THE CHAOS THEORY

“A Champion’s Mind” by Pete Sampras

This book shows the technical side of tennis, and what pro players – or to be exact, Pete Sampras – are thinking about during the game and what strategies they are employing (and why). It also shows the human side of the sport and the emotional cocktail that comes with the job, especially as tennis’ no 1 ranked player in the world. The cherry on top is the 1990s tennis scene that Sampras re-lived and being nostalgic about in his writing, which brings fond memories for me too. In short, it is an insightful book about the world of tennis that is very enjoyable to read.

“Develop Self Confidence, Improve Public Speaking” by Dale Carnegie

The last book of the 5 Dale Carnegie books that I have in my possession. And I’m reading it snap bang in the middle of relaxing summer, which for me no reading soothes more than his books.

And this particular book is the stuff that Warren Buffett highly attributed as one of key factors for his success, Carnegie’s bread and butter, his wisdom on public speaking.

Along with the usual Carnegie-esque stories to make his excellent points (that are delightfully old school from his time), the book also provides famous people’s good habit, from Abraham Lincoln’s memory retention to Mark Twain’s note-less speeches to Teddy Roosevelt’s fiery passion on stage.

Here are the key points of the book:

• Preparation is key.
• Do your research.
• Know your audience.
• Keep it clear and consized.
• Provide a clear conclusion.
• The natural law of remembering: vivid impressions, repetition, association.
• Stress important words, subordinate unimportant ones.
• Vary your pitch. Talk like a human and not a monotone robot.
• Vary your rate of speaking.
• Pause before and after important ideas.
• Dress meticulously, even have a winning smile if you can (everything about out appearance will be examined under the microscope).
• Good lighting can go a long way.
• Clear up distractions on the stage that can take away attention from you.
• Avoid technical terms when necessary, especially when talking to outsiders.
• Picture your points, visualised your ideas.
• Take command over your language. Speak meticulously and with class.
• Be well-read so that you can add multiple contexts into your speech.

There’s never a dull moment when it comes to Dale Carnegie books, and this one is no exception.

“How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic philosophy of Marcus Aurelius” by Donald Robertson

This book is first and foremost a book about Stoicism, viewed through the lens of arguably its last true great philosopher, Marcus Aurelius. The book also partly an application of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, in which the author, Donald Robertson, is an expert.

Now, if Stoicism is a practical philosophy, then Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is an applied Stoicism. And there’s probably nothing more direct than an applied Stoicism from Marcus Aurelius’ way of thinking, that were shaped through his incredible life story.

The book covers a lot of grounds, from his traumatic events, defining moments, his struggles, his triumphs, the stories of all of his teachers and his surroundings, the backstabbing, the death of some of his children, and eventually his acquired wisdom throughout the journey from a child with no ties to the aristocracy to become one of the Four Good Emperors that Roman Empire ever had.

All of that are narrated alongside the absolute gem of the book: the analysis of the many Stoic virtues that Marcus Aurelius implement for every single occurrence in his turbulent story, that are so inspiring.

The final chapter of the book in particular, about Marcus Aurelius’ reflections on his death bed, is absolutely moving. And in the audiobook version Robertson’s tone of voice is deliberately lowered down to make the chapter more solemn, which is a very nice touch.

All in all, it is often hard for us to imagine the practicality of things when only presented as theories, and find it much easier to grasps them once we witness the theories being implemented. This book is about the latter, hence it is one of the most actionable books on Stoicism that I’ve ever read. Another masterpiece from Robertson.

“Start with Why” by Simon Sinek

All habits are influenced by the environment and its triggers, according to Marshall Goldsmith. Influenced by what we are using our energy and attention for, where Greg McKeown teaches us to only focus on the essentials. They are influenced by our growth or fixed mindset, says Carol Dweck, which Susan Cain argues also influenced by our introvert-extrovert demeanor.

Moreover, any progress towards our goals depends on how we face what Steven Pressfield called the Resistance, in which Ryan Holiday suggest that they are in fact the way. It depends on how extreme we have ownership over our efforts, as illustrated by Jocko Willink, how we can screen through the cognitive biases described by Daniel Kahneman, and how we can fully utilize our brain’s capacity as trained by Jim Kwik (mind), hack our body like Dave Asprey does (body), and approach it with a monk-like attitude as taught by Jay Shetty (spirit). And in the end, change, says Robin Sharma, is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous in the end.

But underneath them all, lies the very first foundation that keeps the structure of any effort or change to remain strong throughout the journey: the underlying reason, the life’s calling, the fuel for the passion, the higher cause, the sense of purpose, or in short, the WHY. “It is the cause, not the death”, said Napoleon Bonaparte, “that makes the martyr.” And while our life’s quests and struggles are not as extreme as life and death, without the WHY none of the above matters. This is WHY this book is so important.

Much to my pleasant surprise, this book is nothing like the contents that I’ve been accustomed to with the author, Simon Sinek, in his brilliant podcast interviews. While it is still based on psychology and its applications in sociology, it is heavily tailored to business, innovation, and its marketing approach, akin to Charles Duhigg’s the Power of Habit.

And it fits. Because there’s arguably nothing that can illustrate the power of WHY better than business and innovation stories, from the “cult” of Apple and Harley Davidson, to why Honda need to create a second brand for their luxury cars, why TiVo failed to reach a tipping point, to how the Wright Brothers can invent the first aeroplane with no funding and minimum expertise while Samuel Pierpont Langley with his all star team and government funding failed to do so.

All of this are analysed with tools that can be applicable to anything in life. Tools such as the celery test, the school bus test, the golden circle, or the golden pyramid with the WHY-level at the top, HOW-level in the middle, and WHAT-level at the bottom.

Because when you want to lose weight and start living a healthy life, you need a WHY. If you want to stop smoking, you need a WHY. If you want to start up a company, volunteer to help the poor, pursue a PhD, train to win a race, enlist in a military service, organise a mass protest, or want your organisation to last for decades, everything need a strong WHY to keep the cause alive. And this book analyses it very well.

“Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The wit and wisdom of Charles T. Munger” by Charlie Munger and Peter D. Kaufman

If this is a music album, this book would be Charlie Munger’s greatest hits. It comprise of his short biography, followed by testimonials from his family and closest circle, then a closer look into his intellectual framework and the mental models that have shaped his way of thinking and investment decisions, and neatly closed with 11 speeches that define his outlook on life and the market.

Here are some examples of the gems from Munger in the book:

• When you borrow a man’s car, you always return it with a full thank of gas.
• Concentrate on the task immediately in front of [you] and to control spending.
• People make mistakes, the right thing to do is to admit your mistakes.
• Do the job right the first time.
• Take a simple idea and take it seriously.
• We don’t claim to have perfect morals, but at least we have a huge area of things that, while legal, are beneath us.
• Capitalism without failure is like religion without hell.
• I’d rather make my money playing piano in a whorehouse than account for options as recommended by John Doerr (he really dislike derivatives).
• You don’t have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long time.
• All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.
• A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, a bad marriage, etc.
• Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at.
• I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time. None, zero.
• The importance of being a reliable person.
• Roughly half of the army of Adolf Hitler was composed of believing Catholics. Given enough clever psychological manipulation, what human being will do is quite interesting.
• Just in an ecosystem, people who narrowly specialise can get terribly good at occupying some little niche.
• Anytime anybody offers you anything with a big commission and a 200 page prospectus, don’t buy it.
• We don’t leap seven-foot fences. Instead, we look for one-foot fences with big rewards on the other side. So we’ve succeeded by making the world easy for ourselves, not by solving hard problems.
• Why should we want to play a competitive game in a field where we have no advantage – maybe a disadvantage – instead of in a field where we have a clear advantage?
• Each of you will have to figure out where your talents lie. And you’ll have to use your advantages. But if you try to succeed in what you’re worst at, you’re going to have a very lousy career.
• I won’t bet $100 against house odds between now and the grave.
• I try to get rid of people who always confidently answer questions about which they don’t have any real knowledge.
• It’s kind of fun for it to be a little complicated. If you want it totally easy and totally laid out, maybe you should join some cult that claims to provide all the answers.
• The best way to avoid envy is to plainly deserve the success we get.
• I can’t stand his politics, I’m on the other side. But I love this man’s essays.
• Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day, if you live long enough, most people get what they deserve.
• As a securities investor, you can watch all sorts of business propositions in the form of security prices thrown at you all the time. For the most part, you don’t have to do a thing other than be amused. Once in awhile, you will find a ‘fat pitch that is slow, straight, and right in the middle of your sweet spot. Then you swing hard. This way, no matter what natural ability you start with, you will substantially increase your hitting average. One common problem for investors is that they tend to swing too often. This is true for both individuals and for professional investors operating under institutional imperatives, one version of which drove me out of the conventional long/short hedge fund operation. However, the opposite problem is equally harmful to long-term results: You discover a fat pitch’ but are unable to swing with the full weight of your capital.

In this chaotic and rapidly changing world, where lines are sometimes blurry, Charlie Munger stands out as the calm presence whose values and wisdom should be the benchmark for everyone. And as you can see, this book reveals them all.

It’s no wonder that it becomes an instant classic, simply unmissable!

“Happy Gut: The cleansing program to help you lose weight, gain energy, and eliminate pain” by Vincent Pedre

This book is like the summary for everything we need to know about our gut, and it is written with such brevity that it feels like a cheat sheet where only the most important information are presented.

The book begins with describing the ideal state: how a healthy gut looks like. Then it takes us step by step through the whole digestive process, starting from the top (our mouth), to the middle (our gut), down to the bottom (our colon). Along the way he explains the many functions of our organs, which makes it easier to understand within the context of the digestive process.

Moreover, while the first few chapters are absolute masterpieces on describing our gut and digestive system, the proceeding chapters dive straight into the practicalities: What certain types of food are made of, what to avoid and what to consume (and why), all the problems and challenges for our gut, and culminating with so many recipes for a good gut flora that takes about 1/3 of the length of the book.

And all of these gems are discussed within the frame of C.A.R.E: Cleanse (remove gut irritants, infections, food sensitivities, and toxins in food) Activate (reactivate healthy digestion by replacing essential nutrients and enzymes) Restore (reintroduce beneficial bacteria for a healthy guy flora) Enhance (repair, regenerate, and heal the intestinal lining).

Now, while there are so many great knowledge that I’ve learned from this book, there are some that stand out more than the others. These are the selected few:

• “Between the antibiotics, eating the wrong foods that feed the bad organisms, the toxins you are exposed to in your environment, and the resulting dysbiosis, over a period of days to months you develop a leaky gut. This leakiness or “hyperpermeability” exposes your body to partially digested protein molecules from food. The immune system does not recognize these so it attacks, which results in food sensitivities. You might not even be aware of these sensitivities, which can manifest as hives, allergies, chronic sinus inflammation, and migraines and become the triggers for irritable bowel syndrome and autoimmune disease.”
• ““Leaky gut” is not a diagnosis but a process, a description of the underlying pathology of numerous diseases that we treat yet have failed to find a cure for. It is a condition in which connections between the cells that line the inside of the intestines (known as tight junctions) become looser, allowing larger molecules (such as partially digested food particles) to pass through the gut wall. Usually, properly digested food is absorbed directly through the cell wall, but in a leaky gut, the pathway between the cells is opened up, exposing the gut-associated immune system to a wide variety of substances our immune cells would otherwise not come into contact with.”
• “Your immune system is constantly patrolling the gut border for anything it does not recognize in order to prevent an all-out invasion. As the immune system encounters these escaped particles, it attacks. And in individuals with a genetic predisposition to autoimmune diseases, this increased load on the immune system leads to the type of dysregulation that becomes an autoimmune disease. As you are exposed to large protein molecules in a leaky gut from the incompletely digested foods you eat on a daily basis, you develop immune reactions to those foods.”
• “Often a diet rich in the foods that you are sensitive to, in combination with a leaky or hyperpermeable gut, leads to fluid retention and inflammation and, as a result, weight gain. People who are very food sensitive often lose five to six pounds in the first week after removing these foods from their diet.”
• “Even when you restrict yourself stringently by following one of the popular diets, including limiting calories or carbs, or monitoring carb-fat-protein ratios, your food sensitivities will make it very difficult to lose weight. When you remove the foods that are “toxic” to your body because they activate your immune response, weight loss happens naturally.”

Because if there is one thing that nearly all modern diseases have in common, it is inflammation. And it underlines the importance of this book, since many metabolic diseases, including inflammation, begin in the gut.

“How the Mind Works” by Steven Pinker

Book number 2 out of 5, in my quest of reading one Steven Pinker book a year that are in my possession.

This one is a 673 pages-long book about how the mind works, but one which bizarrely seldom mentions about its underlying neuroscience. Granted that this book was published in 1997, which shows how far the biological field of our brain has since developed, but the many assumptions and the omittance of any scientific finding to back up the theses are still appalling.

So instead, what is it about then? To be perfectly honest, I don’t really know. There are so many gibberish in between the paragraphs and so many derailing from the main topic, with its good points (such as the computational theory of the mind, or the effect of optical illusion to our brain, or evolutionary psychology) often drowned in a sea of unnecessary gimmicks and overcompensating fancy words.

Perhaps it’s a bit unfair to judge this book after reading excellent [and newer] books on mind such as “Thinking, fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman, or “The Chimp Paradox” by Steve Peters, any Daniel Goleman’s series, or even the fun one “You Are Not So Smart” by David McRaney that are more straight forward.

But still, the lack of scientific evidence, untidy organisation of information, the many off topics that are way too long, and no clear concluding points (if any) with just a little hint of arrogance are making it hard to like this book.

“Bank 3.0: Why banking is no longer somewhere you go, but something you do” by Brett King

According to the author, Brett King, there are 4 phases of behavioural disruption in banking: 1. The arrival of the internet 2. The emergence of smart device or app phone 3. Our switch to mobile payment on a broad scale (which is where we currently are) 4. Banking no longer being somewhere we go, but something we just do.

Published in 2013, this book is largely about the road to the 4th disruption. It shows an exciting glimpse of what the future may look like and how banks will play their role in it. It is a world where “someone else owns the customer, [while] banks become the manufacturers, networks and processes that support the utility of banking.”

The book ultimately takes us through the evolution of banking, which are illustrated by abundance of data and statistics to provide us with the contextual trend, where now by the time I read it in 2021 I can see how plenty of the predictions by King have already happening.

An essential read for bankers or those who are interested to learn about the banking industry.

“Bad Blood: secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup” by John Carreyrou

How can a 19 year old Stanford dropout, with only 2 semesters worth of chemical engineering credits, is able to start a company in Silicon Valley focusing on cutting-edge new science in medicine?

How can she then surrounds herself with all-stars management team (such as General James Mattis and former Wells Fargo’s CEO Richard Kovacevich), employ the most capable experts (Stanford, MIT, Caltech and Cambridge PhDs are not uncommon among the 800 employees), backed by a number of diverse investors (with Rupert Murdoch, Carlos Slim Helu, Betsy DeVos, among many of them) and highly regarded board members (like Henry Kissinger and George Shultz), not to mention the numerous media exposures and her attendances at formal White House events.

How can she pull all of this off, even at one time regarded as the female Steve Jobs that will revolutionise the healthcare industry, only ended up becoming a fraud?

This is an incredibly bizarre true story of Elizabeth Holmes, and the rapid rise and spectacular fall of her start-up bio-tech company Theranos.

The author, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner John Carreyrou, interviewed more than 150 people (including more than 60 former theranos employees) to set the facts straight, turned it into THAT 2015 investigative reporting at the Wall Street Journal, before re-telling the story in this book in a gripping manner that reads like a thriller movie.

It is filled with hope and brilliance, lies and deceits, lots of lawsuits, harassments, and even suicide. It’s no wonder that the book has received so many awards including winning the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year award in 2018. It is simply hard to put down the book once you start reading it.

“Inner Engineering: A yogi’s guide to joy” by Sadhguru

Sadhguru is like the rebel yogi, the contrarian guru, that says spirituality is overrated, that teaches us NOT to believe in what the many gurus are saying if you don’t agree with them (including him). He’s bluntly honest, and often slap us back into grounded reality with his logical approach, which is supported by plenty of stories that are amusing and often funny.

In fact, right at the very few early paragraphs he dismantles the feel-good but empty or misleading mantras that we use to live by in the modern society. Mantras such as  “be in the moment”, “do one thing at a time”, “positive thinking”, the utopian idea of heaven, and as simple as the word “stress management” in which he commented “why would anybody want to manage stress?”

And instead, he offers a worldview that is grounded in common sense and, increasingly as the book progresses, in Yoga practises where he discusses about mind, body, and energy from the point of view of what he call the “science of yoga”.

It is a soothing book to read, one that serve as a calm reminder in this fast paced world of our basic senses, one that teaches us how to be more connected with the universe, and with its basic teachings can lead us to becoming joyful as an effect. Because everything that is happening in our lives we experience it within ourselves, which is controllable for us.

As Sadhguru remark, “Human experience may be stimulated or catalyzed by external situations, but the source is within. Pain or pleasure, joy or misery, agony or ecstasy, happens only inside you. Human folly is that people are always trying to extract joy from the outside. You may use the outside as a stimulus or trigger, but the real thing always comes from within.”

In addition, I read this book using audiobook with Sadhguru himself as the narrator, and with some bell sound effect for every Sadhana part (practices), and a soft chanting background in every box of story. It really brings the reading experience into a whole different feel.