Posts

The best high fantasy books have one thing in common: Excellent worldbuilding work. Not just good, but legendarily, wonderfully, enthrallingly excellent. One author, to me, stands apart from the rest, a true master of what Tolkien called subcreation. Brandon Sanderson weaves all his many stories within the bounds of one consistent universe, while maintaining a distinct feel to each of the separate series. Each series is set on a different planet in the universe, and the magic on each planet is powered by a separate “shard” from the same original source....

This work by Peter Thiel is partially the product of a course he taught on innovation and entrepreneurship at Stanford in 2012. Blake masters (listed as co-author) is the student who took such extensive class notes, that they could be composed into the book Zero to One in 2014. This review comprises of a list of what I perceive to be the most powerful ideas in the book, and what implications they have for my current professional work, as well as my perspectives on business development....

I picked this book up to support the whole purpose of this blog – to accelerate my personal and professional learning process. It has provided good material to reflect on, and a few concrete steps to implement which I’ll go into more detail with later. This review is chapter-by-chapter – barring the boring ones. Becoming a Dynamic Learner The author suggests that the way to thrive in the global, specialised, non-routine economy is to become a dynamic learner....

Meditation in its “pure” form involves emptying the mind to a state where it just exists undisturbed and calm. However, most meditation programs and introductions focus heavily on achieving a close proxy to that empty state – the state of full focus on only one thing. Usually it’s one’s breathing, the feeling of contact with the ground, or perhaps a soundscape of the ambient noise in one’s environment. When focusing 100% on any one thing, it calms the mind....

This is one of those reads you know you’ll want to come back to. Ryan’s frank prologue describing his own situation, and how it prompted him to write the book, is a bold statement. It seems to say; here I am, imperfect, hurt, and growing, and here is my best attempt to share what I’ve learned. The book opens with a quote: Do not assume that he who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good....