Category: Books

Continuing our family tradition of reading physical, hardcopy books before bed, we started reading the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Those were my favourite reads when I was growing up, and the one-volume collection of “all four novels and fifty-six adventure” was the first book that my wife and I bought for ourselves when we were graduate students. It took me some time to find this massive tome in the bookcase, and we started from the beginning – “A Study in Scarlet.”

Both my daughter and I enjoyed the description of how Dr. Watson got introduced to Sherlock Holmes’ extraordinary deductive abilities. There is one episode early in the book, though, where Holmes describes his approach to accumulating knowledge, with which I don’t completely agree (in my defence, neither does Dr. Watson, i.e., presumably, Doyle himself). There, Watson is astonished that Holmes didn’t know about the heliocentric model of the solar system, and that he was intent on forgetting it as soon as possible after learning about it. Here is how Holmes justified it:

    ” “You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance , therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” “

This is a compelling argument, but I suspect that the assumption about the rigidity of the boundaries of one’s brain-attic is wrong, particularly in the modern times. Perhaps, another, more up-to-date analogy is with the contents of the Photos app on a smartphone. Certainly, you could max out the memory if you take a ton of useless pictures and videos, but you can also upgrade your cloud storage or even the phone itself. And the AI-based search algorithms continually improve, to the point that the suggested compilations of “memories” rival those put together by humans. So the danger of not being able to retrieve useful information is not particularly great. Also, even without computer-augmented mental abilities, collecting broad information trains memory, if nothing else. Improved memory, in turn, increases our capacity to accumulate more information and, possibly, convert it to knowledge.

Incidentally, I’ve learned that Doyle himself was quite a bit more of a renaissance man than his most famous character, although even Holmes was an amateur violinist. In addition to being world-famous as a writer, Doyle had a successful medical carrier and was an accomplished athlete (footballer, golfer, boxer, skier and one of the first bodybuilding enthusiasts) and an amateur, but serious and successful, architect. I don’t think that this impressive lists of pursuits and accomplishments would have been possible if he had limited his interests and studies to medicine, which was his intended profession early on.

In defense of Sherlock Holmes’ approach, I think thatbeing selective about what to learn and what to ignore probably protected him from falling victim to the Dunning-Krueger effect. That’s a cognitive bias, where we overestimate or abilities due to limited competence in a particular domain. In other words, we often theorize or even act without knowing enough to even realize that we don’t know enough about what we are doing. For example, like me talking about cognitive psychology because of my interest in it but without any systematic knowledge of the field. 

In the spirit of keeping a tradition of publishing a list of books that I’ve read outside of work in the past year, here is the list for 2023. I believe in active reading, that is, taking notes on what I learn in the process, even if that relates to the writing style, the genre, the authors, etc. I am not always diligent with the note-taking, but I am always glad when I am in the retrospect.

Note: The links below are affiliate links, so if you follow them to Amazon and buy something, I might get paid some money.

Fiction:

1. “Kill decision” by Daniel Suarez.

I really like the high-tech thriller genre and also find the bio of Suarez inspiring. He is a tech consultant turned author. Makes me wonder whether I need permission to do the same. Maybe, the first thing I need is discipline to write more regularly.

2. “Influx” by Daniel Suarez.

Great for fans of conspiracy theories. That’s all I am going to say to avoid spoilers.

3. “Change agent” by Daniel Suarez.

A biotech-themed thriller. I’ve been struggling a bit to get though it, for some reason, but I do like it in general.

Non-fiction:

This year, non-fiction audiobooks have largely replaced for me podcasts, which I usually listen to while walking the dog.

4. “Daring greatly” by Brene Brown (audio).

Something about the benefits of vulnerability. I remember that it did resonate, but don’t recall in what way exactly. The unrealistic expectations that the society puts on us – something along these lines.

5. “Loonshots” by Safi Bachall (audio).

I came across this book by browsing Daniel Pink’s website. It explores the analogy between innovations in social groups and organizations and phase transitions in physical systems. Dynamic equilibrium of strong bonds and entropy – need separation of the phases, but also an easy flow of information between them. Analogy with franchises and original films. One of the core messages: Equally love your soldiers (who are running the franchises) and artists (who are creating the original ideas).

6. “Happy” by Derren Brown (audio).

A reminder of the gap between the events that happen around us and our reactions to them. Critique of the “positive thinking” approach.

A neat discussion of our relation to the older generation. We think in terms of “us vs. them” and fear losing individuality, but our past experience points to the opposite – we gain individuality as we age.

7. “The power of regret” by Daniel Pink (audio).

Short, but sweet. I liked the concept of classifying the regrets into one of the four main categories: foundational, boldness, ethics, connection. Anticipating a future regret can be productive, if it would fall into one f these categories. If not, it’s better to be a “satisfiser” and make a quick decision. 

Thinking is for doing, feeling is for thinking. When dealing with a regret, self-disclose, exercise self-compassion (think what you would say to a friend in a similar situation) and use self-distancing (talk to yourself in a third person).

8. “From strength to strength” by Arthur C. Brooks (audio).

The concept of jumping to the “second curve” of once life trajectory, once the performance starts to decline.

Utilize the accumulated crystallized intelligence once the fluid intelligence begins to fade.

Need of shedding the attachment to success, which is rooted in the fear of failure, in order make jumping onto the second curve easier. Good read.

9. “What you do is what you are” by Dan Horowitz (audio). 

Values and virtues are not the same. Values are what you believe, and virtues are what you do. If you don’t do what you believe, you won’t become what you’d like to be.

10. “Are you fully charged?” by Tom Rath (audio).

This book was good, if a bit short. I like the idea of optimizing the personal well-being on the timescale of the day, instead of the lifestyle. This approach can probably create problems related to planning and discipline if applied beyond reason, but it certainly help with small decisions, which accumulate for a larger affect. Tom Rath also wrote “Eat, sleep move” (which I haven’t read). He refers to it in this book, and the title is self-explanatory – prioritize healthy eating, exercise and sleep on the daily basis. Over-arching thesis of the book, though is that applying effort and resources to increase well-being of other people is more beneficial for you than directly aiming at maximizing your own happiness.

11. “Can’t hurt me” by David Goggins (audio).

Another Navy SEAL – inspired read. This one is a memoir, which is a bit of a different read for me. It’s is difficult to fill Jocko Williks’ shoes in this genre, though.  I dropped the book at the third chapter – the bogus claims and inconsistencies are too difficult to ignore. Paraphrasing Thoreau, what the author doesn’t say shouts so loudly in my ears, I cannot hear what he is saying. In retrospect, I rarely have such negative impressions of books as of this one.

12. “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek (audio).

Good summary of the common human manipulation techniques and an insight into why they don’t work in the long run.

13. “Why we play” by Joanna Fortune (audio).

In the modern society, playfulness is almost automatically associated with something opposite of a serious endeavour, but this is a mistake. Playfulness has serious consequences on our  health and productivity, both individually and in groups. It is obviously important for children in terms of teaching them the value of risk-taking, social interactions, etc., but it is also important for adults in terms of stress management, promoting creativity and developing social skills. This book is preaching to the converted, but I enjoyed it.

14. “Stealing fire” by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal (audio).

This book points out the importance of altered states of consciousness for peak performance, particularly by groups of people. I find the attempts to support the arguments by numbers laughable – they would be ridiculously easy to pick apart by any critic with a functioning pre-frontal cortex. Incidentally, it is over-riding the activity of this part of the brain that is apparently needed for transcending the individuality and achieving the extasis – tapping into the hive mind. I am admittedly not a fan of the hive model of the future humankind. It is certainly fascinating what can be achieved by a hive mentality, but somehow the prospect of forgoing the free will completely while keeping the creativity doesn’t sit well with me. According to the authors, forward-thinking individuals are taking the excursions over the artificial fences erected by the society (the “pales” of the Church, the Body and the State) to take advantage of the altered states of consciousness. Perhaps, they are right, and we just don’t notice it, just like we don’t want to admit that we are becoming cyborgs by wearing eyeglasses, prosthetic devices or wearable electronics. For what it’s worth, I also do drink coffee every day, and it probably does something to my consciousness (hopefully, good things mostly).

15. “Thinking, fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman (audio).

I was familiar with the main ideas in this book, as they’ve been re-told by other authors, but the writing is very good. It shows why Kahneman is a Nobel laureate.

I liked the idea of the importance of introducing names to concepts that would otherwise be collections of properties and facts, e.g., “System 1” and “System 2” of the fast and slow thinking, respectively.  It is easier for people to relate to agents, i.e. characters with names and assumed traits and personalities, than to sets of properties. It is also important for the names to me short, because the more information we need to keep in our short-term memory while pronouncing the name the less is our capacity for thinking.

16. “Four thousand weeks” by Oliver Burkeman (audio).

An excellent summary of the author’s experience with reviewing the vast literature on the finite nature of human life and its relationship with time. For me, one of the practical takeaways is limiting the number of the “on the go” projects to a maximum of three for any given day in order to avoid the feeling of overwhelm.

17. “The Happiness Hypothesis” by Jonathan Haidt (audio).

An entertaining discussion of the common key messages from the significant philosophical and religious works of the past, including the limitations of the specific ideas. I liked the discussion of the stoics in particular, with an added twist of the balance between striving to improve your external conditions and to accept them, while focussing on managing your internal reactions.

18. “Eat, Move, Sleep” by Tom Rath (audio).

A nice collection of rule-of-thumb principles for improving physical quality of life based on a wide, if not scientifically rigorous, literature survey. Useful takeways for me personally: tackle all three components listed in the title of the book simultaneously, because they are closely related and avoid long periods of inactivity during the day.

19. “The Little Book of Ikigai” by Ken Mogi (audio).

Upon listening to this book, I found many examples of ikigai in my own various activities. Building gunpla is a particularly good example – you start small and don’t expect any particular success or recognition for your efforts. It is truly an autotelic activity.

20. “Flow: Living at the peak of your abilities” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (audio).

This isn’t rally a book, but rather a collection of recordings, probably lectures, by Csikszentmihalyi himself. It is different from his book “Flow: The psychology of optimal experience“, which one of my all-time favourite reads, but it covers the same concepts. It certainly hasn’t been a waste of time to listen to it. Csikszentmihalyi is a great speaker, and listening to this book confirmed to me that it is great to listen to the author reading their own works, whenever there is an opportunity. You receive a clear sense of what the intended emphasis is, and this added emotional content makes the material easier to internalise, if nothing else.

21. “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson (audio).

I am glad I picked up an audio version, because this book is huge! I like Isaacson’s biographies, and this one did not disappoint. Musk is a polarising character, but the book itself made me think about some questions, on which I would typically fall into one of the two distinct camps, without much consideration. Those are “Does it actually take a somewhat sociopathic individual to inflict a major change on the society?” and “Is it ok to be a jerk in some areas of your life if you are doing wonderful things in another?” Upon consideration, I think my personal answers to these questions are “Very likely” and “No”.

22. “The Happiness Advantage” by Shawn Achor (audio).

I liked this summary of the positive psychology milestones. 

23. “Hidden Potential” by Adam Grant (audio).

I didn’t write any notes on this book as I was listening to it, and now I am struggling to recall what I’ve learned from it. This observation is probably saying something about the book by itself.

24. “Be useful” by Arnold Schwarzenegger (audio).

I’ve been a huge fan of Arnold since my teen years, and this book is my favourite of the year. I really enjoyed that it was read by Arnold himself, and it did’t disappoint in terms of the content as well. I found the autobiographical take interesting and Schwarzenegger’s approach to the various challenges that he faced throughout his life quite motivating. There are certain parallels with Jocko Willink’s no-nonsense ability to focus and a good balance between privacy and vulnerability. I will seriously consider re-listening to this book in the future.

25. “Discipline is destiny” by Ryan Holiday (audio).

I came back to this series on Stoics and the cardinal virtues after a break (it gets repetitive after a while), and found that I missed it and Holiday’s style of presenting it.

26. “Courage is calling” by Ryan Holiday (audio).

This book is, technically, the first one in the series on the four cardinal virtues (courage, temperance, justice and wisdom), but I listened to it after the “Discipline is destiny”, mostly for the sake of completeness. I am ready for another break from the Stoics now. 

Couple of years ago, I decided to keep a list of books I read outside of work as a way of keeping notes on the personal takeaways. Since the beginning of the New Year is as good point of reference as any, I’ve been organizing my reading log by year. Here is the 2022 list, grouped into three categories: children’s literature, fiction and non-fiction.

Note: The links below are affiliate links, so if you follow them to Amazon and buy something, I might get paid some money.

Children’s literature:
These are books we read aloud with my wife and daughter, usually in the evening. When we started this tradition a few years ago, all the books we read were in hard copy format, but lately we read a few e-books, which are very convenient for traveling.

1. “Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis.
After finishing the “Harry Potter” series last year, this was our choice of a huge epic book. It did not disappoint, either in volume or in the content. Certainly, it’s a classic for a reason.

2. “The way of the Warrior kid” by Jocko Willink.
I am a fan of Jocko Willink’s podcast and non-fiction writing for adults, but I was skeptical about his foray into the children’s literature. I was definitely wrong – his simple language and super-straightforward way of presenting and demonstrating ideas were both fun and super-inspirational. It inspired my 10-year-old daughter to start a pull-up training program.

3. “The way of the Warrior kid: Marc’s mission” by Jocko Willink.
A sequel to the “Warrior kid”, this book once again surprised me with how efficiently Jocko handles complex issues that kids face like personal responsibility, compassion and bullying.

4. “The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas.
This summer we went to France, so we thought it would be good to read a classic adventure novel with strong ties to the location. This book has been my all-time favourite since childhood – certainly one of my most formative reads. With my daughter, though, we found that traction was elusive. Perhaps, at 10 years of age and in 2022, powering through a rather long introduction written is a somewhat archaic style and peppered with references to Huguenots “making a second La Rochelle” of some obscure Trent town was asking a bit too much. On a positive side, on the very first page, the book referred to another classic – “Don Quixote”, which my daughter was unaware of. So we had a chance to introduce that story to her. Maybe, she’ll decide to read it some day? There is hope, at least.

5. “The illustrated Longitude” by Dava Sobel.
This book was given to me as a present many years ago, and I heard only good things about it, but somehow I never got to reading it. It is definitely very nice – a casual, lay person’s-level insight into the development of applied science in Europe from the perspective of the specific problem of determining the longitude of a ship at sea. I’ve certainly enjoyed it, although I think my daughter is probably experiencing the story very differently, since she lacks the understanding of some physical concepts that are discussed there. Still, perhaps simply being exposed to them could spark some curiosity.

Fiction:

Most of my fiction books in the past year, not counting “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “The Three Musketeers” that I mentioned above and “The paper menagerie” (see below), have been written by Boris Akunin. I read them in their original Russian and really enjoyed the fast pace, the variety of styles (they are parts of a series of detective novels set in late 19th – early 20th century, featuring a common protagonist, Erast Fandorin, and written in different classic styles of the genre) and detailed, but liberal, interpretation of historical events. Pure entertainment!

6. “Левиафан” (“Murder on the Leviathan“) by Boris Akunin

7. “Особые поручения” (“Special assignments“) by Boris Akunin

8. “Статский советник” (“The state counsellor“) by Boris Akunin

9. “Турецкий гамбит” (“The Turkish gambit“) by Boris Akunin

10. “Коронация” (“The coronation“) by Boris Akunin

11. “Сокол и Ласточка” (“The Hawk and The Swallow”) by Boris Akunin

12. “The paper menagerie” by Ken Liu (audio)
This is a collection of short stories, whch is shockingly good. I was getting a bit tired of Akunin’s historical detective novels, so picked up this audiobook to listen to on the plane. It is easily the best new book I’ve read in the year, or maybe even of all time (I am saying “new” to avoid pitting against the classics like “The Three Musketeers“, “The Chronicles of Narnia” and the “Harry Potter” series, which would be a meaningless and an impossible comparison).

Non-fiction:

13. “Conscious” by Annaka Harris (audio)
This was the most thought-provoking read (or rather, listen) for me during 2022. It introduced me to the “hard problem of consciousness” (how consciousness comes into existence) and panpsychism. At he time of reading, I wrote down my impressions in this post (“Curiouser and curiouser!”).

13. “Is God a mathematician?” by Mario Livio (audio)
I think I heard about this book in Krista Tippet’s “On being” podcast. I wrote about my impressions of this book in this post (“Invention vs discovery”), but the main personal takeaway was to enjoy mathematical problems without worrying too much whether they are immediately relevant to my current research projects.

14. “The Art of Memoir” by Mary Karr (audio).
Although I am not planning to write a memoir (come to think of it, why not?), I found this academic dissection of what makes a good memoir, or generally a non-fiction piece of literature, quite useful in framing my thoughts on capturing ideas in writing.

15. “Speak, Memory” by Vladimir Nabokov
I started reading this after listening to “The Art of Memoir” by Mary Karr, because she uses Nabokov’s book as an example of a masterful memoir. It is definitely fascinating, and I enjoyed the historical references to the pre-revolution Russia, but with all the tremendous prose, it is not an easy read. I still haven’t finished it, and now that I’ve got an idea of what it’s like, I don’t think I am willing to invest more time in this story.

16. “The subtle art of not giving a f*ck” by Mark Manson
Another book that I started and haven’t finished. It is is pretty good though, and I might come back to it. I wish that I’ve started it in audio, because my actual reading time is to scarce and I prefer to spend it on something more entertaining.

17. “Barking up the wrong tree” by Eric Barker (audio)
This book is based on a blog, but unlike Steven Pressfield’s “Do the work”, which I very much disliked, not on a single article. It recaps main takeaways from other authors, but does it quite effectively and with the author’s own interpretation and humour. Main takeaways for me personally were:
a) Gamifying work by referring to the WNGF (Why Neutered Goats Fly) mnemonic: incorporate these aspects into your work – Winnable, Novel, Goals, Feedback. Also, don’t worry about being constantly productive: adding fun is opposite of productivity by definition, and that’s Ok.
b) Using mental contrasting: WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) – think about if-then scenarios.
c) Necessity to prune the list of activities. Aim for one “highlight” activity per day.
d) Fixed schedule productivity (from Cal Newport) – schedule the work, not the interruptions.

18. “Rethinking positive thinking” by Gabriele Oettinger (audio).
This is a deeper dive into the concept of mental contrasting process (see WOOP mnemonic definition from the “Barking up the wrong tree above”). This concept was originally introduced and popularized by Oettingger. The main idea is that wishful thinking alone is detrimental for success, but it is conducive to constructive planning if done correctly.

19. “Wild problems” by Russ Roberts (audio).
It was an enjoyable read/listen, but I don’t seem to have many constructive takeaways. The main thesis of the book is to not always be data-driven in our decisions. This advice mostly applies to the problems that are outliers in terms of their complexity (due to dependance on incomparable variables) or significance of the consequences of the decision. Examples would be deciding whether or not to get married, to have children, to move to another country, to switch careers, etc. The difficulty with this type of problems is that making one decision or the other changes who you are, this making pros and cons analysis from the perspective of you before having made the decision is fundamentally flawed.

20. “Awareness: Conversations with the masters” by Anthony De Mello (audio).
This one of the few books that I found truly disappointing. It came highly recommended by Tim Ferriss, whom I’ve been following because of his excellent podcast, but the book itself is a slapped-together recording of live lectures/seminars by De Mello, who is quite condescending in his attitude to the audience. Most frustratingly, he doesn’t add much insight to the field of spiritual development. Overall, the book leaves an impression of a money grab. I do regret the time spent on it, but the lesson to take away is, perhaps, not to hesitate to drop the books without completing them.

21. “Homo Deus” by Yuval Noah Harari (audio).
A fascinating insight into long-term possibilities for the humans.

22. “Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell (audio).
This book shows that it might never be possible to decipher strangers without resorting to evolutionary-dictated mental shortcuts. But this is Ok, because the price of being always vigilant would be too high in terms of poor social fit.

23. “Indistractable” by Nir Eyal and Julie Li (audio).
I really liked this book. It has many practical strategies for maintaining focus. The emphasis on internal triggers is particularly insightful. This book also pointed me towards the rabbit holes of multi-modal perception and self-determination theory. it is bit ironic, though, that I listened to it in audio, so that I’d be able to do other things at the same time.

24. “Drive” by Daniel Pink (audio).
For me, this is a deeper dive into Self-Determination Theory, inspired by Nir Eyal’s “Indistractable”. The idea of the “third drive”, beyond the carrot-and-stick motivation (motivation 2.0), is central here. Also, I agree with the statement that a flow state is relatively easy to achieve, but mastery is asymptotic, and it requires years of painful practice.

25. “Quiet” by Susan Cain (audio).
The main takeaway is that it is not always better to work in groups. The society expects everyone to conform to being an extravert, but almost half of people are introverts. True mastery strongly correlates with working alone, because only you can determine what you should be working on, which is the necessary component of deliberate practice. This book also changed how I look at my daughter and her interactions with friends and other people (at least I’d like to think so).

26. “The one thing” by Gary Keller (audio).
I first came across the idea of identifying one thing, completion of which would make other tasks easier or unnecessary, and focussing on this one thing until it’s done in Tim Ferriss’ podcast, so it wasn’t particularly new to me. This probably remains the main takeaway from the book, but I also like the tactical advice of going small, which, according to the author, applies to everything.

27. “Free to Focus” by Michael Hyatt (audio).
The main ideas in the book are not new, but the tactics are surprisingly fresh and useful. Stop (to identify the “zone of desire” – things you are good at and that you like to do), Cut (things in your “dread zone” and most of other things), Delegate (three levels of delegation, using specific language to define boundaries), Execute (I particularly like the “on-stage/backstage/off-stage” analogy. Plan on weekly and daily scales).

28. “Range” by David Epstein (audio).
The idea of early specialization is profitable for organizations like junior sports leagues and music teachers.
Short-term success and before-your-eye progress does not correlate with long-term learning.
Desirable difficulties – space the testing in time, use interleaving – make learning more challenging in the short term.
Overall – an excellent read. I’d like to re-visit it some time in the future, probably.

29. “7 habits of highly effective people” by Stephen R. Covey (audio).
I came across this book several times, but always hesitated to pick it up, being turned off by a click-baity title. It was a pleasant surprise – a good combination of depth and tactical advice. I also liked the historical reference to a paradigm shift from character ethic to personality ethic in the self-development literature. Here is a summary:
Habit 1: Agency. Be “response-able”. This closely parallels the “extreme ownership” idea of Jocko Willink.
Habit 2: Starting with a destination in mind. The idea that everything is created twice – once as a plan and once as an implementation.
Habit 3: Prioritize the important over the urgent.
Habit 4: Aim for a win-win. Seek mutual benefits.
Habit 5: Prioritize listening to understand the others.
Habit 6: Collaborate to create new possibilities.
Habit 7: Practice self-renewal.

Esse Quam Videri (To be rather than to seem)
— state motto of North Carolina

For the second time in a little while, I came across a reference to a paradigm shift in the literature and culture of personal development from the “character ethic” to the “personality ethic” that occurred in the early XX century. I’ve been listening to Stephen R. Covey’s “7 habits of highly successful people” book, which holds this shift as the defining thesis. The character ethic has been the prevalent paradigm in the old days, being popularized by Ben Franklin’s autobiography, among other works. The main premise is that a person needs to develop one’s own character in order to become successful in life. For example, Franklin identified 13 virtues to develop: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity and humility. From a practical standpoint, he would pick a single virtue at a time and work on it for a fixed period of time (about a week) before moving to the next one. He would repeat the cycle every 13 weeks.

The personality ethic is exemplified by Dale Carnegie’s 1936 book “How to win friends and influence people“. The main difference with the character-centered mindset is that the objective is to improve the way one interacts with other people in order to create the most favourable impression on them. For example, you would be advised cultivate an interest is hobbies of people whom you’d like to influence, employ mnemonics to remember the names of new acquaintances, etc.

The argument in the “7 habits” book is that the principles of the character ethic are more fundamental, and that the social success would naturally follow as a by-product of character improvement. I certainly like this idea, but would probably not dismiss the personality-centered approach either. Maybe, consistently acting the way a person with a strong character would eventually leads to an underlying character transformation, in a way becoming a self-fulfilled prophecy. Still, this “faking until you make it” approach seems to be a roundabout way to personal development for at least two reasons. First, at some level, you would always have to convince yourself that the personality traits that you are trying to develop are, in fact, ethical and not purely manipulative. Second, people are generally quite good at seeing through a personality if it is not genuine, which can interfere with communication. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1875 and quoted in the “7 habits” book in a slightly streamlined form for the modern audience: “What you are shouts so loudly in my ears that I cannot hear what you say.”

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”
— William Shakespeare

I’ve just finished listening to an audiobook by Michael Hyatt called “Free to focus“. Reading personal productivity guides has become a bit of a hobby for me, so they often seem like a blur. After all, there are only so many ways one can spin the same idea. I began listening to this book expecting as much, but was pleasantly surprised by the fresh take on the day-to-day tactics of grappling with the (not really new) underlying concept of prioritization and execution of multiple tasks that compete for ones attention. I particularly liked the framework of viewing your life as consisting of separate roles (e.g., professional, family, etc.) Hyatt side-steps perhaps the most challenging issue of prioritizing these roles (perhaps, the Shakespeare’s quote above gives an approach that is not so bad – your primary role is related to your age, i.e. your stage in life). Within a given role, however, he suggests classifying your activities into three categories: on-stage (the primary activities defining your role), backstage (development of skills and setting up the conditions for performing the on-stage work) and off-stage (activities that are deliberately not related to your primary role, but that are necessary for recharging and avoiding burnout). He then suggests to plan on the weekly time scale, allocating about two days for the “on-stage” activities, two days for unplugging from work (being “off-stage”) and the rest – for “backstage” development work. The key advice is to be mindful about not slipping into backstage work during your primarily on-stage days.

For me personally, this model is a bit too rigid, because the academic work is notoriously unstructured, with all the benefits and disadvantages that it entails. Still, it is comforting to have this theatrical framework as a conceptual guide as I roll through the weeks of a typical academic term. To throw in another quote, this one by Dwight Eisenhower, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”