Synopsis

This is a book about how to survive and thrive in a volatile and unpredictable world. The author offers principles you can apply in everyday life to ensure you are not detrimentally exposed to negative events.

Key Takeaways

Page 52 – A taxi driver is free to have his own opinions while mid-level manager must conform.

This is true, managers will say things that don’t believe to virtue signal, a taxi driver just has to do his job.

Page 60 – The first step toward antifragility consists in first decreasing downside, rather than
increasing upside; that is, by lowering exposure to negative Black Swans and letting
natural antifragility work by itself.

Life is as much about not making mistakes and removing negative events as it is anything else.

Page 95 – This fragility that comes from path dependence is often ignored by businessmen who,
trained in static thinking, tend to believe that generating profits is their principal mission, with survival and risk control something to perhaps consider—they miss the strong logical precedence of survival over success

Is google a more successful company than Augustiner?

Page 120 – If there is something in nature you don’t understand, odds are it makes sense in a deeper way that is beyond your understanding. So there is a logic to natural things that is much superior to our own. Just as there is a dichotomy in law: ‘innocent until proven guilty’ as opposed to ‘guilty until proven innocent’, let me express my rule as follows: what Mother Nature does is rigorous until proven otherwise; what humans and science do is flawed until proven otherwise.

Trust mother nature before you trust science.

Page 148 – Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility; it results from some ecological or naturalistic wisdom, and is not always bad — at an existential level, it is my body rebelling against its entrapment. It is my soul fighting the Procrustean bed of modernity

Do what you are passionate about.

Page 154 – If you have more than one reason to do something (choose a doctor or veterinarian, hire a gardener or an employee, marry a person, go on a trip), just don’t do it. It does not mean that one reason is better than two, just that by invoking more than one reason you are trying to convince yourself to do something. Obvious decisions (robust to error) require no more than a single reason.

If it feels right then do it.

Page 164 – Barbell career, French civil servants and poets, editor of books for 10 years and then a speculator. More barbells. Do crazy things once in a while and stay rational in larger decisions. Break some furniture be an affectionate husband.

Build a base then go try something different.

Page 228 – Rubinstein refuses to claim that his knowledge of theoretical matters can be translated—by him—into anything directly practical. To him, economics is like a fable—a fable writer is there to stimulate ideas, indirectly inspire practice perhaps, but certainly not to direct or determine practice. Theory should stay independent from practice and vice versa—and we should not extract academic economists from their campuses and put them in positions of decision making

Like the divine and the non-divine, don’t mix drinks.

Page 232 – Consider the role of heuristic (rule-of-thumb) knowledge embedded in traditions.
Simply, just as evolution operates on individuals, so does it act on these tacit,
unexplainable rules of thumb transmitted through generations—what Karl Popper has
called evolutionary epistemology. But let me change Popper’s idea ever so slightly
(actually quite a bit): my take is that this evolution is not a competition between ideas,
but between humans and systems based on such ideas. An idea does not survive
because it is better than the competition, but rather because the person who holds it has
survived!

There is wisdom in the things that have survived.

Page 245 – The sociologist of science Steve Shapin, who spent time in California observing venture capitalists, reports that investors tend to back entrepreneurs, not ideas. Decisions are
largely a matter of opinion strengthened with “who you know” and “who said what,”
as, to use the venture capitalist’s lingo, you bet on the jockey, not the horse. Why?
Because innovations drift, and one needs flâneur-like abilities to keep capturing the
opportunities that arise, not stay locked up in a bureaucratic mold.

The person matters more than the idea. As you know, ideas are cheap.

Page 248 –Much of what other people know isn’t worth knowing

Just think about that.

Page 252 – Let me stop to issue rules based on the chapter so far. (i) Look for optionality; in fact, rank things according to optionality, (ii) preferably with open-ended, not closed-ended,
payoffs; (iii) Do not invest in business plans but in people, so look for someone
capable of changing six or seven times over his career, or more (an idea that is part of
the modus operandi of the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen); one gets immunity from
the backfit narratives of the business plan by investing in people. It is simply more
robust to do so; (iv) Make sure you are barbelled, whatever that means in your
business.

Again focus on the person and the people you are working with.

Page 255 Perhaps – Socrates should have asked himself – what is not intelligible to me is not necessarily unintelligent. Perhaps there is a realm of wisdom from which the logician is exiled?

You don’t need to understand or explain everything, some things are simply beyond us.

Page 259 – It is the payoff from the True and the false that dominates – and it is almost always asymmetric, with one consequence much bigger than the other

Right or wrong doesn’t matter, how much did you make from being right or wrong?

Page 320 – I have used all my life a wonderfully simple heuristic: charlatans are recognizable in that they will give you positive advice, and only positive advice, exploiting our gullibility and sucker-proneness for recipes that hit you in a flash as just obvious, then evaporate later as you forget them. Just look at the “how to” books with, in their title, “Ten Steps for—” (fill in: enrichment, weight loss, making friends, innovation, getting elected, building muscles, finding a husband, running an orphanage, etc.). Yet in practice it is the negative that’s used by the pros, those selected by evolution: chess grandmasters usually win by not losing; people become rich by not going bust (particularly when others do); religions are mostly about interdicts; the learning of life is about what to avoid. You reduce most of your personal risks of accident thanks to a small number of measures. Further, being fooled by randomness is that in most circumstances fraught with a high degree of randomness, one cannot really tell if a successful person has skills, or if a person with skills will succeed—but we can pretty much predict the negative, that a person totally devoid of skills will eventually fail.

As above, life is as much about what to avoid as it is about what to do.

Page 321 – So the central tenet of the epistemology I advocate is as follows: we know a lot more what is wrong than what is right, or, phrased according to the fragile/robust
classification, negative knowledge (what is wrong, what does not work) is more robust
to error than positive knowledge (what is right, what works).

Focus on avoiding traps, don’t do things that don’t work

Page 335 – For the perishable, every additional day in its life translates into a shorter

additional life expectancy. For the nonperishable, every additional day may imply a
longer life expectancy.

Lindy

Page 380 – A lesson I learned from this ancient culture is the notion of megalopsychon (a term expressed in Aristotle’s ethics), a sense of grandeur that was superseded by the
Christian value of “humility.” There is no word for it in Romance languages; in Arabic
it is called Shhm—best translated as nonsmall. If you take risks and face your fate with
dignity, there is nothing you can do that makes you small; if you don’t take risks, there is
nothing you can do that makes you grand, nothing. And when you take risks, insults by
half-men (small men, those who don’t risk anything) are similar to barks by nonhuman
animals: you can’t feel insulted by a dog.

This, it only matters when you have something on the line.

Page 389 – The psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer has a simple heuristic. Never ask the doctor what you should do. Ask him what he would do if he were in your place. You would be surprised at the difference. Never ask anyone for their opinion, forecast or recommendation. Just ask them what they have – or don’t have – in their portfolio.

This is just solid advice. What would you do in my position?

Page 392 – Behind you is the sea, before you the enemy. You are vastly outnumbered. All you have is sword and courage.  Never put your enemys back to the wall.

Don’t force people into doing crazy things.

Page 393 – Finally, a new form of courage was born, that of the Socratic Plato, which is the very definition of the modern man: the courage to stand up for an idea, and enjoy death in a
state of thrill, simply because the privilege of dying for truth, or standing up for one’s
values, had become the highest form of honor. And no one has had more prestige in
history than two thinkers who overtly and defiantly sacrificed their lives for their ideas
—two Eastern Mediterraneans; one Greek and one Semite.

To die for something greater than yourself.

Final Thoughts

Life is as much about what not to do, time is the ultimate evidence, only believe those with skin in the game and true freedom is being able to do what you like when you like.

If this one life is really it

If all this will end

Am I wasting my life right now

Am I living my true life

Growing up financial security was always a problem

My parents had their own business which wasn’t very successful

Which meant the stress of not having enough money to pay the bills always followed us around.

I don’t think my dad ever realised how much debt he was in and how much my mum struggled to make ends meet.

The reason I say this is I think was my motivator to make money and making money was a big driver for me in my teenage and early adult years.

And this is the part of my life that I am least happy with and this is what’s driving me to ask the question.

I woke up in the middle of the night yesterday and asked myself “What are you doing at work? What are you doing?”

I mean if I could split my life into parts I think most other areas I am doing really well.

1. Family – Beyond my expectations. My relationship with my wife and son is probably the best it’s ever been. I am starting to learn to listen to my wife better and I make significant time to spend with my son.
2. Friends – As expected. Strong relationships with friends, some relationships have grown while others have plateaued or shrunk but overall I think the friendships I have are great part of my life.
3. Personal – Better than expected. I am more mature and comfortable in my skin than ever before. Meditation/workouts/prayer/journal/travel has really helped me become a more present and content person. I still need a hobby though. I am thinking of starting Ju-Jitsu and taking writing more seriously.
4. Work/Business/Money – Below expectations. By the age of 34, I thought I would be financially independent through trading, business, and property and I definitely didn’t think I would be working an office job.  The opposite is true. While financially I am fine and we have a mortgage on a property and some money saved, I am still dependent on my job and if I were to lose my job I think I would be STRESSED. So even though I am not poor or rich by any stretch I think my dissatisfaction stems from my expectations.

Truth be told if I really push the work/business/money other areas would suffer, at the same time I know I am not giving myself enough to work. So I need to find a balance and keep pushing the business area without letting the other areas suffer.

I have tried several things over the last couple of years, none of which worked, but the truth is the next idea could be the big one.

The anxiety around losing my job or not having a job is likely to remain but if I continue to do good work at the office and work on things outside the office things should start to improve.

To conclude I don’t think I am wasting my life but a part of me knows that I am not doing all I can. My 20-year-old self was an idiot but he had something pure that I am not fulfilling at the moment. Life is not like the movies, I need to keep working and stop expecting some friend or stranger to come and help and change my life. It’s on me and I can make it happen.  

Synopsis

The best business writer on how to manage yourself successfully. I need to read this every year. Easy to understand advise on how to be better.

Key Takeaways  

Page 163 – Most people will have to manage themselves. They have to place themselves where they can make the greatest contribution, where they can develop themselves. They will have to learn how and when to change what they do, how they do it and when they do it.

You are responsible.

Pahe 164 – People know what they are not good at. One cannot build performance on weaknesses, let alone on something one cannot do it all.

Focus on your strengths

Page 165 – The Feedback analysis, whenever one makes a key decision and whenever one does a key action, one writes down what one expects will happen. And nine to twelve months later one then feeds back from results to expectations.

How do you know its working

Page 165 – Several actions follow from the feedback analysis. The first and most important conclusion. Concentrate on your strengths. Place yourself where your strengths can produce performance and results. Second, work on improving your strengths. The feedback analysis rapidly shows where a person needs to improve skill or acquire knowledge. Third, it identifies the areas where intellectual arrogance causes disabling ignorance.

Work and capitalize on your strengths and know where you are weak so you can avoid those road blocks

Page 167 – Feedback analysis can overcome intellectual arrogance and work on acquiring the skills and knowledge needed to make ones strengths fully productive

Be good enough so your weaknesses don’t destroy your strengths.

Page 167 – Feedback analysis can remedy ones bad habits…..ideas don’t move mountains, bulldozers do. But the idea tells the bulldozer where they have to go to work

Know what matters, the outcome, the mission as Jocko says.

Page 167 – Manners are the “lubricating oil” of an organization

The way you go about things is important. Think how hard Gio makes things for himself.

Page 167 – If the analysis shows that brilliant work fails again and again as soon as it requires cooperation by others, it probably indicates a lack of courtesy, that is, of manners

Understand where your behavior fails. Simple thing, do not interrupt.

Page 168 – Not enough people have even one first-rate skill or knowledge area, but all of us have an infinite number of areas in which we have no talent, no skill and little chance to become even mediocre. And in these areas a person – and especially a knowledge worker – should not take on work.

Do not work on your weaknesses

Page 168 – The final action conclusion is to waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence.

Just make sure its not disabling you.

Page 169 – Like one’s strengths, how one performs is individual. It is personality. Whether personality be nature or nurture, it surely is formed long before the person goes to work. And how a person performs is a “given” just as what a person is good at or not good at is a “given”. It can be modified, but it is unlikely to be changed. And just as people have results by doing what they are good at, people have results by performing how they perform

You are what you are, use it to your advantage.

Page 172 – Beethoven learned by writing in sketchbooks, Eisenhower learned by reading, Lyndon Johnson was a listener, discussing in meetings, Truman via lectures, Alfred Sloan small and lively meetings and then composing letters, another CEO learnt by talking things out with associates.

Everyone learns in different ways. How do you learn?

Page 173 – “To ask “how do I perform” and “how do I learn” are the most important first questions to ask. But they are by no means the only ones. To manage oneself one has to ask. “Do I work well with people, or am I a loner?” And if one finds out that one works well with people, one asks: “In what relationships do I work with people?” Some people work as suborordinates”

The environment impels

Page 174 – “Do you prefer stress or do you need a highly structured predicitable environment, Do you perform better in large or small organizations?, Do you produce results as a decision maker or as an advisor”

Set yourself up for success

Page 175 – “The action conclusion: Again, do not try to change yourself – it is unlikely to be successful. But work hard to improve the way you perform. And try not to do work of any kind in a way you do not perform or perform poorly”

Stay in your circle of competence.

Page 176 – “This is the mirror test. What ethics requires is to ask oneself: “What kind of person do I want to see when I look in the mirror. Ethics are a clear value system. And they do not vary much, one is ethical in one place will be ethical in another”

You know what is right and what is wrong.

Page 177 – “The way a company does things can also be a value conflict”

Recruit internally or externally? Build quality or build cheap?

Page 179 – “Yes, I’ll do that. But this is the way I should be doing it. This is the way it should be structured. This is the way my relationships should be. These are the kind of results you should expect from me and in this time frame, because this is who I am”

Be honest and clear with everyone in your team.

Page 180 – “Successful career are not planned. They are the career of people who are prepared for the opportunity because they know their strengths, the way they work and their values. For knowing where one belongs makes ordinary people – hardworking, competent  but mediocre otherwise – into outstanding performers

Page 180 – “What is my contribution? The question is not; “What do I want to contribute?”. It is not “what am I told to contribute”. It is “What should I contribute?”

What is the greatest good you can do.

Page 182 – “Where and how can I have results that make difference”

What is the greatest good you can do.

Page 184 – “Take relationship responsibility”

Build relationships with those people you need to work with so you can achieve the greater goal.

Page 185 – “After people have thought through what their strengths are, how they perform, what their values are, and, especially, what their contribution should be, they then have to ask, Who needs to know this? On whom do I depend? And who depends on me?” And then one goes and tells all these people—and tells them in the way in which they receive a message, that is, in a memo if they are readers, or by talking to them if they are listeners, and so on.  

I need to do this with my key stakeholders each year.

Page 187 – “Even people who understand the importance of relationship responsibility often do not tell their associates and do not ask them. They are afraid of being thought presumptuous, inquisitive, or stupid. They are wrong. Whenever anyone goes to his or her associates and says, “This is what I am good at. This is how I work. These are my values.

This is the contribution I plan to concentrate on and the results I should be expected to deliver,” the response is always, “This is most helpful. But why haven’t you told me earlier?”

Set the expectations early.

Key Takeaways

Are you a reader or listener?

Do feedback analysis on big initiatives?

How do you learn?

What are you good at?

What are you bad at?  

What are your weaknesses?

How do you work?

What are your values?

What is your contribution?

What results do you expect to deliver?

What key relationships are you responsible for?

9/10

Synopsis

This book describes the gulag system from arrest to release, end to end, from the experience of different prisoners, mainly the author. It also describes the decay of society through their different stories.

Key Takeaways

Page 9 – A submissive sheep is a find for a wolf

The police were looking for weakness, people look for weakness. Predators look for prey.

Page 13 – He simply does not know what to shout. And then, last of all, there is the person whose heart is too full of emotion, whose eyes have seen too much, for that whole ocean to pour forth in a few disconnected cries.

If you do not express yourself at the time when incursions occur how will you express something when it really matters?

Page 63 – From the moment you go to prison you must put your cosy past behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself, “My life is over, a little early to be sure, but there’s nothing to be done about it.  I am condemned to die and the sooner the better. From now on my body is useless to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me.

Only spirit is important, Keep it pure. Keep it clean.

Page 68 – Just give the person and we’ll create the case

Governments have been cheating people for a long time. Its better to play then to be played.

Page 93 – If a wife has become a whore are we really still bound to her in fidelity? A Motherland that betrays its soldiers – is that really a motherland?

This is a real question. Catch 22. Who is the enemy? The opposing solider who is trying to kill you or the leader who will get you killed? What is loyalty to a country disloyal to its people.

Page 99 – What a discovery? What it means is: Go and die; we will go on living. And if you lose your legs, yet manage to return from captivity on crutches, we will convict you”

People will use you and dispose of you. Know the game so you don’t get played.

Page 157 – And keep as few things as possible so you don’t have to fear for them.

The less you have when you go in the less they can take from you. Also said, the less you desire the less you will suffer

Page 174 – Do you believe God? Of Course.

Faith persists even in the worst places.

Page 226 – Hunger rules every hungry human being unless he has himself consciously decided to die. Hunger forces to steal, to look at with envy. Hunger, which darkens the brain and refuses to allow it to be distracted by anything else at all

If you want food hunger will control you. Sex and lust takes over. Money and greed has you. What you want controls you. What you desire dictates you.

Page 227 – The diarrhoea takes out of a man both strength and all interest – in other people, in life, in himself

In jail or in any place where we vulnerable the smallest disease will destroy you.

Page 233 – And if you loved someone out in freedom and wanted to remain true to him? What profit  is there in the fidelity of  female corpse? “When you get back to freedom – who is going to need you?”

The attractive females in jail had a choice. A hard choice. The reality of some lives. Think of the people in the third world, in oppressed minorities. Hell of a choice to make.

Page 293 – And here’s why. The first and principal cause was the lack of conscientiousness of the prisoners, the negligence of those stupid slaves. Not only couldn’t you expect any socialist self sacrifice of them, but they didn’t even manifest simple capitalist diligence.

You can’t force good work out of people.

Page 304 – The proverb says “Freedom spoils and lack of Freedom teaches”

A good summary of the western world today. What appreciation do we have for our freedoms?

Pahe 319 – No camp can corrupt those who have a stable nucleus, who do not accept that pitiful ideology which holds that “human beings are created for happiness”

Read this carefully. We are not created for happiness. What are we created for? I dont know. And maybe this only applies to happiness. But the suffering of jail does give credit to the faith which talk of happiness in the next world and not this world.

Page 321-6  – Constant Fear, Secrecy and Mistrust, Servitude, Universal Ignorance, Squealing, Betrayal, Corruption, Living a Lie (self interest or giving in to fear), Cruelty and Slave Psychology

This is how the Soviet Union was corrupted. We have the same issues in our world today.

Page 382 – “You should have come and told me who you were, and I’d given you everything you wanted”

There are people brave enough to help you. Just be honest and straight with them.

Final Thoughts

This book is full of hard life lessons and how unfair life can be for those in the wrong place at the wrong time. The fact that people survived these experiences makes me think the meaning of life is to survive and go on. The other thing is the strength of those people who did not do anything wrong, how they survived with their soul intact.

Synopsis

A story about a father and son who go on a motorcycle road trip where he discusses and discovers who they are as well as some key philosophical concepts.

Key Takeaways

Page 4 – “I’ve wondered why it took us so long to catch on. We saw it and yet we didn’t see it. Or rather we were trained not to see it. Conned, perhaps, into thinking that the real action was metropolitan and all this was just boring hinterland. It was a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away. Puzzling.”

Everything we need is in the present moment but all we do is think about the past or the future. When the truth knocks, open the door. When the answer comes be ready to receive it.

Page 32 – “The problem, the contradiction the scientists are stuck with, is that of mind. Mind has no matter or energy but they can’t escape its predominance over everything they do. Logic exists in the mind. Numbers exist only in the mind. I don’t get upset when scientists say that ghosts exist in the mind. It’s that only that gets me. Science is only in your mind too, it’s just that that doesn’t make it bad. Or ghosts either.”

The reality around us is a construct of the mind. Allot of things are a construct of the mind.

Page 49 – “I saw it was just being vindictive. In its place grew that old feeling I’ve talked about before, a feeling that there’s something bigger involved than is apparent on the surface. You follow these little discrepancies long enough and they sometimes open up into huge revelations.”

Be aware of what you are feeling, don’t judge it, let it be and follow it.

Page 58 -“He was trying to be friendly. But the words weren’t forthcoming for some reason. Consoling words are more for strangers, for hospitals, not kin. Little emotional Band-Aids like that aren’t what he needs or what’s sought”

Give kin what kin need

Page 75 – “This is the ghost of normal everyday assumptions which declares that the ultimate purpose of life, which is to keep alive, is impossible, but that this is the ultimate purpose of life anyway, so that great minds struggle to cure diseases so that people may live longer, but only madmen ask why. One lives longer in order that he may live longer. There is no other purpose. That is what the ghost says.”

Could the purpose of life be this simple? To live?

Page 76 – “That’s what’s really wearing them down. The thought.”

Thoughts wear us down. Thoughts wear us down. Not the actual sensation/event. The thought.

Page 76 – “He was so swift at this his StanfordBinet IQ, which is essentially a record of skill at analytic manipulation, was recorded at 170, a figure that occurs in only one person in fifty thousand.”

IQ is just a test at certain exercises. How many other things are just exercises with special hurdles?

Page 80 – “It took me more than a week to deduce from the evidence around me that everything before my waking up was a dream and everything afterward was reality. There was no basis for distinguishing the two other than the growing pile of new events that seemed to argue against the drunk experience. Little things appeared, like the locked door, the outside of which I could never remember seeing. And a slip of paper from the probate court telling me that some person was committed as insane. Did they mean me?”

How do you know your dreaming? Is this all a dream? How would you act different?

Page 81 – ““You have a new personality now.” But this statement was no explanation at all. It puzzled me more than ever since I had no awareness at all of any “old” personality. If they had said, “You are a new personality,” it would have been much clearer. That would have fitted. They had made the mistake of thinking of a personality as some sort of possession, like a suit of clothes, which a person wears. But apart from a personality what is there? Some bones and flesh. A collection of legal statistics, perhaps, but surely no person. The bones and flesh and legal statistics are the garments worn by the personality, not the other way around.”

We are our soul, our bodies are a suit. Love the person no matter the body.

Page 81 – “These EYES! That is the terror of it. These gloved hands I now look at, steering the motorcycle down the road, were once his! And if you can understand the feeling that comes from that, then you can understand real fear…the fear that comes from knowing there is nowhere you can possibly run.”

You run from what you are, you can’t hide.

Page 92 – “There’s no steel in nature. Anyone from the Bronze Age could have told you that. All nature has is a potential for steel. There’s nothing else there. But what’s “potential”? That’s also in someone’s mind! — Ghosts.”

Potential and ghosts are in our mind, you can bring it into reality. Be what you are meant to be.

Page 103 – “The supreme task — is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them –”

You know what your supposed to do and how your supposed to do it.

Page 132 – “In all of the Oriental religions great value is placed on the Sanskrit doctrine of Tat tvam asi, “Thou art that,” which asserts that everything you think you are and everything you think you perceive are undivided. To realize fully this lack of division is to become enlightened.”

You are everything around you and everything is you

Page 138 – “Did they think that bricks and boards and glass constituted a church? Or the shape of the roof? Here, posing as piety was an example of the very materialism the church opposed. The building in question was not holy ground. It had been desanctified. That was the end of it. The beer sign resided over a bar, not a church, and those who couldn’t tell the difference were simply revealing something about themselves.”

It’s the soul of something that makes it special, nothing else

Page 153 – “The ultimate test’s always your own serenity. If you don’t have this when you start and maintain it while you’re working you’re likely to build your personal problems right into the machine itself.”

 We can only create that which we are. If we are disturbed the work will be disturbed. If we are messy the work will be messy.

Page 171 –  “Quality, you know what it is, you can’t define it, somethings are better than others”

You know quality when you see it. Like a good hoodie, you can feel it.

Page 187 – “that the brighter, more serious students were the least desirous of grades, possibly because they were more interested in the subject matter of the course, whereas the dull or lazy students were the most desirous of grades, possibly because grades told them if they were getting by.”

P’s equal degrees. Why are you at Uni? To get a job or to learn?

Page 198 – “Now we’re paying the price. When you try to climb a mountain to prove how big you are, you almost never make it. And even if you do it’s a hollow victory. In order to sustain the victory you have to prove yourself again and again in some other way, and again and again and again, driven forever to fill a false image, haunted by the fear that the image is not true and someone will find out. That’s never the way.”

Stop trying to prove yourself. Prove yourself to what? You are what you are. That’s okay. Be what you are meant to be. Don’t try to impress. Each breath, each step, one at a time.

Page 225 – “Quality decreases subjectivity. Quality takes you out of yourself, makes you aware of the world around you. Quality is opposed to subjectivity.”

Quality shows itself no matter the opinion.

Page 300 – “So the thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one’s self from one’s surroundings. When that is done successfully then everything else follows naturally.

But the most striking example of value rigidity I can think of is the old South Indian Monkey Trap, which depends on value rigidity for its effectiveness. The trap consists of a hollowed-out coconut chained to a stake. The coconut has some rice inside which can be grabbed through a small hole. The hole is big enough so that the monkey’s hand can go in, but too small for his fist with rice in it to come out. The monkey reaches in and is suddenly trapped…by nothing more than his own value rigidity. He can’t revalue the rice. He cannot see that freedom without rice is more valuable than capture with it

Anxiety, the next gumption trap, is sort of the opposite of ego. You’re so sure you’ll do everything wrong you’re afraid to do anything at all. Often this, rather than “laziness,” is the real reason you find it hard to get started

Boredom is the next gumption trap that comes to mind. This is the opposite of anxiety and commonly goes with ego problems. Boredom means you’re off the Quality track, you’re not seeing things freshly, you’ve lost your “beginner’s mind” and your motorcycle is in great danger. Boredom means your gumption supply is low and must be replenished before anything else is done.
When you’re bored, stop! Go to a show. Turn on the TV. Call it a day. Do anything but work on that machine. If you don’t stop, the next thing that happens is the Big Mistake, and then all the boredom plus the Big Mistake combine together in one Sunday punch to knock all the gumption out of you and you are really stopped.

This motorcycle seems to be running a little hot — but I suppose it’s just the hot dry country we’re going through — I’ll leave the answer to that in a mu state — until it gets worse or better. —

Good tools, as a rule, don’t wear out, and  good second-hand tools are much better than inferior new ones. Study the tool catalogues. You can learn a lot from them. Apart from bad tools, bad surroundings are a major gumption trap. Pay attention to adequate lighting. It’s amazing the number of mistakes a little light can prevent.

The answer, of course, is no, you still haven’t got anything licked. You’ve got to live right too. It’s the way you live that predisposes you to avoid the traps and see the right facts. You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It’s easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally. That’s the way all the experts do it. The making of a painting or the fixing of a motorcycle isn’t separate from the rest of your existence. If you’re a sloppy thinker the six days of the week you aren’t working on your machine, what trap avoidances, what gimmicks, can make you all of a sudden sharp on the seventh? It all goes together.

But if you’re a sloppy thinker six days a week and you really try to be sharp on the seventh, then maybe the next six days aren’t going to be quite as sloppy as the preceding six. What I’m trying to come up with on these gumption traps I guess, is shortcuts to living right.”

I will summarise how I understand each paragraph of the above in one line below.

1. Do what you are doing, be where you are
2. Don’t hold on to things that stop you from getting to the more important things
3. Don’t be scared to start, first step
4. When your bored, stop and come back to it.
5. Mu is accepting the unknown
6. You will do better work with better tools and a better environment
7. Excellence is a habit and not an action.

Page 313 – “Why don’t you come out of the shadows? What do you really look like? You’re afraid of something aren’t you? What is it you’re afraid of?”

A question we should always ask ourselves. Show your whole self, do not keep anything back.

Page 338 – “She probably doesn’t understand that with a loke that she isn’t going to be lonely long”

The energy we put out is the energy we get back

Page 339 – “It’s psychic distance, and in Montana and Idaho the physical distances are big but the psychic distances between people are small and here its reversed”

Real friends are always close not matter the physical distance.

Page 340 – “Or if he takes whatever dull job he’s stuck with…and they are all, sooner or later, dull…and, just to keep himself amused, starts to look for options of Quality, and secretly pursues these options, just for their own sake, thus making an art out of what he is doing, he’s likely to discover that he becomes a much more interesting person and much less of an object to the people around him because his Quality decisions change him too. And not only the job and him, but others too because the Quality tends to fan out like waves. The Quality job he didn’t think anyone was going to see is seen, and the person who sees it feels a little better because of it, and is likely to pass that feeling on to others, and in that way the Quality tends to keep on going.”

Do good work no matter who is listening

Page 341 – “The tendency to do what is ‘reasonable” even when it isn’t any good”

This is the tragedy of the modern day.

Page 358 –  `He is far better than his father.’ “What moves the Greek warrior to deeds of heroism,” Kitto comments, “is not a sense of duty as we understand it…duty towards others: it is rather duty towards himself. He strives after that which we translate `virtue’ but is in Greek areté, `excellence’ — we shall have much to say about areté. It runs through Greek life.”

Do the best you can for yourself and no one else.

Page 359 – “Quality! Virtue! Dharma!”

Its all related

Page 359 – “`Virtue,’ at least in modern English, is almost entirely a moral word; areté, on the other hand, is used indifferently in all the categories, and simply means excellence.” Thus the hero of the Odyssey is a great fighter, a wily schemer, a ready speaker, a man of stout heart and broad wisdom who knows that he must endure without too much complaining what the gods send; and he can both build and sail a boat, drive a furrow as straight as anyone, beat a young braggart at throwing the discus, challenge the Pheacian you that boxing, wrestling or running; flay, skin, cut up and cook an ox, and be moved to tears by a song. He is in fact an excellent all-rounder; he has surpassing areté.

Virtue is doing things well, quality

Page 359 – Areté implies a respect for the wholeness or oneness of life, and a consequent dislike of specialization. It implies a contempt for efficiency…or rather a much higher idea of efficiency, an efficiency which exists not in one department of life but in life itself.”

Build a beautiful life one day at a time

Page 377 – “A fragment comes and lingers from an old Christian hymn, “You’ve got to cross that lonesome valley.” It carries him forward. “You’ve got to cross it by yourself.” It seems a Western hymn that belongs out in Montana.”

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

Page 382 – “What I am is a heretic who’s recanted, and thereby in everyone’s eyes saved his soul. Everyone’s eye but one, who knows deep down inside that he has saved is his skin”

You always know the truth

Final Thoughts

A book that takes effort to read but has allot of rewards. The explanation of quality is worth it alone. Some of it is naval gazing but allot of it provides a look behind the curtain of our own and societies biases. For example; why is it better to be reasonable then good? My main takeaway is to fill my life with quality, quality thoughts, quality actions and quality words.  The other is the journey is to find yourself and not to arrive at a destination. Be open to the journey.

Synopsis

A story about a man’s journey on the way of the sword. His failures and success, his learnings and struggles and his love and hates.

Key Takeaways

Page 99 (PDF) – “It is not I who deserve the credit for capturing Takezō. It was not I who accomplished it, but the law of nature. Those who break it always lose in the end. It is the law that you should respect.”

Similar to the saying, “we are not punished for our sins but by them”

Page 119 (PDF) – “Sorry, Takezō. It’s out of my hands. It’s the law of nature. You can’t do things over again. That’s life. Everything in it is for keeps. Everything! You can’t put your head back on after the enemy’s cut it off. That’s the way it is. Of course, I feel sorry for you, but I can’t undo that rope, because it wasn’t me who tied it. It was you. All I can do is give you some advice. Face death bravely and quietly. Say a prayer and hope someone bothers to listen. And for the sake of your ancestors, Takezō, have the decency to die with a peaceful look on your face!”

This is just brutal. Like the above, we are what we create in our physical and mental worlds

Page 109 (PDF) – “You seem to be under the misconception that if you perform one brave deed, that alone makes you a samurai. Well, it doesn’t! You let that one act of loyalty convince you of your righteousness. The more convinced you became, the more harm you caused yourself and everyone else.””

Doing one good deed doesn’t make you a good person. Did you do that deed with a catch? Did you expect something in return? What you do and how you do it is important. Also do you think your better than someone just because you perform one good deed?

Page 117 (PDF) – “True courage knows fear. It knows how to fear that which should be feared. Honest people value life passionately, they hang on to it like a precious jewel. And they pick the right time and place to surrender it, to die with dignity.”

Life is worth a lot and somethings are worth more than life. What things are worth dying for? What things can help you?

Page 179 (PDF) – “These days he often felt deep admiration for other people’s work. He found he respected technique, art, even the ability to do a simple task well, particularly if it was a skill he himself had not mastered.”

Aristotle, “Excellence is a habit” A thing worth doing is worth doing well

Page181 (PDF) – “He stopped along the way to look at several well-known temples, and at each of them he bowed and said two prayers. One was: “Please protect my sister from harm.” The other was: “Please test the lowly Musashi with hardship. Let him become the greatest swordsman in the land, or let him die.” “I want to lead an important life. I want to do it because I was born a human being.”

Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did the sinful world as it is and not as I would have. Obstacles make the man. A man was made by patience and the odds against him.

Page193 (PDF) – “Having since learned from Takuan that life is a jewel to be treasured, Musashi knew that far from giving up nothing, he and Matahachi had unwittingly been offering their most precious possession. Each had literally wagered everything he had on the hope of receiving a paltry stipend as a samurai. In retrospect, he wondered how they could have been so foolish.”

No amount of money is worth a life. Use your life well, don’t spend it on things that are not worth it.

Page 196 (PDF) – “Matahachi had no doubt meant well, but there was something twisted
about his attitude. Why must he praise Musashi so and in the next breath carry on so about his own failings? “Why,” wondered Musashi, “couldn’t he just write and say that it’s been a long time, and why don’t we get together and have a long talk?””

Self pity and looking down on oneself when comparing to others is not good and we must always strive to look up and do our best

Page 181 – “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked. “That you’re too strong is the only thing I have to teach you. If you continue to pride your self on your strength, you won’t live  to see thirty. Why, you might easily have been killed today. Think about that, and decide how to conduct yourself in the future.

Physical strength is important but so is mental strength, how are you preparing to get mentally strong, calm, detached and mindful.

Page 342 – “What’s important to a woman is not her body but her heart, and chastity itself is a matter of the inner being. Even when a woman doesn’t give herself to a man, if she regards him with lust, she becomes, at least as long as the feeling lasts, unchaste and unclean.”

We give our heart with our minds, when we fantasize about other partners it’s in those moments we become unclean, dirty and loose the chance to gain intimacy

Page 346 – “It was precisely this conflict of emotions, swirling incessantly in his veins, that constituted what the Buddha called delusion.”

Conflicting wants will drive you crazy, wanting a simple life but with nice house, car and clothes. These are conflicts.

Page 353 – “I will have no regrets about anything”, “I will have no regrets about my actions” and “I will do nothing that I will regret”

Said different ways, don’t do anything that you will regret including inaction.

Page 355 – “The difference between a beggar and the great wandering priest Saigyo lies inside the heart”

Life is all about how you take things. Are you a beggar or a wanderer? How do you take things in your heart?

Page 355 – “If even a wanderer like me has five good rice cakes, then it must be that heaven allows everybody to celebrate the New Year one way or another”

Five rice cakes, be grateful for what you have, always.

Page 438 – “Pictures should be owned by the people who really love and appreciate them”

Full your life with things that you love

Page 439 – “You should avoid the temptation of thinking that your dreams can be realized only in some far-off place. If you think that way, you’ll neglect the possibilities in your immediate surroundings”

You have gold all around you, embrace it and use it wisely

Page 507 – “Do you think the great saint Shinran was joking when he said that any believer has the strength of two, because the Buddha Amida walks with him”

Universal truth – I fear no evil for thou are with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me

Page 509 – “The truly brave man is one who loves life, cherishing it as a treasure that once forfeited can never be recovered. He well knew that to live was more than merely to survive. The problem was how to imbue his life with meaning, how to ensure that his life would cast a bright ray of light into the future, even if it became necessary to give up that life for a cause. If he succeeded in doing this, the length of his life – twenty year or seventy – made little difference. A lifetime was only an insignificant interval in the endless flow of time”

Live a life worth living, do it for a cause and be ready to throw it down at any moment

Page 524 – “While believing sincerely in the gods, he did not consider it the Way of the Samurai to seek their aid. The Way was an ultimate truth transcending gods and Buddhas. Stepping back a pace, he folded his hands and, rather than ask for protection, thanked the gods for their timely help.”

 Be careful what you ask God for, work like everything depends on you and pray like everything depends on God

Page 529 – “Mushashi clung to one basic strategy. He never attacked a group from the front or the side – always obliquely at an exposed corner”

Flank, flank, flank, rarely attack a problem head on

Page 542 – “Why Matahachi did persist in considering himself inferior? And why did he attribute his troubles to others. Nobody can create a worthwhile life for you but you yourself. What is done is done. Forget about the past. “

You are inferior to no one, you must persist in life and achieve all that you can whilst enjoying your life.

Page 583 – “Wasn’t nature itself big only when it was reflected in human eyes? Didn’t the gods themselves come into existence only when the communicated with the hearts of mortals. Men – living spirits, not dead rock – performed the greatest actions of all”

Look to nature for inspiration and remember that you too can inspire

Page 656 – “Only those who had grown their own grain and vegetables really understand how sacred and valuable they were”

If you get everything given to you in life you will never know how valuable your life truly is.

Page 661 – “If you do nothing but read you’ll lose sight of the reality around you”

Reading is inferior to doing

Page 663 – “Do not attempt to oppose the way of the universe. But first make sure you know the way of the universe”

This is deep, don’t try to change things but rather understand them and once you understand something only then can you act.

Page 680 – “Instead of wanting to be like this or that, make yourself into a silent, immovable giant. That’s what the mountain is. Don’t waste your time trying to impress people. If you become the sort of man people can respect, they’ll respect you, without your doing anything.”

Life is not about trying to impress people is about doing the best you can in each moment, living your life to the fullest.

Page 768 – “The way of the sword must have specific objectives, to protect and refine the spirit”

Think about weight training like this, its not just about getting stronger but making your spirit stronger and healthier.

Page 771 – ‘’Even more exciting was the prospect of being able to show people that they were wrong, that he had what it took after all”

This is at the point when Matahachi is offered the bribe from the Daiymo, these are the wrong motivations.  Do things for the right reasons.

Page 783 – “Cowardice is the most shameful weakness a samurai can be accused of. You let several weeks pass after your brother’s death before challenging Sasaki Kojiro. You adopted the cowardly ruse of getting others to help you lure Kojiro here so you could attack en masse.”

Face your problems, don’t let others do the dirty work for you

Page 784 – “Beginning now, be humble, work hard and try with all your might to cultivate your spirit”

Be humble first, you don’t know everything, just do the absolute best you can.

Page 785 – “If one forgot about oneself and worked for the group, food would naturally be forthcoming”

Put others first and abundance will show itself to you

Page 787 – “Why, then, should I cling to a life that is fuffilled, when nobly given, For the sake of our great lord, for the sake of the people”

Protect your life nobly but when it’s time to die be prepared to let it go, give it nobly.

Page 792 – “Two drumsticks, one sound. People were born with two hands, why not use them. Custom had made the unnatural appear natural and vice versa.”

Two drumsticks, one sound. Two eyes one vision, everything is a circle, everything is connected. The same lesson of life is repeating itself over and over again.

Page 792 – “The way of the sword was to face death squarely, unflinchingly, though movement should be free as if it were purely reflexive”

Everything is in preparation, do all you can and then be in the moment.

Page 813 – “One’s self is the basis of everything. Every action is a manifestation of the self. A person who doesn’t know himself can do nothing for others”

Gnothe Se Auton

Page 813 – “There’s nothing more frightening than a half baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what’s good for it”

Jordan Peterson agrees, clean your room and fix your life before you try to save the world

Page 841 – “The truth of the scholar, alone in his study, does not always accord with what the world at large considers to be true. Before I attempt to govern the nation, I must learn what the nation has to teach”

Life is more than books, you need to live it

Page 894 – “If you can bear up under any hard ship, you can experience a pleasure greater than the pain. Day and night, hour by hour, people are buffeted by waves of pain and pleasure, one after the other. If they try to experience only pleasure they cease to be truly alive. Then the pleasure evaporates”

Experience pain just like you will experience pleasure embrace it and know that it will pass

Page 895 – “To tell the truth, I have run up against a wall. There are times when I wonder if I have any future. I feel completely empty. It’s like being confined to a shell. I hate myself. I tell myself I am no good. By forcing myself to go one a new path open before me.  It’s a real struggle at times.”

Even the greats feel like they are stagnating

Page 905 – “Leaves and Branches, how many people are thrown of course by irrelevant matters”

Focus on the things that matter don’t get hung up on the details.

Page 906 – “In his final analysis there was no one to rely on but himself. The shadow is not real, the shadow of the confused mind. The shadow may change shape but the universe never”

You can run yourself in circles looking inward. Look out to the universe and realize how little you matter and then you will see how small problems are.

Page 926 – “That’s what’s extraordinary about him. He’s not content with relying on whatever natural gifts he may have. Knowing he’s ordinary he’s always trying to improve himself. No one appreciates the agonizing effort he’s had to make. Now that his years of training have yielded such spectacular results, everybody’s talking about god given talent. That’s how men who don’t even try very hard comfort themselves?

It’s not what you are born with but how you use it. As Ludacris says, “It’s not the hand that you’re dealt, but how you’re playin’ your cards, boy!”

Page 948 – “We owe our life to three things, protection from our lord, the larges of the successive heads and the hardship after the battle of Sekigahara”

Be grateful for you have and give thanks for it every single day

Page 955 – “Everybody has a private and public life, behind the smile is a housewife weeping here heart out”

You do not know what is happening behind people closed doors. Always be patient, kind and all things with love

Page 950’s – Mushasi left with little fanfare and was focused and calm before the bout, little to no distraction. Kojiro has so many guests and was full of distraction, way too much pressure and distraction

Focus on the task on hand. Forget about the trees and branches.

Page 960’s – Mushasi mind is clear before the fight, paints, carves and is little bit bored. He is free but most importantly he is in the moment.

MJ gambled before big games to relax, its important to relax before going into great tasks

Page 968 – “If you were going to win you wouldn’t throw your scabbard away. You’ve cast away your future, your life”

 Our acts scream out what we are or what is about to happen. Throwing a speech in the bin after reading it

Thoughts

A great book. This teaches you a lot about life and the challenges you will face. Mushashi is always ready to die for his cause. In each and every moment he does his best, no matter how much he is struggling. Keep doing all you can. Everything you can. This is a book you read and you become wise whilst reading it. 9/10

Today at work I found out a co-worker and one who mentors me is the same age as me
He is one level higher then me in the Corp ladder
And earns 90k more then me

He is a better operator then me
This is the truth
He has the polish companies love
He works hard
Well spoken
And does good work
So full credit to the man

I writing this because it struck me hard when he told me
But why?
Everyone’s life is different
We come from different starting points and have different environments and make different decisions
You can’t compare

But it struck me deep

He is all in
On the Corp life

I am two feet in but constantly on the edge thinking or pretending to think of ways to get out

So we want different things

So why did it strike deep?

Is it jealousy?

I honestly don’t think so

Is it a feeling of inferiority?

Again no, I don’t feel inferior around him

It’s ego

I was the youngest person on my level
Well so I thought
Well I’m not
There is someone your age and above you mate
And good on him
You can only salute the succes and learn from it
It’s no knock on you

Live and learn

And it won’t hold you back
You got to keep on your own unique path the best way you can
And you know when you do your best
Let the ego go

Bravo to him

For what he has accomplished

Now go do what you want to do

Of Mice and Men. By John Steinbeck.

Synopsis

A novella about two friends trying to make it in the world.

Key Takeaways

 “A guy needs somebody―to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.”

We are social creatures, sometimes it seems harder to work with someone but its always easier in the long run to have a partner, a partner in life and a partner in crime. This applies especially when travelling and working.

“Trouble with mice is you always kill ’em.”

If you don’t know your own strength you will kill the vulnerable and fragile things around you.

“Ain’t many guys travel around together,” he mused. “I don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other” 

The last part of this quote rings true with me. Are we all scared of each other? Is that why we don’t connect or share? Is that why we lie? Pretend? Put on fake smiles? Don’t be scared. Open up and you’ll be surprised how well you connect.

“I ain’t got no people. I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain’t no good. They don’t have no fun. After a long time they get mean.”

Similar to the above, if we spend so much time alone, how can we have fun? And if we don’t have fun, what happens, we get mean.

“I see hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hundreds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out there. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody never gets no land. It’s just in their head.”

Are you making the required sacrifices to make your dreams come true?

Thoughts

Another thing which I could not find the perfect quote for was how we cant save people. George does his best to save Lennie but can’t. That speaks to me, we can’t save people, no matter how much we love them. We can only save ourselves or at least hope to.  A good novella about life and human nature. The frog and the scorpion. Its good. 8/10.

Sit

Listen

Look into the eyes

Breathe

Listen

You have a gift

Use it

Listen to people

Clear your mind

Look into the eyes

Listen

Quiet the mind

Listen

Connect

Its not so hard

You have gift

Use it

Don’t talk

Listen

Look in there eyes

Block out the mind

Block out distractions

No thoughts

Go back to the breathing exercises

Square

Triangle

3 Count

Lock in

Look into their eyes

Smile

Heart of Love

Listen

Connect

Listen

Synopsis

A book about a POW who survived the bombing of Dresden adjusting back to normal life.

Key Takeaways

Page 2 – “But not many words about Dresden came from my mind then – not enough of them to make a book, anyway. And not many words come now, either, when I have become an old fart with his memories and his Pall Malls, with his sons full grown.”

It’s funny what we think we can write/talk/think about and what we do. Some experiences are just beyond words or beyond the ability express. Its like photos that don’t do the views justice

Page 17 – “There was nothing I could do about it. As an Earthling, I had to believe whatever clocks said – and calendars.”

Time is social construct that we hold ourselves to. How many other social constructs do we hold ourselves to?

Page 17 – “No art is possible without a dance with death”

I thought this was interesting. Food is nicest just before its overdone. How close do we come to death every day?

Page 63 – “Billy licked his lips, thought a while, inquired at last: ‘Why me?’ “That is a very Earthling  question to ask, Mr Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?’….’Well, here we are Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why’

We are slaves to fate, nothing we do is our choice. There isn’t a why, things just because they happen. Why does there need to be why?

Page 70 – “All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before. Bugs in amber…. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will”

Like the above, what choices are really ours?

Page 106 – “Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class sine, say, Napoleonic times.”

I found this quite insightful, how much do we hate ourselves for not achieving things. Some things are quite hard and we do our best and sometimes it doesn’t go your way.

Page 137 – “It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and mode very good fertilizer”

Men kill themselves for money. What does this feed? More money. A self-feeding machine. The capitalist system. This is an amazing metaphor. Think of partnerships that go sour.

Page 160 – “Later on in life, the Tralfamadorians would advise Billy to concentrate on the happy moments of his life, and to ignore the unhappy ones – to stare only at pretty things as eternity failed to go by.”

We can con choose what to focus on.

Final Thoughts

The book was okay, it was a strange read. I really like the concept of all things are happening all the time and no one dies. Moments exist forever. The mushroom trip was a glimpse into a similar world. If energy cannot be destroyed, where were we before we were born or where do we go when we die? The book also provides some glimpses into the randomness of life. Somethings things just happen. No reason. I give the book a 7/10.