A Mind in Motion

April provided me with ample opportunity to get lost (found) in books on my long boot slogs through the Vermont wilderness. I managed to listen to fifteen, six of which are definitely worth checking out.

My top pick (and given a very rare ***** rating) is “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder. This book is both an insightful look into the foundations of tyranny, and a frightening description of how far we are down that road already. In my opinion, this is a must read for anyone that wants to make sense of our current political climate here in the U.S., and more importantly, for anyone that has the courage to take a stand against authoritarianism.

Endure – Alex Hutchinson ****
Everything All At Once – Bill Nye ***
Living with a Seal – Jesse Itzler **
The Examined Life – Stephen Grosz ***
Chasing Excellence – Ben Bergeron ***
She Comes First – Ian Kerner ****
On Tyranny – Timothy Snyder *****
Overcoming The Nice Guy Syndrome – Ron Louis & David Copeland **.5
A Very Short Tour of the Mind – Michael Corballis ***
When – Dan Pink ****
Hold Me Tight – Sue Johnson ****
Your Inner Critic is a Big Jerk – Danielle Krysa ***
Focus – Daniel Goleman ****
Excellent Sheep – William Deresiewicz ***
Natural Causes – Barbara Ehrenreich ***.5

(if you are not yet an Audible member, you can get one of these books for free, by signing up for a 30 day trial – use this link, and you’ll help support my work as well – Audible Trial Membership)

The biggest letdown of the bunch was “Living with a Seal”, by Jesse Itzler. It’s an overdramatized account of what it’s like to have David Goggins as your roommate and coach, and a great example of how NOT to get in shape, or change your habits. Don’t waste your time or money on this one.

While March was a challenging month for reading, due to my race directing the U.S. National Snowshoe Championships, I still managed to listen to five books, three of which were quite long, and technical.

Decoding Reality – Vlatko Vedral ***
Solve For Happy – Mo Gawdat **
Skin in the Game – Nassim Taleb ***.5
The Strange Order of Things – Antonio Damasio ****.5
Enlightenment Now – Steven Pinker ****.5

(if you are not yet an Audible member, you can get one of these books for free, by signing up for a 30 day trial – use this link, and you’ll help support my work as well – Audible Trial Membership)

Of these five, ‘The Strange Order of Things’, is my top pick, with ‘Enlightenment Now’, coming in a close second. Both of these books are very important reads, and if you don’t mind taking your time, to wade through LOTS of quite technical information, you will come out the other side with some very useful, and currently applicable perspectives.

In the past, I’ve given quite high marks to any book written by Nassim Taleb (Antifragile, The Black Swan, and Fooled by Randomness), due to principles that relate quite well to what I’ve learned as an athlete, and practical knowledge seeker, but ‘Skin in the Game’, is filled with just as much vitriol, as it is with mind-opening content. When not engaged in ad hominem attacks on other thinkers, Taleb makes some very good arguments, and describes a foundational philosophy that resonates quite strongly with how the world has shown up for me. It’s a good read, for sure, but you have to look past his arrogance and pejorative dismissal of differing viewpoints, in order to see the value in his ideas, as they stand on their own merit.

One book in the above list, that I would strongly recommend that you NOT spend your money or your time on, is ‘Solve For Happy.’ The author purports to have used the principles of engineering to create an equation that solves for ‘happy’, and this definitely piqued my interest, but the book fails to deliver. More insidiously, this book is actually a bait and switch gimmick, that quickly discards the empirical rigor of an engineer, and replaces it with the hopeful spiritual beliefs of the author, and the presenting of his son as an infallible, almost Christ-like figure. I’m not sure what the author’s intentions were in writing the book. If they were to understand the grief that he experienced at the loss of his son, then I wouldn’t mind. But he seems to go far beyond that… entering into the territory of messiah creation, and apologetics. In any case, this book is all over the map, and fails to offer anything of lasting value.

February was a good month for listening, as I was spending half of each day outside, working on trails at Prospect Mountain. Even though Feb. is a short month, I managed ten books.

Mind – Daniel Siegel **.5
Consciousness and the Brain – Stanislas Dehaene ***
Make Your Bed – William H. McRaven **
Avoidant – Jeb Kinnison ****
The Confidence Gap – Russ Harris ****
Words on the Move – John McWhorter ***
Primal Leadership – Daniel Goleman ***
Get Smart – Brian Tracy **
Unconditional Self Acceptance – Cheri Huber ***
Ikigai – Héctor García ***

(if you are not yet an Audible member, you can get one of these books for free, by signing up for a 30 day trial – use this link, and you’ll help support my work as well – Audible Trial Membership)

My strongest recommend for the month is ‘The Confidence Gap’, with ‘Avoidant’ coming in a close second. If you want a good foundational understanding of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), give ‘The Confidence Gap’ a listen. Of all the therapeutic methods out there today, this is the one that I align with the most. It’s honest, grounded, and practical.

If you want a better understanding of why some of your relationships may have gone haywire, or an understanding of why the current ‘person of interest’ in your life, may be causing you some pain and frustration, give ‘Avoidant’ a listen. While this book does not provide a full description of Attachment Theory, it does shed a great deal of light on the avoidant attachment style. I caution though, that this information should not be used to demonize people with an avoidant attachment style, but simply to understand their behavior in light of Attachment Theory.

There were three books that fell into the ‘don’t waste your time or your money’ category – ‘Mind’, ‘Make Your Bed’, and ‘Get Smart’. These books are either over-simplified to the point of being useless, over-complicated to the point of being unintelligible, or simply so obvious, that I wonder why the author spent the time writing it… perhaps they were bored. Regardless of which category each of these books falls into, don’t waste your time… you’ve got better things to do.

Winter tends to slow me down… and this affords me to opportunity to really tune in to the books I’m listening to. Most of the eight books I listened to in January, were experienced while lying in the snow, cutting off trees at ground level with a hand saw… This type of activity, really embeds the words into your full experience.

Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink **.5
Braving The Wilderness – Brené Brown ***.5
The End of Average – Todd Rose ***.5
Deviate – Beau Lotto ****
Ask More – Frank Sesno ***
Stop Saying You’re Fine – Mel Robbins ***
Advice Not Given – Mark Epstein ***
12 Rules for Life – Jordan Peterson ***.5

(if you are not yet an Audible member, you can get one of these books for free, by signing up for a 30 day trial – use this link, and you’ll help support my work as well – Audible Trial Membership)

Of the eight, ‘Deviate’ by Beau Lotto, stands head and shoulders above the rest. Drawing on his experience and research as a neuroscientist, Beau makes the case that we are not meant to perceive the world accurately, but to perceive it usefully. Black and white, are never black and white… we just see them that way. Knowing this, can help you ‘deviate’ from your perceptual tendencies, and open yourself up to a world that is far richer that you realize. Great listen.

While 2017 was lighter than previous years, in total numbers of books completed (87), it was jam packed with great reads. A five star rating is not something I give out easily, as they are in my opinion, near perfect books, at least in their ability to communicate ideas or information that is significantly impactful. Before I give such a rating, I do my best to try and talk myself out of it, and to look for ways in which I might be biased. So if the rating sticks, it means something to me.

All of the books below are ‘must reads’ in my book, but the first three are life changing.

The Knowledge Illusion – Steven Sloman *****
The Secrets of Story – Matt Bird *****
The Upward Spiral – Alex Korb *****
The Art of Power – Thich Naht Hahn ****.5
A General Theory of Love – ****.5
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F%@k – Mark Manson ****.5
You Are Now Less Dumb ****.5
The Ego Tunnel – Thomas Metzinger ****
Messy – Tim Harford ****
Who Are You Really? – Brian Little ****
Don’t Think of an Elephant – George Lakoff ****
The Evolving Self – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ****
Behave – Robert Sapolsky ****
Denial – Ajit Varki, Danny Brower ****
The Lost Art of Listening – Michael P. Nichols ****
The Elements of Eloquence – Mark Forsyth ****
Made to Stick – Dan and Chip Heath ****
Drive – Dan Pink ****
Poke The Box – Seth Godin ****

(if you are not yet an Audible member, you can get one of these books for free, by signing up for a 30 day trial – use this link, and you’ll help support my work as well – Audible Trial Membership)