Vienna's Views

My Reading Journey Backwards and Forwards

Author: vienna (Page 7 of 9)

Arrogance & Imposter Syndrome

March 23, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Imposter syndrome refers to a psychological pattern where an individual doubts their skills, accomplishments, and talents, and has a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud” or “impostor.”

On the other hand one might have good reason to doubt their skill, and their talents and accomplishments which really may not be worth bragging about.

Reading the Amazon reviews of books I’m reading in my current Themed Read I can’t help but feel as Seth Godin put it in his March 22rd, 2024 post on the arrogance of improvement.

Who are you to make things better?

How dare you raise your hand to help, offer an idea, take responsibility…

Seth’s Blog

But then I remember, I’m not writing book reviews, I’m writing about a book experience, my own. And I’m sharing it, just in case you’d like to follow along.

Seth also said “If not you, who? If not now, when?”

Day 3 – March 23, 2023

Super Forecasting

Superforecasting – Philip E. Tetlock & Dan Gardner

March 23, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The Art and Science of prediction Copyright 2015

This is one of three books in my themed read about measuring and forecasting. Again I’m only 60 pages into the book today March 23, 2024, so I can’t say much about it, other than, good forecasting is possible and apparently useful – two concepts I’ve never bought into.

You can read the Amazon reviews here – there are 4213 reviews with an overall rating of 4.4 out of 5 – so 60%.

I often find the critical reviews of a book to be more helpful – though some are absurd. One 1 star review complains about the paper quality -and another recommends a different book which is actually about the Vietnam war – really?

Reading the reviews, however brings to me to the subject of todays Day 3 blog post which you can read here – should you be so inclined:)

Measure Anything

How to Measure Anything

March 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A book about finding the value of intangibles in business by Douglas W. Hubbard

Worth the Read?

“When dealing with numerical data, approximately right is better than precisely wrong.”

Carl G Thor

My rating of this book is not based on the quality of its writing or content but rather on how practical and valuable it has been in my life. Not an easy read.

It’s a great book, but it may not be worth the time if you aren’t struggling with the problem it addresses.

March 22, 2024

Reflections and Random Thoughts

One of the first things that came up for me was that not only do “big companies” not know how to measure, but they don’t even try! And here I thought it was just me that couldn’t figure things out.

Insights

Key Take-Aways

Measurements inform decisions. Decisions always have some level of uncertainty. Reducing the amount of uncertainty is the point.

Value of Measurement Matters. If you don’t compute the value of measurements, you are probably measuring the wrong things the wrong way.

Step one: Determine what you already know … even when you think you know nothing

Something Actionable

Review what I’m measuring, i.e., KPI, and consider the value of the measurement. Stop measuring the low-value measurements.

Keep a list of the decisions I’m trying to make.

What Everyone Else Thinks

In any case, I’m reading the 3rd Edition. It was initially published in 1962. It has 563 reviews on Amazon (in Jan of 2025) and a rating of 4.5 but only 3.9 on Good Reads with over 3600 ratings and 257 reviews. You can read the Amazon reviews here, and the Goodread reviews here.

Many of the poor reviews complain about the difficulty of reading the book and too much repetition. And, as usual, the folks who complain about the physical quality of the book they received.

Measurement, Streaks and Day 2

March 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – Albert Einstein

Day 2 is never as easy as I expect it to be. It ought to be easy, the decision is made, commitment confirmed, it’s written down and points are assigned (more on that in a minute) and yet I’ve missed more day 2’s than I can count.

I am a compulsive counter – 982 Readwise Reviews – 476 notes in my Zettlekasten – 222 days journaling without a miss. You get the idea – I count what I do, I count what I don’t do.

I give myself points in a chart for doing things I should do but don’t, like exercising, writing, reading. Again, you get the idea.

Is there a value? Sometimes, maybe – it probably contributed to my decision to start my current themed read. Superforecasting, Measure What Matters, and How to Measure Anything.

That and these three facts,

  1. I’ve never believed in forecasting – I’ve never understood the point and thought it was a waste of time,
  2. I’m never sure what to measure (in my business)
  3. I’m obsessed with tools of all kinds – so How interests me – a lot.

Day 2 of commitment “Blog Every Damn Day” done.

Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maughm

March 21, 2024 / / 0 Comments

First published in 1915. It is considered one of Maugham’s most famous works and is a semi-autobiographical novel that explores themes of art, love, and the human condition.

Or so says the internet – in fact it’s about obsessive love and I could not finish it. It’s a 600 page novel, and obviously it’s a classic but I got over 300 pages into it and just got to annoyed to continue reading.

When I read fiction I want to enjoy – and I was getting really irritated reading this book.

Until about 15 years ago, I finished any book I started – regardless. It was a rule – and I was still in a place in my life when I couldn’t break those kinds of rules. I couldn’t for example cook from a recipe if I didn’t have every single ingredient. I’m over it, (thank you Anne Rice, a story for another day) but maybe that’s why this book irritated me so much – what ever connection I have to my own obsessive-compulsive behaviors.

You can read the real reviews here

Blog Every Damn Day

March 21, 2024 / / 0 Comments

That’s what Seth Godin says. And that’s what Seth Godin does – and I think of it pretty much every damn day. But I don’t do it.

Hmm, I looked up the quote and that’s not quite what he said – here is the real quote “”Blog every day. It’s easy, it’s free, and it establishes your identity long before the market cares about who you are and what you do.” (Seth Godin, The Practice)

It’s not easy. It’s hard to feel significant enough to offer my words and my thoughts to the world, at all, let alone every day. And it’s not free. The cost is time, and anxiety perhaps even fear.

But I’ll give it a shot anyway. Just cuz. The same reason I’m creating this website to begin with.

March 21, 2024

Wild

Wild

March 21, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A Book about Hiking the Pacific Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Reflections and Random Thoughts

Started Sept 29th and finished Oct 5, 2023

I started this book in December 2022; my brother Connor gave it to me. I can’t imagine how I put it down without finishing it. This time around, I couldn’t put it down. At the age of 26, the author hiked 1000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. I was hooked after reading the opening paragraph of the prologue – here it is.

“The trees were tall, but I was taller, standing above them on a steep mountain slope in northern California. Moments before, I’d removed my boots and the left one had fallen into those trees, first catapulting into the air when my enormous backpack toppled onto it … I let out a stunned gasp, though I’d been in the wilderness thirty-eight days and by then I’d come to know that anything could happen and that everything would.”

Wild, Cheryl Strayed

This book has almost 73,000 Amazon reviews, 2% of which are passionately negative. The negative reviews range from accusing her of fabricating her story to complaints that she “probably only actually hiked three or four hundred miles of the 2600-mile trail.”

I found the accusation that she is “more interested in showing off her writing skill than telling her story” particularly galling. Perhaps more authors should give us less than their very best – lest we feel they are “showing off.”

Personally, if I manage to get my three-mile walk on the paved hills (not mountains) around my neighborhood completed more than twice a week, I congratulate myself quite heartily. And when I manage to write even a few sensible words about anything and have anyone at all interested in reading them, I feel like I’ve managed to do something.

She walked somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 miles in the wilderness and wrote an engaging and beautiful recounting of it.

Review Title

What Everyone Else Thinks

In Defense of Wild

Read the Reviews Here. Buy it here.

The War of Art

The War of Art – Steven Pressfield

September 30, 2023 / / 0 Comments

If, after reading this book, you do not feel compelled to begin whatever it is you are avoiding beginning – READ IT AGAIN.

Then read The Practice by Seth Godin.

From my Zettlekasten

“The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.” (Steven Pressfield, The War of Art)

You can read the reviews here. You can buy it at the top of the same page.

The Myth of the Garage

September 27, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Selected articles from Chip & Dan Heath

I started reading this book in December of 2022 and it didn’t grab me. When I finished reading Change I picked it up again. I read the note to readers and realized why it hadn’t grabbed me. I hadn’t realized it was a collection of columns they had written over several years for the magazine Fast Company. That explained why I wasn’t seeing the connections between the chapters – I was looking for something that wasn’t there.

It’s a quick, easy and pretty interesting read.

Some Notes from my Zettlekasten

“That’s what sticky ideas do—they make people feel something. Change comes from feeling, not facts.” (Dan Heath and Chip Heath, The Myth of the Garage)

“And that slow, inch-by-inch progress? It’s called winning.” (Dan Heath and Chip Heath, The Myth of the Garage)

“if you’re starting a company or launching a product, don’t get lured into scouting out a garage. Learn from your predecessors: First, get a job.” (Dan Heath and Chip Heath, The Myth of the Garage)

Yetzer hara

September 27, 2023 / / 0 Comments

“There is a second self inside you, an inner, shadow Self. This self doesn’t care about you. It doesn’t love you. It has its own agenda, and it will kill you. It will kill you like cancer. It will kill you to achieve its agenda, which is to prevent you from actualizing your Self, from becoming who you really are. This shadow self is called, in the Kabbalistic lexicon, the ‘yetzer hara.’ The yetzer hara, Steve, is what you would call Resistance.”

Rabbi Mordecai Finley, in conversation, July 4, 2010

This is the beginning of the email I received from Steven Pressfield this morning – to read the rest of his post go here https://stevenpressfield.com/2023/09/a-second-bad-self/

If this resonates with you – read his book The War of Art.

Sept 23, 2023

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