What I Just Read

A stolid, occasionally interesting book that helps readers apply evolutionary theory to better navigate modernity. It focuses on a standard theme you'll find in many pop biology/pop evolution books these days: that humans weren't built for the accelerating change and hyper-novelty of the modern era. A reader can learn from this book. One central idea is what the authors call the Omega Principle (see below for a fuller discussion), which posits that any long-lasting and "evolutionarily costly" trait should be presumed to be adaptive. This is a critical concept that gives readers a navigational heuristic for modernity, which I think we can boil down to five words: be skeptical of the new . You'll also see plenty of recycled Dawkins, basic fundamentals of Darwinian theory and examples of evolutionary psychology here, and so this book helped me groove insights from books like The Selfish Gene , Thinking Fast and Slow, Stumbling on Happiness  and even  The Origin of S...

Extremely useful book! Practical tips, exercises and routines to become more emotionally robust--not just in sports but in life. Very much worth reading.  Notes: Good forward with Arthur Ashe: "Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad." On Ashe having to control his behavior and decorum. His "nonplussed game face" (as he puts it): not showing emotion no matter what the score. It rattles the opposition, plus it doesn't waste energy on unproductive frustrations. Mental and emotional control is a learned skill. Introduction: * There's more to competition than simply learning physical skills, the challenge is self-control. Every athletic contest is a contest of control of the delicate mind/body connection.  * "The struggle brings us face-to-face with ourselves, our insecurities, our doubts, our inadequacies, our inner fears. Success and competition demands we move beyond the struggle into mastery of ourselves." Acquired mental skills:  ...

A Silent Generation member, many years ahead of everyone else,  mercilessly explains everything that's wrong with Boomers. One way to read this book is as an extended intellectual "kids these days" rant: if you're a Boomer, this is almost certainly how you'll read it. Another way to read this book, however, is as a (mostly) clear explanation--long before it became apparent to the rest of us--of what happens when our cultural environment selects for and favors certain types of behavior, and what this means over the long term. In some ways, this book, published way back in 1979, is one of the more culturally and civilizationally predictive books I've read. The book is not without flaws. The author peers through dual lenses of Freudianism and Marxism (a Marxist Freudian? A Freudian Marxist?) to view the world. Be ready for this, and be patient. He also confuses modern crony capitalism (or oligarchic capitalism) for actual capitalism (actual capitalism died lon...