Skip to content

Poor Bjorn's Notes to Self

Read Books – Conduct Experiments – Grow

Blog posts
Reading Lists

Tag: his life and universe

My Most Anticipated Book of 2017!

14 October, 2017 ~ poorbjorn ~ Leave a comment

After reading several of his earlier works (Franklin, Einstein & Jobs) I can’t wait to get my hands in Walter Isaacsons Leonardo Da Vinci biography!

What books are you looking forward to this year?

Blog posts
Reading Lists

Instagram

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important." ⁃ Steve Jobs ——- As you might know by now, I do my fair share or reflection about death and mortality and I think Steve Jobs describes the benefits of that in a powerful way in this quote. ——— Truely realizing the finiteness of life made my old “ball and chain” of trying to please others and fear of failure unbearable. Letting go of all that might be the most transformative shift in my life. (It’s all still work-in-progress, but shieeett, what is ever 100 done?). 😉 ———🤔QUESTION🤔——- What is a useful mindset that you have adopted? and where can I read more about it?

A failed physicist libertarian created the “Amazon of drugs” on the dark web, banking on the anonymity of Bitcoin and Thor (a web anonymous browser). His name was Ross Ulbricht and the site name was “The Silk Road”. —— He wanted to challenge the governments “War on Drugs”—which he saw as a huge failure— and create a safe way to purchase drugs and while doing so, save tens of thousands of people from prison sentences for minor drug abuse. The goals was to become such a powerful force that governments would understand that legalizing rather than fighting drugs was the solution. —— 📝 The first items sold on the page was Ross’s homegrown magic mushrooms. —— 📝 It did not take long before vendors started to sell fake passports and money, lab supplies, forged documents, guns, and spyware. —— 📝 Then came the next level stuff: Poisons - cyanide, which kills you in 7 sec was sold with a copy of “The final exit”; An e-book guide for suicide. Soon body parts, like marrow and kidneys, came online. —— 📝 Ross and his partner, Variety Jones where in agreement that selling these things where all good as long as there where where consent between buyer and seller. But they didn’t agree on on point: Heroin. —— 📝 Variety Jones had a problem with the Silk Road selling heroin. In prison he had seen what heroin did to people. Prisoners where drug tested randomly - but only Monday - Friday. Pot stayed in your system if you did it during the weekend but Heroin did not... so, many took to heroin and nobody smoked pot. Making prisoners take a weeks worth of heroin in a couple of hours just to ride out the withdrawal symptoms for until it was Friday again. Hell on earth. —— 🔁 Follow up: I need to read about Heroin. —— ⚖️ VERDICT: Excellent narrative non-fiction of a real world “Breaking Bad”-story. You get to follow the tale of the Silk Road from its inception to its shut down and its one hellauva ride! —— 4/5 —— What kind of drugs are you using?⁉️ - - Photo cred: @anthony24kt - - - (ps. I’m nicotine free since last year!)

Do you have a reading plan for 2020? I usually don’t have one but next year I want to try something different. I want to have at least a rough outline for half of the books I’m going to read during the year—then leave the other half to whims and fate! —— A Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell’s classic book on comparative mythology, is one of the books that is making the list, no doubt! —— Please bombard me with suggestions to make the list more specific! AND if you could only recommend me ONE book to read in 2020, which one would it be? ——- Here is my rough outline: ——— 1. A Hero with a Thousand Faces 2. ? 3. ? 4. ? 5. Something on Leadership. 6. Something on Feminism. 7. ? 8. Grant by John Chernow (President) 9. ? 10. Something by Fromm or Rank. 11. A book on social media. 12. Something on masculinity. 13. ? 14. A Swedish fictional classic. 15. ? 16. A book on disruptive tech. 17. A fiction classic. 18. ? 19. ? 20. A book about presence and stillness. ——— - - - - - - (ps. who do you get your best recommendations from on Instagram? I want to follow those people.)

When I first posted my goal of making Ancient Greece the focus of my studies this year, I someone cautioned me that it might be too much to deal with in such a short time. ———- It was only after getting a few hours into this book that I understood what she/he meant: it’s impossible to take all this in within a year. It would take a decade to cover only one aspect of Greek civilization fully; lifetimes to cover it all! Ramming everything into my head was like trying to catching a waterfall with a bucket. ———— I changed my approach to the book and saw it as a buffet. I got a small taste of everything and noted down where I wanted to explore more. ———- Now I’m looking for further reading on: ——- 📖 Pericles, “the most complete man Greece ever produced.” Big words. I want to know more. —— 📖 Diogenes, he lived the cynic lifestyle to the fullest. Fascinating man! Did you know that there is a condition known as Diogenes Syndrome? It’s characterized by extreme self-neglect, social withdrawal and lack of shame. ——- 📖 Sparta: The crazy strict and tough lifestyle intrigues me. Is @DavidGoggins actually the last Spartan? ——- 📖 Archimedes: “Don’t disturb my circles!”. From Levers, to Pi, to the formula for calculating the surface area of a sphere, but also: war machines! I need to know more about this genius. ——- 📖 The March of the Ten Thousand: Durant calls it "one of the great adventures in human history". 🧐 ——— 📝 Schliemann: A crazy archeologist, obsessed with The Iliad, and determined to uncover Troy. Which he did! ——— 💭 🤷‍♂️ Checking one book of the Reading List and you end up with an even longer list... ———- ⚖️ VERDICT: “Greek civilization is alive. it moves in every breath of mind that we breath. So much of it remains that none of us in one lifetime could absorb it all.” As I reach the summary and conclusion of this book I’m in awe and my eyes tearing up in gratitude for this beautiful account of life in Greece. ————- 4/5 ——- Whose your favorite among the ancient Greeks? ⁉️🤔

We hear about it in every other book we read: the importance of a mentor! ——— This is probably the most common advise I get from books. (maybe second only to building a meditation habit.) ———- I’ve been been wanting to do this for a long time but I have been waiting for ‘the right timing’. Now I decided to start before I am ready, with the risk of doing things out of order. This has resulted in that I now have a business mentor before I even have an idea of what kind of hustle I’m going to go for. Jumping of the deep end! ———- A mentorship is the relationship between a mentor and a mentee. The mentor being an experienced and trusted advisor the the mentee. The mentor provides advise, encouragement and support. ———— KEY FOR MENTORSHIP: ⭐️ High standards ⭐️ Assurance ⭐️ Direction ⭐️ Support (from the book The Power of Moments by Chip & Dan Heath) ———— Do you have a mentor? Are you mentoring anyone? ⁉️🤔 ———— - - - - (ps. DM or comment if you want to join my Close Friends-list and get regular Story updates on this particular experiment.)

How do you prepare for your yearly salary review? 😉 ——— 🔑 MIRRORING: ”One group of waiters, using positive reinforcement, lavished praise and encouragement on patrons using words such as “great”, “no problem”, and “sure” in response to each order. The other group of waiters mirrored their customers simply by repeating their orders back to them. The results were stunning: the average tip of the waiters who mirrored was 70 percent more than of those who used positive reinforcement.” ——— I’m just starting this book and I already feel it will rank high on my ‘Books of the Year’-List! A former FBI hostage negotiator offers a field-tested approach to negotiation that is effective in any situation. ——— What kind of negotiations are you having in your life? What’s your favorite tactics? ⁉️ - - - - - - (ps. I’m running a BOOKCLUB as a private group on Instagram for this book starting Nov 25th. There are a few slots open. DM or comment if you want to join! The focus is on sharing insights and how we implement what we learn in daily life!)

It was really late one evening back when I studied in the dark and cold north of Sweden, when I turned on the TV to see a curiously strange scene from a German movie. I simple man was standing perfectly still, hand raised in the air holing a small paper note (a plead to the major to take him under his wings) in the middle of a city square. ——— The movie really made an impression on me, but I never got to know the name of the film or the strange man it portrayed. ——— The strange movie came to mind now and then during the coming 15 years, until I finally got the name of it. It was Werner Herzogs dramatization of the story of Kaspar Hauser. ——— Realizing it was based on true events I decided read a book about it. ——— 📝 Kaspar Hauser was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation, in a cage, in total darkness. ———- 📝 “He could see in the dark as well as by day, but could not endure the light of the sun.” ——— 📝 “His sense of smell was extraordinary.” ———- 📝 He had magnetic qualities. “Iron attracted him; he declared that in riding, the iron saddle kept him in his seat, while his feet were held fast by the stirrups.” ——— 📝 Chameleon-like. “The every-day face, which he wore to those immediately about him, Was neutral and commonplace enough, but instantly vanished if he was in company. “ ——— 📝 He was stabbed to death. Most likely by accident in an attempt to fake an assassination in order to be placed in the care of another protector. ——— 📝 Many argued, both during and after Hauser's life, that he was most likely just a fraud. ——— 💭 THOUGHTS: Was he just a liar and sociopathic narcissist all along! Or was his behavior was the result of year of assault and absence of parental love. Maybe a mix of both?! ———- ⚖️ VERDICT: Stories like these keep kindles a sense childlike wonder in me. The story is just fascinating, but the book is dry and dull at times; even painfully so towards the end with its court witness accounts and endless dissing of other written accounts of the Kaspar Hauser story. ——- 3/5 ——- What’s your favorite movie adaption of a non-fiction book?

I’ve been meaning to start doing video reviews for quite some time now. But it was not until I got my self a mentor (more on that later in my experiment update. 😉) who is holding me accountable that I finally got to work. 💼 ————— If we wait for the perfect condition; good lighting, a good hair day, a sufficient time slot to do the work perfectly— then we can wait forever! Sometimes we just have to do it. I only had a couple of minutes and I had to keep my daughter entertained at the same time (yes, she is there out of nessecity rather than the ‘Kawaii’-factor.) when I decided that the perfect timing never would come and that I just had to get to work. 📹 🎬 ———- You probably also have shit you mean to do but are waiting for the perfect conditions. Let’s not waste more time and take a hint from Seneca and the ancients. ⏳ ————- What where you supposed to do this year that you haven’t gotten around to yet? ⁉️

Recent Posts

Thoughts on: “Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself” by Joe Dispenza 17 November, 2019
Thoughts on: “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge 16 November, 2019
Thoughts on: Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse 2 November, 2019
Thoughts on: ‘Richard Nixon: A Life’ John A. Farrell 10 October, 2019
Thoughts on: ‘Southeast Asia: A Very Short Introduction’ 27 September, 2019

Pages

5 Outstanding Books this Year
A Guide to Quality Reading – Life is Too Short for Bad Books!
Favorite Books of 2016
Lab Reports – Life is an Experiment
Reading List 2016
Reading List 2017
Reading List 2018
Reading List 2019
Reading Lists
Top 10 Books of 2017

Reviews
Blog posts
Top 10 Books of 2017
Reading Lists
Reading List 2018
5 Outstanding Books this Year
Lab Reports – Life is an Experiment
Reading List 2019

Powered by WordPress.com.

Post to

Cancel