Books and Me

by Ant Middleton (2019) This is far less of a description of military tactics or history and far more a refreshingly different take on the self-help genre.  Channelling your demons and putting them to good aggressive use is not the sort of thing you come across in your average self-improvement read, but actually, if you try hard, the two approaches often aren't completely inconsistent. "First Man In" simply broadens the scope of available solutions and behaviours. Take timing, for example:  when you've read a whole bundle of books on how to avoid procrastinating, it is interesting to come across the concept of "intelligent waiting". "First Man In" is pacily written, an easy read, and is, or at least you hope it is, an insight into the minds of elite soldiers.  Not that you ever feel certain of the veracity of this insight, mind you!  Nothing is ever quite what it seems in this world and the skirting over the tours in Afghanistan makes...

Daniel Goleman (2014) The subject of this book - focus - really is the launch pad for emotional intelligence and a successfully Stoic way of being.   Get this right and you have the foundations for building that essential freedom between stimulus and response , which means that you can choose how you react.  Other forms of focus are described too, but of course, once that initial self focus, along with self insight are triggered, one can much more easily actively choose to focus in these ways too.  Methods for increasing ones powers of focus are described.  With even only a little practice, if coupled with an understanding of what to aim for,  one can radically improve emotional and attentional outcomes. These skills should be taught to all children everywhere.  Lessons in attentional control, self awareness and relaxation are taught in classes in Singapore and look what happens to their PISA scores !   I will have to go back to Lucy Cr...

by Brene Brown (2018) This  book is both a quickish reiteration of themes from Brown's previous books and an extension into the application of those themes to leadership.  Perhaps because it was my first Brene Brown book, I couldn't read it in the flight time that Brene prescribed.  I had to linger over the ideas primarily because it could be quite dense but also because of some key parts of the language which somehow remained obscure to me.   For example,  I finished the book still not being entirely sure I that I know what a "rumble" is. The meaning seemed to mutate a bit depending on context, so I sketched it in as I went along.  These a quibbles though.  The main message of the importance of being aware of one's vulnerability, facing it honestly and dealing with the resulting shame in a way that avoids the noxious pitfalls shame generates is utterly obvious, helpful and healing. You also end up feeling that the world badly needs a ...