

‘This, then, is the kind of city for which these men, who could not bear the thought of losing her, nobly fought and nobly died. It is only natural that every one of us who survive them should be willing to undergo hardships in her service. And it was for this reason that I have spoken at such length about our city, because I wanted to make it clear that for us there is more at stake than there is for others who lack our advantages; also I wanted my words of praise for the dead to be set in the bright light of evidence. And now the most important of these words has been spoken. I have sung the praises of our city; but it was the courage and gallantry of these men, and of people like them, which made her splendid. Nor would you find it true in the case of many of the Greeks, as it is true of them, that no words can do more than justice to their deeds.

‘To me it seems that the consummation which has overtaken these men shows us the meaning of manliness in its first revelation and in its final proof. Some of them, no doubt, had their faults; but what we ought to remember first is their gallant conduct against the enemy in defence of their native land. They have blotted out evil with good, and done more service to the commonwealth than they ever did harm in their private lives. No one of these men weakened because he wanted to go on enjoying his wealth: no one put off the awful day in the hope that he might live to escape his poverty and grow rich. More to be desired than such things, they chose to check the enemy's pride. This, to them, was a risk most glorious, and they accepted it, willing to strike down the enemy and relinquish everything else. As for success or failure, they left that in the doubtful hands of Hope, and when the reality of battle was before their faces, they put their trust in their own selves. In the fighting, they thought it more honourable to stand their ground and suffer death than to give in and save their lives. So they fled from the reproaches of men, abiding with life and limb the brunt of battle; and, in a small moment of time, the climax of their lives, a culmination of glory, not of fear, were swept away from us.

'So and such they were, these men - worthy of their city. We who remain behind may hope to be spared their fate, but must resolve to keep the same daring spirit against the foe. It is not simply a question of estimating the advantages in theory. I could tell you a long story (and you know it as well as I do) about what is to be gained by beating the enemy back. What I would prefer is that you should fix your eyes every day on the greatness of Athens as she really is, and should fall in love with her. When you realize her greatness, then reflect that what made her great was men with a spirit of adventure, men who knew their duty, men who were ashamed to fall below a certain standard. If they ever failed in an enterprise, they made up their minds that at any rate the city should not find their courage lacking to her, and they gave to her the best contribution that they could. They gave her their lives, to her and to all of us, and for their own selves they won praises that never grow old, the most splendid of sepulchres - not the sepulchre in which their bodies are laid, but where their glory remains eternal in men's minds, always there on the right occasion to stir others to speech or to action. For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial: it is not only the inscriptions on their graves in their own country that mark them out; no, in foreign lands also, not in any visible form but in people's hearts, their memory abides and grows. It is for you to try to be like them. Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. Let there be no relaxation in face of the perils of the war. The people who have most excuse for despising death are nor the wretched and unfortunate, who have no hope of doing well for themselves, but those who run the risk of a complete reversal in their lives, and who would feel the difference most intensely, if things went wrong for them. Any intelligent man would find a humiliation caused by his own slackness more painful to bear than death, when death comes to him unperceived, in battle, and in the confidence of his patriotism.

‘For these reasons I shall not commiserate with those parents of the dead, who are present here. Instead I shall try to comfort them. They are well aware that they have grown up in a world where there are many changes and chances. But this is good fortune - for men to end their lives with honour, as these have done, and for you honourably to lament them: their life was set to a measure where death and happiness went hand in hand. I know that it is difficult to convince you of this. When you see other people happy you will often be reminded of what used to make you happy too.

One does not feel sad at not having some good thing which is outside one's experience: real grief is felt at the loss of something which one is used to. All the same, those of you who are of the right age must bear up and take comfort in the thought of having more children. In your own homes these new children will prevent you from brooding over those who are no more, and they will be a help to the city, too, both in filling the empty places, and in assuring her security. For it is impossible for a man to put forward fair and honest views about our affairs if he has not, like everyone else, children whose lives may be at stake. As for those of you who are now too old to have children, I would ask you to count as gain the greater part of your life, in which you have been happy, and remember that what remains is not long, and let your hearts be lifted up at the thought of the fair fame of the dead. One's sense of honour is the only thing that does not grow old, and the last pleasure, when one is worn out with age, is not, as the poet said, making money, but having the respect of one's fellow men.

'As for those of you here who are sons or brothers of the dead, I can see a hard struggle in front of you. Everyone always speaks well of the dead, and, even if you rise to the greatest heights of heroism, it will be a hard thing for you to get the reputation of having come near, let alone equalled, their standard. When one is alive, one is always liable to the jealousy of one's competitors, but when one is out of the way, the honour one receives is sincere and unchallenged.

‘Perhaps I should say a word or two on the duties of women to those among you who are now widowed. I can say all I have to say in a short word of advice. Your great glory is not to be inferior to what God has made you, and the greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about by men, whether they are praising you or criticizing you. I have now, as the law demanded, said what I had to say. For the time being our offerings to the dead have been made, and for the future their children will be supported at the public expense by the city, until they come of age. This is the crown and prize which she offers, both to the dead and to their children, for the ordeals which they have faced. Where the rewards of valour are the greatest, there you will find also the best and bravest spirits among the people. And now, when you have mourned for your dear ones, you must depart.'

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

It will be enough for me, however, if these words of mine are judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or other and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future. My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever.


We are therefore forced to ask for assistance, both from you and from everyone else; and it should not be held against us that now we have faced the facts and are reversing our old policy of keeping ourselves to ourselves. There is nothing sinister in our action; we merely recognize that we made a mistake.


'As for being slow and cautious - which is the usual criticism made against us there is nothing to be ashamed of in that. If you take something on before you are ready for it, hurry at the beginning will mean delay at the end. Besides, the city in which we live has always been free and always famous. "Slow" and "cautious" can equally well be "wise" and "sensible". Certainly it is because we possess these qualities that we are the only people who do not become arrogant when we are successful, and who in times of stress are less likely to give in than others.

**Note:** Speech by Spartan King Archidamus


Because of our wellordered life we are both brave in war and wise in council. Brave, because self-control is based upon a sense of honour, and honour is based on courage. And we are wise because we are not so highly educated as to look down upon our laws and customs, and are too rigorously trained in self-control to be able to disobey them. We are trained to avoid being too clever in matters that are of no usesuch as being able to produce an excellent theoretical criticism of one's enemies' dispositions, and then failing in practice to do quite so well against them. Instead we are taught that there is not a great deal of difference between the way we think and the way others think, and that it is impossible to calculate accurately events that are determined by chance. The practical measures that we take are always based on the assumption that our enemies are not unintelligent. And it is right and proper for us to put our hopes in the reliability of our own precautions rather than in the possibility of our opponent making mistakes. There is no need to suppose that human beings differ very much one from another: but it is true that the ones who come out on top are the ones who have been 85 trained in the hardest school.

**Note:** Speech by Spartan King Archidamus


The best and safest thing of all is when a large force is so well disciplined that it seems to be acting like one man.'


the inhabitants of Attica had always lived in independent cities, each with its own town hall and its own government. Only in times of danger did they meet together and consult the King at Athens; for the rest of the time each state looked after its own affairs and made its own decisions.


But when Theseus became King he showed himself as intelligent as he was powerful. In his reorganization of the country one of the most important things he did was to abolish the separate councils and governments of the small cities and to bring them all together into the present city of Athens, making one deliberative assembly and one seat of government for all.

Individuals could look after their own property just as before, but Theseus compelled them to have only one centre for their political life - namely, Athens and, as they all became Athenian citizens, it was a great city that Theseus handed down to those who came after him,


Pericles was convinced of the rightness of his own views about not going out to battle, but he saw that for the moment the Athenians were being led astray by their angry feelings. So he summoned no assembly or special meeting of the people, fearing that any general discussion would result in wrong decisions, made under the influence of anger rather than of reason.

War with the Dorians comes, and a death will come at the same time.

There had been a controversy as to whether the word in this ancient verse was 'dearth' rather than 'death'; but in the state of affairs the view that the word was 'death' naturally prevailed; it was a case of people adapting their memories to suit their sufferings. Certainly I think that if there is ever another war with the Dorians after this one, and if a dearth results from it, then in all probability people will quote the other version.


Do not send embassies to Sparta: do not give the impression that you are bowed down under your present sufferings! To face calamity with a mind as unclouded as may be, and quickly to react against it - that, in a city and in an individual, is real strength.'


NEXT summer, at the time when the corn was ripe,


But war is a stern teacher; in depriving them of the power of easily satisfying their daily wants, it brings most people's minds down to the level of their actual circumstances.

So revolutions broke out in city after city, and in places where the revolutions occurred late the knowledge of what had happened previously in other places caused still new extravagances of revolutionary zeal, expressed by an elaboration in the methods of seizing power and by unheard-of atrocities in revenge. To fit in with the change of events, words, too, had to change their usual meanings.

What used to be described as a thoughtless act of aggression was now regarded as the courage one would expect to find in a party member; to think of the future and wait was merely another way of saying one was a coward; any idea of moderation was just an attempt to disguise one's unmanly character; ability to understand a question from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action. Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man, and to plot against an enemy behind his back was perfectly legitimate selfdefence. Anyone who held violent opinions could always be trusted, and anyone who objected to them became a suspect


Society had become divided into two ideologically hostile camps, and each side viewed the other with suspicion. As for ending this state of affairs, no guarantee could be given that would be trusted, no oath sworn that people would fear to break; everyone had come to the conclusion that it was hopeless to expect a permanent settlement and so, instead of being able to feel confident in others, they devoted their energies to providing against being injured themselves. As a rule those who were least remarkable for intelligence showed the greater powers of survival.


Then, with the ordinary conventions of civilized life thrown into confusion, human nature, always ready to offend even where laws exist, showed itself proudly in its true colours, as something incapable of controlling passion, insubordinate to the idea of justice, the enemy to anything superior to itself; for, if it had not been for the pernicious power of envy, men would not so have exalted vengeance above innocence and profit above justice. Indeed, it is true that in these acts of revenge on others men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress, instead of leaving those laws in existence, remembering that there may come a time when they, too, will be in danger and will need their protection.


Indeed, there was an occasion afterwards when an Athenian ally in order to insult one of the prisoners from the island asked him whether it was the ones who had fallen who were the real Spartans. The reply was that 'spindles (by which he meant arrows) would be worth a great deal if they could pick out brave men from cowards', a remark which was  intended to show that the ones who died were simply the ones who came in the way of the stones and the arrows.


When an enemy makes a show of strength, but is in fact weak, a true knowledge of the situation will give confidence to the other side; but when one side has advantages that can really be relied upon, the less their opponents know about them the more boldly they will attack. These opponents of ours now may look to inexperienced eyes as though they were going to be dangerous. Their numbers seem to be terrific; their shouts and yells are insupportable; the way they wave their arms about in the air looks pretty threatening. But it is not quite the same thing when they come up against troops who stand their ground against all this. As they fight in no sort of order, they have no sense of shame about giving up a position under pressure run forwards and to run backwards are equally honourable in their courage can never really be tested, since, when every man is fighting on his own, there is always a good excuse for everyone saving his own skin. In fact, rather than meet you in close fighting, they think it safer to make you frightened and to run no risks themselves. Otherwise they would join battle, instead of simply making a noise. You should therefore be able to see clearly enough that everything about them which you thought frightening amounts in real fact to very little, alarming as it may be to the eye and to the ear. Stand firm, then, when they charge, and, when the time comes, retreat again in a disciplined and orderly manner. You will get into safety all the quicker like this, and you will know in the future that mobs of this kind, once their first attack is met firmly, only show off their courage by making threats of what they are going to do, meanwhile keeping well out of the way themselves; whereas, if one gives way to them, they are quick enough to press home their advantage and show how brave they are when there is no danger involved.'


Cleon and Brasidas were dead-the two people who on each side had been most opposed to peace, Brasidas because of the success and honour which had come to him through war, Cleon because he thought that in a time of peace and quiet people would be more likely to notice his evil doings and less likely to believe his slander of others.


The leader of this group was Alcibiades, the son of Clinias, a man who was still young in years (or would have been thought so in any other city in Hellas), but who had reached a position of importance owing to the respect in which his family was held. He was genuinely convinced that the best thing for Athens was an alliance with Argos - though it is true also that considerations of his own dignity affected his opposition to the peace with Sparta. He did not like the the fact that the Spartans had negotiated the treaty through Nicias and Laches, paying no attention to him because of his youth; nor had they treated him with the respect he thought due to the fact that in the past his family had looked after Spartan interests in Athens - a post which his grandfather had given up, but which he himself wanted to take on again, as he had shown by his attentions to the prisoners captured on the island. He considered therefore that in every direction he was receiving less than his due, and from the first he had opposed the peace, saying that the Spartans could not be relied upon, and that their only object in making the treaty was to be able in this way first to crush Argos and afterwards to isolate Athens and attack her.


Although in a public capacity his conduct of the war was excellent, his way of life made him objectionable to everyone as a person; thus they entrusted their affairs to other hands, and before long ruined the city.

**Note:** Referring to Alcibiades


The Thracians burst into Mycalessus, sacked the houses and temples, and butchered the inhabitants, sparing neither the young nor the old, but methodically killing everyone they met, women and children alike, and even the farm animals and every living thing they saw. For the Thracian race, like all the most bloodthirsty barbarians, are always particularly bloodthirsty when everything is going their own way.


In fact this system of charging prow to prow, which previously had been regarded as a sign of lack of skill in the steersman, was now going to be the chief method employed by the Syracusans, since it would give  them the greatest advantages.


After making these plans to fit in with the existing state of their skill and strength, the Syracusans, who were now also more confident than before as a result of the previous naval battle, proceeded to attack the Athenians by land and sea at once.


have their meal close by the ships and then, after a short interval, make another attack this very day on the Athenians when they were not expecting it.


The Athenians, in great confusion and most of them still not having eaten, got aboard in no sort of order and with considerable difficulty managed to put out against the enemy.

**Note:** On a well timed lunch being the turning point in a decisive battle


I am now plunged into the same perils as the meanest man here. Yet throughout my life I have worshipped the gods as I ought, and my conduct towards men has been just and without reproach. Because of this I still have a strong hope for the future, and these disasters do not terrify me as they well might do.


Antiphon, one of the ablest Athenians of his times. He had a most powerful intellect and was well able to express his thoughts in words; he never came forward to speak in front of the assembly unless he could help it, or competed in any other form of public life, since the people in general mistrusted him because of his reputation for cleverness; on the other hand, when other people were engaged in lawsuits or had points to make before the assembly, he was the man to give the best and most helpful advice to those who asked him for it. And after the restoration of the democracy and the setting up of courts where the acts of the Four Hundred (later reversed by the people) came in for very rough treatment, Antiphon was himself on trial for his life, charged with having helped to set up this very government, and his speech in his own defence seems to have been the best one ever made up to my time,


Speakers stood up and made encouraging speeches,


There was not another man in existence who could have controlled the mob at that time. Alcibiades stopped them from sailing against Athens, and used his tongue to such effect that he diverted them from the anger which they felt against the delegates on personal grounds. It was he who gave the reply to the delegates when they were sent away. He said that he was not opposed to the government being in the hands of the Five Thousand, but he did demand that they should get rid of the Four Hundred and that the original Council of the Five Hundred should be reinstated; he was entirely in favour of any measures of economy which would result in better pay for the armed forces; and, in general, he urged them to hold fast and make no concessions to the enemy, saying that, so long as the city was preserved, there were good hopes of some kind of agreement being reached between the two parties among the citizens, but that if either party, whether the men in Samos or the men in Athens, were defeated, there would be no one left with whom any settlement could any longer be made.


However, on this occasion, as on many others, the Spartans proved to be quite the most remarkably helpful enemies that the Athenians could have had. For Athens, particularly as a naval power, was enormously helped by the very great difference in the national characters - her speed as against their slowness, her enterprise as against their lack of initiative. This was shown by the Syracusans, who were most like the Athenians in character and fought best against them.


A number of other assemblies were held later, at which legal advisers were chosen and all the other steps taken for drawing up the constitution. Indeed, during the first period of this new regime the Athenians appear to have had a better government  than ever before, at least in my time. There was a reasonable and moderate blending of the few and the many.

“Anytime we do something that no other creator can do, that seperates us in their mind and makes our videos more special to them. It changes how they see us and it does make them watch more videos and engage more with the brand. You can’t track the “wow factor” but I can describe it. Anything that no other youtuber can do. And it’s important we never lose our wow.”

Link to the original document: HOW TO SUCCEED IN MRBEAST PRODUCTION

Commentary

I’ve never watched a MrBeast YouTube video, but this tweet lives rent-free in my head. It’s hard advice but good advice1.

I’m sure MrBeast's videos are great, but they aren’t for me. I am, however, fascinated by anyone doing work/craft at the highest levels, and by all metrics, MrBeast is boat racing the competition. This paper provides an inside look at the internal workings of MrBeast (the company). I was pleasantly surprised to find there is nothing all that revolutionary about the interworkings. From my perspective, they are doing the simple yet hard things well and relentlessly pursuing improvement.

What I’m stealing

1. Check. In. Daily. Leave. No. Room. For. Error.

2. Prioritize things no one else can do

3. Consultants are cheat codes

4. Befriend people who have vastly different information diets

5. Don’t be lazy

Supplemental Resources

I also haven’t read a Robert Caro book except for Working, but I’m fascinated by his writing process. He’s maniacally obsessive in a way I am incapable of being, but I still borrow bits from him regularly. This Caro quote, in particular, sticks with me.

“Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamned page.”

The Alchemy of Money

A Lesson on Obsession: Robert Caro and Mr. Beast

Over the past few days, I encountered two very different creators. First, I visited the Robert Caro exhibit at the New York Historical Society. Then, I read “HOW TO SUCCEED IN MRBEAST PRODUCTION,” a remarkable little document by top YouTuber James “Jimmy” Donaldson aka “Mr. Beast…

Read more

2 years ago · 41 likes · 4 comments · Frederik Gieschen

Shaan Puri is another fascinating follow. Again, not really my cup of tea, but his skill and creative output are undeniable. Plenty to be gleaned from Uncle Shaan. Link below to his take on the document.

Kyla Scanlon had a balanced take on the memo. I appreciate her ability to break things down through the Gen Z lens.

Kyla’s Newsletter

The Mr. Beast Memo is a Guide to the Gen Z Workforce

Mr. Beast very good at being very good at YouTube. This is also the first Gen Z leader manifesto…

Read more

2 years ago · 308 likes · 41 comments · kyla scanlon

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

Chapter 1: What makes a Youtube video viral?

Video viewers/readers are making assumptions about the content of the video based on the title and image. The first minute especially needs to match or exceed the expectations set by the title and thumbnail.

At the 3:00min mark, plant the most interesting and exciting content.

At the 6:00-minute mark, plant another re-engagement. It is something interesting but needs little explanation, and it pushes the narrative through the back half.

The back half of the content can be the good, not great, stuff. If viewers have made it this far, they are invested. Long explanations or unexpected happenings (things not going as planned) can live here.

• How can the engagement sequence above be translated to writing?

• What is the equivalent of the first 1 minute in a video in writing? Probably the opening sentence, three sentences, paragraph?

“Anytime we do something that no other creator can do, that seperates us in their mind and makes our videos more special to them. It changes how they see us and it does make them watch more videos and engage more with the brand. You can’t track the “wow factor” but I can describe it. Anything that no other youtuber can do. And it’s important we never lose our wow.”

Bottlenecks: The Goal - reading recommendation

“I want you to look them in the eyes and tell them they are the bottleneck and take it a step further and explain why they are the bottleneck so you both are on the same page.”

“Every single day you must check in on Tyler and make sure he is still on track to hit the target date. I want less excuses in this company. Take ownership and don’t give your project a chance to fail. Dumping your bottleneck on someone and then just walking away until it’s done is lazy and it gives room for error and I want you to have a mindset that God himself couldn’t stop you from making this video on time. Check. In. Daily. Leave. No. Room. For. Error.”

The same goes for working with contractors.

The Goal: 40th Anniversary Edition: A Process of Ongoing Improvement2

Video Everything

‘This is why we say video everything. Which is more important, that one person has a good mental grip of something or that their entire team of 10 people have a good mental grip on something? Obviously the team. And the easiest way to bring your team up to the same page is to freaken video everything and store it where they can constantly reference it. A lot of problems can be solved if we just video sets and ask for videos when ordering things. Especially because I personally am a visual guy and I always ask to see what things look like so even for me videos are valuable. Video Everything.’

How to Ask for Help

When asking for help with a decision from someone who is extremely busy include all the pertinent info you’ve gathered to make the decision yourself and provide option a,b.c etc. with pros and cons.

Creativity Saves Money

Use creativity to save money - a year’s supply of Doritos as a prize instead of 20k. The Doritos are funnier and far more entertaining than a cash prize that would be far more costly for a less impact. Example $20k cash prize vs $1,825 for a years supply of Doritos.

Higher form of communication

“The more complex what needs to be said is, the higher the form of the communication you should use.”

Communication hierarchy:

1. Face to face (highest)

2. Phone call

3. Text message

4. Email (lowest)

Nothing Comes Before your Prios

Prios - I like the lingo and for putting to use as a consistent prompt/question for 1:1 check-ins.

“When you’re being assigned tasks you should have what we call a prio list.”

If Ali says your prios are to:

1.) Get a lamborgini under $200k

2.) Get it wrapped in anime characters

3.) Make a custom steering wheel

Then nothing on this freakin planet is allowed to come between you and getting those prios done. If the other team asks for your help and you spend two days helping them and fall behind on getting your lamborghini secured, THAT’S YOUR FAULT. If the studio is burning down and you stop working to put out the fire and don’t get the lamborghini, THAT’S YOUR FAULT. (jokes haha) but seriously don’t let anything come before your prios. Consults are a gift from god, please take advantage of them. In every single freakin task assigned to you, always always always ask yourself first if you can find a consultant to help you. This is so important that I am demanding you repeat this three times in your head “I will always check for consultants when i’m assigned a task”

USE CONSULTANTS

Consultants are literally cheat codes. Need to make the world's largest slice of cake? Start off by calling the person who made the previous world’s largest slice of cake lol. He’s already done countless tests and can save you weeks worth of work. I really want to drill this point home because I’m a massive believer in consultants. Because I've spent almost a decade of my life hyper obsessing over youtube, I can show a brand new creator how to go from 100 subscribers to 10,000 in a month. On their own it would take them years to do it. Consults are a gift from god, please take advantage of them. In every single freakin task assigned to you, always always always ask yourself first if you can find a consultant to help you. This is so important that I am demanding you repeat this three times in your head “I will always check for consultants when i’m assigned a task”

UNDERSTAND CULTURE

What you consume on social media, when you watch youtube, tv, the games you play, etc. are what I like to call your information diet. Chris Tyson (our first subscriber and the guy in the videos) is a wonderful example of an information diet being used to perfection. The dude is funny as fuck. I’ve never met anyone in my entire life that can make people laugh like he can and I never understood why he was so good at it until I lived with him for a few years. The dude watches an obscene amount of cartoons and stupid shit. His eyeballs exist to inhail copious amounts of just goofy, dumb, and brain numbing content. And as a result he can quote almost any line from any episode of spongebob. He’s able to draw from so much stupid shit in his head as inspiration to make jokes and be quirky. As a result he is fucken hilarious. But let’s imagine a different Chris, let’s say instead of cartoons and stupid shit, his information diet was stocks and investing advice. And for 5 years that’s all he consumed. Do you think he’d be just as funny as he currently is? No. He in my opinion wouldn’t even be 20% as funny. If you’re a writer or director you really need to monitor and perfect your information diet. If your diet is not correct, you won’t have a good pulse on culture. I don’t want you to be a chris, in fact, I think that would probably do you harm. Talent needs to inhale cartoons so they can be funny, writers need to inhale inspiration. Let’s say there is a purple fruit in the middle of Australia that when eaten makes you 2 feet taller. If it truly did exist, you wouldn’t have known that until just right now. But now that you know of it, you can draw on it for inspiration for every piece of content you write going forward. That’s beautiful, it can now sit in the back of your mind waiting for that one video where it is needed. It might take 10 videos or even 100 but eventually you’ll be brainstorming a bit and think of the right one to use the fruit for. Apply this to everything on this fucken planet. You. Can’t. Get. Inspired. By. Things. You. Don’t. Know. Exist. So how do you learn more about what's out there in the world? How do you stay up to date on the latest memes? How do you know what’s going on with celebrities? What’s trending on youtube? What other creators are doing? What’s popping on tik tok? Your information diet. Consume things on a daily basis that help you write better content.

It’s okay for the boys to be childish

If talent wants to draw a dick on the white board in the video or do something stupid, let them. (assuming they know all the risks and arn’t missing context on why it’s not safe) People like when we are in our natural element of stupidity. Really do everything you can to empower the boys when filming and help them make content. Help them be idiots.

Don’t be Lazy

If you wrote a banger piece of content but it is a 50/50 chance of working, write another piece of content. Content is unlimited, don't be lazy. Run your content by as many people as possible for inspiration on how you could make it even better.

The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime."

What I’m stealing

1. Seek quality

2. Detox or abstain from the toxic aspects of modernity

3. Develop a backbone before it’s too late

4. Read and re-read the classics

5. Tune into the highest fidelity forms of humanity

6. Linger

Commentary

I re-read this on a whim for the first time in twenty years, and I will just say that it’s a classic for a reason. Bradbury’s prose is the equivalent of gorging on a whole torchon of foie gras. It's extremely rich and leaves one feeling slightly nauseated from too much of a good thing, but you can’t help but go back for a bit more. Eerily prescient.

Supplemental Resources

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You'd find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more 'literary' you are. That's my definition, anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.

**Note:** Linger

The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.

“But that would just nibble the edges. The whole culture's shot through. The skeleton needs melting and reshaping.

Granger stood looking back with Montag. "Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away.

The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime."

"Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense. And I want you to teach me to understand what I read."iw Faber examined Montag's thin, blue-jowled face. "How did you get shaken up? What knocked the torch out of your hands?"

"I don't know. We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I'd burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help."

"You're a hopeless romantic," said Faber. "It would be funny if it were not serious. It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books. The same things could be in the 'parlor families' today. The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors, but are not.

No, no, it's not books at all you're looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and and in old friends; look for it un nature and look for it in yourself.

…enablement is something you do and provide for others. Speaking in terms of a deliverable or output focuses the conversation on the end product, whereas sales force enablement is responsible for the entire process: strategy, definition, creation, localization, publishing, delivery, and implementation and adoption of services.

What I’m stealing

1. Cross the chasm - from tactical support function to strategic partner. To be effective and provide value enablement must be seen as a strategic discipline.

2. Earn the right - to collect, analyze, and share potentially provocative information.

3. Be the conductor - orchestrate the process of creating and delivering enablement services by enlisting the aid of other functions within the organization.

4. Find a champion.

5. Long-term strategy with long-term colleagues - engender a spirit of conscious collaboration instead of competition, always play to keep the game going.

6. Coach-the-coach - enablement services area for future growth for most organizations and enablement functions.

7. Obsessively Reduce Friction - Ideally, the CRM becomes the one-stop-shop for content, based on an integrated sales enablement content solution that reinforces and improves the probability of sales leveraging CRM.

8. Repetition and Re-surfacing - The forgetting curve, first introduced in the late 1800s and corroborated through additional research, shows that people will have forgotten an average of 50% of the information they just learned within one hour. Within 24 hours, they have forgotten an average of 70% of new information, and within a week, 90% of it has been wiped from their memory.

9. Fingertip feel for quantitative metrics - Sales enablement should have a fingertip feel for key quantitative metrics, tracked and reviewed weekly. i.e. Quota attainment, win rates, deal value, sales cycle time, funnel sufficiency, velocity, and growth.

10. Curate, Synthesize, Connect - Sales enablement understands the end goal of technology better than IT. Sales enablement professionals understand the sellers’ needs better than marketing. They know what makes a successful seller better than HR. Sales leadership doesn't have the bandwidth to deeply investigate the latest sales technologies.

Commentary

This is a fully work/career-specific book, so if you aren’t in sales, operations, or sales enablement professionally, feel free to skip this one.

I read this at the recommendation of a colleague (shout out to Jean Gibson) as I’m transitioning from my 2-year rotation, learning the ins and outs of sales compensation strategy, and planning back to a strategic sales enablement role. I tore through this in a couple of days. It was exciting to see so much of what I’ve had to invent on the fly over the past decade be codified in this book. I would have loved this as a resource back in 2015 when I first delved into sales enablement as a career path. If you are standing up a sales enablement organization, let this be your map of an otherwise amorphous territory.

Supplemental Resources

I’ve been devouring podcasts on Sales and Revenue Enablement. I simply never thought to look for podcasts on the topic while I was previously neck-deep in architecting sales enablement services, so this was a fun rabbit hole to explore. While there aren’t a ton of high-quality programs out there, I have found a select few listed below that are well worth listening to, including some with the authors of this book that provide additional perspectives and insights.

Revenue Enablement Society - Stories from the Trenches - This is my favorite show on the topic. Beyond it being a wealth of inspiration and insight it’s fun to hear the stories from active practitioners of all different ranks and levels of experience.

A selection of episodes with the authors:

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

elements of a true sales enablement discipline: content, training, technology, and one of my favorites, sales coaching.


shift from tactical support function to strategic partner,


standard performance metrics that are meaningful to almost every organization: win rate, percent of salespeople achieving quota and percent of revenue attained.


In most organizations, sales operations is responsible for defining, managing and measuring sales processes. Nevertheless, as we'll discuss throughout this book, sales enablement plays an important role in facilitating and reinforcing those processes through the services it provides.


When it comes to relationships, sales enablement takes the lead. Its objective is to enable customer-facing professionals to add value in every interaction.


Table 1.1 Top 12 World-Class Practices


(Too many salespeople at quota is a strong indication that quotas were not set high enough.)


The successful sales professional adds perspective by combining deep knowledge of the customer, their challenges and their desired results with the experience and insights gained from working with similar customers and their knowledge of potential solutions.


Sellers must earn the right to share potentially provocative information with their customers if they want that information to help guide thinking versus destroy rapport.


Sales organizations are best served by defining a successful talent profile, selecting an adaptable sales methodology, defining a dynamic sales process and building out an enablement road map. Sales enablement is in the unique position to help drive and align these activities to ensure that they are tightly integrated to selling realities.


To be effective, enablement must be seen as a strategic discipline that is set apart from other functions such as marketing and training, even though those functions contribute to enablement.


Having a common definition to anchor our discussions is a tremendous help. Here's one we developed that has served our clients well:


Sales Force Enablement: A strategic, collaborative discipline designed to increase predictable sales results by providing consistent, scalable enablement services that allow customer-facing professionals and their managers to add value in every customer interaction.


Enabling roles beyond sales is a hallmark of a World-Class sales organization, but given where most organizations are today, our focus in this book is going to be on enabling sales roles.


Sponsorship, strategy and charter. Next, we'll drop down to the bottom of our diamond and look at its foundation. Of course, you need to start with a strategy, but even the best sales force enablement initiatives fail if the team has the responsibility but not the authority to enact the strategy. This includes gaining the all-important executive sponsorship.


Sales Force Enablement's Impact on Performance


Enablement professionals must orchestrate the process of creating and delivering enablement services by enlisting the aid of many other functions within the organization.


The sales process is usually defined by sales operations, with enablement's primary role being one of providing services that help reinforce adherence to the defined process.


sales methodologies tell you what to do at each step of the process, how to do it and why.


one of the most important points to take away from this discussion is that sales methodologies connect your sales processes to your customer's path.


Your charter functions as your business plan and is your guide for turning a random sales enablement effort into a formal, scalable and strategic sales force enablement discipline that has a definable, positive impact on the business.


Meet with executive leadership.


Meet with other departmental leaders, e.g., marketing, product management, HR, L&D, finance, IT, etc.


Many of these departments may see themselves as being at least partially responsible for sales enablement and will have questions as to how they fit into your broader plan. Remember, your goal at this point is to gather information, not to provide strategy statements


sales force enablement does not and cannot be responsible for creating every enablement service. Including other team leads at this stage will help engender a spirit of conscious collaboration instead of competition.


Find a champion.


what content do they spend time creating? In the CSO Insights 2017 Sales Enablement Optimization Study, sales professionals created 18% of the content they used. Find out why they felt they had to create that content instead of using content that was already available. Finally, what processes and behaviors have they developed on their own that help them get more done in less time?


Business strategy: The goals of the business tell you what's important to the organization. To garner support and funding for the enablement discipline, it is essential that your end goal be in support of those objectives.


Sales strategy: The sales strategy tells you how the organization expects to achieve its sales goals, and your enablement strategy must be aligned to it. For example, if an organizational goal is to enter a new market by selling exclusively through an indirect channel, your enablement efforts must align accordingly. You may agree or disagree with this approach, but that decision is outside of your control. Your role is to determine how sales enablement can effectively support the implementation of the sales strategy.


enablement maturity. We've separated enablement maturity into four levels: Random, Organized, Scalable and Adaptive (see Figure 4.4). These four levels correspond to the CSO Insights Maturity Scale that we introduced in Chapter 1 – the maturity scale designations are in parenthesis – however, we've added a label for some of the levels in the sales force enablement maturity scale that reflects the importance of moving from one level to the next.


According to Boris Kluck, VP of Sales Operations for the combined organization, “Given that we were bringing two companies together with very different organization models and structures, and as you might imagine, a completely fragmented set of sales strategies, methodologies, processes and the like, it was important to make a big investment in sales enablement as a foundational element in being able to achieve those growth ambitions.”


In the appendix, we've included a sample charter you can use as a guide.


emphasize that enablement is something you do and provide for others. Speaking in terms of a deliverable or output focuses the conversation on the end product, whereas sales force enablement is responsible for the entire process: strategy, definition, creation, localization, publishing, delivery, and implementation and adoption of services.


It is a discipline, with services as the method for achieving the goals that have been defined in the enablement charter.


Enablement content is any content designed to help customer-facing professionals prepare for interactions with prospects and customers. Examples include playbooks, battle cards, cost-justification tools and so on. This content could be context-specific, such as a discussion guide for selling equipment into the oil and gas market. Or, it could be a playbook that provides salespeople with an overview of what they need to know, links to related content and relevant value messages aligned to the customer's point of view. It might also be content, such as a product-launch presentation, that supports a broader enablement initiative.


be content like white papers, solution guides, implementation guides, success stories, third-party research. Internal content includes content like a sales playbook, competitive overview, positioning guide, sales process and also tools like ROI calculators, win-loss calculator etc.


Table 5.1 Examples of Content Services


What sales needs is customer-facing content (externally focused) or enablement content (internally used), but not marketing content.


Content must be a collaborative effort. The special expertise required of sales force enablement is the ability to connect the knowledge salespeople and buyers need with their content consumption preferences and orchestrate contributions from other functions. Regardless of what percentage of content is seen as coming from enablement, the real question is: Is enablement effectively orchestrating the process?


Salespeople still create 18% of the content they need on their own.


While an improvement from 2016 (26%), this percentage is still too high because this is time the sales professional could spend adding value for customers. Whenever sales professionals have to create their content from scratch, something is wrong with the overall enablement approach. At most, salespeople should only have to tailor and customize content that has already been provided. If salespeople can't find the right content, aren't satisfied with its quality or don't know how to use the tools, then fixing these problems is enablement's responsibility.


Content Services Need Work


content types voted to be in most need of improvement included some highly critical customer-oriented assets: case studies, client-focused presentations and ROI templates


create playbooks that correspond to a customer's business challenge or industry.


the trend is to create modules that automatically generate an interactive playbook when the salesperson enters an opportunity into the CRM system. Additional modules may be added as customers progress along their path and the salesperson enters additional details about the customers’ context, challenges and future-state vision.


Industry Playbook Outline


Enablement's role is to orchestrate the contributions of other teams. Enablement is a logical focal point for orchestrating the process because they have the vantage point needed to gather input from sales, study the effectiveness of current content and identify gaps that must be filled. Plus, they don't have the role bias that other teams will have.


Take stock of what you have.


Mereo did offer training to more than 300 salespeople over a three-month period, but the training was supported by more than three dozen playbooks segmented by competitor, industry, use cases and requirements such as regulatory compliance. Individually, each playbook was organized in line with the sales methodology, providing exactly the kinds of support the salesperson needed in order to follow the prescribed methodology yet adapt their specific approach to the customer's context.


have an extensive library of programs. We mapped our sales competencies to programs in our eLearning platform and could identify courses, books and videos that could be used for the personal development for our sales professionals.


Reinforcement of learning through online modules and micro-reinforcement tools is essential. The forgetting curve, first introduced in the late 1800s and corroborated through additional research, shows that people will have forgotten an average of 50% of the information they just learned within one hour. Within 24 hours, they have forgotten an average of 70% of new information, and within a week, 90% of it has been wiped from their memory. Reinforcement training services can help students retain more information longer.


Once you are ready to begin developing training services, whether they are classroom services or m-/e-learning modules, you will need someone to lead the effort. Your L&D allies won't be the subject matter experts (SMEs), but they can help your SMEs translate their knowledge into useful enablement services.


The program, called “Progressing Your Sales Opportunities,” centers on applied learning and real business outcomes using actual client business scenarios and opportunities.


The course is primarily self-paced, with blended online and offline activities managed and delivered through the Intrepid Learning platform as well as an in-person peer and manager coaching component.


If you can correlate a training service to performance improvements, such as decreased cycle times, so much the better, but this may not be easy if you're just starting to develop your sales force enablement discipline. You often won't have systems to collect the granular data needed for a full analysis. However, you can compare data points like training assessments to overall performance levels. As with content, focus on the extremes, such as those with high assessments and high performance or low assessments and low performance, to gather insights into how training affects performance.


Developing coaching skills is also essential for an organization looking to make any sort of significant transformation, such as a move from a transactional, product-oriented approach to one focused on business outcomes.


Sales leaders and sales directors. Those who manage sales managers must be equipped for their roles in helping sales managers become more effective and leverage the methodologies, skills and tools they are provided. Coach-the-coach enablement services are an area for future growth for most organizations and enablement functions.


Recommended Focus for Lead and Opportunity Coaching


Recommended Focus for Funnel Coaching


Recommended Focus for Skills and Behaviors Coaching


Recommended Focus for Account Coaching


Value messaging provides the necessary input to those creating internal and customer-facing content. Value messages are the central themes that run through all these services, providing consistency for both salespeople and relevant buyers. Additionally, if you are working with various relevant buyer roles, you have a role-based value messaging approach to address each role appropriately. Effective value messaging deserves a dynamic approach that follows the same design point: the customer's path. These kinds of scenarios can be resolved when value messaging is created for every phase of the customer's path, then used consistently in customer-facing materials and throughout all of the new and updated enablement services.


Table 8.1 The Value Messaging Process


Enablement professionals must be highly skilled at getting things done through other people. (And often, using someone else's budget.)


Collaboration is how enablement services get created and delivered by various departments, and it is our focus for this chapter (see Figure 9.1).


By predefining these roles by enablement service type, the cross-functional team can avoid the time spent negotiating responsibilities each time a new service is created.


While CRM implementation and adoption is usually the purview of another team (most often sales operations), enablement can help solve the problem in a couple of ways. First, if the enablement technology is designed to be used directly by the salesperson, enablement can work with IT to ensure it is integrated to CRM so that the data collected gets into the system. Second, enablement can leverage CRM to deliver


services that support the methodology. For example, when sales enters an opportunity into the system, playbooks can be automatically generated based on the opportunity details. When CRM becomes the one-stop-shop for content, ideally based on an integrated sales enablement content solution, sales is more likely to turn to the CRM system for what it needs and adoption improves.


More advanced SECM systems integrate with CRM to not only allow the salesperson to search for content, but also to proactively suggest content to the sales professional based on the customer's business challenges and the specific selling scenario. Some systems can automatically create playbooks and other content assets based on the attributes of the opportunity. Using this recommended content, the sales professional can adapt their approach and customize presentations.


These integrated solutions are also much better equipped to help sales force enablement professionals, content marketers and others track how prospects and buyers use content and what the impact is. As an example, they can answer detailed questions such as: Does sharing this case study lead more often to a follow-up interaction as compared to sharing another one? Do customers read this white paper in its entirety or only view certain pages? What percentage of customers who are sent an interactive ROI tool use it, and how often does that lead to a next step, an additional question, another meeting or directly to a proposal? The same kind of analytics can be leveraged for internal enablement content to learn how, for instance, a certain playbook is used, a guideline is downloaded or a battle card is viewed.


Examples of SECM systems include: Bigtincan, Brainshark, CallidusCloud, HighSpot, MobilPaks, Savo, Seismic, Showpad and many others.


As organizations discover the enablement benefits of offering bite-sized, online learning modules, training services (especially those that focus on knowledge transfer or serve as a reminder on how to use a specific message or apply a particular methodology) are being treated more and more like content assets. Ideally, these assets should be made accessible through the CRM system to provide the sales professional learning modules related to specific opportunities in a variety of e-learning and mobile formats. Examples of systems that offer learning functionality include Brainshark, CallidusCloud Litmos and Intrepid.


Examples in this category include: Clearslide and Jive (collaboration, engagement), Concur (expense reporting), Doodle (meeting scheduler), Five9 (predictive dialing for call centers), Gainsight, Kapta, Revegy (key account management), Go-to-Meeting and Skype (meetings and events), InsideView and Sales Navigator (sales intelligence) and RO Innovation (reference requests).

**Note:** Productivity solution providers


Enablement operations builds on the solid foundation provided by a well-constructed (and approved) charter and covers three primary areas:


Enablement governance provides the mechanism for making strategic decisions, resolving conflicts and staying connected to senior leadership's vision for the company. Enablement production includes all of the steps from the design of an enablement service through creation, localization, deployment, and the adoption and reinforcement of services. Enablement analytics addresses how you will measure success. This includes metrics that measure the impact of enablement activities and services on various key performance indicators as well as how well enablement functions as a cross-functional team.


Table 11.1 How to Set Up an Executive Advisory Board


Subjective Versus Objective Metrics


Albert Einstein's advice, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”


As with any metrics, visibility is important and role-specific dashboards can help sales enablement leaders stay on top of the impact of their enablement services,


On the flip side, sales organizations will continue to advance their use of AI as well. But be warned, if you can't stand the idea of your every move being analyzed, sales might be the wrong profession for you. In the future, sales professionals will be some of the most studied people on earth, with data gathering tools capturing everything they do and say as well as how prospects and customers respond.


William Gibson observed, “The future is already here, it is just not evenly distributed.”


If sales enablement is crucial now (and hopefully you've seen why over the course of this book), it will be absolutely vital moving forward. Sales enablement has the responsibility to help sales organizations get ready for and leverage these pending changes. Sales enablement understands the end goal of technology better than IT. Sales enablement professionals understand the sellers’ needs better than marketing. They know what makes a successful seller better than HR. Sales leadership doesn't have the bandwidth to deeply investigate AI-augmented selling.


Appendix

"Ivy is a lot like tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet). It was originally German but now it's just part of Japanese cuisine. You serve it with rice and miso soup and eat it with chopsticks. I think Ivy is becoming like tonkatsu. It may have originally come from America 60 years ago, but after 60 years of being in Japan, it's been arranged to better fit us." The Japanese at first shortened the words "American traditional" to Ametora, but now an entire set of Ametora practices stands as its own separate tradition.

What I’m stealing

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Commentary

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Supplemental Resources

Michael Williams of ACL scans of Take Ivy from 2008

Kamakura Shirts A-Z of the Ivy Look

F.E. Castleberry Brand Board and Look Book No. 06

Popeye Magazine

Die Workwear

Valet

The Armoury

Drakes

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

When farmers and urban merchants began to accumulate more wealth than their samurai betters, they lined standard cotton robes with silk in an act of subversive panache (Page 2)

The suit provides the answer to this modern dictate on the seriousness of masculinity, it is a uniform that can be worn every day and allows men to look good without having to consider their outfits too much and therefore becoming feminine." (Page 16)

Ishizu joined the editorial team, and the quarterly publication Otoko no Fukushoku ("Men's Clothing") debuted in late 1954. The magazine offered fashion photography and articles, but the editorial tone was pure instruction-a textbook introduction to semi-formal wear, business wear, sportswear, and golf wear. (Page 17)

He wrote so much for the first few years that he had to hide his work under playful pen names such as "Esu Kaiya" (Esquire) in fear that his authorship was too conspicuous (Page 19)

Japan's elite campuses were packed with identical-looking boys in black wool uniforms, but Ivy League students dressed up for classes in a distinct, individual way (Page 21)

Japanese students in the late 1950s had little pocket money, but Ivy clothing would be a good investment durable, functional, and based on static, traditional styles.

And there was something chic about how Ivy students wore items until they disintegrated-holes in shoes, frayed collars on shirts, patches on jacket elbows. Many nouveau riche Japanese would gasp in horror at this frugality, but the old-money Ishizu saw an immediate link between Ivy League fashion and the rakish, rough look of hei'i habō, the early twentieth century phenomenon of elite students flaunting prestige through shabby uniforms. Ivy clothing signaled status through subtle underplay, something that Ishizu could feel in his old money blood. (Page 23)

Kurosu and Hozumi liked Ivy in part because it was from the United States, which impoverished Japanese viewed as a beacon of civilization and prosperity (Page 30)

I didn't like it just because it was new, but because it was strange (Page 30)

, "It has to feel natural. It's the absolute worst if other people think you've left them intentionally unbuttoned." (Page 39)

The classic "Ivy look" was far more stylized-a straight part on the side of the head that split the hair into two blocks at a seven-three or eight-two ratio. (Page 45)

in New England, they saw families routinely modernize the insides of their houses while keeping the exterior design intact. This felt poignant at a time when Tokyo developers summarily leveled old wooden structures to build bland, concrete apartment complexes. Kurosu told Men's Club, "Japan is much older than America, but no one thinks about protecting the classic feel of a place. They just build everything modern, not thinking at all about whether there is a balance to the buildings around it. It's really sad." During the trip, Kurosu awoke to something that Kensuke Ishizu always said: Ivy represented veneration for tradition, not just chasing the latest modern trend (Page 59)

Kensuke Ishizu wanted Ivy League style to become Japan's permanent template for basic fashion (Page 70)

The older clientele still loved American style but found the word “Ivy” increasingly toxic. Kurosu smartly recast the Kent style under a new term—“Trad” (traddo). Kurosu told American blog "The Trad" in 2010, "The word 'traditional'

existed but it was difficult to pronounce and rarely used in Japan (Page 71)

Trad men could wear a classic Burberry jacket or Irish fisherman's sweater and not worry about breaking the strict "Americaonly" rules of Ivy (Page 71)

Ishizu was a gifted designer and marketer, but he made his fortune in a form of cultural arbitrage. Kurosu says, "All VAN would do is create things that they had in America but not in Japan. We'd just copy, but no one realized what we were doing. (Page 72)

cotton drill used on the soles of traditional tabi socks (Page 75)

American soldiers on R&R from the Korean War. No longer confined to their uniforms, soldiers wandered around Tokyo in worn-in jeans, CPO shirts, lambswool v-neck sweaters in primary colors, white socks, and loafers (Page 78)

During the autopsy, Kashino puzzled over a strange detail in the fabric: the blue cotton threads were not dyed all the way through.

Compared to other dyestuffs, indigo does not easily permeate to the core of cotton. So industrial indigo dyeing tends to create a blue ring around the thread's surface and leave the center white.

But it is precisely this defect that gives jeans their unique beauty:

when heavy wear scuffs away the indigo, the undyed cotton pops out to create expressive and subtle layers of fading.

Japanese craftsmen had been expertly dyeing with indigo since the seventh century, but their traditional method-repeatedly dipping yarn in tubs of fermented organic dye, then twisting the yarn to oxidize the color-fully permeates the cotton fibers with blue coloring. (Page 81)

Cone Mills's "686," a 14.5oz preshrunk denim used in Levi's straight-leg zipper-fly 505s.

Kurabō first needed to retool its machinery to spin heavy cotton yarns previously unknown in Japan. Next the company searched for a partner who could dye indigo in a way that produced the "white-center" of American denim.

Kurabō eventually called upon Kaihara in Fukuyama, Hiroshima, an imperially-recognized dyer and weaver of kasuri cloth used in traditional kimonos since 1893. (Page 93)

Japan's YKK provided the zippers, while Mitsubishi and Jüki regauged their sewing machines to handle thick denim (Page 93)

The Japanese could understand hippies as the latest trend in American music and fashion, but the Whole Earth Catalog moved along a completely different vector (Page 100)

In 1970, Kobayashi and Ishikawa returned to New York for another round of “Illustrated Reportage." This time around, Brand's vision looked prescient. “Being back in New York after a year,”

Kobayashi wrote in his column, “the thing I feel most strongly is young Americans' attitudes about going ‘back to nature.” Kobayashi had long considered the United States the "Kingdom of the Automobile," yet he found men and women intentionally running around Central Park-a new form of exercise called "jogging.” (Page 100)

Since Japan lacked a culture of mail order, making such a catalog felt magical and foreign-like Americans.

producing a book of ukiyo-e woodblock prints (Page 106)

thirteen pieces of Abercrombie & Fitch safari-print luggage (Page 106)

pictorial manifesto (Page 107)

While the rustic Americana of Heavy Duty looked very different from the polished Americana of Japan's 1960s Ivy boom, Kobayashi believed that Heavy Duty and Ivy were two sides of the same coin. Both were "systems" of clothing-a wide set of traditional garments worn according to the time, place, and occasion.

Inside the Ivy system, students wore blazers to class, duffle coats in winter, three-button suits to weddings, tuxedos to parties, and school scarfs to football games. Inside the Heavy Duty system, men wore L. L. Bean duck boots in bad weather, mountain boots when hiking, flannel shirts when canoeing, collegiate nylon windbreakers in spring, rugby shirts in fall, and cargo shorts when on the trail. In the introduction to his standalone Heavy Duty Book, Kobayashi wrote, "I call Heavy Duty 'traditional' because it's the outdoor or country part of the trad clothing system. You could even say that it's the outdoor version of Ivy (Page 109)

"Heavy Duty Ivy Party Manifesto." He called for a new hybrid look called "Heavy Duty Ivy" (hebi-ai) (Page 110)

passersby asked them if they had forgotten to take off their life jackets after yachting (Page 112)

cultural milieu-"polo shirts." This sounded insane: in Japan, only middle-aged golfers wore polo shirts. Kobayashi countered that they were the favorite of UCLA and USC students. This convinced Kinameri and Ishikawa, who, right then and there, agreed to focus their new magazines on the athletic lifestyle of West Coast teens. (Page 112)

West Coast teens invented new sports, wore new kinds of clothing, and took up new healthy values (Page 113)

For the debut issue, Popeye editors focused on the accessible sport of skateboarding as a way to turn young readers on to athletics. The magazine's coverage of the California-based skate movement was not just new to Japan but timely even by American standards. Just a year before Popeye's debut issue, Skateboarder magazine re-opened, the legendary Zephyr Productions' "Z-Boys"

team formed in Santa Monica, and the Del Mar Fairgrounds hosted the first major skateboarding tournament since the 1960s. (Page 114)

Then, in 1977, surfer fashion left the beaches and went urban. Thousands of teens in fake tans, tank tops, short shorts, bead belts, and rainbow flip-flops amassed on the streets of Tokyo's Shibuya and Roppongi neighborhoods (Page 115)

This pursuit of profit, however, drained the brand of any cachet. (Page 119)

Yamazaki came to understand that "all cool fashion is delinquent fashion." (Page 125)

Beams F. Inspired in part by the look of affluent teens in California's Newport Beach, Shigematsu stocked brands popular with American college students such as Brooks Brothers, L. L. Bean, and Lacoste. He also discovered a high-end, Massachusetts-based shoe brand called Alden and brought their merchandise to Japan for the first time (Page 152)

famed Ivy League retailer J. Press (Page 152)

Ralph Lauren, Alexander Julian, Alan Flusser, and Jeffrey Banks (Page 153)

Jaeger English luxury knit brand, loved by Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw, (Page 155)

weejuns, L. L. Bean rubber moccasins, Brooks Brothers loafers, Gucci loafers, white bucks, L. L. Bean bluchers, Sperry Top-Siders and canvas deck shoes, Tretorn sneakers, wing tips, and patent leather opera pumps (Page 158)

Novelist William Gibson once wrote that Japanese youth shopping chain PARCO made "Fred Segal on Melrose look like an outlet store in Montana."

In 2010, people around the world snapped up reprints of the rare 1965 Japanese photo collection Take Ivy, a documentary of student style on the Ivy League campuses. The surprising craze for the book helped popularize the idea that the Japanese-like the Arabs protecting Aristotelian physics in the Dark Ages-had safeguarded America's sartorial history while the United States spent decades making Dress Down Friday an all-week affair.

Ametora, the Japanese slang abbreviation of "American traditional."

American clothing felt outmoded and jejune (Page 164)

Note: What is jejune?

. In 1983, twentysix-year-old Kyoto University assistant professor Akira Asada sold eighty thousand copies of his book Structure and Power: Beyond Semiotics-the "first systematic introduction of certain strands in French philosophical thought, starting with a consideration of Lacan and Althusser, and then moving on to an account of Deleuze and Guattari." Not exactly light reading (Page 164)

engineer boots. (Page 168)

Note: What are engineer boots?

. Shibukaji was similar in nature to American Preppy-casual clothing worn by wealthy students naturally imbued with good taste. The teens' supreme selfconfidence, however, ended up convincing the status-obsessed nation that shibukaji was an even more moneyed look than the DC brands (Page 169)

moneyed nonchalance (Page 170)

Note: This is key

simply having the right brands without looking like you actually paid attention to the fashion world. The easy combination of classic American labels, loose-fitting clothing, and sneakers ultimately attracted more people into the apparel market than ever before. (Page 171)

idea for the label and found his concept after watching a TV marathon of the five Planet of the Apes films. He lifted the films' iconic simian faces for the logo and slapped on an English slogan-A Bathing Ape in Lukewater [sic]-borrowed from a line in an underground Takashi Nemoto comic that described an old man "like an ape in a bath of lukewarm water." Nigo whittled down the official brand name to the first three words-A Bathing Ape-and printed up a few T-shirts and jackets in the style of American vintage garments. (Page 179)

Goodenough never strayed from the scale of its founding days, and a decade after its launch, Fujiwara cut all personal ties to the label. Fujiwara made his own fortune on a collaboration with Japanese bag maker Yoshida Kaban, called Head Porter-a series of bags made from the same nylon as American MA-1 flight jackets. Head Porter became the de facto bag, wallet, and fanny pack brand for Ura-Harajuku fans, even with teens who had never heard of Goodenough or Hiroshi Fujiwara. When Head Porter became a national phenomenon, however, the perpetual lone wolf handed off management to a friend. Fujiwara told Theme in 2005, "I didn't really want lots of people working for me, whom I have to take care of. (Page 188)

"The famed traditional Levi's 501, Lee 200, and Wrangler 13MWZ have changed quite a bit in terms of quality. For example, they are economizing on the dyeing process and using cheaper open-end spinning. They successfully increased manufacturing efficiency but have seen a decrease in quality. More was lost than was gained."

But there was not much that Levi's, Lee, and Wrangler could do. From the 1950s on, American jeans makers faced ballooning worldwide demand, which necessitated faster and cheaper production. They worked with textile mills to move away from the slower ring-spun thread to the faster open-end spun variety. This fundamentally changed the way the material absorbed indigo dye. Mills also replaced their fleets of narrow, slow-moving Draper shuttle looms with high-tech projectile looms (Page 199)

Selvedge was a must, but buyers also looked for even older design elements, including real leather patches (used until the mid-1950s), hidden rivets only visible on the inside of the jeans (1937-1966), and a "big E" on the red Levi's logo tag (1936-1969). (Page 200)

"If you ask Japanese brands how they take care of their jeans, they kind of look at you in a funny way: We just wash them... in the washing machine." These stresses about washing denim suggest a peculiar historical reversal: Americans have become just as anxious about wearing their jeans "correctly" as the Japanese were about Western clothing in the 1960s. (Page 218)

This time, however, the industry did not just import the latest in American style; somehow, a Japanese ethos had infused America's "neo-trad." New York designer Thom Browne, with his Right Stuff haircut and cropped gray wool suit, personified the new wave of Americana in the Japanese press (Page 224)

Browne partially intended his aggressive suit silhouette-an extremely short jacket and show of ankle-to shock complacent American men out of sloppy dress. Popeye Editor-in-Chief Takahiro Kinoshita says, "I think Tom's great achievement is showing again how a guy in a suit could look cool." In the 1990s, the United States took on the ignoble distinction of being the First World's most casual country. For many men, dressing poorly became a badge of honor. Suit jackets slumped off the shoulders, and pant cuffs collected in a rippled muddle above the shoe. Ivy League students attended classes in stained sweatpants and flipflops. (Page 224)

Gentlemen looking to relearn the lost art of dressing up headed to Web forums Ask Andy and Styleforum to crowdsource expertise on hem lengths, jacket buttons, and necktie knots. And then Scott Schuman's photo blog "The Sartorialist" came along to provide daily visuals of stylish people on the streets of New York. Facing this knowledge vacuum, the early movers in online menswear media veered towards pedagogy over artistic exploration. Web sites Valet, Put This On, and even GQ.com lectured fashion beginners through numbered lists and concrete steps to explain the assembly of a classic wardrobe. (Page 225)

In this menswear resurgence, America in 2008 uncannily resembled Japan in 1964. During both historical moments, a small autodidactic vanguard fought against social taboos around male interest in clothing (Page 225)

Valet's serious tutorials on garment care and suit fit are nearly identical to things Toshiyuki Kurosu wrote in Men's Club. And in a sense, "The Sartorialist"

is a contemporary version of "Ivy Leaguers on the Street." Of course, these Americans started their media ventures without ever seeing the 1960s Japanese originals, but their mission to evangelize fashion to a heathen population led them to the same methods of proselytization. (Page 225)

May 19, 2008 may be the exact date for that encounter the day when Michael Williams posted a few scans of Take Ivy on his site "A Continuous Lean." Men's fashion blogs were hunting for archival photos of classic collegiate styling and wardrobes, and Take Ivy was a dream come true: documentary evidence of how real American students used to dress in the glory days. The students' slim pants, tweed jackets, skinny ties, and crewneck sweaters perfectly matched the styling on modern blogs. A few months later, menswear blog "The Trad" posted scans of the entire Take Ivy volume. In a flash, the entire world could view the once unknown Japanese book online (Page 226)

When it was rereleased in Spring 2010, the once obscure VAN Jacket project was suddenly everywhere, selling more than fifty thousand copies. The influence went far beyond units moved.

Ralph Lauren and J.Crew stores used Take Ivy in their bookshelf displays. The Gap's one-time designer Rebekka Bay proudly showed her copy to Elle to explain her influences. Take Ivy even made Ivy League students rethink their own clothing: two stu dents at Dartmouth and Princeton founded a brand, Hillflint, just to re-create the graduation-year sweaters seen in the book. (Page 226)

In the twenty-first century, it is now conventional wisdom that the Japanese "do Americana better than Americans." Michael Williams of "A Continuous Lean" declared to his readers after a trip to Tokyo in 2009, "I stick to my belief that menswear in Japan is leaps and bounds ahead of what we get here in the States." (Page 228)

The most popular Japanese title in the U.S. among menswear enthusiasts was Free & Easy-a "Dad's Style" magazine devoted to "rugged" traditional American clothing for older men. (Page 230)

Toshiyuki Kurosu explains: "Ivy is a lot like tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet). It was originally German but now it's just part of Japanese cuisine. You serve it with rice and miso soup and eat it with chopsticks. I think Ivy is becoming like tonkatsu. It may have originally come from America 60 years ago, but after 60 years of being in Japan, it's been arranged to better fit us." The Japanese at first shortened the words "American traditional" to Ametora, but now an entire set of Ametora practices stands as its own separate tradition.

So what makes Ametora distinct from the original? Both Japanese and foreign observers commonly point to a specific set of characteristics-ruledriven, studied, gender-normative, and high quality. Many assume these traits are extensions of the Japanese national character, but most of the quirks can be traced to the specific historical circumstances in which American style entered the country. (Page 231)

For example, why have the Japanese been so interested in fashionarguably far beyond other cultural fields? As Japanese teens built their own youth culture, they always prioritized fashion up over music, automobiles, furniture, and cuisine. Masayuki Yamazaki's Garage Paradise failed as a furniture shop but boomed as a clothing store, and there were always more faux oka fashion surfers than real surfers. As a start, urban consumers did not need nice interior goods because no one entertained in their cramped apartments. And between a lack of facilities and little free time from work, sports have not been a major part of adult life. By contrast, fashion worked well with the busy, crowded Tokyo lifestyle.

United Arrows' founder and Honorary Chairman Osamu Shige1 explains, "Clothes have always had the highest return on investment because, unlike other kinds of culture, they're seen by others, and the Japanese care a lot about that. Clothes can express personal identity and also act as a communication tool." (Page 231)

American college students in the 1960s-whether Ivy-styled fraternity members or radical hippies-looked to their peers for clues on the "right" things to wear. No one needed to verbalize the rules. As fashion critic Shōzo Izuishi points out, "There's no 'Dictionary of Trad' in America, because you have older brothers, fathers, and grandfathers."

But to help Japanese teens start being stylish from scratch, VAN Jacket and Men's Club needed to take these unspoken precepts and turn them into explicit commandments. Kensuke Ishizu admitted in the 1980s, "When Ivy was introduced to Japan, we had to really drill the rules into people, because they had absolutely no knowledge about fashion. I am partly responsible for the fact that Ivy became taught in the style of 'You must do this." Ishizu's students, however, were not always cognizant of this alteration to Ivy culture; they just came to believe that rules were integral to the fashion experience.

Strict, rule-based fashion then incentivized followers to build up comprehensive knowledge (Page 232)

This all came crashing down in the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

As the public lost its appetite for vulgar displays of wealth, fashion editors needed something practical, something classic. As illustrator Kazuo Hozumi says, "If no one knows what is in style, they always come back to Ivy and Trad." (Page 233)

Japan has a base of production. Europe doesn't really have that. In Japan, you'll find someone with 200 yards of khaki twill and a factory that can make the material into pants, and they will be perfectly made." Japanese brands are able to prioritize high-quality garments, because, for the last seventy years, there have been craftsmen who can create those high-quality garments.

And consumers are willing to pay. (Page 233)

"Japanese people read magazines as their bibles, and when they see images in them they have to have them and will pay anything. Generally, Japanese people can't make up their own minds and have to have an example to follow. (Page 234)

this tendency towards organized mimicry is even seen among delinquent subcultures: the bōsōzoku started imitating Eikichi Yazawa from Carol, and, by the early 1990s, all wore identical right-winginspired tokköfuku uniforms. (Page 234)

students learn the basics by imitating the kata, a single authoritative "form." Pupils must first protect the kata, but after many years of study, they break from tradition and then separate to make their own kata-a system described in the term shu-ha-ri ("protecting, breaking, and separating"). (Page 235)

"It's sad, but in Japan culture and fashion aren't linked. It's just floating above without any connection. Fashion is supposed to come from a lifestyle, but most Japanese don't try to understand that." Yasuhiko Kobayashi once compared Japanese fashion to "dress-up dolls"-systems of clothing put together for fun in a predictable way that can be put on and taken off without any deep meaning.

While these criticisms often ring true, this superficiality hearkens back to the fact that they are imported styles. By virtue of their foreign origin, any corresponding lifestyle must follow from the clothing rather than vice versa. Fashion thus became an expressive form of play in Japan. (Page 237)

Pointer Brand (Page 238)

Note: What is this?

Nakamura started a shoe line in 2002 that fused high-tech American sneakers with Native American moccasins. As he expanded visvim into a full clothing line, he became the Indiana Jones of the apparel world, uncovering heavy wool coats in Tibet, reindeer-skin boots from Norway's Sami tribe, colorful folk art in Guatemalan villages, hand-dye blankets on Navajo reservations, and kudu pelts in Africa. He incorporated these elements not just as visual design but studied age-old techniques to pick up clues on bolstering functionality.

Visvim customers do not just pay for the high costs of premium materials, but for the "story" sewn into every product (Page 238)

selvedge jeans to loopwheeled sweatshirts and button-down oxford cloth shirts (Page 243)

Instead you would go to Japan's Tailor Caid." The man behind Caid, Yuhei Yamamoto, fell in love with the "clean and sharp" look of American men in early 1960s TV shows such as Bewitched. Unable to get his hands on similar suits in Tokyo, he embarked on a twelve-year apprenticeship with the legendary Boston Tailor, which had once outfitted U.S. military officers on the Yokota Air Base. Yamamoto now suits up a steady cohort of Japanese trad fans, as well as foreign devotees such as musician Nick Waterhouse. Beyond Caid's olive-green chino suits and navy doublebreasted "Newport jackets," Yamamoto's bespoke shirts breathe new life into nearly moribund Ivy details, including a wider box pleat, back-collar buttons, and a perfect collar roll. Caid's frequent trunk shows at menswear boutique The Armoury in Tribeca allow Yamamoto to outfit young New Yorkers like New Yorkers of yore. (Page 245)

Rocky Mountain Featherbed.

Topwin, a company run by Japanese men in Torrance, California, resurrected the defunct Cincinnati sportswear line, Velva Sheen, to manufacture a line of basic T-shirts. (Page 246)

The way we think about clothing follows the postmodern Japanese vision, where anyone can mix and match anything from any era, and authenticity is proven through reverence to older production methods rather than creation within the original communities. (Page 253)

Tyler Brûlé of Monocle has spoken of Japan as a place that retains what other countries have lost: "Japan has somehow held on to, not just Japanese traditions, but everything that happened in the postwar period.... You still feel like you're walking onto a stage set. Everything is done exquisitely and perfectly."

The consumers are getting older. People don't need so much product. They want to have something that has meaning and lasts long

What I’m stealing

1. Quality sells itself

2. Control circumstances by accumulating a surplus

3. Read oddly and broadly

4. Sell to “The Big Man”

5. There is no going back to the simple life except as a broken man

6. All products must be seasoned in the market

7. There are more wrong times to sell to a man than right times

8. A company must have one head and only one

9. Business is made of details. Success is the sum of detail.

10. Is it necessary? Can it be simplified?

11. Embody the kind of energy which does not know when it is licked — spirited and resilient

12. The commercial instinct has been over-rated. The service instinct is more important.

Commentary

This is the second book in chronological order from the Poor Charlie’s Almanack recommended reading list. I flew through this one and absolutely loved the chapters recounting his yearly camping excursion with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. What a bunch of beauties.

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

Take Mr. Ford. He knows every necessary detail of the far-flung Ford Industries; he always knows what is going on, but he never attends to the execution of details. He does not waste time in dictating and signing notes and letters, or in seeing people whom it is not necessary for him to see; he delegates all this to others. He has assigned no executive duties whatsoever to himself—in fact, he does not even have a desk. He has only a few friends and no social obligations at all, and so he keeps himself free to think and to plan and to watch. (Location 86)

Mr. Edison’s whole life has been devoted to training his mind to concentrated thinking. He will work for hours and days without food or sleep, and he can do this because he has so trained his mind that it shuts out everything excepting the specific problem before him. (Location 110)

A business is not a business until it has been hardened by fire and water. (Location 164)

Thinking is not required all the way down the line in business. The difficulty is to pick out the men who can and will think and get them into the positions where thought is needed. (Location 192)

Having a surplus is the greatest aid to business judgment that I know—and I bitterly know what I am talking about, for I went through years of upbuilding without being able to accumulate a surplus. Then, when I gained one, I saw it completely wiped out and turned into a deficit overnight. A man with a surplus can control circumstances, but a man without a surplus is controlled by them and often he has no opportunity to exercise judgement. (Location 228)

Most of the farmers round about worked hard—they were the kind that got up before dawn and sat around to start with the first clear light. My father was not this kind of a worker; he was not a hard worker as was commonly known on a farm. My two brothers—Elmer and Robert J.—and I had to work, but we were not driven, and I have no unpleasant memories of grinding away on a farm. Ours was not that sort of a farm. My father seemed to know how to manage and plan so that there were no real rush seasons, excepting, of course, at harvest. And, in consequence, there was probably more work actually done about our farm than on any other thereabouts, for my father farmed thoroughly. He always fertilized a little more than his fellows; he harrowed just a little better; in every farm operation, he used just a little more care than did the others, and, consequently, his crops were always just a little bit better. The farm was always neat and clean—on rainy days I well remember that we had the steady job of cleaning out around the fences, where on the ordinary farm weeds and rubbish are allowed to collect. (Location 239)

As I grew older, I usually went with him on his trips to buy or sell cattle or sheep, and it was a whole course in trading to watch him at work. First he saw the whole market and heard what everyone had to offer or say—saying almost nothing himself. He often told me: “Never rush in on a deal. Let it come to you.” That is the course he followed, and by the time he was ready to trade, he knew the whole market. If his survey convinced him that the market was not a good one either to buy or to sell in, he simply went home again. (Location 255)

This insight is why I believe anyone who is working a salaried job should learn how to trade in the stock market. It's a huge source of alpha to be in a position where you aren't forced to make a trade to keep the lights on. Bide your time and bet big when the trade lines up like the bars on slot machine.

in a day when few farmers read anything, he was a wide reader and accumulated a large fund of knowledge, which is one of the reasons why he was a good farmer. (Location 269)

I notice that when all a man’s information is confined to the field in which he is working, the work is never as good as it ought to be. A man has to get a perspective, and he can get it from books or from people—preferably from both. (Location 270)

The proprietor of the big store was busy—but he had plenty of time to listen to my story and to find out if he could make money out of what I had to sell. From that time onward, I have never found it worthwhile to bother with thoroughly little fellows for, realizing their weakness, they are always on the defensive, while a larger man will listen to what you have to say and be quick to grasp any money-making opportunities you may have to offer. By a “big man” I do not mean the man who has a big business—he may be just on his way to having a big business. But unless a man on the first approach shows signs of wanting to make money, it is a waste of time to try to convince him that he ought to buy. You may, if you persist, eventually sell to the suspicious man, but I have not found that it pays to make the effort—the returns are not commensurate with the work involved. Thereafter, when I entered a town, I always tried the largest and not the smallest store first. (Location 383)

It is the duty of management to provide so good a product and then to let people know so thoroughly about it that any man of reasonable intelligence can go out and sell it. (Location 425)

Quality sells itself.

Sometimes it seems that it might be better to go back to those simpler days, that one might get more out of a less complex life. But it cannot be done. One changes with prosperity. We all think we should like to lead the simple life, and then we find that we have picked up a thousand little habits which we are quite unconscious of because they are a part of our very being—and these habits are not in the simple life. There is no going back—except as a broken man. (Location 494)

The first product, no matter how thoroughly it has been thought out, has to be seasoned in the market. (Location 571)

By this agreement we were to organize a company with a capital of $50,000. I put in $10,000 in cash and my option on the tire business of the company for which I received an additional $15,000 worth of stock. The other group put in $10,000 in cash and the Sweinhart patent, and received an additional $15,000 in stock, which gave us a working capital of $20,000. I was to be manager of the company at a salary of $3,000 a year with a bonus of $600 if the company earned 20 percent or more on its issued capital stock during the first year. (Location 664)

Roughly 100k salary with a 20k bonus in todays dollars

There are more wrong times to sell to a man that there are right times, and if I ever should write a book on salesmanship I should give about one third of the book to the topic “Common Sense.” I have been buttonholed thousands of times by salesmen who, if they had just exercised a grain of common sense, would have known that, while the moment might be a very good one in which to make my acquaintance, it was no time at all to persuade me buy anything. (Location 713)

I find that a working foreman usually has a better control over his men than a non-worker, because he has to be continually on his mettle to demonstrate that he is a better workman than any of them, and also he does not ask them to do the unreasonable things which some foremen will insist on. (Location 766)

It was not the pay that attracted these men to us or made them work. They got only from ten to fifteen cents an hour, which was the prevailing rate. I have never found that pay alone would either bring together or hold good men. I think it was the game itself that drew these men; we were a little company fighting among big companies, and we were all together in the fight. (Location 768)

This is especially true in these days when luxuries so rapidly become necessities. An executive is the better off for having a comfortable desk and chair and a convenient place to work, and there is no reason why surroundings should not be good looking rather than ugly, but an office is essentially a place in which to work. It is not a club and it ought not to be fitted up as a club—else it may turn into a club. (Location 780)

The public is always willing to pay for quality. (Location 834)

Quality sells itself.

We had an employee by the name of George Ludington, who felt that he could succeed where the others had failed. I went to work with him, and we developed an absolutely practical tire which we sold in rolls to be cut off and made into tires by the dealer. The technical details of just how we did this are not interesting. (Location 852)

A big change was coming over the tire industry. It was one that I had to be in on, and yet, for the moment, I saw no way of getting in. (Location 880)

Note: Inventing your own destruction

There is always a better way of doing everything than the way which is standard at the moment. It is a good thing for a man to be pushed into finding that better way. (Location 940)

Settling disputes through the law has never appealed to me as a pastime. Lawsuits are not only extremely expensive, but they do not and cannot settle anything which could not be better and more quickly settled through putting all the cards on the table and having a frank talk. (Location 992)

Before hiring a man, I like to talk to him in a general way—to talk a little about everything and nothing, and to find out what sort of a human being he is. (Location 1102)

The biggest thing in business is to be working and planning ahead—planning ahead for production, for sales, for new developments in the art, for money, for sources of supply. The business of the day is, of course, highly important, for unless today’s business be looked after, there will be no tomorrow’s business to bother about. But unless one can see and plan for a year or two ahead, one’s business will not grow evenly and naturally. (Location 1180)

Most of the work was on my shoulders. I entirely managed the finances, supervised the production, and had the direction of even much of the detail of sales. I had not learned much about managing myself. The management of one’s self, which gets down to controlling one’s own time and distinguishing the important from the unimportant, comes only from experience. (Location 1277)

But the really big problem was management. The business was already too large for me to look after alone, and yet I did not believe and never have believed in what is called “delegation.” I hold that, if anything in the business is wrong, the fault is squarely with management. If the tires are not made right, if the workmen are unhappy, if the sales are not what they ought to be, the fault is not with the man who is actually doing the job, but with the men above him and the men above them, so that, finally, the fault is mine. That is my conception of business. (Location 1301)

Extreme ownership

A company must have one head and only one, and he must be the real executive head. The board of directors can advise on policies, but it cannot run the business, and, anyway, policies never make a business successful. (Location 1305)

I have great respect for the written word, but no amount of writing will take the place of action. (Location 1308)

I know of only one first-class policy. It runs: “Use what common sense you can under the circumstances.” (Location 1311)

I began gradually to work out some method by which I could know the details—for any business is made of details—and still not be swamped by them. Success is the sum of detail. (Location 1316)

I know of no better way of fooling one’s self than writing interoffice communications and asking for reports. A man can keep himself busy that way all day long and completely satisfy his conscience that he is doing something worthwhile. (Location 1327)

I was responsible, for I let the business get away from me in the easiest of all fashions—by thinking of an organization as something of itself instead of as a means of getting work done quickly and well. (Location 1338)

The financial affairs are as easily disposed of, for I find that if I continually know these items, I know pretty well what the whole business is doing: Sales. Profit and loss. Plant investment. Relation of quick assets to current liabilities. (Location 1403)

That is the trouble with a plan, especially a carefully considered plan. We are so likely by tacking the name ‘‘plan’’ on what is only a guess to give more dignity and weight to the plan than it deserves. On the other hand, without any plan at all, the necessary constructions and improvements cannot be made in the most economical fashion and, above all, the money requirements cannot be arranged for in advance. (Location 1411)

The first question I always ask myself when looking at any operation—whether in the shops or in the office—is this: Is it necessary? (Location 1458)

If I do find a process or operation necessary, then I ask: Can it be simplified? (Location 1465)

Note: Simple is above genius, see also Musk’s secret sauce.

I want to keep to the fundamentals of manufacturing, which get down to: Is it necessary? Can it be simplified? (Location 1591)

The Firestone Park Land Company furnishes homes to employees on easy payment plans. This activity was begun in 1916. At that time, the population of Akron had so far exceeded the existing housing facilities that employees found it difficult to get satisfactory places to live. To meet this situation, we bought 1,000 acres southeast from the factories to be used for building homes, and named the tract “Firestone Park.” (Location 1741)

I am informed that we are the only large company in the world in which every employee has a stock interest. (Location 1764)

Every change we made in sales methods brought results—and proved the new method. We did not know that we would have shown as startling an increase had we abolished our whole sales force, closed all our branches and dealers, and just sent out our tires in freight cars to be thrown off on sidings and taken away by clamouring buyers. Many of us imagined what was happening, but our pride would not let us admit the true condition, and hence the sales department had the leisure to devise fancy trappings for itself. In ordinary times, one has to get along with things far short of the ideal, but in those days we had to have absolute perfection. (Location 2025)

These Akron organizations compared and competed with one another, and I shudder to think of the clerical wages and good white paper that was wasted by them in showing in their several ways how good they were. (Location 2037)

If a mistake be made, it is our mistake and it does not help anyone to put in time hiding it. A fair part of the time of the big, complex organization is spent in steering the effects of mistakes into other departments, and instead of an error being corrected, it is kept in the air. Our present system is not a system at all. It is direct, personal, day-by-day contact. (Location 2056)

It is more important for a salesman to be able to sell exactly the right tire and to explain why he is selling it than to be able to make a tire. (Location 2188)

then, successful business is never conducted on rules; it is conducted on principles put into effect by human energy—by the kind of energy which does not know when it is licked. (Location 2223)

Spirited and resilient

“That was a fine trip you gave us. John Muir would have called it a glorious trip. You arranged the weather just right and you begot in all of us the true holiday spirit. We were out on a lark and our spirits soared and sang like larks most of the time. My health had been so precarious during the summer that I feared I could not stand more than two or three days of the journey, but, as it turned out, the farther I went the farther I wanted to go. I drank in health and strength every hour. The doctors think that, as we grow old, there is great remedial power in mechanical vibrations. I think the vibrations of a motor car over the good state roads on a trip to the Adirondacks with such a company in it as we had beats all other appliances. But the vibrations or convulsions set up in the diaphragm by the stories around the camp fire at night beat even that, or at least supplement it in a most effective way. (Location 2330)

“Such a trip is a very sane and hygienic way of spending a brief vacation, especially if you keep clear of houses and hotels as we did, and have so well-organized an expedition as we had. The thought of it and the joy of it and the good of it stay with one for many a day. (Location 2359)

A keen and competent government official, we all agreed; whether Republican or Democrat, who cared? In such times as these party lines do not count. We are only loyal and patriotic American citizens. (Location 2422)

A timely and timeless sentiment

He looks like a poet, and conducts his life like a philosopher. No poet ever expressed himself through his work more completely than Mr. Ford has expressed himself through his car and his tractor engine they typify him—not imposing, nor complex, less expressive of power and mass than of simplicity and adaptability and universal service. (Location 2511)

“He is a good camper-out and turns vagabond very easily. He can go with his hair uncombed and his clothes unbrushed as long as the best of us. He eats so little that I do not think he was tempted by the chicken roosts or turkey flocks along the way, nor by the corn fields and apple orchards, as some of us were. But there can be no doubt about his love for the open air and for wild nature. He can rough it week in and week out and be happy. (Location 2525)

High dividends may be a sign of strength, but more often they are a sign of heedless management. (Location 2618)

At the Burroughs place we had a big, brigand steak that we cooked and ate outdoors in a driving snow. We cooked it in the best of all ways to cook steak, and if you do not know the way, here is the recipe. Select a straight, green limb and sharpen the end, then cut the steak into slices and slip them over the wooden skewer with bits of bacon between the slices, and broil it over an open fire. (Location 2677)

The commercial instinct has been over-rated. The service instinct is more important. (Location 2683)

None of us cares about money excepting as it helps us to carry out plans for larger and better service. And so, perhaps, Mr. Burroughs was not so different from us after all. (Location 2686)

Ford’s interest in antiques is not just a form of amusement. Of course he does enjoy collecting, and at Dearborn he has an immense collection of antiques, but he has two purposes. First, he wants to see the designs of the old articles, for he has an eye to beauty; and, second, he wants people to know just what life was a hundred years or more ago. And in addition to this, it is his thought that a good idea lives forever, and he wants to examine the things of the past to see what they contained in the way of good ideas. (Location 2762)

Go it alone. Do not fail to try because someone has already tried and failed. (Location 2790)

No business, no matter what its size, can be called safe until it has been forced to learn economy and rigidly to measure values of men and materials. (Location 2798)

Situations are only as impossible as one makes them. (Location 2932)

What I’m stealing

1. Be frugal in your daily existence

2. Pursue idiosyncratic forms of alpha

3. Cultivate or force periodic seasons of idleness, isolation, boredom

4. Captain “the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth”

5. Avoid “publik amusements”

6. Strive for virtuosity, not perfection

7. Imitate Jesus and Socrates “The most acceptable service of God is doing good to man”

8. Capitalize on the “little advantages that occur every day.”

9. Resist idleness “scour the anchor.”

10. Don't give too much for the whistle

Commentary

This was an unanticipated joy to read. I tore through it. Ben Franklin is funny, and I was fascinated by his recounting of what life was like nearly three hundred years ago.

Boredom and Idleness - the amount of boredom and idle time the average person endured in comparison to modern life was substantial. Thinking on this, I suspect most of one's time was occupied with the various tasks required for survival. Tending to one’s home, kids, farm, livestock, procuring fuel for stoves and fires, preparing meals, etc. If there was any downtime, the average person was likely chatting with a neighbor, playing a crude instrument, drinking alcohol, attending mass, or reading one of but a few readily available books. The options for how to spend one’s time were unbelievably limited by comparison to modern standards. I suspect that Ben Franklin was one of the rare few people of the time who seemed to grasp that boredom was a key ingredient to productivity.

This gave me occasion to observe, that, when men are employ'd, they are best content'd; for on the days they worked they were good-natur'd and cheerful, and, with the consciousness of having done a good day's work, they spent the evening jollily; but on our idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their pork, the bread, etc., and in continual ill-humour, which put me in mind of a sea-captain, whose rule it was to keep his men constantly at work; and, when his mate once told him that they had done everything, and there was nothing further to employ them about, "Oh," says he, "make them scour the anchor. (Page 95)

Large families - See bordom and idleness. My thought is that large families were common in this era because child-rearing was a desirable way to occupy one’s time. Humans tend to want to create when they are bored and idle, and creating life is perhaps the most primal form of creation our species is capable of.

Religion - I found it interesting that Ben Franklin was not particularly religious. When he did attend a service he recounts how well the person in the pulpit orates. He never once mentions the substance of the sermon but only the effectiveness with which the orator could enrapture the attention of the masses that gathered. I think what Franklin is attempting to share is that he developed his ability as an effective orator himself by attending and replicating the best orators of his time, who just happened to be preachers.

He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words and sentences so perfectly, that he might be heard and understood at a great distance, especially as his auditories, however numerous, observ'd the most exact silence. He preach'd one evening from the top of the Courthouse steps, which are in the middle of Market-street, and on the west side of Second-street, which crosses it at right angles.

Both streets were fill'd with his hearers to a considerable distance. Being among the hindmost in Market-street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could be heard, by retiring backwards down the street towards the river; and I found his voice distinct till I came near Front-street, when some noise in that street obscur'd it. Imagining then a semicircle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that it were fill'd with auditors, to each of whom I allow'd two square feet, I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand. (page 67)

The highly communal nature of society - It struck me that so much of Ben Franklin’s early success was due to the charitable nature and willingness of complete strangers to open their homes to him for meals and boarding. This societal nature is largely out of existence, in my view. How many Ben Franklin approximates are out there that are snuffed out just because this type of community support is lacking?

Delays and inconveniences - I suspect this was not uncommon during the time period, but in comparison to our current modern infrastructure, Franklin was frequently plagued by delays relating to either equipment and supplies for his business and letters being lost or delayed by weeks or months. He was frequently given the run around by older, more powerful men, resulting in his having to start from scratch on multiple occasions throughout his life. He partnered with men of questionable virtues as he had no other options. During his travels he was forced to wait weeks for ships to depart after traveling inconvenient distances to get to where the ship was leaving from. Once aboard ships, they were frequently lost, subject to inclement weather, causing significant delay, or off course, and landed at a location other than intended.

Access to books and education - I think this is a bit of a double-edged sword as I suspect that books in particular, while harder to come by, were of much higher quality. In modern times, with our infinite access to books and information, we have a much higher probability of picking up a mediocre book that might be considered a waste of time.

Slow Productivity - (see also Delays and Inconveniences above) Franklin’s list of accomplishments and useful abilities rivals or exceeds that of our modern-day productivity archetype. During a time period when all aspects of life moved exponentially slower.

Frugality - frugal in his regular everyday expenditures so he could be generous and bet big when the opportunities presented themselves.

Abstinence - entertainment, alcohol, meat, were a few that I noticed he mentioned repeatedly.

BF is an OG meal prepper - Franklin arranged for lunches to be cooked and delivered to his place of work this has always been a significant source of alpha.

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

At his table he liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend or neighbor to converse with, and always took care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which might tend to improve the minds of his children (Page 4)

He therefore sometimes took me to walk with him, and see joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers, etc., at their work, that he might observe my inclination, and endeavor to fix it on some trade or other on land. It has ever since been a pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their tools; and it has been useful to me, having learnt so much by it as to be able to do little jobs myself in my house when a workman could not readily be got, and to construct little machines for my experiments, while the intention of making the experiment was fresh and warm in my mind. (Page 6)

Plutarch's Lives there was in which I read abundantly, (Page 7)

But I had another advantage in it. My brother and the rest going from the printinghouse to their meals, I remained there alone, and, dispatching presently my light repast, which often was no more than a bisket or a slice of bread, a handful of raisins or a tart from the pastry-cook's, and a glass of had the rest of the time till their return for study, in which I made the greater progress, from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating and he paid for my the water, drinking. (Page 8)

Socrates confuted his opponents in argument by asking questions so skillfully devised that the answers would confirm the questioner's position or show the error of the opponent (Page 13)

Note: Footnote 21

So convenient a thing is it to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do. (Page 22)

who had from me a list of forty dishes, to be prepar'd for us at different times, in all which there was neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, and the whim suited me the better at this time from the cheapness of it, not costing us above eighteenpence sterling each per week (Page 23)

Note: Og meal prepper.

At my first admission into this printing-house I took to working at press, imagining I felt a want of the bodily exercise I had been us'd to in America, where presswork is mix'd with composing. I drank only water; the other workmen, near fifty in number, were great guzzlers of beer. On occasion, and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands. They wondered to see, from this and several instances, that the Water-American, as they called me, was stronger than themselves, who drank strong beer! We had an alehouse boy who attended always in the house to supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom; but it was necessary, he suppos'd, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labour. I endeavoured to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread; and therefore, if he would eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that muddling liquor, an expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under. (Page 29)

Note: Always under

Perhaps the most important part of that journal is the plan to be found in it, which I formed at sea, for regulating my future conduct in life. It is the more remarkable, as being formed when I was so young, and yet being pretty faithfully adhered to quite thro' to old age. (Page 34)

Note: The advantages of being “at sea”

Mr. Denham took a store in Water-street, where we open'd our goods; I attended the business diligently, studied accounts, and grew, in a little time, expert at selling. (Page 34)

Note: Another seller

truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life; and I form'd written resolutions, which still remain in my journal book, to practice them ever while I lived (Page 37)

I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of the preceding year, I had form'd most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement, which was called the JUNTO; we met on Friday evenings. The rules that I drew up required that every member, in his turn, should produce one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discuss'd by the company; and once in three months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties. (Page 38)

This was another advantage gain'd by my being able to write. (Page 44)

Note: Another writer

reading became fashionable; and our people, having no publick amusements to divert their attention from study, became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observ'd by strangers to be better instructed and more intelligent than people of the same rank generally are in other countries (Page 47)

I therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight, and as they thought lovers of reading. In this way my affair went on more sanity, and I ever after present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid. If it remains a while uncertain practis'd it on such occasions; and, from my frequent successes, can heartily recommend it. (Page 48)

This library afforded me the means of improvement by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two each day, and thus repair'd in some degree the loss of the learned education my father once intended for me. (Page 48)

"He that would thrive, must ask his wife." (Page 48)

I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made the world, and govern'd it by his Providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter. These I esteem'd the essentials of every religion; and, being to be found in all the religions we had in our country, I respected them all, tho' with different degrees of respect, as I found them more or less mix'd with other articles, which, without any tendency to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, serv'd principally to divide us, and make us unfriendly to one another (Page 48)

all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral principle was inculcated or enforc'd, their aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens. (Page 49)

My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, (Page 51)

a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance (Page 55)

In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order; and now I am grown old, and memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the whole, tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, tho' they never reach the wish'd-for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the endeavour, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible. (Page 55)

I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix'd opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present (Page 56)

"That the great affairs of the world, the wars, revolutions, etc., are carried on and effected by parties.

"That the view of these parties is their present general interest, or what they take to be such.

"That the different views of these different parties occasion all confusion.

"That while a party is carrying on a general design, each man has his particular private interest in view.

"That as soon as a party has gain'd its general point, each member becomes intent upon his particular interest; which, thwarting others, breaks that party into divisions, and occasions more confusion. (Page 56)

the essentials of every known religion, and being viz.:

free of everything that might shock the professors of any religion. It is express'd in these words, "That there is one God, who made all things.

"That he governs the world by his providence.

"That he ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving.

"But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man.

B. F."

"That the soul is immortal.

"And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here or hereafter." (Page 57)

members should engage to afford their advice, assistance, and support to each other in promoting one another's interests, business, and advancement in life; that, for distinction, we should be call'd The Society of the Free and Easy (Page 57)

This is another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says, "He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged." (Page 63)

I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of his oratory made me asham'd of that, into the collector's dish, gold and all. (Page 66)

Note: Who is this Mr Whitefield character?

That, as as described in it, we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously. (Page 74)

The orator acknowledg'd the fault, but laid it upon and then endeavoured to excuse the rum by saying, "The Great Spirit, who made all things, made everything for some use, and whatever use he design'd anything for, that use it should always be put to. Now, when he made rum, he said, 'Let this be for the Indians to get drunk with,' and it must be so." And, indeed, if it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the sea-coast (Page 78)

Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. (Page 81)

disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them. (Page 85)

This gave me occasion to observe, that, when men are employ'd, they are best content'd; for on the days they worked they were good-natur'd and cheerful, and, with the consciousness of having done a good day's work, they spent the evening jollily; but on our idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their pork, the bread, etc., and in continual ill-humour, which put me in mind of a sea-captain, whose rule it was to keep his men constantly at work; and, when his mate once told him that they had done everything, and there was nothing further to employ them about, "Oh," says he, "make them scour the anchor. (Page 95)

Don't give too much for the whistle (Page 117)

What I’m stealing

1. The number one thing that leaders have to do is bolster the confidence of the people they’re leading

2. Consistency is better than perfection

3. The core of any business must be the curiosity and desire to meet a customer’s unarticulated and unmet needs

4. Cultural change is not a program with a start and end date. It’s a way of being.

5. Learning about a shortcoming is a thrilling moment. The person who points it out has given the gift of insight

6. To be a leader, your job is to find the rose petals in a field of shit

7. Bring clarity to those you work with by synthesizing the complex. Take internal and external noise and synthesize a message from it

8. Be the curator of culture

Opinion

I read this at the behest of a work mentor. Nothing revelatory, but I do appreciate how well Nadella is able to articulate and communicate his leadership philosophy. Definitely something to strive for in my own career.

I thought this was a unique and useful insight regarding how to position AI:

When history was made at Kitty Hawk, it was man with machine—not man against machine. Today we don’t think of aviation as “artificial flight”—it’s simply flight. In the same way, we shouldn’t think of technological intelligence as artificial, but rather as intelligence that serves to augment human capabilities and capacities.

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

I discovered Buddha did not set out to found a world religion. He set out to understand why one suffers. I learned that only through living life’s ups and downs can you develop empathy; that in order not to suffer, or at least not to suffer so much, one must become comfortable with impermanence. (Location 185)

I knew that to lead effectively I needed to get some things square in my own mind—and, ultimately, in the minds of everyone who works at Microsoft. Why does Microsoft exist? And why do I exist in this new role? These are questions everyone in every organization should ask themselves. I worried that failing to ask these questions, and truly answer them, risked perpetuating earlier mistakes and, worse, not being honest. (Location 264)

My master’s thesis was about developing the best heuristics to accomplish complex graph coloring in nondeterministic polynomial time, or NP-complete. In other words, how can I solve a problem that has limitless possibilities in a way that is fast and good but not always optimal? Do we solve this as best we can right now, or work forever for the best solution? Theoretical computer science really grabbed me because it showed the limits to what today’s computers can do. It led me to become fascinated by mathematicians and computer scientists John Von Neumann and Alan Turing, and by quantum computing, which I will write about later as we look ahead to artificial intelligence and machine learning. And, if you think about it, this was great training for a CEO—nimbly managing within constraints. (Location 396)

The first principle is to compete vigorously and with passion in the face of uncertainty and intimidation. (Location 538)

a second principle is simply the importance of putting your team first, ahead of your personal statistics and recognition. (Location 547)

third is the central importance of leadership. (Location 555)

It’s about bringing out the best in everyone. It was a subtle, important leadership lesson about when to intervene and when to build the confidence of an individual and a team. I think that is perhaps the number one thing that leaders have to do: to bolster the confidence of the people you’re leading. (Location 562)

My approach has never been to conduct business as usual. Instead it’s been to focus on culture and imagine what’s possible. (Location 567)

But it is impossible to be an empathetic leader sitting in an office behind a computer screen all day. An empathetic leader needs to be out in the world, meeting people where they live and seeing how the technology we create affects their daily activities. (Location 587)

Steve Jobs understood what the soul of a company is. He once said that “design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” (Location 919)

I became convinced that the new CEO of Microsoft needed to do several things very well right away, during the first year. Communicate clearly and regularly our sense of mission, worldview, and business and innovation ambitions. Drive cultural change from top to bottom, and get the right team in the right place. Build new and surprising partnerships in which we can grow the pie and delight customers. Be ready to catch the next wave of innovation and platform shifts. Reframe our opportunity for a mobile- and cloud-first world, and drive our execution with urgency. Stand for timeless values, and restore productivity and economic growth for everyone. (Location 1010)

“consistency is better than perfection.” (Location 1025)

Amy helped to translate the mission and ambitions into language and goals investors needed to hear. She helped, for example, shape the goal to build a $20 billion cloud business, something investors grabbed on to and tracked quarter after quarter. It took us from a defensive frame amid falling PC and phone share to an offensive mindset. We went from deflection to ownership of our future. (Location 1186)

But as management guru Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” (Location 1191)

Culture can be a vague and amorphous term. In his perceptive book, Culture, the literary theorist Terry Eagleton wrote that the idea of culture is multifaceted, “a kind of social unconscious.” With razor precision, he separates culture into four different meanings, but the most relevant for an organization is the values, customs, beliefs, and symbolic practices that men and women live and breathe each day. Culture is made up of acts that become habitual and accrue to something coherent and meaningful. (Location 1202)

Culture is how an organization thinks and acts, but individuals shape it. (Location 1208)

we learned that empathy is essential to deal with problems everywhere, whether at Microsoft or at home; here in the United States or globally. That is also a mindset, a culture. (Location 1228)

It takes deliberate work, and it takes some specific ideas about what the culture should become. It also requires dramatic, concrete actions that seize the attention of team members and push them out of their familiar comfort zones. (Location 1297)

First, we needed to obsess about our customers. At the core of our business must be the curiosity and desire to meet a customer’s unarticulated and unmet needs with great technology. There (Location 1306)

We need to be insatiable in our desire to learn from the outside and bring that learning into Microsoft, while still innovating to surprise and delight our users. (Location 1310)

Second, we are at our best when we actively seek diversity and inclusion. (Location 1312)

Finally, we are one company, one Microsoft—not a confederation of fiefdoms. Innovation and competition don’t respect our silos, our org boundaries, so we have to learn to transcend those barriers. We are a family of individuals united by a single, shared mission. It is not about doing what’s comfortable within our own organization, it’s about getting outside that comfort zone, reaching out to do things that are most important for customers. (Location 1318)

I talked about these ideas every chance I got. (Location 1329)

And I looked for opportunities to change our practices and behaviors to make the growth mindset vivid and real. Part of the culture change was to give people the breathing room, the space, to bring their own voices and experiences to the conversation. The last thing I wanted was for employees to think of culture as “Satya’s thing.” I wanted them to see it as their thing, as Microsoft’s thing. (Location 1329)

Because I’ve made culture change at Microsoft such a high priority, people often ask how it’s going. Well, I suppose my response is very Eastern: We’re making great progress, but we should never be done. It’s not a program with a start and end date. It’s a way of being. (Location 1356)

When I learn about a shortcoming, it’s a thrilling moment. The person who points it out has given me the gift of insight. It’s about questioning ourselves each day: Where are all the places today that I had a fixed mindset? Where did I have a growth mindset? (Location 1358)

I told these high-potential leaders that once you become a vice president, a partner in this endeavor, the whining is over. You can’t say the coffee around here is bad, or there aren’t enough good people, or I didn’t get the bonus. “To be a leader in this company, your job is to find the rose petals in a field of shit.” (Location 1527)

The first is to bring clarity to those you work with. This is one of the foundational things leaders do every day, every minute. In order to bring clarity, you’ve got to synthesize the complex. Leaders take internal and external noise and synthesize a message from it, recognizing the true signal within a lot of noise. I don’t want to hear that someone is the smartest person in the room. I want to hear them take their intelligence and use it to develop deep shared understanding within teams and define a course of action. Second, leaders generate energy, not only on their own teams but across the company. It’s insufficient to focus exclusively on your own unit. Leaders need to inspire optimism, creativity, shared commitment, and growth through times good and bad. They create an environment where everyone can do his or her best work. And they build organizations and teams that are stronger tomorrow than today. Third, and finally, they find a way to deliver success, to make things happen. This means driving innovations that people love and are inspired to work on; finding balance between long-term success and short-term wins; and being boundary-less and globally minded in seeking solutions. (Location 1534)

One way to explain the logic is by turning to game theory, which uses mathematical models to explain cooperation and conflict. (Location 1589)

When I became CEO, I sensed we had forgotten how our talent for partnerships was a key to what made us great. (Location 1642)

Employees. Customers. Products. Partners. Each element needs time, attention, and focus if I’m going to create the value for which I am ultimately accountable. All four are important, and without discipline even the best managers can overlook one or more. Employees and products command attention every day, as they are closest to us; customers provide the resources we need to do anything, so they also command energy. But partners provide the lift we need to soar. They help us see around corners, help us locate new opportunities we might not see alone. (Location 1776)

reality, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. These technologies will inevitably lead to massive shifts in our economy and society. (Location 1796)

Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash popularized the term metaverse, envisioning a collective virtual and shared space. David Gelernter wrote Mirror Worlds, foreseeing software that would revolutionize computing and transform society by replacing reality with a digital imitation. (Location 1834)

The effect is transfer learning, and it’s seen not only in human intelligence but also (Location 1989)

But there are “musts” for humans, too—particularly when it comes to thinking clearly about the skills future generations must prioritize and cultivate. To stay relevant, our kids and their kids will need:

EMPATHY—Empathy, which is so difficult to replicate in machines, will be invaluable in the human-AI world. The ability to perceive others’ thoughts and feelings, to collaborate and build relationships will be critical. If we hope to harness technology to serve human needs, we humans must lead the way by developing a deeper understanding and respect for one another’s values, cultures, emotions, and drives.

EDUCATION—Some argue that because life spans will increase, birth rates will decline, and thus spending on education will decline as well. But I believe that to create and manage innovations we cannot fathom today, we will need increased investment in education to attain higher level thinking and more equitable education outcomes. Developing the knowledge and skills needed to implement new technologies on a large scale is a difficult social problem that will take a long time to resolve. The power loom was invented in 1785 but took thirty-five years to transform the clothing industry because of shortages of trained mechanics.

CREATIVITY—One of the most coveted human skills is creativity, and this won’t change. Machines will enrich and augment our creativity, but the human drive to create will remain central. In an interview, novelist Jhumpa Lahiri was asked why an author with such a special voice in English chose to create a new literary voice in Italian, her third language. “Isn’t that the point of creativity, to keep searching?”

JUDGMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY—We may be willing to accept a computer-generated diagnosis or legal decision, but we will still expect a human to be ultimately accountable for the outcomes. (Location 2615)

When history was made at Kitty Hawk, it was man with machine—not man against machine. Today we don’t think of aviation as “artificial flight”—it’s simply flight. In the same way, we shouldn’t think of technological intelligence as artificial, but rather as intelligence that serves to augment human capabilities and capacities. (Location 2661)

The most profound difference between leaders is whether they fear or embrace new technology. It’s a difference that can determine the trajectory of a nation’s economy. (Location 2713)

Are we growing, are we growing evenly, and what is the role of technology? There is, of course, no silver bullet, but as I consider all of the evidence and reflect on my own experiences, I keep returning to this simplified equation: ∑ (Education + Innovation) × Intensity of Tech Use = Economic Growth Education plus innovation, applied broadly across the economy and especially in sectors where the country or region has a comparative advantage, multiplied by the intense use of technology, over time, produces economic growth and productivity. (Location 2832)

Leaders at every level—from national to community-level—should foster not just fast but intense adoption of new technologies that can drive productivity. (Location 2852)

German system of vocational training through apprenticeship, which makes cutting-edge technologies available to the workforce quickly through vocational schools that have close relationships with industry. (Location 2868)

An inspiring idea in this context is the notion of a charter or startup city, an idea put forth by economist Paul Romer. (Location 2888)

The way I look at it, multinationals can no longer be the memes they’ve become—soulless, bloodless entities that enter a nation or a region simply to take rent from the locals. The job of a multinational is more important than ever. It needs to operate everywhere in the world, contributing to local communities in positive ways—sparking growth, competitiveness, and opportunity for all. How can we help our local partners and startups grow? How can we help the public sector become more efficient? How can we help solve the most pressing issues in society, like access to education and health? (Location 3005)

The priority of a global company should be to operate in each of these countries with the goal of creating local opportunity in long-term, sustainable ways. (Location 3010)

Finally, as leaders, what is our role? At the end of the day, leaders of any company are evaluated based on their ability to grow the business, to clear the way for innovations that inspire customers. As CEOs, we’re accountable for generating the best returns to shareholders. But I also subscribe to the notion that the bigger a company is, the more responsibility its leader has to think about the world, its citizens, and their long-term opportunities. (Location 3031)

the C in CEO is about being the curator of culture. (Location 3042)

This culture needs to be a microcosm of the world we hope to create outside the company. One where builders, makers, and creators achieve great things. (Location 3049)

Cornet, Manu. “Organizational Charts.” Bonkers World, June 27, 2011. Accessed December 8, 2016. http://www.bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts/. (Location 3096)

Gordon, Robert J. The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016. (Location 3097)

These notes were created during my reading process to aid in my own understanding and were not written for the purpose of instruction or summarization. With that said, I get super excited to discuss ideas contained within, but rarely (read never) do I encounter anyone reading the same stuff. I’ve decided to share these unedited notes on the off chance they attract a shared excitement to discuss or are perhaps helpful to other readers. Feel free to ask questions and interact. Enjoy!

Opinion

Neuromancer is the sci-fi book I’ve been searching for. It was so good I really didn’t want to critique it while reading. I wanted to bask in the neon glow of the Sprawl in lock-step with Case and Molly. After finishing this book, I had to do a little digging to see what others had thought and find out more about the author, William Gibson.

Turns out Gibson was not a scientist, technologist, or futurist. However, what he had in spades was capital C coolness.

The most exciting aspect of the whole book is that it is unendingly cool. It isn’t hard sci-fi that maps perfectly to the bounds of reality. It’s whimsical and unconstrained by anything except “how cool would it be if.” For example, Molly, the famed bodyguard assassin, is described as having surgically implanted neurological enhancements that make her into a seemingly unbeatable killing machine.

Gibson’s staccato prose flit across the page as if he were under the influence of the amphetamines (he very well may have been) his cast of characters readily consume as they navigate the Sprawl. Gibson’s Neuromancer is essentially upstream of all the contemporary sci-fi narratives, including Star Trek and Star Wars. Reading this felt like an origin story for a cultural phenomenon I had taken for granted.

Gibson created a genre, language, and culture. Jack Womack mentions in the afterward that:

For if Gibson in truth had nothing to do with the making of cyberpunk as it came to be known (he didn't create it, didn't name it, and after it was cursed with its catchy monicker, didn't want a whole lot to do with it), in the most genuine sense he did create cyberspace. Not merely the word (see the OED); the place.

Gibson coined the term “cyberspace” and is the progenitor of the cyberpunk aesthetic. He referred to the “matrix” 40 years before Neo graced the big screen. Here’s Womack again:

When Neuromancer appeared it was picked up and devoured by hundreds, then thousands, of men and women who worked in or around the garages and cubicles where what is still called new media were, fitfully, being birthed; thousands who, on reading his sentence as quoted above, thought to themselves, That's so fucking cool, and set about searching for any way the gold of imagination might be transmuted into silicon reality…

Once a creation goes out in the world its creator, like any parent, loses the control once so easily exertable over the offspring; another variety of emergent behavior, you could say. That's so fucking cool, man-I think we can pull it off. So rather than the theoretical Matrix, we now, thanks to all those beautiful William Gibson readers out there in the dark, have the actual Web-same difference, for all intents and purposes, or it will be soon enough.

It’s not hard to imagine young capital “N” nerds like Jobs or Gates or Lucas reading this and saying to themselves, “I think we can pull this off.”

What I’m stealing

Reading this was a reminder to make, create, and seek out things just for the sake of them being cool. Coolness has been devalued in our contemporary culture, and I, for one, am ready to see it return.

Supplemental

Deathburger

Justin Murphy on Neuromancer

Best futurists ever: How William Gibson’s Neuromancer shaped our vision of technology

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

Part 1

Chapter 1

• The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel (Page 3)

• In an age of affordable beauty, there was something heraldic about his lack of it. (Page 3)

• her upper lip like the line children draw to represent a bird in flight. (Page 9)

• It's like I know you. That profile he's got. I know how you're wired." (Page 33)

Chapter 2

• He wondered briefly what it would be like, working all your life for one zaibatsu. Company housing, company hymn, company funeral. (Page 42)

Part 2

Chapter 3

• He knew this kind of room, this kind of building; the tenants would operate in the interzone where art wasn't quite crime, crime not quite art. (Page 48)

• burgundy nails. (Page 49)

• Armitage was no taller than Case, but with his broad shoulders and military posture he seemed to fill the doorway. He wore a somber Italian suit; in his right hand he held a briefcase of soft black calf. The Special Forces earring was gone. The handsome, inexpressive features offered the routine beauty of the cosmetic boutiques, a conservative amalgam of the past decade's leading media faces. The pale glitter of his eyes heightened the effect of a mask. Case began to regret the question (Page 49)

Chapter 5

• With half a dozen chips in his new socket, Smith's knowledge of the art business was formidable, (Page 80)

• their high heels like polished hooves (Page 83)

Chapter 7

• the car's gray ultrasuede. (Page 94)

Part 3

Chapter 8

• Aerol tells you it happened, well, it happened to him. It's not like bullshit, more like poetry. Get it?" (Page 115)

Chapter 9

• cracked leather holster fastened beneath the desk with silver tape. It was an antique, a .357 Magnum with the barrel and triggerguard sawn off. The grip had been built up with layers of masking tape. The tape was old, brown, shiny with a patina of dirt (Page 127)

Chapter 10

• Now he saw that their tans were uneven, a stencil effect produced by selective melanin boosting, multiple Shades overlapping in rectilinear patterns, outlining and highlighting musculature; the girl's small hard breasts, one boy's wrist resting on the white enamel of the table. They looked to Case like machines built for racing; they deserved decals for their hairdressers, the designers of their white cotton ducks, for the artisans who'd crafted their leather sandals and simple jewelry (Page 137)

Part 4

Chapter 16

• TA's main problems is that every family bigwig has riddled the banks with all kinds of private scams and exceptions. Kinda like your immune system falling apart on you. Ripe for virus. (Page 207)

Chapter 17

• he'd never really thought of anyone like Ashpool, anyone as powerful as he imagined Ashpool had been, as human.

• Power, in Case's world, meant corporate power. The zaibatsys, the multinationals that shaped the course of human history, had transcended old barriers. Viewed as organisms, they had attained a kind of immortality. You couldn't kill a zaibatsu by assassinating a dozen key executives; there were others waiting to step up the ladder, assume the vacated position, access the vast banks of corporate memory. (Page 217)

• "How's it go, Dixie?"

  • "Fine. Too slick. Thing's amazing... Shoulda had one that time in Singapore. Did the old New Bank of Asia for a good fiftieth of what they were worth. But that's ancient history. This baby takes all the drudgery out of it. Makes you wonder what a real war would be like, now.

    • "If this kinda shit was on the street, we'd be out a job' Case said. (Page 218)

Chapter 18

• studied nonchalance of a Regency duelist.

• It was a performance. It was like the culmination of a lifetime's observation of martial arts tapes, cheap ones, the kind Case had grown up on. For a few seconds, he knew, she was every bad-ass hero, Sony Mao in the old Shaw videos, Mickey Chiba, the whole lineage back to Lee and Eastwood. She was walking it the way she talked it. (Page 227)

Chapter 22

• "Selective destruction of the cells of the substantia nigra (Page 269)

Afterward

• He gave me a copy of Cormac MeCarthy's Blood Meridian. (Page 297)

• Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (Page 302)

• For if Gibson in truth had nothing to do with the making of cyberpunk as it came to be known (he didn't create it, didn't name it, and after it was cursed with its catchy monicker, didn't want a whole lot to do with it), in the most genuine sense he did create cyberspace. Not merely the word (see the OED); the place.

• Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation. (Page 294)

• When Neuromancer appeared it was picked up and devoured by hundreds, then thousands, of men and women who worked in or around the garages and cubicles where what is still called new media were, fitfully, being birthed; thousands who, on reading his sentence as quoted above, thought to themselves, That's so fucking cool, and set about searching for any way the gold of imagination might be transmuted into silicon reality. Now Gibson's imagined future cannot by any means be called optimistic (nor, in truth, can it be called pessimistic-it is beyond both); more to the point, he has often said that he intended "cyberspace" to be nothing more than a metaphor. No matter. Once a creation goes out in the world its creator, like any parent, loses the control once so easily exertable over the offspring; another variety of emergent behavior, you could say. That's so fucking cool, man-I think we can pull it off. So rather than the theoretical Matrix, we now, thanks to all those beautiful William Gibson readers out there in the dark, have the actual Web— same difference, for all intents and purposes or it will be soo n enough (Page 296)

These notes were created during my reading process to aid in my own understanding and were not written for the purpose of instruction or summarization. With that said, I get super excited to discuss ideas contained within, but rarely (read never) do I encounter anyone reading the same stuff. I’ve decided to share these unedited notes on the off chance they attract a shared excitement to discuss or are perhaps helpful to other readers. Feel free to ask questions and interact. Enjoy!

Opinion

I’m glad for this to have found me at what feels like an appropriate time in life. Emerson’s ideas are inspiring and a must-read for anyone pursuing creative work. In particular, I appreciate how Emerson defines genius.

I also appreciate his views on striving earnestly…

What I’m stealing

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Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

The sentiment they instill is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, that is genius. (Page 18)

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firma ment of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another. (Page 19)

no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. (Page 19)

The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs. (Page 20)

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. (Page 22)

I have difficulty detect the precise man you are: and of course so much force is withdrawn from your proper life. But do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. A man must consider what a blindman's-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument. (Page 22)

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day-'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.'-Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. (Page 23)

Your genuine action will explain itself and will explain your other genuine actions.

Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now. Greatness appeals to the future. (Page 24)

Honor is venerable to us because it is no ephemera. It is always ancient virtue. We worship it to-day because it is not of to-day. We love it and pay it homage because it is not a trap for our love and homage, but is self-dependent, selfderived, and therefore of an old immaculate pedigree, even if shown in a young person.

I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency.

Let the words be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. Instead of the gong for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spartan fife. Let us never bow and apologize more. A great man is coming to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him; I wish that he should wish to please me. I will stand here for humanity and though I would make it kind, I would make it true. Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom and trade and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history, that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working wher ever a man works; that a true man belongs to no other time or place, but is the centre of things. (Page 24)

Kingdom and lordship, power and estate, are a gaudier vocabulary than private John and Edward in a small house and common day's work; but the things of life are the same to both; the sum total of both is the same (Page 25)

When private men shall act with original views, the lustre will be transferred from the actions of kings to those of gentlemen (Page 25)

If we live truly, we shall see truly. (Page 27)

The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act. "What we love that we have, but by desire we bereave ourselves of the love." (Page 29)

and if we follow the truth it will bring us out safe at last. (Page 30)

A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not 'studying a profession, for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. (Page 31)

and that the moment he acts from himself, tossing the laws the books, idolatries and customs out of the window, we pity him no more bu thank and revere him; and that teacher shall restore the life of man t splendor and make his name dear to all history. (Page 31)

Insist on yourself; never imitate. (Page 34)

Every great man is a unique (Page 34)

What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinking American, with a watch, a pencil and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and the naked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat and an undivided twentieth of a shed to sleep under! But compare the health of the two men and you shall see that the white man has lost his aboriginal strength. If the traveller tell us truly, strike the savage with a broad axe and in a day or two the flesh shall unite and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch, and the same blow shall send the white to his grave. (Page 34)

It is curious to see the periodical disuse and perishing of means and machinery which were introduced with loud laudation a few years or centuries before. The great genius returns to essential man. (Page 35)

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. (Page 36)

Opinion

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What I’m stealing

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Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

The code said: GET RID OF MEANING. YOUR MIND IS A NIGHTMARE THAT HAS BEEN EATING YOU: NOW EAT YOUR MIND. (Page 103)

Note: Cybergothic (Acker)

The short-term is already hacked by the long-term. The medium-term is reefed on schizophrenia. The long-term is canceled. (Page 104)

Note: Cybergothic

A moment of relief. You had thought the goreflick effectively over, the monster finished amongst anatomically precise ketchup-calamity scenes, when — suddenly — it reanimates; still locked on to your death. If you are going to scream, now is the time. (Page 105)

• Note: I feel like I’m reading a description of the video played in the trippy tunnel in the original Willy Wonka movie. Where they are traveling down chocolate river on the paddle wheel boat.

"[V]irtual is opposed to actual. It is not opposed to real, far from it" (Deleuze and Guattari). The virtual future is not a potential present further up the road of linear time, but the abstract motor of the actual, "an actual-virtual circuit on the spot, and not an actualization of the virtual in accordance with a shifting actual"

(Deleuze and Guattari). Time produces itself in a circuit, passing through the virtual interruption of what is to come, in order that the future which arrives is already infected, populated: "[I]t's just a tailored hallucination we all agreed to have, cyberspace, but anybody who jacks in knows, fucking knows it's a whole universe. And every year it gets a little more crowded" (Deleuze and Guattari). (Page 108)

We will need a more robust, flexible approach.... It seems that we can build nanomachines that act somewhat like the white blood cells of the human immune system: devices that can fight not just bacteria and viruses, but dangerous replicators of all sorts.

(Drexler) (Page 110)

• Note: The ever-present battle of survival being waged within the closed circuit of each human body will eventually be externalized as we create new forms of adaptive intelligent life. The micro scaled up to macro. The internal complexity and chaos are externalized. Life force escaping the confines of mammalian flesh. Humanity will be forced into becoming a replica of our body’s natural immune system. Survival will once again be an all-consuming priority.

Count Zero rigorously formulates cybergothic interlock, condensing the digital underworld onto the black mirror. (Page 114)

• Note: Curious if Nick Land’s writing is the basis for the show.

Why read? Because you can know, intimately, only a very few people, and perhaps you never know them at all.

Opinion

I’m really torn on this reading. Had it not been for the book club, I don’t suppose I would have ever picked up this book, let alone read it cover to cover. I found this book frustrating in a variety of ways. The language is academic, highfalutin, and unnecessarily difficult. I hadn’t read any of the selected works, so I couldn’t challenge Bloom’s critiques, and on top of that, he doesn’t spoiler alert anything. So if you like going into a book without any pre-judgment or knowledge of how things transpire, this will ruin a few for you. The poetry chapters were by far the most challenging to work through. I consider the selection of poems to be extremely challenging, I had to keep a dictionary handy in order to comprehend the prose. On the other hand, there is something truly aspirational in the vastness of Bloom’s literary expertise. I quite enjoyed the conviction with which he writes. Several of us, during the discussion, agreed a more fitting title would have been What to Read and Why. Lastly, I appreciated this book because I think it gave me a point of reference for what expert literary criticism looks, sounds, and feels like. I believe after reading this, I have leveled up as a reader and re-reader.

What I’m stealing

1. Reading well is best pursued as an implicit discipline

2. We read, frequently if unknowingly, in quest of a mind more original than our own.

3. Search for a difficult pleasure

4. One needs to overhear characters as well as hear them

5. Pay particular attention to intensity of response

6. When reading poetry, commit to memory whenever possible, read slowly, and read or recite aloud

7. A prime reason why we should read is to strengthen the self

8. Read in search of characters we can absorb into our own story

9. Give up easier pleasures for more difficult pleasures

10. Quarreling frequently and robustly, befits two strong personalities who know who they are

11. Clear our mind of "cant."

12. Close converse with a good companion leads more readily to self-reflection, and consequent psychic alteration

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found? (Page 19)

Reading well is best pursued as an implicit discipline; (Page 19)

Her best advice is to remind us that "there is always a demon in us who whispers, 'I hate, I love,' and we cannot silence him." I cannot silence my demon, in this book anyway I will listen to him only when he whispers, "I love," as I intend no polemics here, but only to teach reading. (Page 20)

Note: Advice from Virginia Woolf

You need not fear that the freedom of your development as a reader is selfish, because if you become an authentic reader, then the response to your labors will confirm you as an illumination to others. (Page 24)

We read, frequently if unknowingly, in quest of a mind more original than our own. (Page 25)

Yet the strongest, most authentic motive for deep reading of the now much-abused traditional canon is the search for a difficult pleasure. (Page 29)

Chekhov's artistry is never more mysterious than here, where it is palpable yet scarcely definable. (Page 41)

Note: Anton

Chekhov

Gorky says of Chekhov that he was "able to reveal in the dim sea of banality its tragic humor." It sounds naïve, and yet Chekhov's greatest power is to give us the impression, as we read, that here at last is the truth about human existence's constant blend of banal misery and tragic joy. Shakespeare was Chekhov's (and our) authority on tragic joy, but the banal does not appear in Shakespeare, even when he writes travesty or farce. (Page 41)

Note: Anton Chekhov

Short stories favor the tacit; they compel the reader to be active, and to discern explanations that the writer avoids. The reader, as I have said before, must slow down, quite deliberately, and start listening with the inner ear. Such listening overhears the characters, as well as hearing them; think of them as your characters, and wonder at what is implied, rather than told about them. (Page 66)

Note: Summary Observations - Short Stories

short story writers refrain from moral judgments (Page 66)

Note: Summary Observations - Short Stories

we read the two schools differently, questing for truth with Chekhov, or for the turning-inside-out of truth with the KafkanBorgesians (Page 67)

Note: Summary Observations - Short Stories

Our energies of response are different in quality, but they are equally intense. (Page 67)

Note: Intensity of response is useful heuristic to cultivate.

but something in poets likes to manifest its creative exuberance by packing much into little. By "visionary" I mean a mode of perception in which objects and persons are seen with an augmented intensity that has spiritual overtones (Page 72)

Note: Poems - William Blake

I have arrived at a first crux in how to read poems: wherever possible, memorize them. (Page 73)

Note: Poetry

Poems can help us to speak to ourselves more clearly and more fully, and to overhear that speaking. (Page 79)

Note: Poetry - Reoccurring theme is “overhearing”

Poetry, Mill implies, is also overheard rather than heard. (Page 79)

Note: Poetry - Overhearing creates an intimacy or a knowing of the author or character. Like eavesdropping on an internal monologue?

I maintain, a prime reason why we should read is to strengthen the self, then both Whitman and Dickinson are essential poets. (Page 89)

Note: Poetry

The shock of overhearing yourself is that you apprehend an unexpected otherness. (Page 89)

Note: Poetry - overhearing

"I" is the "Myself" of Song of Myself, or Whitman's poetic personality. "The other I am" is the "Me myself," his true, inner personality. (Page 91)

Note: Poetry - this exemplifies the difficulty in reading poetry

Whitman knows his poetic persona very well, since (according to Vico) we know only what we ourselves have made. His inner self or "real me" he also knows, astonishingly well when we reflect how few among us have such knowledge. (Page 91)

Note: Poetry - Walt Whitman

We learn explicitly by reading Whitman what so many Americans seem to know implicitly, that the American soul does not feel free unless it is alone, or "alone with Jesus," as our evangelicals put it. (Page 91)

Note: Poetry - Whitman

Brontë (Page 94)

Note: Poetry - the coolest name in all of literature

She read the Bible pretty much as she read Shakespeare and Dickens, in search of characters she could absorb into her own drama. (Page 95)

Note: Poetry - Emily Dickenson

Many traditions tell us it is unsafe to maintain erotic mourning for longer than a year, and "The Unquiet Grave" memorably enforces such wisdom: just one day too much, and the lost beloved is startled out of her sleep. (Page 103)

Note: Poetry - “The Unquiet Grave”

after a year and a day, mourning is dangerous to the survivor and troublesome to the dead. (Page 103)

Note: Poetry - “Unquiet Grave”

Try chanting the poem aloud, repeatedly. Its surging power is deeply energizing for the attentive reader, and I strongly recommend the poem for memorization. (Page 107)

Note: Poetry - reading aloud and chanting/repeating

He takes a subject or a story merely as pegs or loops to hang thought and feeling on. (Page 121)

Note: Poetry - William Wordsworth

The poet Shelley, who was in some respects Wordsworth's involuntary disciple, once defined the poetic Sublime as an experience that persuaded readers to give up easier pleasures for more difficult pleasures. Since the reading of the best poems, stories, novels, and plays necessarily constitutes more difficult pleasure than most of what is given to us visually by television, films, and video games, Shelley's definition is crucial to this book. (Page 122)

Note: Poetry

Sublime began to mean a visible loftiness in nature and art alike, with aspects of power, freedom, wildness, intensity, and the possibility of terror. (Page 122)

Note: Poetry - on the evolution of the meaning of sublime

I hope that the reader will go on to the remainder of this torso of a poem without me, remembering always to slow down and read very slowly, and preferably out loud, whether to oneself or to others. (Page 134)

Note: Poetry - slowly and out loud

Updated: Jul 13, 2023

The reader will be reminded that all great poetry should be read aloud, whether in solitude or to others. (Page 139)

Note: Poetry - repeating sentiment

Refreshingly, they quarrel frequently and robustly, as befits two strong personalities who know who they are. (Page 145)

Shakespeare's women are capable of maintaining authentic friendships with one another, but not his men. Sometimes this seems to me as true of life as of Shakespeare, or is it another instance of Shakespeare's influence upon life? (Page 146)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Miguel Cervantes: Don Quixote- what are authentic friendships?

Open the book at random, and you are likely to find yourself in the midst of one of their exchanges, angry or whimsical, but ultimately always loving, and founded upon mutual respect. Even when they argue most fiercely, their courtesy is unfailing, and they never stop learning from listening to the other. And by hearing, they change. (Page 146)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Miguel Cervantes: Don Quixote

Cervantes, like Shakespeare, will entertain any reader, but again like Shakespeare he will create a more active reader, according to the reader's capabilities. (Page 149)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Miguel Cervantes: Don Quixote

Why read Don Quixote? It remains the best as well as the first of all novels, just as Shakespeare remains the best of all dramatists.

There are parts of yourself you will not know fully until you know, as well as you can, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. (Page 150)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Miguel Cervantes: Don Quixote

passion, even when it kills, is a mode of play (Page 150)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Stendhal: The Charterhouse of Parma

What makes the Charterhouse wonderful for the reader is how much unmixed affection is inspired in us by the style and panache of Gina and Fabrice, of Clélia and Mosca. They delight us all: they have admirable pride, verve, honor, authentic lust, and a superb sprezzatura: they truly are Stendhal's unhappy/happy few, whom he can commend to the happy few, ourselves as his readers.

Stendhal bravely addresses us as if we were Henry V's cohorts at Agincourt, about to be led on to glory. (Page 152)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Stendhal: Charterhouse Parma

A profound ironist, who employs her irony to refine aspects of Shakespeare's invention of the human. (Page 156)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Jane Austen: Emma (emphasis on Shakespeare’s invention of the human)

The strong selves of her heroines are wrought with a fine individuality that attests to Austen's own reserves of power. Had she not died so soon, she would have been capable of creating a Shakespearean diversity of persons, despite her narrowly, deliberately limited social range of representation. She had learned Shakespeare's most difficult lesson: to manifest sympathy towards all of her characters, even the least admirable, while detaching herself even from her favorite, Emma. (Page 158)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Jane Austen: Emma

Ideological cheerleading does not necessarily nurture great, or even good, readers and writers; instead it seems to malform them. (Page 159)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Jane Austen: Emma

Like Johnson, though far more implicitly, Austen urges us to clear our mind of "cant." "Cant," in the Johnsonian sense, means platitudes, pious expressions, groupthink. Austen has no use for it, and neither should we. Those who now read Austen "politically" are not reading her at all. (Page 159)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Jane Austen: Emma

A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations is grand public entertainment. It joins Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Emma, and a round dozen of Shakespeare's plays, as works certain to survive our ongoing Information Age, and not just as film or television. We will go on reading Great Expectations as we will continue to read Hamlet and Macbeth: (Page 163)

archetype of all those young women, in fiction or in actuality, who are pragmatically doom-eager because they seek complete realization of their potential while maintaining an idealism that rejects selfishness (Page 176)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady

sexual jealousy, the most aesthetic of all psychic maladies (Page 184)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time

The Magic Mountain will find it a novel of gentle high seriousness, and ultimately a work of great passion, intellectual and emotional. (Page 189)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain

Why read? Because you can know, intimately, only a very few people, and perhaps you never know them at all. After reading The Magic Mountain you know Hans Castorp thoroughly, and he is greatly worth knowing. (Page 191)

Castorp is intensely interested in everything, in all possible knowledge, but knowledge as a good in itself. Knowledge is in no way power for Castorp, whether over others or himself; it is in no way Faustian.

Hans Castorp is enormously valuable for readers in the year 2000 (and beyond) because he incarnates a now archaic but always relevant ideal: the cultivation of self-development until the individual can realize all of her or his potential. Eagerness to confront ideas and personalities combines in Hans with remarkable spiritual stamina; never merely skeptical, he is also never overwhelmed. (Page 191)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain

Cervantine, where close converse with a good companion leads more readily to self-reflection, and consequent psychic alteration (Page 194)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Summary Observations

You do not read Don Quixote or In Search of Lost Time for the plot, but for the progressive development of the characters and for the gradual unfolding, indeed the revelation, of the author's vision. (Page 196)

Note: Novels, Part 1 - Summary Observations

Now Hamlet has also become the representation of intelligence itself, and that is neither Western nor Eastern, male nor female, black nor white, but merely the human at its best, because Shakespeare is the first truly multicultural writer.

One learns from Shakespeare that self-overhearing is the prime function of soliloquy. (Page 205)

Note: Plays - William Shakespeare: Hamlet

The importance of being Earnest (the name that both Gwendolen and Cecily desire for a husband), as Wilde knows but does not tell us, is that earnest (or Ernest) goes back to the Indo-European root er, which means to originate. To be earnest is to be original, (Page 226)

Note: Plays - Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest

Wilde might have titled his best play: The Importance of Being Insouciant, except that, as we have seen, the secret meaning of earnest for Wilde was to originate. To be original was to lie, but to lie insouciantly, in the interest of art. (Page 229)

Note: Plays - Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest

He is American through and through, fierce in his desire to avenge himself, but always strangely free, probably because no American truly feels free unless he or she is inwardly alone. (Page 238)

Note: Novels, Part 2 - Herman Melville: Moby-Dick

Does this grand invention retain more than antiquarian interest, particularly here in the United States, where Jews, Protestants, and Catholics begin to blend together in what I have called "the American Religion," an indigenous national faith that I suspect we do not yet begin to understand? (Page 279)

Note: Epilogue - Completing the Work

Terms to define:

quatrains

obstreperous, cockle, spurge, penury, calcine, colloped, presage, fell cirque, mews, mad brewage, rood, palsied, dotard, nonce, knelled. (Page 81) Note: Poetry - Tom O’Bedlam Define these terms.

exegetes, “florabundance” (Page 89)

phantasmagoria (Page 108)

terza rima (Page 130)

Commentary

What I’m stealing

Supplemental Resources

Dog ears, highlights, marginalia

• You hear a lot about gunfights in Westerns; you don’t hear so much about hauling up the water after a perineal tear. But both acts are equally part of the story, the history, of the courage it took to settle America’s frontier. (Location 217)

• being given an opportunity to explore, to discover, a whole new world when you were already in your forties, as Ina and I were: that wasn’t a sacrifice; being able to do that was a privilege, exciting. The two of us remember those years as a thrilling, wonderful (Location 224)

• about my work and how I do it: how I do research in documents; how I report, either on the scene or by interviewing; how I write. (Location 240)

• “Turn Every Page” (Location 297)

  • “Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamned page.” (Location 411)

  • Three of the editors took me to the Four Seasons or some other fancy restaurant, and basically said they could make me a star. Bob Gottlieb at Knopf said, “Well, I don’t go out for lunch, but we can have a sandwich at my desk and talk about your book.” So of course I picked him. (Location 514)

• Robert Moses (Location 518)

  • Although many other plans had been conceived for the waterfront, this immense public work would be built by him—in 1937, almost a quarter of a century after the ferry ride. And (Location 619)

  • When I did find them—to be more accurate, when we found them: Ina, the only researcher I had on The Power Broker (and the only researcher I have had on all my books), and I each tracked down several of the farmers or their children—I didn’t learn anything new about the Kahn-Moses transaction. (Location 1000)

    • Note: Rach would make an incredible Ina

  • ineluctable (Location 1041)

  • To really show political power, you had to show the effect of power on the powerless, and show it fully enough so the reader could feel it. (Location 1055)

  • Note: The importance of contrast

  • Carbon Footprint Conversation between Robert A. Caro and John R. MacArthur, marking the fortieth anniversary of The Power Broker (Location 1089)

• Sanctum Sanctorum for Writers (Location 1154)

  • the most fundamental reason for the feeling of unreality: that I had, for five years, been living in a world utterly unpopulated by anyone else who was doing what I was doing. (Location 1178)

  • The cafeteria setting could hardly have been more grubby—or more gratifying. The talk was often about problems of research and writing: about the mysteries of our craft, our shared craft. Suddenly, just by being given a desk in the Allen Room, I had been made to feel a part of the community of writers. (Location 1242)

  • all the years since Alan Hathway had given me that first piece of advice—“Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamned page”—I had never forgotten it; it was engraved in my mind. (Location 1294)

  • They were going to need him. “Gratitude,” I was to write, “is an emotion as ephemeral in Washington as elsewhere but…not merely gratitude but an emotion perhaps somewhat stronger and more enduring—self-interest—dictated that they be on good terms with him.” (Location 1464)

• Tricks of the Trade (Location 1951)

  • silence is the weapon, silence and people’s need to fill it—as long as the person isn’t you, the interviewer. (Location 1952)

  • have little devices they use to keep themselves from talking, and let silence do its work. (Location 1953)

  • “What did you see? What did you see?” My interviewees sometimes get quite annoyed with me because I keep asking them “What did you see?” “If I was standing beside you at the time, what would I have seen?” I’ve had people get really angry at me. But if you ask it often enough, sometimes you make them see. (Location 2425)

  • And then you also ask—another question that over the years has gotten more people angry at me than I could count—“What did you hear?” (Location 2434)

• makes the reader feel what you feel about his importance, his fascination as a character, as a human being. (Location 2610)

• INTERVIEWER: Do you work from nine to five? CARO: I generally get up around seven or so, and I walk to work through Central Park outlining the first paragraphs that I’m going to write that day. But the thing is, as you get into a chapter, you get wound up. You wake up excited—I don’t mean “thrilled” excited but “I want to get in there,” so I get up earlier and earlier. I work pretty long days. If I’m doing research, I can have lunch with friends, but if I’m writing, I have a sandwich at my desk. The guy I order from at the Cosmic Diner, John, he knows my voice. (Location 2730)

• When are you going to deliver? So it’s easy to fool yourself that you’re really working hard when you’re not. And I’m naturally lazy. So what I do is—people laugh at me—I put on a jacket and a tie to come to work, because when I was young, everybody wore jackets and ties to work, and I want to remind myself that I’m going to a job. I have to produce. (Location 2739)