Mindful Reading

Hidden Potential by Adam Grant looks at the many ways in which we can perform at a level higher than we thought possible. The book is broken into three main sections, skills of character, structures for motivation, and systems of opportunity. It looks at various scenarios and ties many of them to scientific studies to expand on how we can achieve greater things. Hosted by Peter Banda & James de Kl...

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield has the subtitle, "break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles." It's about the war against what Pressfield calls resistance, a term that Pressfield pears at from many different angles, and exposes as the ultimate enemy. Beat resistance, and you win the war. Hosted by Peter Banda & James de Klerk This is a public episode. If you would like to di...

Same as Ever was written by Morgan Housel, the author of The Psychology of Money. The book is a series of 23 short and timeless lessons on, as the subtitle says, "Risk, Opportunity and Living a Good Life". It looks at the natural cycles of history, and the lessons we can learn, while also focusing on the psychology of how humans act in the world. Hosted by Peter Banda & James de Klerk This is a pu...

"How Emotions Are Made" is a book by Lisa Feldman Barrett, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and a neuroscience researcher. This book delves into Barrett's Theory of Constructed Emotions, offering a fresh perspective on how emotions are formed. Initially, the book presents the classical view of emotions, which suggests that emotions are simply reactions to external events. Something happens,...

A discussion of the book Leadership Strategy and Tactics by Jocko Willink. Jocko is a US Navy officer who served in the Navy SEALs. Through the SEALs training he learnt various fundamental principles of leadership, writing them down, codifying them, and putting them to the test in SEALs training and mission scenarios. Leadership Strategy and Tactics draws on this experience, teaching one how to de...

A discussion of the book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett was published in 1908. The book looks at the work day, and the time outside of that - what Bennett calls the day within a day. It claims that most view the day - especially during the work week - as simply the time from when you start work to when you end work. The time outside...

A discussion of the book Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters is a book that looks at exactly that, going from zero to one. Specifically, going from something not existing to one existing. "Doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from...

A discussion of the book The Last Arrow by Erwin Raphael McManus The Last Arrow by Erwin McManus book begins with the biblical story in 2 Kings 13, where Elisha tells King Jehoash to strike the ground with his arrows, so he strikes 3 times, and then, stops. As the story goes on we find out that he stopped striking the ground too early, had he continued to strike the ground till his arrows were don...

A discussion of the book How to Think by Alan Jacobs How to Think by Alan Jacobs is a book in which Alan thinks about thinking. What is thinking? How do we do it well? And where does it go wrong? The book looks at how we classify people and ideas, and how those classifications shape how we think; It looks at the words and metaphors we use, and how they too shape the way we think; It looks at the l...

A discussion of the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. Deep Work by Cal Newport is divided into two parts, the first part is titled "The Idea", and goes on to explain the difference between deep work and shallow work: "Deep Work: Professional activity performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new val...

A discussion of the book Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed. Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed at it's core is about learning from failure. In aviation there is the idea of a black box, these are systems installed in planes that continually gather all kinds of information about the aircraft and its crew - from the altitude of the plane to the words spoken in the cockpit. In the event of fail...

A discussion of the book The Psychology of Money by Morgan House. As the title suggests, the book is about the psychology of money, and as the subtitle suggests, it goes through timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness. The book looks at how people think about money, how they feel about money, how they spend it or don't, the idea of status and money, greed, the rational and irrational...

A discussion of the book Effortless by Greg McKeown. Effortless, as it says on the cover, is about making it easier to do what matters most. Put differently, making it easier to do the essential things, and hard to do the pointless. The book looks at various situations where people take the difficult path and various situations where people take the effortless path. In some sense, the books claim...

A discussion of the book Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel S. F. Heller. Attached is about understanding the three different attachment styles - anxious, avoidant, and secure. With the anxious people usually being anxious about the state of the relationship, the avoidant people usually avoiding the relationship when things get too close, and the secure being those who are stably committed to the...