Such a disappointment!

I was referred to this book from the list of other personal development-oriented books and expected it to be at least OK, if not great, but it was an utter disappointment.

Most of the time when I read personal development book nowadays I’m a little bit bored, since most of the time ideas aren’t new and my interest is mostly fueled by either author’s talent to tell good stories or author’s personal and (hopefully) original angle on the familiar problem. And you know, that’s OK with me. Personal development is an area where applying just a handful of common sense rules will get you 90% of the goal. I actually recently become interested in the art of finding such short, but deep formulas that cover pretty much the entire problem. Good examples are:
- “Eat food, not too much, mostly greens” which covers proper food consumption and dieting
- “One thing at the time, most important thing first, start now” which pretty much covers task management
etc etc

So, from that point of view this book won’t be awful, since its main idea is to use serious financial penalty as a motivational tool for behavior change, specifically for the weight loss. Meh, a little bit boring and probably shallow to fill even a small book, but still nothing really wrong about it.

There are two problems however:

First, this is like an extended ad for author’s web app (StickK) that allows you to put money where your mouth is and risk losing them if you don’t reach your goal. I’m not a huge fan of such method of motivation, but it will work for some people and while I didn’t use the service, my friend (and current employer) Buster Benson is playing with similar approach in his HealthMonth service, so I expected that author will mention his app here and there. But the book is actually choke full filled with it. You can’t read a single page (or at least it feels like that) without noticing the StickK. It just so overboard that it drives me nuts.

Second and much bigger problem is that while author is mostly concentrating on the topic of money bets as a motivator for the behavior change, he always uses only one example – losing weight. Yes, that’s almost everyone’s New Year resolution #1 and most of the time author doesn’t attempt to suggest what is the right way, but he implies that it’s just eating less calories and exercising more. Which on its own is a “kind of” right advice. “Kind of” because while it’s important to eat less calories and exercise more, you also need to eat right food. And not eating right food is that secret enemy that makes majority of dieters to regain their weight and that’s what author is trying to fight with a $500 money bets. Hilarious example of that is his quote of some poor dieter who tweets everything he eats and it reads like “waffles with a maple syrup, cheerios, etc”. No wonder that even some iron-willed people regain their weight if they continue to eat that crap and sending their bodies daily on the insulin roller-coaster.
How about changing what you’re eating instead of using huge piles of money to force yourself into the artificial extended hunger which inevitably will defeat you and you regain that weight back? Don’t expect answer to that question in this book.

So, while the book was only $2 or $3 on Amazon, I actually regret paying my money for it. There are other much-much better books both on motivation and dieting. Don’t waste your time.

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I am preparing for my talk at Quantified Self about my work on Programmable Self. I was asked to make a “reading list” for the people who were interested in this subject so I wanted to create that here. Please add links in my comments section for titles that I have omitted!! Requirements for inclusion are simple. Anything that applies to using technology to change your own behavior.

Programmable Self Reading List

Great reading list. I read about 1/3rd of it, another 1/3rd was in my “to read” list (link goes to GoodReads, where I keep track of my books) and I added the rest. Good catch!

I’d also add few of my favorites:

• Personal Development for Smart People   – really good “foundation” book for many personal development techniques, theories and practices. As a side note: Holy crap! This book is just $1.79 for Kindle version now. I think I paid something like $25 for hardcover and another $10-$15 for the Kindle version.
• The Now Habit – how to deal with the procrastination, probably the worst enemy of the habit change.
• The Procrastinator’s Handbook – another book on procrastination that I really like

 

Nokia 3D Maps look gorgeous. Really-really want to have the same quality in Google Maps. Or Bing… Which is probably more likely.

They also claim that they don’t use Flash or other plugins and work on pure WebGL. Go HTML5.

http://maps3d.svc.nokia.com/webgl/

Pictures below are from Cape Town

 

I like Dave’s straightforward approach to… pretty much everything in life. Finances, business, employees, parenting… The list goes on and on. I was listening to his podcast almost daily for 2 years and I still enjoy listening to it occasionally. He really helped me to solidify certain rules for myself and, yes, also get out of debt. My finances were not horrible, but nothing to be proud of either and now I can see a drastic change which I attribute first and foremost to his principles.
Now, I may disagree with certain things – like putting his Religion as a cornerstone, but I can’t (and shouldn’t) judge. I may have some other principles, but it doesn’t change the outcome. So, even if you’re atheist or you hate George W Bush (apparently Dave loves him) or you don’t think porn is a problem – just get over it, as long as you don’t work with Dave his principles won’t affect you, just benefit from the words of the guy, who in my opinion impersonates common sense.

TL;DR

Great book for any entrepreneur. Pure common sense instead of theories out of the thin air.

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It’s a great book (probably the best one) for someone who is just learning how to use version control systems. It’s also a great book for experienced professionals who use VCS daily, but at the same time don’t feel that they have a good foundation and just use those commands without good understanding what they are exactly doing.

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It’s not very deep book and yet it’s fascinating enough to swallow in one evening. A little bit of “4-hour work week” (or maybe “Up in the Air”), a little bit of Tucker Max’s books.

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Well, it’s a hard review to write. I have a platonic crash on Tina Fey and I’m totally biased, however even with all that I just can’t give it more than 3 stars. Yes, sometimes it’s entertaining (but not hilarious) and yes, it’s interesting to look into the insides of SNL and 30 Rocks production, even though this is probably the smallest part of the book. That’s probably my biggest disappointment in the entire book. I really wish to have more of this material.

The part I really like is her summary on the main rules of improv – in fact, I think the rule of "yes, and" is very applicable to our lives (remember "Yes Man" movie?!). That’s something that really stuck with me.

Rest is kind of meh… After reading Bossypants and The Bedwetter this year I’m probably done with that kind of books for a while. They aren’t bad, but there are more entertaining books and there are more useful books.

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Great book.
First, I thought that this is a book about barefoot running. And I was right, but there’s something more. Then I thought that this is a book about mysterious Indians and I was right again, but there was more. Than I thought that this is a book about running. Then book about running shoes. Then about evolution (it almost felt like Malcolm Gladwell or Michael Pollan at some point). Then about freedom, spirit and personal development.
In fact, all of those statements are true. It’s a very deep book that will affect you on many levels.

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One is a quote from Gandi – “Life doesn’t get better by going faster” and another is from Seneca – “It’s not like we don’t have enough time in our life, it’s that we waste most of it”.

Both quotes are really good and I think they form probably the shortest possible essence of the “168 Hours” book. It’s like that famous phrase that all books on procrastination & personal productivity can be described in 11 words – “One thing at a time. Most important thing first. Start now!”. Same principle.