Zig Zag Book Review

From the introduction:

Creativity doesn’t always come naturally to us. By definition, creativity is something new and different; and although novelty is exciting, it can also be a little scary. We’re taught to choose what’s familiar, to do what’s been done a thousand times before. Soon we’re so used to staying in that well-worn rut that venturing into new terrain seems an enormous and risky departure.

I mentioned this before, we’re afraid of change. It frightens us. However, embarking into new territory need not be feared, but rather practiced. Keith Sawyer, the author of Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity declares that practice is all that is needed to become a more creative person. From his own creative works, “Creativity did no descend like a bolt of lightning that lit up the world in a single, brilliant flash. It came in tiny steps, bits of insight, and incremental changes.” All his experience has been distilled into eight steps. In fact, after reading through this book once, I feel like it is meant more as a go to resource, like a home remedy book for writer’s block, or perhaps it could be the Schaum’s Outline for your Creative Genius class next semester.

The eight steps that you can practice daily to encourage more creativity in your life are these:

1. Ask

2. Learn

3. Look

4. Play

5. Think

6. Fuse

7. Choose

8. Make

The reason why I liked this book, is because it motivates you to stretch yourself. Don’t be content to travel the same rut. Experiment. Find out what life is like outside the rut. What does it look like? How does it alter your concentration? The book is filled with examples of successful creativity based on the application of the methods and practices that are detailed with each step.

This book is a wonderful resource. Don't bang your head against the wall anymore. Learn how to be more creative today and how to practice until the ideas just flow to you. 

Wait: The Art and Science of Delay Book Review

Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, by author Frank Partnoy, is probably the perfect book to read as a follow up to Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, my review here.

Wait is another book about decision making. Whether you are a CEO of a billion dollar company, or just going out with friends, we all could benefit from a better understanding of what impacts our abilities to make decisions.

Partnoy, acknowledges, Gladwell's recent book, but criticizes his emphasis on thin-slicing being only two seconds long.

"Stop for a moment now and think about the idea of thin slicing. When we thin slice we detect patterns in an event even if we see only a narrow portion of that event. The key to the concept is that we reach a conclusion even though we don’t have the full picture. Thin slicing is driven by the unconscious system because it takes the lead over the conscious system in decisionmaking during such a short period.

But thin slicing is almost never about just two seconds. In fact, not even the titles of the leading articles on thin slicing are about two seconds. The revolutionary paper by Ambady and Rosenthal is entitled “Half a Minute.” John Gottman’s coauthored study of video tapes of couples is called “Predicting Divorce Among Newlyweds from the First Three Minutes of a Marital Conflict Discussion.” Minutes, not seconds."

Despite the criticism, the concept is sound. More recently, Ambady and other coauthors defined a thin slice as “any excerpt of dynamic information less than five minutes long.”

Lest I lead you to believe this book is just written in retaliation to Gladwell, let me address some of the other points that I found relevant and interesting.

To which I must say that any author that quotes Douglas Adams gets a gold star in my book.
"One of the main reasons why “Don’t panic” is such valuable guidance is that the sudden onslaught of fear we label panic can seriously interfere with our ability to decide on the best course of action. Panic makes it difficult for us to use logic or reason. Panic shuts down our conscious system 2 and leads us to rely on our primal automatic system 1. Relying on system 1 is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if we are experts."

Partnoy also graciously assuages my guilt of procrastination. "active procrastination is smart: it simply means managing delay, putting off projects that don’t need to be done right away. In contrast, passive procrastination is dumb, equivalent to laziness."

Some final notes related to our working lives.
"A second approach is “event time,” where we continue doing something until we finish or some event occurs. For example, you might start work, not at 9 a.m. (clock time), but after you finish breakfast (event time)."

"Efficiency means going fast; effectiveness means being complete, even if it takes longer."

"If we are motivated to accomplish something important in our work, we will be willing to wait decades and understand that jobs we start might not be finished until after we are gone. Hourly pay eats away at this philosophy and ultimately makes work less fulfilling."

This last quote is especially interesting if you consider grandiose achievements of our world. When you read that, what came to mind? I thought about the architectural wonders that took years or decades to create, Notre Dame, Statue of Liberty, or even the iconic LDS temple in SLC. Each was a massive undertaking, but well worth the wait.

Blink Book Review

You are definitely missing out if you have not yet read a book by Malcolm Gladwell. His writing style is easy to follow along and he takes you on a journey that masterfully explains his thesis. Have you ever wondered about your unconscious ability to make 'snap' judgments? Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, is a book that explores the concept of 'thin-slicing' and understanding how much information affects our ability to make good decisions.

Malcolm Gladwell has also written The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and Outliers: The Story of Success. I read Outliers first, but apparently didn't post my review of it yet. Both Blink and Outliers are investigative stories. Gladwell presents his thesis through the exploration of several different examples.

For example, in Blink, you will read about how months of careful research was worth less than a first impression when trying to validate the authenticity of an ancient Greek sculpture. The psychology behind 'thin-slicing' is that often times, when faced with a decision and available information to aid us make that decision, less is more. Less information may be better. In today's digital age, "we have come to confuse information with understanding". Heaping on the information is not always the best course of action. We need to understand our unconscious mind and what parameters are needed to make it work efficiently.

Blink uncovers how Dr. Gottman can reliably predict marital success based on only 10 minutes or less of conversation, why speed dating works, how a severely hindered Paul Van Riper could defeat an otherwise impressive and omnipotent US military during war games, how doctors can avoid malpractice suits and predict and care for heart attack patients better. For example, there are plenty of factors at play in our lives that might be related to our risk of heart disease.

"All those extra factors certainly matter in the long term...What Goldman's algorithm indicates, though, is that the role of those other factors is so small in determining what is happening to the man right now that an accurate diagnosis can be made without them. In fact - and this is a key point in explaining the breakdown of Blue Team that day in the Gulf - that extra information is more than useless. It's harmful. It confuses the issues. What screws up doctors when they are trying to predict heart attacks is that they take too much information into account."

Blink also explains how tragedies related to police work occur, and more importantly how they can be remedied. Interestingly, as a method to explore the tragic shooting of an innocent person in a rough neighborhood, Gladwell first takes his readers on a field trip to educate them about autism. Autistic people, apparently, miss the emotional cues, and focus on objects. In high stress situations, we need to be able to slow down so that we can still unconsciously thin-slice the faces of people to understand their intentions.



The best example for correcting our snap judgments was revealed when discussing musical auditions. By removing information from the audition, in this case, placing a visual barrier or screen between the judges and performer, better judgements of ability could be made. This simple act alone is credited with the rapid rise of women performers in large symphonies around the world.

If I decide to keep on book on my bookshelf, it tends to be the hardcover version. However, the paperback that I checked out from my local library has a very nice bonus in the form of a very nice afterword by the author. In his afterword, Gladwell explores the book's theme and answer's your questions.
"And what Blink is - what all the storeis and studies and arguments add up to  - is an attempt to understand this magical and mysterisous thing called judgement."
"From experience, we gain powerful gift, the ability to act instinctively, in the moment. But - and this is one of the lessons I tried very hard to impart in Blink - it is easy to disrupt this gift."

"When should we trust our instincts, and when should we consciously think things through?"  Read the book. I think it is good enough to go on my wall right next to my copy of Outliers. However, I will specifically be requesting the paperback version from www.paperbackswap.com.

Battleground Rhino a For Benefit Enterprise

I recently saw an interview on TV promoting a new Animal Planet series: Battleground Rhino Wars.
They caught my attention because I thought they said Battleground 3. (I've not played it personally although I think it looks cool. Besides, I'm more of a strategy and sim gamer: SimCity 2000.) I digress...

Battleground Rhino Wars features four United States Special Forces members training with local South African anti-poaching corps to defend the rhino. The poachers are out to get one thing - the horn - that's all. In fact, poachers have wounded an rhino and stripped its horn while it still alive, leaving the rhino to suffer and die from infection.

One of my favorite authors, Douglas Adams, who wrote The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, my review, also wrote about his travels to Africa where he wore a rhino costume to raise awareness and funds in support of Save the Rhino International. Below is a small excerpt about this experience, from his posthumous book, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time .

"I only spent a week on the walk. I didn't get to climb Kilimanjaro, though I did get to see it. I was very sorry not get to go up it, though having seen it, I have to say that I wasn't very, very sorry. I did get to see one rhino, briefly, out of the thousands that used to roam in this area, and I wondered if it had any sense at all that all was not right with its world. Human beings have been on this planet for a million years or so, and in that time we have faced all sorts of threats to our survival: famine, plague, warfare, AIDS. Rhinoceroses have been here for 40 million years, and just one threat has brought them to the brink of extinction: human beings. We are not the only species to have caused devastation to the rest of the world, and it must be said in our favour that we are the only one that has become aware of the consequences of its behaviour and tried to do something about it."

 We've tried to do something about it. And now it appears that Animal Planet is also supporting this cause in an interesting way. Here is a for-profit company engaging in for-benefit work. As long as there are enough viewers to generate a profit, this company will provide a positive benefit to the world.

This idea of for-benefit companies has been growing slowly. Traditionally, when dealing with taxes, there are two types of companies: For-profit and Non-profit. But what about a different company that is still engaged in profitable activities which evolve from socially beneficial themes? They don't qualify as a non-profit and so cannot take advantage of the tax breaks, yet they are also not strictly a for-profit corporation. It's this blending of the two that opens up a whole new sector in our economy worth investigating.They are also known as B corps. B corps use the power of business that to solve social and environmental problems.

Personally, I hope that Battleground Rhino Wars is widely successful and that it runs for many seasons. Capitalism will protect the Rhino as long as we all tune in to watch the show. What are other scenarios where we can deploy/employ retired soldiers to solve a social or environmental issue?

Technical Analysis DeMystified Book Review

I like the idea of Core and Explore investing. If you're not familiar, the approach is to safely invest the core of your retirement, +85% into low cost index funds across an appropriate asset allocation model that fits your age and risk level. The small remainder is set aside to allow you to flex your personal investing prowess. It is not money that you use to bet the farm, but money that will allow you to try your hand and test your knowledge. Your type of exploration can be fundamentalist driven or technically driven.You can still buy index funds, it's up to you.

I lost a chunk of my Explore fund with the demise of the market in 2008; and due to my inexperience and lack of sufficient study. I was disheartened, but not broke because my Core was still intact and chugging along just as it should. I am now in a position that I want to begin working proactively in my Explore fund once again. Note: This is not due to recent market sentiment and the major indices reaching new highs, but rather the re-establishment of the cash in my Explore portfolio. While I love the idea behind ShareBuilder and their automatic investing plans - it is also wise to consider transaction costs. I've read that transaction costs should not be more than 2% of any trade. If you invest at ShareBuilder, at a $4 automatic trade, it is suggested that your minimum buy order should be $200, otherwise you're losing too much to transaction fees. But I digress...

I checked out the book Technical Analysis Demystified: A Self-Teaching Guide by Constance Brown. Because of my previous investment history, I was already vaguely familiar with some of the technical indicators that are available to help you examine a stock chart and understand and predict the price movement therein. Nevertheless, I knew that I didn't know enough. It should be understood that Technical Analysis differs from Fundamental Analysis. Technical Analysis is the study of the charting and claims that the chart will hold all the price information you need to trade. Trading based on chart analysis and price projection is known as market timing. Warren Buffett doesn't follow this method. His method is that of company valuation, the Graham number, P/E, and a long term buy and hold approach. I recently reviewed a book about Buffett's investing style.

Constance Brown, however, has written several books about Fibonacci analysis, the Elliot Wave Principle, and more in depth books than this beginner's guide, Technical Analysis Demystified.
In fact, there are so many technical indicators that are covered in this book that it feels like browsing the buffet line - endless choices but not enough time to really sample any one sufficiently to form an opinion about, let alone establish any appreciable skills.
The technical indicators covered in this text include several from momentum, breadth, and sentiment. The author stresses that a trade should have two of his three non-correlated methods giving permission to enter the trade. 

For the novice trader, this book will open your eyes to another dimension of trading. The author, graciously, is not a hyped up salesperson trying to convert you. While profitable trades are set up and explained, caution and understanding and risk assessment are all equally stressed. The author quizzes your intent to make a trade.

"Do you have confirmation in other stocks in the sector?

Do you have permission from your indicators at a key support or resistance level? 

Can you find evidence to support your opinion in other makrets that correlated? Can you establish a postion risking less than 3 percent of your portfolio? Do you have a minimum 3-to-1 win-to-loss ratio?"

I think this was a very worth while read. And while I probably won't be using astrological events as part of my technical analysis toolbox, I did learn that using two oscillators, such as a fast stochastic indicator and a slow moving-average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator, provides only one market analysis approach, not two.

Trade Off Book Review

Trade-Off written by Kevin Maney
"Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't"
"The Ever-Present Tension Between Quality and Convenience"

This is a great book to read because it opens your eyes and understanding to things that are already present around you. Things that you might have had impressions about, or figured out if you happened to be studying them, are laid out clearly so that you can begin to benefit from the knowledge immediately.


The premise of this book is exploring the concept of the Fidelity Swap: the trade-off between the fidelity of an experience and its convenience. Listen to an MP3 (super convenient) or go to a concert (very inconvenient but a rich experience).

In the world of business the fidelity swap is key to success. You strive for high fidelity (think Bose) or high convenience (think Wal-Mart). If you strike out to achieve both, you end up chasing a mirage which ultimately sinks you because you are neither convenient, nor high enough fidelity. Kodak fell into this trap. Starbucks did, too, it was an experience, it was expensive, but then it pushed expansion so hard, and sought the convenience of being commonplace. Compact Starbucks stands were nothing more than a glorified vending machine, not a special customer experience.
Apple's iPod went this route. It was first exclusive, and ended up ordinary. Without the development of the iPhone, Apple today would be a very different company.


The dynamic portion comes into play when you consider the effect that technology has on continually pushing and expanding the limits of fidelity and convenience. A high powered cell phone might be high fidelity when it first launches, but then as technology improves, it quickly is surpassed and overcome. Innovation is the key to keeping a business moving towards either more convenience or higher fidelity.


Exploring another example involving IBM and the server business, was this quote.
US Hardcover, pg 145
"Some competitor can always uncover a market just below your fidleity--at good-enough fidelity," Wladawsk-Berger said. "If they discover good-enough fidelity that's way down in cost, they'll kill you. It happens all the time. At IBM, it put pressure on us to either continue to differientiate by improving fidelity, or contininuting to innovate oto offer fidelity oat lower prices--or exit that segment of business and move on. The question often becomes, 'Showuld we go up, down, or exit?'"

Should you read Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't ? Definitely, if you are in business, either by yourself as an entrepreneur or are in any level of management. It's important to understand where your product or service fits in the market and to properly understand the difference between convenience and fidelity (quality). The book describes numerous examples of success and failure in a compelling way that keeps the reader interested throughout.

If you've read this book, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Warren Buffet Invests Like A Girl Book Review

Warren Buffet Invests Like A Girl

tagline: And Why You Should, Too

Author: Louann Lofton

8 Essential Principles Every Investor Needs to Create a Profitable Portfolio

This was my first book specifically about Warren Buffet. I've perused some of his annual shareholder letters and I've read articles online, but never a book with his image on the front cover.

Louann Lofton works for www.fool.com and outlines the research that emerged about the differences in characteristic traits of men and women and how it affects investing behaviors, and consequently their rate of returns. This through lower trading volume(lower costs), longer time view, patience, less overconfidence.


Warren Buffett's investing characteristics are shown to mimic those of female investors and is credited with the reason for his phenomenal success. Additionally, there are several interviews with prominent female fund managers interspersed throughout the chapters that add real life examples of the principles being discussed.

Warning: Reading this book may elevate your desires to do your own research and try your hand at picking individual stocks for your investment portfolio.

But before you run away, thinking that it is blasphemy to consider investing in something besides a low-cost ETF or index fund, remember the idea of the "Core and Explore".

With the "Core" of your portfolio, i.e. a significant portion 85% to 95%, do the low cost asset allocation with your select ETF's and be happy. You'll be diversified, you'll get market returns, and all is well because you are exercising restraint because you know that you aren't smarter than the rest of the stock pickers out there.

Take the remaining 5% to 15% and "Explore" with it. Warren Buffett didn't become the Oracle by investing in safe, low cost funds. He researched and bought valuable companies that would benefit him in the long run. Try your hand. You might win some, you might lose some. And if you lose, it won't be your entire life savings.

The above principle was touched on briefly in the book, and I've seen variations of it posted before. I like this idea, and have set aside 5% of my portfolio to allow myself to try things out. It's a great learning experience. The key, and the book highlights this, is that when you buy stock, you are buying a piece of that company. Warren Buffett wouldn't consider owning shares of a company for only a few days, or even months. He's focused on the future earnings of that company. Additionally, he would never consider an investment without first becoming intimately acquainted. Research, research, research. If you find a company that is trading at a bargain, it will be the research that will give you staying power if that stock price dips further in the short term. You know you're not taking a risk, because you did your homework.

I found this quote particularly instructive.

US Hardcover, pg91

...Buffett said, "You can't do well in investing unless you think independently. And the truth is, you are neither right nor wrong because people agree with you. You're right because your facts and reasoning are right. In the end, that's what counts."

Rework Book Review

"Ignore this book at your own peril." Seth Godin

That's the tagline on the cover of the New York Times Bestseller, REWORK by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson.

I didn't want to risk the peril, so I read it. And if you're intrigued about entrepreneurship, blogging, productivity, the path to success, etc. then you'll probably like Rework, too.


Overall, this is a great bathroom book. My wife laughed when I told her that, but it's because the chapters, if you can call them that, are only a page or two long at most. The book consists of over a hundred nuggets, ideas, truths, rules, that are succinctly explained. In fact, this review is likely an infraction of the "less is more" mentality of the book already.

You don't have to sit down and read straight through, or as fast as you can go. In fact, it might be better to take it piece meal and take the time to ponder the concepts and how you might apply them to make your life or business more awesome.

There are lots of great things to learn, but I'll just highlight four that stood out to me.
"No time is an excuse"
We all whine that we don't have time to be wonderful, we don't have time to write that novel in our heads, we don't have time to exercise. Don't quit your day job yet, they advise. Instead, drop an hour of TV or World of Warcraft, stay up an hour later, not all night. "Once you do that, you'll learn whether your excitement and interest is real or just a passing phase....When you want something bad enough, you make the time - regardless of your other obligations."
I think authors like Rachelle J. Christensen who is a Mom first and an author second is a perfect example of this.

"Make tiny decisions"
"Big decisions are hard to make and hard to change....Instead, make choices that are small enough that they're effectively temporary. When you make tiny decisions, you can't make big mistakes."
This is the try it out mentality. Stop thinking so polar or binary. It's not an all or nothing game changer. Test it out and see what happens on a small level and go from there.

"How to say you're sorry"
"A good apology accepts responsibility. It has no conditional if phrase attached....Here's another bad one: 'We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.' The 'may' here implies there might not be anything wrong at all."
Own up and be sincere.

"Take a deep breath"
This was one of my favorites because it addresses the fact that people are afraid of change. Change means stepping away from the known. This is important to understand in business or in family relationships as well.
"People are creatures of habit. That's why they react to change in such a negative way....So when people complain, let things simmer for a while. Let them know you're listening....You'll probably find that people will adjust eventually. They may even wind up liking the change more than the old way, once they get used to it."
Just consider US Presidential elections. It has become increasingly difficult to oust a sitting President. People know how bad it has been for the last four years, but the idea of change scares them more than the known, or what they are used to and so they accept the status quo of another bad four years.

Rework is a good read. You'll like it. And if you happen to be in management - you're employees will love you' if you learn anything from this book. :)

Moonwalking With Einstein

Moonwalking with Einstein is a very thought provoking book. It's the story of the author Joshua Foer, a journalist, and his journey from reporting on the US National Championship to winning the event the following year. The book chronicles how he set out to find an answer to the question, "How can I improve my memory?"


Personally, I was intrigued by the book and found the style of writing much to my liking. There is a lot of research and information that is presented and explained via story. It reminds me a lot about how JD Roth from GetRichSlowly was able to successfully blog about potentially dry topics in personal finance: he tells a story.

This book is not a book on technique and specific practice regimens, but a treatise on how our memories work, how memory usage has changed throughout time, and the exploration of how practice can indeed improve memory skills. Some of the skills employed in memorizing decks of playing cards, scores of random numbers, or other random trivia, in less than a minute involve the image association and storing those images in a 'memory palace'. While impressive, I wondered whether practicing this skill was ultimately useful. Surprisingly, even the author, shortly after winning the US National Championship, placing 13th overall in the World Championships, Joshua Foer conceded that in today's world of externalized memory storage, it's just easier to store that phone number in your cell phone than your brain.

US Hardcover, pg75
What follows are just my notes that I took while reading that I wanted to save for myself.
Without time, there would be no need for a memory. But without a memory, would there be such a thing as time? The more we provide our lives with chronological landmarks, the longer our lives will seem. Our perception of time is subjective. Sometimes time flies, other times the opposite is true. "Our lives are structured by our memories of events. Event X happened just before the big Paris vacation. I was doing Y in the first summer after I learned to drive." The denser the web of accumulated life experiences, the denser the experience of time. "Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it." "Life seems to speed up as we get older because life gets less memorable as we get older. Youth have a continuous stream of new experiences, but each passing year converts some of this experience into automatic routine which we hardly note at all, the days and the weeks smooth themselves out...

US Hardcover, pg 138
Technological gadgets have made it unnecessary to remember phone numbers, friends birthdays, and even directions. They've changed the world, but they've also changed how we think and how we use our brains. Writing, for Socrates, was nothing more than a cue for memory.

And yet, for me, I've always held to the idea that I read in one of Tom Clancy's novels - if you didn't write it down, it never happened. For me, writing is the only reliable anchor that I can attach to my memories so they don't get lost in all that grey matter.

US Hardcover, pg 145
The history of books and the invention of alphabetical indexes, page numbers, and table of contents as a means to navigating the immense information stored therein. "As books became easier and easier to consult, the imperative to hold their contents in memory became less and less relevant, and the very notion of what it meant to be erudite began to evolve from possessing information internally to knowing where to find information in the labyrinthine world of external memory."

US Hardcover, pg169
Joshua Foer also became a subject of research to a Florida professor, Anders Ericsson. When Joshua hit a plateau on his speed times for memorizing a deck of cards, Ericsson helped him learn about skill acquisition. Phase one is the "cognitive stage", you're intellectualizing the task and discovering new strategies to accomplish it more proficiently. During the second "associative stage," you're concentrating less, making fewer major errors, and generally becoming more efficient. Finally you reach what Fitts called the "autonomous stage," when you figure that you've gotten as good as you need.." You're OK with your current skill and stop improving and were once thought the upper bounds of ability. The only way to break free is to engage in a very directed, highly focused routine, which Ericsson, who has studied the best in several fields, has labeled "deliberate practice." "They develop strategies for consciously keeping out of the autonomous stage while they practice by doing three things: focusing on their technique, staying goal-oriented, and getting constant and immediate feedback on their performance. In other words, they force themselves to stay in the "cognitive phase." "When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important that the amount of time you spend." "Indeed, the single best predictor of an individual's chess skill is not the amount of chess he's played against opponents, but rather the amount of time he's spent sitting alone working through old games." "You have to analyze what you're doing."

US Hardcover, pg 202
In these pages, Tony Buzan's Mind Map was explained, and it reminded me of when I was writing my research paper in my college English class. My professor explained to me that after reading my paper she felt like the opening scene in the Simpson's show when the cash register trys to scan Maggie at the checkout with the groceries, but the computer is confused and doesn't know what to do. Her advice to me was that I needed to go home and read each paragraph and color code it to it's theme and then cut up my paper and rearrange it so that it flowed better and made better sense. I took her advice - and it worked! This was essentially the groundwork of a mind map. "It's kind of an outline exploded radially across the page in a rainbow of colors, a web of associations..." Tony Buzan also said, "The art and science of memory is about developing the capacity to quickly create images that link disparate ideas. Creativity is the ability to form similar connections between disparate images and to create something new and hurl it into the future so it becomes a poem, or a building, or a dance, or a novel. Creativity
is, in a sense, future memory."

US Hardcover, pg 266
He had improved his ability to remember digits, playing cards, and yet could still forget where he parked his car. His memory was the same. He had new skills, but ultimately he "validated the old saw that practice makes perfect. But only if it's the right kind of concentrated, self-conscious, deliberate practice." "Remembering can only happen if you decide to take notice." "Our memories make us who we are. They are the seat of our values and source of our character... That's what Ed had been trying to impart to me from the beginning: that memory training is not just for the sake of performing party tricks; it's about nurturing something profoundly and essentially human."

I Will Teach You To Be Rich Book Review

I recently picked up I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. Ramit has a great website and his book on personal finance is one of the funner ones to read. This is the book to read if personal finance is still a new word for you - then this is the book for you. Ramit has a targeted audience of younger twenty somethings.  As with all knowledge - if you aren't too put off by simple examples that don't exactly mimic your situation and instead apply the principle being taught - you will definitely learn something and most likely benefit, too. 

Ramit has boasted that his $10 book has helped people save thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of dollars. Boast might not be the right word, because some people have reported these savings on one of his videocasts. In fact, armed with the scripts in the book and a bit of extra confidence, I tackled the seemingly impossible task of negotiating the removal of some rather nefarious fees from one of my credit cards.

The real beauty of reading I Will Teach You To Be Rich is that Ramit remembers that there is a large psychological piece of the money puzzle that other personal finance authors and mathematics simply ignore. Ramit realizes that people are  lazy and want the easy way out. This is not to say that Ramit has uncovered the magic silver bullet. Quite the contrary, he is not fearful in telling people that they need to buck up and do the hard thing to get their finances initially under control. Yes, that might mean some work, but then he introduces what he terms your "Conscious Spending Plan". Ramit finds it ludicrous to cut out your daily latte - IF, that latte brings you significant happiness and pleasure to your day. Instead, cut mercilessly in areas that you do not care about so that you can splurge on the things that matter most to you. There is a HUGE difference between being cheap and being frugal.

Ramit dutifully covers the basics of checking accounts and savings accounts and preparing to invest for your future. One of the key messages of the book is the 85 percent solution. Don't worry about getting it 100 percent done, or even perfect. If you only get an 85 percent solution, that is still leaps and bounds ahead of doing nothing like the rest of the population. At least you'll have something to show for it.

Sprinkled throughout the book you will also find a short piece written by some of the most admired personal finance bloggers. Entries from Get Rich Slowly and The Five Cent Nickel and The Simple Dollar among others all contributed. I appreciated the additions from these bloggers because I was familiar with them and I thought it was a rather unique way to collaborate with them in this manner.

In summary, if I was just starting out with personal finance and didn't want to fall asleep reading about asset allocation in my 401(k) or get lectured about cutting up my credit card - I'd think this was the best book out there. Understanding my current situation, having applied most of the principles, it was a good reminder of why I was doing things and in some instances, a call to further simplify them.  If you are at this stage of your own personal finance, then I'd suggest you visit Ramit's website I Will Teach You To Be Rich to learn how to advance you to the next stage of personal finance: Earning More Money. There is a definite focus on his blog and his products to help you earn more money. Inspiring as that all may be - it means nothing if you never take action. Decide today to take action!

Quotable Quotes: Phantom

These are the Quotable Quotes that I found very interesting or intriguing or inspiring while reading Phantom by Terry Goodkind, the 10th book in the Sword of Truth Series.

Richard is explaining to Zed and Nicci how he could understand the emblems of the Chainfire spell and brought up the amulet he wore which held symbolic representation of the way of the primary edict.
"It means only one thing, and everything: cut. Once committed to fight, cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one: cut.
"Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut with certainty. Cut decisively, resolutely, Cut into his strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don't allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depths of his spirit."
US Hardcover, page 92

Nicci describing how the Old World was subjugated and why the people blindly follow along.
"And since faith is the indispensable glue that binds together their teetering tower of beliefs, faith eventually gives birth to brutality. Without brutality to enforce it, faith ends up being nothing more than a fanciful daydream,...."
US Hardcover, pg 158

Richard is commanding his army, the D'Haran army to wage a new kind of war in retaliation to the Imperial Order.
"It's true that innocent people - including children - will be hurt of killed. What is the alternative? Continuing to sacrifice good people out of fear of harming someone innocent? We are all innocent. Our children are all innocent. They are being harmed, now. The Order's rule will eventually harm everyone, including all those children in the Old World. The order will turn many of them into monsters. Many more people will die in the end if the Order wins.
"Moreover, the lives of the people in the Old World are not our responsibility, they are the Order's responsibility. We did not start this war and attack them - they attacked us. Our only proper course of action is to end the war as swiftly as possible. This is the only way to do that. IN the end, this is the most humane thing we can do because in the end this well mean the least loss of life.
"We are defending our right to exist. If we succeed we will , as a consequence, help countless others to live free as well."
US Hardcover, page 266

Jagang is attempting to explain to Kahlan his view of life as a brutal contest.
'Kahlan knew that life could be brutal, but that such brutality did not define life or its purpose, and that the sexes were not rivals, but meant to share together in the work and joys of life.'
'To those like you it is,' she said. 'That's one difference between you and me. I use violence only as a last resort, only when it's necessary to defend my life-my right to exist. You use brutality as a tool of fulfilling your desires, even your ordinary desires, because, except by force, you have nothing worthwhile to offer to exchange for what you want or need- and than includes women. You take, you do not earn.'
US Hardcover, pg 469

The introductory statement to The Book of Life reads: Those who have come here to hate should leave now, for in their hatred they only betray themselves.
"People who hate don't usually recognize that vile taint within themselves. They spew their hatred as righteous. That corruption is what makes them so evil - and so dangerous. They are able to do the most despicable things and think themselves heroes for having done them.
US Hardcover, pg 543

Sword of Truth Series: Chainfire

The Sword of Truth series continues with Terry Goodkind's ninth installment: Chainfire.

Chainfire is an epic struggle between the hero, Richard Rahl, and his friends. His greatest adversaries in this novel are those friends closest to him. He believes strongly in one thing and is focused to see it through, and yet he meets resistance from all those around him.
The time line serves to allow Jagang's army to complete critical strategic movements which will position them for the 'final battle'.
Another civilization is encountered briefly, yet plays a critical piece to the puzzle being worked out by the Seeker of Truth. 

It finally dawned on me while reading this novel and listening to another author's book the differences in introductory writing styles. Specifically, how an author is carrying forward recurring characters throughout a series. One style simply assumes the reader has participated in the previous installments and is already intimate with the characters. In this case, the next novel in the series simply continues the story with only minimal reference to the background story or recent events. This is akin to reading one really long novel that just happened to be broken up in separate physical books.

The other style assumes new readers are discovering the series mid stream, or sufficient time has passed to allow readers to forget important qualities and characteristics of the main characters. In this case, the author will use the beginning phase of the book re-introduce the main characters and to re-establish their defining characteristics.

The Sword of Truth series continues from one book to the next without gaps in the time line. Most begin on the following day, however, Goodkind devotes the first half of his book with the second style mentioned above. I believe this is why I was so frustrated with Soul of the Fire. I found it maddening to read about chickens and spend over 100 pages doing nothing with the story before the group finally started moving again. My perception of the story was that it was dragging on endlessly and further fueled my frustration when I neared the end and the climax was wrapped up in a matter of only a few short chapters.

While it is true that Chainfire follows the same pattern, I felt much more comfortable with the pace of the story at the introduction. The group was traveling, rather quickly in an attempt to save Richard's life, and the development of the new plot line served to more naturally re-introduce the characters.


It makes me wonder, now, understanding this, if my attitude towards Soul of the Fire, might have changed had I recognized this before I picked up. Probably not, the chickens were really getting on my nerves.
What is your opinion? Do you appreciate an author who takes the time to re-introduce his characters every book? Or are you just impatient for the story to move along?

Sword of Truth Series: Wizard's Rules

The Wizard's Rules that are learned, one by one, in each book were originally in my quotable quotes posts for each book. But then I found that Wikipedia had already done a much more elegant job of phrasing them and referencing them. This post, now has simply become a compilation then of the Rules sections from the individual book's wiki pages. Additionally, it is worth noting that each of the Rule's form a large basis for the foundation of the plot for each novel. Each specific Rule is an underlying theme throughout its book.

From the first book we learn the Wizard’s First Rule – People will believe anything they want or are afraid might be true.

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.
—Chapter 36, p.397, U.S. hardcover edition


Stone of Tears teaches us the Wizard’s Second Rule – Law of unintended consequences.

The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.
It is explained in the book as follows: "It sounds a paradox, but kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong, and can cause harm. The only counter to it is knowledge, wisdom, forethought, and understanding the First Rule. Even then, that is not always enough. [...] Violation can cause anything from discomfort, to disaster, to death."
—Chapter 63, p. 634, U.S. hardcover edition



Blood of the Fold teaches us the Wizard’s Third Rule – Passion rules reason.

 Passion rules reason.
It is explained in the novel as follows: "Letting your emotions control your reason may cause trouble for yourself and those around you."
—Chapter 43, p. 360, U.S. hardcover edition




Temple of the Winds teaches us the Wizard's Fourth Rule: Forgiveness Heals.

There is magic in sincere forgiveness, the magic to heal. In forgiveness you grant, but more so, in forgiveness you receive.
It is explained in the novel as follows: "Forgiving and being forgiven are powerful elements of healing for the soul. Forgiving others grants by the giving of forgiveness but more so one receives self healing by the necessity of letting go of bitterness through forgiveness of others."
—Chapter 41, p. 318, U.S. hardcover edition



Soul of the Fire teaches us the Wizard's Fifth Rule: Actions Speak Louder than Words.

Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.
It is explained in the novel as follows: "People will lie to deceive you from what they truly mean to do. Watching the actions they take will prove their true intentions."
—Chapter 28, p. 205, U.S. hardcover edition



Faith of the Fallen teaches us the Wizard's Sixth Rule:    The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.

It is explained in the novel as follows: "The Sixth Rule is the hub upon which all rules turn. It is not only the most important rule, but the simplest. Nonetheless, it is the one most often ignored and violated, and by far the most despised. It must be wielded in spite of the ceaseless, howling protests of the wicked. Misery, iniquity, and utter destruction lurk in the shadows outside its full light, where half-truths snare the faithful disciples, the deeply feeling believers, the selfless followers. Faith and feelings are the warm marrow of evil. Unlike reason, faith and feelings provide no boundary to limit any delusion, any whim. They are a virulent poison, giving the numbing illusion of moral sanction to every depravity ever hatched. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason’s light. Reason is the very substance of truth itself. The glory that is life is wholly embraced through reason, through this rule. In rejecting it, in rejecting reason, one embraces death."
    —Chapter 41, p. 319, U.S. hardcover edition





The Pillars of Creation teaches us the Wizard's Seventh Rule: Life is the future, not the past.

It is explained in the novel as follows: "The past can teach us, through experience, how to accomplish things in the future, comfort us with cherished memories, and provide the foundation of what has already been accomplished. But only the future holds life. To live in the past is to embrace what is dead. To live life to its fullest, each day must be created anew. As rational, thinking beings we must use our intellect, not a blind devotion to what has come before, to make rational choices."
 —Chapter 60, p. 549, U.S. hardcover edition


Naked Empire teaches us the Wizard's Eighth Rule: Deserve victory. 

(Translated from "Talga Vassternich" in High D'Haran)
It is explained in the novel as follows: "Be justified in your convictions. Be completely committed. Earn what you want and need rather than waiting for others to give you what you desire."
  —Chapter 61, p.626, U.S. hardcover edition



Chainfire teaches us the Wizard's Ninth Rule: A contradiction cannot exist in reality. Not in part, nor in whole.

It is explained in the novel as follows: "To believe in a contradiction is to abdicate your belief in the existence of the world around you and the nature of the things in it, to instead embrace any random impulse that strikes your fancy - to imagine something is real simply because you wish it were. A thing is what it is, it is itself. There can be no contradictions. In reality, contradictions cannot exist. To believe in them you must abandon the most important thing you possess: your rational mind. The wager for such a bargain is your life. In such an exchange, you always lose what you have at stake."
—Chapter 48, p. 489, U.S. hardcover edition


Phantom teaches us the Wizard's Tenth Rule:
I have not read this yet. I'll update this post when I do.


Confessor teaches us the Wizard's Eleventh Rule:
I have not read this yet. I'll update this post when I do.