Books

Curb Your Ambition Bury the hustle: “the grind” = overwork => burnout. Choose sustainable. Happy pacifists: war metaphors != business. Don’t compare, participate. Our goal: No Goals: concrete goals are artificial. Prefer high-quality work. Don’t change the world: Reduce unrealistic expectations. Do good local work. Make it up as you go: Short-term planning gives flexibility and keeps discount low. Comfy’s cool: Discomfort is a negative signal. Occasional discomfort is ok. Defend Your Time 8’s enough, 40’s plenty: 8 hours = Chicago -> London. Can do a lot if uninterrupted. Pick. Protectionism: Resist meetings and default to async comms The quality of an hour: 1x60 » 4x15. Don’t forget buffer for context switches. Effective > productive: Don’t do as much as possible. Cut, don’t add, work. The outwork myth: work ethic = consistency, quality, respect, NOT heroism, quantity. Work doesn’t happen at work: offices = interruption factories. Isolation is key. Office hours: lending expertise is unfair trade for expert. Batch questions. Calendar tetris: Meetings are last resort. When someone takes your time, it costs you. The presence prison: Availability (physical or virtual) = interruptibility. I’ll get back to you whenever: Resist escalation. Delegate to async. FOMO? JOMO!: Don’t stay constantly tuned in. Use “heartbeats” for important updates. Feed Your Culture We’re not family: Companies using this metaphor incur unidirectional sacrifice. They’ll do as you do: If you choose bad habits and long hours, so will they. Set an example. The trust battery: Build relationships on a person-by-person basis by investing in people. Don’t be the last to know: Ask hard, pointed questions to get real impressions. The owner’s word weighs a ton: Even questions can drastically shift priorities. Low-hanging fruit can still be out of reach: You can’t gauge unfamiliar work. It’s probably harder. Don’t cheat sleep: It makes waking hours better, especially for others. Work can wait. Out of whack: Work usually takes from life. That’s not balance. Set boundaries. Hire the work, not the resume: Resume is only a snapshot. Work is the best representation. Nobody hits the ground running: Understanding culture and knowing how to operate takes time. Ignore the talent war: Nurturing and growing your people is more fulfilling and sustainable. Don’t negotiate salaries: Fixed compensation reduces inequity from negotiation. Benefits who?: Free meals keep you at the office. Set people free instead. Library rules: Open-plan offices should be like libraries: quiet places where people focus and work. No fakecations: Completely disconnect and rest. “Unlimited” vacations are counterproductive. Calm goodbyes: When someone leaves, clearly state why. Else, rumors will fill the void. Dissect your process The wrong time for real-time: If it’s important, have a separate doc for it and slow down. Async first. Dreadlines: Keep deadline fixed, but reduce scope if needed. Give the working team this power. Don’t be a knee-jerk: Write ideas up and request thoughtful comments. Watch out for 12-day weeks: Releasing on Friday meant fixing through the weekend. Use weekdays. The new normal: Culture (mal)adapts quickly. Course correct immediately. Bad habits beat good intentions: More ingrained habits take longer to unwind. Start now. Independencies: Ship things when they’re ready. Keep teams independent. Commitment, not consensus: One person takes input and decides. Others disagree and commit. Compromise on quality: Know what needs to be perfect and what can be “just fine”. Narrow as you go: Explore in the beginning and then focus on executing. Don’t backtrack. Why not nothing?: Migrations are tiresome. Doing nothing can improve focus and reduce toil. It’s enough: Know when to stop optimizing on a metric. Going too far brings stress. Worst practices: Don’t blindly cargo cult. Find what works for your team and circumstances. Whatever it doesn’t take: Clarify what it will take so you know where to make tradeoffs. Have less to do: Eliminate work when possible to free up time to focus on what matters. Three’s company: Work expands to fill the team available. Move quickly with a small team. Stick with it: Pulling people off projects incurs waste. Allow time for reflection on new ideas. Know no: Yes is a commitment whereas no allows more options in the future. Saying no is hard. Mind your business Risk without putting yourself at risk: Choose risks that keep optionality open. Season’s greetings: 4-day weeks in summer. Adapt work culture to season. Calm’s in the black: Without profit, you’re either burning money up or burning people out. Priced to lose: Per-seat pricing gives big customers influence. Fixed pricing diversifies. Launch and learn: The market and customer feedback is the highest quality input. Promise not to promise: Promises accumulate like debt with interest. Avoid committing early. Copycats: People will copy you. Getting angry only hurts you. Move on. Change control: Don’t force users to change behavior or upgrade. Legacy is heritage. Startups are easy, stayups are hard: Launching is just the first step in the journey. Pace yourself. No big deal or the end of the world?: These are two tokens in attitude. You take one, customer takes the other. The good old days: Keep growth slow so that you can retain the culture that you have. Last Choose calm: Protect time, stay focused, and keep life in balance. Make this choice.

Skip to the Recommendation section for a summary of my thoughts and tips on how to use this book in your own life. Reflections I have tried and failed many times over the last five years to establish a habit of regular meditation. However, since late April 2020, I have finally taken to meditating daily. Thus, I wanted to re-read this book to compare the explanation and recommendations to my personal experience so that I can strengthen my practice moving forward. Notably, I vividly remember the first time I read this book a couple of years ago. A paragraph within the first few pages spoke so starkly to my condition at the time: ...

Over the last few months, I have been zealously watching the TV show Mad Men. It has given me a different perspective on advertising, a profession which I previously looked down upon with disdain. I have come to realize that advertising at its finest is no different than art: a method of associating a material product with an instinct or an emotion. It is also a science: the goal of advertising is to sell, and ultimately, consumer spending patterns dictate the success of an advertisement, regardless of how creative it seems. ...

Lately, I’ve been interested in what drives how we as people interact with and perceive each other. The cognitive dissonance of perception versus reality is something that has struck me many times, and I wanted to learn how I could potentially leverage that in everyday life. So, I decided to read You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen. The book notes that “if life is a game, then negotiation is a way of life.” Namely, approaching any situation as if it were a negotiation can net you a more positive outcome than if you take the situation as fixed when it is presented to you. Cohen observes that the balance of a negotiation is affected by three crucial variables: power, time, and information. ...

I wanted to dig deeper into personal finance after the last read. In particular, I wanted to know more about index funds and why despite their simplicity, they’re so popular. So, I turned to none other than the creator of the first index fund and founder of The Vanguard Group, John C. Bogle in his book The Little Book of Common Sense Investing Using “the relentless rules of humble arithmetic” as well as countless opinions from his financial peers (including Warren Buffett), Bogle provides a convincing case for picking index funds based on the following observations: ...

If you’ve known me for a while or even had so much as a dinner conversation with me recently, you’ll probably know that I’ve become a bit of a credit card/points/personal finance junkie. I’ve been trying to get my feet wet a little more though, so I thought I’d read a book I’ve heard about for a long time: I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. I was on his email list for some time, and while I’m not the biggest fan of his personality and judgment of people’s lifestyles, I do think Ramit has some sound perspective on aiming for a “Rich Life” as is defined by each individual’s standards. The book in general is divided into 3 macro parts consisting of about 3 chapters each: ...

I decided to take a break from nonfiction and pick up a novel; I ended up devouring it in a few hours. There are two things that, without giving away any plot details, really distinguished this book as a piece of writing: The non-specific narration in the second person styled as a self-help book. No names of characters or places are ever used! The contrast in focus spent on the main character’s events. Life events surrounding “you” and your family are skipped over between paragraphs, whereas a single thought may be examined over multiple pages.

Although this book provides a new perspective on how to build more intelligent machines that centers around the neocortex, it reads more like a bold manifesto than a legitimate theory with supporting evidence. That key difference was a bit frustrating. However, the converse strength is that Hawkins uses many anecdotal analogies that visually illustrate the main model that the book proposes, the memory-prediction framework. For example, a key component is the ability for the neocortex to store “invariant representations” of a phenomenon that adapt to individual circumstances, like how you know how to catch a ball coming at you even though the trajectory of the ball will be different every time.

In a world that’s ruled by short, pithy forms of communications like tweets and articles, I’m pretty terrified of losing my ability to focus and consume long-form content. So I’m starting my own personal summer reading challenge: one book a week with a concise mini-reflection of something that resonated with me. Please comment or message with any recommendations you have! This week, after pre-ordering and eagerly awaiting its release, I obtained and finished reading Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari. One thing that really stood out was his observation that we find great comfort in our “phone world”, which serves as a retreat that we can duck into when we don’t want to interact in the physical world. I think almost everyone I know is guilty of this (myself included). If we just pulled our noses out of our phones and actually spent some time interacting with the people around us, imagine how much more connected we would both feel and actually be.

Deferred Life Plan Step one: Do what you have to do. Step two: Do what you want to do. Is there a way to unsubscribe from the Deferred Life Plan and combine what you want to do with what you have to do? Ask yourself: What would it take for you to do _____ for the rest of your life? Drive vs. passion Drive: desire to achieve goal with specific payoff Passion: pulling towards something you can’t resist VCs are quite indirect Will never tell you no outright; why burn bridge? In a meeting with multiple VCs, many come in and out; one plays good cop, one plays bad cop but is asking questions and acting on behalf of the entire audience “Virtual CEO”: provide the team with guidance and leadership when necessary; all decisions/action left to the actual CEO In the world of startups Business plans should always be flexible as circumstances are constantly changing The main idea or vision should remain constant and should be the base for making all decisions A successful business centers around people Leadership: where “character and vision combine to empower someone to venture into uncertainty”, i.e., allow them to achieve more than they could alone Management: “methodical process to produce desired results on time and on budget”

Chapter 1: Buy One, Get Two Free Challenge: given an envelope containing $5, raise as much money as possible in 2 hours Unlimited planning time, but only have 2 hours once you open the envelope Best approaches didn’t even use the $5; moved past the conventional appraoches Subsequent challenges included paper clips, post its, etc. (inspired by One Red Paper Clip) Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) Helps build T-shaped people: depth in at least one area, but breadth across many fields d.school Launched by David Kelley (founder of IDEO) to teach design holistically Thesis: the real world is different than the truths held in a traditional education system Students in a classroom play a zero-sum game; organizations work when individuals cooperate Traditional education is a dependent, unidirectional transfer of knowledge from teacher to student; actual knowledge is gleaned through self-teaching Failure is not rewarded properly; the answer is more important than the process in multiple-choice exams Chapter 2: The Upside-Down Circus Turn problems into opportunities Jeff Hawkins, developer of Palm Pilot and author of On Intelligence Do Bands: rubber bands with simple tasks written on them as motivation Assignment: identify a problem and use a random item to help you with that problem Key: identify and fill gaps BioDesign program @ Stanford connected medical and engineering worlds Balloon angioplasty procedure allowed non-invasive unclogging of arteries Kimberly-Clark: marketing diapers positively Challenge assumptions Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil; did the exact opposite of all the traditional associations with circus Randy Komisar (KPCB Partner): focus on solving a grand problem, not making money or any material result Chapter 3: Bikini or Die Differentiate between suggestions and rules Larry Page: have a healthy disregard for the impossible; think as big as possible Experiment: break a group of people up into teams, give them a problem, and have them provide their best and worst idea to solve the problem. Throw away the best solutions and redistribute the worst solutions among the group. Often, they turn out to be useful from a fresh perspective Lesson: all ideas have potential, no bad ideas Effective brainstorming: no bad ideas, expand on the ideas of others Ideas are cheap, no need to commit to any of them Imagine a world where constraints are different Examples John Stiggelbout: was applying to grad school but decided to go to business school at the last minute; used a rec letter from a friend who pretended to be a prison inmate Cooliris: hired lots of interns as advertisement to make it the cool place to work Zune: team wasn’t going to make it on schedule, so they broke away from bureaucracy to get things done (similar to War Rooms at Facebook) “Don’t ask for permission, but beg for forgiveness” “My instructor told me the three things I should never do. All else is up to me.” Break expectations that you and others have for you Chapter 4: Please Take Out Your Wallets Seize opportunities instead of waiting for them to be given to you Debra Dunn at HP: moved into mulitple roles wihout all of necessary experience, but was able to fill gaps along the way Translate your skills into different settings Seelig: got a PhD in neuroscience and then became a management consultant In both, you “identify burning questions, collect & analyze relevant data, gather best results, make compelling presentation”, and repeat Take things others have discarded and make them useful Sesame Street: “trash into treasure” Michael Dearing: wrote to famous people and built up his network Those willing to try something new (i.e., have growth mind-set) are more likely to be successful Pay attention to find problems that need to be solved Example: break group up into pairs and ask them to take out their wallets and say what’s wrong with them. Then other person has little time to put together and “sell” a new wallet that fits those needs David Rothkopf: “The biggest ally of superachievers is the inertia of others.” If you want something, make it happen. Try. Chapter 5: The Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley Write a failure resume summarizing biggest personal, professional, and academic screwups Viewing failures through the lens of experience makes you appreciate their value Willingness to take risks depends on environment All learning comes from failure (e.g., baby learning how to walk); impossible to learn anything without doing it yourself Kill bad projects early da Vinci: “It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” When to walk away from a problem? Know whether something has the potential to pay off; negotiate honestly with yourself Quit well: One assistant quit a week before a huge project deadline and caused everyone much grief and extra work; Others provide advance notice, help transition duties over Prepare yourself for failures Try lots of things, be confident that you will achieve greatness, but recognize there will be potholes along the way Better to get a no sooner rather than later so that you can focus you energies on opportunities with higher probability of success A successful career is a wave of ups and downs, not a straight line Carol Bartz, former Yahoo and Autodesk CEO: move along a 3D pyramid, not a 2D ladder; move laterally to gain skills and build experience Steve Jobs fired from Apple. Founded NeXT and Pixar and found wife before returning to Apple. “It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.” Don’t get comfortable with failure; you might quit too early 3M Post-it notes; initially, no one was interested; colleague used adhesive to keep track of church hymns Can morph products based on what they are doing well 5 different risk types: physical, social, emotional, financial, intellectual Learning from others can reduce your failure rate Chapter 6: No Way…Engineering is For Girls Following your passion isn’t enough; need to find where passion intersects with skills and market availability Lao Tzu: “The master of the art makes little distinction between his work and his play…he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both. " Hindsight bias: things make sense in retrospect Distinguish what others want for you from what you want Don’t plan your life out too far in advance; the most interesting experiences are often unplanned Important to reassess life and career frequently Find a role in the world that doesn’t feel like work Chapter 7: Turn Lemonade Into Helicopters The harder you work, the luckier you get; you can maximize your chances by being well-prepared physically, intellectually, and emotionally Quyen Vuong and QD3 pulled themselves out of poverty and drove themselves to work extremely hard Lucky people tend to be observant, open-minded, extraverted, and optimistic Carlos Vignolo (Univ. of Chile): meet someone new everywhere you go Lucky people use and recombine their knowledge/experiences in unexpected ways Make your own luck by working hard and focusing on your goals Chapter 8: Paint the Target Around the Arrow Show appreciation for others; it will help you in the long run Your reputation is your most valuable asset, so don’t burn bridges; the same people will show up in your life multiple times in different roles positive interactions with others are like clear drops of water; negative ones are red drops Organizations capture information of how you behave with staff Craft the story now so you’ll be proud to tell it later Take responsibility for your actions, and learn from your experiences Negotiate well Incentives are not always opposed! Can create win-win situation Figure out everyone’s interests to maximize outcome for everyone If no win-win situation, can walk away; remember to consider Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) Be honestly willing to help others Reconcile doing the “right” thing with doing the “smart” thing Don’t take on too many responsibilities; find ways to combine work and other activities (e.g., have meetings on a hike) Chapter 9: Will This Be on the Exam? “Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous!” We’re often encouraged to “satisfice” and barely meet expectations, but show much more is possible when you remove the cap Ashwini Doshi: 3.5 foot woman who overcomes many obstacles daily Go beyond what’s expected at all times Regardless if you’re trying, you’re actually doing it or not. The rest is just excuses No excuse is valid; if you really wanted it, you would make it happen You are in charge of your own life; you are responsible for putting in your best effort at all times You don’t have to succeed at the expense of others; collaboration (“coopetition”) is often more lucrative than competition Be willing to reach for your true potential Chapter 10: Experimental Artifacts Easy to get locked into traditional thinking, but we determine how we view the world E.g., writing assignment to describe the same scene from the perspective of someone who has fallen in love vs. someone who has lost a child Don’t take yourself too seriously or judge others too harshly Success is sweet but transient The possibilities are endless if you push yourself outside your comfort zone, be willing to fail, disregard the impossible, and strive to be fabulous

One could not count the moons that simmer on her roofs, Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls. After reading Khaled Hosseini’s novel eye-opening novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, I stopped to consider the state of Afghanistan with respect to its treatment of women as well as the role of the Taliban. The unbalanced outlook on women is made clear in the exposition with Mariam’s status as a “harami” under Jalil. Not only is polygamy accepted, but it is also the norm. Perhaps, however, a fundamentalist would argue that since such a practice of a man having up to three wives is in the Qur’an, it is socially acceptable. ...

If you can empty your mind of all thoughts, Your heart will embrace the tranquility of peace. Watch the workings of all creation, But contemplate their return to the source. Chapter 16 Emptiness leads to peace…almost sounds like an argument Schopenhauer would give. This is true given the premise that knowledge is painful; it disturbs the tranquil essence of the Tao, which is itself manifested in us. Yet, humans are curious beings by nature. Does that mean that our natural instinct leads us to deviate from the Tao? Then again, I suppose this reinforces the message of Taoism: we are born as uncarved blocks of wood, and through our curiosity we carve the block. To align with the Tao, however, is to return to our initial tranquil, uncarved state. ...