Amazon link In this book, Charlie O’Donnell shares his insights on how to navigate the fundraising process, drawing on his experience as a 20-year veteran of the venture capital industry, with stints at Union Square Ventures, First Round, and running his own fund, plus being a failed founder himself. The book is filled with tactical […]
The Stimulated Mind, by Dr. Tommy Wood
Amazon link Official book site The Tim Ferriss podcast interview where I learned of Wood This book, subtitled “Future-Proof Your Brain from Dementia and Stay Sharp at Any Age”, shares the latest academic research on how to improve your brain’s performance while combining it with the practical tips Wood has developed as a coach to […]
The Way of Excellence, by Brad Stulberg
Amazon link David Epstein interview that compelled me to buy the book What is excellence? Stulberg’s position is that excellence is not merely excelling at an activity, but a biological imperative. As he writes in the introduction: We have an innate drive for progress and growth. It’s why we feel so alive when we channel […]
Relaxing into the unconscious mind
I learned a startling fact 30 years ago when I was reading The User Illusion, by Tor Norretranders, that consciousness is limited to processing about 20 bits/second (here’s my summary from that 1995 read). And yet we perceive about 12 million bits/second from our senses (10 million from our vision alone). How could we possibly […]
Align your learning with your body
My main insight from 2025 was about how my body enabled (and sometimes limited) my learning and growth in every area of my life. A silly example is learning rope flow. I was intrigued when Nsima Inyang described a technique called rope flow on the Tim Ferriss podcast (here’s an example video of him demonstrating […]
The Compass Within, by Robert Glazer
Amazon link Subtitled “A Little Story About the Values That Guide Us”, this is a short parable of a young professional at a career crossroads who discovers his core values through a mentor guiding him through the process. By aligning his work and community with his values, he becomes more energized and impactful. I’ve heard […]
The Science of Scaling, by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson
Amazon link This book lays out a cohesive strategy to, as its subtitle states, “Grow Your Business Bigger and Faster Than You Think Possible”. It starts with the simple but profound insight that if you set reasonable goals based on what you’ve already done, you will get reasonable or linear results. You’ll continue to grow […]
Antimemetics, by Nadia Asparouhova
Book site I have been subscribed to Asparouhova’s Substack for a few years, so picked up her new book as soon as it was available. It then took me a couple weeks to read it because I immediately got distracted by re-reading There Is No Antimemetics Division, a sci-fi novel by qntm that inspired her […]
Four Principles for Better Parenting (and Leadership!)
I was at a gathering last night where somebody asked for parenting advice. I’m no parenting expert, and it will be at least a couple decades before we can evaluate how my kids turn out, but I shared my perspective anyway. And as I listened to what I and other parents said, I realized that […]
2024 Year in Review
One of my coaching friends asked me to sum up 2024 in a word, and set my intention for 2025 in a word, so I’ll start with that framing rather than the more stream-of-consciousness format from the last few year-in-review posts. 2024: Full For more context on why 2024 felt full, here’s what I did […]
