not just random

A while ago I came across The Effort Effect in which Guy Kawasaki talks about Carol Dweck’s article by the same title and mentions her book Mindset.

I purchased the book soon after it became available and managed to finally read it this past week. It is easily the book which has had the most impact on me of all the books I have read this year. I have been intrigued by the concepts of being in the zone, cultivating flow, being in the moment, being goal oriented and embracing the process in between. Cultivating practice for the sake of practice. Mindfulness. Concepts really that have impact in all kinds of areas of life, ranging from personal relationships to athletic performance, hobbies and career.

I have also been puzzling over why some people would resist change. Sure, change can be hard. But why the resistance. What if they knew they needed to change? What, if they know what they needed to change, too?

This book has a lot of answers as well as explaining the above concepts in convincing terms. It basically comes down to mindsets. Fixed mindsets and growth mindsets.

Reading this book, I repeatedly found myself thinking back to times in the past and I would find explanations to behaviors that either led me to success or led me to shy away from challenges. I am still digesting.

Stuck in a fixed mindset, failure is to be avoided at all cost. This means that effort is often avoided as well. “If we need to try so hard, we’re probably not smart/talented/capable/etc. enough.”

In a growth mindset, effort is A Good Thing. “If we don’t have to try, then we probably don’t learn either.” Hard problems become welcome challenges and not simply opportunities for failure.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

I recently read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.

The author was able to build up considerable buzz before the book’s release via his blog as well as other public appearances. There is a podcast of his presentation at SXSW available online.

The book is about the author’s lessons in life style design and include some of the following concepts:

• Elimination of unneeded activities
• Applying of the 80/20 rule to increase productivity/profits.
• Usage of virtual assistants to outsource various activities
• Working remotely
• Taking advantage of currency differences
• etc.

There are a lot of interesting, useful ideas here. Not all of them are for everyone of course and not all occupations are very well suited here. How are you going to convince your supervisor that you can work at home, if your presence in the office/lab/etc. is required? Knowledge workers though might probably have the easier time with many of Tim Ferriss’ ideas.

I believe that books of this type (self-help/business/motivation/etc.) typically do not need to offer more than one or two really useful pieces of information to make them a valuable investment. In this particular case, the bits on his Low Information Diet make the entire book worthwhile for me. Tim is the enemy of wilfing.

It also sounds like he hates the very idea of dealing with interruptions to productivity and he ensures that this is clear: Being busy does not mean being productive. And being productive does not necessarily mean having to work eight hours a day. Having the liberties of a millionaire does not require being a millionaire and What Do You Do? does not necessarily ask for your job description.

He calls for counter-intuitive approaches as well as aiming for unrealistic goals. Unrealistic? Well, yes, the competition for the more doable ones is fierce!

In all seriousness though, I recommend this book. He has done a lot of outside-the-box thinking and it clearly must be working for him and I believe it can for others. If nothing else people will be able to gain a different perspective on modern life and work.

Peter B. Kyne’s The Go-Getter has the subtitle The Classic Story That Tells You How to Be One. The hardcover version has less than 100 pages, is fairly straightforward and can be read in a single sitting, say during a plane flight.

Highly motivational, the story harbors valuable success lessons. The full text is available at project Guttenberg.

By way of storytelling it is shown, how an individual with strong convictions and a Go-Getter attitude manages to solve situations that are deliberately constrained by outside forces. The afterword of the book provides a brief analysis of the story to show lessons and describe what it takes - according to the author - to be a Go-Getter.

Short, sweet, lots of good advice.

Orscon Scott Card. Classic, fantastically, entertaining science fiction page turner. Childhood angst. The potential end of the world. Destruction of an aliean race. Politics. The power of focus. Battle games. Psychology. Bullies. Friendship.

Again: Power of focus and dedication to a single purpose. That was the part that impressed me most of the story. Turning a child (Ender) into a millitary leader, by removing any and all distractions and having him concentrate on only his ultimate goal and nothing else.

Studies and practice.

Notably: Not necessarily happiness (most characters in the book are likely not happy at all during most of the story), but definitely dedication to a goal. The story is not a happy one, albeit a (mostly) happy ending.

Definitely a good read. Though maybe not really a friend of sequels, I am curious if the followups are at least comparably entertaining…