The Writer's Daily Companion by Amy Peters

The Writer's Daily Companion: 365 Inspirations and Writing Tips by Amy Peters offers daily inspiration to writers of all types.  Each day of the week focuses on a different aspect of writing.

Monday: Writers on writing - Writers talk about their craft
Tuesday: Motivation - Tips for writer's block and production
Wednesday: Writing class - A writing assignment
Thursday: Editing - Tips for focused review of writing
Friday: Biography - Background on famous authors
Saturday: Books to read - Great books illustrating writers demonstrating excellence
Sunday: Writing prompt - Ideas for short essays.

Week 35: Biography - George Lucas.  I read this page while watching the Kennedy Center honor George Lucas for his contribution to the arts on the television. George Lucas suffered an accident and changed the focus of his life from cars to college/movie making.  I write these blogs because of a similar situation that temporarily reduced my mobility.  I often go back to the adage that we can not control the cards we are dealt in life but we can control how we play them. 

I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the background of specific authors and get their writing tips.  With only one page per day, the information comes in nice bite sized nuggets of inspiration.

George Lucas - Car accident changed life - 6 min.

Language learning

After taking a Coursera class on learning difficult subjects I have been working on learning French and Spanish. 

Audio recordings from the library work well while driving.  The added risk of accident is slightly more than listening to music on the radio but less than have a conversation with a passenger. This is according to the Minnesota Safety Council. 

I have been using the free Duolingo App for both French and Spanish.  It has some features of a game app. showing daily progress giving out rewards and estimating the percent fluency for the language.  It also points out when past learning is getting weak and needs a refresher.  The spaced learning works well to combine both focused and diffuse learning.  Fifteen minutes of focused learning each day allows for 24 hours of diffuse learning to occur in the brain as it rewires the neural circuits during sleep. 

Online help is available from the Living Language lab - French.  It complements the French Living Language audio course available at beginner through advanced for less than $35 US. I've been listening to the beginner's version for several weeks.  It has been helpful but frustrating as it lists a several essential phrases needed for the beginning French speaker in rapid succession with no repetition and full speed.  It is helpful giving exercises in social contexts for the home and the restaurant. 

Duolingo introduction - 2 minutes

Luis von Anh - The next chapter in human computation - 17 min.

Learning How to Learn - Coursera

This is a small list of the Universities offering free online courses through Coursera

I've always wanted to take an online learning course but had not set aside the time.  I recently completed the UC San Diego Coursera class, Learning How to Learn, taught by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski.  The course provides excellent tips on how to master difficult subjects.  It was well worth the effort and it increased my understanding of the learning process.

Topics include:

• Focused vs Diffuse learning
• Chunking information
• Procrastination
• Renaissance Learning 

The focused versus diffuse learning provided very helpful information on learning and problem solving. The instructors advocate focused spaced learning of a subject.  This allows time for the brain to make connections when you are asleep, engaged in physical activity or taking a shower.  Diffuse learning allows the brain to produce moments of insight when you wake up in the morning or finish a walk.  A recent study on exercise and memory(KTBS) indicates that exercise approximately four hours after studying improves memory retention.

The instructors advocate using the focused process of the Pomodoro technique (Reg. TM) to break through the initial discomfort that feeds procrastination.  

The free language learning app, Duolingo, uses many of the techniques advocated by this course.  I am using it along with free audio learning guides from the library to learn Spanish Living Language and French Living Language.

Improve studying and productivity with the 25 minute Pomodoro Technique - 6 min.

Dear Committtee Members by Julie Schumacher

The book, Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher offers a humorous collection of letters from an English professor at a small US college. He pens letters of recommendation in the hopes of getting rid of a less than helpful IT professional or for students hoping to get entry level jobs in positions that often perfectly fit their talents and shortcomings.

This is also a portrait of a garrulous professor on the downhill side of a less than promising career. The professor documents problems with facilities, the institutional bureaucracy, a former wife and  lover.

While working at a University for over 25 years, I've known many people who match the description of the well drawn characters in this book.  I enjoyed the painfully accurate description of the irritated office employees suffering through a demolition and remodeling project while occupying a building.

This touching and humorous book reminds me of some of the best of Mart Twain.  The author accurately depicts the majority of human beings who achieve moments of modest success sprinkled with failures in part due to our own foibles.

Julie Schumacher - Dear Committee Members - 46 min. 

Leadership BS by Jeffery Pfeffer

The book, Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time, by Jeffery Pfeffer describes in detail the inauthentic culture of leadership consulting. The bar for entrance into this group is low.  The information provided by these leadership consultants is often aspirational but of little practical use.  Leaders must be inauthentic to be successful. They must get along with people they do not like. They must act confident when they are not. 

He also points to the altered reality of successful business leaders who pen books. The picture they paint is an idealized one that does not mesh with the actual reality of what happened in the company according to those that worked there. People want to use well crafted myths as guiding principals for leadership rather than embrace the messy reality that exists. The higher a position a leader reaches the fewer consequences for bad behavior.  

A significant majority of workplaces are toxic environments with leaders looking out for their own self interest at the expense of the company and the employees that work there. The author suggests that workers also proceed with the same clear eyed view that the company does not owe them at all for their past accomplishments but only for what they produce now and their potential future productivity.  He paints a picture of corporate culture similar to the parallel universe in the Star Trek episode: Mirror Mirror. 

Mirror Mirror - 2 min. 

If you want feel good inspiration this is not the book for you.  If you want a sober reality check on the culture of corporations and institutions of higher learning then this is the book for you. 

Leadership BS - Google Talk  - 55 minutes

Leadership BS - Stanford University - 77 minutes

Discovery Your Child's Learning Style by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle Hodson

I purchased the Kindle version of Discover Your Child's Learning Style: Personalized Learning for Student Success by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle Hodson for less than $3.  Our family was trying to figure out the best way for my daughter to learn based on her particular learning style.

I found the authors' optimism about education to be very refreshing.  Their premise is that everyone can learn how to master a subject if they are able to learn the material in a manner that matches their learning style.  There does not have to be a bell curve.

The authors' also talked about something that vexes parents.  Children may have the aptitude and ability to easily master a particular skill such as music, math, or a particular sport but not have the passion for it at this particular time in their life.

I call this the magnetic theory of parenting.  If I have to badger my child to attend a particular activity she won't put the effort into it even though she has the talent for it.  It is like two north ends of a magnet repelling each other.

If she says, "come on were are going to be late.  I want to get there early."  Then she has found something she is passionate about and will be willing to put the extra 10,000 hours in to become good at it.

The survey in the appendix of the book helps identify the child's interests, what specific environment do they prefer to study and if they prefer to learn by reading, by sound or visually.  As a hint, allow your child to circle all items in a category not just the main category.

The Five Modalities of Learning - Mariaemma Wills - 6 min. 

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogerty

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogerty provides a delightful resource for individuals with more than a casual interest in improved writing.  She offers tips on when to use a dash, comma or parenthesis. She offers well researched advice and plenty of examples for each topic.

I found her book a bit more accessible than Eat's Shoots and Leaves by British author Lynn Truss. Mignon provides discrete lessons in digestible servings whereas Lynn tends to take a bit more indirect path offering some witty diversions.

I appreciated the helpful hints on proper etiquette for email correspondence. She also gives guidance for proper use of passive voice. Politicians use this to great effect: "Mistakes were made."; "There was no controlling legal authority."

I'd recommend purchasing the audiobook. The author has a pleasant speaking voice. The topics provided a mentally stimulating diversion during my morning commute.

For those of you who want more, please review the written version of Mignon's Grammar Girl Podcast Archive.  At this site you can find out the if the Minions from Despicable Me speak a real language.

 

 How to organize a book by Mignon Fogerty - 6 min. 

The Year Without a Summer - 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed History - Klingaman W.K. and N.P.

The Klingamans' new book, The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History, describes the 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora (Wikipedia) and the subsequent changes in the weather and societies around the world.

I picked this book up as I am working on a sequel to The Smell of Truthiness involving a similar scenario for the eruption of a volcano in the future.  I wanted a to find out what changes to expect in the weather and what stresses this would put on governments and societies.

The change in weather had it's greatest impact in the summer of 1816 resulting in cold weather and droughts in NE part of the US.  The growing season was short, wet, and cold in Europe resulting in very poor crop production and food shortages. The population of Illinois and Ohio grew rapidly as farmers gave up on life in cold and dry New England.

J.M.W. Turner - Sunset painting from 1816

Artists were influence by the weather.  Paintings of sunsets contained more red colors.  Scientists have used digital images to determine the effects volcanic activity on sunset paintings (NY. Times - Aug. 2015) .  The woman who was to become Mary Shelly began writing her book about a reanimated creature known as Frankenstein's monster.

The author covers the effects of the volcano on most of the developed world with good climate records.  It was interesting to read all of the false attributions as to the cause of the sudden cool climate.  It took the monitoring of recent volcanic activity in the latter part of the 20th century to piece together the causes of climate change in 1816. The book provides a wealth of information on how governments responded to the crisis.  This can be instructive as a similar event will likely happen in the future.

Mt. Tambora Effects - 5 min.

Open Textbook Library

The University of Minnesota has an Open Textbook Library as a substitute for standard text books. The authors of these text books are typically paid a flat fee to produce the book by a foundation.  The author waves royalty rights and the books are made available for without cost.  For introductory subjects that change very little (algebra, physics, and statistics) these resources can be a real help to cash strapped college students. 

There are good introductory books for Physics, Chemistry and Biology.  I did not find any open text books listed for Microbiology or Mycology but they had a good Elementary Algebra Textbook. 

David Ernst - CIO - College of Ed and Human Dev. - U of Minnesota - 20 min.

World Order by Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger's World Order provides an in depth perspective on the geopolitical balance of power in all regions of the world.  Starting with the doctrine of Westphalian Sovereignty (Wikipedia) developed after the 30 years war in 1648 the author uses it as a point of comparison for each country or region of the world.  Do countries respect boarders and not interfere in the internal domestic affairs of another country?

In Europe, the consolidation of the separate German states with Prussia created a political imbalance in Europe that led to two world wars.  The largely unabated quest for land by Russia was only halted by the outbreak of World War I.  If left unchecked the natural inclination for Russia is continued expansion to the Atlantic.

I came away impressed by the resilience of two countries in the book,  Japan and India.  Japan for it's flexibility in taking in new approaches to technology, trade and governance without sacrificing its cultural heritage.  It also has responded with resilience to end of World War II and the recent Tsunami.

India became a unified country indirectly through the efforts of the United Kingdom to organized the region.  The colonial rulers provided enough education for India to develop an awareness of being a nation and eventually cast off British rule.  India's rich intellectual heritage allowed the country to take an unaligned path through the cold war.  The splitting of Bangladesh and Pakistan made it much easier to maintain the balance of power in the region although conflict periodically flares up between the countries.

Mr. Kissinger covers the messy implications of the Arab Spring.  The moderate secular uprisings were quickly over run by groups with singular visions for the need to make sure they were the ones in power.  These groups could not accept a pluralistic society where they may not be in charge.

Iran emerges as a principle agent for the destabilization of states in the region in favor of religious rule.  As Persia/Iran has a long history of statehood of over 3,000 years the recent turn toward a fundamentalist rule is perplexing. 

Countries in SE Asia learned from the United States involvement in the Korean War that it is willing to accept a stalemate over victory.  During the Korean War, the Chinese killed more Americans during the two year negotiation for the end to hostilities than died during the active phase of fighting. The Chinese applied the lessons from the Art of War and attacked the American Army ordered to hold defensive positions.  

This sobering book provides a clinical dissection of origins of the current World Order.  I found it alternately fascinating and stomach churning.

Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt - Google 66 min.

Don't Know Much About Anything by Kenneth C. Davis

Kenneth C. Davis's book, Don't Know Much About Anything: Everything You Need to Know but Never Learned About People, Places, Events, and More! covers a wide range of topics with enough depth of provide a good general knowledge review.

The audio version of the book has a good question and answer format with a reader posing the question and a different person providing the answers.  It was a good book to listen to while commuting to work.  The author confesses to not being a very good student while growing up.  He had lots of questions and didn't like the format used for instruction in school.  His natural curiosity led him to write this book and a series of other books with similar titles. 

Ken Davis - Don't Know Much About Anything Else - 3 min.

 Ken has written a sequel to the book with more fun facts and information helping us know more about our world.

Words of Science by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov's Words of Science  had been sitting on my bookshelf for more than 20 years.  I just completed it reading a couple definitions at a time starting from the back of the book.   My version of the book was published in the late 1950's.  It has an outdated reference to DDT as a chemical treatment that worked well to control malaria and other insect related pathogens.

I was surprised at the liberal borrowing from many different languages for scientific vocabulary, including many Arabic words.  The alkali metal category for the water reactive potassium, sodium and cesium has an Arabic origin.

The Hg initials for mercury combine letters from words that literally mean quick silver.  The known planets were originally named after the known elements only mercury survived the initial cut as it was the planet that moved quickly like the element mercury.  The later radioactive elements of Uranium, Neptunium and plutonium were named after the last planets/dwarf planet in the solar system (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto).

Top Ten Asimov quotes - 3 minutes

A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink

Daniel Pink in his book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future , provides a glimpse into the future from 2006 that appears to be quite accurate as 2015 nears the end of summer. Many jobs or task that can be written as a step by step sequence or routine algorithm can be replaced by a computer or robotics.  New jobs will require merging playfulness, creativity, humor and design as well as technical expertise.

Although he does not explicitly state it, his approach moves away from a strict STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curriculum and incorporates STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math).

Ruling the future requires us to engage the six senses

1. Design - Create products with both function and beauty
2. Story - Present not just the facts but a memorable tale that sticks
3. Symphony - Combine parts into an integrated whole
4. Empathy - Understand the perspective of others to serve them better
5. Play - A sense of playfulness spurs creativity and produces a joyful experience
6. Meaning - Work and interact for a larger purpose an intrinsic rather than extrinsic goal

A portfolio follows each of these six sections of the book. This includes additional resources to further apply the principles in the chapter. 

Visual logic has produced a graphic recording of Daniel Pink's Book A Whole New Mind.

Daniel Pink - Book summary - Changes - 4 minutes

Education and the Changing World of Work - 4 min.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss

 

Lynn Truss's book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation offers a blunt humorous defense of proper punctuation. The author focuses primarily on British punctuation, but she adds a few comparisons to American usage where there is a distinct difference.

I appreciate the quotes in the book from famous authors illustrating the proper use of punctuation.  The comma, employed by a master writer, can be used to bounce a sentence along.  The comma delineated items hold the reader in suspense until at last the period releases the tension.

Lynn Truss - 15 minutes

Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D.

I listened the audio version of the Tal Ben-Shahar's book, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment.  I found it a helpful guide to purposely choosing to be happier. 

The most helpful section relates to a grid that relates to optimizing happiness.

• Hedonism - Pleasure now, Pain later  -  Example: binge on sugar snacks and regret it later.
• Nihilism - Avoid interaction and engaging in the world, isolation and depression
• Rat race - Pain now with happiness deferred. 
• Happiness optimization - Enjoy the journey, Enjoy the results  

An example of my own happiness optimization:  A coworker and I developed a skit about ergonomics for the Minnesota State Fair.  The skit was titled Goldy and the Three Chairs.  We enjoyed the process of skit development laughing to the point of exhaustion at the bits we had to cut out.  We also enjoyed the final performance at the Fair and observing the audience response.  John Cleese relates a similar experience when he would write scripts with Graham Chapman.  He would physically fall on the floor convulsed with laughter during their script writing sessions. They also enjoyed doing the performance. 

The author suggests that happiness revolves around working on tasks that have intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards.  Typical extrinsic rewards are monetary, positional and external recognition.  The intrinsic rewards will vary for each person.  Intrinsic rewards provide additional meaning and purpose in life.

The book is of reasonable length, accessible and helpful for individuals choosing to lead a happier life.

Five ways to become happier - Think Big - 4.5 minutes

• Accept and feel pain (only psychopaths and dead people don't)
• Spend time with friends
• Move more and be physically active
• Express gratitude
• Simplify your life

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

Brian Tracy's book, Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time offers advice on improving productivity and by doing what most needs to be done first.   The phrase eat that frog is attributed to Mark Twain who said, "Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day."  Brian Tracy advises, eat the biggest, ugliest most important frog first then focus attention on other lower priority items.

The sense of accomplishment can be addictive.  When we finish a difficult task our brains release reward chemicals and produce a good feeling.  Repeatedly tackling and completing these tasks can lead to positive reinforcement for these behaviors and it can become a positive addictive habit. 

Some of the suggestions in his book are similar to those in his book No Excuses.  This text focuses on specific strategies to tackle procrastination like using the Swiss cheese method or the small bite method.

I found his ABCDE method for prioritization to be helpful.  E in this list stands for eliminate.  I have used his early morning method to improve productivity.  The cats often wake me up early in the morning and when I am unable to go back to sleep I use the time to complete tasks requiring focused concentration and minimal distraction.  

The ABCDE method of prioritizing - 5 minutes

The Universe Within by Neil Shubin

Neil Shubin's The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People takes a fascinating journey from a tooth in exposed rock on the surface of Greenland to a supernova and back to the daily rings on corral.  Trace elements in our body were created as a result of a supernova.

We share similar biologic clocks with hamsters and fruit flies.  Genetic mutations that cause altered sleep patterns in fruit flies are similar to those that cause sleep pattern disruptions in humans.

He describes the evidence for the plate tectonics and past climate change. He relays the discovery of  44 million year old Redwood tree stumps on the continent of Antarctica.  The still burnable tree stumps provide evidence for a time when that continent was much warmer than it is today.

Neil Shubin's primary work as a paleontologist involves very patient studies of rock formations for transition creatures.  Based on the fossil record they expected to find a creature bridging the gap between fish and amphibian in sedimentary rock near the end of the Devonian period.  He and a team of researchers spent five years studying exposed late Devonian (375 million years ago) rock layers in Canada and unearthed Tiktaalik (Wikipedia) a transition creature between fish and amphibian.

Neil Shubin with Tiktaalik - Mother Jones

I found this a fascinating book linking humans and what we are made of with the origin of the Universe and the creation of our solar system. 

The Universe Within - 19 minutes

Your inner fish - PBS - 55 minutes

No Excuses! by Brian Tracy

The book, No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline, provides concrete advice on improving work performance.  The Pareto Principle (Wikipedia) applies to earning power.  Twenty percent of people make 80% of the money.  To be in the 20%, individuals need to model the behavior of successful people who have achieved success.  Unlike Joseph E, Stiglitz, Brian Tracy points to most of the successful people in America being first generation.  These people started from nothing and became very successful through hard work. 

Brian also offers advice on achieving health bodies and healthy relationships as they work together to form a person who has more control over their own life as opposed to being controlled by outside forces.

Brian advocates adopting specific behaviors to be successful.  Observe how other successful individuals operate.  Model their behavior and become a success.  Work more, and socialize, web surf less at work.  Get noticed by accomplishing high priority tasks quickly and competently.

Brian Tracy - The habits of success - 8 min. 

The Man Who Made Lists by Joshua Kendall

Joshua Kendall's book, The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus, describes the life of Peter Roget and the influences that caused him to create his thesaurus. 

I was surprised at the breadth of Peter Roget's experience.  He published papers that helped with the log scale on the slide rule.  As a physician, his understanding of the human eye and his observations of wheel spokes through window slots paved the way for the motion picture industry.  He also helped to organize private libraries prior to the development of the Dewey Decimal System.

His personal life was marked by tragedy dealing with deaths and a family with a history of mental illness.

His thesaurus was 50 years in the making.  He used an early draft as a tool when he was lecturing on human physiology and when writing papers.  Peter Roget's live proves that it is never too late to have a second act or leave a lasting legacy. 

Joshua Kendall - The compulsive energy that shaped America - 59 minutes

Ideas That Shaped Mankind by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto offers a tour of ideas that shaped human history through a series of lectures titled: Ideas That Shaped Mankind: A Concise History of Human Thought (The Modern Scholar) (The Modern Scholar: Great Professors Teaching You).  The audio version allows us to hear the Queen Mary University of London professor deliver the lectures in his upper class British accent.

He covers the major world religions, Buddhism, Muslim, Christianity and Judaism.  The disproportionate effect of Judaism is not unusual in that small countries like England, Greece and Rome/Italy have produced disproportional cultural impacts.  

Many of the ideas that shaped history turned out to be quiet deleterious.  These include ideas presented in Machiavelli's The Little Prince, Marxism, Communism, fundamentalism and a stew of other isms that promise utopia but deliver something considerably less palatable. He concludes that embracing cultural pluralism may be the only hope for humanity.

The Year our world began - 1492 - 7 min. 

The Story of English in 100 Words by David Crystal

This playful book,The Story of English in 100 Words covers the newest and earliest words in the English language with widely varying spellings as the first writers attempted to translate the spoken word into writing.  Eventually dictionaries worked to standardize the spelling to allow people to comprehend what others were writing.  I liked one of the original spellings of rhubarb "rewbarb".  The author suggests that the 'h' in rhubarb may eventually disappear at least based on the change in frequency of Google searches.

The English language is especially adaptable developing many portmanteau (Wikipedia) words like Spork: (spoon + fork).  The author also extols the virtue of pigeon English as the language has developed ways of differentiating between the singular and plural you.  Some colloquial speech in the US solves this with Y'all, or Yous to indicate more than one person.

The author sets aside a whole chapter on the intense dislike of the word 'aint'.  He covers the broad utility of the word and leaves me to wonder why it has caused such a fuss. 

I enjoyed the section on the development of group names.  Groups of animals used to be referred to as herds.  Then creativity set in and we now have a "murder of crows" and a "gaggle of geese".  It can be a form of wordplay to invent names for various groups or occupations.  The author includes a list in the book.  My short list.  Feel free to share yours.

• A deposit of bankers
• A cavity of dentists
• A brief of lawyers
• A flash of paparazzi
• A conflagration of fire inspectors

David Crystal - Pragmatics allows you to answer the question. Why? - 3 min.

The Beatles - A Hard Days Write by Steve Turner

During the early 1970's my mom picked up two Beatles mono albums from a garage sale: Something New and Rubber Soul by the Beatles.  I've been a fan ever since.  Steve Turner's book, A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song provides well researched information about each song the Beatles wrote and performed.

One entry caught me by surprise.  The song, "Two of us", from Let It Be was not about John and Paul but about Linda and Paul.  Linda would take Paul out on adventures in the countryside with no particular destination.  Paul enjoyed these adventures and wrote the song about it. 

Jane Asher, Paul's girlfriend through out much of the early 60's, was the inspiration for may of Paul's songs covering the romance and the difficulties in their relationship.
I very much enjoyed the description behind John's song, "Revolution". The style of music, especially the hard rock version, suggests an endorsement of the violence of revolution. The lyrics offer a note of caution.  John was in favor of change but not through destruction.  He noted in responding to critics that the tactic of "smashing" has been going on for a long time.  It didn't work for the French or the Russians. When the revolution is over the people doing the smashing are in charge.  He advocated working to peacefully change peoples minds instead.

Revolution -  3 min.

The Little Blue Thinking Book by Brandon Royal

Brandon Royal's The Little Blue Thinking Book: 50 Powerful Principles for Clear and Effective Thinking provides information and exercises to help individuals make better decisions through careful analysis of the available evidence.

Of particular help was an extended exercise identifying the best arguments to either attack or support a claim.  The drawbacks to each of the less preferred options are covered including the reasoning for the best argument.

He also covers techniques for lateral and creative thinking. 

Introduction to logical thinking - 7 minutes

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle

John C. Bogle writes a straightforward book,  The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns arguing that low cost index fund typically outperform over 80% of other mutual funds when including the management costs of the actively managed funds.

He argues that attempting to beat the market is a loser's game.  You may win for a while but in the long term it is extremely difficult to beat the market.  Given that the knowledge of one person or a small group of managers is less than the sum of knowledge in the broader market it makes sense that a portfolio managed by one person may do well for a while simply by the laws of probability but will likely return to normal as it is unlikely to keep flipping up heads each financial quarter over 30 years.

His logic follows that of Nassim Talib in Fooled by Randomness and the wisdom of the common knowledge noted in Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell.  It is not possible for one person to have at most 1% of the available knowledge.  It is also very probable that someone could through random chance look very wise after 5 years of investing but not so good 10 years out.

Excerpt from the book - 5 min. 

Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life by Larry Winget

Larry Winget offers his brand of tough love in his book,Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life: A Kick-Butt Approach to a Better Life.  A kinder way to express his title would be listen, don't complain and take responsibility for your life. Talk less and listen more you will likely learn something.  Avoid being a dark cloud of despair that brings others around you down.  We are responsible for the choices we make and how we respond to events that occur in our life.

Larry tackles religion and health.  Choose a religion that causes you to treat others with kindness and love. Avoid religions that are exclusive and claim to have the one and only truth.  Health: Love yourself and others by choosing behaviors that lengthen rather than shorten life.   

Larry offers up some startling statistics with respect to reading. Fewer Americans are reading books than ever before creating a nation of people who are ignorant and often stupid. He advising associating with people who read and avoiding those who don't.  I've included stats from the Pew research as reported in the Atlantic Monthly.  Larry suggests buying books if you can afford them and reading several books at a time then summarizing them when you finish.  I agree with this completely and it's part of the reason I write this blog to help refresh my memory about the books I have read.  The other reason is to give other people a chance to learn something new and experience the joy of discovery.  

http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media//Files/Reports/2014/PIP_E-reading_011614.pdf

 Pew Research

Atlantic: The decline of the American Book Lover - Jan. 2014

Larry Winget's 2012 Graduation speech delivered on Fox News - 3 min.