Soundtracks
Acuff advocates we replace negative thought patterns with positive ones through a metaphor of a new playlist.
Takeaway: Keep good songs on repeat (Psalm 1:2).
Win the Day
Batterson provides strategies for making the most of each day, backed by scripture. I found the author’s use of “Let Go and Let God” soundbites less impactful this time through the book.
Takeaway: Seek God for wisdom to make the most of each day.
The McKinsey Edge
What is the book about, and what are the main themes and ideas that it explores? A former McKinsey consultant, Hattori gives forty-seven principles he’s learned about work and productivity from his time at “The Firm.” The book is largely boilerplate personal development material but seen through the lens of Hattori’s time at McKinsey, some of the principles are particularly memorable. “Have a thirty-second answer ready for everything” is a particularly good example. Hattori’s point is not that you can or should be able to answer any question in thirty seconds. Rather, the principle gets you to think about giving a short answer to any question someone could follow up with you about if they were interested in knowing more. Better to give someone a thirty-second answer and have them ask for more than give them ten minutes when they would have been satisfied with two. Also interesting to me? Hattori believes writing is a meta-skill that offers consultants a way to sharpen their thinking. I couldn’t agree more.
Takeaway: Write as a way of thinking, not just as a record of what you’ve already thought.
Switch
What is the book about, and what are the main themes and ideas that it explores? The brothers are back with another one-word book with big implications. This one’s about change. They’ve got three general pieces of advice: shape the path (make sure the situation is amenable to change), motivate the elephant (address the emotions of the people you want to motivate), and direct the rider (offer reasonable steps for people to follow). The enemies of change? We try to do too much at once and treat situations like they’re people problems. The Heath Brothers provide plenty of research and anecdotes from the corporate and political world, and the book left me eager to implement their recommended advice at my gig.
Takeaway: Remove friction by offering clear, simple rules for action.
Red Planet and Tunnel in the Sky
These juvenile works by Heinlein feature teenage protagonists on foreign planets. Red Planet explores themes of empathy and caring for others, while Tunnel in the Sky shows a community of teenagers forming a government on an abandoned planet.
Takeaway: Humans carry their evil with them, even on other planets; it can only be tamed with reason, not power (II Cor. 10:5).
The Nineties: A Book
What is the book about, and what are the main themes and ideas that it explores? Klosterman provides an overview of 1990s culture, something akin to what Halberstam attempted for the 1950s. The book features chapters on Generation X, the advent of the internet, grunge music, Ross Perot’s failed presidential bid, the fall of baseball as the national pastime, the way television distorted news stories like the Clarence Thomas hearings and the OJ Simpson trial, the presidency of Bill Clinton, and the Y2K bug. What did you like or dislike about the book, and why? This was my second time through the (audio)book, and I enjoyed as much as I did the first time. I’ve read everything Klosterman has written. He’s one of my favorite authors, and I think this is the best book he’s ever written. Klosterman doesn’t make a point of taking controversial positions, but his juxtapositions of various elements of 90s culture require a specific point of view. The movie The Matrix frames his discussion of television news. He frames a discussion of baseball with Michael Jordan’s time with the Chicago White Sox. He ends the Bill Clinton chapter with a reading of American Beauty, and he includes a fascinating reading of the 2000 presidential election in the Y2K chapter.
Takeaway: The biggest generational divide in American culture lies between those who experienced life before and after the internet and those who only experienced life after it.
Whereabouts
Lahiri has not written a novel in English since 2013’s The Lowland. Since writing that novel, Lahiri has become fluent in Italian, and this book is her own translation of her first Italian novella. The first character narrator lives alone in a small Italian town, teaching at a university by day and attending to various situations by night. Lahiri’s goals are not particularly lofty. She aims to capture the thoughts and environment of a middle-aged woman. Lahiri’s prose is razor-sharp and her observations keen. Each chapter is a tiny moment perfectly rendered: a relationship with a father, a passing relationship, a small connection in a restaurant, etc. Lahiri has always conveyed the sense that the world is abundant. Here, that observation is pressed to the limit. Asked “what happened,” a novel’s reader can truthfully say “not much.” From another angle, the reader sees grace and mercy in abundance. If only the narrator could see it too!
Takeaway: Our environment serves as an anchor for our awareness, frequently without our conscious recognition.
Perelandra
This novel is the second in Lewis’ cosmic trilogy and retells Genesis 3 on the planet Venus. The protagonist, Ransom, confronts Weston, who Satan has possessed.
Takeaway: What we call reason is often rationalism, skewed logic meant to defend bad ethics.
The Overstory
Powers tells several interconnected stories to emphasize how often we fail to see trees in particular and the natural world in general. The author’s animist/pantheistic worldview is the book’s blind spot.
Takeaway: The most obvious things in the world are the easiest to miss.
Artemis
Weir imagines life on the first moon colony and follows a woman involved in smuggling and corporate terrorism.
Takeaway: People will fight for their home, even if that home is an adopted colony.
Project Hail Mary
An interstellar mission is sent to save Earth from a macrobiotic life form that’s eating the sun. The protagonist, Ryland Grace, completes the mission with the help of an alien he encounters.
Takeaway: The most obvious things in the world are the easiest to miss.
The Martian
Mark Watney pulls a Robinson Crusoe on Mars, surviving just over a year until NASA can figure out how to get him back to Earth. Watney doesn’t come home with any deep metaphysical knowledge; he’s proved the usefulness of the empirical method.
Takeaway: Thanks, Enlightenment!
Ultralearning
Young is the sort of person who went through the entire open course MIT computer science curriculum in a year…publicly. He also spent a year in four different countries, three months per country, dedicating himself to competency in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Korean during his stays. He offers a list of principles to guide other ultralearners and details impressive and motivational projects (his own and others’) along the way. Young’s most memorable chapter is about direct learning. College students struggle to apply what they’ve learned in high school to similar college curricula, and the stats reporting students’ ability to apply college coursework to work situations is abysmal. Passive knowledge acquisition is easy, but it won’t help you do what you want. Find ways to start practicing what you want to do now sooner rather than later.
Takeaway: Spend about 10% of your total project time making the map, then start executing.