I just finished reading Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, and you should, too. It had been a while since I read a self-improvement book because I’ve read so many years back that I thought I pretty much already knew more than I was willing to implement anyway. But Willpower is different. It has fresh insights backed up with a lot of research. (That part will be a turn-off if you are bored by science; just skim over those parts.) This book actually answered a lot of questions I was puzzling about. Here are some highlights:

Intelligence and self-control are the two most important traits that predict “success,” and self-control is easier to improve.

It gives the right amount of information about the history and trends of society’s attitudes about self-control. Did we get down on self-control because Hitler was up on it?

Self-control is in; unconditional self esteem is out. Instilling self-control in children is a big advantage to them.

Why does every society have words in their language that everyone knows but no one is supposed to ever say?

Having people try to monitor and control their behavior in some areas (dressing neat, not slouching, not saying bad words, keeping to a schedule) gives them more self-control in other areas almost instantly (two weeks in one study).

There is a lot of practical advice for one to improve his or her own self-control.

I hope to apply it to make some difficult behavioral changes in my own life and I’m already doing some minor things differently.

Thank you, Baumeister and Tierney.

I used to have tons of books and now I’m down to only one bookcase.  (Downsizing is therapeutic.)  Now I keep only books I want to share with others.  Its my lending library. Hidden Order is one of the books in that bookcase.

Broadly considered, economics is the study of systems that humans use to cope with scarcity.  If there were no scarcity, there would be no economics.  And where there is scarcity there is some economics to consider, and that’s exactly what David Friedman talks about in this book.

As an example, if you’re a single man looking for an attractive woman, you’re in the dating market – an economic system – because there is not a limitless supply of available attractive women.  This market is covered in the book along with many others not commonly considered from an economics point of view.

Read it and become more enlightened.

I’ve been busy working and have not updated my blog in months. I’m ready to continue posting my message to the world. I’ve accepted that it comes in phases.

One of the best books ever written that explains how the world works is Healing Our World by Dr. Mary J. Ruwart.  Heads up, it’s old so the examples will be dated. However, the things this book talks about don’t change.

If you wonder why the economy sucks, read this book.

If you wonder why government programs never deliver what they promise, (that’s too generous – I mean why they always do more harm than good), read this book.

If you wonder how we could truly heal the world, read this book.

If you do read it, or already have, let me know what you think.

I don’t take time to read novels very often so when I do I make sure it comes highly recommended.  I just finished reading this book and loved it.  Swedish author Stieg Larsson pulled off a coup when you think about it. The book has a Swedish setting with Swedish characters and yet became popular enough in the US to get a Hollywood movie. The other element that must have been fun to write is one of the hero characters is a professional writer himself.

I’m looking forward to watching the movie and reading the sequel.

Anyone who has ever worked for me has heard me say this many times: don’t multitask. A recent blog post by Andy Jenkins reminded me of this old mantra.  I want to link to that article (done), elaborate on more reasons to not multitask, and recommend a book on the subject.

Andy and the Science article he references says we’re not good at multitasking even if we think we are.  I believe that, for sure, but that’s not the reason “do not multitask” is my mantra – and should be yours, too.

Even if you were perfect at multitasking (which nobody is) there are still two important economical reasons not to do it.

1. Prioritization.  Never do two projects have exactly the same priority.  If you think they do then you probably have not studied your operation enough.  One task is always more important than the others and you should do that first.  If you’re working on five projects, you’re working on four projects that are lower priority than the top priority.  You’re stealing time from the most important project.

2. Time value of completed work.  This last reason requires some thinking, so focus – I do not want to fail you.  A project typically has zero value until it is 100% complete.  Lets say you’re working for an indecisive manager who gives you four projects all at the same priority.  They all have the same value to the company.  Even in this contrived scenario, the company makes more money if you do NOT multitask, thanks to the time value of completed work.  If you pick one project and finish it, the company can start benefiting from that completed project right then. By the time you start on the fourth project, the company is benefiting on the first three projects already.  If you multitask and get four projects 75% complete, the company still isn’t making a penny even though you’ve spent just as long working.

Theory of Constraints teaches us to focus on whatever is constraining us (our company, our family, our teams, etc.) and attention to anything else is a waste by comparison.

The book Critical Chain is a business novel by Eliyahu Goldratt.  This book teaches Project Management in a very different way and I highly recommend it.  I’m a huge fan of books that teach important, big picture concepts in an interesting story that keeps your attention.  It feels like pleasure reading instead of study.  I’m also a huge fan of Theory of Constraints, and Goldratt invented it, so you’re getting your teaching straight from the horse’s mouth.  (Just a figure of speech, Eli.)

Buy Critical Chain on Amazon.com

I read this book a while back and keep bringing it up again and again in conversation because its lesson is so profound.  During our childhood, kids and grownups alike admire those children with “natural talent.” They learn the piano faster, they  learn faster how to throw and catch a football or baseball, or they pickup chess and beat their peers soon after learning the rules of the game.

The problem is that all this attention and positive reinforcement is for something that is not that valuable in the long run.  What we admire (and pay for) most in the long run comes from practice – thousands and thousands of hours of productive practice.

The most amazing conclusion from the research discussed in this book is that the “natural talent” advantage actually evaporates in the long run. Chess players that beat the pants off their peers in the first couple years of playing have no advantage at all against those same peers if and when they get to a higher level of play.  What matters then is how much and how effectively they practiced.

The most talented people in the world did not achieve their skills by nature but by more and better practice.  Colvin describes how Tiger Woods became the best in the world at golf  – Mozart at composing symphonies – and more.  Practice worked for the best doctors, the most successful business leaders, and the most popular artists.

Read this book and get inspired to work hard and get great at something.

Just wanted to share what I’m reading now. Super Freakonomics is the sequel to Freakonomics. If you like non-fiction at all you’ll probably love both books. Authors Levitt and Dubner shock you with facts and statistics in several important areas which make you conclude oppositely from conventional wisdom. Don’t read it if you don’t like questioning authority.

One of the fallacies we have adopted in our society is that some producsts/services are so special or some particular situations are so special that we should abandon free market principles and let government take over.  We’re being suckers when we do this for several reasons.  First, almost never is a product/service really that special.  Economists look for “externalities” when discussing whether or not government might be able to address some weakness in the free market.  If there is no externality there is no opportunity for government to help. What percentage of voters know what an externality is? (Externalities are not common enough to justify all the intervention that government and special interests desire to inflict on us so you don’t hear much about them.)

Second, it is a slippery slope. Every special interest thinks it is special and lobbies for some special interference that, surprise, surprise, happens to benefit their special interest a lot while it takes care of some special problem in the free market.

Third, thanks to rational ignorance, we will never study these issues enough to influence government towards interfering where it makes sense rather than interfering where it is just benefiting some special interest.

The result is an ugly free-for-all among special interests for the national treasury while the general public naively thinks, “I guess if the free market is not working then the government needs to step in.”  Its a global robbery.

This book describes what would probably happen if we never said government can step in.  Its extreme, but we should all be required to read it before we can vote.  At least we would not be so knee jerk anti-free-market.

Click on the image of the book to purchase on Amazon. I’m an affiliate of Amazon so it helps support this blog.