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  • Barton Gellman: Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency

    Barton Gellman: Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency
    I am early in reading this book, but so far Cheney comes across as the ultimate FU VP; at once highly aggressive in establishing his position, smart and thorough in setting up and vetting his conclusions and incredibly calculating at routing around people and process to secure his desired outcomes. This guy must have read Machiavelli more than once.

  • Douglas Preston: The Monster of Florence

    Douglas Preston: The Monster of Florence
    Gripping true story of a serial killer who preys upon young couples in the throws of lovemaking in the hills of Tuscany (I'm not exaggerating), and the efforts to catch him/her. Lots of compelling backstories on Italy, Italian culture and the convoluted legal and policing system there. If you've visited these spots, it adds another dimension (albeit a very dark one) to an otherwise idyllic canvas.

  • Joe Simpson: Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival

    Joe Simpson: Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival
    Gripping, jarring story of the power of the human spirit, and will to survive in the face of almost certain death. Into Thin Air meets Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

  • Anna Politkovskaya: Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy

    Anna Politkovskaya: Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy
    A tragic picture of a Russia that was presented a glimmer of light following a long bout with communism. In the end, it was an Icarus, and proved too much for the government and the people to contend with. Something fractured, and Russia succumbed to moral corruption and organized criminal activity. That the author gave her life to tell the story (she was assassinated) only adds to the hardness of what's being chronicled. Very concrete stories bring to life the Chechen conflict, how influence is bought, how assets are accumulated and defended. Mostly sadly, they also show how completely the Russian people seem to be left with a sense of powerlessness, abandonment, and confusion on how things could be any different.

  • Burton G. Malkiel: A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Completely Revised and Updated Edition

    Burton G. Malkiel: A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Completely Revised and Updated Edition
    Excellent, highly readable book that in layman's terms makes sense of stock market, from bubble logic and history of same to different models for analyzing stock valuation, etc. Largely concludes that index funds are best path for predictable, reasonably safe but meaningful, return on investment dollars.

  • Charles M. Madigan: -30-: The Collapse of the Great American Newspaper

    Charles M. Madigan: -30-: The Collapse of the Great American Newspaper
    As old media unravels, it gives rise to something else, something new that while on one level is a wonderful thing, on another represents a loss of our core fabric. Newspapers are the 'Exhibit A' example of the great unraveling of Old Media and this book does a good job in a readable fashion of articulating why.

  • Felix Dennis: How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets

    Felix Dennis: How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets
    Sage, simple, clear and actionable truths. Poetic tone of an earnest pursuit to getting rich. Straight-up delivery, including decisions made, outcomes realized and lessons learned. A joy to read.

  • Dan Koeppel: Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World

    Dan Koeppel: Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
    Excellent, enjoyable read on the banana as a much loved fruit, the cultivation and growing science behind same and the true dark meanings behind the 'banana republic' moniker.

  • Philip A. Fisher: Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings (Wiley Investment Classics)

    Philip A. Fisher: Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings (Wiley Investment Classics)
    I am a Ken Fisher nut (read his columns in Forbes - GREAT!), and Phil was Ken's dad. This book was written in late 1950's, yet all of the concepts are timely, the antithesis of the get rich quick, trend-o-month finance books. Good constructs for thinking about business in general (in addition to investing). Somewhat dry writing style.

  • Marty Neumeier: Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands

    Marty Neumeier: Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands
    If you have read classic business books like Crossing the Chasm, Innovator's Dilemma or Built to Last, you can probably skip this book, which is a reasonably well written consolidation of best practices around market segmentation, positioning and product delivery. Nice title, though, and some effective metaphors which are intuitive and specific.

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Idiot Compassion, Idiot Humility

Chinese_character_wisdom

Imagine working with a sociopath.  Knowing that no matter how much you aspire to live to the credo of “doing unto others,” your counterpart will always put their needs above yours.  Netting it out: if you are willing to give, they are willing to take.  If this was your reality and your accommodating nature led you to enable such behavior versus setting hard boundaries, then you are practicing idiot compassion.


Similarly, imagine encountering a drug addict on the street who is homeless and sickly looking.  They approach you and ask for money so they can buy some food.  You feel for their suffering so you give them a couple of bucks.  You are practicing idiot compassion.


What is idiot compassion?  It is a Buddhist axiom that describes self-deluding behaviors in the guise of sympathy/empathy that manifest in the destruction of yourself or others. 


Idiot compassion results from failing to heed the essentialness of self-preservation when confronted by societal dangers (ignorance).  Or, from seeing such dangers as the ultimate test of faith (martyrdom).  Or, confusing empathy with enablement.


In terms of avoiding the path of idiot compassion, this is an area where I have moral clarity but I have certainly encountered my share of conflict-avoidant types that have let themselves be snookered into such behaviors.


But recently, through my career coach (think: professional shrink), I came to realize that I was practicing idiot humility.  What is idiot humility?  My definition for it is an inability to allow oneself to aspire to greatness, to set and maintain an expectation of breakout success, or just generally see oneself as deserving of living their life’s dreams. 


This sounds very obvious; that it should be natural for all people to swing for the fences of life, to expect that they will hit the winning shot or to see themselves as worthy of all the breaks. 


But, the funny thing in my case was that because I understand how much luck is involved, how thin the line is between success and failure and how important it is to appreciate your lot in life, to enjoy it and have fun, to savor now versus dwelling on tomorrow that I held myself back in the name of humility.


What I have since realized is something that I had always preached but only now fully practice.  Namely, that we have a limited time on the planet and as such, must “own” in the pragmatic sense the path that drives us forward in life.  That having defined such structure to our existence, gravity is destined to become our friend versus an enemy that must be fought, ignored or minimally, avoided making eye contact with.


I am compassionate and practice humility but I am an idiot no more.

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Comments

I try and push myself in ways few people are willing to. In college, so far I've taken two English classes intended for upperclass English majors. I can say that the experience has been much more enriching than the 100-level creative writing courses I've taken.

In one of the courses I took, Age of Johnson (18th Century Lit.), the professor focused on the life and times of Samuel Johnson. The key focus of discussion was Samuel Johnson's idiot compassion and idiot humility. Johnson's view of himself was that he never accomplished enough, he never created his magnum opus. In fact, Johnson's magnum opus is often said to be the English dictionary, which took him a large portion of his life to complete.

Johnson would also ghostwrite sermons for ministers and priests, and, as legend has it, he would write two-four page moralist essays (called The Rambler) for magazines ten minutes before the ink had to hit the press.

Johnson also wrote about the struggles of the common man, and, despite being one of the brightest minds of the 18th century, he viewed himself as a straggler.

However, he was a genuine Renaissance Man. He could be reborn in any century and thrive on just one of his skills alone.

I mention this mainly because I figure it might catch your attention. There have been people throughout history who possess great powers for mankind but suffer in deciding how to best use them. I think the message to take home from Johnson is to at least use one of the powers in some way, even if the rest go to waste.

Interesting perspective, John. Moral of the story from Johnson is to go forward, to live, create and express, unencumbered for limiting perspectives of self. In his case, there was no substitute for doing, but he did (accomplish), regardless of what the tape was playing in his head.

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