New Theme!
After 3 years, it was time for a change. Hopefully, this new theme will be more readable for you guys – it definitely is for me!
Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success – Phil Jackson
“It takes a number of critical factors to win an NBA championship, including the right mix of talent, creativity, intelligence, toughness, and, of course, luck. But if a team doesn’t have the most essential ingredient – love – none of these other factors matter.” (4)
[Love, in this context = “the intense emotional connection that great warriors experience in the heat of battle.”]
“The so-called universal principles that appear in most leadership textbooks rarely hold up. In order to shift a culture from one stage to the next [the five stages of leadership outlined in the book Tribal Leadership], you need to find the levers that are appropriate for that particular stage in the group’s development.” (8)
The Jackson Eleven
-“The basic principles of mindful leadership that I’ve evolved over the years to help transform disorganized teams into champions.”
#2: Bench the ego
#3: Let each player discover his own destiny
#9: Sometimes you have to pull out the big stick
#11: Forget the ring
Meditation tips:
- 1. Sit with your spine straight, your shoulders relaxed, and your chin pulled in, ‘as if you were supporting the sky with your head.’
2. Follow your breath with your mind as it moves in and out like a swinging door.
3. Don’t try to stop your thinking. If a thought arises, let it come, then let it go and return to watching your breath. The idea is not to try to control your mind but to let thoughts rise and fall naturally over and over again. After some practice, the thoughts will start to float by like passing clouds and their power to dominate consciousness will diminish.
Napoleon Bonaparte once sent a staff officer to find a replacement for a great general that died. The officer returned several weeks later and described a man he thought would be perfect for the job because of his tactical and managerial skills. When the officer finished, Napoleon looked at him and said, ‘That’s all very good, but is he lucky?”
“Former UCLA head coach John Wooden used to say that ‘winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.'” (110)
“When the pecking order is clear, it reduces the players’ anxiety and stress. But if it’s unclear and the top players are constantly vying for position, the center will not hold, no matter how talented the roster.” (122)
Phil was the centerpiece of the team, and I was an extension of that centerpiece.
-Michael Jordan
The great lesson…[is] that the sacred is in the ordinary.
-Abraham Maslow
Work is holy, sacred, and uplifting when it springs from who we are, when it bears a relationship to our unfolding journey.
-Wayne Teasdale, “A Monk in the World”
It felt as if we were part of something really important. We felt like the good guys because we were trying to play the game the right way. It was as if we were a part of something bigger than the game.
-John Paxson, former Bulls player under Phil Jackson
“[Jared Dudley] was always thinking: How do I want to play and how do I need to change?” (138)
“Today they beat us. But we are not defeated.” (148)
“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” (173)
To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.
-George Macdonald
“I always welcomed debate, even if it disrupted team harmony temporarily, because it showed that the players were engaged in solving the problems.” (251)
An unexpressed anger creates a breach in relationships that no amount of smiling can cross. It’s a secret. A lie. The compassionate response is one that keeps connections alive. It requires telling the truth. And telling the truth can be difficult, especially when the mind is stirred up by anger.
-Meditation teacher Sylvia Boorstein
“The soul of success is surrendering to what is.” (334)
This Summer on the Bank of Notes
I’m not dead!
No, over the past year, I’ve just fallen deeper and deeper in love with philosophy – to the point where I am now, ironically, back at university pursuing a degree in philosophy.
Most of my recent reading has been traditional philosophic texts, which are not exactly conducive to sharing notes about in the manner that you have become accustomed to on this blog.
But with the summer off, I’ve recently been reading tons of non-fiction once again; so I will resume sharing the ridiculously-extensive notes that I am apt to take.
Eleven Rings: The Soul of Greatness (Preview)
Coming soon to The Bank of Notes.
In-Depth Breakdown of Phil Jackson’s New Book, Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success (Bleacher Report)
Good God this book looks amazing. Even the cover is beautiful.
Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle (Friendship)
“In poverty as well as in other misfortunes, people suppose that friends are their only refuge.” (1155a11)
“When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they do need friendship in addition” (1155a26)
“Friendship is not only necessary but also noble, for we praise those who love their friends, and an abundance of friends is held to be a noble thing. Further, people suppose good men and their friends to be one and the same.” (1155a29)
“Those who swiftly make proofs of friendship to each other wish to be friends but are not such unless they are also lovable and know this about each other. For a wish for friendship arises swiftly, but friendship itself does not.” (1156b30)
Friendship based on utility belongs to those who frequent the marketplace. And although the blessed have no need of useful people, they do of pleasant ones (1158a22)
“He who would accuse the other of not pleasing him would appear laughable, since it is possible for him not to spend his days together with him. But friendship based on utility is prone to accusations.” (1162b17)
“Goodwill seems, therefore, to be the beginning of friendship, just as the pleasure stemming from sight is the beginning of erotic love.” (1167a3)
“To be like-minded is not for each to have the same thing in mind, whatever it may be, but to have it in mind in the same way” (1167a34)
“For him who has produced it [a benefaction], then, the work endures (for what is noble is long-lasting), whereas for the recipient, its usefulness passes away.” (1168a16)
The serious person, insofar as he is serious, delights in actions that accord with virtue and is disgusted by those that stem from vice, just as the musical person is pleased by beautiful melodies and pained by bad ones. And a certain training in virtue would arise from living with those who are good (1170a9)
“Having more friends than is sufficient for one’s own life…is superfluous and an impediment to living nobly.” (1170b26)
“And with a view to pleasure too, a few friends are enough, just as with seasoning in food.” (1170b28)
“One’s friends ought to be friends with one another, if all are going to spend their days with one another, but it is a task for this to happen among numerous people. It is also difficult for many to share intimately in both joys and sufferings, for it is likely to happen that one shares simultaneously the pleasure of one person and the grief of another.” (1171a7)
“It is not possible to be a friend to many if the friendship is based on virtue and on what the people involved are in themselves, and it is desirable enough to find even a few people of this sort.” (1171a19)
“Seeing friends is itself pleasant, especially for someone suffering misfortune, and is some aid in not feeling pain: both the sight of a friend and his speech are apt to console one, if he is tactful, since he knows his friend’s character and in what ways he is pleased and pained.” (1171b3)
Game-Based Marketing – Gabe Zichermann & Joselin Linder
“Funware is a design philosophy that helps us mesh games with marketing.” (29)
“Everything can be made more fun.”
“Game mechanics are levers used to drive user behavior.”
“Passive games are different from active games in that most players don’t even realize a game is being played.” (43)
“Points provide the basic underpinning of scorekeeping, and social networking sites provide a unique opportunity to drive scoring behavior.”
“Rules, whether obvious or not, are essential both for maintaining order and for effective Funware design.”
Success is much less interesting if it’s not social and others don’t see you win.
“Social networks provide an unparalleled opportunity to market using game mechanics.” (62)
“Leaderboards are often the best initial Funware mechanics to use as they are cost-effective and easy for users to understand.”
“Even simple leaderboards like the ‘friend count’ on Facebook can have a profound effect on user behavior.”
“Point systems let you incentivize many behaviors and fine-tune the value of actions and cost of rewards at will.” (89)
Badges and their conspicuous display are an essential mechanism for conveying and reinforcing user success.
“Levels and status are powerful tools for creating loyalty and driving user behavior.”
“Although prizes generate a lot of PR buzz, they don’t deliver lasting loyalty in and of themselves.” (110)
“Frequent flyer ‘games’ are among the most successful and popular loyalty programs.” (139)
“Points in [frequent flyer programs] are often used to encourage incremental elevations in expenditure.”
“The virtual goods market is growing rapidly from a $5.5 billion level in 2009.”
Even noncompetitive people will compete in competitive situations. (159)
A major consideration in game design is the type of player the game is supposed to attract. In the context of Funware, there are five main player types:
Driven by a desire to meet goals and gain status and points. They prefer a game that is winnable, although playing well may be more important than finally winning. Perhaps most importantly, they desire praise and recognition, and so do not like games that only attract other achievers.
Want to meet and interact with other people in their game. They prefer cooperative to competitive play, and generally have long lists of friends and contacts.
Like nothing better than digging through a complex environment and uncovering new challenges and tasks. They are most likely to set their own goals, and so do not need a game with extensive leveling systems or objectives.
Are competitive and love beating other players or showing off their power. Games must be winnable to attract killers, and they prefer it if the odds are stacked in their favor.
Brands that implement games early will be at a distinct advantage over latecomers.
Generation G is the most technologically savvy, competitive, and socially networked. (180)
Kids who grow up on games are going to expect gamelike experiences in all aspects of their lives.
The Personal MBA – Josh Kaufman (Working With Others)
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived…Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
-Abraham Lincoln
“The major benefit of self-education when working with others is knowing what skill looks like.” (276)
Avoid bloated committees – keep your teams “elite and surgical.”
“Effective communication can only occur when both parties feel safe. As soon as people start to feel unimportant or threatened in a conversation, they start ‘stonewalling,’ shutting down communication. The threatened party may continue to interact, but mentally and emotionally, they’ve withdrawn from the conversation.” (280)
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
-General George S. Patton
“Micromanaging isn’t simply annoying – it’s extremely inefficient. Not only does spelling out every single detail make people feel less important, it actually impairs their effectiveness. No set of instructions, no matter how detailed, is capable of covering every contingency. When something inevitably changes, micromanagement fails.” (284)
“Commander’s intent is a much better method of delegating tasks: whenever you assign a task to someone, tell them why it must be done. The more your agent understands the purpose behind your actions, the better they’ll be able to respond appropriately when the situation changes.”
“When you communicate the intent behind your plans, you allow the people you work with to intelligently respond to changes as they happen.
“The best way to eliminate Bystander Apathy in project management is to ensure that all tasks have single, clear owners and deadlines.” (286)
The way to get on in the world is to make people believe it’s to their advantage to help you.
-Jean de la Bruyere, seventeenth-century essayist
“Convergence is the tendency of group members to become more alike over time…Convergence also means that groups have a tendency to police themselves. The norms of a group work like gravity – if they are violated, others will exert an influence on the rebel to bring them back in line.” (291)
“The best testimonials don’t necessarily contain superlatives: amazing, best, life-changing, and revolutionary have been so overused that people expect them and discount their expectations accordingly. The most effective testimonials tend to follow this format: ‘I was interested in this offer, but skeptical. I decided to purchase anyway, and I’m very pleased with the end result.’
“The reason this format is more effective than a litany of people gushing about your offer is that it more closely matches how your prospects are feeling: interested but uncertain.” (294-5)
“People have an inherent tendency to comply with Authority figures. This tendency begins in childhood – we wouldn’t survive for very long if we didn’t obey our parents most of the time. As we grow up, we’re socialized to respect and obey other Authority figures: teachers, police officers, government officials, and clergy. As a result, when an Authority figure asks us to do something, we’re very likely to comply – even if the request isn’t appropriate or doesn’t make sense.” (295)
“Developing a strong reputation in a certain area confers the benefits of Authority.” (296)
“Obtaining small commitments makes it more likely people will choose to act consistently with them later.” (298)
“By compensating their salespeople on a salary basis and giving generous bonuses based on long-term performance, (Norm) Brodsky and (Bo) Burlingham encouraged (their salespeople) to focus on making profitable sales versus sales at any cost.” (299)
“In the case of conflict, Perceptual Controls win over incentives every time.” (300)
“The best way to avoid Modal Bias [the assumption that our idea or approach is best] is to use inhibition to temporarily suspend judgment. Part of the value of understanding cognitive biases is the knowledge that you’re not immune to them, and simply knowing they exist doesn’t make them any less influential. Modal Bias is automatic – we have to use willpower to overcome it.” (301)
High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
-Charles Kettering
“In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie recommends ‘Giving others a great reputation to live up to.’ ” (302)
“The Pygmalion Effect [the tendency of our expectations of others to become self-fulfilling prophecies] also features a paradox: having high expectations of people will produce better results, but it also increases the probability that you’ll be disappointed. The Expectation Effect means that our perception of the quality of someone’s work is a function of our original expectations.” (302)
“If you’re doing a formal assessment of someone’s performance, remember to judge performance objectively and quantitatively as much as possible.”
Motivational Quotes from Robert Greene’s “The 33 Strategies of War”
Here’s a few of my favorite quotes from “The 33 Strategies of War”. I may do a full summary in addition to this if and when I ever finish the entire book, and not just the few chapters I thought (correctly) would be motivational.
A sense of urgency comes from a powerful connection to the present.
Leaving the past for unknown terrain is like death, and feeling this finality will snap you back to life.
Life has more meaning in the face of death. The risks you keep taking, the challenges you keep overcoming, are like symbolic deaths that sharpen your appreciation of life.
The more you want the prize, the more you must compensate by examining what it will take.
In order to avoid wasted effort and failed battles, start every mission by examining your real means rather than simply your desired ends.
If your opponents are never sure what messing with you will cost, they will not want to find out.
Instead of trying to dominate the other side’s every move, work to define the nature of the relationship itself.
The Personal MBA – Josh Kaufman (Working With Yourself)
To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Monoidealism is the state of focusing your energy and attention on only one thing, without conflicts. [Also known as a ‘flow’ state] (229)
The first key to achieving a monoideal state is to eliminate distractions; Kaufman claims that it takes roughly 10-30 minutes of uninterrupted time for your mind to become fully absorbed in the task.
If you feel an inner conflict about doing your work, explore it rather than repress it – your mind is often trying to tell you something important.
When you’re really feeling resistance, try the Pomodoro Technique: set a timer for 25 minutes and focus on a single task for the entire duration of the time, then take a 5 minute break when it’s done.
“If you eliminate distractions and Conflicts before you start your dash, you’ll naturally transition into a Monoideal state a few minutes into the work period.” (231)
Kaufman also recommends meditation as a way to become resistant to distractions.
“While many people assume [multitasking] makes them more efficient, Monoidealism and multitasking are complete opposites. Neurologically, it’s impossible for your brain to multitask. When you’re trying to do more than one thing at a time, you’re not really parallel processing – you’re rapidly switching your Attention from one thing to another.”
“Every time you switch the focus of your Attention from one subject to another, you incur the Cognitive Switching Penalty. In order to take action, your brain has to ‘load’ the context of what you’re doing into working memory. If you constantly switch the focus of your Attention, you’re forcing your brain to spend time and effort thrashing, loading and reloading contexts over and over again.” (232)
In order to avoid mentally demanding context-switching, batch similar tasks together, i.e., have a block of time where you do all of your creative tasks.
The Four Methods of Completion
1.) Completion – doing the task completely; this is the option most people think about, but it should only be used for important things that you can do particularly well.
2.) Deletion – eliminating the task; use this for tasks that are unimportant or unnecessary. “If it’s not worth doing, it’s not worth doing well or quickly” (233)
3.) Delegation – assigning the task to someone else; used for important tasks that someone else can complete almost as well as you can (or even better).
4.) Deferment – putting the task off until later; effective for tasks that are somewhat important, but that certainly aren’t critical.
“Saving noncritical tasks for later is a good way to keep your attention and energy focused on what’s most important…Periodically reviewing this list when you’re looking for something new or exciting to do is quite useful.” (234)
“A Most Important Task (MIT) is a critical task that will create the most important results you’re looking to achieve. Everything on your plate is not critically important, so don’t treat everything on your task list equally…At the beginning of every day, create a list of two or three MITs, then focus on getting them done as quickly as possible.” (235)
Some other points about MITs:
“For best effect, your Goals should be under your control. Goals like ‘losing twenty pounds’ are soul crushing because they’re not directly under your control – losing weight is a result, not an effort.” (237)
Kaufman distinguishes between States of Being (such as happiness) and goals: the former shouldn’t be seen as a fixed achievement, but rather, a measure of the quality of your present experience. States of Being make for great decision criteria, but they lead to frustration if seen as a fixed goal to be achieved in the future.
“For best results [in behavior change], focus on installing one habit at a time. Remember, you only have so much Willpower to use each day, and overriding your default mode of action depletes it quickly…Focus on installing one habit until taking action feels automatic, then move on to the next.” (240)
Out of the available options, which experience do I want to have?
-Steve Pavlina’s “tiebreaker” question when making a difficult decision
“The Next Action is the next specific, concrete thing you can do right away to move a project forward. You don’t have to know everything that must be done to make progress on a project – all you need to know is the very next thing you can do to move the project forward.” (246)
“One of the quirks about how your mind works is that it handles information from outside your head better than the thoughts that are rattling around inside your head.” (248)
“There are two primary ways to Externalize your thoughts: writing and speaking. Writing (or drawing, if you prefer) is the best way to capture ideas, plans, and tasks. Not only does writing give you the ability to store information in a form you can reference later, it gives your mind the opportunity to examine what you know from a different angle. Challenges and issues that seem insurmountable while they’re bouncing around in your frontal lobe can often be solved surprisingly quickly after they’re put on paper.”
“If you want to be productive, you must set limits. Juggling hundreds of active tasks across scores of projects is not sustainable: you’re risking failure, subpar work, and burnout.” (260)
“Limits always have consequences – if you’re not prepared to handle the consequences, it’s not really a limit.”
“Like all biological organisms, humans need to rest and recover for peak performance. Taking a break isn’t a sign of laziness or weakness – it’s a recognition of a fundamental human need…Sleep deprivation results in a prolonged down cycle, which gets in the way of getting things done.” (262-3)
“The more Attached you are to a particular idea or plan, the more you limit your flexibility and reduce your chances of finding a better solution…If you become too Attached to the visions you have in your head, you’ll have a hard time adjusting to the inevitable twists and turns of life.” (270)
Kaufman recommends putting a small percentage of your monthly income into a “Personal Research and Development (R&D) Budget”, money you can use (guilt-free) to purchase books, courses, conferences: anything that will help you improve your skills and capabilities.
Economics in One Lesson – Henry Hazlitt
(These notes are just the tip of the iceberg. “Economics in One Lesson” is one of the most brilliant, yet approachable, books on economics ever written, and you can download it in PDF format for free HERE.
Note: All notes below are direct quotations from the book unless surrounded by parentheses.)
———————
The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. (5)
[The argument that war helps the economy] confuses need with demand. The more war destroys, the more it impoverishes, the greater is the postwar need. Indubitably. But need is not demand. Effective economic demand requires not merely need but corresponding purchasing power. (14)
If (people) lose the whole dollar when they lose, but can keep only a dime of it when they win, they decide that it is foolish to take risks with their capital. (24)
There is a strange idea abroad, held by all monetary cranks, that credit is something a banker gives to a man. Credit, on the contrary, is something a man already has. He has it, perhaps, because he already has marketable assets of a greater cash value than the loan for which he is asking. Or he has it because his character and past record have earned it. He brings it into the bank with him. (28)
It should be immediately obvious that if the loans we make to foreign countries to enable them to buy our goods are not repaid, then we are giving the goods away. (71)
The idea that an expanding economy implies that all industries must be simultaneously expanding is a profound error. In order that new industries may grow fast enough it is necessary that some old industries should be allowed to shrink or die.
They must do this in order to release the necessary capital and labor for the new industries. If we had tried to keep the horse-and-buggy trade artificially alive we [would] have slowed down the growth of the automobile industry and all the trades dependent on it. (87)
It is only the much vilified price system that solves the enormously complicated problem of deciding precisely how much of tens of thousands of different commodities and services should be produced in relation to each other. These otherwise bewildering equations are solved quasi-automatically by the system of prices, profits, and costs. (94)
The much-reviled speculators are not the enemy of the farmer; they are essential to his best welfare. The risks of fluctuating farm prices must be borne by somebody; they have in fact been borne in modern times chiefly by the professional speculators. (98)
You cannot make a man worth a given amount by making it illegal for anyone to offer him anything less. You merely deprive him of the right to earn the amount that his abilities and situation would permit him to earn, while you deprive the community even of the moderate services that he is capable of rendering. In brief, for a low wage you substitute unemployment. You do harm all around, with no comparable compensation. (116)
We cannot in the long run pay labor as a whole more than it produces. The best way to raise wages, therefore, is to raise labor productivity. (118)
One function of profits, in brief, is to guide and channel the factors of production so as to apportion the relative output of thousands of different commodities in accordance with demand. No bureaucrat, no matter how brilliant, can solve this problem arbitrarily. (143)
Inflation throws a veil of illusion over every economic process. It confuses and deceives almost everyone, including even those who suffer by it. We are all accustomed to measuring our income and wealth in terms of money. (154)
Deficit spending, once embarked upon, creates powerful vested interests which demand its continuance under all conditions. (156)
At times when there is capricious government intervention in business, and when business does not know what the government is going to do next, uncertainty is created. Profits are not reinvested. Firms and individuals allow cash balances to accumulate in their banks. They keep larger reserves against contingencies. This hoarding of cash may seem like the cause of a subsequent slowdown in business activity. The real cause, however, is the uncertainty brought about by the government policies. (163)
If no effort is made to tamper with money rates through inflationary governmental policies, increased savings create their own demand by lowering interest rates in a natural manner. (169)
Under a system of division of labor, in short, it is difficult to think of a greater fulfillment of any human need which would not, at least temporarily, hurt some of the people who have made investments or painfully acquired skills to meet that precise need. (181-2)
To see the problem as a whole, and not in fragments: that is the goal of economic science. (183)
The Bank of Notes 