Hey all,
Happy to share some updates from the last month.
I think I’m settling in to a good reading pace—1-2 books a month. While it’s a bit lower than where I was last year, I think it fits well with my life today. I still feel strongly that extensive reading can be my competitive advantage—given my learning style, I know of no better way to quickly absorb relevant knowledge, drastically change my worldview, or force deep reflection on a topic that is top-of-mind.
So thanks for indulging me by reading these notes 😁
If you’d like to share these out more broadly, you can use this link where anyone can subscribe: https://booknotes.substack.com/
Matt
1 - Atomic Habits
There has been a lot written about habits. A lot. The psychology of habit formation. How we can break bad habits. How to quickly form new ones. If there is one takeaway, it’s that people are desperate for quick fixes, and the appetite for self-help here is strong.
Atomic Habits doesn’t break any new ground per-se. But it did a have a couple of ideas that I’ll take with me as I think about forming new habits and breaking old ones:
1 - Compounding effects
If you just get 1% better each day, you’ll be 37% better by the end of the year. Conversely, if you get 1% worse, you’ll be down to 0 by the end of the year. Compounding matters with habits, just like it does with money.
And as Charlie Munger points out, “The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily.” (pg. 201) This is probably one of my most important lessons—not giving up too easily.
“This is a distinguishing feature between winners and losers. Anyone can have a bad performance, a bad workout, or a bad day at work. But when successful people fail, they rebound quickly. The breaking of a habit doesn’t matter if the reclaiming of it is fast.”
2 - Systems over goals
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Focus on systems and processes that help you make forward progress. By not focusing on goals/outcomes, you can be happy without seeing immediate progress.
3 - “New identities require new evidence.”
“The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who want’s this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.”
4 - Repetition over perfection
“If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection. You don’t need to map out every feature of a new habit. You just need to practice it. This is the first takeaway of the 3rd Law: you just need to get your reps in.”
5 - 2 Minute Rule
This isn’t the GTD 2 minute rule (although I like that one too). Basically make sure you show up, even if it’s just for two minutes.
“If you show up at the gym five days in a row—even if it’s just for two minutes—you are casting votes for your new identity. You’re not worried about getting in shape. You’re focused on becoming the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts. You’re taking the smallest action that confirms the type of person you want to be.”
Overall a nice, quick read, with very practical advice.
2 - Jack London & the Klondike
I’ve read a decent amount of Jack London over the past couple years. So when I saw this biography in a tiny bookstore in Ojai, I had no choice but to make it mine. It didn’t disappoint.
Although he lived a truly remarkable early life, this book focused on probably the most formative part—his experiences in the Klondike. As a young man in his early twenties, he went North to seek his fortune during the Klondike Gold Rush. The adventures he had, the people he met, and the things he saw all formed much of the fiction that went on to make him famous. Before he embarked on the trip, he was a nobody. When he returned, he quickly became a successful writer. As he said of his time in the Klondike:
“I never realized a cent from any properties I had interest in up there. Still I have been managing to pan out a living ever since on the strength of that trip.”
The trip itself is fascinating, but what I found most powerful were the later descriptions of his writing process and how he struggled to improve his craft.
“Eventually he settled down to a pace of about a thousand words per day, making his word count after each day’s writing with the knowledge that eventually, ‘brick by brick’, the product would be finished. This remained his pace for the rest of his life, and in time he came to be able to write his stint in two or possibly three hours in the morning and leave the rest of the day for other things. He prided himself on turning out his thousand words, rain or shine, at home or traveling, on Sundays and holidays, as well as on weekends. He boasted that he never wasted more than five hours on sleep each night.” (pg. 207)
Overall a great read, which I can tell by the fact that it will probably lead to reading another, more comprehensive Jack London biography, researching the Klondike Gold Rush, and tracking down short stories referenced in the book.
If you haven’t read anything by him before (Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire, etc.), The Mexican is a great place to start.