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BE 2.0: TURNING YOUR BUSINESS INTO AN ENDURING GREAT COMPANY

Jim Collins & Bill Lazier

Recommended

Summary

  • A follow-up to the author´s first book "Beyond Entrepreneurship." In this book he tries to weave some of the findings of his other successful books (Good to Great, etc.). A great read for someone starting their own business, strategic planning departments and/or high-level executives.

Memorable Parts 

  • "But if at the critical moment you don´t go all in, the odds of achieving the dream go from low to zero."

  • "If you spend your life keeping your options open, that´s exactly what you´ll do...spend your life keeping your options open."

  • "If you assume people are not trustworthy, you will demotivate and drive away the very best people."

  • "Leon Bean's response to people who thought he should grow the company more rapidly in order to make more money: 'I'm already eating three meals a day, and couldn't eat a fourth.'"

  • "What percentage of your key seats do you have filled with the right people? If your answer is less than 90%, you've just identified  your number one priority."

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THE LIFE OF BELISARIUS: THE LAST GREAT GENERAL OF ROME

Lord Mahon

Average

Summary

  • The life of Belisarius under the rule of Emperor Justinian. Belisarius led the Vandal Wars, the Gothic Wars, the Persian Wars, the recapture of Rome from Totila and saving Constantinople from the Bulgarian invasion. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "This policy (of separating troops by ethnicity), the first germ of the feudal system in the Middle Ages, destroyed all unity of feeling among the troops as brother Romans."

  • "The Mirranes had delayed his attack till noon, in hopes of finding the Byzantine army, with whose usual hour of meals he was acquainted, faint and exhausted from hunger."

  • "To resume the clerical property which had been usurped by the  Arians, was undoubtedly just and reasonable; but the Catholics by too common change, passed at once from suffering to infliction."

  • "Little did they know, that by these insults they were drowning the noise  of the footsteps which advanced to their destruction, and rendering the most essential service to the enemy."

  • "I must tell you that it would be far better for us to perish bravely in their defense, than to purchase our personal security by remaining cold and indifferent spectators of their ruin."

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THE FOUR AGREEMENTS: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO PERSONA FREEDOM

Don Miguel Ruiz

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Summary

  • Too much 'hocus pocus' for my taste. The four agreements are indeed relevant and worthwhile to put into practice. They are not new concepts nor does the author present them in truly new light. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "The reward is the attention that we get from our parents or from other people. We soon develop a need to hook other people's attention in order to get the reward."

  • "The fear of being rejected becomes the fear of not being good enough. Eventually we become someone that we are not."

  • "That is why we need a great deal of courage to challenge our beliefs. Because even if we know we didn't choose all thee beliefs, it is also true that we agreed to all of them."

  • "True justice is paying only once for each mistake. True injustice is paying more  than once for each mistake. How many times  do you replay mistakes in your mind?"

  • "Your whole mind is a fog which the Toltecs called a mitote."

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THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM: THE FIGHT FOR A HUMAN FUTURE AT THE NEW FRONTIER OF POWER

Shoshana Zuboff

Summary​

  • This book is a masterpiece. I have no idea how it did not win the Pulitzer in 2019. I had to stop myself from highlighting the entire book. Read it!

Memorable Parts

  • "We live in the knowledge that our lives have unique value, but we are treated  as invisible in this second modernity age."

  • "Google would now secure more behavioral data than it needed to serve its users. That surplus was the game-changing, zero-cost asset that diverted from service improvement to a highly lucrative market exchange."

  • "Instead we are the objects from which raw materials are extracted for Google´s prediction factories. We are the means  to other´s end."

  • "The prospect of behavioral modification and guaranteed outcomes alerts us to the force of the prediction, which demands that surveillance capitalists make the future for the sake of predicting it."

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Highly Recommended

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BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

Ta-Nehesi Coates

Summary​

  • A black father´s letter to his son. I necessary book given today´s social climate. A difficult read for a non-African American reader but nonetheless a required on.

Memorable Parts

  • "America understands itself as God´s handiwork, but the black body is the clearest evidence that America is the work of men."

  • "My work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your own."

  • "Fully 60 percent of all young black men who drop out of high school will go to jail."

  • "Anyone can make a baby, but it takes a man to be a father."

  • "At the onset of the Civil War, our stolen bodies were worth four billion dollars, more than all of the American industry, railroads, workshops and factories combined."

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Recommended

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SIGLO DE CAUDILLOS: DE MIGUEL HIDALGO A PORFIRIO DIAZ

Enrique Krauze

Recomendado

Resumen​

  • Un excelente resumen de los personajes históricos desde la guerra de la Indenpendencia hasta Porfirio Díaz. Cada capítulo se centra en un personaje. Es un buen resumen para aquellos que quieren tener nuevamente claro el orden cronológico de los eventos del país.

Partes Memorables

  • "La religión amanzada por los heréticos franceses que desde 1908 se habían apoderado de España y no tardarían en llegar a México."

  • "En México no hay graduaciones ni medianías; son todos ricos o miserables, nobles o infames."

  • "El que sube al trono no deja de ser hombre, y el error es la herencia de la humanidad."

  • "La Iglesia poseía una quinta parte de la riqueza nacional."

  • "El fondo del malestar mexicano existía un problema moral: el de obtener dinero."

  • "Al ver los mapas Santa Anna se echó a llorar."

  • "...deudas mediante el cual el hacendado abría al peón una cuenta de préstamos irremidible."

  • "Ocampo quería legislar para el futruo de México la familia que no tuvo."

  • "No soy quien lo s condena es la ley, es el pueblo." [Juárez sobre Maximiliano]

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WAKING UP: A GUIDE TO SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT RELIGION

Sam Harris

Average

Summary​

  • The book is  divided into three main topics: the brain, meditation and psychedelics. To get the most out of the book I recommend spending some time using Sam Harris' meditation app Waking Up. 

Memorable Parts

  • "Our minds are all we have. They are all we have ever had. And they are all we can offer others."

  • "It´s always now. The reality of your life is always now. And to realize this, we will see, is liberating."

  • "We crave lasting happiness in the midst of change and therefore we suffer."

  • "We have every reason to believe that the disconnected right hemisphere is independently conscious and that the divided brain harbors two distinct points of view."

  • "My mind beings to seem like a video game: I can either play it intelligently, learning more in each round, or I can be killed in the same spot by the same monster, again and again."

  • "But our habitual identification with thought - our failure to recognize thoughts as thoughts, as appearances in consciousness - is a primary source of human suffering."

  • "That which is aware of sadness is not sad. That which is aware of fear is not fearful."

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THE CHIFFON TRENCHES

Andre Leon Talley

Recommended

Summary​

  • Entertaining memoir by an icon of the fashion world. Andre Leon Talley has been part of the scene since working with Andy Warhol in Interview magazine. Enjoyable read if your are into fashion.

Memorable Parts

  • "His mannerisms, his dandyism, his snobbism were toxic to my budget but auspicious for my aspirations."

  • "You had to be on your toes when you went to see Karl and you could not let him see you wearing the same thing twice, even on the same day."​

  • "Yves Saint Laurent had started in Dior, briefly, before he had a nervous breakdown and opened his own couture house."

  • "You have to keep going. I, too, am a sinner, getting up and trying for salvation, over and over."

  • "But Galliano canceled on Queen Elizabeth II for a state dinner , so it was hard to take it personally."

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ENERGY AND CIVILIZATION: A HISTORY

Vaclav Smil

Highly Recommended

Summary​

  • From foraging to jet engines. How has the discovery of energy (and its transformation) shaped who we are? I am certain this is the most comprehensive book about the history energy ever written. Highly recommended for history buffs.

Memorable Parts

  • "Other things being equal, the degree of cultural development varies directly as the amount of energy per capita per years harnessed and put to work."

  • "Cities had to draw on nearby areas 30 times their size for wood fuel supply. This reality restricted their growth, even when other resources were adequate."

  • "Tools enabled fewer people to grow more food, and the resulting energy surplus could be invested in structures. Without the sickle and plow there would be no cathedrals."

  • "Without the Haber-Bosch synthesis (ammonia) the global population enjoying today´s diets would have to be almost 40% smaller."

  • "Electronics and software now represent 40% of the cost of premium vehicles. The Mercedes Benz S had close to 100 millions lines of code (the F-35 has 6.5 million)."

  • "The car Adolf Hitler decreed as the most suitable for his people resulted in the VW beetle."

  • "Every economic activity is fundamentally nothing but a conversion of one kind of energy to another."

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LET´S EXPLORE DIABETES WITH OWLS: ESSAYS, ETC.

David Sedaris

Highly Recommended

Summary​

  • One of the funniest books I have ever read. I am looking forward to reading more of his work. Each chapter contains unique stories and a sort-of poem at the end. Some chapters are stories about the author and others are made up.

Memorable Parts

  • "In my house, our parents put us to bed with two simple words: 'Shut Up'."

  • "Australia is Canada in a thong, or that´s the initial impression."

  • "Cut-off your family, and how would you know who you are? Cut them off in order to gain success, and how could that success be measured? What would it possibly mean?"

  • "Iraq was beautiful, just as I imagined it would be, but there were so many Americans there! Is nowhere safe to honeymoon?"

  • "Gambling to me is what a telephone pole might be to a groundhog."

  • "That´s odd, you think. There´s a coffee bar on the elevator? What you´re hearing is the sound of one person dredging up phlegm."

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THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

Jean-Dominique Bauby

Highly Recommended

Summary​

  • An entire book dictated by blinking a left eye. 43 year old Jean-Dominique suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed but alive. Known as "locked-in" syndrome. This book is the triumph of a man who refused to die in spirit.

Memorable Parts

  • "I would soak for hours, maneuvering the taps with my toes. Rarely do I feel my condition so cruelly as when I am recalling such pleasures."

  • "'Bon appetit!'-his way of saying 'See you tomorrow.' And of course, to wish me a hearty appetite is about the same as saying 'Merry Christmas' on August 15..."

  • "What if this man got carried away and sewed up my left eyes as well, my only link to the outside world, the only window to my cell, the one tiny opening of my diving bell?"

  • "As a bonus, my sweat has unglued the tape that keeps my right eyelid closed, and the stuck-together lashes are tickling my pupil unbearably."

  • "When a plane tows an ad for the local theme park over the beach, I could swear that a coffee mill has been grafted onto my eardrum."

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A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE AMERICAN SPY WHO HELPED WIN WORLD WAR II

Sonia Purnell

Highly Recommended

Summary​

  • True story of American spy Virginia Hall. There is no other way to describe her but a hero and a real life James Bond. It is a pity that it has taken almost 80 years for her story to be printed as a book.

Memorable Parts

  • "She was on the brink of death when, on Christmas Day, surgeons sawed of her left leg."

  • "If MI6 officers spotted enemy troops crossing a bridge they would observe them from a distance, whereas SOE would simply demolish the bridge."

  • "Petain was eighty-five and certainly senile. He was kept alert by morning injections of amphetamines."

  • "...she now had to climb five thousand feet in the cruelest of winter conditions in France; each sideways step jarred her hip as she dragged her false leg."

  • "The climb is endless," recalled Chuck Yeager, who made a similar crossing years later in the war. 'A bitch of bitches."

  • "She had her fine, white American teeth ground down to resemble those of a French countrywoman."

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THE BEGINNING OF INFINITY: EXPLANATIONS THAT TRANSFORM THE WORLD

David Deutsch

Recommended

Summary​

  • A 'steep' book to read but worthwhile. Topics range from quantum physics to Socrates. Definitively a unique book with a unique perspective. 

Memorable Parts

  • "To go to a typical place in the universe, you have to imagine yourself at least a thousand times as far out as you can. Most places in the universe are not even in a galaxy."

  • "My pencil and I are more clever than I." - Einstein

  • "The first forms of life where catalysts formed the precise molecules from which itself was formed."

  • "Principle of Optimism: all evils are caused by insufficient knowledge."

  • "Here we sit, for ever imprisoned in the dark, almost sealed-cave of our skull, guessing."

  • "Whenever a measurement is made, all the histories but one cease to exist."

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EXIT WEST

Moshin Hamid

Recommended

Summary​

  • Personalizing the face of refugees. Studies show that we are more likely to donate to a cause if he are told 1 specific case rather than hearing stats, even if thousands or millions are involved.

Memorable Parts

  • "Geography is destiny, responds the historians."

  • "...how to best deal with aggressive men and with the police, and with aggressive men who were the police."

  • "...but could see on some small screen people in foreign lands preparing and consuming and feast and even conducting food fights with such opulence that the very fact of their existence boggled the mind."

  • "All agreed he was a fine and delicate man, worryingly so, for these were not times for such men."

  • "We are all migrants through time"

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WAR: HOW CONFLICT SHAPED US

Margaret MacMillan

Recommended

Summary​

  • The book covers (superficially) almost every major war. It is organized by themes: civilians, reasons ,etc. and delves into how war has influenced our lives, world and government.

Memorable Parts

  • "War is perhaps the most organized of all human activities."

  • "The paradox is that as humans became nicer, they also got better at killing and on an ever-larger scale."

  • "The British, it is true, found it easier to collect taxes to fund wars because they could impose custom duties at their ports."

  • "Men wear their helmets and breastplates for their own need but they carry their shields for the men of the line."

  • "It seems to me a funny thing to make rules about war. It is not a game. What is the difference between civilized war and any other kind of war?"

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FUNDAMENTALS: TEN KEYS TO REALITY

Frank Wilczek

Highly Recommended

Summary​

  • Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Best book I have read that summarizes the current standing of our knowledge of physics.

Memorable Parts

  • "The light has broken up into individual quanta, and quanta cannot be shared. At this fundamental level, we experience separate worlds."

  • "For any elementary particle, once you have specified its trinity of properties (mass, charge and spin) as well as its position and velocity, you have described it completely."

  • "As in my mind I make my world anew, The cherished, closest thing is ever you."

  • "Photons, electrons, up quark, down quark and gravitons."

  • "By observing the world, we participate in making it. We cannot measure position and velocity simultaneously."

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THE POWER OF FIFTY BITS: THE NEW SCIENCE OF TURNING GOOD INTENTIONS INTO POSITIVE RESULTS

Bob Nease

Skip

Summary​

  • What you will get out of this book is the premise (see first quote in next section). The rest of the book has many examples we have seen in behavioral economics´ books and far too many from the author´s previous employer.

Memorable Parts

  • "Of the ten million bits of information our brains process each second, only fifty bits are devoted to conscious thought."

  • "The problem isn´t that people's intentions are pointed in the wrong direction. It's that people are not acting on the good intentions that they already have."

  • "The answer is that the dashboard (change oil) approach - getting in flow of the fifty bits - only works if the action we're asking for is rewarding in the here and now, or very, very easy."

  • "A good rule of thumb is that we discount future events by half. Thus, any future benefit needs to be at least twice as big as the up-front hassle."

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EVERYTHING IS FIGUREOUTABLE

Marie Forleo

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Summary​

  • I am a bit torn about this rating. The book has some great motivational quotes (do the trick) but again it is a book of self-promotion for her website, etc...

Memorable Parts

  • "We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."​

  • "Beliefs are the hidden scripts that run our lives. Belief, Thought, Feeling, Behavior and Results."

  • "My parent´s divorced because of money. That left an impression on me - no money = massive stress, pain and suffering."

  • "When we say can't we really mean won't"

  • "Dr. Tererai Trent fed her children food from a trash can while getting her PhD."

  • "CREATE BEFORE YOU CONSUME"

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SOMETHING DEEPLY HIDDEN: QUANTUM WORLDS AND THE EMERGENCE OF SPACETIME

Sean Carroll

Highly Recommended

Summary​

  • The best book I have read that explains our current understanding of quantum physics. Great read!

Memorable Parts

  • "The enigma at the heart of quantum reality is what we see when we look at the world seems to be fundamentally different from what actually is."

  • "The Born Rule dictates that the probability of a particular outcome is the amplitude squared (wave function)."

  • "The electrons, in the double-slit experiment, behave like a wave when we are not looking but like a particle when we do."

  • "Entanglement: what happens at one point in space can seemingly have immediate consequences far away. That is because there is one wave function for the entire universe."

  • "A measurement is any interaction that causes a quantum system to become entangled with the environment, creating decoherence and branching."

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WOLF HALL

Hillary Mantel

Highly Recommended

Summary​

  • Fiction novel that tells the story of Henry VIII´s divorce from Katherine of Aragon and marriage to Anne Boleyn. All this told by following the rise and fall of the book´s main character, Thomas Cromwell. 

Memorable Parts

  • "Shame was left out when God made my dad."

  • "For what is the point of breeding children, if each generation does not improve on what went before?"

  • "This plague came to us in the year 1485, with the armies that brought us the first Henry Tudor."

  • "Your learn nothing about men by snubbing them and crushing their pride. You must ask them what it is they can do in this world, that they alone can do."

  • "The court is amused to hear how the Romans have celebrated Pope Clement´s death. They have broken into his tomb, and dragged his naked body through the streets."

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BUNDINI: BELIEVE THE HYPE

Todd D. Snyder

Recommended

Summary​

  • Drew "Bundini" Brown served as master motivator for Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali. The book also talks about a family´s struggle with alcoholism, money and the pursuit of wanting the next generation to be better than the last. A father and son story.

Memorable Parts

  • "My father´s life ended in misery, like my mother's, because in the end they didn't plan for the future. The lived in the now."

  • "The victories of his life would be over opponents his father would never fully be able to defeat, yet their demons were much the same."

  • "Pops would way: there is a wrong way to do right but no right way to do wrong."

  • "Congratulations, Son. I´d be proud to shine your shoes."

  • "We are the sons of flawed and loving men, dreamers and schemers, their imagination boundless. I´m successful because my kids can do things I can't."

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HOW DEMOCRACIES DIE

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

Recommended

Summary​

  • Democracies are fragile. When they fall, the signs were there but hindsight is 20/20. How can we know and prevent them from falling? (Important: book was written before the Trump - Biden election).

Memorable Parts

  • "History doesn´t repeat itself. But it rhymes."

  • "All politicians are frustrated by constraints (to get things done, like compromise) but democratic ones know they must accept them."

  • "One of the great ironies of how democracies die is that the very defense of democracy is often used as a pretext for its subversion."

  • "In just about every case of democratic breakdown we have studied the have justified their consolidation of power by labeling their opponents as an existential threat."

  • "With racial equality off the agenda, southern Democrats´ fears subsided. Only then did partisan hostility begin to soften."

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GETTING THE LOVE YOU WANT: A GUIDE FOR COUPLES

Harville Hendrix & Helen LaKelly

Recommended

Summary​

  • If you are married, you have to read this book. The absolute truth in life: when we help others, we help ourselves.

Memorable Parts

  • "Unconsciously we get involved in a relationship to further our own psychological and emotional well-being instead of focusing on our partner's need. We feel hurt and become less affectionate when it doesn't happen."

  • "When our partner's deviate from our idealized view of them we condemn, try to educate, ignore and analyze them."

  • "You and I are one, and I am the one!"

  • "Out beyond ideas of wrong and right doing, there is a field. I will meet you there." - Rumi

  • "If I have to change one more thing, I'm going to cease to exist!"

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OVER THE EDGE OF THE WORLD: MAGELLAN'S TERRIFYING CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE

Laurence Bergreen

Highly Recommended

Summary​

  • 1519: 5 ships and 260 men leave Seville in search for a west-bound way to the Spice Islands (Indonesia). 1522: 1 ship and 18 men return.

Memorable Parts

  • "The journey demonstrated that the earth was round, that the Americas were not part of India and that oceans covered most of the globe."

  • "The Casa de Contratacion in 1508 acquired its first piloto mayor, Amerigo Vespucci."

  • "Magellan named these Indians patacones, or dogs with great paws. The area later known as Patagonia."

  • "The gums of both upper and lower teeth swelled so most men could not even eat."

  • "Charles I wanted to become the new Holy Roman Emperor."

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MEDITATION & MINDFULNESS

Andy Puddicombe

Recommended

Summary

  • The author is a former monk and found of the Headspace app. I appreciated that this book was not a sales pitch for that app. It contains useful analogies for your meditation practice. Great for beginners and those wishing to learn more about meditation. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "For some reason we´ve come to believe that happiness should be the default setting in life and, therefore, anything different is wrong. Life can begin to feel like a chore, and an endless struggle to chase happiness."

  • "The blue sky is always there. When there are clouds they overtake this and become more important than they should."

  • "As long as there is resistance (of difficult emotions or thoughts), there is no room for acceptance."

  • "When you are experiencing happiness, imagine sharing those feelings with others. When you are experiencing sadness or discomfort, imagine taking those away from someone you care about."

  • *What color is sadness? What is it´s shape? Where is it?"

  • "Jim had always seen his anxious thoughts as a problem he had to get rid of. He was creating so much resistance that he was battling them pretty much the entire day."

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TIME SMART: ASHLEY WHILLANS: HOW TO RECLAIM YOUR TIME & LIVE A HAPPIER LIFE

Ashley Whillans

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Summary

  • Nothing groundbreaking and I was surprised since her research is precisely on this topic. Some interesting facts but that is about it. Short book and not worth the $.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Busyness as a status. More than ever, our identities are tied to work. Workism is the newest religion."

  • "Whenever we 'track' our leisure or think about the amount of money our leisure time costs us: we become hyperfocused on time efficiency. Instead of savoring time, we are worried we are not getting our money's worth."

  • "When deciding where to live, most people focus on the features of the house, as opposed to the features of life the house will dictate."

  • "One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness. One only stumbles upon them by chance, and holds fast to the days as fortune or fame."

  • "...I know I've had substantial impact (financially). But as I've confronted the disease, it's been interesting to see how unimportant that impact is to me now."

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MASTERING FEAR: A NAVY SEAL'S GUIDE

Brandon Webb

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Summary

  • The author uses this book to promote  his blog. I hate this type of advertisement. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "The battle is in your mind."

  • "You don´t really drown in debt; you drown in the conversation you're having in your head about your debt, which shapes your actions, and thus your reality."

  • "The monkey is trapped because he can't let go of the coconut."

  • "Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance of drawback, always ineffectiveness."

  • "The fear was so strong it nearly paralyzed him. The drive to see his son again was stronger." 

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THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO (ABRIDGED)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • I guess from the title it is obvious this is not a comedy. It is a deep, difficult, heartbreaking, frightening and sometimes uplifting book. The author won the Nobel Prize in 1970.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Why, then should you run away if you are innocent? After all, you will only make matters worse. You´ll make it more difficult to sort out the mistake."

  • "But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

  • "Camp life was organized in such a way that envy pecked at your soul from all sides, even the best-defended soul."

  • "And if the children were still little, then you had to decide what was the best way to bring them up, whether to start them off on lies instead of the truth or to tell them the truth, with the risk that they might make a mistake."

  • "The Dushechkin said, 'I can´t go on anyway. Cut my throat and drink my blood."

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THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES

Joseph Campbell

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Summary

  • I made the mistake of having, perhaps, impossible to achieve expectations of this  book. Ray Dalio talked about how it changed his life. The thesis is that the 'hero´s journey' is present in all civilizations, time and space. Therefore, it is part of our consciousness as human beings and not a coincidence. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "To him [Lotus Bearer] go perhaps  more prayers per minute than to any single divinity known to man."

  • "When a civilization begins to reinterpret its mythology in this way, the life goes out of it, temples become museums , and the link between the two perspectives [myth interpreted as biography]."

  • "Mythology, in other words, is psychology misread as biography, history and cosmology."

  • "Mythology is defeated when the mind rests solemnly with its favorite or traditional images, defending them as though they themselves were the message that they communicate."

  • "The story is recounted everywhere [virgin mother] that the early Christian missionaries were forced to think that the devil himself must be throwing up mockeries of their teaching everywhere."

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THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS

Thomas S. Kuhn

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Summary

  • Another book that I overhyped. A professor in business school told us  how brilliant this book is. There is definitively power in the thesis that science does not progress linearly but rather makes big jumps (paradigmatic shifts). What I did not enjoy was it repeated the same three  examples over and over (i.e. Copernicus).

Memorable Parts 

  • "Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion."

  • "'Oxygen was discovered' misleads by suggesting that discovering something is a single simple act assimilable to our usual (and also questionable) concept of seeing."

  • "X-rays were not accepted as just one more form of a well-known class of natural phenomena. Though X-rays were not prohibited by established theory, they violated deeply entrenched expectations of laboratory procedure."

  • "In a sense, such questions are parts of normal science, for they depend upon the existence of a paradigm and they receive different answers as a result of paradigm change."

  • "The result [of how science textbooks are constructed] result in a persistent tendency to make the history of science look linear or cumulative."

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BREATH: THE NEW SCIENCE OF A LOST ART

James Nestor

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • It is surprising to reflect on how important breathing is for us and how little attention we pay to it. We fall under the fallacy that evolution = improvement. It is not.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Of the 5,400 different species of mammals on the planet, humans are now the only ones to routinely have misaligned jaws, overbites, underbites and snaggled teeth."

  • "Because anaerobic respiration is intended as a backup system, our bodies are built with fewer anaerobic muscle fibers."

  • "The noise is crucial because it clears air, heats it, moistens it for easier absorption."

  • "For every ten pounds of fat lost in our bodies, eight and a half pounds of it comes out through the lungs; most of it is carbon dioxide mixed with a bit of water vapor."

  • "Our ancestors chewed for hours a day, every day."

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THE BEST OF ME

David Sedaris

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • Hilarious. Sad. Self-deprecating humor. A collection of his best work. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "Without much accuracy, with strangely little love at all, your family will decide for you exactly who you are, and they´ll keep nudging, coaxing, poking you until you´ve changed into that very simple shape." - Allan Gurganus

  • "...where I could comfortably display my collection of pre-pre Colombian sofa beds."

  • "In the coming years our father would continue to promise what he couldn´t deliver, and in time we grew to think of him as an actor auditioning for the role of  a benevolent millionaire."

  • "Listen, you might want to pack a few of your things before going to bed. The former bishop of Turkey will be coming tonight along with six to eight black men. They might put some candy in your shoes, they might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain, or they might  pretend to kick you."

  • "I thought briefly of swallowing my watch, but there was no guarantee I´d choke on it."

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NUMBER'S DONT LIE: 72 STORIES TO HELP US UNDERSTAND THE MODERN WORLD

Vaclav Smil

Average

Summary

  • I rated the book average because it misses that 'Smil-iness' of going deep into the numbers (like in his book 'Energy and Civilization'). I would not start with this book if you have not read Smil before. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "By the year 2000, just 5% of the global population was in countries with fertilities above 6, and the mean (2.6) was close to the replacement level. By 2050, nearly 3/4 of humanity will reside in countries with below-replacement fertilitiy."

  • "People are able to convert about 20% of food energy into useful work, and for hard-working men that amounts to about 440 kJ. Lifting the stones (Pyramids) would require about 5.5 million labor days...and about 900 people could deliver that by working 10 hours a day for 300 days a year...for 20 years."

  • "..at Harvard University, analyzed the lifespans of 41 ancient empires that existed between 3000 BCE and 600 CE, he found that their mean duration was 220 years."

  • "To make the steel required for wind turbines that might operate by 2030, you´d need fossil fuels equivalent to more than 600 millions tons of coal."

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A CONCISE HISTORY OF IMPERIAL RUSSIA

Sergey Volkov & Alexander Krishchyunas

Average

Summary

  • This book was recommended by a Russian friend. It starts from the 17th century all the was to the collapse of the Russian Empire. I rated the book average because I found the 'russian society" sections of each chapter did not add much to the story. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "In 1721 Russia received its long-sought access to the Baltic Sea and had become on of Europe´s great powers."

  • "Thus emerged the coalition of Austria, France, Russia, and Saxony opposed by that of Great Britain and Prussia. The two coalitions launched a new European war known as the Seven Year´s War (1756-1762)."

  • "Following the war, Russian influence in European politics grew even more. From now on, no single issue of European politics could be resolved without the involvement of Catherine II."

  • "In 1853 Turkey declared war on Russia in the bid to regain all the territories it lost. So began what came to be known as the Crimean War."

  • "In 1879, Germany and Austria-Hungary entered into a secret alliance directed against Russia and France. After Italy joined it in 1882, it became known as the Triple Alliance. By betraying Russia in the Congress, Germany paid back for what it saw as Russian betrayal in 1875. Just as the powers prevented Germany from finishing off France in 1875, so now they prevented Russia from finishing off Turkey."

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FINITE AND INFINITE GAMES: A VISION OF LIFE AS PLAY AND POSSIBILITY

James P. Clarke

Recommended

Summary

  • Thought provoking. Very unique book for those looking to read something non conventional. It is one of those books that will hit different chords to each person. Recommended as a slow read in order to digest information and reflect.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Inasmuch as a finite game is intended for conclusion, inasmuch as its roles are scripted and performed for an audience, we shall refer to finite play as theatrical."

  • "Power is always measured in unites of comparison. In fact, it is a term of competition. ow much resistance can I overcome relative to others?"

  • "I cannot entitle myself. Titles are theatrical, requiring an audience..."

  • "Consumption is an activity so different from gainful labor that it shows itself in the mode of leisure, even indolence. We display success of what we have done by not having to do anything."

  • "However, who wins empire, fortune, and fame but loses in love has lost in everything."

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DRESS YOUR FAMILY IN CORDURY AND DENIM

David Sedaris

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • So far, my favorite comedic writer. Comedy filled with soul, happiness, sadness, family, etc... just like life.

Memorable Parts 

  • "We were the family that never shut down, the family whose TV was so hot we needed an oven mitt in order to change the channel."

  • "Walt's mother looked deliriously, almost frighteningly happy."

  • "My father said our last name as if it meant something, as if we were known and respected. This made it all more painful when he was asked to repeat it. Then to spell it."

  • "When asked what I'd been up to all afternoon, I never said, 'Oh, masturbating'."

  • "I've set the alarm, but f for some reason I don't wake up, I'm wondering if you could possibly insert this into my anus."

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THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED: A NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF LOVE, TRADITIONAL VALUES AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH

M. Scott Peck

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • I am always amazed when I read book that hit close to home to then realize they were written decades ago. As the saying goes, 'history doesn´t repeat itself but it rhymes'. A book about common problems with a uplifting solutions.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Life is difficult. Once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Do we want to teach our children to solve them? Discipline is the basic set of tools we need."

  • "There are four: delaying gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth, and balancing."

  • "Since we do not have the benefit of comparison when we are young, our parents are godlike figures to our childish eyes. Our day to day actions matter."

  • "The inclination to ignore problems is once again a simple manifestation of an unwillingness to delay gratification."

  • "In such ways these parents in effect say to their children, 'you are responsible for the quality of my marriage, my mental health and lack of success.'"

  • "Psychotherapy is, among other things, a process of map-revising. Patients come because their map isn´t working."

  • "Such honesty does not come painlessly. The reason people lie is to avoid the pain of challenge and its consequences."

  • "Love is not a feeling, it is an action. An alcoholic sitting in a bar saying he loves his children does not really love them."

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THE BIG PICTURE: ON THE ORIGINS OF LIFE, MEANING AND THE UNIVERSE ITSELF

Sean Carroll

Recommended

Summary

  • Light on the physics and heavy in the philosophy. Great read. I definitively learned more about ethics, morality and philosophy.

Memorable Parts 

  • "The most difficult problem is a philosophical one: how is it even possible that inner experience can be reduced to mere matter in motion?"

  • "The universe is made of stories, not atoms." - Muriel Rukeyser

  • "Laplace is one who, when asked by Emperor Napoleon why God didn't appear in his  book on celestial mechanics, purportedly replied, 'I had no need for that hypothesis.'"

  • "According to quantum field theory, there are certain basic fields that make up the world, and the wave function of the universe is a superposition of all possible values those fields can take."

  • "[Core Theory] We specify a particular physical situation, such as a configuration of atoms and ions in a neuron in your brain, and the theory predicts with magnificent accuracy how that situation will evolve."

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INDISTRACTABLE: HOW TO CONTROL YOUR ATTENTION AND CHOOSE YOUR LIFE

Nir Eyal

Skip

Summary

  • The only practical suggestion this book has is cutting a piece of cardboard (in the book) and putting it in your computer so people do not bother you when you are working. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "We are constantly reaching out for something: more money, more experience, more knowledge, more status, etc."

  • "Even when we think we're seeking pleasure, we're actually driven by the desire to free ourselves from the pain of wanting."

  • "It is good to know that feeling bad isn't actually bad; it's exactly what survival of the fittest intended."

  • "Imagine you are seated beside a gently flowing stream and leaves are floating down. Place each thought in your mind on each leaf and let it float down."

  • "A group chat is like being in an all-day meeting with random participants and no agenda."

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ABSOLUTE MONARCHS: A HISTORY OF THE PAPACY

John Julius Norwich

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • A thorough history of the papacy, from St. Peter to Pope John Paul II. Detailed, thought provoking and shocking. It is clear that most people that reach that level of power have deep flaws. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "Gregory´s most important achievement was to implant ineradicably in men´s minds the idea that the Roman Catholic Church was the most important institution in the world and that the Papacy was the supreme authority within it."

  • "He has testicles! God be praised!"

  • "Led by Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy...knelt before his throne and pledged themselves to take the Cross. The First Crusade was under way."

  • "'You have entered like a fox', he declared to Boniface, 'you will reign like a lion - and you will die like a dog.'"

  • "One of his greatest successes was his declaration of 1450 as Jubilee Year, which brought perhaps a hundred thousand pilgrims, temped by the offer of plenary indulgences for their sins. This completely restored the papal finances."

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THE BOMBER MAFIA: A DREAM, A TEMPTATION, AND THE LONDGEST NIGHT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Malcom Gladwell

Average

Summary

  • Touches a bit on the history of aerial combat in the US, two of its main characters and the ethics of bombing campaign strategies. Lacked some of that Gladwellian charm. Some parts felt like reading a Wikipedia entry. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "And that extended range - combined with the capture of the Marianas - meant that for the first time since the war in the Pacific began, US Army Air Forces were within striking distance of Japan."

  • "While a naval commander may at the most be required to conduct a major action once or twice in the whole course of the war...the commander of a bomber force has to commit the whole of it every twenty-four hours."

  • "Once, at dinner, Einstein mentioned some mathematical proposition for which he´d never been able to come up with a proof. The next day Lindemman causally mentioned that he had the answer, he´d figured it out in the bathtub."

  • "Probably more persons lost their lives by fire at Tokyo in a six-hour period than at any time in the history of man."

  • "When Satan offered them all the world if only they would renounce their fate. Without persistence, principles are meaningless."

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THE HAPPINESS ADVANTAGE: HOW A POSITIVE BRAIN FULES SUCCESS IN WORK AND LIFE

Shawn Anchor

Average

Summary

  • Nice collection of research on happiness and its (obvious) positive effect on work, relationships, etc. Nothing groundbreaking but enjoyable. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "But with each victory, our goalposts of success keep getting pushed  further and further out, so that happiness gets pushed over the horizon."

  • "...that for the next week they were to pretend as though it was 1959 - a time when these 75-year old men were  merely 55 years young."

  • "What identity are you wearing today? If you're sporting self-doubt, you've undercut your performance before you even begin."

  • "George told the Atlantic that he could sum up the findings of the 40 year long research study in one word: 'love - full stop.'"

  • "When we set adrift, those of us who hold on to our raftmates, not just our rafts, are the ones  who will stay afloat."

  • "Our offensive line was stopping them, and when I got that extra time, things became easy."

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BE LOVE NOW

Ram Dass & Rameshwar Das

Average

Summary

  • A thought one to rate. I think we bring our biases when reading Ram Dass because was such a famous figure and details (good and bad) about his life are well known. Was he really happy? Was his journey worth it?

Memorable Parts 

  • "Our ego is a constantly changing bundle of thoughts about who we think we are. We build an edifice of thought forms and feelings that we identify with."

  • "Love is not a state of being, not a trip from here to there."

  • "Attempting to hold on to anything in time is ultimately futile and a cause of much suffering. What is really there to hold on to?"

  • "Faith is not a belief. Faith is what is left when your beliefs have all been blown to hell."

  • "When you're around somebody who doesn't want anything, your own desires start to kick out like a sore thumb."

  • "Who is  it that doubts? Who is depressed?"

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CALYPSO

David Sedaris

Average

Summary

  • Compared to his other books this one is not the funniest. Solid read - average.

Memorable Parts 

  • "'I haven´t liked you since 2002', he hissed during a recent argument over which airport security line was moving the fastest."

  • "And he always has a fantastic body, shown at its best on the cross, which - face it- was practically designed to make a man´s stomach and shoulders look good."

  • "Both stood more than six feet and listed in their Deal-Breakers box. They did not, excluded white supremacy or machine-gun owners."

  • "'That means Gypsies,' Thelma explained, adding that the politically correct word is 'travelers'."

  • "It´s like going from the Rose Garden is Sissinghurts to Fukushima after the tsunami."

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THE ORGANIZED MIND: THINKING STRAIGHT IN THE AGE FO INFORMATION OVERLOAD

Daniel J. Levitin

Recommended

Summary

  • Contains more 'under-the-hood' (brain) information rather than specific organizational tips and tricks. However, those few tips are enough to make the book a worthwhile read. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "We know that just like when you open a Microsoft Word file on your computer, when you retrieve a memory from where it is stored in the brain you automatically open it to 'edit'."

  • "A large portion of e-mails I receive are from people I barely know asking me to do something for them that is outside what would normally be considered the scope of my work or my relationship with them."

  • "The division of the hour into sixty minutes and minute into sixty second is also, arbitrary, deriving from the Greek mathematician Eratothemes."

  • "It takes more energy to shift your attention from task to task. It takes less energy to focus."

  • "As Peir Steel would say, they don´t subscribe to the faulty belief that life should be easy."

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THE WISDOM OF INSECURITY: A MESSAGE FOR AN AGE OF ANXIETY

Alan Watts

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • Written in 1951 and  relevant as ever. Meditators in particular will enjoy this book. There is no self,  the ego is an illusion. We are the sum of our experiences.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Space has been created by the same mind to give itself room to wander when in fact there is no space beyond  a mental construct that, like all constructs, eventually turns into a prison."

  • "The ego-self constantly pushes reality away. It constructs a future out of empty expectations and a past out of regretful memories."

  • "If happiness always depends on something expected in the future, we are chasing a will-o'-the-wisp that ever eludes our grasp, until the future, and ourselves, vanish into the abyss of death."

  • "Logic, intelligence, and reason are satisfied but the heart goes hungry. for the heart has learned to feel that we live for the future."

  • "What is the use of planning to be able to eat next week unless I can really enjoy the meals when they come?"

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NAKED

David Sedaris

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • So far this one is my favorite. It is almost like reading his personal journal. Funny, sad, hilarious, depressing and all the other emotions you feel when reading his books. Loved it.

Memorable Parts 

  • "My father had to stay home for the rest of his life, massaging worry beads and drinking bitter coffee, but to marry a woman with two distinct eyebrows was unpardonable."

  • "Greeks just didn´t do things like that. They were too cheap - that´s what has always kept their families together. The whole notion of the nursing home was something dreamed up by people like my mother."

  • "You could have blinded him for life! Your won brother, a Cyclops!"

  • "Someone in our family had taken to wiping his or her ass on the bath towels. What made this exceptionally disturbing was that all our towels were fudge-colored."

  • "Camp lasted a month, during which time I never once had a bowel movement."

  • "Six children and none of them are married. I´ve taken the money we saved on the weddings and am using it to build my daughters a whorehouse."

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THE PARTICLE AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE: HOW THE HUNT FOR THE HIGGS BOSON LEADS US TO THE EDGE OF A NEW WORLD

Sean Carroll

Highly Recommended

Summary

  • Important note: this book was written in 2012 and has a brief  update in 2013 so some readers might find it outdated. Excellent book to understand The Standard Model and how the Higgs fits into it. Worth the read. 

Memorable Parts 

  • "Particles come in two  types: the particles that make up matter (fermions) and the particles that carry forces (bosons)."

  • "The hadrons feel the strong nuclear force, while the leptons do not."

  • "It´s better to think of the mass of an object as fixed once and for all, while the energy increases as it goes faster and faster. The speed of light is a an absolute limit to how fast things  can go - it would take an infinite amount of energy for a massive body to move that fast."

  • "Quantum mechanics makes fields look like particles."

  • "Fermi suggested that you could think of each of these particles as vibrations in different quantum fields and that each field exerted a tiny influence on the others."

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THE POWER OF NOW: A GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTEMENT

Eckhart Tolle

Recommended

Summary

  • An excellent complement if you practice meditation. I am not a fan of all the God references (do not see them relevant to the topic of the book) but other than that it is a book that will move you toward becoming a better person.

Memorable Parts 

  • "Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. 'Am I one or two? If I cannot live  with myself, there must be two of me?'"

  • "To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past  and future are considered important. It is always concerned with keeping the past alive, because without it - who are you? It constantly projects itself into the future to ensure its continued survival and to seek some kind of fulfillment there. The present holds the key to liberation. But you cannot find the present moment as long as  you are in your mind."

  • "Pleasure is always derived from something outside  you, whereas  joy arises from within."

  • "Why does the mind habitually deny or resist the Now? Because it cannot function and remain in control without time, which is past and future. DO NOT CREATE TIME."

  • "What could be more futile than to create inner resistance to something that  already is?"

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WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR: WHAT MAKES LIFE WORTH LIVING IN THE FACE OF DEATH?

Paul Kalanithi

Average

Summary

  • Paul was a neurosurgeon who got a lung cancer diagnosis at age thirty-six. He wrote this book during those times. Heartbreaking and hopeful book. Life is fragile and unjust, we need to make the most out of present.

Memorable Parts 

  • "I could see myself finally becoming the husband I´d promise to be."

  • "At first, the guide explained, a family will visit constantly, daily or even twice a day. Then maybe every other day. Then just weekends. After months or years, the visits taper off, until it´s just, say, birthdays and Christmas. Eventually, most families move away, as far as they can get."

  • "Putting lifestyle first is how you find a job - not a calling."

  • "We all have a notion of what it means to be good, and we can´t live up to it all the time. Maybe that´s what the message of the New Testament is."

  • "The future, instead of the ladder towards the goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present. Money, status, all the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described hold so little interest: a chasing after wind, indeed."

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