Books - dzx.cz

Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I bought Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul in Bucharest while visiting for a wedding. I loved Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I enjoy Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul too.

Adam’s writing style is hard to describe, but he’s able to build otherwise mundane sentences in a style that makes me chuckle and appreciate the craft of writing. Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul is a fun read, not as funny as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, nor as thrilling as other novels I read over the last years, but it’s fun nevertheless. This book is a good buy and finish on vacation buy for lightweight reading.

Evicted

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I got Evicted after going through Tom MacWright’s top rated books, not knowing what to expected.

Desmod’s Evicted is a collection of stories of people living on the edge of poverty focusing on the threat of evictions. Desmod closely follows stories of people living in Milwaukee, throughout their struggle to keep a roof over theirs, and theirs children, head. It illustrates many things that are wrong about the socialism in USA, from ill-setup support programs to a system that makes it neigh impossible for people to get back on their feet.

Evicted ends with a few suggestions for a better system for people and the government, for both of whom the existing system is expensive, inefficient, and outright broken. The only beneficiaries of status quo are landlords, often robbing the country of its money, and people of their prospects of a stable life.

Pathogenesis

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Code Book

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Code Book is a short and approachable introduction to cryptography. On 200 pages it goes through Caesar and Vigenere cipher through enigma all the way to Diffie-Hellman key exchange and RSA public key cryptography. It’s a good book if these topics are new to you, but even with basic knowledge of cryptography and mathematics it falls short and the stories from the history on their own don’t make it worthwhile read. For a summary of this book, see:

Or go more in-depth with the details of the Signal protocol:

Numbers Don't Lie

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 09 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

From child mortality rates as a nation development indicator to the impossibility of net-zero by 2025 Numbers Don’t Lie summarizes many facts and numbers that drive our world in 71 short chapters. It’s similar in content to Vaclav’s How the World Really Works, just quicker and more approachable.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I find it hard to write about books I read. Damn, I find it hard to write about other things too. My best output to this date are technical work-related documents. What I can say for certainty though, is that Stephen King’s writing is a delight.

On Writing is a memoir, guide for aspiring writers, and a showcase of what mastering the craft means. It starts with snippets of Stephen’s life, from childhood to adolescence. From wiping his ass with poison ivy, to facing his alcohol and drug addiction. And all of it is fun, honest, and not nearly as long as I would love it to be.

If Stephen’s life is a starter, writing itself it the main course; and Stephen is brutally honest about who will be eating. There are good writers, and those can get better. There are great writers, and those can get exceptional. But not everyone is born a writer, and bad writers will, in large, stay bad writers.

Stephen says to “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open”. First, write for yourself, and an imaginary IR (Ideal Reader) - be that your wife, friend, or deceased relative. Once you get your story right and out there, it belongs to any who wants to read it.

Take a noun, put it with a verb, and you have a sentence. Write with active voice, avoid adverbs (especially in dialog attributions), and stick with the first word that comes to you mind if it’s appropriate and colorful. If you do the basics right, and got a story to tell, you are on the right path. For all the other rules, there’s The Elements of Style.

“Every book you pick up has its own lesson”; On Writing is lesson in witty writing, story telling, and fulfilled life. A worthwhile read.

Notes

Writing it telepathy. The writer has an image in their mind, and if they do good enough job, their image is translated through paper and time into the readers mind.
Cardinal rule of fiction - Show, don’t tell.
Good fiction begins with a story and progresses to a theme. I like to imagine that Neal Stephenson begun his Seveneves) by jotting The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason_ on a napkin and ended up with a novel a year later.
You learn the best, as with any other craft, by writing a lot and reading a lot.
Best form of dialog attribution is “he/she/they said”.
Best writing comes from observing how real people behave, and then telling the truth about what you see.

In my view, stories and novels consist of three parts: narration, which moves the story from point A to point B and finally to point Z; description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings characters to life through their speech.

Hard landing

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Selfish Gene

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why We're Polarized

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized is now as relevant and timely as it gets. In outlines the shift in the U.S. politics over the course of 20th century all the way to present day, with the most important takeaway being that current status isn’t a fluke, but the natural result of a self-feeding polarization loop and the psychological and structural forces at hand.

Modern politics revolve around identities. Over the last 50 years our partisan identities merge with the racial, religious, cultural, and geographical. These identities serve as triggers for a greater divide to the point where the loss of the other party becomes the most important factor. In that way, politics has become a fan sport, where the more invested a person is, the more likely they are to ignore reason and facts in favor of their own agenda.

There is much more to Why We’re Polarized, it’s an insightful read that makes one aware of the subtle psychological tendencies that news outlets learned to play so well.

The Elements of Style

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Elements of Style, a century old at this point, is a handy reference of basic literary and grammar principles for writers. It’s references as the main inspiration for William Zinsser’s On Writing Well and the most popular text assigned in syllabuses.

One the internet, the opinions vary, between a the book being a must-read and it being outdated and containing inaccurate grammar advices. Nevertheless, it’s a short read, and even if inaccurate it server well as a reminder of writing principles of the uttermost importance.

Notes

The Elements of Style is better kept at hand as a readers manual. Thus, the notes here are brief and reduced to what I found important in particular. Core principle, obvious but often neglected, is: be clear, concise, put your self in the background, and rely on basic construct unless you are certain of what you are doing.

Elementary rules

Use serial commas

also referred to as the series comma, Oxford comma, or Harvard comma
Place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause
Join independent clauses grammatically completing each other with a semicolon
Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption and to announce a long appositive or summary

Composition

Paragraph is the unit of composition. Paragraph may be of any length as long as it holds together.
Use active voice, unless making a particular word of a sentence the subject calls for a passive voice.
Put statements in a positive form (“He was not keen of flavored coffee” should be replaced by “He disliked flavored coffee”).
Use definitive, specific, concrete language
Omit needles words
Keep related words together
The place for the most prominent a word or group of words is usually at the end of a sentence, the second best option is at the beginning.

Form

Use exclamations sparingly, reserve them for true exclamations and commands.
Do not spell out numerals unless they are part of a dialogue
Use italics with capitalized initials for titles of literary work

Style

Work from a suitable design
Write with nouns and verbs
Revise, rewrite, do not overwrite. Diligently strike out words that do not add value to your writing.
Avoid qualifiers such as rather, very, little, pretty
Be clear - avoid fancy words, do not explain too much, do not construct awkward adverbs (tangledly -> in tangles), use orthodox spelling, and avoid shortcuts such as abbreviations unless readily understood

Glossary

Exhaustive glossary is at the end of the book. Following terms are relevant to the notes above.

Appositive - a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side so one element identifies the other in a different way.

My sister, Alice Smith, likes jelly beans.
Participle - a verb form used either as an adjective to modify nouns (“the hidden treasure”) or to connect with auxiliary verbs to create different tenses (“we are hiding the treasure”).
Participial phrase - a modifier that uses the participle to describe a noun (“Walking down the street, he saw kids playing with a ball”).
Preposition - a function word that combines with a noun phrase to form a phrase (“at the dawn”, “by noon”)

Seveneves

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Seveneves is an incredibly rich and thrilling speculative fiction by Neal Stephenson. It’s 860 pages long but stays captivating through out, only easing towards the last chapter that could be a standalone novel on its own.

The premise of the book can be summarized by its first sentence which is an opening bang like no other.

The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.

Without revealing too much about the story, Steveneve’s follows humanity’s fight for survival over the course of 5000 years (focusing on a first 5 years for a better part). It manages to combine orbital mechanics and politics in one chapter and continue with robotics and genetics in another one while staying approachable and fun to read.

The story of Seveneves doesn’t shy away from hard topics, deaths, and grim outlooks. It’s a worthwhile albeit lengthy read that makes you travel through time (from 7pm to 2am before you even notice) and yet, it might be one of the few chosen books that require and are worth a second read.

Not the End of the World

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hannah Ritchie works at Our World in Data that compiles and publishes datasets on large global problems such as poverty, climate change, diseases, war, or inequality so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that her book Not the End of the World is based in numbers and science. The book is thoughtful and concise journey through 7 major environmental problems - air pollution, climate change, deforestation, food, biodiversity loss, ocean plastics, and overfishing; each chapter explaining current state, how we got there, and what can we do to ensure a sustainable future.

While it’s hard to summarize a book that overflows with a trove of information, there a few underlying concepts and takeaways that stand out. First, while we are under constant barrage of negative news from the outlets, things are in many cases getting better. Civilization is past the peak of deforestation, air quality, or population growth. This doesn’t apply universally, with large discrepancies between first and third world countries, but we (modern countries) are equipped better than every to help countries that are catching up and raising out of poverty.

Secondly, while there’s room for more optimism than many people have, we still need to alter our trajectory in problems such as global warming. Hannah provides suggestions as to how at the end of each chapter and many of the changes have overreaching impact to more than one environmental problem that we are facing. For example, beef consumption contributes to deforestation and water pollution while being the least efficient source of protein (comparing ratios such as water or carbon emissions to gram of protein with other sources). People switching to or lowering their consumption of beef would be a major environmental win.

Lastly, a topic which unfortunately doesn’t get a lot of space in the book, we are at the mercy of policy makers and governments in many regards. It’s important to advocate and vote for people that can make changes higher up and we might just have a chance to be the first truly sustainable generation.

The optimism in Not the End of the World in infectious and reminds me of Enlightement Now by Steven Pinker. On the other hand, there are organizations advocating for policies and laws that align with Hannas ideas but to no avail. The established incentives often contradict what’s best for the planet and fighting against oil companies with billion budgets for lobbying and teams of lawyers on retainer is an uphill battle. I don’t think there is an easy solution and Not the End of the World doesn’t provide an answer either, the best one can do is small steps on personal level and to vote for people that care about the future generations.

If you find these topics interesting Our World in Data has a daily data insight and biweekly digest newsletter that you can subscribe to on ourworldindata.org. Alternatively, both can be accessed as an RSS feed.

Knowing What We Know

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Simon Winchester’s Knowing What We Know takes you through history of knowledge from ancient clay tablets through the adoption of GPS to inception of Wikipedia. It’s a thorough examination of how we acquire, pass, and retain knowledge and how has this changed through human history.

I expected deeper scientific examination of cognitive paths related to knowledge processing and retention but Knowing What We Know is rather a historic account and collection of stories and topics on knowledge. It’s a fun read and examination of some of the greatest minds of our history such as Aristotle or Srinivasa Ramanujan but unfortunately falls flat on tying all of its content together.

The Gene

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

TODO

The Ministry for the Future

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sat, 08 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Ministry for the Future is a literal masterpiece, a speculative fiction taking a look at the next 30 years of planet Earth and our effects on it. Scary and sad in its positive outloook that seems every so less likely with where we heading.

Kim Standley Robinson goes into great details of how entangled the whole world is, with money dictating everything else. There are chapters about economics, banking, politics, geoengineering, biology, glaciology, social media, crypto currencies, and more. All written in the most unique style I have seen to date - there are no main characters in The Ministry for the Future; chapters switch between styles from meeting notes, and conversations to essays of science and philosophy.

The Ministry for the Future is a lens into the future, scary and grim all because of us - people, with a dash of hope that requires the stars to align and humanity to change its course before it’s too late.

Death's End

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Death’s End is the last chapter in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy by Cixin Liu. I read the first book The Three-Body Problem back in 2021. Returned to the series in 2023 with The Dark Forest and finally decided to read the last book in series after the Netflix adaptation came out.

I was putting Death’s End aside for a long time. The book sat at my office table since I bought it alongside The Dark Forest which I still find the most chilling book I have read to this date. The Three-Body Problem was in my opinion the weakest one in the trilogy (to be clear here, the book is a great read, albeit comparatively weaker to the next 2 in the series). The Dark Forest picked up the pace severely and was a capitative and thrilling read causing the same kind of experience as the border scene from the first Sicario movie.

Parts of Death’s End I have spoiled for myself reading more about the trilogy on the internet. Yet, it enticed me in a way that I finished to book in 2 days. Death’s End brings the story to even grander scale picking up where The Dark Forest left. As with the previous books, it is a capitative read evoking unease from beginning till the end. Now it’s time to wait for how will the Netflix adaptation wrestle with the enormous scale of the book.

Stubborn Attachments

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

TODO

The Design of Everyday Things

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Notes

Human-centered design - The process that ensures that the designs match the needs and capabilities of the people for whom they are intended
Affordances - relationship between a physical object and a person. E.g. a chair affords support, therefore, affords sitting. A flat plate on a doors affords pushing while a know affords turning, pushing, and pulling. Affordance is jointly determined by the object and the agent that is interacting with it. To be effective, affordance have to be discoverable. Affordance determines what is possible.
Signifiers - Signals presence of affordance. Signifiers communicate where an action afforded by affordance should take place. E.g. a “Push” sign on a door.

The Design of Everyday Things — Book Summary & Notes

The Dark Forest

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Dark Forest is the second book in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past series by Liu Cixin. The book is the origin of the Dark forest hypothesis, one of the possible solutions to the Fermi paradox.

The Dark Forest builds on the first book - The Three-Body Problem but in a grand scale spanning a time-frame of 300 years between the events at the end of The Three-Body Problem and the first contact with Trisolaran fleet. As in the first book, The Dark Forest is heavily based in science touching on other topics such as sociology and politics.

The Dark Forest is a nail-bitting read, thrilling from beginning to the end and one of the fiction books that made it on my Devaured under 3 days books list.

On Writing Well

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Writing is strongest when it’s simple and clear of clutter.
Make every sentence do useful work.
Always be yourself. Warmth and humanity are the two most important qualities of good nonfiction writing.
Leave the reader with one provocative thought that they didn’t have before.
Understated humor is the nonfiction writer’s secret weapon.

How the World Really Works

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Thu, 18 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A realistic grasp of our past, present, and uncertain future is the best foundation for approaching the unknowable expanse of time before us. While we cannot be specific, we know that the most likely prospect is a mixture of progress and setbacks, of seemingly insurmountable difficulties and near-miraculous advances. The future, as ever, is not predetermied. Its outcome depends on our actions.

Vaclav Smil deserved second chance after I gave up on Growth. How the World Really Works was just as dense as Growth but focused on broader topic and as such, felt more accessible. The first few chapters explain the history and current state of the fundamental things of modern world: energy, food production, materials, and globalization. Next chapters focus on present happenings and future outlooks, specifically in regards to the environment.

Vaclav’s writing is objective and grounded in science. The book is written with high degree of agnosticism and Vaclav specifically avoids making any predictions about the future and provides whole few pages of examples of how miserably we fail to predict anything even remotely distant.

How the World Really Works was a heavy, saddening but also prospective, and informative read. What I am taking away is that we should focus more on preventing food waste. Furthermore, any progress even if drastic that we make in ecology today will take tens of years to show, yet we are deciding about the future of billions of people.

we are a fossil-fueled civilization whose technical and scientific advances, quality of life, and prosperity rest on the combustion of huge quantities of fossil carbon, and we cannot simply walk away from this critical determinant of our fortunes in a few decades, never mind years

Notes

due to power density it is highly unlikely that our prime movers (trucks, ships, planes) will switch away from fossil-fuel for power
fossil-fuels are also heavily utilized (and irreplaceably so) in food production (from powering the machinery to fertilizers synthetization)
energy consumption is closely tied to economic growth

Food

enourmous amount of food in modern world is wasted, large contribution to ecology would be reducing the waste
food production requires large qunatity of fossil fuelds, Vaclav provides a few examples where he converts food to the direct amount of fueld used for the production (e.g. for 1kg of bread it is around 250ml of fossil fuel)

The Four Pillars of Modern Civilization

ammonia (used as artificial fertilizer)
plastic
steel
concrete

all are energy-intensive to produce, only plastic and ammonia require fossil fuels as feedstock
all produced in staggering qunatities (hundreds of millions to billions of tons annually)
we don’t have suitable alternatives for any of it

Climate change

public discourse around climate change gravitates towards extremes of either techno-optimism or catastrophism
catastrophists tend to be wrong all the time
techno-optimists rarely understand the underlying constraints of modern world
we are rightfully worried, at the same time throughout the history we always found a solution (so far)
Smil also gives very grimm outlook to all the recent initiatives, most national and international agreements empty promises without commitment
furthermore, as mentioned above, we can’t move away from fossil fuelds for plastic and ammonia anytime soon and even for transportation we are far from having an alternative
rapid decarbonization could only be achieved by making sacrifices utterly impalatable to the vast majority of people
the problem of delayed gratification - even drastic reductions to emissions “will not show any convincing benefits for decades”

everything you thought you knew, and why you’re wrong, review by Nathaniel Rich

Tiny Habits

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Thu, 18 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

TODO

The Road to Character

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Notes

Two opposing sides of our natures:

Adam 1
- career-oriented, ambitious side of our nature
- wants to have high status and win victories
Adam 2
- wants to embody mora qualities
- a quiet but solid sense of right and wrong, not only to do good, but be good
- wants to have cohesive inner sould

Takeaways

Roughly rephrased takeways from the last chapter of the book:

We don’t live for happiness, we live for holiness

we seek to live live of purpose, righteousness, and virtue, not just for pleasure
best life is oriented around excellence of the soul, moral joy, gratitued, and tranquillity

The above proposition defines the goal of live

road to character begins by understanding our nature
the core being that we are flawed - tendenecy toward selfishness and overconfidence

In the struggle against your own weakness, humility is the greatest virtue

humility is having accurate assesment of our nature and place in the world

Pride is the central vice

pride blinds us to our weaknesses, makes us more certain and closed-minded, makes us more coldhearted, and deludes us into thinking we are authors of our own lifes
because of pride we try to prove that we are better than those around us

Once the necessities for survival are satisfied, the struggle against sin and for virtue is the central drama of live

winning is not possible, the goal is to get better at waging the moral war
there are heroes and schmucks in all parts of world

Character is built in the course of your inner confrontation

one does become more disciplined, considerate, and loving through a thousand small acts of self-control, sharing, and friendship
character is about engraving certain tendencies into our mind

The things that lead us astray are short term - lust, feat, vanity, gluttony
The things the compose character are long term - courage, honesty, humility
No person can achieve self-mastery on their own
Defeating wekness often means quieting the self

the struggle against wekness requires reticence and modesty, muting our own ego

Wisdom emerges out of a collection of intellectual virtues

knowing how to behave when perfect knowledge is lacking, which is almost always

No good life is possible unless it is organized around a vocation

vocation is not found by looking within but by asking what life is asking of us

Maturity is achieved by being better than you used to be, it is not comparative

Stranger in a Strange Land

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

TODO

High Output Management

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Notes

Grove’s Principle of Didactic Management - “Ask one more question”
- when you think the other party has said everything ask one more question
- keep the flow by asking more until both parties feel satisfied
productivity can be increased by performing work at higher rate or by increasing the leverage of activities (e.g. by work simplification)
manager’s output = team output + output of neighbouring teams under their influence
manager’s job is to strive for the highest leverage
high leverage activities:
1. when many people are affected by one manager
2. when a person’s activity or behaviour over a long time is affected by manager’s input
3. when a large group’s work is affected by an individual supplying key piece of knowledge or information
big part of managers role is information gathering
delegation is another way of applying leverage
training others

Production operations

process - building a software
assembly - the software itself
test - assessing the quality of the software

Meetings

process oriented (scheduled on regular basis)
- 1:1
  - purpose: mutual teaching and exchange of information
  - should be scheduled in frequency matching the job- or task-relevant maturity (e.g. more frequently with new team member)
  - agenda and tone should be set by the subordinate
  - emphasis should be on indicators that signal trouble
  - keep a file with notes for next meeting and action points from previous
- staff meeting
  - between manager and the peers of the team
  - manager should be active only if the discussion is stalling or going off track
mission-oriented meetings
- held ad-hoc to address specific issues
- the objective of the meeting must be clear
- keep the meetings reasonable sized, decision-making is not a spectator sport
- meeting should have a driver
  - responsible for preparing the meeting, keeping discipline during the meeting, and summarising it afterwards
- shouldn’t consist more than 20% of the meetings, in smoothly running organisation all issues would be addressed before they arise in process oriented meetings

Decision making

the process:
1. free discussion
- all aspects of the issue should be openly and freely discussed
1. clear decision
2. full support
- all involved parties should commit to the decision (doesn’t mean agree)
if solution is wrong, repeat the steps
the decision should be made on the middle level between reliance on technical knowledge and hands-on experience versus expertise and previous experience with similar solutions
six important questions for decisions making:
1. what decision needs to be made
2. when does it have to be made
3. who will decide
4. who will need to be consulted prior to making the decision
5. who will ratify or veto the decision
6. who will need to be informed of the decision
being clear about the decision making process beforehand is important to prevent hard feelings

Planning

establish projected need or demand

examine your environment: customers’ expectations, performance of other groups that affect you, competition.
examine the environment in two timeframes: now vs. sometime in the future (e.g. in 1 year)
difference analysis - the environment demands now vs. in the future
- how you react to the difference is key outcome of the planning process

establish your current status

current capabilities and projects and their delivery

compare and reconcile steps 1. and 2.

what do you need to close the gap?
what can you do to close the gap?
consider both questions separately and answer: what affect your actions will have and when
the set of actions you decide on is strategy
management by objectives (MBO)
- answer to two questions
  1. where do I want to go? (objective)
  2. how will I evaluate if I am getting there? (key result)

Behaviour

when person is not doing their job there are only two possible reasons: they can’t do it or they won’t do it
- manager can affect this by motivation and training
Maslow hierarchy of needs:
1. Physiological (things that money can buy such as food or clothing)
2. Safety/Security (e.g. medical insurance)
3. Social/Affiliation (e.g. belonging to the group)
4. Esteem/Recognition (exists in the eyes of the beholder, e.g. you dictate what you need for esteem/recognition, once gratified it no longer motivates)
5. Self-Actualizaton (the need to achieve one’s utter personal best)
competence-driven - driven to master specific task
achievement-driven - attempting to achieve no matter what the task is
motivation by money dimishes with higher income
the motivation persists for those who have money as proxy for achievement
- if absolute sum is important to the person then it is mostly about physiological need
- if what matters is how the sum stacks against other peers then it is mostly about esteem/recognition or self-actualization

task-relevant maturity (TRM)

combination of education, training, and experience
can be high in one job and low in another
management style for specific maturity:
- low - structured; task oriented; what, when, how
- medium - individual oriented; mutual reasoning and communication
- high - minimal involvement of the manager

Reviews & feedback

assessing performance
- clarify for yourself in advance the expectations
- you can characterize performance by output measures (the yield) and internal measures (the means to achieve the yield)
- needs to weight in if the person is long-term oriented vs short-term oriented (no general rule here)
- similarly there might be lag between actions and actual results
delivering the assessment
- 3 Ls:
  - level - level yourself with the person and be frank
  - listen - what matters is getting the right thoughts communicated, words are just the means for it
  - leave yourself out - the review is about and for the person
- there’s finite capacity to absorbing feedback
  - write down things and group similar feedback
stages of under-performers: ignore, deny, blame others, assume responsibility, find solution
- three possible outcomes when delivering “blast” review (harsh feedback)
  - they accept the assessment and commit to solution
  - they don’t accept the assessment but still commit to solution
  - they neither accept the assessment nor the solution
reviewing the ace
- high performers need strong feedback even more than average performers as they account for disproportional amount of work

Compensation and career

career progression consists of alternating between meets requirements and exceeds requirements until one stagnates at meets requirements
people are fine with meeting requirements while achiever strive for exceeding requirements
when person is promoted and becomes under-achiever it’s better for both the organisation and the person to adjust their position
- the management oughts to own to the error

Practice

Tasks from the end of the book to practice what one has learned

for a project you are working on, identify limiting step and map the flow of work around it
identify 6 indicators for your group’s output, they should measure both quality and quantity
conduct work simplification on your most tedious, time-consuming task
define output of your organiszation and organizations that you can influence
define how you will monitor the next project that you delegate
define 3 objectives for yourself and create key indicators for all of them

No Rules Rules

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 19 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Notes

Certain points are too capitalistic even to my liking.
For most companies many of the learnings are out of reach, for example paying top of the market and hiring rock star employees.
Candor is the most important part that can be applied even if you can’t pay top of the market.
Removing controls (in decision making and expenses) leads to innovative and faster-moving organization.

Giving feedback

Aim to Assist: feedback must be given with positive intent
Actionable: feedback must be actionable and focus on what the recipient can do differently
Appreciate: when receiving negative feedback avoid the natural instinct to be protective and show appreciation instead
Accept or Discard: the decision to react is entirely up to the recipient

Step one

Built talent density
- Talented people make one another more effective.
- Averagely performing people can drag the performance of high performing team members down.
- Inversely, performance is contagious.
Increase candor
- Say what you really think with positive intent.
- Teach all employees to give and receive feedback well.
- Build feedback into your regular meetings.
Begin removing controls
- Remove vacation policy, but the leaders have to set example by taking time off themselves.
  - The boss should provide a context for the team of when and how to take the vacation.
- Remove travel and expense approvals, but ensure that employees follow spend company money as if it were your own.
  - The finance department should audit portion of receipts annually>
  - Speak about abusing the system openly so others understand the ramifications of behaving irresponsibly.
  - Some expenses might increase but not nearly as much as the gains from the freedom that they provide.
  - Fewer resources waster on administrative cost.

Step two

Fortify talent density
- Divide workforce into creative and operational employees, pay creative employees top of the market salary.
- Don’t pay performance based bonuses, put the resources into salary instead. Measures for performance based bonuses are often wrong and don’t reflect long-term incentives of the company.
Pump up candor
- Instigate culture of transparency, get rid of closed offices.
- Open up the books to your employees and share sensitive financial and strategic information with everyone.
- When doing layoffs or other decisions that will impact employees’ well-being be up front to build trust (might cause anxiety and distraction).
- As long as you’ve already shown yourself to be competent speaking about mistakes will increase trust, goodwill, and innovation.
Remove more controls
- Don’t seek to please your boss. Seek to do what is best for the company.
- In fast and innovative company, ownership of critical decisions should be dispersed across the workforce at all levels.
- Teach employees to take risks but if they fail, to sunshine it openly

Step three

Max up talent density
- The Keeper Test
  
  If a person on your team were to quit tomorrow, would you try to change their mind? Or would you accept their resignation, perhaps with a little relief? If the latter, you should give them a severance package now, and look for a star, someone you would fight to keep.
- Skip PIP (Performance Improvement Plan), rather take all the money and give it to the employee in a form of severance payment.
- Encourage employees to use the Keeper Test Prompt with their managers.
- When employee is let go, speak openly about what happened.
Max up candor
- Don’t link 360 feedback to raises or promotions and avoid anonymity.
- Open comments to anyone who is ready to give them.
- Start, Stop, Continue method with 25 percent positive, 75 percent developmental - all actionable and no fluff.
Eliminate most control
- Lead with context, no control. Your goal needs to be innovation (not error prevention) and you need to be operating in a loosely coupled system.
- Don’t tell people what to do, get in lockstep alignment by providing and debating all the context that will allow them to make good decisions.
- When something doesn’t work out, ask yourself what context you failed to set.
- Loosely coupled organization should be a tree, not a pyramid. The boss is the root, holding up trunks - senior managers who support the outer branches where decisions are made.
- If team is moving in the desired direction using the information they’ve received from you and others around you know that you’re successfully leading with context.

Staff Engineer

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Staff Engineer is a concise look at leadership beyond the management track. The book was written by Will Larson who worked at companies such as Stripe or Uber. In around 150 pages he summarizes his view on Staff+ engineering and the other half of the book contains interviews with engineers from other companies. While subjective, many of the points in the book seem to be the general consensus in the industry on what Staff+ engineering should look like. Some chapters contain more substance (e.g. Work on What Matter) while others seemed to me like re-iteration of what I would expect from engineers on any other level or even just decent human beings (Get in the Room and Stay There in particular contains a few points that read to me as don’t be an duchebag).

Notes

When advancing through the career ladder the timeframe of initiatives get longer from weeks (sprints) to months or even years.
Shift from decision making and executing towards giving space to others and steering them in the right direction.
A lot of it is about networking and being friends with the right people or being in the right place at the right time.
Enging chapter also includes a few tips for managing and hiring staff engineers.

Archetypes

Tech Lead

carry team context
closely cooperate with product manager
build agreements inside team

Architect

focus on specific technical domain (e.g. API design)

Solver

move around to solve specific burning issues

Responsibilities

setting technical direction - advocate for technology and how it applies to the specific problems of the company
mentorship and sponsorship - sharing experience and advice while understanding the recipients domain.¹
providing engineering perspective - be invited into meetings to inject engineering context for critical decisions
exploration - research topics, build proof of concepts, build generic understanding of topic to make informed decision
being glue - doing the needed but invisible work²

Operating at staff

work on what matters
- avoid snacking - working on low effort low impact things when you run out of low effort high impact initiatives
- avoid preening - working on low effort high visibility work
- existential issues - the first place to look for work is exploring whether the company is experiencing an existential risk
- work where there’s room and attention - work on things that will become critical in the future
- foster growth - dedicate time to grow the team around you
- edit - once you have the context you might be able to contribute small changes that actually push existing project by a lot
- finish things - help where things are not getting buy in (and should) or when they need to be taken over the finish line
engineering strategy³
- why? allows teams to move quickly and with confidence, e.g. the team doesn’t need to do week of research on database storage because the chosen few that are used in the company are already part of the engineering strategy
managing technical quality
- fix hot spots causing immediate problems
- adopt best practices that are known to improve quality
- prioritize leverage points that preserve quality as the software grows, e.g. good data model, well defined API, etc.
- align on techical vectors - the initiatives in the team and accross team should lead to shared goal
  - give feedback, encapsulate your approach in workflow and tooling
- do fewer things but do them better
listening through questions, i.e. asking good questions that open further discussion, the question has to be well intended with the purpose of learning more and the other party must feel safe to answer it
discussions
- shift your contribution towards asking questions
- pull people that aren’t participating into the discussion
- take notes (duh)
decisions
- write down the problem, think hard, write down the solution framework
- circulate early, i.e. get input early in the decision-making process
- separate style from substance, i.e. stop giving style feedback because everyone has different writing style and idea of the document structure. Instead, focus on the substance.
- be open to changing your mind
presenting to executives
- situation: the context of the problem
- complication: why is the current situation bad
- question: what is the core question to answer?
- answer: what is your best solution/answer to the posed question?

Training for the Uphill Athlete

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Training for the Uphill Athlete is book focusing on the endurance athlete physiology and training written by the biggest names in the field. First chapter breaks down the important scientific concepts behind sporting such as aerobic capacity, VO2max, and heart rate zones. Chapter two talks about the methodological basis of endurance from training volume, to testing and recovery. Chapter three is about strength training that is important part of race preparation even for endurance athletes. And in the last - fourth section - one can find examples of training plans for different parts of the season and generic tips for structuring yours plan as there’s no one-size-fits-all.

Notes

As with all other sources: focus on the base, 80% of training should be in Zone 1-2.
Strength training is meaningful (a lot) even for endurance athletes.
4 week blocks with 3 weeks of intensity and one recovery work well.
There are great recommendations for training plans in the book that wouldn’t fit here.

The Art of Thinking Clearly

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Art of Thinking Clearly is a book that provides practical tips for improving one’s thinking and decision-making. The book covers a wide range of topics related to cognitive biases, logical fallacies, and other common pitfalls of human reasoning. In many ways it overlaps or references Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

Throughout the book, Dobelli uses real-world examples to illustrate the various cognitive biases and logical fallacies that can affect our thinking, and provides practical advice on how to avoid these pitfalls. He also discusses the importance of critical thinking and the need to question our assumptions, as well as the benefits of adopting a more logical and analytical approach to decision-making.

The Art of Thinking Clearly is a highly accessible and engaging book that offers valuable insights into the human mind and how it can be improved. It is a useful resource for anyone looking to improve their critical thinking skills and avoid common mistakes in reasoning.

Thank you Ena.

Good Economics for Hard Times

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 01 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo are masters of their subject. In Good Economics for Hard Times they examine the most pressing issues for human kind (climate, international trade, unemployment, migration) and while doing so they debunk a great number of fake facts surrounding these topics. Notably, contrary to popular believe migration is not on the rise and migrants do not steal jobs of the natives. Universal basic income does not make people stop working and lower tax rates do not keep the growth rate high, on the contrary, there’s high correlation between low tax rates and high level of inequality.¹

The book is humble and honest, admitting the wrongs economists made in a latest attempt to regain the public trust in their profession. Every chapter sheds the much needed light on the ever more important topics that will shape our future and the authors focus on the most vulnarble - poor, old, or otherwise disstressed people.

Banerjee and Duflo don’t refrein from sharing their views and politics. They want government schemas to help people move to areas with better jobs, to help them with changing professions if their field of work is on decline, and to provide the support universally as any conditions to the schemas tend to often unintentionally exclude people that need the help the most.

The human need for respect and sense of self-worth is what sticked with me the most. Poor or otherwise disadvantaged people don’t need only financial help but also sense of being worthy and having purpose to their life.

Notes

Comparative Advantage - the idea that countries should do what they are relatively best at doing. Oposed to Absolute advantage it suggests that even if one country is absolutely best at producing everything it will still end up specializing in the product where they have comparative advantage.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/inequality-of-incomes-chartbook ↩︎

How to Win Friends and Influence People

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How to Win Friends and Influence People is book about things that we all know deep down there but need to be reminded of from time to time. The point the book is trying to convey boils down to simple observation: life is easier if you are making it easier for other people too. By appreciating, smiling, choosing the right words, not criticising, and taking other person’s needs into consideration.

In full honesty, I skipped a few pages here and there because the lesson of each chapter was conveyed by multiple examples and one was often enough to understand what is the author trying to say. The book isn’t groundbreaking in any way, the examples and stories are slightly historical, but the overall tone is heartwarming and the takeaways are true to the heart.

Notes

Fundamental techniques in handling people

Don’t criticise, condemn, or complain; instead, try to understand them, what they want and why they do things they do.
Give honest and sincere appreciation; try to figure out other person’s good traits.
Arouse in other people an eager want; don’t force your ideas on others, make them want to be part of it.

How to make people like you

Become genuinely interested in other people; people are interested in others if they are interested in them.
Person’s name is to them the sweetest sound in any language; calling people by their name has its powers.
Be a good listener; by encouraging others to talk about themselves and their needs.
Talk in terms of other person’s interest.
Make the other person feel important, and do it sincerely.

How to win people to your way of thinking

You can’t win an argument; the only way to get the best out of it is to avoid it.
Show respect for other person’s opinion; avoid saying “You’re wrong”.
If you are wrong, admit it.
Begin in a friendly way, and handle situations calmly; being rude won’t get you anywhere.
Get other person to say yes; give leading questions that have yes answers and work your way up to the final yes to what you really need.
Let the other person do the talking; it might give you more information to work with or if nothing else you will make them happy.
Let the other person feel that the idea is theirs; by planting the ideas and letting others to develop them on their own.
Try honestly to see the things from the other person’s view.
Be sympatethic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
Assume the best about everyone.
Dramatise your ideas.
When nothing else works, throw down a challenge.

Be a leader

Begin with praise and appreciation.
Call attention to people’s mistake indirectly; hint at the mistakes, let people realize them on their own.
Talk about your own mistakes first before criticising others.
Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
Let the other person save their face; destroying someone’s ego doesn’t do any good.
Praise the slightest improvement and every improvement.
Give the other person fine reputation to live up to.
Use encouragement. Make faults seem easy to correct.
Make the other person happy doing the things you suggest; consider what they gain from it and specifically convey it when making a request.

Becoming a Supple Leopard

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Becoming a Supple Leopard is a guide to injury prevention, mobillity, athletic performance, and overall well-being. Dr. Kelly Starrett himself mentions right at the beginning of the book that it is not meant to be read in whole from the beginning to the end but rather referred to to resolve specific problems or find inspiration and learning on specific areas of the body.

Invisible Women

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

TODO

Freakonomics

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

TODO

Educated

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Tara was raised in a strict Mormon family, with bipolar father, sociopathic brother, and mother that turned her back on anything that was happening under her nose. Despite the odds and starting school at 17 Tara received doctorate form history at Cambridge.

Educated is wonderful book full of events that seem to be too insane to be true. Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Memoir of how far can one get despite the odds and how much our family and childhood narrates our life.

Growth

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Growth is a book by Vaclav Smil that examines the ways in which human societies have grown and developed over time, from micro-organisms to modern societies. The book is a comprehensive and in-depth exploration of the various factors that have contributed to human growth, including technological innovation, economic development, and population growth. Growth provides deep insight into the patterns of growth that can be found in anything that we observe and where these patterns break.

Throughout the book, Smil uses a wide range of historical and contemporary examples to illustrate the complex and interrelated processes that have driven human growth. He also examines the various challenges and obstacles that have hindered growth, such as resource constraints, environmental degradation, and social inequality.

Despite the book’s length and technical nature, it is written in an engaging and accessible style that makes it a fascinating and informative read. Still, I did not finish the entire book and hope to come back to it one day.

The Three-Body Problem

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Three-Body Problem hit the right spot for me and placed itself on the list of finished in a day or so books. I attribute that mostly to the book being more on the Sci side than the Fi (whatever that means). The scientific concepts in the book were mostly familiar to me and played nicely together. Some of the character arcs seemed a little bit far fetched and flat but the scientific side of the book balanced that out.

The book gradually builds up the pace over first 100 pages and than turns into one thrilling rollercoaster with interesting plot-twists that keep you on the edge of the seat gasping for yet another page. Cixin Liu was able to combine Chinese Cultural Revolution¹, The Three-Body Problem², Particle Physics³, Newton’s laws of motion⁴, von Neumann Architecture⁵, and plenty other topics into one brilliant masterpiece this book is.

I am looking forward reading the next two books in the series and will unreservedly recommend The Three-Body Problem to anyone looking for conceptual, intelligent, fictional book.

How to Do Nothing

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Not really a guide to Doing Nothing or Resisting the Attention Economy as a matter of fact but interesting book nevertheless.

How to Do Nothing is well written and thoughtfull about philosophical and seemingly abstract concepts of the self, attention, bioregionalism, and community. More than a guide the book poses as an essay on what we are missing when social media grasps our attention, and whether our idea of “usefulness” is the right one. Should we really consider time and attention to be a commodity we can exchange for salary? And are we expressing ourselves honestly when we are limited by 280 characters and want to please each and every follower?

There is really no summary to this book as it flows from one concept to another with sometimes hard-to-grasp diversions to art, birds and nature. Would I recommend the book? I don’t know. It wasn’t my cup of tea yet I somehow unintentionally finished the book and learned to like it on the way.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I am pretty late to the party with this book but as the saying goes; Better late, than never. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a delightful book, brilliant in both its witty humour and unique style. Fiction was a welcomed break from all the demanding books I read lately, and I have a strong feeling I will include more fiction books into my reading queue.

For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.

As a side note, my plans of scrutinizing this book thoroughly bit by bit went out of the window after a few pages, and I devoured it in less than a day.

How To Lie With Statistics

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Summary

sample with a built-in bias: What will the average salary be if you ask Cambrdigegraduates?
well-chosen average (mean x median x _mode): Average person has less than 2 arms
little sample(s): Having enough small samples you can select the one, that suits you the best.
nice wording of practically nothing: “Camels are better than Marlboro”, yet they are both bad.
graphs (changing the scale or not labeling the graph at all):

XKCD #833 by Randall Munroe

one-dimensional picture: You can make the difference look greater by increasing the dimensionality of the graph.
semi-attached/irrelevant figure: New Anticovid™ gel kills 13943 germs in 12 seconds.
post-hoc:

XKCD #552 by Randall Munroe

Info

Title: How to Lie with Statistics
Author: Darrell Huff
ISBN10: 0393310728
ISBN13: 9780393310726

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Key Takeaways

Inequality grows if rate of return on capital is greater than the economic growth. That is, when the average returns on capital (such as dividends, interest, rates, and profit) are higher than the economic growth (growth of society’s income/output) people with more capital tend to cumulate more wealth, increasing their income even more. This in turn accelerates the growth of the gap between wealthy and poor.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Modern society is shaped by capitalism and consumerism. Expensive fashion, travel and social media dictate our lives without us betting an eye. How have we got to this point though? And more importantly, why have we got to this point? These questions and many more are answered in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

In Sapiens Harari divides the history of human kind into three distinctive important eras. Our history began with the Cognitive Revolution (70,000 BCE). Cognitive revolution happened when we developed imagination. Imagination allowed us to dominate the world through the ability to believe in imaginary things such as gods, money, nations, laws, and more. All large-scale cooperative human systems found their foundation in the cognitive capacity for fiction. Be it trade networks, religions or political systems. All these systems are purely abstract yet enabled us to cooperate on unprecedented scale, thus overpowering all other living species. For example money, the powerhouse of economies and trade, is a system of mutual trust. Money have their value simply because we (collectively) believe in their value. The time when value of money was backend by the actual precious metals is long gone, and even then what allowed money to exist is that we trusted that we will be able to exchange money for goods because others have the same believes and will be willing to accept money as a form of a payment.

With the money we are getting ahead of ourselves though. It was only in 3000 BC in Mesopotamia when the first commodity money - shekel - was introduced. The first result of the abstract thinking was the ability to build larger groups. The large scale human cooperation in the form of archaic tribes, medieval kingdoms or modern states is rooted in common myths, existing purely in our collective imagination. None of these things exist outside the stories that people invent and tell each other.

The second era began with the Agricultural Revolution in 10,000 BCE when first Sapiens settled and learned to co-evolve species like cows and wheat. With agricultural revolution also came large population growth. Large plains that were once able to feed single wondering tribe were now thanks to agriculture able to feed many times more. The key claim regarding the agricultural revolution though is that it made the lives of most individuals and animals alike worse. Daily lives became less varied, our diet shrunk to a few crops and meat of domesticated animals, and the permanent settlements brought diseases and other problems that we were able to avoid thus far. All of this also required us to work more and harder. Why did the agricultural revolution happen even at this cost? Frankly, we are not sure. What we know is, that it wasn’t possible to go back to our hunter-gatherer style of live once the revolution began.

The Scientific Revolution began the last era. Scientific revolution was founded on change in European though, whereby elites first time in the history became willing to admit ignorance and try to remedy. With our newly gained power of saying “we don’t know” and “we were wrong” we started to discover more of the world and making first scientific breakthroughs. Seeing the advancements that we are able to achieve gained science more trust which in turn brought more money, which in turn brought more scientific advancements that allowed us to enrich ourselves. This started the self-stimulating cycle of power, resources, and research. More research brings more power, more power means more resources, and the more resources are available the more we can invest back into research.

The idea of progress also funded the modern economy. Whoever believes in progress believes that our technological inventions and organisational development can increase the total sum of human wealth, production and trade. Progress broke our belief that economy is zero-sum game where gains of one are losses of others. Once this dogma has been broken and people started to believe in better future new doors opened. People agreed to represent imaginary goods - things that don’t yet exist - with what is called credit. Credit enabled us to build the present at the expense of future. All this is funded on the assumption that our future resources are more abundant than our present resources. Baker could come to a bank to borrow money to open new bakery. Bank would be willing to lend the money believing that the baker will be able to generate income in foreseeable future to pay his dept. All of this was and is possible only thanks to our collective believe in better future and growth of overall wealth.

Many more ideas and phenomenas are presented in the book, too many of them to list them all. I hope that the previous paragraphs are enough to give you an overall idea of what to except. Overall, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a fantastic book that puts so many things that we take for granted into their true perspective. The book also made me realize that the history ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. Mistakes were and still are made. Because of our greed many species are extinct or live miserable lives to end up on our plates. And are we even happier and better of than we were 70,000 years ago? In the essence of scientific revolution it is ok to say that we don’t know. Let’s just hope that we are building better future not only for us but also for other species.

Nonviolent Communication

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg is an essential book on for anyone hoping to make life easier and more enjoyable for himself and people around. The book is plentiful in examples and summaries making it easy to adopt suggested methods and thoughts. Overall, the tone of the book is friendly and clear. The sections flow nicely one in to another slowly building upon the knowledge learned. Some examples in the book seem to be far-fetched hurting on the credibility of the book, despite that it still holds great value and provides great insight into what empathy really means.

Notes

Four components of NVC (Non-Violent Communication)

observations
feelings
needs
requests

We need to keep in mind that for MVC to work we should:

express honestly through the four components
receive empathically through the four components

In the end, the process looks like this:

the concrete actions that we observe that affect our well-being
how we feel in relation to what we observe
the needs, values, desires, etc. that create our feelings
the concrete actions we request in order to enrich our life

Communication that blocks compassion

moralistic judgements
making comparisons
denial of responsibility
thinking based on “who deserves what”

Observing without evaluating

Observing without evaluating is the highest form of human intelligence

It’s easier to provide a few examples:

“You are too generous” vs. “When I see you share your lunch with other I think you are being too generous”
“She’s ugly” vs. “Her looks don’t appeal to me”
“If you don’t eat healthy you will be fet” vs. “If you don’t eat healthy I fear you might become fet”

Identifying and expressing feelings

It’s easier to connect with one another if we can better express our feelings. For that we need larger vocabulary, good and bad won’t be enough. And we need to keep following things in mind:

distinguish between what we feel and what we thing others react or behave toward us.
distinguish feelings from thoughts.
- “I feel like a failure” vs. “I feel sad because my plans are failing”.
distinguish between what we feel and what we think we are
- “I feel inadequate as a waitress” vs. “I feel frustrated with myself as a waitress”

Taking responsibility for our feelings

Our feelings result from how we choose to receive what others say and do. E.g. what others say and do might be the stimulus four our feelings but never the cause.

We can deepen our awareness of our own responsibility for our feelings by connecting our feelings with our needs, e.g.: “I feel …, because I need…”.

distinguish between giving from the heart and being motivated by guilt

“Mommy and daddy are sad when you get poor grades at school”

The child will be motivated by guilt instead of giving from heart
judgement of others is alienated expression of our own unmet needs

e.g. we tend to judge other instead of expressing our own needs that make us feel certain way.
if we don’t value our needs others may not either

e.g. it is important to express our needs correctly, accompanied by our feelings. We can’t blame others when our needs are unmet if we don’t express them (obviously).

From emotional slavery to emotional liberation

Three stages:

emotional slavery - we believe ourselves resonsible for feelings of others. We think we must constantly strive to keep everyone happy and this overwhelms us.
obnoxious stage - we feel angry and no longer want to be responsible for feelings of others.
emotional liberation - we respond to feelings of others out of compassion, never out of feat, guilt, or shame. We accept full responsibility for our own intentions and actions, but not for the feelings of others.

Requesting that which would enrich live

use positive language when making request

i.e. express what are you requesting instead of what you are not requesting.
make requests in clear, positive, concrete action language

vague language contributes to confusion, we might be requesting one thing, but the other person might understand it in different way and no one is to blame.

Make requests consciously

Simply expressing our feelings it might not be clear to the listener what we actually want.

accompany the requests with feelings and needs, otherwise they might sound like demands

Asking for reflection

Ask for reflection to make sure the message we send is the same as the message that was received.

ask the listener to reflect it back
show appreciation when the listener tries to meet your request for reflection
empathize with the listener if he doesn’t want to reflect back

Requesting honesty

After we express ourselves vulnerably we often want to know:

What the listener is feeling (“I would like to know what you feel about what I just said”)
What the listener is thinking (“I would like you to tell me whether you think that my proposal will go through”)
- note that we again want to use concrete language instead of asking vaguely (“What do you think about that?”)
Whether the listener would be willing to take particular action (“I would like to know whether you are willing to postpone the meeting”)

Making requests of a group

In groups time is waster when the speaker isn’t certain what response they want.

Requests vs. Demands

When other person hears demand from us they have two options: to submit or to rebel.

to tell if it’s demand or request observe what the speaker does if the request is not complied with
it’s demand if the speaker then criticizes or judges our decision
it’s demand if the speaker then lays a guilt trip
it’s request if the speaker then shows empathy toward the other person’s needs

Defining objective when making requests

Our objective is a relationship based on honesty and empathy. We shouldn’t want to change other people mind. Instead, our objective should be for others to change/respond but only if they decide to.

When making request, it is helpful to scan our minds for thoughts that automatically turn requests into demands:

He should be cleaning after himself
I deserve a raise
I have right to spend more time off

Receiving Empathically

Now let’s turn the things around and learn how to apply the same four-components to hearing what others are observing, feeling, needing, and requesting.

Don’t just do something, stand there

empathy requires us to focus full attention on the other person’s message
ask before offering advice or reassurance, e.g. don’t do following:
- advising (“I think you should …”)
- one-upping (“That’s nothing, wait till you hear what happened to me”)
- educating (“This could turn into a good thing”)
- consoling (“It wasn’t your fault, don’t worry”)
- sympathizing (“Oh, you poor thing…”)
- explaining (“I would have called, but …”)
- correcting (“That’s not what actually happened”)
- interrogating (“When did this started?”)
- shutting down (“Cheer up, there’s nothing to worry about”)
intellectual understanding blocks empathy, it doesn’t have to make sense, we just need to listen
no matter what others say, we only hear what they are
1. observing
2. feeling
3. needing
4. requesting
listen to what other people need rather than what they are thinking
sometimes we first need empathy before being able to give empathy

Paraphrasing

Reflect back to the other person by paraphrasing what you understand. The speaker will either confirm it or we gave him the opportunity to correct us. Another advantage of reflecting is that we offer the other party time to reflect on what they’ve just said.

paraphrase by question that reveals our understanding while bringing out anything that needs correction. Some examples:
- Are you reacting to how many days I was gone last week?
- Are you feeling hurt because you would like more appreciation of your efforts?
- Are you wanting me to tell you my reasons for saying what I just said?
important: always sense the speakers’ reality first (“Are you feeling hurt because …?” versus “How are you feeling?”)
in case we want to ask directly without sensing first, we should first express our feelings and needs (“I’m frustrated because I don’t understand what you need from me. Would you be willing to tell me what I’ve done that makes you see me this way?”)
reflect back messages that are emotionally charged
paraphrase only when it contributes to greater compassion (sometimes it isn’t necessary to paraphrase, only listen)
behind intimidating messages are merely people wanting us to meet their needs

Sustaining empathy

allow others to first fully express their feelings before turning our attention to solutions
staying with empathy allows the speaker to reach deeper levels of their feelings
speaker has received adequate empathy when:
1. we sense release of tension
2. the flow of words comes to a halt

The power of empathy

it’s hard to empathize with those that appear to posses more power, status, or resources
the more we empathize with one another the safer we feel

Using empathy to defuse danger

rather than put “but” into the face of angry person, empathize
listening for feelings and needs helps us see other people in better light

Empathy to revive a lifeless conversation

to bring conversation back to life: interrupt with empathy
what bores the listener bores the speaker too
it’s better to interrupt rather than pretend to listen

Empathy for silence

sometimes empathy lies in our ability to be present and nothing more is needed

Connecting compassionately with ourselves

use NVC to evaluate yourself in ways that engender growth rather than self-hatred
avoid the should as in “I should have known better” or “I shouldn’t have don that”.
connect with feelings and needs stimulated by past actions that we regret
self-forgiveness: connecting with the need that we tried to meet when we took the action that we now regret
be ever of the needs behind our actions

Expressing anger fully

we are always angry because of ourselves, not because of what other people do or say, it’s a choice
steps to expressing anger:
1. calm down
2. identify our judgmental thoughts
3. connect with our needs
4. express our feelings and unmet needs

Conflict resolution and mediation

learn to hear needs instead of how people express them
avoid criticism and diagnoses
people often need empathy before they hear what’s being said
maintaining respect is key to successful conflict resolution
use role-play to speed up the process

Protective use of force

two questions that reveal the limitation of punishment:
1. What do I want this person to do?
2. What do I want this person’s reasons to be for doing it?

Expressing appreciation

“thank you” in NVC: “This is what you did, this is how I feel, this is the need of mine that was met.”

Thinking, Fast and Slow

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Thinking, Fast and Slow is a book by Daniel Kahneman that explores the ways in which the human mind processes information and makes decisions. The book is divided into two parts, each focusing on one system of the human thinking.

“System 1” is fast, automatic, and effortless, and is responsible for intuitive and emotional responses. It is the part of the brain that we use when we quickly and automatically react to stimuli, such as when we reflexively jump out of the way of a speeding car. It’s also the part responsible for most of our cognitive biases.

“System 2”, on the other hand, is slow, deliberate, and effortful, and is responsible for logical and rational thinking. It is the part of the brain that we use when we consciously and deliberately think through a problem or decision.

Throughout the book, Kahneman uses a wide range of examples and experiments to illustrate the ways in which our two systems of thinking can influence our decision-making and behavior. He also discusses the various biases and heuristics that can affect our thinking, and provides practical advice on how to avoid common pitfalls and make better decisions.

Thinking, Fast and Slow is a fascinating and thought-provoking book that offers valuable insights into the human mind and how it processes information. For me it falls into the same (now pretty large) category of must-read books such as Factfulness, Enlightement Now, or Nonviolent Communication.

Notes

We operate on two systems
- System 1 automatic and quickly, little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control, runs automatically and can’t be stopped, error-prone
  - e.g. the fight or fleet response, orient to the source of sound, compare distance of objects, interpret facial experssions etc.
- System 2 effortful, allocates attention, hard to use for several activites at once, used when we need to compute or reason, slow but reliable
  - e.g. count occurances, focus on certain person in discussion, deliberately used to control System 1
Heuristics and System 1
- to quickly process stimuli System 1 relies on heuristics, often inaccurate
- heuristics:
  - associations and priming
    - associations - lime == green, doctor == clever, doesn’t have to be true
    - priming - common associations that move us in particular direction or action
    - e.g. if we are hungry we recognize the word soup easier, the effects are not large but can be used to affect people
  - cognitive ease
    - we are trying to get from system 2 (effortful) to system 1 (automatic)
    - e.g. you can make people believe falsehoods by frequent repetition, simple language, quotes, and memorable phrases
    - stocks with memorable/pronnounceable tickers do better over time
  - jumping to conclusions
    - WYSIATI = What You See Is All There Is - system 1 draws conclusions on readily available information
    - e.g. the confirmation bias = we are more open and looking for an evidence that confirms our believes
  - answeing the easier question
    - we simplify hard questions to easier once
    - e.g. “How happy you are with your life” to “What’s your current mood”
  - law of small numbers
    - small sample sizes - we make decisions on insufficient or unrepresentative data
  - anchors
    - priming the mind with an expectation
    - e.g. setting the intial bid in an offer very high primes the other party to bid higher
  - availability
    - we give more weight to recent events
    - good mood positively affect performance of system 1, on the other hand being tired makes it even worse
- biases and errors of sytem 1:
  - once wrong assumption is “accepted” it triggers associative mechanism, spreading relative ideas through our system
  - loss aversion - we prefer no changes even if they would benefit us in the long run

The Art of War

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

TODO

The Hard Thing about Hard Things

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Hard Thing about the Hard Things is book full of hard to swallow facts of running a successful business. Ben Horowitz with brutal honesty describes what all can go wrong, how to avoid it, and that eventually something always goes wrong. All of this with interesting and insightful stories from his time at Loudcloud.

The whole book is separated into discrete and short chapters on individual subjects of running a business. Be it chapter about hiring people for positions you know nothing about, telling your employees the bad news or even sacking your good friend. Ben always sums his knowledge into a few key takeaways that are easy to adopt and remember and even if you later want to learn more on some subject or just revisit a certain topic the book structure makes it easy to grab it and read a few pages on what you need.

The Hard Thing about the Hard Things contains plenty of examples and easy to grab concepts that can be adopted on many more places than just technological companies. The book covers a vast amount of topics so everyone will find a useful piece for himself. In the end you will know that there are no easy answers, but at least you can learn from mistakes of others.

Why We Sleep

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In my first years of university, I often found myself doing homework up to the early morning hours and then sleeping a few hours and starting the new day as if nothing happened. I knew that it wasn’t good, but only now I know how bad it was. Bad sleeping habits make you fatter, sicker, unhappier, more forgetful and prone to diseases shrinking your life expectancy with every night that you don’t rest well.

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, the director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science, is filled with striking information about the effects of lousy sleeping habits. Walker explains how neglecting a good night rest affects our problem-solving abilities, memory, creativity, mental and physical health, as well as social feeling and empathy.

Even though Walker sometimes jumps very far from the correlation to causation in things such as the relation between sleep length and happiness, the book is still essential and alarming in many ways. Here are some facts that stuck with me and that you might be asking yourself even before reading the book.

How long do we have to sleep

You might think that you are a short sleeper, and 6 hours per night are enough for you, most likely, that’s not the case. Only less than 1 percent of people can sleep 6 hours and get the amount of sleep that their body needs; the rest is sleep-deprived and got used to it. The optimal amount of sleep is 7,5 - 8 hours every night. If that’s not possible for you, try to take a quick nap after the lunch, even though it can’t substitute the night sleep it’s still better than letting your tired body flow through the day without a rest.

Sleeping habits also change with age. The thing that I could closely relate to is that in the puberty, our sleeping cycle moves forward, making us want to stay up longer and sleep until later hours. The body often overshoots this shift, which might last up until adulthood. Thus it is very important to let your adolescent kids sleep long enough, which is often impossible with early school schedules.

What if we sleep less

Why We Sleep lays out so many negative effects of sleep deprivation that it would take more than ten articles to list them all. Things that take the highest toll are memory, concentration, creativity, and the overall state of health of your body. Walkers also links sleep deprivation to many diseases, why the linkage might not be as strong as he claims, what has been proven to be true over and over again is that being drowsy behind the wheel is as bad as being drunk.

\[1\]

Fatigue-related accidents are estimated to account for 20% of fatal car crashes. Driving after 24 hours without sleep is considered to be equal to driving with 0.1% alcohol in blood, the amount considered illegal in almost all countries.

How to improve your sleep

There are a few things you might consider doing to improve your sleep. First is avoiding blue light before going to bed. Blue light boosts your mood and energy, which is excellent throughout the day but is not desired in the evening when you want your body to relax and get ready for rest. Internally, your body thinks that the blue light is the natural light and it suppresses production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates our sleep-wake cycle by making us feel tired.

Secondly, you can create a better environment for the shut-eye phase of the night, make sure your room is dark, silent and cold, your body drops the temperature in the night and you will rest better if your body doesn’t have to work hard to do that. Optimal room temperature for sleeping is around 19 °C (65-66 °F).

\[2\]

If you like to take a hot bath before going to bed, however unpleasant, consider taking a cold shower at the end.

Last but not least, try to avoid alcohol before bedtime; contrary to the popular believe alcohol doesn’t improve your sleep, rather it induces the sleep but lowers the overall quality (mostly of the REM - rapid-eye-movement phase) to very low level. That’s also the reason why even after sleeping to the lunch hours after a party, you still feel tired, and your body asks for more sleep.

Why we sleep at all

After all, sleeping makes you - and all animals alike - vulnerable and unable to hunt, gather, reproduce, or eat. Why do we sleep then, and why hasn’t the evolution got rid of the sleep already? Because the upsides of sleep overweight the downsides severally. Sleep helps us regenerate and boosts our immune system, while we sleep the body gets rid of many toxic substances and enhances our abilities using the experiences obtained throughout the day. Overall, sleep makes us evolutionary more fit, just in ways that are not that easy to see.

Summary

Why We Sleep is both eyes-opening and eyes-closing book. Never have I been proven to be wrong in so many things by a book. Walker also encourages you to put the book often away and take a nap or go to sleep already, knowing how important sleep really is. I think we all should learn more about sleep - an activity we spend almost one-third of our lives at and yet know so little about. That being said, the books has its flaws and factual errors, you can read more about these for example in this article: Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep” Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors.

Critics

Alexey Guzey wrote lengthy article titled Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep” Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors that debunks and disputes many claims in the book, to name a few:

No, shorter sleep does not imply shorter life span
No, a good night’s sleep is not always beneficial
No, lack of sleep will not outright kill you
No, two-thirds of adults in developed nations do not fail to obtain the recommended amount of sleep
and many more…

I definitely recommend reading the blog post as well as the discussions linked in the first paragraph.

Learn more about sleep

\[1\] - Drowsy Driving
\[2\] - This Is the Best Temperature for Sleeping, According to Experts

Never Split the Difference

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In Never Split the Difference Chris Voss, the author, explains why most of what we have been thought about negotiation is wrong and that concepts such as fairness and rational decisions do not exist. The real negotiation doesn’t start or end with Yes but rather with No. This book will make you appreciate hearing No more often, and you will learn that No often gets you further then Yes.

Chriss Voss is a battle-tested FBI negotiator with years of experience with life-or-death situations. In Never Split the Difference, he not only shows what works but also why. His teaching is based on real-life, experience not only with hostage situations but also with teaching and guiding people in business to close the best deals possible.

We spend a lot of our lives unknowingly negotiating, so we might as well get better at it. Never Split the Difference provides a strong foundation for negotiation with many easy and useful takeaways. What sets this book and techniques in it apart from others is the focus on empathy and emotional intelligence. These leanings were game-changers for FBI, and Voss brings them into real-life situations with lively examples and stories from his clients.

Be a Mirror

Concept of Being a Mirror stuck with me the most and has already helped me tremendously in my everyday life. Mirroring works by repeating words of what someone has just said back to them. Mirroring makes your counterpart elaborate, often yielding more vital information for you. People fear difference and are drawn to similarities. Mirroring evokes the feeling of bonding which encourages the other side to keep talking and often reveal more then they wanted to. This skill is also very convenient for keeping conversation up and running with whoever you might want to, if it’s your boss, new teammate, or potential significant other.

Listening and labeling

Voss stresses it multiple times through the book - listing is the key. People want to be heard and understood. Listening is a cheap and easy way to demonstrate empathy and show a desire to hear more. Another essential skill to learn is labeling. Labeling means naming someone’s emotions, acknowledging them, and letting them now that you identify and understand their feeling. To label an emotion, you almost always begin with “It seems like…”, “It sounds like…”, or “It looks like…”. Once you throw the label into the open, it is good to stay quiet and listen. By naming (labeling) the emotions, we diffuse or defuse the bad ones and reinforce the good ones. Both these skills go hand in hand and will once again help you bond and build a more reliable connection with the counterpart.

Summary

Never Split the Difference might be your key to a better salary or happier relationship. This book has a ton to offer to absolutely anyone and does so in easy to understand manner. Voss’s writing is easy to follow, and all the concepts are clear, with plenty of examples and proofs.

If you want to learn more about the negotiation skills without reading the book, take a look at the following links:

Or print the Summary Cheat Sheet.

Economic Facts and Fallacies

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sat, 29 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Economic Facts and Fallacies is the second book by Thomas Sowell I have read, and I am again left in awe. The book repeats many themes already touched in Basic Economics but explains them more in-depth. Sowell does a beautiful job of providing many illustrative real-life examples to each topic covered that just bring the problematics so much closer to the reader. The examples make it easy to see the consequences of each and every economic decision examined in the book. Sowells writing is easy to consume and understand, but still caries value in every sentence.

Economic Facts and Fallacies covers a wide range of themes, these include many mistaken but widely disseminated beliefs, such as racial and male-female income differences, as well as economic fallacies about academia and Third World countries. Sowell focuses on the fallacies that are thought to be true not only by the public but also by many politics, economists, and media. Although the book takes a deep dive into individual chapters, it is easy to read and understand, requiring no prior knowledge of economics.

The most important takeaway for me was to learn about the Zero-Sum Fallacy, which is widely believed and propagated by media and politics alike. You might often hear that what is gained by someone must be lost by someone else. Nevertheless, such economic transactions wouldn’t voluntarily take place if they were not beneficial for both parties involved - whether employer and employee or two countries. An example might be developing countries that have kept out foreign investments and trade in fear of being “exploited.” However, eventually many once-poor places achieved prosperity by opening its markets to international trade and investments. This includes Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and many others. Some are making their markets freer just now - China and India - with visibly good results, growing economics, and millions of people rising out of poverty.

Economics Facts and Fallacies is a very educational and easy to read book for anyone, even with the slightest knowledge of economics. After reading, you might change your view on many decisions made by governments, and will make you question a lot of claims made by politics and media.

Basic Economics

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell, with its 650 pages, doesn’t exactly seem like basic even for someone with high quotient. But after all, I went through the book in less than 2 weeks and enjoyed every page.

Basic Economics was one of the most eye-opening books for me. It was the first book on economics that I have read and even though most of the terms and concepts were absolutely new for me I never had to re-read a page to grasp the meaning. Sowell does a great job of briefly introducing a topic and then slowly building on top of it with plenty of real-life examples and data supporting his claims and findings. Basic Economics for me wasn’t book only about economics but also about politics and the drivers and reasons behind what’s currently happening in the world. A lot of the knowledge from the book stayed with me until now, thanks to nice short summaries after every chapter and plenty of practical questions at the end of the book that you can try to answer with what you have learned.

Even with 650 pages and after many more economics books I have read in the last year I still consider Basic Economics to be the best one. There’s no book on economics I would currently recommend more. Whether you are interested in financial literacy or politics this book has a value for you, and you will most definitely find more interesting topics on your way through.

Owning Your Own Shadow

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

TODO

How To Fail at Almost Everything And Still Win Big

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Sense of Style

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

TODO

Factfulness

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Notes

Gap Instinct
- tendency to divide things into two distinct and often conflicting groups with an imagined gap between them
- liberals vs. republicans, us vs. them, etc.
- beware when gap is mentioned and keep in mind that majority usually lies in the middle
- don’t compare averages, consider the spread as well
- beware when extremes are being compared
Negativity Instinct
- tendency to notice the bad more than the good
- distinguish better and bad, think can be bad but getting better
- good news == no news, good news are often not being reported
- gradual improvement == no news, gradual improvement is often not reported
Straight Line Instinct
- tendency to assume that a line will just continue straight and ignoring that such lines are rare in reality.
- also expanded in the book Growth by Vaclav Smil, growth curves usually follow the S shape
Fear Instinct
- tendency to pay more attention to frightening things
- that’s why people prefer news about mass shootings, murders, and other misfortune while ignore positive development
- risk = danger * exposure
Size Instinct
- tendency to get things out of proportion, or misjudge the size of things
- e.g. irrational feat of immigrants while the actual numbers are low, ties into the Feat Instinct
- always search for the context of the numbers, single numbers on their own are often misleading
- amounts and rates often tell very different stories
Generalization Instinct
- tendency to mistakenly group together things, people, or countries that are actually very different
- look for differencies within groups, look for similarities across groups
- majority can mean anything from 51% to 99%
- vivis images are easy to recall but they might be exception, no the rule
Destiny Instinct
- idea that innate characteristics determine the destinies of people, countries, religions, or cultures
- tendency to think that things are as they are because of inescapable reasons
- keep track of gradual improvements, update your knowledge
- if you need a reminder of how things were, talk to your grandpa
Single Perspective
- tendency to focus on a single cause or perspective when it comes to understanding the world
- e.g. forming our worldview by relying on the media or our social bubble
- test your ideas, limit assumption of your experise and be humble
- Hammer and nails - if you are good with a tool, you might be prone to overuse it, not one tool is good for everything
- beware of simple ideas and simple solutions, world is never simple
Blame Instinct
- tendency to find a clear, simple reason for why something bad has happened
- look for causes, not villains
- look for systems, not heroes
Urgency Instinct
- tendency to take immediate action in the face of perceived imminent danger, and in doing so, amplifying our other instincts
- used often in marketing
- take a breath and time, don’t rush your decisions, evaluate
- insist on the data
- beware of predictions, future is uncertain ("this stock can’t go tits up"¹)

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/go+tits+up ↩︎

Enlightenment Now

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In 15 extensive chapters Steven Pinker makes a case for reason, science and humanism. Each chapter describes a measure of civilization well-being, be it life expectancy, quality of life, safety, education and more. Each chapter is supported with ton of data digested to memorable and compelling form, with plenty of charts and graphs that make it ever so easier to make sense of otherwise unrelated numbers.

Enlightenment Now is optimistic, light, and brilliant read showing the progress of our species throughout the decades, explaining why we are instead drawn to the pessimism and how we choose to believe that the world is getting worse by day. In certain ways this book is similar to Factfulness by Hans Rosling but emphasizing more the data and context to back up the signs of progress in each chapter. Enlightenment Now left me knowing, that the world is getting better even though it doesn’t always have to feel this way.

Business Adventures

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Twelve tales of success, failure, and lessons learned in the business word in the last century. Written in captive and thrilling style that would hold even for Netflix miniseries.

A briefer History of Time

matousdzivjak@gmail.com (Matouš Dzivjak) — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Simple, yet not stupid introduction to physics, and the universe that will leave you contemplating the complexity of the world from the tiniest quarks to super massive black holes. A brief History of Time is fast and easy read graspable to anyone with at least some knowledge of basic high school physics.